Governing Bodies
U17 WORLD CUP IS A MEANS TO AN END; NOT AN END IN ITSELF
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
If precedence is anything to go bye, Manu Garba, the coach of the Nigeria U-17 World Cup, will be relieved of his position when the team returns to Nigeria.
He will thread the path that his predecessors – Sebastian Brodericks-Imasuen, Fanny Amun and Emmanuel Amuneke among others – have taken. A sack follows a loss of trophy.
In spite of wild expectations, the team crumbled at the Round of 16 early Wednesday morning and crashed out of the ongoing FIFA U17 World Cup in Brazil.
Criticism of the team has been trending on various social media platforms in Nigeria. The disappointment is quite understandable. The quest for a record-extending sixth win far out shadowed the ultimate aim of the competition, which is strictly a developmental program.
The concept of the original trophy unveiled in 1985 vividly gives reason behind the competition. In Olympic tradition, the original trophy was made of bronze, to illustrate the beginning of aspiration to rise and get to the silver zone, which the U20 trophy is made of, before winning the gold-plated FIFA World Cup trophy, the ultimate prize in global football.
The original bronze trophy of the competition is cast in the form of a shoot unfurling into full flower. It depicts the fact that the competition is not the ultimate. Nigerians have taken it to be an end, instead of the means to an end.
This probably explains why any squad that failed to win is vilified while the coach is axed. Despite the record win of five, the number of stars that blossomed into international reckoning is easily countable.
That depicts that Nigeria is really not benefiting much from the pyrrhic victories achieved. Apart from Nwankwo Kanu, Mikel Obi and very few others, how many other U17 players really made marks internationally.
This should be Nigeria’s major concern and not just to sack coaches for not winning the U17 tournament. One can recall a certain Jean-François Jodar, the winning coach of the France U17 team in 2001.
He became the coach of the Under-17 and Under 18 teams of France in 1988, shortly after the French team came back from Canada’87 where they crashed out in the second round of the competition.
Under Jodar, France did not qualify for the FIFA Under 16 tournament from 1988 till 2001 where they were victorious. For the 13 years he was in charge, the French federation did not sack him for not qualifying the country for the world tournament.
Unlike in Nigeria, they had a different yardstick to measure his productivity. Jean-François Jodar discovered virtually every member of the 1998 World Cup winning team. David Trezequet, Nicolas Anelka and Thierry Henry were all products of Jean-François Jodar. He took the responsibility of developing the youth of France.
It is this type of developmental football that is expected in Nigeria, not merely amassing U17 trophies. Now, Nigeria combs every part of the globe to scout for U-17 players!
It is an indication that talents are lacking at home. What has happened to the report of a panel set up 20 years ago after the U20 World Cup?
A panel headed by Amanze Uchegbulam was set up in 1999 shortly after Nigeria failed to get beyond the quarterfinals of the then World Youth Championship. The report was released on June 1, 1999. But like others before and after it, the report is gathering dust somewhere unimplemented.
The Amanze Uchegbulam Panel subjected the then NFA chairman, Abdulmumini Aminu to a two-hour grilling during one of its seatings. The conclusion of the panel:
“The ages declared by Nigerian players were questionable, if not downright false”.
The report concludes that the cheats were already having a negative impact on the national team, as players expected to graduate from youth sides burn out by the time they reach the senior national team.
To guard against this, Uchegbulam Panel recommended that Under-17 players should be recruited exclusively from the grassroots, secondary schools competitions and amateur clubsides.
After all, Uchegbulam panel, reasonably argued that after having put in a few years in the amateur league, “players can hardly be under 17 by the time they get to the professional league.”
For the Flying Eagles, the Under -20 side, Uchegbulam Panel advised that players should be recruited from the tertiary institutions, professional and amateur leagues, while not more than four foreign-based players, properly transferred by the NFA, should be invited at a time.
The logic behind the recommendation “is that by the time a player spends four years in the professional league, he should be aspiring to be in the senior team”. The report of the panel has remained unimplemented for 20 years now.
