By Kola Adeyemi

Kogi State government sacked the managements of Kogi United FC and that of Confluence Queens FC on Tuesday.

Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Folashade Ayoade, announced the sack in a statement in which she did not state any reason for government’s action.

Sports enthusiasts in Kogi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the dissolution might not be unconnected to recent subtle protests by the players of the two clubs over non-payment of their salaries and allowances for months and poor welfare condition.

The Kogi United Football Club currently plays at the Nigeria National League level while Confluence Queens are playing at the female premier league.

Chairman of the Kogi United FC, Abdul Sule, could not be reached for his reactions as even his telephone could not be linked. (NAN)

By Ijeoma Okigbo

Nigeria’s Super Falcons have arrived in Turkey ahead of their participation in the fifth edition of the Turkish Women’s Cup in Antalya, the team’s s twitter handle @ngsuper_Falcons, disclosed on Monday.

“The Nigerian contingent of the Super Falcons have arrived Antalya. The team has settled down at the Emir hotels with team Captain Asisat Oshoala leading the pack.”

The team has also resumed indoor training with new American coach, Randy Waldrum, shortly upon arrival.

The nine-time African champions  have been grouped alongside Uzbekistan and Equatorial Guinea, in the same pool

The tournament, which began on Monday, is expected to end on Wednesday, Feb. 24. (NAN)

By Kemi Akintokun

A former Technical Director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), retired Navy Commodore Omatseye Nesiama, has been appointed by World Athletics to conduct a Technical Education and Certification System Level 1 Course for Ghanaian Athletics.

The course slated to hold in Accra on Feb. 15 is aimed to revamp Ghanaian officials in preparation for international championships they are planning to host.

Reacting to the appointment, Nesiama told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday that it was gratifying that his modest effort was being recognised nationally and internationally.

“My being able to train and certify Ghanaians in technical officiating would further strengthen the cordial relationship that has existed between Ghana and Nigeria especially in the area of sports.

” One thing I will try and push, going forward, is creating a West African Athletics Circuit where athletes, coaches and technical officials can be engaged in exchanges via the competitions we would be staging.

“Since we train together, we can easily share,” he said.

NAN reports that Nesiama is a World Athletics certified Lecturer, licensed Athletes Manager and a member of the Confederation of Africa Athletics Technical and Competitions Commission.

He has officiated in many International athletics competitions at different times as competition director and technical delegate. (NAN)

By Moses Omorogieva

The list of activities the Karate Federation of Nigeria (KFN) will be involved in this year shows that the federation will carry out no fewer than 22 programmes in 2021.

The calendar of events calendar, signed by the federation’s Secretary-General, Adamu Maikano, was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) by the federation’s Technical Director, Dave Jegede, on Friday.

According to the calendar, the federation will have about 13 events under national programmes, and these include the 20th National Sports Festival in Edo which has been moved to April.

The federation will have the international technical/coaches course for coaches and referees, with Antonio Oliva Seba, a World Karate Federation (WKF) world coach, conducting it.

It will take place in Lagos between March 4 and March 6.

Other events are the Ogun State National Open Junior and Senior Championship and Clinic on classification for Para-Karate between March 11 and March 13 in Abeokuta.

The national squad training camp in preparation for the WKF Premier League will hold at the High Performance Centre, Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja from March 22 to April 5.

The federation on June 16 to June 19 will have the second edition of the Nasarawa State Open National Karate Championship at Lafia.

The first edition of the National Open Para-Karate Championship will hold at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja from Sept. 14 to Sept. 18.

The event will involve wheelchair karate, as well as karate for the visually-impaired, deaf and dumb, nervous impaired and the amputees.

In the same September, the federation has planned to have the Optimum Impact South-West Open Youth Championship and SKI International Course Championship with Shuseki Shihan Murakami, both in Lagos.

The 7th Hajiya Zainab Seleh International Female Championship will hold in October in Lagos.

Also, the Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA) Karate Championship has been planned for Nov. 4 by the federation, but the venue is yet to be decided.

From Nov. 7 to Nov. 15, the federation will have the national squad camping for cadet, junior and senior players at Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.

The Goodluck Jonathan UFAK West African Junior/Senior Karate Championship will hold in Port Harcourt from Nov. 16 to Nov. 21.

The 25th Nigerian Karate Association (NKA) National Black Belt College Workshop/Championship will come up at the Kano Township Stadium from Dec. 6.

NAN reports that the federation’s national events will end with KFN’s Full Council Meeting (General Congress) in Abuja on Dec. 3 at a venue yet to be decided.

The calendar also revealed the regional African programmes, which include the WKF premier league at Rabat in Morocco from April 6 to April 11.

