Taribo Recalls UCL Excitement at Heineken Planet

Former Super Eagles defender, Taribo West 

Former Super Eagles defender, Taribo West has become the latest UEFA Champions League emeritus to grace the Heineken Champions Planet and describing his experience in the world's most prestigious clubs competition as akin to a planetary trip.

"It's really one of the greatest experience any footballer can wish to have. The ambience as well as the extra ordinary attitude of the fans, especially when you are playing away from home gives you a feeling that you have come to another planet.

"It was a great honour for me to have played alongside global football greats like Roberto Baggio and the Brazilian Ronaldo when I was featuring for Inter Milan and later AC Milan. Baggio had extra ordinary talent with his ability to inspire other team members," said Taribo.

Many Nigerians will not easily forget the inspirational role that Baggio played in the elimination of the Super Eagles at the round of 16 of the USA '94 World Cup. With barely 90 seconds to end the game, Baggio struck to cancel Nigeria's 1-0 lead and went ahead to smash in the winner in an extra time penalty kick.

Even though Taribo did not make the Super Eagles' team to the USA '94, two years later, he was part of the history-making Nigerian side that became the first team outside Europe in 68 years to win the gold medal in the football event of the Olympics. The high point of their feat was the semi final encounter with Brazil.

"Even when we were down 1-3 at half time, Bonfere Jo (the coach) inspired us in the dressing room, telling us we could still make it. Remember that Brazil had some of the great players like Bebeto, Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo; we too had stars like Nwankwo Kanu, Victor Ikpeba and Daniel Amokachi.

"We grew from match to match and that gave us the edge that we can match Brazil having lost to them in the group stage. We eventually levelled up at 3-3 and scored the golden goal in the extra time.

"After Brazil, we were more confident that we could take on Argentina who also had great players like Ortega, Diego Simone, Roberto Ayala and Cresco. My wish is that Nigeria can raise soon, another formidable squad like the one I featured for in the 1990s," said Taribo West.

Taribo, who has been a regular visitor at the Heineken Champions Planet in the previous seasons, was impressed at the aesthetic value of the exclusive venue on his first visit this season saying it can only get better if Heineken can sustain tempo and continue to raise the bar.

NFF: Sidney Sam May Not be Good for Eagles

Leverkusen’s Nigerian winger, Sidney Sam 

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has cautioned on the reported willingness of Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi to cap Sidney Sam, when it declared that the German born midfielder as not good enough for the national team.

Keshi has not hidden his desire to hold talks in Germany with the Bayer Leverkusen winger on the possibility of making him a Nigerian international.

But NFF Secretary General Musa Amadu, poured cold water on the reported interest by saying that Sam is not as good as the media is making him to look.

“This too much talk concerning Sidney Sam is not necessary as he is not good enough for the Eagles. We have players that are better than him in the local league and in the senior team. Even he is rated the number four-player in his position in German pecking order,” Amadu blasted.

Sam has continued to make the headlines in Nigeria with report yesterday even claiming that the player who had already been capped by Germany at youth levels may have communication problems with his Nigerian team mates, as he speaks no English language.

Even if Keshi eventually initiates the move to land Sidney, Amadu said there is no guarantee that the winger would play a role in Nigeria’s busy programmes in June because the processes of securing his switch will take more than 90 days.

NFF: Sidney Sam May Not be Good for Eagles

Leverkusen’s Nigerian winger, Sidney Sam 

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has cautioned on the reported willingness of Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi to cap Sidney Sam, when it declared that the German born midfielder as not good enough for the national team.

Keshi has not hidden his desire to hold talks in Germany with the Bayer Leverkusen winger on the possibility of making him a Nigerian international.

But NFF Secretary General Musa Amadu, poured cold water on the reported interest by saying that Sam is not as good as the media is making him to look.

“This too much talk concerning Sidney Sam is not necessary as he is not good enough for the Eagles. We have players that are better than him in the local league and in the senior team. Even he is rated the number four-player in his position in German pecking order,” Amadu blasted.

Sam has continued to make the headlines in Nigeria with report yesterday even claiming that the player who had already been capped by Germany at youth levels may have communication problems with his Nigerian team mates, as he speaks no English language.

Even if Keshi eventually initiates the move to land Sidney, Amadu said there is no guarantee that the winger would play a role in Nigeria’s busy programmes in June because the processes of securing his switch will take more than 90 days.

Saintfeit Won't Interfere with Keshi’s Job

Newly appointed NFF Technical Director, Tom Saintfeit 

Any possible clash between the Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi and Tom Saintfeit has been doused after the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Monday night clarified the schedule of duty of the two coaches.

Belgian Saintfeit was last week appointed as the technical director of Nigeria by the board of the federation.

NFF Secretary General, Musa Amadu, insisted Monday night that Keshi will not be submitting his programmes to Saintfeit for vetting, as the Belgian is not the technical adviser to the national teams, contrary to insinuations in some quarters.

