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SWAN NATIONAL SECRETARIAT

PRESS STATEMENT

*SWAN Issues Disclaimer on Olatutu Oladunni, Bello Omotunde*

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) wishes to categorically disclaim Ms. Olatutu Oladunni and Mr. Bello Omotunde as officials or members of the Lagos State Chapter of SWAN.

This disclaimer has become necessary following their suspension from all Association’s activities through a formal decision of NEC, pursuant to Article 21, Section (1) A and C of the SWAN Statute, which empowers the National Executive Committee to discipline erring officers for acts of gross misconduct. The suspension, which took immediate effect, renders both individuals ineligible to act in any capacity on behalf of SWAN.

The attention of the National Secretariat has been drawn to illegal and self-styled activities being organieed by the suspended duo, including claims of holding or conducting any form of election purportedly in the name of SWAN Lagos State Chapter. The National Secretariat reiterates that such actions are null, void, and of no effect whatsoever.

Security agencies, corporate partners, media organisations, and the general public are strongly advised to desist from recognising or engaging with Ms. Olatutu Oladunni and Mr. Bello Omotunde in any matter relating to SWAN, as their continued impersonation constitutes a breach of the Association’s statutes, and a violation of their suspension order.

For the avoidance of doubt, the National Executive Committee reiterates that the only recognised leadership of the Lagos State Chapter of SWAN remains under the coordination of the Acting Chairman, Mr. Aaron Akerejola, pending the conclusion of ongoing investigations by the Independent Investigation Committee (IIC).

As a professional Association, SWAN remains a law-abiding professional body and shall continue to cooperate with relevant security authorities to ensure that due process, order, and statutory discipline are upheld within its ranks.

Ikenna Okonkwo
Secretary-General, SWAN
October 14, 2025

Do you know why the 2025/26 summer transfer window closes on June 10

Why has transfer window closed and when will it reopen?

The summer 2025 transfer window closed at 19:00 BST on Tuesday and will remain shut until 16 June. We explain why

The summer transfer window closed at 19:00 BST on Tuesday 10 June, which was a mini Deadline Day. However, it will reopen soon.

Why is it closing?
The reason for this unusual, two-part window, is the FIFA Club World Cup, which will begin this coming Sunday, 15 June.

To accommodate clubs wanting to sign players ahead of that tournament, the transfer window opened early, on Sunday 1 June, for an exceptional registration period.

But because FIFA's rules stipulate the transfer windows in a calendar year when combined cannot be greater than 16 weeks, a break had to be inserted.

Therefore the summer's first window closed on Tuesday 10 June at 19:00 BST.

The initial 10-day period applied only to the 20 national associations with teams playing in the Club World Cup to allow them to register players for the group stages of the competition. These associations include England, with Manchester City and Chelsea both participating in the tournament.

The special early opening allowed Trent Alexander-Arnold to leave Liverpool in time to feature for Real Madrid in the competition. The Spanish club also signed centre-back Dean Huijsen from AFC Bournemouth.

While Man City and Chelsea are the only English clubs participating in the Club World Cup, all Premier League teams were able to sign players during the special period from 1 to 10 June.

When does the window reopen?
The summer transfer window reopens next week, on Monday 16 June.

Teams participating in the Club World Cup who sign players from this date can register them for the knockout stages of the competition.

The window will remain open until Monday 1 September at 19:00 BST, a slightly earlier time than the traditional 23:00 BST closing time that has been used previously.

A number of Premier League clubs took advantage of the early window to bring in new players.

Manchester United completed their first signing of the summer by bringing in Matheus Cunha from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Liverpool, meanwhile, signed right-back Jeremie Frimpong from Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen.

Chelsea acquired striker Liam Delap from Ipswich Town, as well as defender Mamadou Sarr.

Man City bolstered their squad for the Club World Cup by acquiring left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

What are deal sheets?
It is not always easy for transfer deals to be completed before the deadline so a deal sheet allows clubs time to finalise agreements.

The deal sheet allows a club to confirm a deal has been reached, giving them additional time to submit the remaining documentation so the player can be registered.

The deal sheet needs to arrive fully completed in the two hours preceding a transfer window closing, so in this instance clubs would have needed to submit it by 17:00 BST on 10 June.

Once the sheet arrives, clubs have got another two hours after the deadline, or until 21:00 BST, in which to submit the full paperwork.

PARIS 2024 : Committee submits report on team Nigeria negative media exposure

Brand awareness comes in different forms, from the exceptional to the ridiculous but in whatever form make sure it works for you. Sai Fillars ,taking NPFL to the world .🥸

N.B : Kano Pillars unveils a new coach in the morning and later disown him in the evening. Things we see in football.

