Perspective from Sport

The Whole of Football Plan (WOFP) setting out a 20-year vision for Australian Football was unveiled today after an unprecedented consultation with the Australian Football community and major stakeholders. More than 20,000 people joined an online survey, hundreds attended 13 community forums and the game’s leaders and key commercial partners provided individual feedback. Speaking at WOFP launch in Sydney, Football Federation Australia Chairman Frank Lowy AC acclaimed the unity of purpose behind the plan. “Ten years ago at the outset of Football’s new beginning, publishing a Whole of Football Plan for the decades ahead would have appeared premature and overly optimistic,” said Lowy. “We first had to rebuild the foundations and restore credibility to our game. “Today, much hard work has brought us to the point where we have the unity and sense of destiny that means the time is right to think big. There are millions whose lives are enriched by Football and we owe it to them

There are outcry for private ownership of football clubs in Nigeria. The reasons for these are justifiable when you take into account that 95% of the clubs are state-owned with the exception of MFM FC, Ikorodu United, Ifeanyi Ubah United and Giwa FC - Expelled from the League) There have been long-standing issues with state ownership, one of them being welfare challenges - especially of the players and coaches. Majority of the clubs depends on the state government for their funding, and if you are conversant with the trend within Nigeria's state of the economy, you will realise that the state governments are struggling to pay the wages of civil servant .Therefore the  players and coaches salaries are probably the least on their minds.  For the average Nigerian League follower, the  ideal is for the majority of the clubs to be privately owned for two main reasons; firstly, the private clubs have not had any history of owing their staff and secondly, the state government can fo

As 2016 shapes up to be a pivotal year in player and coaching development in the United States, Planet Fútbol dives into just what American clubs and the federation are doing in their quest to evolve as a soccer nation. This is the second of a three-part series on the subject. The first, on how audit firm Double PASS is bringing its methods to U.S. Soccer, can be read here . As Major League Soccer enters its third decade of existence, league officials continually push youth development as the next big challenge to conquer. Every franchise runs its own fully funded academy at no cost to the players, but to continue raising standards within those academies, MLS entered into a partnership with the French Football Federation in 2013. The agreement allows MLS academy directors and coaches to complete the Elite Formation Coaching License, administered by the French federation. In 2015, the second cycle of MLS coaches began the licensing process to earn the equivalent of a UEFA Pro Lic

Iceland has taken the football world by storm with their Cinderella experience at the current Euro 2016. The question that could be on everyone lips would be; Did the Viking nation get to this stage accidentally? Was it a fluke? We could ask or speculate on the reason behind Iceland current success but they are actually in the quarter-final at the expense of England. I will give a brief information to illustrate that their performance isn't coincidental or by luck. Before the fall of the Icelandic bank, they had invested in training coaches who trains young talents, they made the best of their adverse weather situation and built indoors stadiums and it is yielding  dividends now. Lagaback in the Nigeria's Colours I will not dwell much on the developmental aspect of Iceland football but focus on the man that has led Iceland to their most iconic experience ever - He is Lars Lagarback. I need to highlight here that I am not an advocate for a foreign manager far from it, bu

By A Former BCC Lions of Gboko Player. I was tired, very tired, this was as a result of the flurry of activities that had taken place in the last 24 hrs. Here was I, it was Christmas season and I was several hundred kilometres away from home, far away in Gboko. I left home in Ilorin on the night of the 26th after coach Kafaru Alabi had turned up at my family residence to inform me that he wanted to take me down to Gboko to sign for BCC. The journey saw us both depart Ilorin in the midnight of the 26th en-route to Kaduna with the aim of signing Ayo Ogunlana, then onto Jos to sign Tunde Adedara, it was the early morning of the 28th that we got to Gboko. By then I was already homesick. I was told by Kafaru that I might be able to return to Ilorin that day as soon as I get the papers sorted were out at the club house. By 11am, I had signed all the necessary forms and papers, I just wanted to get to the park and hop on a bus back to Ilorin to continue my Christmas celebration

Speechless!!! Shocking!!! Denial!!! Disbelief!!! Think of all the words in the world...those were my state of mind on seeing the news caption by Sahara Reporters that Stephen Okechukwu Keshi has passed on. I am still in a state of  bewilderment, hoping that it was a summer April fool prank.  How do I begin to explain someone who lost his wife last December and in less than six months he is no longer with us.  Indeed, a legend is gone! Our own Stephen Keshi is no longer with us. The most successful coach Nigeria have had and perhaps one of the most successful Nigerian football players in our generation. I have always known that he was great but what astounded me were the encomiums that flooded the social media from all over the world. Messages poured out from different strata of life - from the corporate world to media personalities, African Football Association, football ex-clubs and more. A picture of condolences is as follows: Tancredi Palmeri (Italian Journalist), Jonathan W

Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura It is no longer news that Senegalese Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura have been appointed as the new Secretary General of FIFA. The president Gianni Infatino made this announcement at the FIFA congress held in  Mexico. This is a positive move by the FIFA executive as they have demonstrated their intention to show transparency and enhance good governance. I was particularly thrilled with the appointment for two  main reasons; firstly, She is the first African to be appointed to the lofty position. Secondly, she was appointed because of her track records with the United Nation coupled with the fact that she has no background in football.  This has always been my belief that you do not have to have any background in football administration to attain such heights. This is what I will like to see happen in Nigeria, it should be more of competence rather the politics and self-interest that have bedevilled our football.  Semoura is currently the resident UN's Res