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 coac...

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...

The dust must have settled now among a cross-section of the Nigerian fans and media following the invitation of Tammy Abraham to the English senior team. Gareth Southgate has always stressed that he will give a lot of young stars a stake to claim the English shirt if they merit it. The question now is; what is the fuss about foreign-bred Nigerians? The current leadership of the Nigerian Football Federation under Amaju Pinnick has vigorously pursued foreign-born Nigerians such that when he eventually leaves the office, that could be one of his legacies. So after successfully negotiating the switch of players like Alex Iwobi (Arsenal) and Ola Aina (Chelsea - currently on loan to Hull), he decided to pursue Abraham's switch of allegiance to Nigeria. Pinnick had stated in one TV interviews that Tammy's dad was his friend.He believed their friendship could be a factor that would ease the switch. Some weeks back, the picture of Tammy Abraham, Pinnick and Tammy's dad was seen...

The truth is being a local based player was a bad experience in the camp then, the gap in class was just too wide, you have to be very very confident in yourself to even be able to stand up.  I mean these guys stroll into camp in their flashy cars , speaking french and even german language. You cannot even sit in their midst ...for crying out loud they were   speaking in french and discussing how they are going to play against Oliver Khan, Vialli or some other widely known stars that you read about or watch on TV. Who born you?  All we do is bunch up together like a bunch of star struck kids...to eavesdrop on the gist where they are generous enough to speak in English. The youngest ones in the camp then were the richest and the flashiest. JJ was JJ very flashy and naughty...he was not proud or arrogant but he had this way of staying to himself. He was close with Amo (Amokachi)...you are most likely to see the two together. Ikpeba was flashy, arrogant,...

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 secondl...

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...