Nigeria, 15 others Confirm Participation

About 16 countries have confirmed their participation in the forthcoming Commonwealth Intercontinental Under-17 Handball Championship scheduled to take place in Cameroon from August 25th to September 5th. According to a statement released from the headquarters of the continental game in Abuja, the countries that have confirmed participation include the host Cameroon, Nigeria, India, Ghana, Pakistan, Cyprus, Australia, England, Bangladesh and Kenya. This will also involve six other countries that will participate with their female teams.

While speaking on the preparation of the secretariat for the championship, the Executive Director of Commonwealth Handball Association Mallam Attahiru Garba who just returned from Cameroon on an inspection tour said he was satisfied with the facilities he saw on ground. He added that the 16 nations that will come to the championship would have a good story to tell at the end of the day.

“Cameroon is set, going by what I saw on ground there. The championship, which will be the first in recent time, is the spark we need to reunite the handball families that are under the Commonwealth umbrella.”
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that Nigeria will provide two pairs of referees to the championship. They are Bosede Momoh and Ngozi Ezeh for female while Sikiru Ahmed and James Ahmadu would referee in the male categories of the tournament.

This is making history for the country in the sport, because, since after the era of Gen. Ishola William (Rtd) as the President of Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN), Nigeria has not provided two pairs of referees in a major International handball competition.
Arrangements for the tournament include the President of World Handball Federation, (International Handball Federation) Dr. Hassan Moustapha and President of Confederation of African Handball (CAHB) being special guests at the opening ceremony while His Excellency, the President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, would be declaring the championships open. The President of Commonwealth Games Federation (CFG) Mr. Mike Finnel has been slated for the closing ceremony.

Also, it has been confirmed that 1st, 2nd and 3rd position teams would be taking home prize money of $10,000, $7,000, and $3,000 in both the boys and girls category. The screening of teams to ascertain players’ age would be through the MRI. The Medical Committee/Screening Committee is to be chaired by Dr. Lanre Glover who is the 1st Vice President of Confederation of African Handball (CAHB).

Pillars’ bad boys get the rod for attempting to put the beautiful game into disrepute

The Nigeria Premier League has made a precedence of an insolence act by going down hard on Kano Pillars Football Club over the team’s behaviour in the last match of the Super Four tournament on the last day. The incidence took place in the match against Enyimba at the Ijebu-Ode venue of the competition on Sunday. As punishment, some members of the team has been given various, heavy-handed punishment that the League believes would serve as warning to others and a deterrent to the offenders in future.

According to the League last night, a Kano Pillars official, Ali Adamu, is banned from all NPL activities for three years for jumping out of the substitute bench to attack the referee and assistant referee in the match against Enyimba during the match.
The Acting Executive Secretary of NPL, Tunji Babalola, disclosed last night that the punishment also revealed that Sani Haliru, who was in goal for the Kano side also stand banned from football for six months for acts that are not in line with the ethics, rules of the game.

He added: “Kano Pillars will also have to pay a fine of N500, 000 before they are registered for the in-coming season. The team will also be warned to make sure their officials conform to the rules of the game or face further sanctions.

“The vision of the new board of NPL is to stop every act that has the potential to hurt the game. Towards this, no stone will be left unturned to make sure that sanity prevails in the system.”
The ugly scenario occurred, after the winning goal was scored by the Aba side towards the end of the match. Feeling that something was wrong with the way the goal had been scored, Pillars’ players protested to the referee asking that the goal be ruled as coming from offside play, but their plea was turned down.

Rather than continued with the match after their protest had been turned down; as it is expected of a disciplined team in the game, some members of the team went wild. Taking laws into their own hands, they encroached on the field of play and in the process; the Pillars official assaulted the referee.