Sports
Director Charges CAF On Reforms
The Abia Director of Sports, Ejikeme Ikwunze, has urged the African Football Confederation (CAF) to introduce “drastic reforms’’ that would bring positive change to football in Africa.
Ikwunze made the call in an interview with Tidesports in Umuahia on Sunday. He dwelt on the challenges of the continental football governing body.
He said there was need for a transformation of African football to meet the standard in Europe, to check the exodus of talents from the continent to other parts of the world.
He regretted that African football had not improved significantly since the inception of CAF in 1957.
Ikwunze blamed the situation on the “obsolete ideas’’ of the leadership of the confederation.
He also regretted that CAF was recycling its executive members, citing the re-election of its president, Issa Hayatou, who had remained in office as president since 1988, as an instance.
Ikwunze attributed Hayatou’s re-election and the failure of the President, Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Aminu Maigari, to make the CAF executive to “Francophone connections and power of language.’’
“CAF is not doing well because it is recycling persons. CAF is recycling Hayatou,’’ Ikwunze, popularly called “Mr Football’’, said.
“In Africa, we have 53 countries that make up CAF and about 75 per cent of the membership is Francophone and they employed the power of language in the election.
“Maigari would have been a wonderful man to be in the CAF executive. He deserved to be there,’’ Ikwunze said, regretting that “he was schemed out due to Francophone connection’’.
He advised the NFF president not to be discouraged by the outcome of the election.
“Abraham Lincoln failed election many times in America but kept on trying, so Maigari should not be discouraged,’’ he said.
He described Maigari as “a good, gentle, highly organised and a very articulate man,’’ arguing that he had brought transformation to football administration in Nigeria.
Ikwunze urged CAF to emulate FIFA’s outstanding performance over the years, saying: ‘’FIFA has introduced a number of reforms, why can’t CAF do the same?’’
He also described CAF’s 1.5 million dollars cash prize for winning AFCON, as “paltry and insulting,’’ adding that such an amount should be for teams that merely qualified for the championship.
Ikwunze said the 10 million dollars usually disbursed to the body by FIFA annually as part of its financial assistance programme had not been substantially deployed to football development and players’ welfare.
The sports director appealed to CAF to replicate FIFA’s ‘financial assistance programmes and goals projects’ in Africa to promote football development and players’ welfare.
Ikwunze also lamented that no Nigerian had officiated as centre referee in the finals of CAF-organised tournaments, while smaller countries had continued to officiate in that capacity.
He warned that ‘’Nigeria will continue to lose out due to the intrigues in CAF,’’ and urged the country to “learn football politics and get involved in it.’’
Ikwunze, who recently authored a book on “World Cup: A Statistical Analysis from 1930-2010,’’ called for a reliable data base and proper documentation on African football.Ex-South African Keeper Tasks Team On Defence
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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