Nigerian Football
Dalung Tasks Pinnick To Reposition Nigerian Football
The Nigeria Football Federation president, Amaju Pinnick, has been urged to use its new office in CAF to reposition football in Nigeria.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Barrister Solomon Dalung made the remark when the executive board of the NFF paid him a courtesy call to thank him for his support during their CAF election campaign.
“As a major player, you must bring to bear not only your wealth of experience but you must assert the corporate integrity of Nigeria anywhere you find yourself taking a decision that affects Nigeria.
“In every diplomatic situation, Nigeria takes the lead and directs but in any political arrangement where you are visibly absent, then certainly your influence is also limited. So our presence on the board is a huge success”.
Barrister Dalung also charged the NFF to upgrade some of its facilities for use at the grassroots level and take competitions to the villages and rural areas.
“Let me use this opportunity to challenge you to use your new office and reposition football in Nigeria. Today, sports is science and there are scientific methods of doing things in sports. If we must go with the world, then we must also update our infrastructural facilities to cope with the dynamics of contemporary football development”.
“Football is the cheapest sports to establish everywhere. Let us create opportunities for our young people in the villages to participate. Once you begin to create football opportunities for them, young people will be clustering there in the evenings and there will be peace and security”.
Earlier, the NFF President Amaju Pinnick thanked President Mohammadu Buhari, the Minister and the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports for their unflinching support for him during the CAF elections.
Pinnick promised to use his mandate to redefine football in Nigeria.
“I have come here to say thank you for your support and kind advice in this direction. I recall when we met, you told us that Nigeria is too massive not to have members not only in football but in all the federations in their global or continental bodies .
“We realized that we have been short-changed in so many ways and if we had a Nigerian there, all those things will be in the past. With your support and your blessing, a Nigerian has been elected. Not just a peripheral member but a frontal, vocal and authoritative member of the new CAF.
“On behalf of the NFF I want to assure you that we will not let you down. We will make sure that this mandate, apart from redefining football in Africa, some of the trickle and auxiliary benefits of course, will come to Nigeria which is my primary constituency.” Amaju said.
The NFF President later presented his certificate of election to the Minister.
The miserable run of Akwa United and Ikorodu City came to an end after six games in the Nigerian Premier League this season. Both teams were initially glued at the bottom of the league table.
They now got respite as Akwa United beat Kano Pillar by 2-0 while Ikorodu City even did what could be considered an upset, beating Bendel Insurance 3-0.
Remo Stars bounced back to the top of the log after a 3-0 defeat of Nasarawa United. Shooting Stars are yet to get their rhythm this season, playing a barren draw with Enyimba in Ibadan.
Kwara United who got their first full points of the season last week after a 1-0 defeat of Remo Stars could not consolidate as they were beaten 1-0 by Abia Warriors.
Heartland under Emmanuel Amuneke are gradually recovering as they got a valuable away draw against El-Kanemi Warriors.
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
It is 75 years since Nigeria’s national football team first played an international match. That was on 8 October 1949 when the first set of Nigeria’s assembly on their return voyage stopped over in Freetown and engaged Sierra Leone in an international football match. Nigeria won 2-0, setting a chain of positive results on 8 October.
The country never lost any competitive duel on that date. More significantly, the Super Eagles first qualified for the World Cup on an 8 October date.
That was in 1993 when they were held to a 1-1 draw by Algeria in the quest for USA ‘94 World Cup.
Nigeria became the first English-speaking African country to qualify for the World Cup. Another significance of the October 8 match at the July 5 Stadium, Algiers is that Nigeria were unbeaten for the first time by Algeria at home.
The only deviation from the 8 October Magic was in 2015 when Nigeria lost 2-0 to Congo in a friendly match.
Twenty-six years after Nigeria’s debut international match, one of Africa’s biggest football nations, Egypt fell to the October 8 magic, losing 4-0 to Nigeria in the last stage of the triangular World Cup qualifying series for Argentina ’78.
Up till October 15, 2013, when Ghana beat Egypt 6-1 in Kumasi, the October 8, 1977 duel with Nigeria remained Egypt’s biggest loss in a World Cup qualifying match.
Before the 1977 duel, Nigeria in 1963 played a friendly match with Liberia in Monrovia. The October 8 magic was active, even in an away match. Nigeria drew 2-2 in their very first encounter with Liberia. It was shortly after the team had, through a protest, upturned a victory by Guinea to pick Nigeria’s very first African Nations’ Cup ticket.
Little wonder then that when FIFA suspended Nigeria in 2010, the world governing body provisionally lifted the ban on October 8!
Nigeria on 8 October
- 1949 – Freetown (Friendly) Sierra Leone 0-2 Nigeria
- 1963 – Monrovia (Friendly) Liberia 2-2 Nigeria
- 1977 – Lagos (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 4-0 Egypt
- 1993 – Algiers (World Cup qualifier) Algeria 1-1 Nigeria… qualify for USA ‘94.
- 2005 – Abuja (World Cup qualifier) Nigeria 5-1 Zimbabwe
- 2010 – FIFA, in apparent respect to the 8 October magic, provisionally lifted a ban imposed on Nigeria.
- 2011 – Abuja (African Nations Cup qualifier) Nigeria 2-2 Guinea. Although undefeated, Nigeria failed to make it to the 2012 African Nations Cup.
- 2015 – D.R. Congo beat Nigeria 2-0 in Visé, Belgium. The ‘October 8 Magic’ is finally broken.
Rivers United have launched themselves to the top of the log at the end of the match day 5 of the Nigeria Premier League. The Port Harcourt side beat Akwa United 2-1 to go afloat after initial leaders, Remo Stars crumbled to a 1-0 defeat at Kwara United in Ilorin on Sunday.
It was Remo Stars’ first defeat in the season. Rivers United are now with 13 points. Stephen Mayo put Rivers United ahead after 31 minutes. But it turned a temporary lead as Akwa United bounced back almost at the blast of the referee’s whistle for the second half.
Friday Apollos levelled up for Akwa United before Ndifreke Effiong Udo scored the winner in the 85th minute.
Sunday Results
- Kwara United 1-0 Remo Stars
- Rangers International 1-0 Abia Warriors
- Heartland FC 2-0 Niger Tornadoes
- Kano Pillars 2-0 Sunshine Stars
- Plateau United 1-0 Ikorodu City
- Rivers United 2-1 Akwa United
- Enyimba 3-0 Katsina United* Suspended
- Nasarawa 0-0 Bayelsa United
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