Sporting Lagos has announced the appointment of Abdullahi Biffo as the club’s new head coach.

He will lead the side in the remaining 8 NPFL games until the end of the 2023/24 season.

Biffo takes over from Paul Offor, who was sacked by the club on Wednesday.

The young tactician has managed several top clubs in the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL)

The gaffer has managed teams like Abia Warriors, Kwara United, Katsina United and Niger Tornadoes in the past.

Biffo qualified Kwara United for the CAF Confederation Cup in 2021.

He has also won the State Federation Cup six times and the Nigeria National League title twice.

Sporting Lagos currently occupy 11th position on the NPFL table.

Biffo’s first game will be against his former club, Katsina United at the Muhammadu Dikko Stadium on Sunday.

A statement on the official website on Friday confirms the experienced gaffer as the new head coach.

The statement read; “Sporting Lagos Football Club is delighted to welcome Abdullahi Biffo as our new head coach.

“Biffo’s attacking and possession-based football saw him secure continental football for Kwara United with a 3rd-place finish in 2021. He’s also a six-time winner of the State FA Cup, most recently, twice with Katsina United in 2018 and 2019, and with Kwara United in 2021.

“His experience as a manager has also seen him coach Abia Warriors and Niger Tornadoes in the NPFL. He has led two top-flight promotions, winning the NNL with Niger Tornadoes and Giwa FC in the process. He was also the first-ever coach of FC Dender — today known as Remo Stars.

The Nigeria Premier Football League has rescheduled the matchday 28 tie involving Rivers United and Katsina United.

The match was initially postponed due to Rivers United’s CAF Confederation Cup engagement.

The game has been scheduled to take place on Thursday, April 25.

The encounter is billed for the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Port Harcourt.

NPFL’s Chief Operating Officer, Davidson Owumi, disclosed this in a memo sent to the clubs.

He urged the host to put all necessary logistics in place for a hitch-free game.

Kano Pillars will face last year’s silver medalist Enugu Rangers, in what is undoubtedly the most anticipated match of the men’s Round of 64 in this year’s Federation Cup tournament.

In the same vein, Cup holders Bendel Insurance will play against Stormers Sports Club, the flag bearers of Ogun State.

The pair were drawn together during the national draw held inside the NFF Secretariat on Thursday.

High-riding Shooting Stars of Ibadan must negotiate for a place in the Round of 32 with Solution FC, while two-time CAF Champions League winners Enyimba FC of Aba must overpower Warinje FC from Bauchi, a survivor of the National Play-offs.

At the draw, NFF President Ibrahim Musa Gusau assured that the Federation is committed to restoring the glamour and glitz of the oldest football championship in the land, while also pledging that the integrity of the competition will be maintained all through the men’s and women’s competitions till the Grand Finale.

Also at the draw were NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi; Deputy General Secretary, Dr. Emmanuel Ikpeme; Director of Communications, Ademola Olajire; Director of Finance and Admin, Babatunde Akinsanya; Director of Competitions, Ruth David; COO, Nigeria National League, Dr. Ayo Abdulrahaman; Head of Marketing, Alizor Chuks; Head of Protocol, Barnabas Joro; Head of Women’s Football, Amina Daura; Head of National Competitions, Danlami Alanana; Member, Cross River State FA Board, Barr. Tom Agi; Special Assistant to NFF President, Abubakar Danladi; Special Assistant to General Secretary, Mohammed Ameenu and; Member, NFF Women’s Football Committee, Harry Awurumibe.

Meanwhile, In the women’s draw, Cup holders Bayelsa Queens are up against Bright Future Queens, while Rivers Angels will tango with Ekiti Queens and Delta Queens tackle Fortress Ladies.

Last year’s runners-up Rivers Angels confront Ekiti Queens, with Delta Queens clashing with Fortress Ladies and Edo Queens to battle it out with Kada Queens.

Sporting Lagos FC has confirmed the departure of Paul Offor as its Head Coach.

The Former Warri Wolves assistant join Sporting Lagos in 2023 ahead of the NNL season and help the club gain promotion to the NPFL.

A statement by the club reads: “On behalf of everyone at Sporting Lagos, the club would like to express its gratitude to Coach Paul for his efforts and achievements during his time with the club.

