Sports
Coach Bemoans Spectators’ Ban
Coach Ali Zubair of Kwara
Utd FC of Ilorin, has bemoaned the ban of spectators from the club’s home matches at the Kwara State Stadium, Ilorin, in the ongoing Globacom League.
Zubair disclosed this to newsmen, moments after his team defeated Gombe United FC 2-0, in a week 32 match played on Wednesday at the stadium.
The match was played behind closed doors due to the League Management Company (LMC) ban on spectators at the stadium.
The spectators were banned from the stadium because of an attack on a match official in a week 28 encounter involving Kwara Utd and Warri Wolves.
Zubair said that fans played a significant role during matches, saying that spectators were part of the game and that they made the players to feel more at home.
“We prepared well for this match; the only thing we are missing is the spectators, but even at that, we had a very good match,’’ Zubair said.
The coach, however, insisted that the team was still nursing the ambition of picking one of the three continental tickets available in the league.
He said the fact that they have the best away record this season showed that they could still make the continental berth.
Uche John put the Afonja Warriors ahead in the 54th minute, before Evans Iyoro scored a superb volley from the midfield, to give the home team a two nil win over visiting Gombe Utd.
Kwara Utd, which lost their last two away matches to Kaduna Utd and El-kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri, are presently sixth on the log, with 47 points from 31 games.
Meanwhile, Coach Maurice Cooreman of Gombe has described the Kwara Utd team as a strong squad.
The Belgian said his team held the first half of the match, but noted that everything turned against his team in the second half, which resulted in the two goals they conceded.
The coach added that his boys missed a lot of scoring chances, saying that it was the problem his boys always had during away matches.
Cooreman noted that there was no implication losing the match because he was not fighting for anything this season.
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