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Page 47 stories

‘NFF responsible for Oliseh’s stay abroad’

By Mike Oboh @oboh_mike

The inability of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to secure accommodation for the Super Eagles’ Chief Coach Sunday Oliseh has been attributed to his (Oliseh) failure to stay in Nigeria.

Oliseh, who has not settled down in Nigeria since his assumption of office seven months ago, was said to have turned down the decision of his employers to accommodate him in a hotel in Abuja.

The coach, who is on N5 million housing allowance, had requested the NFF to secure accommodation for him in the capital city instead of the option of a hotel accommodation.

A dependable source told Daily Trust in Abuja yesterday that Oliseh was ready to relocate to Abuja to concentrate on his assignment but the failure of the federation to meet part of their contractual agreement was responsible for his decision to remain in Belgium.

The source also said the same applies to his three assistants, whose housing allowance is N2.5million each.

His foreign assistant, Jean Francois Losciuto, on several occasions was stranded in Lagos after returning from national assignment with the team because of lack of accommodation.

Losciuto has to move to Togo to stay with his friend while Alloy Agu and Yusuf Salihu return to their bases in Lagos and Kano respectively.

A top NFF official, who spoke to our correspondent yesterday, said paucity of funds in the federation was responsible for the inability of the federation to secure accommodation for the manager.

He said the federation was ready to accommodate Oliseh in a hotel in Abuja until the funds is available to give them to secure accommodation.

“We are having financial crisis and even at that we are ready to accommodate Oliseh in the hotel till we get the fund but he has not been available for such facility. We had coaches in the past that we lodged in hotels because of funds and we never had issues but the truth is that we still give them the money when we get it without any deductions,” the official said.

The NFF spokesman, Ademola Olajire when contacted said the body was working out the best way to resolve the coaches’ accommodation problem.

“The NFF is working out ways to resolve the coaches’ accommodation problem that is all I can say on that,” Olajire said.

Hazard: Chelsea fear PSG

Chelsea forward, Eden Hazard has admitted Chelsea fear Paris Saint-Germain ahead of their Champions League round-of-16 encounter.

PSG eliminated Chelsea at this stage last term – after the Premier League side had emerged victorious when the sides met in the quarter-finals in 2013-14, and Hazard says they have not forgotten about that disappointment.

“Everybody at Chelsea thought ‘no, not PSG, not them again!’ after the draw,” he told Le Parisien.

“We still have the memory of last season’s tie. We had everything in our own hands to progress, we were playing at Stamford Bridge, PSG were down to 10 players. But we crashed out after conceding twice from a corner, normally one of our strengths.

“And we have to acknowledge that PSG are a team to be feared this season. They win all their games and have some great players in all positions. They are on par with Barcelona and Real Madrid at the moment.

“Teams go to Parc des Princes knowing that they could be in for a thrashing. Could that happen to Chelsea as well? Anything can happen.

Hazard has singled out Marco Verratti as PSG’s key player ahead of today’s first leg and he thinks it is good news for Chelsea that the Italian is unlikely to start after only recently recovering from injury, but he has warned Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Angel Di Maria also pose a major threat.

“Verratti is their main man for me. He is in control and is their engine. Whenever they are having a bad game, he can take them by the hand and unlock the situation,” he added.

Rio-bound swimmers face more drug tests

The world’s best swimmers will face up to seven anti-doping tests in the run up to August’s Rio Olympics.

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) will oversee the initiative after critics said it had not done enough to fight doping.

The testing will mainly be done by leading national anti-doping agencies.

“FINA deserves a lot of credit for embracing the voice of clean athletes,” said United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) boss Travis Tygart.

Figures within swimming suggested the idea for the sport’s leading competitors to be tested between five and seven times ahead of the summer Games.

“Partnering with independent national anti-doing organisations to implement a strategic, global pre-Rio testing plan will help protect athletes’ rights and the integrity of the sport of swimming,” added Tygart.

Teaming up with USADA will be anti-doping agencies from most of the major swimming nations, including UK Anti-Doping.

FINA accepted the plan, which has not been formally agreed yet by every party, after a meeting with Tygart in Lausanne in January.

The promise to test every swimmer ranked in the top 10 times for all 34 Olympic events will represent a significant increase in the amount of testing the sport has been doing, although several stars will be ranked in more than one event.

But some leading coaches have already expressed their concerns to the BBC that the anti-doping agencies of Brazil, China and Russia are not involved.

Those three are currently among the most-tested nations by FINA itself and are all expected to win medals in Rio.

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