Lazio Set To Offer Eddy Onazi New Contract

SS Lazio coach Vladimir Petkovic is impressed with the form of the Nigeria youth international Eddy Onazi at pre-season training. The 19-year-old will play a vital role for Lazio in the Serie A this season, Italian website Lalaziosiamonoi.it has hinted.

Onazi has shown his versatility at training in the team's summer retreat at Auronzo, playing in central midfield and as a right midfielder. This has tipped the scale in favor of the Nigerian for candidates being considered as replacement for Cristian Brocchi.

Against Torino, Siena, Montebelluna and Top 11 Calcio Club 103 in Lazio's last four exhibition matches, Coach Vladimir Petkovic introduced Eddy Onazi on the field in the second half of each of those games.

The Biancocelesti hierarchy want to extend the contract of the former Under 17 vice - champion which expires at the end of the 2013 - 2014 campaign. Onazi will earn 180,000 euros as annual wages if he accepts the proposal from the club.

Eddy Onazi made his debut for Lazio in the 2-0 win over Atalanta in May, 2012.

Ideye pegs Feyenoord

Brown Ideye stood out in the pack yet again last night and was the hero for Dynamo Kiev as he grabbed the clincher against Dutch club Feyenoord Rotterdam in a UEFA Champions League qualifying match.

The goal monger grabbed the winning goal for his Ukrainian club in the 69th minute.

"We want to progress to the next stage of this competition,” declared the former Sochaux FC of France.

The former hit man has now scored five goals for his team in all competitions this season.

It is a fitting run of form for Ideye, whose wife gave birth to a bouncing a boy Monday.

Compatriot Yusuf Ayila was an unused substitute in the Feyenoord game.

Wenger castigates Chelsea, Man City, PSG, others

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has attacked the mega spending of Manchester City and Chelsea.

Wenger insists his club are still not in the same League financially as their two Premier League rivals despite massive earnings from matchday income at the Emirates.

The Frenchman said: “We consider ourselves in a privileged position because we have a massive income.

“But overall we are not mega-rich because we do not have unlimited resources. A club can buy players like PSG has done or Manchester City or Chelsea, with unlimited resources, but overall football suffers.

“Look at the activity on the transfer market since the start of the summer.

“PSG are ambitious and they have resources and that’s it. We talk always about the same things.

“I don’t think anything is new in that domain. Europe at the moment is like the Titanic but we live in football like nothing matters.

“More than ever we have to run our club in a strict way because it looks like everybody suffers in Europe.

“I would be surprised if football is not touched by it at some stage. If you look at debt in football across Europe at the moment it is quite massive and we have to be responsible.

“We have to be ambitious but also make sure we are not getting in trouble financially.

“It is difficult for us because the wages in some other clubs are very high.

“But of course our players quite rightly compare themselves to the players of the other clubs.”

Regina cleared of drug use

The mandatory second test carried out on three alleged drug-tainted Nigerian athletes in Surrey, United Kingdom, has finally cleared one of them Regina George and she has returned to the Games Village with Team Nigeria.

The other two athletes Loretta Ozoh (100m, 200m and 4x100m) and Vivian Chukwuemeka (shot put) failed the second chance and were asked to go home.

The Team Nigeria doctor in charge of doping matters Dr Kenneth Anugweje confirmed the development.

“Regina is back with the team now. She has been cleared and will compete accordingly,” Anugweje said.

Regina George will compete in the 400m and 4x400m races. All three were found wanting following the drug tests at the national trials in Calabar in June. They were however able to compete in the African Senior Athletics Championship held in Porto Novo, Republic of Benin, in the same month because the results of the tests were only available after the African meet.

In London only Regina and Loretta were involved with the second test. Vivian Chukwuemeka did not contest the result from Calabar despite making press statements alleging that there must have been conspiracy to get her out of the Olympics and announced her resolve to clear her name. It is a second drug scandal for Chukwuemeka who returned from a dope-related ban not long ago and may now get a life ban.

The three athletes were not originally delisted but were asked to vacate the Olympics Camp which is the standard rule.

One of the implications is that Nigeria will lose the top spot from the African meet to Kenya as the 4x100m gold medal will be withdrawn from the log and handed to the East Africans. In the shot put, Nigeria will still retain gold as Chinwe Okoro will be upgraded to first position to make it two gold medals for her at the African championship.

Chukwuemeka had won the gold in the shot put even with Nigerians also picking the second and third spots. Kenya now tops due to superior silver medals won.

Team Nigeria’s medal hunt shifts to Weightlifting... Ekpo Felix ready for babbles

Nigeria’s hunt for medals at the London 2012 Olympic Games intensifies today at the Excel Centre with Ekpo Felix a.k.a Bullet ready to dazzle the all-cheering English fans in his Snatch and Clean and Jerk events in Weightlifting today.

Ekpo, a trojan in the 77kg would be fighting off opposition of lifters from Kazerstan, Samoa, Spain and Great Britain with the events scheduled to start by 10 a.m. Coach Patrick Bassey was upbeat after training yesterday.

“He is good and ready to go. He is a focused lifter who is no stranger to higher events with mammoth crowd’’, the coach said.

The snatch involves lifting the weight above the head in one movement; the clean & jerk allows the weightlifter to raise the weight above the head in two movements.

Each lifter is allowed three attempts at the snatch and three attempts at the clean and jerk, with their best lift in each discipline counting towards their total.

When a tie occurs, the athlete with the lower bodyweight is declared the winner. There are 15 medal events in total.