Governing Bodies
Aftermath of National Stadium’s flood mast collapse, sports minister harps on maintenance culture
The Youth and Sports Development Ministry has reacted to Monday’s collapse of one of the four floodlight masts at the National Stadium, in Lagos.
According to a statement from the minister’s spokesman, Kola Daniel, only about a week ago, the outgoing minister of sports, Chief Sunday Dare spoke about the efforts to refurbish the abandoned sports edifice.
Estimate to put the stadium which has been abandoned for close to 20 years was put at N21 billion.
“But rather than reason alongside the honourable minister, many critics jumped at it, by questioning both the veracity of the figure and timing of the request, considering the fact that the tenure of Chief Dare as Minister of sports, was fast running out”, Kola Dare stated.
But while the scrutiny was still going on, a heavy rain and windstorm, inflicted more destruction on the stadium.
An immediate casualty is one of the four floodlight towers.
Sports Village Square reports that the 62.18 metre tall towers have been emblematic of the stadium since it was commissioned on 4 December 1972 by General Yakubu Gowon as Head of State.
The floodlight towers are easily seen even many kilometres away from Surulere area of Lagos.
But tt is doubtful, if any work had been done on any of the four towers since installation in the early 1970s.
With each standing at 62.18 metres, it was problematic putting the towers in place during the construction of the stadium.
Sports Village Square’s checks reveal that there was the problem of reaching the top of the four towers by crane during the construction. At the time, the tallest crane in Lagos was 38.1 metres.
Trial concrete mixes were carried out for the various types of concrete to be used for the construction works. Suitable mixes were obtained and work progressed until there was shortage of steel reinforcement.
Modifications were made and work ended early in January 1973 just in time for the Second All Africa Games which acted as a catalyst for speeding up the beginning and completion of the project.
The minister’s spokesman pointed out that floodlight towers were not covered by the on going rehabilitation work.
“To properly put the need to regularly maintain our sports facilities, as being championed by the Sports Minister and to mildly respond to nay sayers, who thinks it is out of place to spend huge amount of money to renovate stadiums, the Manchester City example should suffice.”
Kola Dare used the Manchester City home ground to illustrate his point.
“Only this week the Board of Manchester City, wrote the Council, seeking permission to upscale the Etihad Stadium, from 60,000 to 67,000 seats.
“The figures for this project has been put at US$317 million dollars, and a substantial percentage of the total sum is reserved for the routine rehabilitation or maintenance of parts of the facility, which at present is top notch and ranked amongst the top 5 stadiums, in England.
“This underscores the need to inculcate a variable and sustainable maintenance culture, as every structure is liable to wear and tear, once put into use.
“Nigeria should therefore brace up to this fact and cannot afford to continue playing the Ostrich”.
Governing Bodies
Nigeria becoming an epicentre of global badminton as Francis Orbih enters the Badminton World Federation Council
Laurels on the courts and now glory in the boardroom sums up the mark that badminton is making in Nigeria.
The President, Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN), Francis Orbih, has been elected as a council member of the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
The election took place during the BWF Annual General Meeting on Saturday in Xiamen, China.
Orbih emerged victorious over top contenders from other African countries.
He will join Cameroon’s Odette Assembe Engoulou on the council, while Chipo Zumburani (Zimbabwe) and Hadia ElSaid (Egypt) missed out.
An elated Orbih expressed his gratitude to fellow badminton presidents across the globe for their trust and support.
He said, “I am deeply honoured by the trust placed in me by my peers across the badminton world.
“I look forward to quality representation, driving development initiatives, and strengthening badminton’s global reach over the next four years.”
Orbih also acknowledged the support of the Federal Government of Nigeria, particularly the National Sports Commission (NSC), which he said played a significant role in his successful bid.
“The Chairman and the Director General of the NSC monitored the entire process. I’m grateful for their involvement and confident Nigeria will benefit from this,” he stated.
He further appreciated the BFN board members and the Nigerian badminton community for their prayers and continued belief in his leadership.
“From the day I declared my intentions, the board members of BFN have been supportive, and I promise not to disappoint them,” Orbih concluded.
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A former member of the FIFA Council, Mamoutou Toure, has been released from jail in Mali after almost two years in detention for alleged corruption, Malian media reports said on Wednesday.
Toure, president of the Malian Football Federation since 2019, was released after 622 days in prison on Tuesday.
He served on the FIFA Council, world football’s all-powerful decision-making body, for four years until last month when he lost his seat after failing to contest new elections.
The 67-year-old was arrested in August 2023 on allegations of embezzling $28 million of public funds but was granted a provisional release order by the Malian courts, reports said.
He was accused of misconduct during his time as the National Assembly’s financial and administrative director from 2013-2019.
Toure denied all charges and, during his time in jail, was last August re-elected as Malian Football Federation president for a second consecutive term, with his supporters claiming he was a victim of a conspiracy fuelled by detractors.
While in jail, he received a letter of support from FIFA president Gianni Infantino. However, as of last month, Toure is no longer a member of the FIFA Council or the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee.
-Reuters
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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has denied reports of an outstanding debt to former captain Christian Chukwu and has challenged anyone with verifiable documents to prove otherwise.
Chukwu, a former national team captain and chief coach, died last Saturday.
The Nigeria Football Federation decried statements in a section of social media that the football-ruling body was indebted to the deceased.
Reacting to one statement on social media that claimed NFF owed the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations-winning team captain the sum of $128,000, NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said: “There is no record in the NFF of any outstanding indebtedness to ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu.
“During the first term of the Board headed by Amaju Pinnick, a committee was set up to diligently peruse the papers of coaches who were being owed, even from previous NFF administrations.
“That committee was given the clear mandate to verify all debts and ensure that the coaches being owed were paid immediately. I am aware that the ‘Chairman’ was in the employ of the NFF between 2002 and 2005, before he was relieved of the post following the 1-1 draw with Angola in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Kano in August 2005. There is certainly no record of indebtedness to him in the NFF.”
Sanusi challenged anyone with genuine and verifiable documents of NFF indebtedness to any coach, who has worked with any of the National Teams over the past two decades, to come forward and tender those documents.
“As a credible organization that is very much alive to its responsibilities, if we are confronted with any genuine document of indebtedness to any coach, we will offset the debt immediately.”
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