Keshi ignores Osaze’s twitter rants

Osaze Odemwingie

Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi has decided to ignore the comments being made by an angry Osaze Odemwingie after he was left out of the Nations Cup provisional list released by the coach on Friday.

Keshi said he had no intentions of bandying words with the West Bromwich Albion of England forward who has taken to twitter to vent his anger on being dropped.

Media officer of the team, Ben Alaiya quoted Keshi as saying that he is unconcerned that Osaze has chosen a social media as the avenue to register his complaints, neither is he concerned about replying to his words. Keshi said he had more pressing matters in building a winning team for Nations Cup in January.

“I’m not interested in Peter, he’s not in my team, I don’t have a twitter account, so it’doesn’t bother me. Yeah, I will speak to him down the line, if he wants to speak to me. That will not be a problem,” Keshi was quoted by a source as saying. 

Meanwhile, we have gathered that players dropped on Friday by Coach Keshi in his 32-man list have not left the team’s camp.

As at Monday morning, these players were in camp and even trained with the former Mali and Togo coach. Although their reasons for staying on could not be confirmed as at press time, we gathered that they might have been allowed to stay on by the coach until the team leaves for its Faro, Portugal camp after the Christmas celebrations of this week. 

Ameobi dropped from Nigeria's AFCON squad!

Shola Ameobi in Nigeria's colours

Danny Shittu in action for Nigeria at 2010 AFCON in Angola

Newcastle United striker Shola Ameobi has been dropped from Stephen Keshi's national squad to the Africa Cup of Nations in January.  

Ameobi, we gathered was withdrawn from Nigeria's African Cup of Nations squad after 'private talks' was held between the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew.

Ameobi that made his first appearance for Nigeria in the 3-1 defeat of La Vinotinto of Venezuela on November 14 in Miami, Florida received a call up from Coach Keshi on Friday. But he will not be playing for Nigeria as Newcastle has begged for him to be left out of the squad.

Attempts to get the NFF's position on Monday proved abortive as calls to the Federation's spokesperson Ademola Olajiire and other officials did not go through.

Meanwhile, we gathered that Danny Shittu of second-tier English football side Millwall FC might also not be joining the team's camp in Faro, Portugal as his coach Kenny Jackett 'expects him to reject' the offer to return to the Super Eagles.  

FIFA Rankings: Nigeria ends year in Africa’s top ten

Super Eagles of Nigeria squad

Super Eagles placed 52nd in the world on the latest rankings released by world football body FIFA on Wednesday.  

This meant that the two-time African champions remained among the top ten football teams on the African continent to finish the year on a relatively positive note after recording consistent drop in the rankings earlier in the year. 

Nigeria garnered 581 points to get to this new position. This is an increment of 29 points from its previous 553 points. The 3-1 victory over Venezuela was one of the pointers for Nigeria’s new position. The country is tied on the same points with Central African Republic (CAR) that is ranked ninth on the continent.

Africa’s best team Cote d’Ivoire moved a place up in the rankings to place 14th in the world while Algeria remained second in Africa and unmoved in its 19th position in the world. Mali jumped three places to 25th in the world and third in Africa while Ghana dropped a place to 30th in the world and fourth on the continent.

Africa’s defending champions, Zambia leaped five places to 34th in the world and fifth on the continent while several time African champions Egypt dropped a place to the 41st position in the world and sixth on the continent.

Gabon moved up an impressive 10 places to 42nd in the world and seventh in Africa and Tunisia moved up a place to 4th in the world and eighth on the continent. Central African Republic (CAR) remained unmoved in its position as the ninth best team on the continent. Nigeria completes the top ten as another non-mover.

Reigning European and world champions Spain also remained the best team in the world thus finishing 2012 at the summit of the FIFA rankings for the fifth time in a row while Joachim Loew's Germany remained the second-placed team in the standings, with South American giants Argentina completing the podium.

Euro 2012 finalists Italy have climbed one place and now sit fourth, ahead of Colombia which was named 'Mover of the Year' after reaching fifth position from 36th at the start of the year. England is sixth, while Portugal (seventh, three down), Netherlands (eighth, one down), Russia (ninth) and Croatia (10th) complete the rest of the top 10. Copa America holders Uruguay has to settle for 16th place after dropping five places, while 2014 World Cup hosts Brazil is 18th. Cuba are this month's biggest climbers as it went 41 places up to make it to 100th spot, while Belize (down 23) dropped the most positions compared to last month's FIFA rankings.

Nematandani eager to clear name

Kirsten Nemantandani

Embattled South African Football Association (SAFA) boss, Kirsten Nematandani, is eager to clear his name in the match-fixing allegations leveled against the top echelon of the Association by FIFA.

Speaking in a live interview on a radio sports programmed monitored in Lagos on Wednesday, Nemantandani said, "I have been cited in the report and indicted alongside my people in the office but I should in the interest of my good name go out there and I am certain that my name would be cleared.”

Meanwhile, Kenyan referee Samuel Langat who was also indicted in the FIFA report has refuted claims of match fixing in one of the matches he officiated in the 2010 World Cup involving hosts South Africa, according to Chinese press and Kenyan press. 

Langat officiated a warm-up match between South Africa and Colombia which the former won 2-1. The Kenyan dismissed accusations that he was in touch with convicted Singaporean fixer Wilson Perumal Raj, reports Xinhua.

"That game was not fixed and we officiated the match well since FIFA general secretary Jerome Valcke was watching. I don`t know why these things are being said now," Langat, a former FIFA referee, said Tuesday.

He added that no one from FIFA had contacted him about the game, among four matches under investigation.

"The World Cup was two years ago and as far as I`m concerned we did nothing wrong," the Kenyan added.

Langat was the referee in the match that also marked the official opening of Soccer City, the venue that hosted the 2010 World Cup final.

Three penalties decided the game that ended in favour of South Africa with Teko Modise and striker Katlego Mphela scoring for the hosts while Giovanni Moreno converted his kick Colombia. Compatriot Elias Kuloba, who officiated alongside him as his assistant, declined to comment.

"It is only the federation that can speak on the issue since I work under them."

Flying Eagles, Golden Eaglets get tough draws

‘We’ll be fine,’ says Garba 

National U20 squad, Flying Eagles was on Sunday handed a relatively tough draw by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for the African Youth Championship in Algeria next year.

The John Obuh-tutored side was drawn in Group B alongside Mali, Congo Democratic Republic and Gabon. In Group A are hosts Algeria, Benin, Ghana and Egypt.

Flying Eagles’ U17 counterparts, Golden Eaglets that sealed its qualification on Sunday, December 2, was handed a tougher draw. The Coach Manu Garba-led side that is equally drawn in Group B will face Congo, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. In Group A are hosts Morocco, Gabon, Tunisia and Botswana.

But Coach Garba who described Sunday’s 2013 CAF U-17 Championship draw that pitched his wards against two West African giants, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire and 2011 second runner-up, Congo-Brazzaville as interesting has assured that the team would do just fine.

Speaking immediately after the draws were concluded at the CAF’s Headquarters in Cairo, Garba said the target of the Golden Eaglets would be first and foremost, to qualify for the semi-finals from the group in order to book a ticket for the 2013 FIFA Under-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

“The draws are very interesting because we have two other West- African sub-regional teams in our group,” stated Garba. “But I’m confident about our chances despite the fact that we are going to play our traditional rivals.”

Ghana tops the CAF U-17 Championship all-time record after being crowned champions in 1995 and 1999. The Black Starlets were also runner-up in 2005 and twice second runner-up in 1997 and 2007. Nigeria on the other hand, is second in the all-time championship record following Golden Eaglets’ success in 2001 and 2007 as well as being runner-up and second runner-up in 1995 and 2003 respectively.

Both Cote d’Ivoire and Congo Brazzaville are still looking for their first title but they came third in 2005 and 2011 respectively.

“On paper, our group can be regarded as the toughest because of the records of all the four teams in the past championships,” admitted Garba. “It is important that we play all the tough teams and win if we are going to be the overall champions.

“With good preparations and God on our side, we shall qualify from our group irrespective of the oppositions to get to the semi-final stages and qualify for the World Cup,” added Garba.  

Delta wins 18th National Sports Festival

Team Delta celebrates men's relay gold on Saturday

Team Delta on Sunday emerged winners of the 18th edition of the National Sports Festival after topping the medals table with superior haul. 

As at the time of filing this report, the South-south team had a total of 288 medals to its credit, 116 of which were gold, 97 silver and 75 bronze medals. Coming in second was 2011 champions, Rivers which had a total of 218 medals that comprised 76 gold medals, 71 silver and 71 bronze. Hosts Lagos was third with 183 medals. These included 65 gold medals, 47 silver and 71 bronze. Edo was fourth with 92 medals that included 25 gold medals, 23 silver and 44 bronze. Bayelsa was fifth with 59 medals: 19 gold medals, 17 silver and 23 bronze. Ondo, Ogun, Cross River, Oyo and Akwa Ibom completed the top ten with total medal hauls of 58, 68, 49, 42 and 44 in that order. Their position on the log was determined by the number of gold won by each team.

Gombe, Sokoto and Katsina finished as the last three on the log with a total of 10 medals between them.

With this victory, Delta makes good its threat to depose Rivers that began the Games on November 27 as defending champions and had hoped to retain the title.

Final medals table of Eko 2012

1	Delta	116	97	75	288
2	Rivers	76	71	71	218
3	Lagos	65	47	71	183
4	Edo	25	23	44	92
5	Bayelsa	19	17	23	59
6	Ondo	18	12	28	58
7	Ogun	15	22	31	68
8	Cross River	12	14	23	49
9	Oyo	12	13	17	42
10	Akwa Ibom	7	18	19	44
11	Imo	7	14	18	39
12	FCT	7	12	10	29
13	Kano	7	4	12	23
14	Plateau	6	9	17	32
15	Ekiti	5	1	9	15
16	Niger	4	2	5	11
17	Benue	3	5	21	29
18	Bauchi	3	3	7	13
19	Nasarawa	3	3	1	7
20	Ebonyi	3	2	3	8
21	Jigawa	3	0	6	9
22	Kaduna	2	2	7	11
23	Osun	2	1	4	7
24	Abia	1	6	13	20
25	Enugu	1	5	8	14
26	Borno	1	3	5	9
27	Kogi	1	3	3	7
28	Kwara	1	1	9	11
29	Kebbi	1	0	1	2
30	Anambra	0	3	2	5
31	Taraba	0	2	1	3
32	Zamfara	0	2	0	2
33	Yobe	0	1	4	5
34	Adamawa	0	1	3	4
35	Gombe	0	1	2	3
36	Sokoto	0	0	4	4
37	Katsina	0	0	3	3
	TOTAL	426	420	580	1426