SPORTS

Mikel, others in N30m Champagne party
By Bimbo Adesina

NIGERIA Mikel Obi and his Chelsea teammates splashed N30m millon (£120,000) Wednesday night on bubbly and cocktails to help celebrate team-mate Salomon Kalou's birthday at Mayfair bar.
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Drogba: I am proud to sign new contract

Didier Drogba is happy to have signed a new contract with Chelsea to 2012.
The striker - who will spend around six weeks away at the African Nations Cup in early 2010 - told the club's website, chelseafc.com: "I have decided to extend my contract with Chelsea for two extra years and I am very happy and proud to continue to wear the blue of Chelsea until then.
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Fasuba: why I want to dump Nigeria
By Patrick Chukwuma

Fastest man in Africa, Olusoji Fasuba has threatened he may dump Nigeria due to his his inabiliy to pay his bills in Portugal where he is based. According to him, he incured a lot of debt in his base which made things very difficult for him hence his choice to change nationality.
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Hull completes Olofinjana deal
By Bimbo Adesina

Hull have completed the signing of Nigerian midfielder Seyi Olofinjana from Stoke.
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No room for new players–Amodu
By Stella Bamawo

Super Eagles’ Coach, Shuaibu Amodu has declined all suggestions to include new players into his squad while he restated that the present crop of players are up to the task to qualify Nigeria for the 2010 World Cup holding in South Africa.
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Martins begins Bundesliga campaign today
By Bimbo Adesina

Obafemi Martins wil kick-start his Bundesliga journey today at the Volkswagen Arena as VfL Wolfsburg begins the defense of its German football title against VfB Stuttgart in the league opener.
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Terry gets £151,000-a-week deal
By Our Reporter

Chelsea have offered skipper John Terry a new contract.
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WAFU Cup: NFF delays Falcons’ allowances
By Femi Olamide

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has delayed the payment of daily allowance to Super Falcons.
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Eagles’ Team B play Flying Eagles for Okwaraji

The Nigeria Football Federation announced Thursday that the national home –based senior team, otherwise known as Super Eagles Team B, will trade tackles with the national U-20 team, Flying Eagles at the National Stadium, Abuja on Wednesday.
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Onigbinde slams football administrators
By Our Reporter
Published Yesterday
Sports


With Nigerians still debating decisions reached at the annual general assembly of the football federation, former Super Eagles handler, Adegboye Onigbinde regrets his inability to attend the meeting, but says the biggest problem of the game in the country is administrative.
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Courtesy: The Nation online.
Community Shield: Ferguson admits United’s goal keeping headache From Soccerstar Desk More Stories on This Section
Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted he faces a major dilemma over his goalkeeper for Manchester United's Community Shield showdown with Chelsea at Wembley tomorrow.With Edwin van der Sar sidelined for two months after breaking two fingers during the recent Audi Cup in Munich, both Ben Foster and Tomasz Kuszczak are pushing to replace the Dutchman.Foster has most to gain given he is expected to be named in Fabio Capello's England squad for next week's friendly in Holland when it is announced on Saturday.However, Kuszczak is also hoping for a recall to Polish ranks and knows regular first-team action at United is bound to help his cause.Both men figured for 45 minutes in the 2-0 win over Valencia.While Foster did not have much to do in the opening period, Kuszczak made two excellent saves to keep the La Liga outfit at bay after the interval.And now Ferguson must decide who to trust with the role as the Red Devils aim to land their first piece of silverware of the season at Carlo Ancelotti's expense."I do have a decision to make over the goalkeeper for Sunday," reflected Ferguson."Both Ben and Tomasz have outstanding qualities. Tomasz made two great saves, as he did against Boca Juniors, so we will see."The odds remain on Foster getting the nod given Ferguson has already stated his belief that the former Stoke man will have overtaken David James as Capello's first choice by next summer's World Cup in South Africa.Yet the goalkeeping position is not the only one vexing the United boss after suffering a mini-defensive injury crisis.Nemanja Vidic, Wes Brown, Gary Neville and Rafael Da Silva all missed last night's game and have already been ruled out of the Chelsea encounter.Ferguson rates Vidic and Brown as outside bets at best to overcome ankle and thigh problems ahead of the Premier League opener with Birmingham at Old Trafford on August 16.
John O'Shea is pencilled in for an appearance in United's back four alongside Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra and Jonny Evans this weekend.
Belgian international Ritchie De Laet made an eye-catching contribution to the Valencia victory at right-back, while Northern Ireland Under-21 star Craig Cathcart would also have been picked had he not suffered a minor groin strain in training on Tuesday."We have a group of young players, including Ritchie, Craig, Jonny Evans and Fabio who have ability and are all quick," said Ferguson."It was important for them all to play some part last night."While Ferguson has never treated the Community Shield as anything other than a pre-season game, even though he is bidding for an eighth victory - and his third on the trot - it does provide the first meaningful opportunity to erase the memory of last season's Champions League final defeat to Barcelona.The loss was a comprehensive one and Ferguson has tended to skirt around the issue in assessing the campaign that lies ahead.What the Scot does feel is that United can emerge stronger from the lesson."Adversity is always an important factor in developing and improving," he said."I have always reacted well to adversity over the years and whenever we lose a match I tell my players that the next game is the important one - the match we have to focus on."That has always been the case here at the club."When you lose the last game of the season you have two or three months to reflect on the disappointment."We have not enjoyed that. But we will cope - and we will bounce back."

