Lagerback rejects new Nigeria coaching deal

LAGOS (AFP) - Swede Lars Lagerback has turned down an offer to continue as Nigeria coach, the national football federation (NFF) confirmed on Friday.

NFF president Aminu Maigari said that Lagerback told him he did not wish to continue in his post despite being offered a four-year deal, with Samson Siasia being lined up as a replacement.

"Lagerback told me he could not continue as the coach of the Super Eagles because he feared that he might not be able to pen a four-year deal that would keep him in Nigeria for that long," Maigari told sports daily Soccer Star.

"He thanked the NFF for the opportunity given him to take the eagles to the World Cup. He said the experience was worth it and that he would always remember Nigeria and her good people."

Maigari added that Lagerback told him that his family played a big role in his decision not to extend his five-month contract.

Lagerback was in charge when Nigeria finished bottom of their first round group at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

However, the NFF agreed to hand the Swede a long-term deal on the evidence of the work he put in within a short time.

The NFF top official also disclosed that Siasia will next month be confirmed as the country's new coach on a four-year contract.

"We have had talks with Siasia. The talks have been fruitful and all things being equal, he will put pen to paper next month subject to negotiations," said Maigari.

"Siasia is the coach Nigerians want and we shall give him all the support to succeed in this new job."

Siasia led the national team to the final of both the 2005 FIFA Under-20 World Cup as well as the 2008 Olympics.

The former Lokeren and Nantes striker is currently handling Heartland FC of Owerri in the CAF Champions League.

The NFF also announced that caretaker coach Austin Eguavoen will lead Nigeria to next month's friendly against South Korea in Seoul, before taking over the Olympic team.

Ethiopia appoint Onoura as coach

(GSM) - Ethiopia have appointed striker Iffy Onoura as their new head coach for the 2010/11 season.

The former Swindon Town manager Onuora has signed a one-year deal and the 42-year-old, who is of Nigerian descent, began his coaching career in 2004 with Walsall.

"It will be a challenge, but one I am immensely looking forward to," he said.

"I have had jobs as an assistant, but I am in charge and at least I will get to do the job my way.

"I have been to watch a few games already and the standard has been impressive.

"We have the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers coming up and we are in a group with Nigeria, Guinea and Madagascar.

"It's going to be a unique experience and I have had a lot of messages of support, which has been great."

Heroes welcome home for Ghana´s national squad

ACCRA (AFP) - Thousands of football fans thronged Ghana's main airport Monday to welcome back home the national team who gallantly and narrowly lost to Uruguay in quarter finals at the World Cup in South Africa.

Kotoka international airport was choked with fans who started gathering as early as six hours before the team's expected arrival.

Even a two hours delay in arrival from 9:30 pm (2130 GMT) would not deter the drumming and dancing fans who eagerly awaited the heroes' return.

There were spontaneous shouts of joy when the South African Airways jet the Black Stars flew in touched down at 11:30 pm (2330 GMT).

National flags were waved at the players as they stepped out of the plane amid a deafening sound of vuvuzelas.

Fans carried placards reading "We love you our heroes, you made Ghana and Africa proud".

Ghana's Black Eagles made it to the quarter finals of the World Cup for the first time equalling the feat chalked up by Senegal and Cameroon, and became the only African team to make that far at the tournament in South Africa.

"You?ve really held high the flag of Ghana and the entire African continent," Nii Nortey Duah, Deputy Minister of Sports, told the players at the airport.

"We did our best but luck was not on our side but we?ll go to Brazil in 2014 to be major contenders," captain Stephen Appiah said.

Kwasi Amponsah, a fan said: "What the boys have done will forever be remembered by the whole world. They displayed quality football only to lose by hard luck".

Rajevac blames bad luck

Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac said Uruguay had all the luck as the Black Stars' South Africa 2010 came to a heartbreaking end when they crashed out on penalties in Johannesburg.

After Diego Forlan cancelled out Sulley Muntari's opener, the match went into extra-time where Ghana were presented with a big chance to book a semi-final spot against the Netherlands.

But after Luis Suarez handled the ball on the line, Asamoah Gyan's resulting spot-kick smashed against the crossbar, leaving the game to be decided on penalties.

"There are no words to express what we feel. This is sport's injustice but I congratulate Uruguay tonight - they were the lucky ones," Rajevac said.

"All I can say is that this is football. At the end we had an historic opportunity to reach the semi-final - we had a penalty but you saw it all.

"The opponents had the psychological advantage in the shoot-out. Everything happened so fast.

"We really had big support and it would have been a fairytale if it ended well for us, but I would like to congratulate Uruguay on reaching the semi-finals."

But Rajevac was in a pragmatic mood despite Suarez's intervention and Gyan's heartbreaking miss.

"I'm very proud. We managed to achieve a great result and the whole of Africa supported us. We didn't deserve to lose in such a way and it's difficult to talk about it at the moment. We had bad luck that's all I can say," he added.

"It was a very difficult game for us because in the previous game we also played for 120 minutes and in the end we had the historic opportunity to reach the semi-final and we had the penalty." (Soccerway)

CAF switch African Nations Cup to odd years

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - The African Nations Cup tournament will be staged in odd years from 2013, an African Football Confederation statement released in Cairo said Saturday.

This means two editions of the African football flagship event being staged within a year as Gabon and Equatorial Guinea co-host it in 2012 followed by Libya 12 months later.

After an erratic early life with odd and even-year hosting, the Nations Cup has been staged biennially during an even year since the 1968 tournament in Ethiopia.

But even-year tournaments meant every second one was held just months before the quadrennial World Cup and some blame this for the poor showing of teams from the continent in the most watched global sport event.

No African team has gone beyond the last eight of the World Cup with Cameroon reaching the 1990 quarter-finals before bowing out to England in a thriller that stretched to extra time.

An El-Hadji Diouf-inspired Senegal emulated the feat eight years ago before becoming a victim of the short-lived 'golden goal' experiment, losing to Turkey during sudden-death extra time.

The statement did not mention qualification for Libya with Algeria coach Rabah Saadane claiming the 2012 elimination competition that kicks off on July 1 will also serve for Libya.

Switching the Nations Cup to odd years has been on the CAF agenda for some time and Cameroon-born president Issa Hayatou told reporters during the 2008 tournament in Ghana that he had no objections.

But the former international athlete who has ruled African football since 1988 does not favour suggestions that the competition be staged only every four years or that it be moved to the middle of the year.

Hayatou views the Nations Cup as a powerful development weapon with host governments committed to delivering at least four modern stadiums for the event, apart from any infrastructure improvements.

And pleas from FIFA president Sepp Blatter for a mid-year Nations Cup have been rejected for climatic reasons with the north too hot and the west too wet to stage the tournament.

The Nations Cup dates infuriate clubs across Europe who lose stars like Didier Drogba and Michael Essien of Chelsea and Samuel Eto'of Inter Milan for up to five weeks at the heart of the season due to African call-ups.

African Champions Egypt move into Fifa top ten