Nigerian Football
NFF INAUGURATES 24-MEMBER REFORM COMMITTEE
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick on Thursday inaugurated a 24-member NFF Reform Committee in Lagos. The NFF Executive Committee proposed the committee to the General Assembly last month in Asaba.
Headed by the NFF 1st Vice President, Seyi Akinwunmi, the committee, among others, is expected to provide the most stable and sustainable foundations for football in Nigeria.
Virtually all members of the committee drawn from virtually every segment of the football community attended the brief, but incisive inauguration session.
In inaugurating the committee, Pinnick remarked that he had absolute confidence in the committee coming up with progressive reforms.
He also said that the recommendations of the committee, which has a three-month time frame, would be implemented.
This will be a sharp departure from the past when similar committees’ reports were condemned to gather dust in shelves.
Before now, there had been many reform committees such as the SO Williams Sports Reforms committee in the 1980s, the Amanze Uchegbulam committee on age-graded football activities of 1999, the Emeka Omeruah Committee of 2004 and another one some years back which recommended the formation of a domestic Court of Arbitration for Sports to avoid the administrative and legal logjams that almost strangulate football administration in the past four year.
The immediate past sports minister, Tammy Danagogo had four years ago called for a Nigerian Court of Arbitration for Sports as being necessary to settle the recurring disputes and civil court cases in the football industry that have put the Nigeria at loggerheads with FIFA.
“We don’t have a Court of Arbitration for Sport in this country and we need one,” he said.
“I was told the modalities for setting up one is in place, but I will have to fast-track its establishment, and I will work with the National Olympic Commission because its establishment is under their purview.” However, that never happened.
Danagogo at the time explained that the purpose of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was to bring about the resolution of sports-related disputes, which are submitted to it through ordinary arbitration or through appeal against the decisions of sports bodies or organisations.
“The first president of the CAS, Juan Antonio Samaranch, envisaged a ‘kind of Hague Court in the sports world,’” he added.
“With this court in place, any aggrieved party can take their case there. So, a situation whereby the NFF will be the prosecutor, defendant, and judge on any matter will longer happen.”
Perhaps it was owing to those facts that the chairman of the latest reforms committee, Seyi Akinwunmi, a lawyer, said in his opening remarks that there is nothing new in the setting up of the committee.
But what is necessary is for Nigerians to believe that a new era has come. “Change can come anytime, but we have to believe in it.”
The session began with a short video clip on changes in some African countries and the zeal to believe that this can also permeate into Nigerian football for the better.
The committee has set up a web page, which members of the public can make input into by first registering and get activated to contribute to the discourse.
Pinnick in resolving to get the findings of the committee to be implemented asked the members to put timeline into every recommendation made.
The miserable run of Akwa United and Ikorodu City came to an end after six games in the Nigerian Premier League this season. Both teams were initially glued at the bottom of the league table.
They now got respite as Akwa United beat Kano Pillar by 2-0 while Ikorodu City even did what could be considered an upset, beating Bendel Insurance 3-0.
Remo Stars bounced back to the top of the log after a 3-0 defeat of Nasarawa United. Shooting Stars are yet to get their rhythm this season, playing a barren draw with Enyimba in Ibadan.
Kwara United who got their first full points of the season last week after a 1-0 defeat of Remo Stars could not consolidate as they were beaten 1-0 by Abia Warriors.
Heartland under Emmanuel Amuneke are gradually recovering as they got a valuable away draw against El-Kanemi Warriors.
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.
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 85th minute.
Sunday Results
- Kwara United 1-0 Remo Stars
- Rangers International 1-0 Abia Warriors
- Heartland FC 2-0 Niger Tornadoes
- Kano Pillars 2-0 Sunshine Stars
- Plateau United 1-0 Ikorodu City
- Rivers United 2-1 Akwa United
- Enyimba 3-0 Katsina United* Suspended
- Nasarawa 0-0 Bayelsa United
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