Governing Bodies
Nigeria leans on project manager Ifeanyi Okowa for 21st National Sports Festival
BY CHIDO NWAKANMA
“Asaba 2022 will be the best in terms of infrastructure and others that will be in place in the next few months. We have the personnel to stage a fun-filled and friendly sports festival from the beginning to the end”.
Host governor Dr Ifeanyi Okowa pledged in 2021 to deliver to Nigeria a superlative National Sports Festival as the Federal Ministry of Sports awarded the hosting rights to the twenty-first national sports festival to Asaba, the Delta State capital. There is excitement in the sports community as they look forward to a positive manifestation of the words of Ifeanyi Okowa.
High expectations follow the prospects of Asaba 2022 running from 2 through 15 November 2022. Those expectations rely on the tried and tested Human Capacity management principle that past performance is a predictor of potential. The other expression is “the taste of the pudding is in the eating”.
The sports community has tasted and tested Okowa’s capacity in sports policy and administration. Plaudits attend each one. He walks in what persons in communication recognize as above-the-line, below-the-line and through the line within sports.
Okowa is a sports lover and patriot who intervened many times to save Nigeria blushes when it wavered on the hosting of the African Athletics Meet in 2018. Our country pledged to host, then began fumbling and wombling, as Coach Fanny Amun famously described dithering. Okowa stepped to the rescue.
Before and after that, Okowa is one governor who rallies to the national call for the training and equipping of our sports team. He took on the task of grooming twelve athletes for the Tokyo Olympics. Two did very well, including Ese Brume of Delta State.
These below-the-line building efforts hardly cut ice with the skeptical public nowadays. Nigerians have become like the biblical Thomas insistent on seeing and touching. Okowa offers a grand edifice for such persons to see.
The Stephen Keshi Stadium Asaba is a testimony and testament to the project management acumen of Ifeanyi Okowa. He converted a dream of Delta State for 17 years into the reality of a stadium that serves the local, national, and international sports community. Yes, building of the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba took 17 years until a determined Okowa broke the jinx.
By delivering the stadium, Okowa saved Nigeria embarrassment. The country then hosted the African Senior Athletics Championships, Asaba 2018, from 1-5 August 2018. It was a masterclass in project management.
First, several hiccups hit the first few days of the competition. Critics went to town to excoriate the governor, the Local Organising Committee, Delta State government.
Logistics management suffered under the management of the National Sports Commission. Athletes screamed. The media amplified it, and columnists on print and online went to town.
There were critical glitches at the commencement with flight connections for athletes. The Delta State Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, engaged chartered flights to solve the problem, though it was not the remit of the State Government to handle that aspect of the logistics. At the end of the competition, there were no further incidents with flights or accommodation with the State Government taking charge. Indeed, by the time the games commenced, the initial disappointment caused by the airport delay had become a distant memory. Instantly, some of the athletes and visiting journalists changed their tune. For instance, Wesley Botton, one of the journalists, tweeted: “After a horribly wobbly start, the Local Organising Committee pulled through today at the African Championship.”
Fifty-two countries participated in Asaba 2018. It was five more countries than at the previous tournament. Eight hundred athletes in attendance created a tournament record. Events in contest increased from 44 to 46.
Stephen Keshi Stadium boasted luxurious new tracks that passed the certification tests of the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the Confederation of African Athletics weeks before the games commenced. Asaba 2018 complied with all rules guiding international athletic championships.
Stephen Keshi Stadium is currently one of the few stadia in Nigeria with fully covered stands. It has high-quality warm-up tracks, equipment, and facilities. The stadium that Ifeanyi Okowa built in Asaba is now part of the sporting, cultural and entertainment landmarks, and calendar of Asaba and Delta State.
Now you see why Sports Minister Sunday Dare and the folks in the sports community enthuse about Asaba 2022. Governor Okowa and his team have already promised to deliver a first-rate Games Village and other infrastructure. Work is ongoing.
When a project matters, Nigeria turns to a tested project manager called Dr Ifeanyi Okowa.
