By Citizens platform

Bayern Munich has defeated Borussia Dortmund in a 2-1 victory to win the UEFA Champions League Cup at the Wembley Stadium in London Saturday night.

Mario Mandzukic scored Bayern’s first goal on the 6oth minute while Dortmund equalised via a penalty kick by Ilkay Gündogan in the 68th.

Argen Robben scored the second and winning goal for Bayern at the 89th minute.

This is the first all-German Champions League final.

President Goodluck Jonathan will on June 6 launch a new grassroots-oriented sport programme named ‘Rhythm ‘N’ Play’ in Abuja.

The initiative was conceptualised by the Nigeria Academicals Sports Committee, NASCOM as a national mobilisation for grassroots sports development programme.

The head of NASCOM, Yemi Idowu said in Lagos on Thursday that there was the need to reposition sports in order to facilitate mass participation and early discovery of young sport talents at the grassroots.

He added that the Rhythm ‘N’ Play is a brand created by NASCOM “serves as a flagship campaign to drive and revolutionize grassroots sports in Nigeria”.

According to Idowu, the programme would see students engage in sports, music and dance as a way of life. This, he said would encourage mass participation in sports and redirect the energies of the Nigerian youth to more productive pastimes.

He disclosed that “Six major games, including athletics, football, racket games, ball games, Martial Arts and Calisthenics have been selected for the pilot programme”. He added that the programme would be launched in various states if the federation after the Abuja launch.

Rhythm ‘N’ Play will be supported by the National Sports Commission (NSC) and Federal Ministry of Education but driven by the NASCOM.

Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon claims Cristiano Ronaldo could follow Jose Mourinho to Chelsea.

The Real Madrid hit man is set for a summer move away from the La Liga side after complaining earlier in the season that he was ‘sad’ at the Bernabeu.

Ronaldo has been linked with a move back to Manchester United and Calderon, who took the 27-year-old to Spain in 2009, claims they are one of only two Premier League clubs that could afford to land the ex-Sporting Lisbon star.

“There are not many teams that could afford to pay him what he deserves and who can pay Real Madrid what they are asking for. There are three clubs – Manchester City, PSG and Chelsea. I don’t think any other club is going to pay that amount of money for a player.

When asked whether the Portugal flyer was happy at Real Madrid, he said: “Cristiano Ronaldo said he was sad at the beginning of the season. I think the relationship with the current president is not a good one, maybe because the president doesn’t like the players he inherited.

“He did the same with Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder. It was unbelievable that when he came he decided to give them away. Then, the next season, they were playing in the Champions League, in the Bernabeu, against Real Madrid for their respective new clubs.

“Ronaldo wanted to breach his contract. The truth is he didn’t want to extend his contract and it’s only got two years left [to run]. In the last few years it’s a rule that you have to extend the contract or sell. If not, then the player is worth nothing.

“They (Real) are going to negotiate the contract now and they will make a decision. It’s something we will know in a few weeks.

“The president doesn’t need to keep Cristiano Ronaldo to be re-elected because no-one else is in the running.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) on Wednesday disqualified the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) clubs, Sharks and Dolphins from the 2013 Federation.

A release made by the NFF made it clear that both clubs will be barred from taking part as the Rivers State Football Association (home federation of the two clubs) did not adhere to the regulations regarding the preliminaries of the competition.

“The 2013 preliminary matches of the Federation Cup were officiated by unqualified/registered referees. This therefore means that no preliminary matches were played in the state in accordance with the rules and regulations governing the competition,” the release signed by Mohammed Sanusi, Director of competitions NFF organising committee read.

The release further stated that Sharks and Dolphins will subsequently be excluded from the draws of the 2013 Federation Cup.

Meanwhile vice chairman of the Rivers State Football Association, Ominiokuma Kile has moved to explain that certified match referees were not contracted to officiate games in the Rivers State Federation Cup.

Kile said the Rivers FA did not have the funds to foot the bills of the referees.

Dolphins have won the Federation Cup four times while Sharks were losing finalists on three occasions in Nigeria’s oldest football competition.

