Etoile rejects Kayode Olanrewaju

Former Flying Eagles striker Olanrewaju Kayode is still without a club after he failed to impress on trials at Tunisian club Etoile du Sahel.

Kayode is a free agent after his short deal at Swiss club Lucerne was not extended last year.

The hard running striker has featured for Asec Mimosas of Cote d’Ivoire and was linked with several top European clubs after he scored three goals at the 2011 FIFA U20 World Cup in Colombia.

Kayode was the hero as Nigeria won a sixth African Youth Championship in South Africa last year. He has also represented Nigeria at Olympic and U17 levels.

Police called in over Mikel abuse

Chelsea have condemned alleged racist abuse received by John Mikel Obi on Twitter after their 2-2 draw against Juventus in the Champions League.

He took to the micro-blogging website to apologise for the mistake that led to Fabio Quagliarella's equaliser.

However, the midfielder's profile @Mikel12Official has now been deleted.

"We've informed the police and support taking the strongest possible action," said Chelsea, adding the abuse is "totally unacceptable and disgusting".

The 25-year-old tweeted after the game: "If I want to make up an excuse, I can. But, for me, I gave the ball away. I put my hands up, we move on. I'm sorry about the mistake, but there are no excuses."

Chelsea originally said it was just coincidence that Mikel had removed his account from the micro-blogging website, but later admitted the police had been informed.

During the summer, team-mate Ashley Cole allegedly received racial abuse on Twitter after the full-back missed a penalty for England against Italy at Euro 2012.

Mikel Obi shuts down Twitter account over racist abuse

Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has been forced to shut down his Twitter account over racist abuse.

Mikel removed his profile from the social networking site less than 24 hours after his mistake helped cost the Blues victory in the opening match of their Champions League defence against Juventus.

Chelsea tonight admitted that they have informed the police about the tweets.

A statement read: "We've been made aware of racist tweets targeted at Mikel which are totally unacceptable, disgusting and abhorrent.

"We've informed the police and support taking the strongest possible action."

Mikel: Chelsea switched off

John Obi Mikel rapped Chelsea for 'switching off' after they were pegged back to 2-2 by Champions League opponents Juventus.

Arturo Vidal pulled a goal back before the break and Fabio Quagliarella came off the bench to equalise for the Italian champions.

"We started the game well and scored two goals and had the game under control," Mikel said.

"They scored one goal and then in the second half we tried to start the same way as we had in the first.

"It was a cheap goal to give away, the second one for them. I think we switched off, we should have dealt with it properly."

FIFA slams NFA!

Nigeria’s lame duck football government body has been slammed by the World football ruling body, FIFA, who said the country is the third worst soccer developing nation in the world.

According to the Nigeria Football Association Technical Committee member, Adegboye Onigbinde, the ratings were conducted during the annual meeting of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Technical Committee in Seychelles last month and contrary to the series of commendations the NFA has received from the same CAF for its development programmes.

“Let me tell you one thing, less than a month ago, we were in Seychelles for the annual technical committee meeting of CAF and Nigeria was rated one of the worst three countries in terms of football development,” he said.

“Do you know why the rating bothers me? I can show you commendation letters from CAF, and the development programme CAF is running emanated from my recommendations in 1988. Yet, it was my country that was not moving.

“Ghana has trained no fewer than 200 C-License holders, the same with B-License. I was in Ghana two months ago to supervise their A-License, but we are still battling with C-License in this country. I had to overstretch myself to make it a possibility.”

Nigeria failed to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, and the men and women football event of the 2012 Olympics. In 2011, both its men and women teams failed to qualify for the 2011 All Africa Games.

Onigbinde pointed out that the technical department is the nerve centre of football development and urged the NFA to appoint a technical director, as doing so would lead to fashioning out functional technical policies that would lead to football development in the country.

“We all know that football is a technical matter. No matter how good an administrator may be, if the results are not coming, people would certainly call for your head,” he noted.

“But we cannot get good result without a functional, virile technical sector. That is what makes the position of a technical director very vital.

“From the president of the NFA to the messenger, they are there to worship the product of the technical department. So, if the technical department is not properly organised, they are not serious.”