NIGERIAN boxer Cynthia Temitayo Ogunsemilore has been suspended from the Paris Olympics for violating an anti-doping rule, the International Testing Agency said Saturday. A sample collected from the boxer “has returned an adverse analytical finding for the specified prohibited substance furosemide,” the ITA said in a statement. Furosemide is classified under “diuretics and masking agents” by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the ITA added. The sample was collected in Paris on Thursday, a day before the Olympics opening ceremony, and reported by a WADA-accredited laboratory on Saturday. “The athlete has been informed of the case and has been provisionally suspended…
Author: Peter Noah KC
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu is asking Nigerian athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympics to remain worthy ambassadors of the country, wishing them well in the competition. Tinubu’s goodwill message came in a Friday statement by his spokesman Ajuri Ngelale. Eighty-eight Nigerian athletes, made up of 63 women and 25 men, will represent Nigeria in 12 sports at the Paris Olympics. “The President assures these bold and courageous ambassadors representing the country of his full support and that of over 200 million Nigerians back home, praying and cheering for their success,” Ajuri said. “On behalf of all Nigerians, President Bola Tinubu sends…
FORMER Super Eagles international, Mikel John Obi has cautioned foreign-born players hoping to have international call-ups not to treat their country of origin as a second option. Obi made this known on his The Obi One podcast on Friday while discussing African talents and their reluctance to represent their fatherland while hoping for other countries to give them a call-up “I’ve talked so much about players not representing their African roots. We’ve held meetings with these kids, with their parents and said, ‘Listen, you are Nigerian, your dad is Nigeria, your mum is Nigerian, why don’t you represent your fatherland,…
THE Super Falcons began their campaign at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on a shaky footing, losing 0-1 to Brazil in their first match. Nigeria came into the game on the back of an impressive showing at the 2023 FIFA World Cup and an eight-game unbeaten run. They started the match well, missing a couple of chances to have taken the lead in the French city of Bordeaux. Many thought the team would go into the tunnel with the lead or at least all square with the South Americans. But Gabi Nunez finished off finely with about eight minutes to…
IT will be a battle of two continental giants when Nigeria take on Brazil in their Paris 2024 Olympics Women’s Football Tournaments Group C opener starting at 19: 00 at Matmut Atlantique Stadium in Bordeaux, France Games on Thursday (today). Undoubtedly, both countries are the undisputed giants of their continents, going by their achievements and will face each other looking to make a winning start to their campaign. While the Super Falcons have dominated African women’s football, winning 11 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations titles, the Seleção have won the Copa América eight of the nine times the tournament has…
ONDO State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has constituted a new board for the Ondo State Football Agency—the supervising body of Nigeria Premier Football League side Sunshine Stars—just as the Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule has dissolved the management of newly promoted Nasarawa United ahead of the 2024/25 season. In a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Ebenezer Adeniyan, which was obtained by our correspondent, Aiyedatiwa appointed former Commissioner for Sports and Youth Development in Ondo State, Bamidele Ologunlowuwa, as the new chairman of ODSFA. “The Governor of Ondo State, Hon Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, has approved the…
THE Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC) has announced Africa’s number one badminton player, Anuoluwapo Opeyori, as the General Team Captain for Nigeria in the Paris Olympics. Opeyori, a standout athlete who has made history as the first Nigerian player to qualify back-to-back for the Olympics will lead and inspire the Nigerian contingent throughout the Games. He won the African Championships and African Games in the singles event in 2019. He also won gold in the men’s single at the 2023 African Games, and a silver medal in the men’s single at Accra 2023. The new General Team Captain was in Tokyo…
AKWA United player and 2023/24 Nigeria Premier Football League Rookie of the Season, Sani Suleiman, has joined two-time Slovakian champions AS Trenčín on a two-year deal, as per All Nigeria Soccer. Suleiman, 17, has signed a pre-contract with the club, which will be activated in September when he turns 18. He joined Akwa United in January from Wikki Tourists and scored 11 goals in 19 appearances to help the Promise Keepers avoid relegation. Suleiman’s impressive performance in the NPFL earned him two nominations for the League Bloggers Award (Player of the Season and Rookie of the Season). He lost the…
FORMER Arsenal midfielder, Alex Iwobi, has released his debut single. By this feat, Iwobi joins the likes of Davido, Wizkid and others in the Nigerian music industry. The single titled, “Don’t Shoot”, was produced by the Nigeria International with fellow footballers Chuba Akpom and Medy Elito. In an interview with Standard Sport, the Fulham player said although his main focus would continue to be football, making music gives him the freedom of being someone else. He described music as “a certain way of just expressing yourself and letting yourself be.” The track’s lyrics, according to Iwobi, was aimed at encouraging…
ISRAEL Adesanya and Asisat Oshoala are two of five Nigerians included in ESPN’s list of the greatest African athletes of the 21st century. Oshoala made the cut as a six-time African women’s player of the year winner, while Adesanya was a former UFC middleweight champion currently striving to reclaim his title. ESPN recently released a list of African talent who have made significant contributions in various sports. Oshoala is famous for her remarkable success at club and country levels, as well as her leadership in women’s football in Africa. Former Super Falcons striker and four-time African Women’s Player of the…
