Nigerian Football

ASABA SET TO HOST NIGERIA PITCH AWARDS CEREMONY

Published

5 years ago

June 1, 2019

The 6th Award Ceremony of the prestigious Nigeria Pitch Awards will hold in Asaba, the Delta State capital on Saturday 8 June 2019.

Organizers announced that the ceremony will begin after the Nigeria-Zimbabwe International Friendly scheduled to hold at the Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba.

Speaking in Lagos, Shina Philips, President of the Nigeria Pitch Awards, said organizers have concluded plans to host all nominees, the media, and football stakeholders including top NFF bigwigs.

‘The Award Ceremony’, Philips continued ‘will spotlight top Super Eagles members, other footballers, coaches, referees, football journalists and other stakeholders who were voted as winners by our voters spread across the 36 states of the country.’

At the 6th Award Ceremony, winners will be announced in all 20 categories. Guests at the ceremony and football fans world over would be eager to know who among Ahmed Musa, Odion Ighalo and Wilfred Ndidi will emerge King of the Pitch, which is the awards version of the Most Valuable Player.

Interestingly, the State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa and Delta State are among nominees for the Football Friendly Governor Award and Award for the State with the Best Grassroots Football Development Award respectively.

‘The voting process of the Nigeria Pitch Awards is coordinated entirely by SIAO Partners, Nigeria’s foremost accounting firm. Like all lovers of football in Nigeria, we eagerly await the results from the accounting firm at the award ceremony in Asaba’, Philips concluded

The award ceremony will be anchored by Stephanie Isuma, aka ‘Calabar Chic’. The event will kick off at 7:00 pm with Red Carpet appearances and interviews while the award proper will commence at 8:00 pm at the Golden Tulip Hotel on Maryam Babangida Way, Asaba

Nigerian Football

Behold! Nigeria Football’s October 8 Magic

Published

6 hours ago

October 8, 2024

Kunle Solaja

Nigeria’s Godwin Iwelumo terrorising Egypt’s goalmouth 47 years ago in an October 8 match. Nigeria won 4-0 inflicting the worst ever defeat on Egypt in a World Cup qualifier.

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.

Nigerian Football

Rivers flow to the top!

Published

2 days ago

October 6, 2024

Kunle Solaja

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 85^th minute.

Sunday Results