Nigeria VS Saudi-Arabia Friendly

بث مباشر مباراة السعودية ضد نيجيريا | SAUDI ARABIA VS NIGERIA LIVE بث مباشر مباراة السعودية ضد نيجيريا اليوم ودية دولية تحضيريةمباراة السعوديه اليوم بث مباشرمباريات اليوم بث مباشرالسعوديه ونيجيريا بث مباشرالسعودية ونيجيريابث...

It's all set for AFCON 2024, Let's Go!

A debut appearance for Nigerian duo in Heyball Masters in China.

The duo of Shehu Bamidele and Aderibigbe Adegbite will be representing team Nigeria as the West African country makes a debut in the Joy Heyball Masters Division One Tour 3 which commences on August 20th in Shijiazhuang, China.

Bamidele won the Nigeria Qualifier organised by the Snooker and Pool Players Alliance of Nigeria (SPPA) in conjunction with Fiji Ventures Limited in June to compete in the Joy Heyball Masters Division One Tour 2 but couldn't make it due to delay in the issuance of entry Visa into China where the city of Lanzhou hosted the tournament.

As a compensation for the missed opportunity the host of the international cue sport event Joy Billiards Sports Promotion Company decided to offer Nigeria an additional slot through a follow-up Qualifier organised by the SPPA in July which Aderibigbe Adegbite won .

Nigeria will now present two of her top players who are making their first international appearance in a Heyball tournament as they are due to leave the shores of the country on Thursday 17th of August 2023.

According to the President of SPPA, Idada Joachim the alliance is committed to reimaging the sport .
" We remain committed to creating a viable platform that offers credible opportunities for talent discovery and development "
"There is a 5 year development plan to get at least 5 of our players to play in International events and we are on course". He said

In the last two years one of the top players of the SPPA Christopher Abiodun has represented Nigeria in tournament hosted in Dubai and Singapore.

" I want to fight with my team mates ....I want to fight for the badge ..the best country in the world " -
( After she was told that she just made history by being the first African woman to score in 3 World Cups )

Adegbite wins Nigeria Qualifiers for Joy Heyball Masters Div One Tour 3.

Aderibigbe Adegbite is the winner takes all of the second Nigeria qualifiers of the Joy Heyball Masters Division one Tour 3, “The Boss” as he is popularly known in the Billiards community put up a spectacular show to ward off all schemes from Nojeem Waliu at the sporting event held at Nicon Town Recreation Centre, Lekki from July 4-8, 2023.

The tournament which had three groups at the preliminary stage had in Group A – Adebayo Adekunle, Lawani Nosa and Kayode Adeoye , Group B had Abiodun Christopher, Aderibigbe Adegbite and Temtope Kayode while group C comprises Abdulkabir raji, Azeez Toyin and Nojeem Waliu.

It was a contest of the best of 10 Racks round robin in each group with the winners of the groups proceeding to join Bamidele Shehu who had a bye advantage for winning the first edition of the qualifiers.

To get to the final Aderibigbe Adegbite who topped group B with 2 points beat Christopher Abiodun 6 -1 in his first game and Temitope Koye 6 -1 setting him up to meet Adebayo Adekunle in Semi Final which ended in an 8 – 0 decisive victory.

In a keenly contested final Aderibigbe a.k.a Boss square up with Nojeem Waliu who led till the end of the 3rd time out of the contest but after deploring a more defensive tactical strategy Aderibigbe was able to level up the match at 10 – 10, Aderibigbe maintained his tactical strategy which gave him a 15 – 11 victory at the end of the final game.

The victory fetched Aderibigbe the N100,000.00 prize money courtesy of Moneytronics Microfinance Bank who are partnering a Snooker and Pool Players Alliance of Nigeria-sanctioned tournament for the first time.

By emerging the winner of the Joy Heybal Masters Division One Tour #3 Nigeria Qualifier, Adegbite will be joining Bamidele Shehu winner of Tour #2 edition to travel to China to participate in the main event that is scheduled to hold from 17th -27th August, 2023.

Heyball was introduced to Nigeria in October 2019 after the signing of the agreement between Joy Billiards Sports Promotion Company, China, and Fiji Ventures Limited. The agreement requires that FIJI Ventures Limited organized 5 Nigeria Qualifiers under the Joy Heyball Masters brand name with the winners being offered sponsorship opportunities to participate in the main events in China.