Governing Bodies
Zimbabwe sports minister among candidates for International Olympic Committee presidency
A total of seven candidates are running for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee with the winner replacing outgoing president Thomas Bach at elections in March 2025 in ancient Olympia, Greece.
Kirsty Coventry:
Age: 41
Country: Zimbabwe
Entry into the IOC: 2013
An Olympic swimming champion and Zimbabwe’s most successful Olympian, Coventry is Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister. She is the only woman among the candidates and the only one from Africa.
Prince Feisal Al Hussein:
Age: 60
Country: Jordan
Entry into the IOC: 2010
Prince Feisal heads the Jordan Olympic Committee and has been an IOC executive board member since 2019. An Executive Board member of the Olympic Council of Asia, Prince Feisal has also held several posts at the Royal Jordanian Air Force.
Sebastian Coe:
Age: 67
Country: Britain
Entry into the IOC: 2020
An Olympic track and field champion and head of World Athletics, Coe also led the organisation for the 2012 London Olympics. A former Conservative Member of Parliament, Coe is also involved in sports consultancy and is a former head of the British Olympic Association.
Johan Eliasch:
Age: 62
Country: Britain
Entry into the IOC: 2024
The wealthy Swedish-born entrepreneur with a variety of business interests has headed the international skiing federation since 2021. He only joined the IOC in July at its session in the Paris Olympics.
David Lappartient:
Age: 51
Country: France
Entry into the IOC: 2022
A rising figure in world sports administration. He heads the international cycling body, UCI, and is in charge of esports within the IOC, having helped seal a 12-year deal with Saudi Arabia earlier this year for the Olympic esports Games.
Juan Antonio Samaranch:
Age: 64
Country: Spain
Entry into the IOC: 2001
The son of the late former IOC president, Samaranch has considerable IOC experience and influence in his six years as vice president and 23 as a member. He headed the coordination commission for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
Morinari Watanabe:
Age: 65
Country: Japan
Entry into the IOC: 2018
Watanabe has headed the gymnastics federation (FIG) since 2016, having been re-elected twice since. He is the first Japanese candidate to run for the IOC presidency.
Governing Bodies
World Athletics boss, Coe and multi-millionaire Eliasch among seven candidates for IOC presidency
World athletics chief Sebastian Coe, multi-millionaire and Olympic newcomer Johan Eliasch and Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister Kirsty Coventry are among seven candidates for next year’s International Olympic Committee presidency election, the IOC said on Monday.
IOC Vice President Juan Antonio Samaranch, son of the late former IOC president, international cycling chief David Lappartient, Prince Feisal Al Hussein of Jordan and international gymnastics federation head Morinari Watanabe are also in the running to succeed current president Thomas Bach.
The 70-year-old German is stepping down next year after 12 years at the helm. The election will be held at the IOC session in ancient Olympia, Greece in March 2025.
The candidates will all present their programmes, behind closed doors, to the full IOC membership in January 2025.
The IOC, with 111 members currently, is in charge of the Olympic Games and the multi-billion dollar industry linked to the world’s biggest multi-sports event.
Bach’s departure comes with the organisation in a financially robust position, having secured $7.3 billion for the years 2025-28 and $6.2 billion already in deals for 2029-2032.
The president is elected to an eight-year first term with the possibility of a second term of four years, if re-elected.
Coe, 67, only joined the IOC in 2020 after a rocky relationship between World Athletics and the IOC over Coe’s ban of Russian track and field athletes almost a decade ago following the country’s doping scandal.
A former Olympic champion with a wealth of experience in the sports world, Coe was previously head of the London 2012 Games and the British Olympic Association. He is also a former Conservative Member of Parliament.
Coventry, 41, is the only woman running for president and the former Olympic swimming champion, who is Zimbabwe’s most decorated Olympian, could become not only the first female president but also the first from Africa.
MALE PRESIDENTS
All IOC presidents have been men, with eight of the nine from Europe and one from the United States.
The 62-year-old Eliasch, head of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), only joined the IOC in July, with the Swedish-born British businessman’s candidacy a surprise for some.
