Governing Bodies
Former Nigeria football team manager, Osugo is no more
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
Peter Chukwuma Osugo, popularly known as “Pecos” who was the manager of the Nigerian football team to the Mexico ‘68 Olympic Games is dead.
According to a press release by the family, Pecos died on 24 January 2022, aged 92.
He made marks in sports management as he was the Team Manager of the famous Stationery Stores of Lagos at its zenith.
The team presented nine of the 11 starting line-up of the Nigeria national team during the Mexico 1968 Olympics.
Possibly, it was the overwhelming number of the Stores players in the team that informed Pecos appointment as the Nigerian team manager to the Olympics.
He was a journalist of high standing and nicknamed the Nigerian football team as Green Eagles before the name change on 29 March 1988.
He rechristened the Nigerian football team from “Red Devils” to Green Eagles while reporting on the Nigerian preparation for an Africa Cup of Nations fixtures with Ghana.
In the Daily Times edition of 15 April 1961, he wrote: “I propose to christen the team, the ‘Green Eagles.’ the name stuck and it was under it that Nigeria won the gold medal of the football event of the second African Games in Lagos on 18 January 1973 and the first victory of the Africa Cup of Nations on 22 March 1980.
The name Green Eagles was used for the Nigerian team for 26 years, 11 months and 15 days.
As a journalist, he joined the Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe-owned West African Pilot as a reporter before switching to Daily Times as sports editor.
He was noted his descriptive style and power of expression.
For instance, reporting a Lagos versus Northern Region football match at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium Kaduna in 1965, Pecos began his account as follows:
“Drama of blunders, of indecision and utter violation of rules of the game on the officials’ side nearly marred last night’s match, the second in the flood-lit soccer festival between North and Lagos.”
Eventually, Pecos got round to mentioning the scoreline, 1-1, which obviously was not particularly important to him as nearly everyone who read him, knew the result which the electronic media had flashed.
What was more important to his readers was his point of view on how the result came about. Another story
in 1965, a West’s 2-0 win over Eastern Region, is flowery and liberal with words and images. It could still capture readers’ imagination: “Thunder” Balogun’s bunch of the “unknowns” who formed the bulk of Western Rovers’ team carried with them an element of surprise in the opening match of the flood – lit soccer fes
tival, at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium last night when they slammed the Eastern team 2-0. The stadium gave them resounding cheers – a true acknowledgment of the ravishing, top-speed soccer which thrilled them to the utmost throughout the duration of play.
“Even the Northern Premier, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto, who was the guest of honour, was so enthused that he sat in throughout in spite of the windy conditions and biting drizzle, which persisted for more than three quarters of play.
“Ayoola, Ajibade, Salami, Falayi and Omowon in the Western attack were moving like quick silver, and from the rear, Oshilowo, Peter Ali, Boade and Ali (Snr) were supplying the necessary line which set such a devastating mobility to a point of driving the Eastern players into a frizzed wreck…”
The influence of the early generation sports jour Pecos found his true calling as a journalist when he joined the West African Pilot as a reporter, rising to become Lead Writer and making his mark with exceptional columns which focused on nationalism and opposition to the colonial government.
He joined the Daily Times and became Sports Editor and then Editor of the Sunday Times which became the largest selling newspaper in Nigeria by 1975.
His incisive writings on Nigerian and Global sports coupled with his previous background as an elite athlete came to the attention of a new breed of Nigerian entrepreneurs
According to a release by the family of Osugo, details of the burial obsequies will be announced later in the obituary notices in the national newspapers.
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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