Sports
CAF To Re-Inspect Amiesimaka Stadium, PH
The Confederation of African Football will again inspect the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt before it can host Rivers United’s Confederation Cup matches.
After progressing to the quarter-finals of the competition, Rivers United have made efforts to return home for the rest of the tournament, but their quarter-final first leg game against Young Africans of Tanzania will still hold at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo on April 23.
Rivers United have played their group stage matches in the Confederation Cup in Uyo and moved to have their home ground in Port Harcourt approved for the quarter-finals, with CAF inspecting the facility on April 6.
With few days to the game against Young Africans, CAF has opted to re-inspect the facility at a later date.
CAF’s Stadium Inspector, Nasir Jubril, who examined the stadium said the continental body was in the best position to issue an official statement on the development.
“It is not something I can comment on, it is CAF who will be able to give a report of the assessment,” Jubril told our correspondent.
Rivers State Commissioner for Sports, Chris Green, confirmed the re-inspection and assured that the club’s preparation for the quarter-final game against Young Africans will not be affected.
“CAF told us they will send another team to come inspect the stadium, and that is going to take another time,” Green told news men.
“On our part, we have done everything necessary to give the stadium a new look and we will be ready to receive them. Maybe they will do it before the semi-finals, but whenever they are ready, we are also ready.
“Our game is more like a national project now and we are glad to have represented the country so well thus far. We want to continue in that light and everything is in progress to ensure we have a good outing in Uyo just as we did in the group stage. We are mobilising fans from Port Harcourt and we will also mobilise in Uyo as well,” Green added.
In the group stage, Rivers United won two out of their three home games to amass 10 points and finish second in Group B, earning a place in the knockout round of the competition for the first time in the club’s history.
They are drawn against the Tanzanians, whom they beat home and away in the first preliminary round of the CAF Champions League in 2021.
With a semi-final ticket of the CAF second-tier competition now at stake, the first leg match will take place in Uyo on Sunday, while the return leg will take place in Dar es Salam a week later.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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