According to Amadu, the only authority Keshi will continue to discuss his programmes with for ratification is the technical committee, while Saintfeit will be limited to formulating grassroots developmental programmes for Nigerian football.

“Keshi is the Eagles coach and will not in anyway be reporting to Saintfeit. There will not be any clash whatsoever because his programmes will not pass through the technical director for approval. Saintfeit is expected to resume in Nigeria as soon as possible and the target we have for him is to develop grassroots football in the country. He will not have anything with the Eagles,” Amadu insisted.

The federation scribe said that while Saintfent will keep a home in Abuja, the Belgian will travel the length of the country by conducting coaching clinics and assisting the clubs in their youth training.

“He (Saintfeit) is contacted to conduct clinics for our coaches and work in grooming talents at the grassroots. His job is not on the medium term which means that we should be able to assess his contributions to our football development after many years,” Amadu said.

Saintfeit was once the former coach of Namibia and Kenya and will be placed on monthly salary of $20,000 (about N3.2 million) in his new capacity with Nigeria.

Ferguson: Valencia’s Strike Typified History of Man United

Sir Alex Ferguson 

Sir Alex Ferguson described Antonio Valencia's late winning goal as typifying Manchester United's history after the defending champions beat Blackburn Rovers to go five points clear at the top of the Premier League table.

United dominated the match at Ewood Park but did not find the breakthrough until the 81st minute when Valencia drilled home a cross-cum-shot, before Ashley Young secured a 2-0 victory with a precise finish, reports Goal.com.

"Coming so late in the game, it is an important goal," Ferguson told Sky Sports. "It typifies the history of the club. If you don't try to shoot, you're never going to find out if you can score like that.

"There was amazing power on it. It could have been a cross, could have been a shot, but it doesn't matter. There was great power [on the attempt]."

Sir Alex felt that for all of the possession his team had enjoyed, they had struggled to really test Blackburn goalkeeper, Paul Robinson.

"It was a long night," he admitted. "We just had to persevere and we got our rewards for it. We weren't really creating any clear-cut chances – Wayne [Rooney] had a good free kick saved by the goalkeeper, and there was a lot of great crosses by Antonio that weren't finished off.

"We always had them under the cosh, but we had to be careful of their counterattack. They were dangerous at that point."

Steve Kean's team almost took the lead on the stroke of half-time when David de Gea denied both Marcus Olsson and Grant Hanley with excellent saves.

De Gea had struggled when Blackburn recorded a shock 3-2 win at Old Trafford in December.

"The progress [of De Gea] is obvious, you can see that," Sir Alex enthused. "The boy is growing in stature and confidence and he's always had great ability. He made three great first half saves and that's the kind of threat Blackburn offered to us."

"They presented us with this counter-attack, they try long balls and they're dangerous with that, they're very dangerous. David has kept us in the game. The first half we hit the post, we had a penalty claim that I don't think was [a penalty] and a lot of possession as you saw. Just to get that goal was very difficult with the way that Blackburn defended so deeply."

The 70-year-old manager was not sure that his switch to 4-3-3 had helped United but hailed the club's supporters for playing their part in the Red Devils' important win after around 7,000 of them made the short journey to Ewood Park.

"It [the change in formation] gave us a stability and a security in midfield but it didn't necessarily give us the threat we were looking for," Sir Alex explained. "Ryan Giggs coming on made a difference and certainly Ashley Young coming on made a big, big difference.

"The fans were fantastic, they were unbelievable. They deserve the result tonight because they never stopped, they urged us on the whole way. They almost sucked that ball in [to the goal]. It's frustrating at the end of matches sometimes and that's where it was right tonight."

The result puts United in control as it looks to defend its Premier League title, giving it the opportunity to, at least briefly, go eight points clear at the top when it plays QPR on Sunday.

"We've scored more goals, which is a big step for us – the goal difference deficit has gone down to only one goal," Sir Alex added. "It could come to goal difference, who knows. It's significant that we've now scored more goals than Manchester City. We look as if we can score.

"We've still got seven games left and my experience of these situations is that it doesn't matter what the points total is at the moment – what is really important is trying to win Sunday's game."

UEFA League: Stage Set for Barca Milan Battle Royal

Barca's Lionel Messi tussles with Clarence Seeforf of AC Milan during their first leg at the San Siro 

The clash between European nobles Barcelona and AC Milan looks the only wide-open Champions League quarter-final second leg this week with Real Madrid and Bayern Munich all but through and Chelsea in good shape.

Holders Barca drew 0-0 in Milan in the first match last week and Pep Guardiola’s side remain favourites to advance but a score draw for the Serie A champions on Tuesday would cause a right royal upset.

Fellow European gentry Bayern will be highly confident of progressing on Tuesday against Olympique Marseille having won 2-0 in France last week while possible semi-final opponents Real welcome APOEL Nicosia on Wednesday holding a 3-0 lead.

