Toed Boehly has just decided to use his hand in destroying the team completely, because I wouldn’t ask the sense behind sacking a manager who has stabilized the team following a disastrous campaign under Potter and Lampard except if you want to bring back Tuchel.
Meanwhile, to the worst of it, Sebastian Hoeneß, Michel, Kieran McKenna and Enzo Maresca are on the list to replace Mauricio Pochettino at Chelsea in what could be another wrong choice after Tuchel was fired and Potter was brought in last season.
However, thank you Pochettino, you have done a great job at Chelsea and I sincerely think you deserve another season to stabilize the team but the owner is stup!d to see this.
Nigeria’s 2008 long jump silver medalist Blessing Okagbare has been banned for 10 years for doping, the Athletics Integrity Unit announced on Friday.
The 33-year-old, who is also a sprinter, was expelled from the Tokyo Olympics last year before the women’s 100m semi-finals after testing positive for human growth hormone at an out-of-competition test in Slovakia on July 19.
“The Disciplinary Tribunal has banned Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare for a total of 10 years,” read an AIU statement.
The ex-goalkeeper, Peter Idah, said on Channels Television’s ‘Sunrise Daily’ programme that it was wrong to have allowed the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele; the Chief Executive Officer of Air Peace, Allen Onyema; and the President of the Nigerian Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, to address players during halftime.
Barely six hours before the game, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), made a video call to the team.
The CBN governor had also visited the eagles at halftime where he relayed a message from business tycoon, Femi Otedola, promising them $250,000 (N104m) if they won the cup. Onyema had also promised to give the team N10m for each goal scored.
“We can’t have the President of the NFF addressing the players in the second half. That is not his responsibility. We can’t have the CBN governor addressing the players at halftime. That is not his responsibility. We can’t have the owner of Air Peace addressing the players at halftime. What time will the coach have?” Idah asked.
Idah added, “We had won the gold in the bedroom. We had already started calling ourselves champions when we had not even qualified. I said it the other day that officials would begin to travel to the Super Eagles’ camp to make promises. ‘If you win the cup, this is the money you will get’. I mentioned this before.
“There is a psychology of football. When you go to play football, you start from zero. You don’t go as a winner because you underestimate your opponent. I said this before that in our dressing room, we had officials that were not football coaches going to address the players and I said this over and over again. The mindset of a player is very fickle.
“He has to think of the match 100 per cent. He doesn’t have to think about money; he doesn’t have to think about family problems or women. He has to think about football.”
The draw held in Douala, Cameroon was conducted by CAF Competitions Director Samson Adamu, assisted by CAF legends El Hadji Diouf and Emmanuel Adebayor.
Following are the encounters, set for next March.
Egypt v Senegal
Cameroon v Algeria
Ghana v Nigeria
DR Congo v Morocco
Mali v Tunisia
Two-leg ties to be played between March 21-29.
Five aggregate winners qualify for World Cup in Qatar.
The Super Eagles of Nigeria finished Group D with a third successive win as they beat Guinea-Bissau 2-0, leaving runners-up Egypt to face Ivory Coast in the next round.
The Super Eagles will stay in Garoua to play third-placed team Tunisia in the last 16 on Sunday by 8pm.
👉 Qatar World Cup: 1.2m tickets requested within 24 hours
Football governing body FIFA, which disclosed this, said the demand for tickets was greatest from the host country.
This request from Qatar was followed by requests from Argentina, Mexico, the U.S, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and France, FIFA said in a statement.
Qatar is to host the 2022 World Cup from November 21 to December 18.
Interim coach Austin Eguavoen was appointed on a short-term deal after the Nigeria Football Federation sacked Gernot Rohr in December.
“Eguavoen is on the payroll of the NFF and he won’t be entitled to salary for the role he is playing as an interim coach of the team,” President of the NFF Amaju Pinnick stated recently on Arise TV.
“He will be entitled to the winning bonuses as the team progress at the tournament.”
Mali’s 1-0 win over Tunisia at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations will stand, despite referee Janny Sikazwe causing controversy by twice blowing the final whistle too early.
The AFCON’s organizing committee met in Cameroon to ratify Mali’s victory.
While the game restarted on Wednesday after Sikazwe prematurely ended it after 85 minutes, he then blew full time when the game reached 89 minutes and 47 seconds.
About 30 minutes later, the officials tried to complete the remaining minutes in Limbe, Cameroon on Wednesday.
But Tunisia refused to come back out to restart the match, with the coach saying his players were already in their ice baths by then.
“After examining the protest of Tunisia and all the match officials report, the organizing committee decided … to dismiss the protest lodged by the Tunisian team. To homologate the match result as 1-0 in favor of Mali,” the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said in a statement.
Less than two weeks to the start of the Africa Cup of Nations, the Super Eagles finally have a new manager, Jose Peseiro.
Peseiro is a 61-year-old manager with three decades of experience managing some of the biggest clubs in Portugal.
He first made a name for himself managing CD Nacional, taking the modest club from the third tier of Portuguese football to the Primeira Liga in three seasons. After a mid-table finish in his first year in the top-flight, Peseiro left the club to join Carlos Queiroz, on whom he had made a strong impression by way of his work in Madeira, at Real Madrid.
According to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Peseiro will only take charge after the Africa Cup of Nations, but will be in Cameroon in an observatory role. This has, understandably, elicited mixed reactions from fans.
A number of obvious questions arise from the Peseiro appointment, as well as the modalities of his taking over.
The first, in light of the fact the Portuguese manager has been given a two-year contract: what happens if he fails in his very first assignment to qualify Nigeria for the World Cup in Qatar?
The second question is a WASSCE-style multifaceted one, and concerns his “observer” brief at the AFCON. What precisely does that mean?
Is he simply getting a paid vacation to Garoua on the bill of the NFF?
Here is a theory: would it be farfetched to think that Peseiro is, in fact, taking charge of everything right away, but will simply not sit on the bench on matchday, possibly as a ploy to insulate him from pressure from the watching public?
The Nigeria Football Federation has terminated Gernot Rohr’s contract as the Super Eagles coach.
Subsequently, the football federation appointed Augustine Eguavoen, currently its Technical Director, as the Technical Adviser of the Super Eagles on an interim basis.
“This is with immediate effect, and follows the termination of the relationship with Franco-German Gernot Rohr, who has been in charge of the three –time African champions for the past 64 months, and is Nigeria’s longest –serving manager,” a statement from NFF stated.
The statement added, “Following a virtual meeting of the NFF Executive Committee on Sunday, it was decided that Eguavoen will work with Salisu Yusuf (Chief Coach); Paul Aigbogun (Assistant Coach); Joseph Yobo (Assistant Coach); Dr Terry Eguaoje (Assistant Coach) and Aloysius Agu (Goalkeeper Trainer).
“Former Nigeria captains Augustine ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu and Garba Lawal have been appointed to provide technical and ambassadorial support for the crew.”
The statement quoted the General Secretary of the NFF, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, as commending the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports for collaboration and guidance all through.”
“The relationship between the Nigeria Football Federation and Mr Rohr has come to an end. We thank him for his services to the Super Eagles and Nigeria,” he added.
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