News

NPFL Oriental Derby: Rangers Hold Heartland In Awka

Published

4 weeks ago

November 6, 2023

SMI

Rangers International F.C maintained their dominance over neighbours, Heartland F.C at the weekend courtesy of a goal in each half of a highly entertaining match day 7 of the NPFL 2023/2024 fixture played in front of a massive crowd at the Awka City Stadium, Anambra State on Sunday.

Coach Ilechukwu of Rangers kept faith with the starting squad that lost narrowly to Lobi Stars but for the duo of Philip Clement and Kenechukwu Agu as Kazeem Ogunleye shot the ‘Flying Antelopes’ into an early lead with an unstoppable free kick from about 25 meters that the goalkeeper for the visiting side, Chisom Chiaha had no answer to on three minutes.

Stunned as they were, the boys of the ‘Naze Millionaires’ side under coach Christian Obi swooped on the rear of Rangers with ceaseless attacks led by Samuel Stone, Patrick Nwaogbaga, and Chijioke Opara pulling the strings but met very stiff resistance from the backline fielded by coach Fidelis Ilechukwu.

While there were opportunities to increase the tally for the Enugu side through Isaac Saviour on 43 minutes, Chukwudi Nwaodu on 18 minutes, and Chidiebere Nwobodo on 35 minutes, the visitors also created some that could not be buried, especially a late first-half rally the saw one opportunity crash against the upright and another against the crossbar as the seven-time league champions retired to the dressing room on the driver’s seat.

On resumption of play, both sides upped their game with the Owerri side pushing for an early equalizer. Still, it was the host that increased their tally in 57 minutes when Kenneth Igboke reacted the quickest to bundle home a Chisom Chiaha’s saved penalty kick taken by Godwin Obaje after a handball incident that occurred after an earlier awarded penalty for a foul on a goal-bound Obaje had been pushed out by the goalkeeper. Still, Peters Afolayan stopped the ball with his hand.

Ifeanyi Ogba blazed his effort wide off target after he was set up by Joel Okoro on 75 minutes while Chiaha produced another spectacular save to deny Kazeem his second of the day on 85 minutes from another dead-ball situation as the arbiter whistled to end proceedings to send fans of the Enugu side into wild jubilations.

With the win, Rangers bounce back into the top spot on the log with thirteen points from seven matches and will be travelling to Akure for a date with Sunshine Stars in a match day 8 fixture on November 12, 2023.

Coach Fidelis Ilechukwu in a chat after the win, said, “It was a good game. Heartland did very well as a team as it was a derby match. We tried our best and did not concede that is the most important thing because I told the boys that we must play without conceding a goal so that we can come up on the table and we thank God we won the game today.”

Kazeem Ogunleye was full of joy as he said, “I feel very happy about the result because we have been playing games and conceding but today, we did not concede and won. On my goal, I am very elated as I have been practising it and I am happy it went in.”

Coach Christian Obi in his post-match chat, said: “In the game of football three outcomes are expected and today we lost not for want of trying but we were unlucky against our opponents, Rangers. We made some careless mistakes, especially in conceding the first goal which jolted my boys into action but could not convert our chances when created but hit the woodwork twice. It was an unfortunate loss.”

News

Egypt Confirm As Host Of 2027 African Games

Published

1 hour ago

December 5, 2023

SMI

The Association of National Olympic Committee of Africa (ANOCA) awarded Egypt the hosting rights for the 2027 African Games, the Egyptian Ministry of Youth and Sports announced on Tuesday morning.

The African Games, formally known as the All-Africa Games or the Pan African Games, are a continental multi-sport event held every four years.

The announcement was made by ANOCA on Monday, in which they confirmed that the 2027 African Games would be the African qualifiers for the LA 2028 Olympic Games.

Six-time winners of the tournament, Egypt, previously hosted the African Games once in 1991, winning the title at the time.

News

3rd Ikpeba Football Challenge Warri ‘2023 begins Dec. 20

Published

1 hour ago

December 5, 2023

SMI

The 3rd edition of the Victor Ikpeba Football Challenge Warri ‘2023 has been scheduled to hold at the Army Children, School, Effurun, Warri, Delta State from Thursday December 20 to Saturday, 22, 2023.

