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T H I S D AY •MONDAY MAY 23 2016
MONDAYSPORTS
Group Sports Editor Duro Ikhazuagbe Email duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com
FIFA President Congratulates Yobo Duro Ikhazuagbe With barely four days to the grand ceremony to formally pull out former Super Eagles captain Joseph Yobo from football in Port Harcourt, President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, has sent in a congratulatory message to the Ogoni-born ex international. The much-talked about testimonial tagged the Joseph Yobo Centenary Game slated for Friday in the Garden City and bankrolled by the Rivers State Government, is to attract several top current and former players from the English
Premiership. In a letter personally signed by Infantino and addressed to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, the FIFA chief wrote: “Many thanks for your letter dated 17 May 2016 and informing us of the testimonial match in honour of former international player and Nigeria Captain Joseph Yobo. “On this occasion, allow me to congratulate and send my best wishes to JosephYobo for his future activities.” The Joseph Yobo’s testimonial
game, slated for the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium will feature a Team Joseph Yobo (comprising of Super Eagles’ players of Yobo’s generation) and a Rest of The World squad. Already, the NFF has released Super Eagles skipper John Mikel Obi and his assistant, Ahmed Musa, to honour Yobo in Friday’s testimonial game, leaving them out of the international friendly with Mali in France on the same
day. Meanwhile, FIFA will next month announce the top five seeds for the African zone of the 2018 World Cup qualifying tournament with Nigeria most likely to miss out. FIFA will announce the top seeds between June 8 and 10 ahead of the main draw on June 24 in Cairo, Egypt. The qualifiers to be played on a league basis of 20 teams
divided into five groups will begin in October with the winners of the five groups qualifying for Russia 2018. Experts are currently speculating that the current FIFA rankings will be one of the yardsticks to be used and this will most certainly work against Nigeria, who is now a disappointing 14th ranked team in Africa and is not likely to achieve any remarkable jump by the June rankings.
Africa’s top five ranked teams by this month are Algeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Senegal and Egypt in that order. Previous World Cup records will also be taken into consideration and this could well help Nigeria’s cause after Super Eagles reached the Round of 16 in Brazil two years ago. With the seedings, Africa’s top teams will avoid themselves on the road to the next World Cup in Russia.
I A A F D I A M O N D L E AG U E
Okagbare Picks Silver in Rabat As Olowora sets new national record in 5000m Reigning Commonwealth Games double sprint champion Blessing OkagbareIghoteguonor yesterday at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, Morocco overcame a slow start to place second in the 100m event at the first ever IAAF Diamond League meeting on African soil. The Nigerian ran a personal season’s best of 11.11 seconds into a -1.3 meters per second (mps) headwind to come second behind Jamaica’s new sprint sensation Elaine Thompson who ran 11.02 seconds, also a personal season’s best. Okagbare’s time is the third fastest by an African woman in the event so far this year after the Ivorian duo of Murielle Ahoure and reigning All Africa Games fastest woman MarieJosee Ta Lou who ran 11.02
seconds and 11.05 seconds respectively at the opening leg of the money-spinning IAAF Diamond League meeting in Doha, Qatar on May 6 this year. Meanwhile, a former Lagos State long distance running sensation, Aminat Olowora, has set a new national record in the women’s 5000m event. Olowoora, now in the USA ran 15:49.75 seconds at the Hoka One Distance Classic at Eagle Rock in Los Angeles, USA. The time is the first sub-16 minutes run by any Nigerian woman ever. She has also become the second Nigerian woman to break a national record this year after Chinwe Okoro who threw a distance of 61.58m at the Ohio Cherry Blossom Invitational in Athens, USA to rewrite the Nigerian discuss record.
Lottery Proceeds will Boosts Sports in Nigeria, Says Gumel Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja The Executive Secretary National Lottery Fund (NLTF), Habu Gumel, has said that the proceeds realised by the agency are being put into use to benefit Nigerians, particularly in the area of sports. Gumel made this declaration at the unveiling of sport equipment donated to 2,000 Nigerian primary schools in Abuja last Friday. The gathering had the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, who was represented by Labour Minister, Chris Ngige; Secretary to Federal Government, David Babachir Lawal and Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung. Gumel, who doubles as the President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) , said the presentation illustrated how the cause charted by the lottery is being promoted through innovative use of funds. He said the approach was to reinforce the NLTF vision of promoting social inclusion among all Nigerians in a balanced, transparent and cost-effective manner. “The event celebrates our national lottery beneficiaries to whom these sports equipment will be distributed, and this illustrates how good causes is served having put our comprehensive monitoring and evaluation system to help
National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF) track the progress of its intervention programmes, and in particular, the utilization of these equipment. This is to ensure that project outcomes are delivered and the benefits continue to accrue to Nigerians,“ Gumel said. Some of the beneficiaries included primary schools established for physically challenged students in six geopolitical zones in the country. Gumel said the equipment would enhance the country’s capacity to expand its talent-base by securing the interest and involvement of children from the primary school age in sports. “We have put in place a robust and comprehensive monitoring and evaluation system to help National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF) track the progress of its intervention programmes, and in particular, the utilization of these sports equipment. This is to ensure that our projects outcomes are delivered and the benefits continue to accrue to Nigerians”, Gumel added. The equipment valued at half a billion naira would enhance the grassroots promotion of nine sports including football, track and field, table tennis, volleyball, basketball, judo, taekwondo, handball and basketball.
