The  president of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) , Alhaji Sani Lulu has paid a surprise visit to injured Super Eagles and Real Zarogoza striker, Ikechukwu Uche in Spain where he is still recuperating from the injury he sustained last year during his club’s match. The NFF boss, who have since returned to the country, was in Spain to fecilitate with the player and assure him of NFF’s support.

While praying for his quick recovery, he advised him not to allow the incident of his injury to weigh him down in his quest to take his game to the next level.

In his respond, the Real Zoragoza forward commended the NFF boss for taking personal interest in his condition, stressing that the visit has encouraged him to put the problems behind and concentrate on his recovery. He said by this gesture, Lulu has further demonstrated his love to all Nigerian players as a father. "This is the first time I am seeing this. Because over the years no football or sports administrator from Nigeria has shown concern to their players whenever they are injure or are in serious problems not to talk of visiting them. So, I am totally excited by this visit and it will go along way to motivate me to do more for the country whenever I am fit again,'' he said.

The Nigeria Football Federation has ordered the immediate disqualification of Davidson Owumi and Brigadier Emmanuel Okaro from contesting the forthcoming NPL elections. This followed a petition written by the chairman of Rangers management board that the nomination of the two candidates from Rangers International did not follow due process, and did not have the endorsement of the club chairman, Mr. Sam Maduka Onyishi as stipulated in Article 'F' of the NPL electoral guidelines. According to the petition dated 8th March 2010 and personally signed by Rangers chairman, Mr. Owumi was accused of fraudulently securing an approval from an unauthorised person on Rangers board. "Owumi is contesting for the office of Chairman of Chairmen when he is not a club chairman. He also went clearly against the electoral guideline which clearly states that a candidate for the NPL elections must be nominated and endorsed by premier league clubs within his zone. But Owumi got his nomination from Rangers FC Enugu from the South-East zone and was endorsed by 3SC Ibadan in the South West zone." The petition said that the zone only endorsed the candidacy of Mr. Joe Amene, and that the south east zone is not interested in contesting for the chairmanship of the NPL.

In response to the petition, through a letter dated 11th March, 2010 with reference number NFF/GEN/138/VOL.1/98, the general secretary of NFF, Dr. Bolaji Ojo Oba accepted all the detailed explanation of the Rangers chairman, ordering that he should be accorded all the privileges of a club chairman, and any action taken on his behalf without his written consent be declared null and void.

The Nigeria Referees Association president, Ahmed Maude has thrown more light on how the board of the NRA under his guide and in conjunction with the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) board successfully curbed the problem of poor officiating in the domestic league, bringing it to the barest minimum.

Speaking to LEADERSHIP WEEKEND SPORTS, Maude admitted that the continuous underrating of the Nigerian referees by both the Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) and the world soccer ruling body, FIFA was due to poor officiating in the Nigeria league which, according to him, many people consider as gross incompetence on the part of Nigeria's referees to handle international matches.

He said after taking over the leadership of NRA from the former president, Dr Sam Jaja, he observed that the only way to restore confidence and sanity to the Nigeria league was to deal with the problem of poor officiating and guarantee fair play where clubs can go away and win  matches if they play well. "When I took over the leadership of NRA, I discovered that there is need to restore the people's confidence in our league by guaranteeing them fair play and good officiating. Before I came on board, it was really difficult for teams to win away matches even though you played better than your opponent. Because then, referees were not paid good money and they were at the mercy of the home team for their feeding, accommodation, transportation and so on, and there is no way they wouldn't compromise.

"To solve the problem, I approached the NPL to take over the indemnity of the referees; their allowances, accommodation, transportation and everything, so that referees would not have any reason to officiate badly. The NPL agreed with our proposal. I commend them for their determination to fight corruption in the league," he explained.

Commenting on the performance of the Nigerian referees in the ongoing 2009/10 Nigeria premier league season, Maude expressed satisfaction with the performance of his men, saying in all ramifications they have faired well this season.

"There have been consistent improvements year-in year-out since we came on board based on the number of home matches lost and drawn. These are pointers that the Nigerian referees are equal to the task, and I'm proud of them, though there is still room for improvement," he said

Against the background of continued denying of Nigerian referees opportunity to handle FIFA and CAF-organised competitions, Maude expressed hope that the youthfulness of new Nigerian referees that got the badge of the world football governing body, FIFA for year 2010 released recently, have  raised hope of seeing a Nigerian referee officiating FIFA and CAF events very soon. "Recently FIFA released the list of its graded referees and on the list, we have some youthful Nigerians. So with this, I am very sure that very soon we will begin to have a Nigerian referee at the centre of FIFA World Cup matches."

On the forthcoming NRA elections, Maude said he will seek second tenure to enable him complete the project he has started. "Since I came on board, I have embarked on many laudable projects in order to reposition Nigeria referees and ensure good officiating in our league. So, I would like to oversee the completion of the project," he declared.

David Beckham has hailed Wayne Rooney as one of the best players in the world after he fired Manchester United into the Champions League quarter-finals.

The England striker scored twice, as he did in the first leg. United beat AC Milan 4-0 to seal a 7-2 aggregate win. Milan midfielder Beckham said: "Wayne is such an exceptional talent. Without doubt he is one of the best players, if not the best, in the world at the moment with Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi."

Rooney was again in irresistible form as United romped past Milan on an emotional night at Old Trafford.

Despite carrying a 3-2 lead into the tie from the first leg at the San Siro, United were grateful for an early Rooney header to settle their nerves and when the front man bagged his 30th club goal of the season just after the break, the hosts went on to win comfortably against the Italian giants. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has challenged the 24-year-old to see if he can surpass the 42 goals Ronaldo bagged in a sensational 2007-08 season.

"That has to be his goal now doesn't it? He continued what he has done all season - he was absolutely sensational. But it was a marvellous performance from all my players, especially in the second half when our second goal effectively ended the contest. When we play with that tempo we're very difficult for anybody to play against. Ji-Sung Park, in particular, showed sacrifice, intelligence and discipline and we needed that against  Andrea Pirlo." Asked who he would like to face in the last eight of the competition, Ferguson added: "With the kind of team I've got, it doesn't matter who we get."