Sports
Excitement As NPFL 2013 Season Takes Centrestage
Five months after the end of the last season, Nigeria’s top flight football competition returned over the weekend.
Re-christened as the Nigeria Professional Football League, in a bid to distance it from the legal pot-holes afflicting the last competition, it was a welcome relief to actually see football played for a change.
And what a start it proved to be.
Watched by a mammoth crowd that included members of the League Management Company, led by chairman Nduka Irabor, the first televised game of the season was settled by Bitrus Dada’s first half goal.
The former Unicem Rovers striker took advantage of calamitous defending to poach the winner in a tightly-contested game.
On their way to the title last season, Kano Pillars won just one game away from home. That was against Akwa United on the final day of the season, with the title confirmed as theirs.
This time, they have wasted no time laying down their season’s marker. Rabiu Ali secured the winner with less than five minutes left.
But the three points almost turned to one when the home side were handed a penalty but fluffed it.
Solomon Ogbeide became the first coach this season to have a go at referees after his team were beaten 2-1 in Port Harcourt.
Ogbeide was livid that his side were denied a goal by the officials.
In any case, goals from George Amakiri and Frederick Obomanu gave the home side what looked like a commanding lead, until former Sharks man Akeem Yakubu came back to punish his old club just before the break.
Two days before the season started, Heartland General Manager, Fan Ndubuoke said how unfair it was that his side had been classed as pretenders rather than contenders in the season preview.
On the evidence of their opening game, he may have cause to look inwards to find the cause of that gripe.
New boys Nembe City, in their first top flight game, showed little fear. Coached by ex-junior international full back John Aranka, they took the lead through Brown Braye.
Heartland took a while but eventually hit back. Olusesi finding a headed connection top Jolly Osas’ cross.
But Samuel Akinbinu settled matters with a goal of international quality with just over 15 minutes left to play.
With many of the players who helped the club reach the CAF Champions League semifinal having departed, Sunshine Stars looked disjointed as they welcomed Kaduna United to the Akure Township Stadium.
But they would be grateful to one the remaining old guard, Ajani Ibrahim, whose goal after eight minutes settled the fixture.
Former champions Bayelsa United marked their return to the top division with a narrow in over ever-present campaigners Lobi Stars.
Babangida Ibrahim saw his fierce left foot volley tipped away by John Lawrence before Iyasele Odili struck nearly on the stroke of full time.
Odili stole in at the back post to meet Otimoti Diri’s excellent cross.
Premier League returnees Nasarawa United and El Kanemi came face to face in this fixture that could have swung either way.
Neither side looked imposing enough and in the end, a barren draw was the best score.
If Nasarawa and El Kanemi cancelled each other out from the familiarity of having campaigned in the lower division last term, ABS and Kwara United’s familiarity came from proximity.
Both are based out of Kwara State, and know each other inside out. Last season, this opening fixture also ended in the same scoreline.
Kwara will be the happier of the two, having been on the receiving end of a 3-0 scoreline against ABS in the past.
Shooting Stars have played perhaps more pre-season games than any other club in the build-up to the season’s kick-off.
And the preparations showed in their dismantling of Gombe United, who arrived with a proud record of not having lost to the Oluyole Warriors in two seasons.
Tony Edjomariegwe and Osagona Ighodaro scored in a ten-minute first half spell to hand the Oluyole Warriors the full points.
Akwa United, who lost at home on the final day of last season, opened this campaign with a much needed win over Dolphins.
Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy has said that criticism that he and other players chased money by moving to Saudi Arabia is wide of the mark.
The 33-year-old left Chelsea for Al-Ahli in a £16m ($21.4m) deal in 2023, and in May the Africa Cup of Nations winner helped his Saudi club win the Asian Champions League, making him one of the few players to win both that competition and its European equivalent.
But, like many others, Mendy has been criticised for playing for money rather than prestige in the lucrative Saudi Pro League.
When asked about such criticism, Mendy told a Tidesports source, “Al-Ahli’s project came along and they made me feel I had a big role to play.
“Two years later, we won the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history. So yes, that validates my choice. And I hope the coming years will validate it even more.”
