Nigeria’s hoodoo against South American opposition continued when they were defeated 1-0 by Venezuela at the Al Salam Stadium in Cairo on Friday. Yonathan Del Valle’s goal on the stroke of half-time proved to be enough to defeat the Flying Eagles, who had been reduced to ten men five minutes earlier.

The Nigeria Premier League will go on a break after week five matches on October 18 and resume a month later as a result of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup, which the country will host about that time.

Yesterday we started this piece by Professor Emmanuel Ojeme of the University of Benin. Here is the concluding part. Enjoy it.
To worsen matters, some of the athletes who trickle to national sports federations are not usually prepared effectively by the federations to represent Nigeria due to budgetary constraints. Infact, many sports federations are unable to effectively represent Nigeria in international competitions. Boxing Federation had to reduce selected boxers to three for a Milan-based competition, recently.

One of the participating countries in next month’s FIFA U-17 World Cup holding in Nigeria, United Arab Emirates (UAE) have threatened to withdraw from the competition, citing poor facilities at the Kano centre.

Last week former Flying Eagles coach, Tunde Disu told Saturday Vanguard sports that the Green Eagles could still qualify ‘miraculously’ for the 2010 World Cup and urged Nigerians to go into serious prayers for the team.