Prince Feisal, 60, is a member of the IOC executive board, having joined the organisation in 2010, while Spaniard Samaranch, with considerable IOC experience in his six years as vice president, headed the coordination commission for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
“The IOC and Olympic movement have made enormous strides over the past decade under the leadership of Mr Bach,” said Samaranch in a statement.
“The IOC now needs a new leader with deep experience of the Olympic movement who can help steer it through this period of upheaval.”
UCI chief Lappartient has been a rapidly rising figure within the sports world after joining the IOC in 2022.
The Frenchman also is in charge of esports within the IOC, having helped seal a 12-year deal with Saudi Arabia earlier this year for the Olympic esports Games.
Japan’s Watanabe, 65, has headed the gymnastics federation (FIG) since 2016, having been re-elected twice since, and is his country’s first ever candidate for the IOC presidency.
Under current rules members have to step down when they reach 70, the IOC’s age limit, unless they are given a four-year extension.
-Reuters
Governing Bodies
Storm in CAF over proposed statutes amendments
There is currently insinuations that proposed certain elements may have smuggled modifications to amend the Statutes of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) when the body holds its General Assembly next month in Kinshasa, Congo next month.
The confederation will be having its 46th General Assembly on 10th October. It is at such gatherings that amendments are made to existing rules.
According to an article authored by Mansour Loum, the editor of Sports News Africa, some national football federations have denied being party to proposed amendments which were linked to them.
One of such is coming from the Equatorial Guinea Football Federation which has denied signing proposals being circulated relating to amendments to CAF Statutes.
It is claimed that a circular dated 8 September has been sent to CAF member associations. Signed by CAF General Secretary, Véron Mosengo-Omba, it is titled: “Proposals for amendments to the CAF statutes and regulations for the application of the statutes, as well as the rules of procedure of the CAF General Assembly, presented by the national associations.”
Seven member associations were quoted as sponsoring the amendments. They are: Botswana, Comoros, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Mauritania and Niger.
But Equatorial Guinea has denied being party to the proposed amendment which seek to remove age barrier for candidates seeking to be CAF Presidents and also removing zonal considerations in election into FIFA Council.
The current Statute stipulates that a presidential candidate must not be older than 70 as at the date of election.
Most of the national federation members are already approaching that age. In the estimation of the author of the article, Mansour Loum, the current CAF president, Patrice Motsepe, is 62 years old. With the age limit, he could, for example, only run for two more terms.
Continuing, Loum wrote that regarding the elections to the FIFA Council, each zone has a representative on the FIFA Council and candidates for these positions can only be elected by the presidents of the member associations of their group zone.
Thus, the presidents of French-speaking federations can only vote for a French-speaking representative, the English-speakers for the English-speaking group, and so on.
The distribution of seats on the FIFA Council is currently as follows:
Francophone Group – Two members
Anglophone Group – Two members
Arabophone/Lusophone/Hispanophone Group – Two members
One female member elected from among the female candidates, regardless of language groups
The modification of the grouping by zonal unions would mean that all presidents could vote for candidates outside their group, or that the candidates would also no longer be limited to a group.
Several candidates from the same group could be elected to the FIFA Council, while at the same time some groups could no longer be represented.
Equatorial Guinea disputes any request for modification. The football federation president, Venancio Tomas Ndong Micha has reportedly denied being party to the proposed amendments.
“I am writing to you to present the disagreement of the Equatorial Guinean Football Federation with part of the content of the document sent to the CAF Executive Council on September 8, 2024 signed by you (…)
“In this document, there are amendments presented by the Equatorial Guinean Football Federation (…) By this letter, we confirm that the Equatorial Guinean Football Federation has not submitted any amendments to the CAF administration for the 46th CAF Ordinary General Assembly to be held on Thursday, October 10, 2024 in Kinshasa,” he denounces.
Enough to cast doubt on this document sent by the CAF secretary general and the objective targeted. Contacted, a federation president, whose body is not mentioned in the letter, is surprised by these two requests for amendments and wonders about their intentions.
The press release from the Equatorial Guinean Football Federation has sown doubt and now he is questioning the originality of the attachments included in this document which is likely to be talked about between now and the CAF General Assembly.
– Mansour Loum
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