COPA DEL REY CHAMPIONS
Barcelona’ Jordi Alba and Neymar Jnr scored twice respectively in extra time last night to defeat Sevilla 2-0 in a red cardmarred Copa del Rey final in Madrid, Spain. It was Barca’s second trophy of the season after winning the La Liga last week.
Insurance FC Wins South-south Champion of Champions Tourney For the first time in a very long while, Bendel Insurance FC of Benin City returned to winning ways at the weekend, emerging winners of the inaugural South-south Champion of Champions Football Tournament. Insurance defeated Akwa Starlets of Uyo by a lone goal at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin to become champion of the eight-team tournament initiated by the Edo State Football Association and sponsored by FROT Group to help all the sides representing the zone in the national Federation Cup. At the final game of the tourney watched by a host of football enthusiasts, including retired international footballers, saw the 1978 national Challenge Cup
champions producing a moment of magic in the 72nd minute to beat the hard-fighting Starlets from Akwa Ibom State. The Roland Ewere tutored Insurance brilliantly executed a free-kick from outside the box. Rather than shoot directly from the distance, Meyiwa rolled the ball for on-rushing William to cross for Peter Iyamu, who finished delightfully to crown his team champions of the competition. Earlier, the Edo All Stars defeated a team of former internationals by a lone goal to win a novelty match, which preceded the final game. The novelty match featured such known retired players as Austin Eguavoen, Kingsley Obiekwu,
Joe Okoh, Ambrose Vanzekin, Tony Emoedofu, Edema Fuludu, Emmanuel Okonebho, Karimu Shuaibu, Prince Afejuku, Wilson Oboh and Ndubuisi Okosieme, among others. The eight teams that featured in the tourney include;, Inneh Stars, Dynamite FC, Insurance (Edo); J. Atete, Delta Force (Delta);Yenagoa Academy (Bayelsa), Akwa Starlets and Go Round FC (Rivers). For winning the competition, Insurance went home with a N1 million prize, while Akwa Starlets received N500,000, just as all the teams got N100, 000 appearance fees. Players and officials of both finalists got medals, while Akwa Starlets’Wisdom Fenado won the
Golden Boot donated by junior international, Isaac Success, for the best player of the competition. Speaking after the competition, FROT Group President, Frank Momoh, commended the teams for living up to expectations, while promising to continue sponsoring the event. In attendance at the competition were Nigeria Football Federation President, Amaju Pinnick, NFF Technical Committee Chairman, Chris Green, former Bendel Insurance Coach, Alabi Aissien, former national team defender, Sam Ikedia, Granada FC striker, Isaac Success and some members of the Edo State government, among others.
ARM Pension Wins 7th UBA Pensions Tourney ARM Pension has emerged champions of the 7th edition of UBA Pensions five-a-side tournament decided at the Fun Turf Centre, Lekki, Lagos at the weekend. In an explosive final match, ARM Pension defeated their opponent, Legacy Pension by a lone goal scored by Bolaji Adeleke. The five-a-side tournament, which is an annual sporting event organised by UBA Pension Custodians Limited witnessed the participation of nine Pension Fund Administrators namely: PAL Pensions (PAL), Leadway Pensure PFA Limited (LPPFA),AIICO
Pensions Manager Limited (APML), IEI-Anchor Pensions (IEI-Anchor), Stanbic IBTC Pensions Managers Limited (SIPML), ARM Pension (ARMP), Legacy Pension (LEGACY) and CrusaderSterling Pension (CPL) and the host, UBA Pensions. Saturday’s victory was the 4th time ARM Pension would go home with the coveted trophy since the inaugural tournament in 2007. In the third place match, Leadway Pensure PFA defeated PAL Pensions by 2-0 to clinch the bronze medal. Meanwhile, in the other games
competed at the turf, the relay team of PAL Pensions won the Sack race, while the Chess and Scrabble games were won by Oladunjoye Niyi of Stanbic IBTC Pension and Aiyedun Adedoyin of Leadway Pensure respectively. The women were not left out as they participated solely in the Table Tennis and Egg and Spoon games with Aminu Aisha of UBA Pensions and Akanbi Nike of Legacy Pension emerging winners respectively. A total of 20 medals were distributed with Adeleke Bolaji and Olaniyan Muis of ARM Pension
receiving the Most Valuable Player and Best Goal Keeper awards. Okey Davies of Legacy Pension was awarded the Highest Goal Scorer while Leadway Pensure received the Fair Play award of the tournament. Commenting on the tournament, Mr. Mba Simon, Chief Finance Officer, who represented the Managing Director, Bayo Yusuf of UBA Pensions expressed satisfaction with the outcome and the turnout of participating PFAs which witnessed an increase in the number of participants when compared with previous editions.