Sports
‘Dolphins May Not Honour Pillars Fixture’
The General Manager of
Dolphins FC, Joe Johnson, has said that his team may not be able to honour their rescheduled Week 19 fixture against Kano Pillars last Saturday.
Along with another tie between El Kanemi Warriors and Enugu Rangers were billed to be played at Kano in the past weekend, but had to be shifted by the League Management Company (LMC), following the death of the Emir of Kano.
Johnson revealed that Dolphins had arrived in Kano on Friday afternoon, on the eve of the game last week only to hear it had been postponed indefinitely due to the death of the Emir of Kano.
“Since we were told that the game was postponed indefinitely, we let our players go on break since the LMC had previously said there would be no league games during the World Cup,” Johnson said.
“A lot of them did not return to Port Harcourt with us as some alighted in Kano, others in Kano and some in Enugu, depending on where they live. By the time we got to the camp in Port Harcourt some had departed too because they were told by us that there would be a two week break for them during the World Cup.
“We received a message from the LMC that the game will be replayed this Saturday but how that is possible when there are no ready funds to prosecute a game we had already spent money on and there are no players too.
“We think that the best possible time we can replay that game will be when the League resumes and we do not even mind if it is played as our first game in the first round,” he added.
Head coach of Dolphins, Stanley Eguma adds that he has no players in camp to prosecute the game as they had sent them away knowing that there would be no league games during the World Cup break.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.