Sports
18th NSF: Ekiti Plans Mini Festival For Athletes
The Ekiti State Government, said early in the week that it would organise a mini festival to prepare its athletes for the 18th National Sports Festival, slated to hold in Lagos in November.
The state’s Commissioner for Sport and Youth Development, Folorunsho Olabode, told newsmen that the mini festival would hold in Ado Ekiti.
“The mini festival will enable the state to select the best for the national festival,” he said.
He added that the mini festival would also help the state to determine in which sports it would feature to maximise its performance.
“We will only register for events that we know we will excel most and win gold medals, not just medals and the mini festival will help us determine that,” Olabode said.
The commissioner said that the state, which placed 20th at the last festival in Port Harcourt, had completed plans to improve on its position in Lagos.
According to him, the state government has budgeted enough money to improve and provide good facilities for its athletes training for the festival.
Olabode also said that the increased budget included a good welfare package for the athletes to motivate them to improve their performance at the festival.
He said that the state government had modern facilities on ground for the use of the athletes, adding that the renovation of the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado-Ekiti had been completed.
“The state had also constructed a new table tennis court while a plan to construct a new indoor sports hall for athletes at the stadium is underway,’’ he said.
He added that some of the state’s coaches had undergone training at the National Institute for Sport in Lagos and Abuja to update their knowledge in new coaching techniques.
The commissioner was confident that all the measures taken by the state government would have a good impact on the state’s performance at the festival.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has said that the Premier League leaders must win trophies if they were to be remembered like the “Invincibles” side that last won the title for the Gunners in 2004.
Arsene Wenger’s side romped to the title 22 years ago without losing a single league game.
Arsenal headede into last night’s clash at home to reigning champions Liverpool with a five-point lead at the top of the table after Manchester City and Aston Villa dropped points against Brighton and Hove Albion and Crystal Palace, respectively on Wednesday.
Arteta’s men, runners-up for the past three seasons, have two more points and four more goals than Wenger’s ‘Invincibles’ managed after 20 games.
But the Spaniard said those stats matter little unless Arsenal go on to win the league.
“No, because ‘the Invincibles’ won a lot,” Arteta told his pre-match press conference on whether his side can be considered better than Arsenal’s last title winners.
“They won consistently, and they created a history and a legacy, and we have to do that.”
The lone major piece of silverware won by Arsenal in six years under Arteta remains the 2020 FA Cup
“There are a lot of stats, but in the last two or three years we have managed more points and more goals than ever before. But at the end, we have to translate that to major trophies,” he added.
“Probably doing what we are doing now would have been enough (in 2004), but now it’s not, and we have to make the margins even bigger.”
Arsenal lost 1-0 to Liverpool at Anfield back in August in what was billed as an early showdown between title rivals.
The defending champions headed to the Emirates 14 points off the top after a difficult second season for Arne Slot, but Arteta insisted the Reds remain a superb side.
The Gunners were without sidelined defenders Riccardo Calafiori and Cristhian Mosquera but were“monitoring the load” on Kai Havertz as the Germany forward intensified his training while continuing to recover from a long-term leg injury.
Nigeria sharpshooters Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman will provide a stern test to the flawless record of Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane, a son of French football icon Zinedine Zidane, in the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals in Morocco.
Zidane is the only first-choice goalkeeper amongst the eight quarter-finalists to have kept a clean sheet in all of his tournament matches so far, but the task facing him in Marrakesh tomorrow will not be easy.
Former African player of the year award-winners Osimhen and Lookman have tormented defences during the tournament, scoring three goals each.
Zidane, 27, kept clean sheets in group matches against Sudan and Burkina Faso before being rested against Equatorial Guinea.
He was recalled for a last-16 clash with the Democratic Republic of Congo and once again was unbeaten during a dramatic extra-time victory.
Former Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane, his Spanish wife and another son have been among the crowds in each match Luca played for the Desert Foxes.
“It is special when your family come to watch,” said Luca Zidane, who began his career with Real Madrid B in 2016 and now plays for Spanish second-tier side Granada.
Born in France, Zidane represented his country of birth at five age-limit levels. Under FIFA rules he could also play for Spain or Algeria, where his grandparents were born.
Zidane chose Algeria, debuting in a 2026 World Cup qualifying victory over Uganda last November and, when an injury ruled first choice Alexis Guendoez out of the AFCON, he was promoted.
“I am proud to represent Algeria and play in the Africa Cup of Nations. It is a great experience,” he told reporters.
“I try to be myself, to build my career on my terms, step by step,” he said.
Algeria have been an AFCON bogey team for Nigeria, winning four and drawing two of nine meetings, including a 5-1 drubbing of the Super Eagles en route to winning the 1990 tournament at home. But the current Super Eagles appear to be in the mood to get this one over the Algerians.
The Desert Foxes have put successive group-stage exits behind them under Bosnian coach Vladimir Petkovic and substitute Adil Boulbina unleashed a thunderbolt to eliminate DR Congo.
Nigeria are the 12-goal leading scorers in Morocco with Osimhen, Lookman and Akor Adams forming a potent frontline.
But coach Eric Chelle will be concerned that the three-time champions have conceded four, the most among the eight title hopefuls.
Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner has said that the club would sell captain Marc Guehi this month if his asking price is met.
The England defender is out of contract in the summer and Manchester City have emerged as contenders to sign him during the January transfer window.
Palace blocked a proposed £35m move to Liverpool last summer but risk losing the 25-year-old for nothing at the end of the season.
City’s interest in Guehi has progressed following injuries to defenders Josko Gvardiol and Ruben Dias during Sunday’s draw against Chelsea.
“I’m not naive,” said Glasner, as reported by Tidesports source. “If a massive offer comes from City and Marc wants to do it, it will happen.”
Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid are among the European clubs to have shown an interest in signing Guehi on a free transfer, and he can sign a pre-contract agreement with an overseas club from this month.
“If you’re just valuing sports, everyone in the club will say Marc has to stay,” Glasner added. “The chairman will tell you the same. But it’s not one-dimensional. If you see the financial situation, it’s very important.
“If somebody comes, there will be a moment when the club says ‘now the financial issue is more important than the sports issue’.
“There will be a threshold where the club has to say it will happen, as long as Marc says ‘I want to leave’, because the final decision is always with the player.”
Guehi helped Palace finish 12th last season and win the FA Cup to qualify for Europe for the first time in the club’s history.
The Eagles then won the Community Shield in August, beating Premier League champions Liverpool on penalties, and are 14th in the table and through to the knockout phase play-offs in the Uefa Conference League.
“The chairman rejected many offers in the summer because we want to play a successful season and wanted to win the Community Shield,” Glasner added. “Therefore, Marc is important, and then he rejected the offer.
“The threshold at that time, the money we got offered was not above it. Maybe it was close, but it was not above.”