TELL IT

By Onochie Anibeze Uche Ejimofor will never forget that day in Gboko. It could take good space if he were to chronicle his memoirs as team manager of Iwuanyanwu Nationale, once a top side in the continent. In a charged atmosphere, one that was very hostile to all who didn’t support BCC Lions of Gboko, Iwuayanwu were in the stadium to prove that they were the best in the league. Prince Lemmy Akakem was arguably the most prominent football chief at the time and he was chairman of the Owerri side. They had quality players, some of the best in the country. That meant nothing to Gboko and their supporters. You won a match at your own peril there. Those were days the league was rich and reasonably credible. The element of surprise was in the league then and teams won away matches. This and the good football the teams played, brought reasonable crowd to the stadium. But Gboko was a den many dreaded. Uncompromising referees were not spared the intimidation of the fans. Bribery or corruption wa...

By Onochie Anibeze D id you watch the game last night? We lost against a very beatable Uruguay side. Our attacking runs were not good enough. We still don’t know how to put pressure on opponents. We slowed or even broke the game when we should have been very direct. If we played well and lost I would not bother, knowing that we lost to a superior team and I would have hope.” This was a text message I sent to Paul Bassey, our veteran columnist with tremendous experience in the game of football. Bassey is a CAF and FIFA match coordinator. It was hours after Uruguay beat Nigeria 2-1 in the Confederations Cup. He replied this way: [caption id="attachment_352171" align="alignnone" width="412"] Nigeria's squad lines up before the Africa Cup of Nations Nigeria vs Burkina Faso group C football match at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit on January 21, 2013. AFP PHOTO[/caption] ‘ ’Onoch, Publish this and some ignorant people will heap insults on you. I was watching...