“Coach Paul will forever have a place in Sporting Lagos history after leading us to our first-ever NPFL promotion and winning our first-ever piece of silverware — the Naija Super 8 Competition. The club and fans alike will miss the energy and polish he brought to the touchline.

“Thank you Coach Paul. After reviewing our performance so far this season, the club believes it is the right time to make a change.

“Coach Paul will leave with his assistant coaches, Micah Bello and Edward Green. We are grateful for their time at Sporting Lagos.

“The team will focus on remaining in the top flight with the final eight (8) matches of our inaugural season.”

Meanwhile, according to reports, former Kwara United boss, Abdullahi Biffo has joined the team with eight games to the end of the season.

Ahead of the U17 WAFU B championship, Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets have resumed training for the competition.

The Nigeria Football Federation announced Manu Garba as the coach of the team to replace Nduka Ugbade.

The WAFU tourney will commence on May 17. The competition will also serve as a qualifiers for the Africa U-17 Cup of Nations.

The Golden Eaglets are the defending champions after they defeated Burkina Faso in the sub-regional final two years ago also in Ghana but failed to make it to the U17 World Cup.

Coach Manu has invited 51 players to the camp in Abuja and they will be trimmed down to the required number for competition slated for mid-May in Ghana.

Super Eagles midfielder Alex Iwobi has equaled Nwankwo Kanu’s record for most assists by a Nigerian in the English Premier League.

Iwobi teed up Brazil midfielder, Andreas Pereira for Fulham’s second goal in the 2-0 victory at the London Stadium on Sunday.

It was his 29th assist in the Premier League, same number Kanu amassed during his active days.

Kanu featured for Arsenal, West Bromwich Albion and Portsmouth.

During his time at Arsenal Kanu won the Premier League, FA Cup and Community Shield.

At Portsmouth he won the FA Cup, scoring the only goal in the final against Cardiff City.

The 27-year-old previously played for Arsenal and Everton.

The versatile midfielder linked up with Fulham from Everton last summer.

Iwobi has racked up 25 appearances for the Whites this season with five goals to his name.

It would be recalled that last week Alex Iwobi surpassed John Mikel Obi’s record for the most minutes played by a Nigerian in the English Premier League.

In Fulham’s recent 1-0 home defeat to Newcastle United, Iwobi played the entire 90 minutes, taking his Premier League minutes tally to an impressive 16,289. This remarkable feat eclipses the previous record of 16,218 minutes held by former Chelsea stalwart John Mikel Obi.

Iwobi’s journey in the Premier League began with Arsenal, where he made his debut on October 31, 2015. After quite a successful stint with the Gunners, the versatile midfielder joined Everton in 2019 before making the move to Fulham last summer.

Bendel Insurance head coach Monday Odigie has rejoined the team ahead of their Nigeria Premier Football League matchday 30 encounter against Kano Pillars.

Odigie had been away for some time before it was gathered that the Benin Arsenal coach was in the classroom to upgrade his knowledge.

His assistant, Greg Ikhenoba took charge of the team during his absence.

Bendel Insurance will host Kano Pillars at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium on Tuesday.

The Benin Arsenals suffered their first home defeat in 17 years against Niger Tornadoes last weekend.

Insurance currently occupies the 10th position on the NPFL table.

The Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL, has once again rescheduled the matchday 30 fixtures.

Three games were initially scheduled to take place on Sunday, April 14.

The matches affected are Doma United versus Remo Stars, Bendel Insurance against Kano Pillars and the Oriental Derby clash involving Rangers and Abia Warriors.

The games have now been rescheduled to Tuesday and Wednesday, April 16th and 17th.

“All games for Matchday 30 have now been moved to Tuesday, April 16, except for Doma Utd v Remo Stars that will hold on Wednesday, April 17,” NPFL stated on its X handle.

The remaining fixtures will take place on the same day across all venues.

The Nigeria Football Federation has appointed former U17 World Cup winner Manu Garba as Head Coach of the Nigeria U17 boys, Golden Eaglets.

Garba had, in the same role, led the Golden Eaglets to win the FIFA U17 World Cup for Nigeria in the United Arab Emirates in 2013 – Nigeria’s fourth triumph at that stage.

Garba’s world-conquering squad in 2013 included Kelechi Iheanacho, Taiwo Awoniyi, Isaac Success, Musa Mohammed, Chidiebere Nwakali and goalkeeper Dele Alampasu.