A former sports minister, Steven Ibn Akiga, tried to discourage the use of players who have featured in a higher category from dropping to the lower cadre even if their age still fall within the junior category.
It was for that reason that Femi Opabunmi who was a sensation at the World under 17 Championship and who in 2002 featured for the Super Eagles was not allowed to play for the Flying Eagles, even though the age may have allowed him to play.
The essence of the age-regulated competition is not an immediate gain of winning trophy, but a long-term benefit of nurturing an enduring senior team. In Nigeria, it has been taken to be an end, instead of means to an end.
The essence of youth sides is to raise sides that will endure. Henry Thierry, David Trezequet, Nicolas Anelka, Michael Owen were graduates of the World Youth Championship of 1997 (U20). Those players were not in the winning sides, yet their countries gained tremendously in nurturing them.
Kirsty Coventry became the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the most powerful person in sport, on Monday in a handover ceremony with her predecessor Thomas Bach.
The Zimbabwean is the first woman and African to head the body, and at 41, the youngest since Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who is credited with founding the modern-day Olympics.
Coventry accepted the Olympic key from Bach, who, like her, is an Olympic champion — he won a team fencing gold in 1976 and she earned two swimming golds in 2004 and 2008.
Stepping down after a turbulent 12-year tenure, Bach expressed his confidence that the Olympic movement was “in the best of hands” and Coventry would bring “conviction, integrity and a dynamic perspective” to the role.
Coventry, who swept to a crushing first-round victory in the election in Greece in March, leans heavily on her family.
Aside from her parents, who were present at the ceremony in Lausanne, there is her husband Tyrone Seward, who was effectively her campaign manager, and two daughters, six-year-old Ella, who Bach addresses as “princess”, and Lily, just seven months old.
“Ella saw this spider web in the garden and I pointed out how it is made, and how strong and resilient it is to bad weather and little critters,” said Coventry, who takes over officially at midnight Swiss time Monday (2200 GMT).
“But if one little bit breaks it becomes weaker. That spider web is our movement, it is complex, beautiful and strong but it only works if we remain together and united.”
‘Pure passion’
Coventry said she could not believe how her life had evolved since she first dreamt of Olympic glory in 1992.
“How lucky are we creating a platform for generations to come to reach their dreams,” she said to a packed audience in a marquee in the Olympic House garden, which comprised IOC members, including those she defeated, and dignitaries.
“It is amazing and incredible, indeed I cannot believe that from my dream in 1992 of going to an Olympic Games and winning a medal I would be standing here with you to make dreams for more young children round the world.”
Coventry, who served in the Zimbabwean government as sports and arts Minister from 2019 to this year, said the Olympic movement was much more than a “multi-sport event platform.”
“We (IOC members) are guardians of this movement, which is also about inspiring and changing lives and bringing hope,” she said.
“These things are not to be taken lightly and I will be working with each and every one of you to continue to change lives and be a beacon of hope in a divided world.
“I am really honoured to walk this journey with you.”
Bach, who during his tenure had to grapple with Russian doping and their invasions of the Crimea and Ukraine as well as the Covid pandemic, said he was standing down filled with “gratitude, joy and confidence” in his successor.
“With her election it sends out a powerful message, that the IOC continues to evolve,” said the 71-year-old German, who was named honorary lifetime president in Greece in March.
“It has its first female and African to hold this position, and the youngest president since Pierre de Coubertin. She represents the truly global and youthful spirit of our community.”
Bach, who choked back tears at one point during his valedictory speech, was praised to the rafters by Coventry, who was widely seen as his preferred candidate of the seven vying for his post.
After a warm embrace, she credited him with teaching her to “listen to people and to respect them,” and praised him for leading the movement with “pure passion and purpose.”
“You have kept us united through the most turbulent times.
“You left us with many legacies and hope, thank you from the bottom of my heart for leading us with passion and never wavering from our values.”
-AFP
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Former Zimbabwean swimmer Kirsty Coventry took over the leadership of the International Olympic Committee from Thomas Bach in a ceremony on Monday with the 2028 Los Angeles Games already threatening to fill her in-tray to overflowing.
