Sports
NWFL Premiership League Resumes, Feb 10
The Nigeria Women Football League Board, NWFL, has announced February 10, 2021 as the resumption date for league matches in all designated venues across the country.
This was carried in a statement by the Chairperson of the NWFL, Aisha Falode and made available to Tidesports yesterday by the NWFL Media.
According to Falode, the NWFL season will now resume after all the 14 clubs had complied with the Covid-19 preventive protocols that were established before the commencement of the league on December 9, 2020.
She confirmed that, all the clubs’ players and officials have been tested and results have been submitted to the NWFL Secretariat after thorough verification.
Falode disclosed that; “Though there are a number of positive tests from the results, the affected clubs have been instructed to keep these players out of the team’s camp and replace them with other players who tested negative.
“The clubs are supposed to monitor these positive cases and ensure proper treatment and isolation until they come out with a clean bill of health.
“After the treatment regime, a fresh test must be conducted and results submitted showing the negative status of the affected players before they can return to the league.”
The NWFL chairperson, who is also a board member of the Nigeria Football Federation, noted that, the dates on the match fixtures have been adjusted and copies sent to all the clubs for their matches.
“We are not going to wait for anyone again, we have lost five weeks working to ensure we prevent the spread of Covid-19 in our elite league and also save the lives of our players and officials. We cannot afford to wait any longer. The league will resume on Wednesday February 10, 2021 going into Week 5 out of 26 weeks to be played with a total of 182 matches.”
The Week 5 fixtures have Confluence Queens against FC Robo at the Lokoja Stadium, Delta Queens battle Bayelsa Queens at the Agbor Stadium, while Edo Queens host Nasarawa Amazons at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City.
In other matches, Abia Angels battle Sunshine Queens, in Umuahia, Ibom Angels tango Rivers Angels in Uyo, Osun Babes take on Dream Stars of Lagos at the Osogbo Township Stadium, while Pelican Stars slug it out with Royal Queens at the U.J Esuene Stadium, Calabar.
It would be recalled that a compulsory postponement of the 2020/2021 Nigeria Women League NWFL premier league matches by one month was announced, due to the increased wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and to enable the various clubs in the league carry out their test properly.
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