Super Eagles captain Joseph Yobo alongside his club, Fenerbahce on Wednesday night beat Trabzonspor at the Ankara 19 Mayis Stadium in their Turkish Cup final.
Yobo was on for all 90 minutes as Fenerbahce relied on a Moussa Sow’s 9th minute goal to emerge Turkish Cup kings, thereby making up for the disappointment of losing the Turkish League title to Galatassaray.
Yobo was named as one of the four best centre-backs in the Turkish Super League in the 2012/2013 season.
Yobo is up for the centre-back honour along with Galatasaray’s Semih Kaya, 22; Diego Angelo of Eskisehispor, 27; and Aykut Demir of Gençlerbirliği, 24.
He made 30 appearances for Fenerbahce in all competitions in the just concluded season.

The Supersand Eagles on Wednesday thrashed their Libyan counterparts 8-4 in the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualification in El Jadida, Morocco.

Supersand Eagles captain, Isiaka Olawale and Emeka Ogbonna helped themselves with a hat-trick each in this game at the Mazagan Beach Resort.

The Nigerians were dominant and deservedly went into a 4-0 lead at the end of the first period.

Emmanuel Owhoferia started the rout in the first period before Olawale scored twice and Ogbonna netted once to take the score to 4-0.

Barely three minutes into the second period, Hani scored for the Libyans and Naji Shushan cut Nigeria’s lead to two within seconds.

With just over three minutes left in the second period, Olawale and Ogbonna restored Nigeria’s four-goal lead.

In the third period, Kharif netted for Libya but Ogbonna scored to keep the North Africans under pressure as Nigeria led 7-3.

With three minutes left in the game, Shushan got a goal but Kwara United striker; Abu Azeez made it 8-4 to make sure Nigeria go top of Group B ahead of Ivory Coast who had earlier defeated Egypt 4-1.

The Supersand Eagles face Egypt on Thursday.

Results

Group A

Senegal 7-3 Madagascar

Ghana 2-9 Morocco

Group B

Ivory Coast 4-1 Egypt

Libya 4-8 Nigeria

Nigeria/Chelsea midfielder, John Obi Mikel, is likely to stay away from Nigeria’s exhibition game against Mexico onMay 31.

An official of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) revealed that Mikel has asked to be excused from the tune-up match in order to rest and take care of personal issues.

“Mikel has said he will prefer to be left out of the friendly game against Mexico later this month. He says he will want to just take a rest after a long season with Chelsea and also take care of personal matters at the same time,” said the federation official on Tuesday.

However the 26-year-old midfielder is said not to have made mention of being excluded from the Fifa 2014 World Cup qualifiers against Kenya and Namibia in June.

“Nothing has been said about the World Cup qualifiers. He has only asked to be left out of the friendly against Mexico,” the official stated.

Already, the trio of Victor Moses, Kalu Uche and Gabriel Reuben have opted out of the Nigeria squad ahead of the Fifa World Cup qualifiers and Confederations Cup citing injury concerns.

Nigeria’s Supersand Eagles have been drawn to confront Egypt, Ivory Coast and Libya at this year’s Fifa Beach Soccer World Cup qualification for Africa in El Jadida, Morocco.

The Supersand Eagles will avoid African champions, Senegal in the group stage after their West African rivals were drawn in Group A alongside hosts Morocco, Ghana and Madagascar.

Nigeria head coach, Audu Adamu, is confident his men will reach the last four and also qualify for the World Cup in Tahiti later this year.

The Supersand Eagles will kick off their quest for a third African title at the Mazagan Beach Resort in El Jadida.

Group A

Morocco

Ghana

Senegal

Madagascar

Group B

Nigeria

Ivory Coast

Libya

Egypt

Sir Alex Ferguson has been named the League Managers’ Association Manager of the Year after guiding Manchester United to a 20th title.

By CitizensPlatform

President Goodluck Jonathan on Tuesday evening rewarded Nigeria’s U-17 team, the Golden Eaglets, for coming second at the recent African Junior Championship in Marrakech, Morocco.

The chief coach Manu Garba, received a million naira, while his assistant got N750, 000. Other officials were paid N500, 000.

The president also doled out cash rewards to athletes that took part in the U-18 athletics championship. Gold gold medalists went home with N500, 000, while silver medalists got N400, 000. Bronze medalists were given N300, 000. Their coaches’ received N500, 000 each.