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Kano Pillars

The management committee of Kano Pillars Football Club has sacked the club’s goalkeeper traineer, Ali Muhammad Zoff and redeployed Coach Abdu Ahmad Pele to the State Sports Council for what it described as part of re-organization in the team.
According to the source close to the club management, the decision took place on Monday after Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima presided over the meeting between the Continental Committee and the club management as part of the plan to repositioning the team both in the Nigerian League and CAF Champions League.
Daily Triumph Sports gathered that the former Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Alhaji Galadima was not happy with the way and manner things are going in the club and directed the club management to seriously warn the players and the technical crew to change their attitude as the state government will not condone indiscipline and fake injury among players.
It could be recalled that with this approval, the present management of Kano Pillars Football Club led by Alhaji Tukur Babangida was said to have received almost N400million from the state government to run the affairs of the club.
Pillars received N70 million out of N100 million approved by the state government as take-off grant three months back.  

Oje Sweet Gives further Insight on the U-17 Bruhaha

Barely a week after it announced Nigeria’s inability to host next year’s Federation of International Football Association’s (FIFA) World Cup due to cash crunch, the Federal Government did a rethink and accepted to go ahead with hosting the world youth soccer championship. This was after the initial budget of N37 billion was drastically scaled down to N9 billion.
The government, through former Sports Minister, had earlier written to the global soccer governing body, FIFA that the country lacked the capacity to deliver a world-class event as it was faced with a myriad of challenges including a deficit budget and the effects of the global financial meltdown. The letter informed FIFA that “Government efforts are now being channelled towards pruning down on expenditure and in the light of challenges confronting Nigeria, it regrets its inability to host the U-17 World Cup as earlier undertaken”.
Government’s earlier repudiation of the hosting agreement it entered into with FIFA two years ago could be traced to the scary N37 billion budget submitted to it by the event’s Local Organising Committee (LOC). Not even the hurried review of the budget to N35 billion could persuade the government of the feasibility of the project. And so, it initially appeared as if the Yar’Adua administration had made up its mind not to have anything to do with the 2009 junior world football championship, which it said was not on its priority list, until a sudden u-turn about a week later.
Several reasons have been given for the policy reversal. They include the fear of FIFA’s sanctions and possible damage the breach of agreement could do the country’s external image and the development of its youth soccer in particular.
But now that the country has managed to avoid these untoward repercussions by agreeing to host the championship as planned, we are still worried about what the international community would think about our leaders. Why, for instance, would the government take such precipitate, spur-of-the-moment decision when it was clear that all remedial avenues had not been exhausted? This apparent indiscretion has brought a lot of embarrassment not only to the government but also to the country. It would appear that the Presidency over reacted on theN37 billion-budget proposal and that shouldn’t have been the sole basis for foreclosing the hosting of the championship. If the government thought the budget was unrealistic, as it surely was, it could have called for its downward review rather than resorting to throwing the baby away with the bath water.
Although some Nigerians have said the revised budget may be too low to host a global event of that magnitude, we want to believe that the Local Organising Committee showed lack of sincerity and concern for the country’s financial position. This definitely cannot continue. What Nigeria needs now as we finally prepare to host the U-17 World Cup next year is a body of genuine patriots to organise a tournament that would be economically rewarding to the country and ultimately beneficial for the development of its game of soccer. The LOC should be spared selfish people who think more of what would accrue to their individual pockets from the “spoils” of tournament hosting. Every effort must be made to ensure that the country maximises the gains of hosting the games, which must include brilliant performance of our team at the tournament as well as a boost to the nation’s economy. The nation’s dilapidated sports infrastructure are also expected to benefit a great deal from hosting the tournament, as they must be enduringly rehabilitated. It is only an efficient LOC that can achieve these lofty goals

CHIMAOBI UCHENDU write in the  Sun News on an allege plot to desolve the NFF board.