Don’t camp Eaglets in Qatar…Adejube raises weather alarmBy EMMA NJOKU Saturday, August 1, 2009
•Golden EagletsPhoto: Sun News Publishing
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Elder Dickson Adejube has cautioned against the choice of Qatar as training camp for Golden Eaglets ahead of the FIFA Under-17 World Championship billed for Nigeria in October.The former Nigeria Football Association (now Federation) board member, who has remained passionate about football matters in the country since the Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima-led board was unceremoniously ousted from the Glasshouse in Abuja, wondered why the nation’s cadet team should train under a very cold weather for a tournament that would be staged in a hot climatic environment."I understand there are plans to camp Golden Eaglets in Qatar for their preparations for the FIFA Under-17 World Championship, the Nigeria 2009. I am not comfortable with that arrangement, because it may turn out to be counter-productive," the retired soldier and referee began in a chat with Saturday Sunsport early in the week."How can a team camp in a country that is very cold to prepare for a championship that will take place in a country that has hot climate? What sort of result do you expect from the team during the World Championship?" he queried."The young players, who are expected to do the nation proud were all virtually selected from the domestic scene. They are used to the tropical weather and now, we are taking them to Qatar where the weather is very cold for them to train ahead of the FIFA Under-17 World Championship, which we are hosting."Tell me, are we hosting to win the tournament or are we just hosting for the sake of hosting a world event?" the former Ondo State Football Association boss wondered.Adejube advised that the proposed campsite in Qatar be shelved to avoid what he predicted as calamity for the nation during the world soccer cadet championship. He went further to suggest that the campsite be shifted to any of the West African nations with similar weather condition as that of Nigeria."I suggest that the campsite for the Golden Eaglets be shifted to any country in the West African region so that the young players will not have problem with the weather condition and concentrate with their preparations for the world championship."If the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) go ahead with the plan to camp the team in Qatar, the boys will have problem trying to acclimatise with the Nigerian weather when they come home for the competition proper," he explained."This is a competition Nigeria has won on three previous occasions. Besides, we are hosting the tournament as defending champions, so it would be very embarrassing if we host and fail to win the event," the former NFA board member stressed.It would be recalled that Adejube had in a recent interview with Saturday Sunsport, raised alarm over the sack of Henry Nwosu as head coach of the Golden Eaglets, arguing that the decision by the nation’s football governing authorities was ill-timed considering the time left before the world cadet championship.Meanwhile, the retired referee and soldier has applauded the decision by the NFF to extend the training tour of the Flying Eagles in Egypt after the recently concluded invitational tournament, where the Nigerian team finished second behind hosts, Egypt.According to him, the decision would further help the Samson Siasia-tutored side to acclimatise more to the Egyptian weather ahead of the FIFA Under-21 World Championship holding in the land of Pharaohs in September."I want to commend the decision of the NFF to extend Flying Eagles stay in Egypt in continuation of their preparations ahead of the junior World Cup in September. It would help the team to acclimatise more to the weather since the same country will host the championship they are preparing for” The former NFA board member reasoned.

NFF May Drop Siasia, Amokachi - Globacom Promises Eaglets N50m
Patrick Ngwaogu, Abuja.
Samson Siasia and Daniel AmokachiTHE tenure of Daniel Amokachi, Samson Siasia and John Obu as national team coaches is being threatened by the ongoing grading of coaches in the country.
Saturday Tribunesports recalls that the NFF had mandated its coaches to undergo grading exercise in order to instil sanity in the coaching profession in the country.
The grading event took place about two weeks ago but none of Amokachi, an assistant to Shaibu Amodu in Super Eagles’coaching crew, Siasia, the chief coach of the national U-20 coach, and Obu, head of Eaglets’ coaches, attended the exercise and were not rated in the grading.
Also missing was Monday Odigie one of the assistants of Obu on the bench of Eaglets. President, NFF, Abdulahi Lulu said in Abuja on Friday that from now on, the Federation would no longer consider non-graded coaches for employment.
While inaugurating the first batch of the Grade A coaches, Lulu described the grading as “historic empowerment” of the country’s coaches, thanking FIFA-CAF instructor, Chief Adegboye Onigbinde, for using international standards for the exercise.
Lulu said the criteria used in grading the coaches include educational qualifications, international national coaching courses attended, playing career and experience in coaching.
Thirty nine coaches were graded as A ratings while Tribunesports Abuja correspondent, Patrick Ngwaogu and 103 others were in Grade B.
Meanwhile, the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria will be N50 million richer if they retain the FIFA U-17 trophy courtesy Globacom.
Globacom, the indigenous telecommunication giant, believes the gesture will spur the country's cadet team to host and retain the FIFA trophy.
On Friday, Chief Operating Officer, Globacom, Mohammed Jameel, also presented a cheque of N3million dollars to the Local Organising Committee, LOC, of the FIFA event called Nigeria 2009 to assist and support the smooth organisation of the event.

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