Ezeji tips Lobi Stars, Rangers to scale group stage
CAF Inter-club Competitions
CAF Champions League gold medallist, Victor Ezeji has tipped Nigeria’s representatives in this year’s continental inter-club competitions, Lobi Stars and Enugu Rangers, to scale the group stage of their respective championships. While Lobi Stars are involved in the CAF Champions League, Enugu Rangers are in the Confederation Cup. Both competitions are in the group stage where only two teams would emerge from each group for the semifinals.
Lobi Stars are on four points from four matches having won one, lost two and drawn one game in the Champions League, while Rangers have four points from a win and a draw in the Confederation Cup.
In an interview published by cafonline.com yesterday, Ezeji, who won the CAF Champions League with Enyimba in 2003, said, Lobi Stars have not done badly, adding that the team’s draw with Wydad Athletic Club of Morocco away from home after losing the home leg 0-1 would give them the impetus to perform well in subsequent games.
He said, “If they can get a good result against Mamelodi Sundowns, they would be back on the stream by the time they host ASEC Mimosas in the penultimate match.
“They still have a great possibility of qualifying for the quarterfinals if they can manage their situation very well.”
On Enugu Rangers, Ezeji said the Flying Antelopes have the prospect of going all the way, adding, “we have to applaud their efforts especially in a group with former winners’ Etoile du Sahel and CS Sfaxien.
“In their last game away to Sfaxien, they fought back to draw level less than two minutes after Sfaxien had taken the lead; and that shows the sort of confidence they have. Surprisingly, they are the team to beat despite the presence of the two Tunisian top sides.
“Rangers have so many experienced players in their fold as well as experienced management staff. There is nothing better than blending experience and youth. I expect Rangers to progress to the next stage.”
Ezeji believes Nigerian clubs could excel in the continental if they planned well, saying, “Good preparation is a non-negotiable factor for any club to succeed in continental club competitions. It involves so many things including the quality of your playing staff; travelling arrangements; management of the matches and other minute factors. Any team that prepares well would do well and I can say by and large, the two teams representing Nigeria this time, Lobi Stars and Rangers are coping well despite challenges on the domestic front such as fixture congestion.”
FIFA are reverting to the old behind-closed-doors rules to decide on the hosts of the Women’s World Cup in 2023, writes insideworldfootball.com.
Unlike the ground-breaking open vote held last year among all FIFA’S 211 member nations for the men’s event in 2026, the 2023 women hosts will be decided by the 37-strong FIFA Council which replaced the old tarnished executive committee.
Whether this suggests FIFA views the women’s event as less prestigious or it simply recognises that there has historically been little or no history of corruption surrounding the women’s game is open to question. Certainly FIFA made great play of opening up the men’s vote as part of its reform process so the world knew who had voted for whom. But the women’s World Cup vote will remain a secret ballot when it takes place in March next year.
“FIFA’S statutes explicitly stipulate that the selection of venues for the final competitions of all tournaments rests with the FIFA Council with the exception of the FIFA World Cup, where their power lies with the Congress,” FIFA said in a statement to The Associated Press.