Former chairman of Gombe State Football Association and founder of the infamous Stakeholders Forum which ousted the Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima-led Nigeria Football Association (NFA) board, Shaibu Ahmed Gara Gombe, says Nigerian football will soon experience turbulent times from tyrants, who are bent on realising their dreams from a disunited football house.
He said a plot to dissolve the present Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Board, led by Sani Lulu was in the offing and he puts the time set for the plot to hatch between now and April next year.
Speaking to Daily Sunsport last weekend, Gombe said the Congress, which was made up of state FAs and clubs had already been penetrated into and warned the NFF and the Nigeria Premier League Board to guard their loins because the crisis is targeted to start there.
“Nigerian football will soon experience earthquake,” Gombe started. “I have it on good authority that Dr. Amos Adamu has recruited men to cause problems that will lead to the dissolution of NFF.
He is bent on reconstituting the NFF board to include himself, this is because of the ambition he is nursing at CAF. Remember that one cannot aim to become the CAF president without being a member of a national football federation.
“Already, I am aware of moves by his foot soldiers at recruiting state FAs and some clubs who make up the Congress to impeach the board when the crisis starts.
“The grand plan also include causing an artificial crisis between NFF and NFL, which will result into inviting stakeholders for mediation.
“At this point, the Congress would be invited to settle, the impasse and immediately this happens, the hatchet men will move for a dissolution of the board.
“I know they are playing to realize this dream before the commencement of the World Youth Championship (WYC) scheduled for Nigeria next year. Read Full Story SUN News 

Finally Kenya and mosambique are both threatening to stop Nigeria from 2010 as reported by Taiwo Adelu by PM NEWS

President of Kenya Football Federation (KFF), Mohammed Hatimy, has boasted that the Harambee Stars will stop the Super Eagles of Nigeria from playing in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, in South Africa.

Hatimy is confident his country will feature in the World Cup finals after they must have scaled the hurdles of Nigeria, Tunisia and Mozambique, who are their group opponents in the qualifying series for the 2010 World Cup.

“I believe Kenya can stand on the way of Nigeria to the World Cup,” said Hatimy, in a live interview on Brila F.M., early today. “We want to qualify for the 2010 World Cup at all cost, we are expecting a tough opposition from Nigeria, but Kenya will be there.

“Stopping Nigeria is possible and I believe we can as well celebrate our qualification just as we celebrated the victory of Barack Obama in the just concluded American election,” he boasted.

Hatimy noted that since he took over as the President of Kenya Football Federation, there have been notable achievements to his credit. He said Kenya, in the FIFA ranking, used to be below 100, but he can proudly say that Kenya was last ranked Number 79 in the world.

 

Harry Mangulenje, AfricaNews reporter in Blantyre, Malawi 

Mozambique has served notice to their Nigerian opponents in the World Cup zone qualifiers to be vigilant or risk being pushed out of contention. Despite miraculously squeezing through to the current stage, Mozambique team is raising hopes of going further to Africa Nations Cup in Angola 2010.

The Black Mambas say they are not taking a challenge in their tough group and are ready to make it to the Nations Cup for the first time since 1998. Coach Mart Nooij has said he is aware that other members of the group Kenya, and Tunisia are working at turning tables when the games kick off in March next year.
But the coach said he has troops that can beat any team in the World given same conditions. The Mambas passed the first round tests by a miracle after they ended as best runners-up in their group which comprised teams like Ivory Coast.
“We will not change our offensive attacking football, all Africa should know is that Mozambicans can play and they play their own game in their own way but at the end of the day they win and usually win impressively,” he said. “There are so many good things now in our country, Mozambique and I as coach and my players on the other end, we are motivated,” he said.
Nooij, a former Burkina Faso coach said he targets Nigeria for their first win. He however said the worst they want to do is to end third in the group and not slip through.
“Nigeria is the same as Ivory Coast, they play same football, have similar trend of players, we drew with them in Maputo and we nearly drew with them again at their own backyard in Abidjan, what can distract us from pushing them out,” he said.