Nigerian Football
Nigeria Women Premier League Super 4 Kicks off on 9/11
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
Nasarawa Amazon will square it up with Bayelsa Queen when the Nigerian Women Premier League (NWPL) Super 4 contests get underway next month in Benin City. In a tournament to be played in double-header format, Delta Queen will immediately face Rivers Angel on the Day 1 of the tournament being bankrolled by the Edo State Government.
That was the high point of the brief, but colourful draw ceremony held Wednesday afternoon at Protea Hotel, Ikeja Lagos. The ceremony was graced by the NFF president Amaju Pinnick as well as three of the prominent women footballers in Nigeria: Precious Dede, Rasheedat Ajibade and Onome Ebi.
At the end of the six-round robin contest, the winning team will get a reward of N3 million while the runners-up get N2 million.
It is the first time that women football teams in Nigeria will be so heavily rewarded. Before now, winning teams merely got tokens of appreciation which were not even regular. It was so gratifying for the chairperson of the Nigerian Women Football League (NWFL), Aishat Falode that he remarked that the league will be going places in the years to come.
Even though this season, the NWFL had to opt for an abridge league owing to logistics, Falode was happy that the season ran well unlike in the past when the fun was soiled by spate of walkovers, which curiously also involved clubs that were supposed to play at home.
Falode thanked the NFF president for his efforts at assisting the women’s football league. “He was the chief marketer of the league and he carried me along in all efforts made at getting sponsorship for the league”, said Falode who added that part of the results of the efforts was the N10 million that the winners of the maiden women’s edition of the AITEO Cup will get.
The NWPL Super 4 will kick off on September 11 and run through to the 16th. The draw opened with Amaju Pinnick being called upon to make the first pick from the glass jar. Surprisingly, it was his home state team, Delta Queens that he picked. He followed up picking number two to designate Delta Queens as the Team 2 in the draw.
Next to pick from the glass jar was former Super Falcons’ goalkeeper, Precious Dede. She picked Rivers Angels and figure 3 to so designate the team. Nasarawa Amazons name was picked from the glass jar by Onome Ebi and the team was designated as Team 1. The last to pick from the glass jar was Rasheedat Ajibade who expectedly picked the only team remaining in the jar, Bayelsa Queen.
Unlike the conventional method of picking the winner in a league styled four team competitions, there will be a final match in the NWPL 4.
This will be contested by the top two teams, meaning that a club that ranked second in the six-match series can still be the Super 4 champions. This match will be contested on match day four.
The Full Fixtures
Match Day 1 Nasarawa Amazons vs. Bayelsa Queens; Delta Queens vs. Rivers Angels
Match Day 2 Rivers Angels vs. Nasarawa Amazons; Bayelsa Queens vs. Delta Queens
Match Day 3 Nasarawa Amazons vs. Delta Queens; Rivers Angels vs. Bayelsa Queens
Match Day 4 Leaders vs. Runners-up
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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