Poor outing: Lulu begs Nigerians

28.01.2008

Chairman of the Nigeria Football
Association (NFA), Alhaji Sani Lulu, has apologised to Nigerians over the poor performance of the Super Eagles in the on-going African Nations Cup. Lulu, in an interactive session with Nigerian journalists in Takoradi on Sunday, described the Eagles’ outing as not satisfactory, hence, he was apologising to Nigerians on behalf of the NFA board.

He noted that the board gave the Eagles a very good preparation which Nigerians acknowledged as satisfactory but the players on their part failed to translate it into victory. Lulu said further that what they saw in Malaga, Spain, during the team’s preparation was different from what the team was now putting up in Ghana.

The NFA boss noted that they had talked to the players on what to expect from them tomorrow against Benin, adding that anything can still happen despite the hopeless situation they were now in. He stated that the NFA still had confidence in Berti Vogts and the players, adding that Nigerians should give Vogts sometime to get a formidable team.

“We have confidence in the ability of Vogts as coach to get the players prepared for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers. I beg that he be given time and we on our part will monitor him,” Lulu said. “No doubt, he is a world-class coach and given the circumtances we got him, we could not have got a better coach.

“As for his not staying in Nigeria for a period of 10 days as stipulated in his contract, this is due to the financial constraint we have but I can assure you that when our finances improve, he would stay longer in the country.”

Lulu said despite the present situation, the NFA was committed to qualifying Nigeria for the World Cup and this it intended to achieve with the support of everybody.

Match-fixing: Fabisch ready to cooperate with Ghana

Benin coach, Reinhard Fabisch is cooperating with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) after an attempt was made to rig his team’s African Cup of Nations match against Mali.

Fabisch was approached before last Monday’s game by a man asking if he would help influence the result, while reports on Saturday said Namibia’s players had been offered large sums of money.

Fabisch, who believes he would have been offered money had he accepted the offer, told the Sekondi against Mali, which beat his side 1-0 through Freddie Kanoute’s penalty kick. “The man called again the next morning but has not been in contact since,” Fabisch said.

The German coach immediately informed his players about what happened and asked them to report back to him if they were approached. Fabisch said CAF had not yet asked him to sign an affidavit, although he will if asked to do so.

“Whatever CAF want me to do I am prepared,” he said. Fabisch feels soccer coaches and players have a responsibility to speak out against cheating.“If people just watch and say nothing, it will spoil the sport even more. You know what is going on these days in tennis, in cycling last year.”

Benin lost 1-4 to Ivory Coast on Friday and can no longer qualify for the quarterfinals. The Squirrels meet Nigeria tomorrow in the last group game.