According to the General Coordinator of the event, Mr. Dapo Sotuminu, the sponsor and initiator of the grassroot tournament, the 1997 African Footballer of The Year, Victor Ikpeba, the champion’s prize for the Ikpeba 2023 Football Challenge has been increased to two hundred and fifty thousand (N250,000). The winners, aside from the cash prize will also be presented with a giant trophy and gold medals.

While the first runners up will go home with a cash prize of N125,000, silver trophy and silver medals, while the third placed team will go home with N100,000, a trophy and bronze medals. And the fourth placed team N75,000.

Four individual awards will be presented to the best players in the tournament : the Most Valuable Player, Best Defender, Best Goalkeeper and Highest Goal Scorer will all be presented with plagues.

The four semi final teams will be presented with the Victor Ikpeba Football Tournament branded / customised jerseys.

The initiator of the tournament, Victor Ikpeba, noted that, the increased prize monies, were approved to further encourage the youth players’ participants in the tournament and also ensure that the players have a wonderful Christmas celebration.

News

Football Stakeholders commit to FIFA’s new initiatives for talent discovery

Published

2 days ago

December 4, 2023

SMI

There was palpable enthusiasm and avowed commitment to new initiatives on talent discovery and nurturing as a stakeholder workshop on FIFA Talent Development Scheme took Nigeria’s federal capital, Abuja by storm on Thursday.

NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi opened the workshop by expounding on the theme, saying the FIFA Talent Development Scheme is designed to discover football talents from the grassroots, which is truly a key component of the vision of the Ibrahim Musa Gusau-led NFF administration. “This is a welcome development for Federations like our own that are interested in growing the game from the grassroots. This workshop has the objective of enlightening all stakeholders on the scheme and to let them know the various aspects in which they have to support the Federation and where the Federation will support them.”

Dignitaries and stakeholders included a representative of Sports Development Minister, Senator John Enoh; Director General of the National Institute for Sports, Professor Olawale Morounkola; Member of the House Committee on Sports, Hon. Aminu Balele Kurfi; President of the NFF, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau; NFF’s two vice presidents Chief Felix Anyansi Agwu and Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye; Chairman of NFF Technical Committee, Alhaji Sharif Rabiu Inuwa; former NFF Board Member, High Chief Emeka Inyama; representatives of chairmen of the Senate Committee on Sports in both houses of the National Assembly; chairmen and secretaries of the State Football Associations; NFF Management and Staff; eminent coaches; former Nigeria international players including Dr. Olusegun Odegbami; former General Secretaries of the NFF Ambassador Fanny Amun and Barr. Musa Amadu; chieftains of the various Leagues; Super Falcons’ captain Onome Ebi; proprietors of leading football academies; sports marketing gurus and; prominent media personalities.

Gusau used the opportunity to espouse his Vision 2030 with so much passion and assurance, and charged the stakeholders that they no longer have any option than to do the hard lifting of discovering talent from the grassroots and nurturing them, with world football-governing body, FIFA’s decision to organize annually the FIFA U17 World Cup (male and female) from the year 2025.

“You can now see that we have no alternative to doing the hard work, and to do the work we have been elected to do with great energy, enthusiasm and diligence. The ethos of discipline, dedication and integrity must be enthroned, and we must commit to eliminating the scourge of age cheating at youth level.”

FIFA High Performance specialists Abdul Faisal Chibsah and Amit Desai expatiated further on the scheme, and pledged that FIFA will monitor the scheme globally for sincerity, credibility and sustainability.

NFF Technical Director and former Nigeria captain and coach, Augustine Eguavoen, explained the NFF’s long-term talent discovery plan and its strategic focus areas.

Odegbami, as well as Professor Morounkola, Coaches Isah Ladan Bosso and Sam John Obuh as well as former NFF scribes Amun and Amadu reported the positions of breakout groups, with emphasis on discovering truly young talents that will be nurtured through a sustainable process to keep Nigeria at the top of the global tree in U17 football.