The Match Commissioners’ Appointment Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation has rolled out new criteria for interested football stakeholders to meet in order to be considered for the role of match commissioners in Nigeria’s domestic game.

Rising from its inauguration and inaugural meeting in the Federal Capital, Abuja on Wednesday, Chairman of the NFF Match Commissioners’ Appointment Committee, Alhaji Babagana Kalli announced that henceforth, no individual above the age of 65 or below the age of 30 would be considered for the role.

“In addition, we have now expunged the names of all retired referees from the list of match commissioners. Means of identification would now be by international passport, national identity card of driver’s license, and computer literacy is now a key requirement for anyone who wishes to be considered for the role of match commissioner in Nigeria.”

Earlier, at the inauguration, First Vice President of the NFF, Barr. Seyi Akinwunmi, who stood in for the NFF President, charged the committee to develop workable criteria to drastically reduce the number of match commissioners in the country, as the NFF considered the present number bogus and impracticable considering the number of matches played over a season.

Akinwunmi reiterated that the roles of the referee and the match commissioner are the most crucial in the general management of a football game, and that administrators must regularly seek to improve the policies and methods through which the best hands must emerge, fully prepared, for both roles. “We must also select the very best hands for these important roles without any form of primordial sentiments.”

Also present at the inauguration were the Chairman of Chairmen of Nigeria Football, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau and the Chairman of Referees Committee, Alhaji Sharif Rabiu Inuwa.

Alhaji Ganiyu Majekodunmi, another Member of the NFF Executive Committee, is the vice chairman of the Match Commissioners Appointment Committee, with Timothy Henman Magaji, Bayo Olanlege, Sunday Longbap, Yabagi Baba, Aminu Manmaga, Sabo Abdullahi Dutse, Greg Abang Obuh, Kenneth Nwamuocha, Maurice Mbam and Donald Mbaezue as members. The secretary is Danlami Alanana.  

Nigeria women’s coach Randy Waldrum has admitted knowledge of Cote d’Ivoire’s strengths ahead of the final qualifying round for this year’s  Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco as his side are preparing for Friday’s first leg game in Abuja.

The Super Falcons are eyeing a 12th consecutive appearance at this year’s continental showpiece but must avoid another upset against the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire, who dumped them out of Tokyo 2020 Olympic qualifier in 2019.

Since 2015, the Nigerians are yet to record an outright win in the last five meetings with the Ivorians, but the American tactician is unperturbed as he is motivated by his team’s mood and depth ahead of their first leg this week.

“The spirit in the camp is very high and positive. The players have been looking forward to these matches for some time now and their professionalism has been fantastic,” Waldrum told CAFOnline.com.

“I think we have a good understanding of Cote d’Ivoire and their current side. I’m not big on past history as that is why they call it history. The previous matches have no bearing on this one.

“We recognize the strengths of our opponents and will be prepared for that. Obviously, it’s vitally important to our goals of achieving another FIFA Women’s World Cup berth. Playing the first match at home is important as well to get on the front foot in everything we do.”

Nigeria’s only triumph over the Ivorians in the last five ties came via a penalty shootout after Uchenna Kanu’s late finish cancelled Ange N’Guessan’s opener in the 2019 WAFU Cup final in Abidjan.

Clementine Toure will be banking on the experience of former Barcelona and Tenerife star N’Guessan, while Waldrum is looking up to his array of talents to snatch the vital WAFCON ticket.

“She (Ange N’Guessan) is a good player along with a few others. Having said that our results will depend on the performance of our players,” the former Trinidad and Tobago boss continued.

“We have some talents in our team as well. We also understand how they will try to play against us, and the physical component is one part of it. We will cope with this well and as I said before controlling the game can eliminate some of those issues.”

In October, the African champions advanced on a 2-1 aggregate win over Ghana despite a 1-0 second-leg loss in Accra, which marked their first-ever defeat in the history of the WAFCON qualifiers.

On the historic loss, the 65-year-old gaffer reflected on the misadventure against the Black Queens in Accra but is upbeat they can put up an improved display against the Ivorians.

