Zambia and Nigeria are to play in Group C at Mbombela Stadium.

Sipho Sithole, Chief Communications Officer, AFCON Local Organising Committee (LOC), told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Johannesburg that Zambia had requested for the   tickets.

“I must tell you that Zambia Football Federation have asked us that they want 20,000 tickets for their match against the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

“But the federation is also purchasing that volume of tickets for every match that they will be playing,’’ Sithole said.

He said that with only few days left for the 50,000 tickets target for end of November, the LOC was still confident of attaining it.

“Our target for end of  November is 10 per cent of the 500, 000 tickets. We are approaching 45 000 now. So, it is not looking that bad,” Sithole said.

He said that approximately 45,000 tickets sold to date were tickets bought by individuals.

“We still have tickets that have been requested by the 16 participating countries that are purchasing a minimum of 2,000 tickets each.

“So, you can see that we are going to get that target,” Sithole said.

He said that for the opening and closing matches of the tournament which would be played at the 94-000-seater FNB Stadium, at least 150,000 tickets would be sold.

“So, it is not an unachievable target for us,” Sithole said.

South Africa is hosting the continental tournament between January 19 and February 10 in five centres.

“We are set for Bamako and by the special grace of God, we shall secure our qualification to the African Championship,” coach Garba said.

“Our preparations have been thorough and the players know what lies ahead of them and we are confident about our chances going for this match and we pray God crown all our efforts with resounding success.”

Meanwhile, the governor of Cross River State Liyel Imoke has charged the Eaglets to go for an outright victory against Mali on Sunday to secure a ticket to the 2013 African U17 Championship.

“We have seen what  you are capable of doing overtime and I’m  very proud that you have won all your past matches including the 2-0 victory over Mali the last time,” sports commissioner Patrick Ugbe spoke on behalf of Governor Imoke, who has been the team’s chief host for several months now.

“You must therefore go a step further by winning your last game in Bamako to show everyone that your victory over the Malians in Calabar was because you are the better side.”

The overall winners of this match will qualify for next year’s African U-17 championship in Morocco.

Messi, 25, has scored 82 goals this calendar year - just three short of the record set by Gerd Mueller in 1972.

Real Madrid’s former Manchester United player Ronaldo also makes the list, along with Barcelona’s Iniesta.

The winners will be announced on January 7.

Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney, Britain’s sole representative on the initial 23-man list, failed to make it through. His Old Trafford team-mate Robin van Persie also missed the cut, as did Manchester City trio Sergio Aguero, Mario Balotelli and Yaya Toure.

After 50 goals last season in La Liga - including breaking Barcelona’s 60-year-old goalscoring record with a hat-trick in a 5-3 win over Granada in March - Messi is expected to win FIFA’s player of the year award for the fourth successive year.

Ronaldo, who won it in 2008, provides strong competition after playing a key role as Real Madrid edged arch-rivals Barca to the Spanish title.

The Portuguese scored 60 goals in all competitions in the 2011-12 season as Mourinho’s side also reached the last four of the Champions League before being knocked out by Bayern Munich.

He already has 19 to his name so far this term.

Iniesta, a team-mate of Messi’s at Barcelona, was named as the tournament’s best player as Spain won Euro 2012.

There was also a Spanish theme to the Fifa world coach of the year award.

National team boss Del Bosque was nominated for his role in guiding Spain to a successful defence of their European crown in Poland and Ukraine.

Mourinho steered Real Madrid to the league title in 2011-12 while Guardiola is on a sabbatical after leaving Barcelona at the end of last season following a highly successful spell in charge.

“It shows how strong football in Spain is,” said Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke.

“We have seen again what they did at the Euros and it will be interesting to see what happens in the [2013] Confederations Cup.”

The women’s player of the year award includes Brazilian player Marta, who is nominated for the ninth time in a row and has already won the trophy five times.

The Rivers team has increased its total haul to five gold and three silver medals as Team Oyo follows with two gold and one silver medal.

Edward Osim, who had earlier clinched the gold in the 100m sprint also yesterday beat other contenders to the 1000m sprint gold, while Rivers also won the gold in the men’s 4-kilometre Team Pursuit.

Gloria Odiase clinched the silver medal for Team Rivers in the women’s 1000m sprint as Rivers claimed another silver medal through the women’s 4-kilometre Team Pursuit.

Team Oyo’s Joke Durogbade, had yesterday won her second gold medal of the festival when she led in the women’s 1000m sprint.

The Oyo cyclist, it will be recalled, became the first female athlete to win a gold medal in the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival, Eko 2012.

Speaking against the backdrop of the remark by the Sports Minister/Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, during the opening ceremony of Eko 2012, to have two Games, open festival and U-17 National Unity Games (sports festival), Amaju noted that allowing even Nigeria’s foreign-based athletes to take part in the biennial games would raise its standard.    

“I have always been an advocate of open sports festival because it is through that concept that we can make the festival more competitive. It is good to have the junior festival for U-17 athletes too and there must be a connect between the junior category and senior category of the sports festival. This is by elevating the products of the junior festival to the senior level based on performance.

