Sports

Qatar 2022: Ancestral Curse On Stadium Made Super Eagles Not Qualify – FCT Inhabitants

Published

4 years ago

March 30, 2022

While the majority of Nigerians are still trying to come to terms with the Super Eagles failure to book a ticket to Qatar 2022 world cup, the original inhabitants of the Federal Capital Territory have linked the poor outing of the national team to the ancestral curse placed on the land where the Moshood Abiola Stadium is built.

The original inhabitants said as long as successive administrations of the FCT feign ignorance to the plight of the people, no football match played there will come out successful until they are appeased by way of compensation.

Recall that the super eagles were held to a 1-1 draw at the Moshood Abiola Stadium on Tuesday, making the team lose out in the qualification bid for Qatar 2022 world tournament.

Shortly after the match, fans who were disappointed with the abysmal outing of the national team stormed the pitch destroying some of the facilities on ground.

According to Lazarus Nyaholo, Secretary Garki Chiefdom in the FCT, “if they like let them play 10 matches on that pitch, they will never emerge victorious because the original inhabitants that were in that location were chased out unceremoniously without compensation and they laid a curse on that land”.

Nyaholo made the revelation on Wednesday while speaking at a town hall meeting on Mining Community Development Agreements CDAs and Inauguration of Community Cultural Ambassadors organised by the Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA).

Speaking further, Nyaholo said the original inhabitants have been reduced to paupers because they have no elected representatives to project their grievances before constituted authorities.

He equally said having no representatives in the Federal Executive Council was also marginalising the original inhabitants of the FCT.

“There is no aspect of human endeavour that the original inhabitants of the Federal Capital Territory are not affected negatively. When you talk of politics you can see the ratio of our representation in the National Assembly only two House of Representatives member and one Senator against what you have three in other states and more than five in the case of the House of Representatives.

” The decision body of the Federal Government of Nigeria, the original inhabitants of FCT are not participants, so whatever decision is taken there, people of the FCT are not taken into consideration because we have no voice there.

“Economically we have been reduced to paupers because our land which is our source of livelihood, you know before the creation of FCT, we were predominantly farmers, now there is no land to farm and each land taken away is not being replaced or compensated for, most times our people are compensated just for the economic trees on the land, but for the landed property itself nobody has ever been compensated and our worries are that the FCT is just about 8000 square kilometres and when its fully developed there will be no farmland in the entire FCT,” the Garki Chiefdom Secretary lamented.

Meanwhile, Executive Director of the Centre for Transparency Advocacy CTA, Faith Nwadishi corroborated the claims of Nyaholo, insisting that the mining sites of the original inhabitants should be protected from encroachment because of their cultural values.

The town hall meeting which later culminated in the inauguration of cultural ambassadors also tutored the people on how to go about protecting their common heritage sites without breaching the law.

She said, “CTA is one of the organisations promoting the rights of the original inhabitants of the citizens of FCT.

“Under the project, we are promoting the cultural rights of the original rights, especially for them to have development agreements that will protect their cultural rights and ensure that they live responsible mining activities.

“In FCT there are nine tribes. We found out that there were people living here, proper lands were not made for the relocation of these people or for the protection of their cultural, economic and political life.

“We have just come from the constitution amendment. Three requirements for the FCT. We have 36 states including the FCT. But as FEC is constituted, we don’t have an FCT representative at FEC.

“Since the creation of FCT in 1976, we have not had an Original inhabitant as minister of the FCT.”

A lot of the cultural sites in the FCT have either been destroyed because of mining, construction”.

Sports

Court Fixes Date To Hear Sala Compensation Dispute

Published

3 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

A commercial court examining the long-running dispute between Cardiff City and French club Nantes over compensation for the death of Emiliano Sala in a plane crash said Monday it would give its decision on March 30 next year.

Sala, a 28-year-old Argentine striker, died when the light aircraft taking him to the Welsh capital came down in the English Channel on January 21, 2019, two days after he had signed for the then-Premier League side. He and pilot David Ibbotson were killed.

The Welsh club took the case to the Nantes commercial court in 2023 to claim compensation for loss of income and other damages suffered by the club as a result of the player’s death.

Following an analysis conducted by an expert appointed by Cardiff City, the club estimated their losses at over 120 million euros ($139.5 million). Lawyers for both clubs made their cases at Monday’s hearing.

