D’Tigers lost a close game in the final stretch of the fourth quarter.

Nigeria’s D’Tigers lost their first qualifying game against Cote d’Ivoire on Friday night at the Palais des Sports Treichville in Abidjan

The Nigerian team, who had suffered three defeats in their last qualifier window, suffered another in the hands of the Elephants, who out-fought them 78-66.

In the first quarter, both teams went tied on 14 points each. But the Elephants took the lead in the second quarter with a 28-22 score. They went further to claim wins in the third and fourth quarters; 18-16 and 18-14, respectively.

Chimezie Metu and Josh Okogie missed three points shots in the final 30 seconds as the Nigerian team became desperate to catch up to the home team, but Côte d’Ivoire capitalised on the misses to extend their lead.

Udoh Udofia, Coach Mike Brown’s representative at the post-match conference, stated that the team will bounce back in their next two games.

Udofia admitted his team fell to the Elephant but said they will make corrections in their next games.

“I want to say they are one of the tough teams in Africa at the moment. They were good tonight, but our guys fell. We have to put it together. There are some things we have to clean up.

“This is the first time we are playing together against this group. We’ll be okay, we just look at the film. We look at the things we did good and things we did bad and correct it.”

Josh Okojie, while speaking about the full-court zone press, said D’Tigers didn’t struggle while playing against such style but needed time to get themselves together.

After their defeat against Cote d’Ivoire, D’Tigers will battle Guinea on Saturday and their last game of the group will be against Angola by Sunday.

Africa Woman in Badminton Award winner for 2019, Oby Solaja as resource person, addresses the participants.

Community Sport and Educational Development (CSED) Initiative a none governmental organisation which has as its focus, sports development at the grassroot has held  two-day badminton clinic at St Theresa’s College, Nsukka, Enugu State.

Done in conjunction with lead partner of the South East Badminton Outreach and Badminton Federation of Nigeria’s zonal representative in the East, Obiageli Edoga Solaja, the clinic had in attendance, 10 schools and 12 games masters and mistresses from schools in Nsukka area.

This is the first training event that is jointly held by the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) and CSED Initiative, as part of the two years’ grassroots badminton development programme that was signed in April 2022.

The goal of this two-day training event is to build the capacity of the games masters/mistresses at the grassroots level and to provide Nigerian children/youths with access to learn the basic skills and technicalities that is required to develop their talent in badminton.

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Students from five boys’ schools and five girls’ schools in the Nsukka zone attended the event. The boys’ schools are; St Theresa’s College, Nsukka High School, Urban Boys Secondary School Nsukka and Community Secondary School Nru.

The girls’ schools are; St Cyprian’s Girls Secondary School, St Cyprian’s Special School, Urban Girls Secondary School and Queen of the Rosary Secondary School Nsukka.

Also in attendance were two mixed schools – Community Secondary School, Isienu and Government Technical College

Customary of CSED, the participating schools received sports equipment.

At the end of the training event, more than one hundred badminton rackets, shuttlecocks and badminton nets were donated to representatives of the schools that attended this training event.

Medals were also presented to some of the students that excelled in the demonstration games.

More than forty participants attended this event and some of them expressed their gratitude to the event organizers for taking their grassroots badminton development event to Nsukka.

According to CSED prime driver, Cornelius Ehimaghe, “grassroots approach is the key to the discovery of natural talents, nurturing and monitoring and eventual development of true elite athletes.”

In his message to the clinic’s attendees, he remarked that “what CSED has done in Nsukka zone is expose students who ordinarily would never have had the opportunity of ever touching badminton rackets as well engage in the actual play.

“And as they have been exposed to the basic skills and technicalities of the game, the seed has been shown and it will sure being forth good fruits and amazing results”, he concluded.  

Tobiloba Amusan of Nigeria finished second in Friday’s Athletissima Diamond League meeting in Laussane.

While many expected the World Record holder to win in Lausanne, it was Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico who finished first, setting a new Meet Record of 12.34s (-0.9).

Though Amusan, who also holds the Commonwealth Record, had a good start in Friday’s star-studded race, she could not power to a strong finish as she did in Birmingham and Oregon, finishing in 12.45s.

Though her time was not good enough for the first position on the night, Amusan did enough to qualify for the final leg of the Diamond League billed to take place in Zurich.

Amusan is the defending champion of the Diamond League trophy and she will hope to retain her title even though she is guaranteed a fierce contest with her rivals

United States’ Tia Jones, who ran a new Personal Best time of 12.47s, finished in the third position behind Camacho-Quin and Amusan.

Delegation of Super Eagles B to Ghana for Sunday’s African Nations Championship qualifying match against the Black Galaxies has arrived in the Ghanaian coastal city, Cape Coast. 

Head Coach Salisu Yusuf is at the head of a contingent that includes 22 players, who will prosecute the home-and-away games against the Galaxies. 

The Eagles B and their officials travelled aboard Asky Airline flight from Abuja and landed in Accra after a stop-over in Lome, before a road trip to Cape Coast.