The UFAK West African Junior/Senior Karate Championship will also hold in Egypt from Aug. 24 to Aug. 29 .

The world programmes include the WKF Premier League at Lisbon in Portugal from Feb. 19 to Feb. 21.

The federation’s Olympic Training Tour (Championship International Karate League Dojo) will be in Liege in Belgium from May 24 to June 8.

On June 9 to June 13, there will be Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualification tournament at Paris in France.

Also, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games’ Karate Competition will hold from Aug. 5 to Aug. 7.

The WKF Senior World Championship will also hold at Dubai in UAE from Nov. 15 to Nov. 22. (NAN)

Tokyo 2020 Olympics chief Yoshiro Mori is expected to resign on Friday over sexist comments he made early this month, with the mayor of the Olympic village, Saburo Kawabuchi, saying Mori had asked him to take over.

Kawabuchi said he was in tears before a meeting where he accepted Mori’s request on Thursday.

“Mr. Mori was straightforward saying ‘I want you to take over now that this has happened’,” Kawabuchi, 84, told reporters late on Thursday.

“I thought how hard it must be for him and I couldn’t stop crying,” said Kawabuchi.

The 83-year-old Mori, a former Japanese prime minister, sparked a global outcry with sexist comments that women talk too much, which he made during an Olympic committee meeting.

Mori has apologised for his comments but has so far not resigned in spite of growing calls for him to step down.

His resignation less than six months before the Summer Olympics are scheduled to begin are likely to raise new doubts over the viability of holding the postponed Games this year.

Games officials are already struggling with how to hold a safe Olympics, with tens of thousands of athletes and possibly spectators, during the coronavirus pandemic.

Kawabuchi, who has represented Japan in football at the 1964 Olympics and is a former Japan Football Association president, said he wants Mori to play a consulting role in the Games to help make the event a success.

The choice of Kawabuchi prompted questions on social media about whether there was no better alternative than an older, male figure.

Later on Friday, the Tokyo Olympics organising committee, which has not officially commented on Mori’s resignation, plans to hold a meeting of its council and executive board, followed by a press conference.

Mori will explain his position at Friday’s meeting, Japanese Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto told parliament, referring to a phone call with Mori.

Hashimoto said the government would continue to work with other parties including the International Olympic Committee, to prepare for the event based on Olympic principles.

A fresh COVID-19 cluster linked to a quarantine hotel in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, reached 13 cases as of Thursday midnight, as authorities rushed to quash the spread of the virus. All of those infections were linked to the highly contagious UK variant.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews announced the lockdown for the state, starting at midnight on Friday, calling it a “short, sharp circuit breaker” banning public gatherings, home auctions, weddings and religious gatherings.

“We must assume that there are further cases in the community than we have positive results for, and that it is moving at a velocity that has not been seen anywhere in our country over the course of these last 12 months,” Andrews told reporters.

Andrews said the spread of the UK variant of the virus was much faster than previous outbreaks in the country.

“There are no fans. There are no crowds. These people are essentially at their workplace,” he said. “The minimum number of staff for it to be run safely – not just for the virus but other reasons – will be there.”

The event had already been limited to 50 per cent of usual capacity.

Event organisers confirmed the tournament would proceed without crowds over the next five days with no fans allowed at the match sites.

Spectators would, however, be able to attend games scheduled for Thursday while those who had bought tickets to restricted events would get a refund, the organisers said in a statement.

“Australian Open sessions today and tonight will continue as planned with COVID safe protocols in place,” it said.

Victoria endured one of the world’s strictest and longest lockdowns last year after an outbreak that killed more than 800 in the state, the vast majority of the national death toll.

More broadly, Australia and neighbouring New Zealand have generally succeeded in containing the domestic spread of the coronavirus, thanks to hard border restrictions.

Australia has reported more than 22,000 local infections of the virus that causes COVID-19 cases and 909 deaths since March.

The country has ranked among the top 10 in a COVID performance index for its successful handling of the pandemic.

Ahead of the announcement, Prime Minister Scott Morrison offered his government’s full support for Victoria’s decisions on containing the outbreak.

“We have dealt with (outbreaks) in the last few weeks in Sydney and Brisbane and Perth, and so a proportionate response… enables tracers to be able to get on top of it and get the same successful result we have seen in other states,” Morrison told reporters.

By Emmanuel Afonne

No fewer than 100 kids have so far registered for trials in AS Roma Football Club Academy, one year after it signed a three-year deal with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

Lucy Ukwa, Social Media Manager of the Academy, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja saying “the academy presently has seven FIFA graded coaches and one technical director to help the kids develop a career in football”.