Joachim Idada, President of Snooker and Pool Players Alliance (SPPA) reiterated the need to continue to build cue sport in Nigeria “There is light at the end of the tunnel and we will continue to build the proper structure that will build Billiard’s sport in Nigeria and connect with the growing international circuits. we must be counted as a Billiard playing nation in Africa and globally, we must have our players like Shehu, Adebite, Nojeem and the others that are scattered all over Nigeria being given the opportunity to pursue a possible international career, this is just the beginning.” He said.

SHEHU BAMIDELE WINS JOY HEYBALL MASTERS QUALIFIER.

Shehu Bamidele has emerged the Winner of the Snooker and Pool Players Alliance of Nigeria organised 2023 Joy Heyball Masters Division One Tour #2 Nigeria Qualifier by beating Adebayo Adekunle 10 – 6 in a very final match played on a Joy Billiards Bing Table at the Nicon Town Recreation Center Lekki.

This victory confers on Bamidele the sole representative of Nigeria at the Joy Heyball Masters Division One Tour #2 which holds in Lanzhou City of China from June 23 – July 3, 2023.

The Final which was streamed live via SPPA partner, Asentv.tv YouTube Channel was a Race to 10 Racks as Shehu Bamidele who was unbeaten enroute final displayed a no smiling no nonsense combat mode to take a 4 - 1 lead in the first session but Adebayo closed the gap with a 2 -3 score in the another 5 racks causing the match to be 6 – 4 at the end of the second session.

In the final session, it was now a game of survival as Shehu successfully defended the intensified tactically challenge deplored by his opponent by winning 4 of the last 6 racks of the event, thereby causing the match to end 10-6.

Adebayo Adekunle who confronted Shehu Bamidele fire power in the Finals had earlier in the day beat Sunday Ekundayo and Christopher Abiodun a.k.a “Emiratae” to break the tie by a Race to 3 Racks playoff in a round robin contest.

Veteran Snooker and Pool player Wale Osomo who is a leading member of the SPPA and a participant in the tournament gave a remark at the end of the event. He said

“I believe that this is the first of many to happen. This is the first step. What do the Chinese say? A journey of a thousand miles starts with a step and this is the first step. The whole idea and vision is to actually raise a new generation of Snooker and Pool Players.”

The former Snooker Champion in Nigeria further said

“Now we know that we have Pool on the street and I don’t mean that in a derogatory way; that is out in town people are playing in so many different corners of Lagos and Nigeria but there is no structure”
“We owe ourselves that duty to create a new structure for Snooker and Pool in Nigeria and thst is what we are trying to do to get all of you to come into this fold”
“We face a challenge in Nigeria where people say that in Pool we are always betting. The truth of the matter is what is wrong with betting? After all we have betting companies everywhere now ,so, what we are doing is nothing different but with the intention that we are going to structure it so well that it comes into the main stream in Nigeria”
In encouraging Shehu Bamidele, the winner of the Nigeria Qualifiers. He said
“ If you believe that you will win that Tournament, you will win it. You need to understand that. We are all routing for you. You have all our support. We wish all the best and God’s speed”

One of the participants in the tournament Charles Chijide the CEO of Zubich Textiles , a reputed retailer of top quality textile material was very impressed by the quality of play and skills exhibited by all the contestants and he made a presentation of some textiles to Bamidele imploring him to dress in the proper Nigeria style when travelling to China.

Joachim Idada the President Snooker and Pool Players Alliance of Nigeria (SPPA) also in his remark noted.

“ In our days we never had the right structure that offered us this opportunity.First, this Nigeria Qualifier has offered us a rare opportunity for our great “prof”, Mr Wale Osomo to officially transfer the mantle of leadership to the next generation of great Snooker and Pool Players in line with international best practice. So, Shehu and the other players in the Nigeria Qualifier are the next and future generation of the sports”

“We will be doing everything possible to get your visa to enable you travel as you are expected to arrive china by the 20th June to participate in the main event”
In encouraging Shehu Bamidele and attesting to the reputationof SPPA, he said

“Through the Alliance, Abiodun Christopher had the opportunity to travel to Dubai to play in Dubai Open Chinese 8 Ball Open Tournament and also traveled to Singapore to participate in there Open Billiards Championship. Now you are to go to China to participate in the 2023 Joy Heyball Maters Division One Tour #2. You are not only representing yourself but many other players whose future you are carrying on your shoulders. Please go there and play, go with the Nigerian spirit. Fight and fight till you win.”

The SPPA helmsman also used the opportunity to announce that some of the tournaments of the alliance like the monthly Heyball Top 4 series and the challenge series will be returning soon.