Sports
Namibia’s Coach Urges Support For Falcon’s Coach
Chief Coach of Namibia’s senior women football team, Jacqueline Shipanga, has called for support for her Nigerian counterpart, Eucharia Uche, advising that Uche should be left in-charge of the Nigerian team.
Shipanga whose team lost 0-7 to the Super Falcons in a 2012 Olympic Games qualifier on April 3 in Abuja, last weekend said that Uche deserved respect.
“We of the female stock are not asking our male counterparts for any favour but what we deserve. Don’t give us anything on a platter of gold.
“We have come a long way and we deserve some respects. Uche in her case has also come a long way and should get that respect from Nigerians,” she said.
Shipanga spoke against the background of calls for more technical support for Uche and complaints raised about the team’s performance against Namibia.
The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) has since about three weeks ago drafted German coach Thomas Obliers to the team, although he did not sit on the team’s bench against Namibia.
“Uche has done a lot for the Falcons. She played for the team for many years and won titles and now she has coached the team and also won honours.
“She won the African Women Championship (AWC) title and the World Cup ticket, the first time by any woman coach.
“So, why not give her the same chance you will give her male counterparts.
“It is not the same thing you do to our male counterparts, and it is clear Uche is as good and deserving of respect like any other male coach anywhere,” Shipanga said.
The Brave Warriors coach who has handled some Namibian clubsides before joining the national team said replacing Uche as the Falcons technical chief would be disastrous for Nigeria.
“Uche is a very good coach from what I can see and replacing her will not only be counter-productive but also going to be really unfair.
“It will not be good for Nigeria in the long run,” she said.
Shipanga who is also a former player and a FIFA instructor for women football and grassroots development, said that Nigerians should rather encourage Uche to further develop her coaching abilities.
“She only needs encouragement from Nigerians to be able to advance in coaching and do better than she is doing now,” she said.
Uche had faced constant criticisms, regarding her coaching capabilities since she took charge of the team in 2009, and was always under fire even when her team was winning.
The Falcons’ inability to score more than a goal in the second half after putting in six goals in the first half of the 7-0 win over Namibia on Sunday, also raised questions about Uche’s ability.
However, the NFA recently drafted Obliers, coach of German league clubside SC 07 Bad Neuenahr, to the team as a response to the calls, although his position in the team has not been made public.
The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria ( SWAN) Rivers State Chapter has set up five standing working committees on Tuesday, in its general congress.
At the playoff held at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, the team of Canice Abua, Michael Emmanuel, Daniel Adeleye, and Abubakar Yusuf was majestic as they restored Nigeria’s hope in a sport that once gave the country so much joy.
Speaking after the final game, Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) President, Victor Ochei, said the Davis Cup feat is the stepping stone to better days in the sport, adding that the federation has set up programmes that will help the budding talents across the country play at the same level as their counterparts in other tennis-developed countries.
Ochei said: “The whole aim of having this new board is to lift the sport to the level we used to be. I tell you, tennis is taking a new shape in Nigeria. We are putting everything and anything to make that work happen.”
Ochei said that the NTF has looked at sponsorships and how to get the emerging players compete at the same level with their peers elsewhere, adding that the federation is working on organising local competitions and helping the players to compete in international championships.
“We believe that with what we are doing now, sponsors will come to us to organise new competitions. But beyond that, there’s a strategic growth development plan, a 10-year development plan, which the board is working on.
“The programme will ensure that we catch them young. This is because we believe that to create champions, we must start grooming them early. The champions you are seeing today were those groomed yesterday.”
“The process of building new champions will include building the coaches, the players, the infrastructure and sensitising the parents so that we can start catching them as young as age five to six.
“By the time that we groom them through 10 years of training, at age 15, 16, you will see fantastic professional players.”
To achieve the federation’s plans, Ochei admits that the NTF needs a lot of investment, adding that the board is working at realising the funds quietly and tenaciously.
The NTF president acknowledged the contributions of former international stars like Nduka Odizor and Sadiq Abdullahi to the bid to rejuvenate Nigerian tennis, adding that NTF is open to collaborating with former players who know what it takes to play at the highest level of the sport.
He said, “Nduka Odizor is around as one of our VIP personalities. He has been psyching up the boys in the battle with Uzbekistan. He will not enter the court to play, but his mere presence is enough motivation to the boys, who will want to be like him in the future.
“You see, the type of support the Odizors, the Imonities and the Abdullahis got in their time is no longer there, but we are revamping it with the support of our stakeholders in the Diaspora.
“It will appear to take us some time, but I can tell you that the Diaspora support is massive.”
In its bid to get good results in this year’s Commonwealth Games, the National Sports Commission (NSC) has disbursed N200 million as training grants to 26 athletes.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, Scotland.
The NSC stated that the grants were disbursed through its Elite and Podium Board, noting that N200 million was allocated to select top-performing athletes.
The beneficiaries are both foreign-based and home-based, the NSC said, adding that it will cater for their training and preparation expenses.
According to the NSC, the recipients span several sports, including athletics, wrestling, weightlifting, and para-sports, in line with the Commission’s mandate to prioritise athletes’ welfare and high-performance development.
The Commission added that the disbursement follows the establishment of the Elite and Podium Board, created to implement a scientific and institutionalised support system aimed at sustaining peak performances by Nigerian athletes at major international competitions.
NSC Director General, Bukola Olopade, said the Commission, under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was established to restore confidence and provide renewed hope for Nigerian sportsmen and women by placing strong emphasis on athlete welfare.
“The training grants disbursed to 26 athletes across different sports followed a careful and professional selection process by the Yusuf Ali-led Elite and Podium Board. This is our way of reassuring our athletes that their welfare remains our utmost priority,” he said.
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