Chelsea are 1-0 up with a home game to come against Benfica on Wednesday and the London team’s improvement under interim coach Roberto Di Matteo, with even Fernando Torres creating and scoring goals, suggests they ought to go through.

Most eyes are therefore focused on the Nou Camp where Barca - lauded by many pundits as the greatest club side of all - take on seven-times European champions Milan and former striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Milan looked like the away side for much of last week’s game at the San Siro but they kept Barca and World Player of the Year, Lionel Messi at bay while also going close through Ibrahimovic and Brazilian Robinho.

“It is the most important match of the year and at the same time the most beautiful one,” Guardiola told reporters after a 2-0 home win over Athletic Bilbao in La Liga at the weekend.

“Bilbao don’t defend, they come at you. It’s completely different from Milan, it’s like night and day.”

Milan boss, Massimiliano Allegri vowed to attack Barca last week but it did not turn out that way as the old Italian defensive traits shone through.

He said they should go for goals in the second leg and with the prospect of Barca drawing a blank in two straight Champions League games unthinkable, Allegri’s assertion makes sense if his side listen to him this time and do not try for a 0-0 result and penalties.

Sweden striker, Ibrahimovic would dearly love to score at the Nou Camp and eliminate his former team having left Barca under a cloud 18 months ago when falling out with Guardiola.

Torres looked to have fallen out with football after an extended spell of poor form but he expertly set up Salomon Kalou for the winner at Benfica and then scored in the weekend Premier League triumph at Aston Villa.

The Spaniard hopes to keep his place on Wednesday with Didier Drogba troubled by a foot problem. Former Benfica defender, David Luiz is also a doubt.

Benfica must believe they can turn the tie around but Marseille and Cypriot underdogs APOEL, overwhelmed just to have reached this stage, are ready to kiss the competition goodnight.

Didier Deschamps’s Marseille performed a near-miracle in making the knockout stages thanks to a late goal in their 3-2 victory at Borussia Dortmund, their second group win over the Bundesliga champions.

However, the last 16 conquerors of 2010 winners Inter Milan face a seemingly impossible task against another German side given they need to win 3-0 at Bayern who are in fine form thanks to the recent brilliance of Mario Gomez and Arjen Robben.

Jupp Heynckes’s side are also desperate to reach May’s final in their own stadium.

Brazil Senators Want to Talk to Blatter over W’Cup

FIFA Scribe, Jerome Valcke (L) with Brazil’s Sports Minister, Aldo Rebelo 

Brazil’s senate will make another invitation to FIFA President, Sepp Blatter to visit the country to discuss passage of a vital World Cup bill after he initially asked Secretary General Jerome Valcke to go instead.

The senate wants Blatter to speak to a congressional commission which is debating a contentious bill that gives FIFA the needed guarantees to organize the World Cup. Among the issues in the bill is changing the law to allow alcohol sales in stadiums, reports The Associated Press.

The commission was scheduled to meet next week, but the senate’s press office said Monday the date is likely to be postponed.
If Valcke comes, it would be his first visit to Brazil since his harsh comments over the country’s slow preparations ignited a spat with the local government.

FIFA did not immediately return an email message requesting confirmation of Valcke’s visit, and it remained unclear if the secretary general would also travel to inspect host cities preparing for the World Cup and next year’s Confederations Cup. Valcke’s planned visit last month was cancelled after his complaints prompted Brazil’s Sports Minister Aldo Rebelo to tell FIFA that the government was going to cut ties with Valcke.

Blatter and Valcke apologized to Brazil, but the FIFA president said recently that Valcke would remain the person in charge of working with the local government to prepare Brazil for football’s showcase event.

Although the Brazilian government accepted the apologies, some congressmen openly said that they would rather see the government dealing with someone other than Valcke.

Rebelo was invited to speak to the congressional commission on the same day as Valcke but the minister said that he would not be able to make it because of other commitments.

Valcke told Brazil last month that, “You have to push yourself, kick your (backside),” to get preparations going. His words angered many in the country, including congressmen who made it more difficult for the government to approve the bill in the lower house.

Three senate commissions are expected to debate the bill before it goes to the floor for voting, which is not expected to happen before next week.

The proposed law gives FIFA the legal and financial guarantees to organize the event, and football’s governing body wants it approved as soon as possible to keep preparations on track.

Valcke had said FIFA wanted the law in place by the end of March, but the controversy over the sale of alcohol helped delay the vote. Alcohol is not allowed inside Brazilian stadiums but FIFA demands legislation is changed because Budweiser is a major World Cup sponsor. FIFA said Brazil agreed to change its law when it accepted to host the tournament in 2007.

Although text which specifically authorizes the sale of alcohol was removed to expedite approval of the bill in the lower house, the government said the proposed law has other articles that ensure Brazil fulfills all of its commitments made in the hosting agreement.