Nigeria and Ghana clash at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium on Sunday evening in the first leg of a final qualifying fixture for a spot at the 7th African Nations Championship to be staged in Algeria early next year. 

Salisu is in Cape Coast with a total of 22 players, including three goalkeepers, eight defenders, six midfielders and five forwards. 

SUPER EAGLES B IN CAPE COAST 

Goalkeepers: Adeyinka Adewale; Olorunleke Ojo; Kayode Bankole
Defenders: Tope Olusesi; Kazie Enyinnaya; Ebube Duru; Temple Emekayi; Faisal Sani; Samson Gbadebo; Isah Ali; Tosin Adegbite
Midfielders: Babatunde Bello; Morice Chukwu; Chiamaka Madu; Joseph Onoja; Afeez Nosiru; Zulkiflu Rabiu
Forwards: Adamu Abubakar; Chidiebere Nwobodo; Chijioke Akuneto; Ossy Martin; Andy Okpe

As Roma are playing well under manager Jose Mourinho and the Serie A clash against Juventus this weekend will be a tight encounter despite Juve’s dominant record over the capital club, manager Massimiliano Allegri said on Friday.

Juve have beaten Roma in their last three matches and against no other team have they won more top-flight games. They have also won 10 of their last 11 home games against Roma.

However, Mourinho’s Roma have made a perfect start to the season with two wins in two games to sit two points above Juve before Saturday’s trip to Turin.

“Tomorrow is the first direct clash against a Roma side that is doing well,” Allegri told reporters.

“Facing Mourinho again is always a pleasure, he is doing a great job and shaping Roma in his own way. It will be a very balanced match.”

Roma signed former Juventus forward Paulo Dybala in the close season and the Argentine makes his first return to the Allianz Stadium, where he was Juve’s top scorer in all competitions.

“We spent some extraordinary years (together), with his game he made everyone have fun,” Allegri said. “Tomorrow we will meet him again as an opponent, it is a pleasure to see him again.”

Juve are still busy in the transfer market with the club linked with Paris St Germain midfielder Leandro Paredes while Poland striker Arkadiusz Milik has joined on a one-year loan from Ligue 1 side Olympique de Marseille.

“Paredes hasn’t arrived yet and I don’t know if he will arrive,” Allegri said

“We’re very happy with Milik, he has impressive numbers. As regards to his characteristics he can also play with (Dusan) Vlahovic.

“We are waiting for the clearance… which I hope will arrive in the afternoon so he will be available tomorrow.”

Allegri said defender Leonardo Bonucci will not return as he is unwell while new recruit Angel Di Maria is expected to recover from his injury only in time to face Fiorentina next weekend, but goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny is available.

Less than four months after penning an emotional goodbye to Scottish giants Rangers, Super Eagles defender Leon Balogun has joined Queens Park Rangers on a one year contract. The former Brighton & Hove Albion ace parted ways with Glasgow Rangers in June following expiration of his contract. An elated Balogun expressed delight at getting back to action.

“It is a big relief to know I can get back to action and I am looking forward to it,” Balogun told the club’s official website.

We have been speaking for some weeks so I am happy we got it done.

“The manager is one of the main factors for me. When he left Rangers I messaged him and said in terms of a football brain he is one of the best I have worked with.”

Balogun hasn’t played since leaving Rangers at the end of last season but he is confident he can get up to speed quickly as he looks to get his career back on course.

“I have managed to keep myself fit,” he said.

“I haven’t been able to have team training so that is what I will try to catch up with as quickly as possible.

“The foundation of my fitness is there so it really shouldn’t take me long.”

FIFA has lifted the suspension imposed on the All India Football Federation (AIFF) earlier this month due to undue third-party influence, world soccer’s governing body said on Friday.

The lifting of the ban also means that the Under-17 women’s World Cup, which was scheduled to take place in India from October 11-30, will be held in the country as planned.

India’s highest court had disbanded the AIFF in May and appointed a Committee of Administrators (CoA) to govern the sport, amend the AIFF’s constitution and conduct elections that have been pending for 18 months, leading to FIFA’s suspension.

Member federations must be free from legal and political interference and FIFA said the suspension would only be lifted once the order to set up the CoA was repealed and the AIFF administration regained full control of its daily affairs.

Earlier this week, AIFF’s Acting General Secretary Sunando Dhar had informed FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura that the Supreme Court had directed the full repeal of the CoA mandate to ensure the AIFF had full charge of its daily affairs.

“The decision (to lift the ban) was taken after FIFA received confirmation that the mandate of the Committee of Administrators that was set up to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee had been terminated,” FIFA said in a statement.

“FIFA and the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) will continue to monitor the situation and will support the AIFF in organising its elections in a timely manner.” The elections of the AIFF, formerly led by FIFA Council member Praful Patel, were due to be held by December 2020 but delayed due to an impasse over amendments to its constitution. The election is now scheduled for September 2nd.