THE Secretary-General of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Tunde Popoola, has said that Nigeria’s medal hopes at the Paris Olympics largely rest on female athletes such as Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume. Despite participating in the Olympics since 1952, Nigeria has only secured a total of 27 medals, including just two gold medals, both won in 1996 in Atlanta. This remains the country’s most successful outing, with Chioma Ajunwa winning gold in the women’s long jump and the football team, led by Kanu Nwankwo, clinching the second at the expense of super powers Argentia and Brazil. “The men dominated previously, but…
THE Minister of Sports Development, Sen John Owan-Enoh, on Thursday, said the Federal Government has approved more than N12 billion as the budget for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Owan-Enoh also told newsmen in Abuja that preparations for the games was on top gear. This newspaper reports that the Paris Olympics is scheduled to hold from July 26 to Aug. 11 in France. Similarly, the Paralympics is expected to be held from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8. According to Owan-Enoh, all hands are on deck to ensure that the approved funds are released to the athletes as soon as…
NIGERIA’s Super Eagles have dropped again by one spot in the FIFA World Ranking to place world 39th in the July ranking. In the ranking table by the world football governing body, the Nigerian team still maintained the 1,498.93 it had in June. The team suffered a massive drop in the June ranking from 30th to 38th after lacklustre performances in the World Cup Qualifying matches. The drop on the global stage in July however did not affect the team’s position on the continental stage as the 5th behind Morocco, Senegal, Egypt and Cote d ‘Ivoire. On the global scene,…
THE Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) has increased its prize-money for the forthcoming 2024-2025 season to N200m. It will be recalled that the winners of the 2023-2024 NPFL campaign, Enugu Rangers, went home with N150 million prize naira. Following the league’s annual general meeting involving the NPFL board and all the 20 clubs in Lagos on Tuesday, July 16, the Chairman of the NPFL board, Gbenga Elegbeleye told reporters that N50 million has been added to the prize money presented last season. Elegbeleye also revealed that the best player and best coach of the season will go home with N1…
REIGNING Nigeria Premier Football League champions Enugu Rangers will begin their quest in the 2024/25 season against newly-promoted side and President Federation Cup champions El-Kanemi Warriors in the first game of the season on Saturday, August 31. Match-day one fixtures for the incoming season were made on Tuesday during the Annual General Meeting of the NPFL board and club owners in Abuja, where the clubs also agreed on the August 31 proposed date for the start of a new season as well as a 38-game format for the league. Chairman of the NPFL board, Gbenga Elegbeleye also announced that the…
PRESIDENT of the Nigeria Football Federation, Ibrahim Gusau, asserts that the federation will later this year organise CAF license C and B coaching courses for men’s football coaches in the country. This is coming on the heels of the CAF license C course exclusively organised for women, which began in Abuja on Monday. The last time a CAF license course took place in Nigeria was in 2017, when about 80 coaches took part in a two-week C license course in Abuja. As the women’s course marks the return of CAF courses to Nigeria, Gusau said two more courses for men…
THE National President, Horse Racing Federation of Nigeria (HRFN), Alhaji Mustapha Abubakar-Bida, says a world cup for the sport will soon be organised in Nigeria. “There will be participation from all the countries of the world like it is being done in Dubai,” Mustapha-Bida told this newspaper on Thursday in Kaduna. He spoke to this newspaper on the sideline of the ongoing four-day of the Hope Renewed 1st year Anniversary Horse Racing Derby. NAN also reports that it is themed: ‘Hope Renewed 1st Year Democracy Derby 2nd Edition Under Division System Race’. The epochal sport meet was organised by the…
AS you read this piece, the world football governing body FIFA has banned Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) side, Katsina United from registering new players for at least three transfer windows. The punishment according to FIFA commenced on June 12, 2024. Except for those who are not conversant with the club’s recent battles with coaches and players over contractual agreements, the punishment from FIFA is not coming as a surprise. Katsina United are becoming notorious for unlawful termination of players and coaches’ contracts. Consequently, when the Players Status Committee of the NFF met to adjudicate on cases, Katsina United featured…
NIGERIAN clubs Enugu Rangers and Remo Stars had mixed luck when the draws for the 2025 CAF Champions League qualifying rounds were made yesterday in Cairo. Enugu Rangers, back in the elite African club competition for the first time since 2017, should be too strong for Zilimadjou from the Comoros in the first round during August. Assuming they clear that obstacle, Rangers would meet Saint Louis of the Seychelles or Esperanca Sagrada of Angola in September, and be favoured to succeed again and secure a group-stage place. Every contender aspires to qualify for the 16-club mini-league phase as that is…
NIGERIA’s representatives in next season’s CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup will know their preliminary stages opponents on Thursday (today) when the draw is conducted. Nigeria Premier Football League champions Enugu Rangers and Remo Stars will both seek passage to the group stage of the CAF Champions League while Enyimba and Federation Cup champions El-Kanemi Warriors will hope to make the group stage of the Confederation Cup. Enyimba are however drawn bye in the first round of the preliminary round of the Confederation Cup as one of the 12 highest-ranked teams in the competition. Nigeria’s other representative in the…