The Welsh club argue that Nantes, through their intermediary, agent Willie McKay, were the organisers of the private flight on which the footballer was travelling and that, if the transfer was effective at the time of the accident according to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), it is the organisation of this flight that is at issue.

Cardiff City’s lawyer, Olivier Loizon, told the court Monday, Willie McKay “could not have been unaware of the illegality of the flight”, and argued that the agent had acted with “negligence”.

“Whatever the ultimate cause of the accident, (Sala) should not have been on the flight,” he added.

Nantes’ lawyer, Jerome Marsaudon, insisted Monday the only agent authorised by the club in connection with the transfer was Mark McKay, the son of Willie McKay.

The elder McKay “was simply helping his son, given his extensive experience”, the lawyer said.

“It is sad to see that Cardiff have exploited this tragedy and turned it into a genuine legal farce,” he added. “Nothing in this case justifies holding FC Nantes liable.”

Prior to the start of the hearing, a Nantes representative said the club “have no doubt that Cardiff’s claims will be rejected outright, just like all the others”.

In another case related to the dispute between the two clubs, CAS ruled in 2022 that Sala’s transfer had definitely been finalised at the time of his death.

In 2023, world football’s governing body FIFA ordered Cardiff to pay Nantes the balance of Sala’s transfer fee, which at the time amounted to just over 11 million euros out of a total of 17 million euros.

Sports

Salah A ‘Disgrace’ For Liverpool Outburst – Carragher

Published

3 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher labelled Mohamed Salah “a disgrace” on Monday after the Egypt star’s stunning outburst at Reds boss Arne Slot.

Salah said he had been “thrown under a bus” and had no relationship with Slot after he was left on the bench for last Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Leeds.

It was the third successive game that Salah had been kept out of the starting line-up by Slot amid the forward’s loss of form this season.

In response to Salah’s astonishing rant to reporters, Liverpool axed the 33-year-old from the squad for Tuesday’s Champions League clash at Inter Milan.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Carragher, a 2005 Champions League winner with Liverpool, said: “I thought it was a disgrace what he did after the game.

“Some people have painted it as an emotional outburst. I don’t think it was. I think whenever Mo Salah stops in a mixed zone, which he has done four times in eight years at Liverpool, it’s choreographed with his agent to cause maximum damage and strengthen his own position.

“He’s chosen this weekend to do this now, and he’s waited I think for a bad result… everyone involved with the club (feeling) like they’re in the gutter, and he’s chosen that time to go for the manager and maybe try to get him sacked.”

Salah is a two-time Premier League champion with Liverpool and has also won the Champions League during his iconic eight-year spell at Anfield.

But, although he only signed a new contract in April, Salah hinted he might have played his last game for Liverpool as he prepares to jet off to the African Cup of Nations after their Premier League clash with Brighton at Anfield on Saturday.

Salah has been linked with a lucrative move to the Saudi Pro League and and Carragher added: “What he’s done off the pitch, I think the club have made the right decision in terms of him not going abroad. Whether he will play for Liverpool again, I don’t know.

“I hope he does, because he’s one of the greatest players we’ve ever had, but if you continue like that, and statements like that, if he doesn’t play, who knows.”

Sports

JUST IN: Full Draw For 2026 World Cup Group Stages Confirmed

Published

6 days ago

December 5, 2025

Editor

The draw for the group stage of the 2026 World Cup has been conducted.

It took place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with US President Donald Trump and FIFA President Gianni Infantino in charge.

There will be 48 teams at next year’s tournament, to be played across the United States, Mexico and Canada.

All the participating countries were grouped into 12 groups of four.

Here is the full draw:

Group A: Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Winner Play-off D
Group B: Canada, Winner Play-off A, Qatar, Switzerland
Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland
Group D: United States, Paraguay, Australia, Winner Play-off C
Group E: Germany, Curaçao, Ivory Coast, Ecuador
Group F: Netherlands, Japan, Winner Play-off B, Tunisia
Group G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand
Group H: Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay
Group I: France, Senegal, Winner Play-off 2, Norway
Group J: Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan
Group K: Portugal, Winner Play-off 1, Colombia, Uzbekistan
Group L: England, Croatia, Panama, Ghana