“You can imagine Blessing Okagbare running for Delta State at the sports festival and see the number of spectators she would attract to the stadium; Damola Osayomi competing for Ekiti State; Ajoke Odumosu running for Osun State and so on, that would add glamour to the games. it would also raise the level of competition among the athletes. It is going to be superb if these foreign-based are provided the opportunity to showcase their talents in the colours of their respective states.”

“We can again start discovering other up and coming athletes from the domestic scene after competing with these big names, in fact, you cannot rule out an upset at open festival. The immediate impact of having elite athletes at the sports festival would be easily felt because you would get the athletes to use at the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, All Africa Games and other major championships,” he said.

The former Olympian faulted what he alleged to be poor lightning at the event venue, stating  that the organisers should have contacted experts in the handling of the facilities meant for the festival.

He also pointed at the boxing gloves and head guards as well as the ring being used by the boxers as being outdated and did not match the world standard.’’

“Lagos State is changing the rules guiding boxing at this festival, can you imagine the kind of gloves and head guard being used at the event, they were not meant for amateur boxers at all, they are for professionals. How do you want to get the best from the athletes who are not used to the kits?”,

“The lightning inside the National Institute for Sports (venue of the boxing event) is a wash out, they are w only concentrated on one side while the other areas in shadow. This is not the best way to organise event. The people in charge of boxing just want to mess Lagos up,’’ he noted.

The Edo team will be playing against its counterpart from Adamawa with a mission to advance to the semifinals of the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival tagged “Eko 2012”.

Speaking to Tribunesport after leading her team to a score draw in an explosive match against Ogun female team on Wednesday, Orezimobor will be a daunting task.

“Having played a 1 -1 draw with team Ogun on Wednesday, the whole team knows what is at stake to win the next game against Adamawa team because the outcome of that match means a lot.

“We are not going to allow the 1-1 draw with Ogun to deter us as we need to score more goals like others too, because goals will count in favour of the top teams at the end,” she opined.

The World X1 are chosen by 50,000 strong members of the global players union.

Drogba and Eto’o are named as forwards in a shortlist that has favourites Lionel Messi of Argentina and Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal.

Neymar and Uruguay teammates Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani are also among 15 nominees for three places in the world line-up.

Contenders from South America include Radamel Falcao and Sergio Aguero.

Manchester United teammates Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney, and Aguero’s Manchester City colleague Mario Balotelli represent the Premier League.

France’s Karim Benzema and Mario Gomez of Germany complete the list.

Candidates for other positions had been announced beforehand.

The World X1 will be  announced on January 7 at the FIFA Ballon D’Or gala in Zurich.

The American struggled at the start of the year and went out of the Australian Open in the fourth round.

However, tournament victories in Charleston and Madrid in April and May set up the world number three for a run of 48 wins in 50 matches.

Williams previously won the WTA award in 2002, 2008 and 2009.

William, 31, ended her year by winning the WTA Tour Championships in Istanbul, beating Maria Sharapova 6-4 6-3 in the final.

She finished the season third in the world rankings behind Victoria Azarenka and Sharapova, but could regain the world number one ranking for the first time since October 2010 if she wins the Australian Open in January.

Williams is one of only three players to win the award more than twice in its 36-year history, alongside eight-time winner Steffi Graf and seven-time winner Martina Navratilova.

Chairman of the Local Organising Committee, Ibrahim Buhari, disclosed this at the end of the committee meeting in Bida.

Buhari said 75 per cent of the funds are expected to be generated from corporate bodies while the remaining fund would come from the government. Buhari noted that the 18th edition billed for October 2013 will be largely private sector-driven.

He stressed that the essence of hosting the game was to put the school on the global map and improve on the existing sport facilities in the institution.

“We want to create history by raising the bar that is why we are concentrating more on the private sector.

“We are calling on corporate bodies to partner us by building sports facilities and branding the avenue. Our target is October and we are hoping that the facilities will be ready by then.

The LOC boss revealed that a new indoor sports hall and mainbowl will be constructed while effort is being made to return swimming as as event to NIPOGA after it was dropped at the 17th edition held in Ede, Osun State.

“Work has commenced at the mainbowl with the popular side, we are installing a synthetic track. There will be two tennis court indoor sports hall which will host the ball games. Already, our hostel can accommodate 2,000 athletes but we intend to increase the capacity because of our visitors,” he assured.

Buhari assured that the event would be held in October 2013 as scheduled, adding that more than 60 institutions both Federal and State Polytechnics across the country are expected to participate in the 18th edition.

He further disclosed that participants would compete in 15 different games, namely: Athletics, Handball, Table Tennis, Tennis, Basketball, Judo, Chess And Scrabble.
The rest include Badminton, Hockey, Football, Volleyball, Taekwando, Squash, Rocket And Swimming.

Buhari noted that the committee will encourage students of the Federal Polytechnic Bida to bid for the design of the Logos and mascot of the Games.

He explained that the objective of the school is to finish among the top three in the overall medals table which will be a significant improvement having finished in the 20th position at the last edition which took place in Ede, Osun State.

Lagos State Polytechnic Ikorodu is the defending champion.