Sports
Govt Officials, Others Hijack U-20 Screening Exercise
The ongoing Flying Eagles screening exercise meant to select players for the 2024 WAFU B U20 Championship, scheduled for October and November in Togo has been hijacked by government officials, football agents, and football academy owners.
According to some of the players undergoing the selection process at the FIFA Goal Project in Abuja, who spoke to news men on the condition of anonymity for fear of being victimised, the exercise has been completely taken over by the infiltrators, leaving the Aliyu Zubairu-led technical crew confused.
“Some players are either sent here by top government officials with letters or by football academy owners and agents, all looking for spots on the team. Some of them that were dropped were sent back to the coach by the government officials, who insist that they must be picked. The number of agents here is an indication of what is about to happen,” said one of the players.
“The coach is reportedly very confused and under immense pressure regarding whom to select, considering the government officials’ candidates, agents, academy owners, and so on,” he added.
Another player decried the pitiable condition of their camp when it opened last week.
“We were initially kept in a space infested with mosquitoes and bed bugs before being moved to the usual camp site, where the feeding is very poor,” he said.
The Flying Eagles took on Water FC in a friendly match at the FIFA Goal Project in Abuja on Wednesday and will next face a Malantaki side, preparatory to the sub-regional tournament in Togo, which will determine the zone’s representative for the 2025 Africa U20 Cup of Nations to be held from January 1 to 19 in South Africa.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor
