100M HURDLES world record holder Tobi Amusan has been cleared to run in the Paris Olympics after the sport’s top court on Friday dismissed appeals against the decision to clear her of a doping offence. Amusan, 27, was charged in July 2023 with missing three anti-doping tests in a period of 12 months but was cleared of the offence by the Disciplinary Tribunal of the sport’s governing body, World Athletics. However, World Athletics and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against that decision. CAS said in a statement that its panel “unanimously…
Author: Peter Noah KC
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A FORMER Super Eagles forward, Peter Odemwingie, is now a professional golfer following his graduation from the Professional Golfers Association school. The PGA disclosed this in a post with a video on X.com on Tuesday. The caption read, “Peter Odemwingie is best known for playing top-level football, scoring over 30 Premier League goals for West Bromwich Albion and representing Cardiff City and Stoke City. “He has played in two World Cups and even won an Olympic medal in 2008. In his post-football career, he turned to golf and is now a fully-fledged PGA professional.” In a statement on the PGA…
FORMER Nigeria striker Peter Ijeh reckons suitors are avoiding Victor Osimhen like plague because of the attitude and character of the Napoli striker. Commenting on a Facebook post on Tuesday, Ijeh, who spent a major part of his career in Scandinavia, said Europe is a small community that takes attitude and character as keys, which he thinks the Nigeria striker doesn’t understand. “How I wish he understood that Europe is a small community that takes attitude and character as keys because it is directly influenced by children, and at the same time, they are notorious for double standards. Even Lagos…
AFTER an exhilarating 38 rounds of matches, which saw Enugu Rangers win their eighth Nigeria Premier Football League title, here is this newspaper’s Team of the Season: GOALKEEPER Amas Obasogie (Bendel Insurance) In his second consecutive season in the NPFL, Bendel Insurance keeper, Obasogie has continued to show why he is rated as one of the best shot-stoppers in the Nigerian elite division by keeping most clean sheets (18) in the campaign, three more than his closest rivals – Remo’s Kayode Bankole and Doma United’s Kingdom Osayi. Insurance also conceded the least goals (30) during the season. After finishing the…
AS the 2023-24 Nigeria Premier Football League ended on Sunday, this newspaper highlights on achievements, disappointments and near misses of the league after 38 rounds of matches Rangers Crowned Champions Enugu Rangers were crowned champions of the Nigeria Premier Football League for the eighth time in their history on Sunday and they capped their season with a 2-1 away win against Gombe United at the New Jos Stadium. The league champions were welcomed into the mainbowl of the New Jos Stadium with a guard of honour by their relegated opponents and general manager of Rangers, Amobi Ezeaku captained the Flying…
THE 2023/2024 Nigeria Premier Football League season ends Sunday (today), with battles for survival and two CAF club competition tickets bringing the campaign to a nerve-wracking finale, with 760 matches prosecuted, Godwin Aikigbe reports Enugu Rangers have already been declared the champions, with a CAF Champions League ticket in the kitty, and Flying Antelope are relatively unperturbed by the final day’s hostilities, which will see five clubs, Remo Stars, Enyimba, Shooting Stars, Plateau United, and Lobi Stars locked in battles for the remaining ticket and one of two for next year’s Confederation Cup. Kano Pillars, Kwara United, Bayelsa United, Akwa…
THE next Africa Cup of Nations will be played in Morocco from December 21, 2025, to January 18, 2026, Confederation of African Football (CAF) president Patrice Motsepe said on Friday. “I am confident that the CAF AFCON Morocco 2025 will be extremely successful and the best AFCON in the history of this competition,” he said. CAF held a virtual executive committee at their headquarters in Cairo on Friday evening after which Motsepe made the announcement. Originally scheduled for June and July 2025, the AFCON was moved to avoid a clash with the inaugural Club World Cup in the United States…
THE Super Eagles have fallen by eight places in the latest FIFA rankings, moving to 38th globally following a dismal outing in the race for the 2026 World Cup. Nigeria lost to the Benin Republic for the first time and had before then drawn South Africa – all games in the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers for Africa – leaving their hopes of reaching the competition hanging in the balance. In FIFA’s latest ranking released on Thursday, the Super Eagles are now 5th in Africa, falling two steps behind on the continental pecking order. Morocco moved up one place as the…
THE Nigeria Football Federation has described as outright falsehood, reports in some online publications on Wednesday that the football-governing body has slammed a ban on Super Eagles’ forward Victor Osimhen from the team, for his social media outburst on ex-Super Eagles coach, Finidi George a few days ago. NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, expressed amazement at the reports, saying the Federation has neither instructed a process nor has a process been concluded to ban the player from the National Team. “The NFF hereby implores the media to join hands with the body to positively resolve issues and then focus…
THE newly crowned Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) champions Enugu Rangers have revealed plans to overhaul the team ahead of continental showpiece in the forthcoming new season. The team’s Fidelis Ilechukwu disclosed this yesterday during a radio program in Lagos, acknowledging that fresh legs would be injected in the team to fortify it for both the country’s top-flight league and continental matches. “What we are going to do is we have to look at the team first and how to bring players from defence, goalkeeper, midfielders and strikers. “As a team we have many challenges in all departments. There is…
RANGERS international Football Club of Enugu have won the 2023/2024 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) title after defeating Bendel Insurance 2-0 in Enugu on Sunday with one game remaining. The win took Rangers to 67 unassailable points at the top after their closest rivals Remo Stars and Enyimba lost 2-1 to Sunshine Stars and Sporting Lagos, respectively. It is the 8th Nigerian league title for the Flying Antelopes, making them the second most successful club in the league’s history trailing only Enyimba who have 9 league titles in their trophy cabinet. After being at the top of the league table…
VICTOR Osimhen has fired back at comments allegedly from ex-Super Eagles head coach George Finidi questioning his commitment to national team assignment. The Napoli star man missed Nigeria’s 2026 World Cup qualification games against South Africa and Benin Republic owing to injury concerns. Following the Super Eagles’ lacklustre showing in the matches – one draw and a loss – Finidi who has now resigned from the role was alleged to have questioned Osimhen’s commitment to the side, insisting he won’t beg players to feature for the team. Irked by the remark, Osimhen fired back at the former international in an…
FORMER Ajax winger, Finidi George, has stepped down as coach of the Super Eagles. This was made known by ex-Super Eagles media officer, Toyin Ibitoye in a post on X.com on Saturday. He wrote, “News just in. Finidi George #FinidiGeorge_FG has resigned from his #NGSuperEagles manager position.” The resignation follows the Nigeria Football Federation’s (NFF) decision to appoint a foreign coach to oversee him, despite his recent appointment in May. George, 53, took the reins after Jose Peseiro’s contract ended in February, having served as his assistant for 20 months. However, the team’s disappointing performance in the 2026 World Cup…
NIGERIA’s U17 girls, the Flamingos, have secured their ticket to the 2024 FIFA U17 Women’s World Cup finals after defeating their Liberian counterparts 2-0 at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, on Friday. This newspaper reports that Nigeria had earlier defeated Liberia 4-1 in Monrovia in the final round, first leg encounter, bringing the aggregate to 6-1. Chidi Harmony opened scoring for Nigeria three minutes into the game, when she outplayed the Liberian defence to put the ball beyond the goalkeeper, Makula Konneh, from a Shakirat Moshood crossing. Peace Effiong was close to scoring in the 17th minute, while Moshood…
FOUR teams – Ikorodu City, Nasarawa United, Elkanemi Warriors, and Beyond Limits – have been promoted to the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL). Ikorodu City will be playing in the country’s premier football league for the first time in their history after they alongside the three others secured their slot following the NNL Super 8 playoff. While Ikorodu City and Beyond Limits were the top two in the Southern Conference of the NNL, Elkanemi Warriors and Nasarawa United finished tops in the Northern Conference. Elkanemi Warriors beat Sokoto United 4-1 to emerge second – after earning six points – to…
FOLLOWERS of the Nigeria Premier Football League have applauded the NPFL board for not wasting time in punishing reigning champions Enyimba and leaders Enugu Rangers over the violence which disrupted their potential 2023/24 match-day 35 title decider in Enugu on Sunday, The PUNCH reports. What could have been the biggest game of the season ended embarrassingly at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium when Enyimba players walked off in protest of a late penalty awarded to the hosts and the fans in turn descended on the pitch to wreak further havoc. The league body acted swiftly on Monday by awarding three points…
THE Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh, has summoned the Nigeria Football Federation and demanded a detailed technical report on the Super Eagles’ following their last two disappointing performances during the 2026 World Cup qualifying series in the June window. The Super Eagles managed to secure only one point from a possible six, following a 1-1 draw against South Africa at the Godswill Akpabio stadium in Uyo and losing 2-1 to Benin Republic in Abidjan in their third and fourth games of Group C. These results leave the Eagles with a total of just three points from a possible 12…
THE week 35 Nigerian Premier Football League match between Rangers International Football Club of Enugu and Enyimba Football Club of Aba has become the most anticipated football game in Nigeria if not the whole of Africa. Known as the Oriental derby, the match between the two most successful clubsides in Nigeria has always been a big fixture, but Sunday’s game is even huger with the league title in the balance. With just three games remaining for this NPFL season to come to an end, Rangers is leading the log with 61 points and is closely followed by Enymba and Remo…
THE Super Eagles of Nigeria played out a 1-1 draw with the Bafana Bafana of South Africa at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo. Coach Finidi George opted to start Southampton forward, Paul Onuachu to lead the lines instead of Victor bOnifcae of Bayern Leverkusen, with another surprise inclusion in the likes of Fisayo Dele-Basiru in the heart of midfield. Nigeria were hoping to avoid a third consecutive draw in the Group C World Cup qualifiers, however, South Africa’s Themba Zwane had something else in store as his 28th-minute strike beat Stanley Nwabali for an early lead. Hugo Broos’ men…
ADEMOLA Lookman is delighted to have chosen Nigeria over England for his senior international career, describing it as the best decision he ever made. The 26-year-old Atalanta forward, who is expected to play a key role for Nigeria in Friday’s 2026 Caf World Cup qualifying fixture against South Africa at Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo, said this in an interview with the Times on Tuesday. “I wanted to build a career internationally. The decision was something that I thought about for a long time before making it. To play for Nigeria is an honour first of all and the…