Perspective from Sport

The CHAN competition has come and gone so it is time to reflect on the highs and lows; the positives and the negatives from a Nigerian's perspective. Before I lose you, the full meaning of CHAN is African Nations Championship. This is not to be mixed up with the African Cup of Nations which is the apex competition as far as football in Africa is concerned. The CHAN competition was set up by the previous CAF administration under Issa Hayatou. The whole idea is to offer a platform for footballers based in Africa to showcase their talents since AFCON is usually dominated by foreign-based players. ... back to CHAN 2018, according to various journalists who monitored the home-based team, they concluded that the preparation was not the best for the team. In addition to this, it was speculated that some of the best home-based players were not selected into the final squad. I can attest to this - I couldn't understand why Sikiru Olatubosun did not make the cut but hey, it coach

Happy New Year!! I trust this year will be our best year ever. The Nigerian football world was thrown into mourning on New Year's day. This occurred following the announcement of the former IICC (3SC of Ibadan) and Abiola Babes goalkeeper Raymond King's passing. On Sunday morning as I was preparing for church, I saw a post on Facebook by former international player Taju Disu. In the post, he made a passionate plea to the members of the public to contribute money to fund Raymond Kings's medical treatment. At that point, he was critically ill, on the verge of death. Unfortunately, he passed away on the 1st of January, 2018. The first time I ever heard of Raymond King (popularly called Ramoni Oba by IICC shooting fans ) was in 1984 during CAF Champions League ( formerly known as African Cup of Champions Club). It was the final game between IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan and Zamalek of Egypt. Shooting Stars had previously lost the first leg of the finals. They had ho