Sports
CAF Awards: Adelabu Slams Nigerian Male Players
Former Green Eagles winger, Adegoke Adelabu says the failure by Nigerian male players to win a single title at the 2019 CAF Awards ceremony in Egypt last Tuesday night was a big slap to the nation’s football.
Apart from Super Falcons star, Asisat Oshoala, who won the African Woman Player of the Year crown for the fourth time, all the male players listed for various awards fell by the way side.
Prior to the awards ceremony, Super Eagles duo of Samuel Chukwueze and Victor Osimhen were tipped as favourite for the Young Player of the Year award.
Also, Nigeria’s Super Falcons was tipped for the award of the Women’s National Team of the Year, just as former Super Falcons’ coach, Thomas Dennerby was in the running for honours after being listed for the Women’s Coach of the Year for his work with the Nigerian team.
However, at the end of the ceremony, only Oshoala emerged winner in the woman player of the year category. She equaled the feat of fellow Nigerian, Perpetua Nkwocha, who won the title four times before she retired from active play in 2015.
Speaking with our correspondent yesterday, Adelabu, a former player of the then IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan said: “This show that our players are not improving. Something must be done.”
No Nigerian player was mentioned in African Eleven team announced by CAF last Tuesday.
“If we cannot dominate the world, we have to take the lead in African football. This is part of the reasons why I am advocating for the presidential council for sports. We must be ready to organize our sports in such a way that it will meet international standard of practice,” he stated.
Meanwhile, some sports analysts have faulted CAF on the failure by the Super Falcons to win the Women’s National Team of the Year, having successfully retained their continental crown in Ghana in December 2018 and reached the knockout stage of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in France last year summer.
South Africa’s Banyana Banyana got the award, while their coach Desiree Ellis was voted the woman coach of the Year.
Hon Dike who spoke with sports journalists shortly after the flag off the 2024 edition of Chairman’s Football Unity Tournament at Botem Tai in Tai LGA, said the tournament is an annual event to promote peace and unity in Tai as well identify budding talents in the area for global competition.
The opening ceremony of the tournament was more like a carnival was witnessed by huge crowd including prominent indigenes of Ogoni Kingdom, sports lovers and people from all works of life.
The LGA boss revealed that special sports committee will be setup in the area to work out modalities to strengthen sports development in Tai.
He advised the participants in the tournament from various wards in the LGA to play the game by the rules and conduct themselves in a peaceful and orderly manner and use the opportunity to showcase their talents.
Hon Dike further disclosed that his administration will also give priority attention to skills development among the youth to enhance their human capacity and promote enterprise development in the area.
Earlier in his address the Chairman of Tai LGA Football Council, Elder Wisdom Gorgor said the annual football competition has been a unifying factor in Tai LGA that need to be sustained to forge more unity and development in the area.
He urged the participants to see the competition as an opportunity to embrace football as a full career and earn sustainable livelihood.
Elder Gorgor who commended the Chairman of Tai LGA, Hon Dike for his visionary leadership and tremendous development achievements recorded in the LGA under his administration, appealled to the Chairman to build a Mini Sports Stadium in the area to promote sporting activities.
The training was held at the Sani Abacha Stadium Indoor Basketball Court in Kano last Saturday.
According to the Vice President and Head of NBA Nigeria, Gbemisola Abudu, the event was part of the league’s commitment to growing broader basketball ecosystem in Nigeria and making the game more accessible across the country.
“Our first Jr. NBA clinic in Kano speaks to our commitment to growing the game in Nigeria and creating more opportunities for boys and girls to learn and play the game,” Abudu said.
“Nigeria has a rich basketball history and abundance of talent, which is evident every time you watch an NBA game. We look forward to continuing to engage with basketball stakeholders, business leaders and members of the community to further the game’s reach and impact on young people around the country,” she added.
The 2024 basketball initiative clinics of NBA Nigeria also included the league’s inaugural Jr. NBA elite camp for 150 boys and age-16 girls held at the American International School in Lagos in July.
Others include the NBA’s building of 1,000 courts in Africa over the next decade, Nigeria’s Festival Coins and Salubata named the top two winning businesses at NBA Africa Triple-Double Accelerator’s inaugural Demo Day in New York City held last September, and the third edition of “NBA Meets Art,” a curated installation celebrating basketball through the lens of Nigerian art and culture as part of West Africa’s premier art fair Art X Lagos, held in November.
Central to this vision is the federation’s investment in capacity building, evident in the just-concluded one-week Level 1 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Coaching Course, which marked a significant milestone for Nigerian badminton.
Held in Abuja, the course brought together 13 young coaches from across Nigeria. The last time such a course was held in the country was in 2017, making this a historic and transformative step.
The training was facilitated by the Badminton Confederation of Africa (BCA) in partnership with the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) and conducted by Dr. Ahmed Radah, the BCA Development Manager.
Radah, impressed by the talent he witnessed, praised Nigeria’s potential.
“Nigeria is blessed with immense talent and a strong badminton tradition. I believe this country has what it takes to dominate on the global stage,” he remarked.