“Ghana were a very good side and getting past them was one hurdle. We didn’t control the game against Ghana as well as we should apart from the first half of the home leg,” he admitted.

“As I said before, getting past Cote d’Ivoire means we continue on our goal of achieving the Women’s World Cup qualification. So, we must do a better job of this against Cote d’Ivoire.

“Also it always comes down to the players and who is available. Right now we are in a pretty good place with that.”

Nigeria will be at home in the first leg against the Ivorians at the MKO Abiola National Stadium Abuja on February 18 before travelling for the decisive return leg in Abidjan on February 23.

Burundi and Burkina Faso both took a big step closer to securing a place at their first Women’s Africa Cup of Nations after impressive wins in their second-round play-off first legs.

Burundi, who are unranked by FIFA, are now 90 minutes away from the 2022 Nations Cup after they crushed Djibouti 6-1.

Fresh from beating Ethiopia 6-0 over two legs in the first round, the home side raced into a 4-1 lead by half-time in Ngozi, before adding another two goals after the break.

Burkina Faso, also hoping to reach their first major tournament, thrashed Guinea-Bissau 6-0 away from home.

The visitors missed out on qualification in 2018 when they lost to the Gambia on penalties, but look to have effectively qualified this time around after their impressive first-leg win.

Elsewhere, Senegal edged out Mali 1-0, while Zambia and Namibia played out a goalless draw.

Twenty countries face two-legged play-offs to qualify for the tournament in Morocco, with the first legs taking place 16-18 February and the returns between 21-23 February.

Uganda, who were given a bye after Kenya withdrew, and hosts Morocco are already assured of a place at the finals, which will be played from 2-23 July this year.

Africa’s representatives for the 2023 Women’s World Cup will be decided at the Nations Cup, with the semi-finalists all booking spots in Australia and New Zealand.

Women’s Afcon second-round play-off first leg ties

Wednesday, 16 February

• Burundi 6-1 Djibouti (Ngozi)
• Zambia 0-0 Namibia (Lusaka)
• Guinea-Bissau 0-6 Burkina Faso (Bissau)
• Senegal 1-0 Mali (Thies)

Thursday, 17 February

• Togo v Gabon (Lome, 15:00 GMT)

Friday, 18 February

• Zimbabwe v Botswana (Harare, 13:00 GMT)
• South Africa v Algeria (Johannesburg, 14:00 GMT)
• Tunisia v Equatorial Guinea (Solimane, 14:00 GMT)
• Cameroon v The Gambia (Yaounde, 14:30 GMT)
• Nigeria v Cote d’Ivoire (Abuja, 15:00 GMT)

Italy’s Justice Ministry has issued an international arrest warrant for former AC Milan and Brazil striker Robinho after the country’s top court confirmed his conviction for rape, a ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.

The ministry has asked the global police agency Interpol to enact the warrant.

Robinho, whose full name is Robson de Souza, lives in Brazil. The South American country does not extradite its nationals, which means Robinho would only face arrest if he travelled abroad.

A Milan court in 2017 found Robinho and five other Brazilians guilty of gang raping a woman after plying her with alcohol in a discotheque. The conviction was confirmed by an appeals court in 2020 and validated by Italy’s Supreme Court last month.

Robinho, 38, has always denied the charge.

He was capped 100 times by Brazil and played for top European clubs Real Madrid and Manchester City as well as AC Milan

Wilfred Ndidi spoke to the press ahead of his 200th Leicester appearance against Randers on Thursday night ( Image: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)

Wilfred Ndidi is set for his 200th Leicester appearance in the Europa Conference League against Randers and has some big admirers ahead of the summer transfer window

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers has admitted it will cost more than £50million to lure Wilfred Ndid  out of the club.

But despite several leading Premier League clubs such as Manchester United eyeing the ace, Ndidi insists he is settled at Liecester.

And he certainly wouldn’t be available cheaply after Rodgers responded to claims the ace might cost £50million by replying: “He’s worth much more than that.”

Holding midfielder Ndidi is under contract at Leicester until 2024 after joining in January 2017 from Genk.