NAN reports that the NFF and AS Roma FC signed a three-year partnership deal on Sept. 20, 2019 which would see both sides collaborate on and off the pitch, with the club playing an exhibition match in the country.

Under the terms of the agreement, the two parties among other things will share football, business and media expertise, with Roma offering the NFF technical and operational support.

Roma will also advice NFF in the areas of youth coaching, player development, football administration and digital media best practices.

Ukwa said on Wednesday that the academy which was the first in Africa to be established by the Italian club was already planning to open it branches in other parts of the country, including Port Harcourt and Lagos.

“There is a partnership between NFF and AS Roma to help develop homegrown players, so AS Roma Academy is one of the first ways of fulfilling that partnership.

“Abuja is a very unique place and the football community is in existence and it’s a unique opportunity to start off here.

“We are one of the first international club to start off an Academy in Abuja, and the intention is to spread to other parts of the country but Abuja is the first port of call.

“We have a scholarship slots but it is a fee paying academy and our fees are termly with a one-off registration fee.

“We also have a trial session where our technical team watch the players and categorise them after discovering potential talents and afterward recommend them for a sort of scholarship,” Ukwa said.

According to her, the academy has grouped the player into U-5, U-7, U-9, U-11, U-13, U-15, U-17 and U-19 for easy focus and development of the players.

“Categorising the players is one of the best ways to develop the kids. If you lump everybody into the same category, there will be some that will not benefit as much as others.

“We have a ratio of eight players to one coach depending on the category and the senior category is about 11 players to one coach; this is so to enable the coaches’ focus on each player.

“And we want a situation where no player is left behind and everyone gets the desired attention and it enables us reach out to as many people as possible and deliver quality training,” she said.

“At AS Roma, we are advocating for you to have your education alongside your training, so, we partnered a school here in Asokoro to ensure that people have that convenience and alternative for education.

“The possibility of doing well in football is there but footballing as a career doesn’t last like other regular careers and that is why the importance of education cannot be overestimated no matter how talented the person is in football.

“We are trying to show people that education is as important as your athletic talent because it could be a fallback plan. We must create a basis for everyone to thrive,” Ukwa added. (NAN)

Bayern Munich could win their first trophy in 2021 and sixth in one year when they face Tigres UANL of Mexico on Thursday in the FIFA Club World Cup big finale.

The international silverware would crown a season that saw the Bavarians clinching everything on their way: Bundesliga, German Cup, Champions League and the domestic and European Super Cup titles.

Last time Bayern won the Club World Cup was in 2013 after their first-ever treble winning season and under newly signed coach Pep Guardiola.

The 2-0 win in the semi-final against Al Ahly of Egypt  was never in doubt, but Bayern struggled a bit to put the African champions away.

“We travelled to Qatar because we want to win another trophy. We needed time to get into the run of the game,” coach Hansi Flick said.

“When we did, I think we dominated the match and deserved to score a second goal. We played well defensively, I’m very satisfied with my team.”

Flick knows his team is the favourite but also understands they will have to put up a fight to take the trophy to Munich.

“I watched the first semi-final. Tigres are a very dynamic team with a lot of power. We have to counter that well in the final,” he said.

Amid the busy football calendar with midweek and weekend games Bayern seem ready for the clash and eager for victory.

“The final is going to be a big match. We’re having a nice time here, we want to win the trophy and the sixth title,” said Robert Lewandowski, who scored both goals in the 2-0 win over Al Ahly.

“A world cup is always special. We’re ready. I hope we’ll turn in an even better display in the final and that we won’t need so many chances,” the striker added.

Flick confirmed that midfielders Leon Goretzka and Javi Martinez won’t be able to travel to Qatar for the final after missing the semi-final. Both tested positive for coronavirus and remain in quarantine.

“We decided Leon and Javi won’t travel. It’s sad because both would like to come.

“But it’s also important they can train in Munich and eventually be available for the game on Monday against Arminia Bielefeld in the Bundesliga],” Flick said after the Al Ahly game.

CONCACAF champions Tigres defeated Copa Libertadores winners Palmeiras of Brazil on Sunday for a spot in the final.

“No other Mexican team have gone this far, but now we want more,” Tigres forward Carlos Gonzalez said.

“We came here hoping to lift the trophy and now that we’re close, we’re encouraged and motivated that we can achieve our goal.”

Under coach Ricardo Ferretti, who’s in charge since 2010, Tigres have secured five domestic league titles and are experiencing their most successful era.

On Thursday there’s also the match for third place between Al Ahly and Palmeiras. (dpa/NAN)