He added: “Some people will quickly jump to conclusions and say the only reason is money. From the start, I always said that when I left Chelsea, I knew I was joining another team where I could win everything , which was no longer the case at Chelsea.”
The Blues have since won the Conference League, Europe’s third-tier club competition, under the ownership of Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital.
But it comes after the regime’s trophyless first two years, a period which has frustrated some supporters after the success enjoyed under Roman Abramovich’s stewardship in the previous 19 years.
Mendy has also been celebrating what he describes as a historical win with Senegal against England at Nottingham Forest’s City Ground, but days earlier he had been in Dakar delivering a different kind of win.
He is the sponsor of Yakaar, a school in Keur Massar, which seeks to improve funding and access to digital learning tools for local children from underprivileged backgrounds.
Famously, as Mendy grew up in France, he was unemployed, aged 22, while struggling to find a club, with members of his family still living on the outskirts of Dakar.
That is why Yakaar, a word meaning “hope”, was chosen, a word Mendy has carried with him in his career.
“Hope is what kept me going. When I was without a club, it was the hope of getting that first professional contract.
“Then the hope of playing for the national team. The hope of making my family proud by doing the job I had always dreamed of.
“Indeed, hope is the best word to describe my career.”
Mendy was also asked whether the responsibility of being an African goalkeeper had weighed heavily on him.
“Of course. When I was in England, there weren’t many African goalkeepers in top clubs,” he admitted.
“Whether nationally or internationally, I had that responsibility. It’s the same for other African goalkeepers like Andre Onana [Manchester United] or Yassine Bounou (Al-Hilal).”
The entire refereeing committee has been fired by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), with structural reforms soon set to follow.
According to sources, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has dismissed the entire refereeing committee in response to mounting pressure from clubs demanding structural reform. A major shake-up aimed at modernising Spanish refereeing from top to bottom has now been set in motion.
Head of the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA), Luis Medina Cantalejo and Head of VAR, Carlos Clos Gomez, have been removed from their positions. They are joined by several senior officials, including Antonio Rubinos Perez and three vice presidents, who are also stepping down. A new leadership model will be introduced, led by a CEO and a sporting director, aiming to overhaul how refereeing is managed covering assessments, promotions, and daily operations. While the leadership changes are sweeping, the current pool of referees in La Liga and the second tier will remain, ensuring continuity on the field during the transition.
Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a new two-year contract with Al-Nassr that means he will stay with the Saudi Pro League club until beyond his 42nd birthday.
The Portugal captain, 40, joined the Riyadh-based team in December 2022 after leaving Manchester United in acrimonious circumstances, having criticised the club and said he had no respect for manager Erik ten Hag.
Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr deal had been due to expire at the end of June and there was speculation he could leave, but that has now been quashed.
In a post on X, Ronaldo wrote: “A new chapter begins. Same passion, same dream. Let’s make history together.”
Although Al-Nassr have not added to their nine domestic titles during Ronaldo’s time at the club, they have benefited from a flood of goals from the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.
Ronaldo scored 35 times in 41 matches across all competitions last term and was the league’s top scorer for a second consecutive season.
He has managed 99 goals in appearances overall for Al-Nassr and is well on his way to reaching 1,000 senior goals in his career, with a current tally of 938 for club and country.
Having helped Portugal win the Uefa Nations League a little over two weeks ago, the former Manchester United, Real Madrid, Sporting and Juventus forward will almost certainly now be targeting a sixth World Cup appearance next summer.
Only a month ago, Ronaldo posted on social media to say “the chapter is over”.
That came after the Saudi Pro League wrapped up with Al-Nassr finishing third and trophyless once again.
The comment fuelled rumours that Ronaldo was ready to leave the league where he reportedly became the best-paid player in football history with an annual salary of £177m when he joined.
Fifa president Gianni Infantino raised the prospect of Ronaldo joining a team involved in the Club World Cup after Al-Nassr failed to qualify for the extended tournament which is being held in the United States.
Ronaldo said he had received offers from participating teams but had turned them down.
The decision to stay until at least 2027, which is certain to be highly lucrative, appears to rule out any future prospect of Ronaldo returning to play at the highest level in Europe.