Perspective from Sport

The Olympics is here at last, there is no better place to be than London, I feel privileged to be living in this beautiful city, moreover I live some 15 minutes away from the Olympic park, No one would have thought Stratford would be this transformed some odd 15 years ago .Stratford is situated in the eastern part of London, I remember my very first experience of Stratford, the place looks so dilapidated,the shopping mall at the time was practically a market,very cold and you could tell from the environment that it was a poverty stricken area. Stratford is under the London Borough of Newham . Newham was said to be the among the 5 poorest  borough in London as February 2012. But irrespective of this fact, Stratford and some of it neighbouring areas have witnessed significant transformation in its outlook. New properties spring up and the Westfield Shopping Centre which is said to be the biggest in Europe. Local businesses, par...

Basketball has suddenly taken the centre stage after the impressive and surprising qualification of the Nigerian Basketball team to the London 2012 Olympic Game.This has given Nigerian some lift particularly when football is in an all time low. The qualification could potentially begin a new era of the game in Nigeria. The Basketball team has generated quite a number of Nigeria followers in the last one week following the performance of D' Tigers as they are known. Basketball has the potential of almost getting as close to football in terms of patronage in Nigeria .  The game gained some sort of popularity in the Nigeria in the 80's through different platforms. Akeem Olajuwon ,one of the best centres in the NBA history, was from Nigeria so his participation gained some interest.Chuka Momah's  Saturday evening broadcast of the NBA tagged Sports Spectacular increased the awareness at the time. We had basketball teams like Leventis Buffaloes of Lagos Plateau Peak...

I would like to touch on the other aspect of my football walk as a football agent to give some sort of funny insight, particularly my early days as a journey man, I mean my novice years. I have had to learn the ropes of the industry the hard way but it has been quite interesting. One of the things I have had to learn is trust and credibility with football players. Of course the issues of age falsification cut across board, most African countries are affected by this but I will not want to open that can of worms now, probably in subsequent articles. For ostensible reasons, the kinds of player that get attracted to me are mostly Africans ranging from Nigerians , Ghanaians, Ivorians e.t.c, but particularly Nigerians. Nigerian players are a very special bunch for many reasons. Firstly, it is quite challenging working with Nigerians unfortunately, I found it difficult admitting this but Ghanaians are easier to work with than Nigerians. It does not mean that I have cut off working with Ni...

Painting the town blue and that perfectly describe the scene at South West of London, as Chelsea fans thronged  out in their thousands to welcome and cheer their heroes after winning the Champions League Cup at the expense of host finalist Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. The Champions League Cup  has been long coveted by the Russian  Chelsea owner Roman Abrahamovich . Before the  finals Chelsea  has won every trophy but the Champions League. Abrahamovich has invested about £900m in acquiring plethora of football talent across the globe, but at last he would be glad that his financial imput has yielded the desired dividend.I began to feel the air of celebration right from the train carriage, well, I  was coming from another end of London going towards the South West. I started to see the Chelsea fan from Earl Court station as the trains were already jam packed with Chelsea fan sing and chanting away  vociferously. On arriving at the dest...

                                                           There is no better place to be right now as the Olympics approaches, The London metropolis is buzzing and rightly so because  the date is drawing closer. Almost  seven years ago (6th July 2005) to be precise, The International Olympic Committee announced London as the host of the Olympic games beating stiff competition like Madrid Paris and Moscow. From then onward Local Organizing Committee spear headed by Lord Sebastian Coe who himself was an Olympic Gold Medalist, winning the 1500 meters event in Moscow and Los Angeles (1980 and 1984 respectively) swung in action straight away and having visited the...