Kanu hails Dream Team, Arsenal

Former Super Eagles skipper, Nwankwo Kanu and Nigeria U-23 coach Samson Siasia have lauded the Dream Team after their 0-0 draw against Congo U23, which ensured they qualified for the 2015 African U-23 Championship billed for Senegal.

The Dream Team VI were on the brink of elimination after winning the first leg 2-1, with Claude LeRoy’s team needing just a goal to scale through, but the Nigerians held their nerves to run away without conceding a goal.

Besides congratulating Coach Samson Siasia and the U-23 Eagles after the Congo draw on Sunday, the former Arsenal striker also took time to hail his former club for beating Chelsea to win the FA Community Shield at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.

The 1993 FIFA U-17 World Cup winner and Atlanta ’96 Olympics gold medalist wrote on his Twitter page: “Well done our Nigeria Dream Team. Well done to Siasia and the team.”

Papilo commended Arsenal for their victory. “Well done Arsenal,” he wrote moments after they defeated Chelsea 1-0.

Also speaking after the game, coach Siasia praised his side for getting the job done, though, unhappy they missed some clear cut chances to score.

“Playing a match like this is always difficult, but then I knew our best tactics for this game was to go all out and attack, because if they scored a goal against us, we would be out of the race,” said Siasia as quoted by the NFF website.

“My boys did what I told them, but then we missed a couple of clear chances that are unpardonable. However, we did the job and we are into the African U-23 finals.”

Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, Zambia, Senegal and Gabon will compete in the eight-team tournament that will take place in December in order to find Africa’s three representatives at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Before the African U-23 Championship, the Dream Team will take part in the All Africa Games in Brazzaville, Congo which will be coming up next month.

Also, Nigeria national football teams’ sponsor, Globacom, yesterday commended the Dream Team for qualifying for the African Championship after holding Congo to a goalless draw in Pointe Noire on Sunday.

 Globacom, in a press statement yesterday commended the team for making Nigeria proud.

The Dream Team players held their nerves in the crucial encounter and will now play in the eight-team African Qualifying Tournament billed for Senegal in November alongside the host nation, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Zambia, South Africa and Mali.

“We never wavered in our belief that the Dream Team would qualify, despite the tight first leg result. We are delighted that they did not disappoint Nigerians who supported them all the way,” Glo stated.

The NPFL night matches issue

By Mansur Abubakar

The declaration last week by the chairman of the League Management Company, Shehu Dikko that the Nigeria Professional football will soon be witnessing night matches has attracted a lot of reactions from the game’s ardent followers from across the country.

Some say even though the LMC has made giant strides in the top flight this season, the Glo Premier League is still a long way from such an innovation while others argue it’s something that could be done with little adjustments here and there, let's analys the issue.

The revolutionary idea of a night football game started with a group of students who had played on British Mansfield University’s first football team in 1891 who, eager to showcase their new sport, came up with the idea of playing a game in front of the crowds at the Great Mansfield Fair using the electric light which was invented just 13 years earlier by Thomas A. Edison.

Which shows that though electricity was just 13 years old at the time, Mansfield had an abundance of it that those students could contemplate such a venture in comparison to Nigeria which is yet to get it right ‘electricitically’ in 101 years of existence as a nation.

Going round most of the stadia across the country, it is glaring to see that the most basic element for such a journey, the floodlights are either nonexistent, not numerically enough or are in a terrible state due to years of neglect, talk less of issues regarding powering the grounds.

Now, compare that to what many describe as one of the wonders of modern Europe, the ‘Allianz Arena’ (Bayern Munich stadium) which is the most lighted in the world with over 13 thousand fluorescent lights and with the capacity to change from colours blue, red and white depending on the occasion.

The second issue is that of security, even the most developed countries which has some of the best policing policies and prepares well ahead before night matches are played complain of a surge in crime and thuggish behaviours during those night games.

Your guess is as good as mine regarding how well our police and other security personnel would be able to handle a new phenomenon like this in which there hasn’t been any prior training seeing how some of them perform during ‘daytime’ matches.

For anybody that was present, the Eagles against Chad game at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna during an African Cup of Nations qualifier was a testament to how incapable we are to provide adequate security at grounds, if such laxity can be seen when the country’s national team is playing it won’t be hard to imagine what would happen in the case of ‘fans bad behaviour’ during an NPFL game at night.

Lastly, the league is witnessing a mammoth turn out of fans to watch matches in stadiums like never before which proves the top flight is in an upward spiral but for example how many of the over 8000 fans that turned up for Sunshine stars against Kano Pillars at the township stadium in Akure on 25th June, would have been willing to attend the game at 8.45pm.

The truth is, a situation whereby you are wondering how safe you’ll be and how long it will take to get to the stadium and return (some states have terrible traffic especially in the evenings) will surely put even the most loyal NPFL followers off.

In essence, a huge step like playing night matches shouldn’t be rushed but to be carefully planned on the long term by the LMC thereby concentrating on other short terms achievable objectives in the pursuit of a world class league.