He has recently moved into a new house locally, has started a young family and is also considering re-joining De Montfort University in Leicester to complete a business and management degree, which he put on hold in lockdown.

“My business degree was on hold as at the time it was during lockdown and then my daughter came.

“It is on hold but I am looking forward to it maybe next year.”

Ndidi has built up a good rapport in midfield alongside classy Belgian international Youri Tielemans at Leicester.

Ndidi added: “I am enjoying every moment. Youri is a great player and a player I love playing with in the middle.

“With his technique we both compliment each other. I am really happy because he is really doing well.

“For the time I am just enjoying the moment as much as possible. We are working with each other to protect the team.

“It has been really good.”

Rodgers, who has also used Ndidi at centre-back, assessed: “He’s been a really important player in my time here for his role“You see the importance of the role I give him in the team in how he protects the others.

“It’s a very young team as well and his experience and physicality helps those players. He’s been absolutely brilliant, whatever role I’ve asked him to play whether it’s centre-half or midfield.

“He gives us great physicality and there’s still lots of areas of his game he’ll improve on.

“I can’t speak highly enough of him. He’s a great guy who trains virtually every day – comes in with a joy to train and work well and learn.

“In every single game he gives his all – he’s been first class during my time here.

“A player of that quality with that mentality, of course you always want to keep.

“But when you have that player he will always attract that interest.

“But he seems very settled here and I know he’s moved into a new house over this last period and seems very happy.

“He’s a pleasure to work with, a good guy and hopefully he can be around the club for many, many years.”

Michael Masi has been removed as F1 race director as part of a restructure at governing body the FIA in the wake of last year’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem announced a series of changes as a result of the inquiry into the controversial end to last year’s World Championship.

Masi failed to correctly apply the rules in a late safety car period and had a direct impact on the outcome of the title race.

Two men will now alternate in the role, while extra help will be provided to officials.

The new race directors will be Eduardo Freitas, who formerly performed the role in the World Endurance Championship, and Niels Wittich, who did so in the DTM German Touring Car Championship.

Masi will be “offered a new position within the FIA”, Ben Sulayem said.

In addition, as part of a wider restructure of race control aimed at providing a calmer environment, direct radio communications between the teams and the race director will no longer be allowed.

In Abu Dhabi, Masi came under pressure from both the Mercedes and Red Bull teams to make decisions in their favour. The huge controversy after the race arose from the fact that he seemed to follow Red Bull’s suggestions, to the advantage of their driver Max Verstappen over Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.

After Masi failed to correctly apply the rules in two ways – over the management of lapped cars and the timing of the restart – Verstappen used his fresh tyres to overtake Hamilton on old ones and win his first world title.

Prior to that, Hamilton had dominated the race and was on course to win a record eighth championship.

An FIA spokesman said the report into the failings at Abu Dhabi would be published at the season-opening race in Bahrain on 19 March.

Teams will still be allowed to put questions to race control, Ben Sulayem said, “according to well defined procedures”.

These are expected to be addressed to a new layer of staff in race control, to keep the direct pressure off the race director.

Freitas and Wittich will be assisted by F1 veteran Herbie Blash, who was the deputy race director under former FIA F1 director Charlie Whiting.

Masi assumed the role of race director when Whiting died on the eve of the 2019 F1 season.

The FIA will add a remote race control that will operate in a similar way to the video assistant referee in football.

Ben Sulayem said he had presented this plan to the teams at a meeting of the F1 Commission on Monday, although this is contradicted by insiders who said that only a vague outline was given there.

He added that it had been given the “full support” of the FIA World Council and Senate.

“With this plan, FIA opens the way for a new step forward in Formula 1 refereeing. Without the referees, there is no sport,” he said.

“Respect and support of the referees is in the essence of the FIA. That is why these structural changes are crucial in a context of strong development and the legitimate expectations of drivers, teams, manufacturers, organisers, and of course, the fans.

“These changes will enable us to start the 2022 Formula 1 season in the best conditions, and our sport will be even more loved and respected.”