Stephen “Bobby Moore” Keshi, was my childhood play mate, my youthful and faithful companion; he was a brother, a teammate and my captain. We ate from the same plate at each other’s houses. We were friends since our preteen age, and followed the same football (soccer) career path. He was personable, shy, humorous, charismatic, and […]
via Paul Okoku Pens Tribute About His friend Steven Keshi — newfanzoneblog
Nigeria’s preparations for Mundial 2014 in Brazil peaked on Sunday evening in Jacksonville, Florida, USA, when ex-national team skipper and one of the pillars of the 1980 Nations Cup winning side, Mathematical Segun Odegbami (MON), visited the team’s hotel and later joined the team at its training ground.
Looking trim and boyish in his jeans top and trousers, Odegbami said he was motivated to come and join the team’s training because of the caliber of players and coaching crew that the team parades. He even threatened jokingly at a point while discussing with team skipper, Joseph Yobo and Coach Stephen Keshi, that he would have joined the session but for the lateness of his invitation letter. “That means we will need double ambulances here”, Keshi retorted.
At the end of the nearly two hours of training, he declared thus “I like what I saw at the training ground, the hunger of the boys, the confidence they displayed and the way and manner the coaching crew conducted themselves. Something tells me history is in the making with this team”.
The team had its last training session on Monday evening in the United States and will depart Tuesday morning for Miami, Florida, from where they will connect and American Airways airliner to Samba land Brazil. The flight from Miami to Sao Paulo is scheduled to be eight hours, according to Team Administrator, Dayo Enebi Achor.
Already, the NFF and FIFA have perfected plans to give the team a grand welcome at the airport, including a media press conference and reception by the city authorities in Sao Paulo, before the team will retire to its camp base in Brazil’s bustling commercial capital.
The Sport Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Lagos Chapter yesterday at its secretariat at the National Stadium Lagos, unveiled Winners Golden Bet.com as the major sponsor for this year’s Lagos SWAN Cup billed to kick off next week Thursday, April 24 at the Legacy Pitch of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
The body also unveiled some of its other partners for the event which include Nigeria Sports Award; Owu Sports wears outfit among others.
Deji Beecroft Assistant General Manager of WinnersGoldenBet.com in his comment said that the company decided to support the SWAN because of the role of the sporting media in Nation building.
“Sports reporting is a very complicated job that needs lots of courage and sense of timing and Lagos SWAN members have done well in reporting events both locally and internationally thereby making it easy for Nigerians to follow happenings in this various competitions across the world, hence our resolve to support this event”. He informed.
Chairman of the body, Fred Edoreh said at the unveiling ceremony which also had in attendance ex-international, Paul Okoku as well as Vice Chairman of the Lagos State Football Association (LSFA) Alhaji Tade Azeez and former Head of Communications, Multichoice, Segun Fayose
“Our new sponsor, Winners Golden Bet.com is a reputable sports business organisation which has shown tremendous capacity and commitment to sports development and provision of added value for sports fans and enthusiasts and we are very happy and extremely grateful to associate with them for the SWAN Cup,” said Edoreh.
Ex-international Paul Okoku
The SWAN Cup designed to promote healthy living and friendship among journalists on the sports desks of the various media houses is the major feature of the Lagos SWAN Week. The week shall also feature a seminar on “Sports journalism and nation building”, a topic which the SWAN chairman says “is most imperative at this point in the development of our nation.”
Meanwhile, the 16 teams participating in this year’s edition of the SWAN Cup have been drawn into four groups of four teams each. Defending champions, Complete Sports; TVC; LTV/Eko FM and Radio Nigeria are in Group A while last edition’s runners up, NTA leads Group B. Others in the group include City FM; Cool FM and Sportsville.
In Group C are former champions, SportsDay; SuperSports; Brila FM and Top Radio while Silverbird; Mastersports; Sky Sports and The Sun Newspapers are in Group D.
Edoreh announced that Team Lagos SWAN will take on Team Nollywood in a novelty match which will herald the opening ceremony of the championship.
Kunle Adeyeye of FRCN Conducting the Draws
Group A
Complete Sports
TVC/Radio Continental
LTV/Eko FM
Radio Nigeria
Group B
NTA
City FM
CoolWazobiaInfo
Sportsville
Group C
SportsDay
SuperSports
Brila FM
Top Radio
Group D
Silverbird
Mastersports
Sky Sports
The Sun Newspapers
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