Coventry, who starts her eight-year spell officially on Tuesday as the most powerful sports administrator in the world, became the first woman and first African to be elected head of the Olympic ruling body in March.
Much of the discussion during campaigning focused on the IOC’s need for change in its marketing strategies with several top Olympic sponsors having left in the past 12 months.
However, with Los Angeles hit by protests against immigration raids, and relations tense between state and city officials, and the U.S. government, the 2028 Games have become the major talking point in the movement that would ordinarily be focusing on next year’s Milano-Cortina Winter Games.
Coventry has long-standing ties with the United States, dating back to her time as a leading swimmer at Auburn University in Alabama. That will prove useful ahead of LA 2028, and she has said she will seek to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the Games.
Coventry will also need to find time to help secure the long-term finances of the movement. The IOC, which generates billions of dollars in revenues each year in sponsorship and broadcasting deals for the Olympics, has secured $7.3 billion for 2025-28 and $6.2 billion for 2029-2032. More contracts are expected for both periods.
COMMERCIAL OPPORTUNITIES
Coventry is also expected to continue the IOC’s plans to expand commercial opportunities for sponsors at the Olympics with the organisation’s finances in a robust state and the privately-funded LA Olympics a good place to start.
Coventry needed only one round of voting to clinch the race to succeed Bach, beating six other candidates, making history for the African continent, with the IOC having been ruled for 131 years by European or North American men.
Her background and being the first female president will be assets in a diverse IOC membership and the international makeup of Olympic stakeholders.
On Monday she was handed the golden key to the IOC by Bach, who was the organisation’s president for 12 years.
“I am really honoured I get to walk this journey with you. I cannot wait for anything that lies ahead,” Coventry said in her address to IOC members and other Olympic stakeholders.
“I know I have the best team to support me and our movement over the next eight years.”
Coventry will hold a two-day workshop this week to get feedback from members on key IOC issues.
“Working together and consistently finding ways to strengthen and keep united our movement that will ensure that we wake up daily… to continue to inspire,” she said.
A seven-time Olympic medallist, Coventry won 200m backstroke gold at the 2004 Athens Games and in Beijing four years later.
“With her election, you have also sent a powerful message to the world: the IOC continues to evolve,” Bach said in his speech. “With Kirsty Coventry, the Olympic movement will be in the best of hands.”
-Reuters
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Penalties scored when a player accidentally touches the ball twice must be retaken, world soccer’s lawmaking body IFAB has said after Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez had his spot kick disallowed in a Champions League last-16 match.
During a tense shootout with Real Madrid in March, Argentine forward Alvarez slipped and the VAR spotted that his left foot touched the ball slightly before he kicked it with his right.
Although Alvarez converted the penalty, the goal was chalked off and Atletico went on to lose the shootout and were eliminated from the Champions League.
European soccer’s governing body UEFA said the correct decision was made under the current laws but IFAB (International Football Association Board) has said that in such cases the penalty must be retaken.
Atletico Madrid v Real Valladolid – Metropolitano, Madrid, Spain – April 14, 2025 Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez scores their first goal from the penalty spot REUTERS/Susana Vera/File Photo
“(When) the penalty taker accidentally kicks the ball with both feet simultaneously or the ball touches their non-kicking foot or leg immediately after the kick: if the kick is successful, it is retaken,” IFAB said in a circular.
“If the kick is unsuccessful, an indirect free kick is awarded (unless the referee plays advantage when it clearly benefits the defending team). In the case of penalties (penalty shootout), the kick is recorded as missed.”
The decision to disallow Alvarez’s penalty left Atletico boss Diego Simeone livid and the club’s fans outraged.
IFAB added that if the penalty taker deliberately kicks the ball with both feet or deliberately touches it a second time, an indirect free kick is awarded or, in the case of shootouts, it is recorded as missed.
The new procedures are effective for competitions starting on or after July 1, but IFAB said it may be used in competitions that start this month.
-Reuters
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