The squad, which finished as runners-up at the African U17 Championship in Morocco after a penalty shootout defeat by Cote d’Ivoire, defeated Mexico 6-1 in their opening game, drew 3-3 with Sweden and hammered Iraq 5-0. In the Round of 16, they ran Iran ragged 4-1, dispatched Uruguay 2-0 in the quarter-finals and trounced Sweden 3-0 in the semi-finals, before they dislodged Mexico by the same margin in the final to lift the trophy.

The former Nigeria international will now immediately resume the role and take charge of the team’s preparations for next month’s WAFU B U17 Championship, taking place in Ghana.

World Football body, FIFA, has congratulated the Super Falcons following their qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Nigeria will return to the Olympics for the first time since 2008 after beating South Africa 1-0 on aggregate in a two-legged encounter, denying the current African champions a spot at the 2024 Olympic Women’s Football Tournament.

Randy Waldrum’s side played a goalless draw at the Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria on Tuesday but it was enough to see them secure qualification for the showpiece in Paris having claimed a 1-0 victory over Banyana Banyana at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja last Friday.

The qualification meant the 11-time African champions ended their 16-year wait to participate at the Olympics.

Meanwhile, The Falcons, ranked 36th in the world, are in a tough Group C in Paris along with World Cup holders Spain, former world champions Japan and Brazil in Group.

Reacting to the success, FIFA on their X handle congratulated the Falcons and Zambia, who also overturned a 2-1 deficit from the first leg at home to beat Morocco 2-0 away and 3-2 on aggregate to pick the continent’s other ticket.

“Welcome to the club, Nigeria and Zambia. The Paris 2024 field is set,” FIFA wrote.

Meanwhile, Spanish football club, Cadiz FC, also took to social media to celebrate the Falcons’ win over the South Africans.

“Congratulations to the Super Falcons on their Olympic qualification for the first time in 16 years. Nigerian pride,” the club tweeted

Super Eagles goalkeeper, Stanley Bobo Nwabali, has made a bold assertion regarding the demeanour of South African players during their recent semi-final AFCON 2023 encounter.

Following a nail-biting clash, which concluded with the Super Eagles securing victory via penalty shootouts, Nwabali shared his observations on the opposing team’s state of mind.

The chippa Unitec goalkeeper, said that South African players, looked scared during their penalty shootout defeat to Nigeria at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Nwabali expressed confidence that Nigeria would prevail if the match went to penalties.

Speaking with FARPost, Nwabali said his coaches’ belief in his penalty-saving abilities.

“When we went to penalty shootouts against South Africa, my coaches said Nigeria were going to win because they know me,” said Nwabali.

“People didn’t know me. Only a few teams in South Africa knew that when you go to penalty shootouts against Stanley, it’s gone.

“You’re finished; just forget about the game. You must give me the man of the match because I will save a lot.

“A lot of Bafana Bafana guys didn’t know me. But maybe they might have seen in the video analysis or asked questions back in South Africa.

“If you look at the eyes of the Bafana Bafana players, they looked scared. If you watched the game and you look at their eyes when taking a penalty against me, they looked scared.

“So, when you’re not confident enough to stand, I know you’re going to fumble in the penalty. I was not surprised by Mokoena’s miss, and I was not surprised by Makgopa’s miss.

“So, these teams like Polokwane, Sekhukhune, Stellenbosch, they know that if you go to penalties with me, it’s finished.

“I’m not praising myself, I always want to keep quiet because I know what I can do.”

Former President of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Amaju Pinnick has backed Finidi George for the vacant Super Eagles coaching job.

Finidi is among the coaches jostling for the Super Eagles top position.

The former Ajax winger handled the Super Eagles in the two international friendlies against Black Stars of Ghana and Eagles of Mali last month.

The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, is yet to name a substantive head coach for the Super Eagles after declaring the position vacant last month.

The NFF made the decision after erstwhile handler of the team, Jose Peseiro, left the post following the expiration of his contract.

The former Ajax winger handled the Super Eagles in the two international friendlies against Black Stars of Ghana and Eagles of Mali last month.

The Enyimba International Coach defeated Black star of Ghana 2-1, before the Eagles of Mali wallop, the Super Eagles 2 goals to nil in Marrakech.

