BARELY 24 hours to the kick-off of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in eight centres across Nigeria, so many grey areas yet to be addressed by the authorities in charge of the cadet football fiesta may mar the tournament.

Our correspondents learnt on Thursday that journalists (local and foreign) are particularly worried that there are no adequate information to boost their work.

They have expressed disatisfaction over why the central Local Organising Committee has not given the competition the expected publicity it deserves.

For example, a Sports Editor in one of the national dailies, complained that information on the opening day of the event were not available to the press.

”We are supposed to have the information needed easily but it is difficult getting things confirmed or knowing what is going on at the sub-seats. It is very bad,” he said.

The opening ceremony holds tomorrow in Abuja but there is no official information yet on the plans by the LOC to entertain the world.

The Chairman of the Ceremonies Committee, Alhaja Ayo Omidiran, was evasive in her response to enquiries by one of our correspondents.

She said, “The truth is we have very limited resources at our disposal but we are determined to put up a superb show on Saturday.

“We have our people working on all aspects of the opening but the show is about surprises and we cannot reveal what to expect on Saturday.”

Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to declare the tournament open at the National Stadium in Abuja before the Golden Eaglets take on Germany.

FIFA is also expected to address the press at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja on its operations on Friday (today).

However, sources in Abuja said the world body might not have kind words for the country’s preparation.

The tournament will end on November 15 in eight centres — Abuja, Lagos, Bauchi, Calabar, Enugu, Calabar, Kano, Kaduna and Ijebu Ode.

It was also learnt that the unit in charge of ceremonies had calisthenics display professionals, participants and dancers camped in Abuja in the past one month.

It was also learnt that the last batch of dancers joined others at the National Youth Service Corps camp in Kubwa, Abuja, on Thursday morning from Lagos.

In Lagos, the media centre of the LOC Sub-seat is yet to be adequately equipped. As at Thursday when our correspondents visited the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere where matches will be played in Group B, there was no computer at the journalists’ work station. This made foreign journalists and FIFA representatives to express dissatisfaction with the development.

When contacted on the issue, Head of Media at the centre, Mr. Ben Alozie, explained that the computers meant for the centre were still awaiting delivery from Abuja.

Alozie said, “I was in Abuja on Tuesday and part of the issues we discussed was how the media centre would be made functional in Lagos. They promised to send the computers immediately but to my surprise, we are yet to receive any confirmation that they have arrived.

“However, we are already making an alternative arrangement and before the games begin tomorrow, computers will be installed at the media centre because we cannot continue waiting for them from Abuja.

“We have already made provision for internet facility and international phone lines at the centre for journalists to work with.”

Apart from the unavailability of adequate facilities at the media centre, accreditation of journalists also poses another challenge.

Many local journalists who besieged the LOC with the view to complete their accreditation process were denied entry into the building by securitymen.

The development resulted in an uproar at a point on Thursday afternoon as angry journalists engaged the securitymen in hot exchanges. The journalists were later asked to come back on Friday (today).

Some of them said they were unable to properly access the portion of the FIFA website where registration was to have commenced. In the alternative, they were asked to fill a form before being accredited.

The Head of Lagos accreditation sub-seat, Mr. Tayo Balogun, said the body was working hard to ensure all legitimate journalists were accredited.

Also, on Thursday, the Mobilisation Committee was to have a concert where musicians like Tu-Face and Sir Shina Peters were to entertain the crowd at the National Stadium in Surulere, as part of building awareness. But as at noon on Thursday, our correspondents noticed that there was no stage for the concert at the venue.

It was learnt that millions of naira was voted for the show.

A football fan, Mr. Tunde Ishola, expressed fear that the Lagos concert might not hold.

”I am here for the awareness concert and after leaving my office at the Island to Surulere, I am disappointed that the event is not holding,” he said.

But it was learnt that a road show could hold in Lagos on Friday (today) morning.

At the exit gate of the National Stadium, an Armored Personnel Carrier was parked while policemen were seen at both the Teslim Balogun and the National Stadium.

Commuters were not spared in the confusion as they were made to spend several hours on the road leading to the stadium. The main road leading to Funso Williams Avenue (former Western Avenue) was closed to motorists by Julius Berger, the contractor handling the construction of the access road to the two stadia.

As at 3pm on Thursday, officials of the construction company were still at work. Our correspondents learnt that the company would leave the area at 12 noon on Saturday shortly before the opening match between Brazil and Japan.

An angry taxi driver, who had spent several hours in the gridlock said, ”This is not fair. Why can‘t this be done in the night or on Sunday? We are spending more time on the road and it is frustrating.”

Source: http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20091023325843

Yeap! I agree the publicity for this under-17 world cup is next to zero.
I just hope we'll be able to host a good competition despite our obvious shortcomings.

This thing is tomorrow??

Heck, publicity is indeed zero for a WC tournament.