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  Rivers Utd are the first Nigerian club  to play in the CAF Champions League group phase after overcoming Black Bulls of Mozambique 3-2 on aggregate. The Nigerians suffered a 1-0 defeat penultimate Saturday but won 3-1 at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo on Saturday to become the first Nigerian side to reach the group stage since 2016. It was a tough journey for the Port Harcourt based side as they had to navigate the hard road to success having been runners up in the NPFL last season. Unfortunately, the league champions Remo Stars of Ikenne, Ogun State, lost scandalously 7-1 on aggregate to get knocked out once again. Remo Stars fell 5-1 at home at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta, penultimate weekend and lost 2-0 against Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa in the second leg in Soweto on Sunday. The result showed the gulf between Nigeria and South Africa in the running of football as the National team Bafana Bafana recently qualified for the 2026 World Cup at Nigeria'a expe...

  The over 150 billion Naira PH Airport City Project has been launched in Port Harcourt. The project is a partnership between the Rivers State Government through the Greater Port Harcourt Development Authority and the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria, providing the funding and loans to intending buyers. The project launch took place at the Hotel Presidential in Port Harcourt amid funfair with participants from all works of life in attendance. The Managing Director of Masta Services Co. Ltd.  Builder Ugochukwu Ohuabunwa, in his address, lamented the degeneration of Port Harcourt City, hence the need for " a new city within the city." He added that Port Harcourt, with its strategic location, should compete with Lagos and Abuja in terms of development but has since been left behind. His words:" As the name says, the Port Harcourt City Airport City Project is located at five minutes drive from the airport. It provides a work, live and play and a city within a city. It has so...

  Matches did not go Nigeria way this weekend, underlying the need for a complete overhaul of the system. Rivers United fell 1-0 in Maputo against Black Bulls in the CAF Champions League on Saturday. This was followed by a humiliating 5-1 loss at home by Remo Stars to Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa in the CAF Champions League first round first leg match at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abeokuta. To cap it all, the Flamingos of Nigeria got thrashed 4-1 by Canada in their opening group match in the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup in Morocco. While Morocco is leaving the rest of the African continent behind through the hosting of tournaments and providing topnotch facilities, Nigeria battle with infrastructural decay, poor administration, poor funding, government interference, and poor officiating, the league remains comatose. The recent results showed clearly.' While South Africa qualified for the 2026 World Cup ahead of Nigeria with a largely home based side, Nigeria with an array of for...

No one could have thought of Nigeria being dragged into play off when the draws for the 2026 World Cup were made. Nigeria had South Africa, Lesotho, Benin, Zimbabwe and Rwanda as opponents. But as usual, we like to make things difficult for ourselves when qualification was on  a platter. Only South Africa were the real rivals, not even Gernot Rohr's led Benin. But in terms of quality of players, Nigeria stood head above shoulder to the rest, Your guess was as good as mine as the NFF began to bungle it by dilly dallying on position of the head coach. Jose Peseiro  took the Super Eagles to silver in 2024 AFCON, originally slated for 2023. He was retained despite talks about his firing and led  Nigeria to two costly draws against Lesotho at home and Zimbabwe away before he got fired. A win in those two matches could have changed the course of the qualifiers.   Finidi George also led Nigeria to one draw and a loss to South Africa and Benin, which could later prove f...

The Super Eagles of Nigeria are in action for the final group phase of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers with the hope of automatic qualification. The Super Eagles are now back in contention after almost bungling their chance since the beginning of the qualifiers.  Nigeria drew its first three matches and lost the fourth in what could be described as the worst start int he history of world cup qualifiers. A home draw against minnows- yes minnows- Lesotho kicked off the drab qualifiers and an away draw against Zimbabwe. Then draw against South Africa at home and loss to Benin. A paltry three points from four matches. Hopes seems lost. But as the Super Eagles take on Benin in Uyo on Tuesday, there is hope that a win might prove decisive for Nigeria. CAF wrote to its federating units on March, the letter just emerged recently that since Eritrea withdrew, their results in that group is cancelled. It thus affects the other groups who are expected to produce the best loser in Africa to join ...

  The Super Eagles of Nigeria last night narrowly edged the Crocodiles of Lesotho 2-1 to boost their chances of qualification for the 2026 World Cup, but it might be an effort coming too late. The Super Eagles were characteristically  lacklustre for the first half of the game as they failed to break down the well honed defensive approach of the home side, using the Moses Madhiba Stadium in Polokwane, South Africa. It was captain Williams Troost Ekong who broke the deadlock in the 55th minute after the referee blew for a handball in the Lesotho penalty area. Adams Akor, substituted on few minutes earlier, eased the pressure on the visitors with the second in the 81st minute but the two goal lead lasted just few seconds as Lesotho got one back as goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali failed to deal with a corner kick. He almost cost the team the three points with another hash of a cross  at the death but the Lesotho player  shot wide with a yawning empty net. Happy to get the poi...

All is now set for the second edition of the 10th Senate President U-18 Football Championship with men and women's teams in Abuja, Nigeria's federal capital. The Coordinator of GRASOF, Hon John Ekpeyong, disclosed to newsmen in an interview that the competition would kick off on 9 November at the Old Parade Ground in Abuja. He noted that the competition is to allow footballers at the grassroots from all over Nigeria to showcase their talents. According to the programme of activities, teams are expected to arrive in Abuja on 7 November and accreditation of players and officials to he held on 8 November. The opening ceremony and matches to commence on 8 November until 16 November with the grand finale. Expected at the ceremonies are the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, other dignitaries  in sports and top government officials. Prizes and other gift items have been lined up for teams and individual players. Ekpeyong also called for interested sponsors to reach out to him and oth...