Meanwhile, the 52-year-old was one of the assistants to erstwhile handler of the Super Eagles, Jose Peseiro.

Pinnick has thrown his weight behind the former winger and claimed Finidi has all the right attributes to lead the Super Eagles.

“Even though Jose Peseiro started slowly, the end justified the reason we brought him, so I don’t have any regrets,” Pinnick told Arise TV.

“Under his internship was a player that was once regarded as one of the best wingers in the world, Finidi George, one of the best wingers at a point, a player that had a formal or informal internship as a player under one of the best coaches in the world Luis Van Gaal, a player that at Real Betis, he was excellent. He(Finidi) was at Ajax, and if you know Ajax, they believe in developmental football, where they teach you how to chest, trap, and play the ball again. So he has those virtues, and my opinion is that we encourage him.

“He played two friendly games, he lost one and made negative history because Mali have not beaten Nigeria in over 40 years, and positive history because Nigeria has not beaten Ghana in over 30 years.

“In my opinion, I’ve seen him, I’ve worked with him, I brought him on when I was president as one of the assistant coaches. He has some virtues that we need as a coach. He has leadership, dexterity, and most importantly, humility.

“There’s no encumbrance, if you wave Finidi round, you will not see any encumbrance around him. There are many information and many things I know.

“So what do we do with someone like Finidi that played under some of the best coaches in the world, that also played at that level, and coached one of our indigenous and one most successful teams in Africa? We build capacity around him.”

Shooting Stars of Ibadan recorded the biggest result of Match Day 29 of the Nigeria Premier Football League with a valuable away win over Kano Pillars at the Sani Abacha Stadium.

It was veteran Rabiu Ali who netted the opening goal for the host early in the game and ensured a narrow lead going into halftime.

The Oluyole Warriors resumed the second half on the better side and their efforts paid off early after Taiye Murtala netted a leveller in the 48th minute.

However, Christian Pyagbara continued his impressive form as he netted the winning goal late in the game and secured the maximum for the away side.

Fidelis Ilechukwu of Rangers International and Sani Suleiman of Akwa United has emerged as winners of the 2023/2024 Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) Manager and player of the Month of March award.

The NPFL monthly awards, organised by the LBA, have since 2009, been a platform where the efforts of top performers in Nigerian top flight are recognised.

Under Ilechukwu, Rangers had cruised to an unbeaten run, three wins in five matches, including two away wins at Niger Tornadoes and Heartland, recording seven goals in the process, and climbing to the top of the NPFL table.

Other nominees for the managerial award include; Gbenga Ogunbote of Shooting Stars, Kennedy Boboye of Sunshine Stars and Umar Abdullahi of Akwa United.

Ilechukwu meanwhile becomes the first Rangers tactician to win the managers award this season, having also previously been nominated in October 2023, and February 2024.

For the LBA Player-of-the-Month, Akwa United sani Suleiman, edge Rangers duo of Godwin Obaje and Ejike Ugochukwu and quartet of Adams Olamilekan of Remo Stars, Christian Pyagbara of 3SC, Nenrot Silas of Plateau United for the award.

Sulaiman has shouldered the goal-scoring responsibility for Akwa United since his mid-season transfer to the club.

He is regarded as one of the best signings of the mid-season transfer window after his exploits for Akwa United.

He has already scored six goals in five matches for the Promise Keepers. He netted five times in the month.

In the same vein, Phillip Odubia of Sporting Lagos bicycle kick goal against Remo Stars won the #NPFL24 Fans Goal of the Month for March 2024.

He edges shooting Stars’ Lawal’s thunderbolt against Akwa United, Remo Stars Adam Olamilekan’s beauty against Enyimba on match day 25 and Samuel tiza’s acrobatics against Ranger on match day match day 26.

The Nigeria Premier Football League match between Kano Pillars and Shooting Stars, which was earlier scheduled for Sunday, has now been postponed.

The league organizers on Friday afternoon announced the adjustment in the fixtures, but the reason for the postponement was not revealed.

The game slated for Sani Abacha Stadium will now be played on Monday at the stipulated time.

Gbenga Ogunbote boys will hope to get a positive result against the host who suffered a humiliation defeat on Wednesday against the champions Enyimba International.