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Ethiopia 86 th in FIFA ranking

Following the victory against Libya in the qualification for CAN, Ethiopia has leaped to its highest ever FIFA ranking when it was ranked at 86th. Ethiopia jumped 10 places from its previous position.

The home win against Libya also put Ethiopian 19th out of the 52 FIFA members African nations. As East Africa's number one soccer nation, Ethiopia must keep on winning at the ongoing nation's qualification campaign which could mean better rankings at the end. Two CECAFA titles and one junior CECAFA title helped Ethiopia gain its current position.

Though Nigeria missed the 2006 world cup finals in Germany , the West African Nations still leads the African pack. With so many professional players in the European soccer league, Nigeria also ranks 11th in the world followed by arch rival Cameron also another absentee from the last World Cup finals. Cameroon is second in Africa .

The newly emerging African soccer power Ivory Coast , whose debut appearance in the 2006 World Cup helped a lot in the ranking. The Elephants, led by Didier Drogaba are expected to stay on top of African soccer table with their youngsters now dispersed through out Europe . Ivory Coast stands 19th in world ranking.

The only African nation to go through to 2006 World Cup final first phase Ghana made tremendous progress climbing to 4th place in Africa and 23rd in the world ranking.

Mauritania and Eritrea were seen as the most progressed nations making the biggest leap. Mauritania 's 4-0 crushing of Botswana in the CAN qualification games helped it to 124th spot while Eritrea who beat Kenya 2-1 in Nairobi lies 39th in Africa and 135th in the world soccer table. Kenya is now 127th in the world ranking with Sudan and Djibouti 110th and 198th in the latest FIFA world soccer ranking.

Addis wins women's regional soccer tourney

Addis Ababa women's soccer team has won the 7th Ethiopian regional states annual championship title in a remarkable record.

When the six regional states Addis Ababa Oromia, SNNPR, Tigray, Gambella and host region Amhara kicked-off the 7th annual Ethiopian regional state soccer championship edition, many thought that Addis Ababa would not win the title for the third successive season. However, the girls from Addis Ababa proved to be the ultimate regional soccer power, winning every trophy and honor except for the fair play trophy that went to the host Amhara region.

The tournament saw the defending champions Addis leveled with Oromia and Gambella regions while hosts Amhara were leveled with Tigray and SNNPR.

In the opening match, Addis Ababa crushed Oromia 12-0 while Amhara thumped Tigray 13-0. The Addis Ababa and Amhara region teams showed their strength not only as a team, but also with individual skills.

The second day match between the defending champions and underdogs Gambella turned out to be a one way traffic as the girls from Addis sent an all time record 28 goals past the Gambella goalkeeper.

The tournaments ultimate top soccer Addis Feleke was player of the match after scoring six hat tricks (18 goals). In the other group game, Amhara defeated SNNP 2-0 to finish top of the group.

The peak of the tournament though came when the organizing committee led by the Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF)'s executive body member Workeneh Abdi called a meeting that decided to erase the pre tournament decision of giving a special award to the top scorer because of Addis Feleke going hay wire on her opponents. Rather than appreciating the goal scorer, the meeting denounced them and announced the winner of the award would be given by the player who scores the most goals after the semi final, meaning that Addis' 18 goals were discarded, hardly a reward for a significant superiority of soccer.

But that wasn't going to stop Addis from crushing SNNPR 5-0 in the semi final. Amhara defeated Oromia with a controversial last minutes goal.

The final game turned out to be one of the most evenly contested cup finals in the tournament's seven years history. In front of the biggest ever home crowed, the hosts held the visitors to a first half goal less draw. But back into the second half, the flood gate suddenly opened with Addis Feleke scoring the opener to be followed by four more goals.

Thus, Addis Ababa won the championship title along with player of the tournament, top soccer of the tournament and best coach awards.

Birtukan Gebreselassi won player of the tournament award while Addis finished top scorer with four goals and Birhanu Gizaw won best coach.

Addis Ababa finished the tournament with 50 goals in the bag and never conceded a single goal.

Though the fair play trophy should have gone to Addis Ababa as well, the committee decided that the host region should take the award.

This is the second time for the host region to take the fair play trophy unfairly, making the hard earned award look like a pity award.

Seyoum optimist about debut match

Newly appointed Ethiopian national senior team boss Seyoum Abate said that the team which won the opening home match against Libya is in good form that needs just minor adjustments. In his statement to reporters, the former Ethiopian Coffee coach said he would add some players from the junior national side and recall the Yemen based Bayu Mulu to join his squad.

Following the untimely resignation of Sewnet Bishaw, the national senior team was considered to be in an awkward situation for the next match against Namibia . Seyoum was confident when he said that his team would pose a strong challenge for the game against Namibia .

Seyoum had been jobless since being sacked last season from Coffee until the federation called him up to the national junior side now also preparing for the African Nations Olympic qualification. Seyoum is at the moment busy handling both sides.

We are working hard on building a side that physiological strong and come home with a vital win. Seyoum Abate told reporters. "The short passing game that Ethiopia played against Libya in a mud filled stadium was unsuccessful, but that will change for we will be playing on a dry field," Seyoum said.

Bayu Mulu, who was part of the CECAFA winning team a few years ago in Rwanda and Ethiopia, has been called up to the national side. Four foreign based players including Yordanos Abay have been called to the team. "We need all the home supporters' good will so that we can make our dream come true after a long absence in the Nations Cup Final," Seyoum said.

Haile a breath away from world record

Haile Gebreselassie, the greatest long distance runner the world has ever seen retuned to wining ways by setting the fastest marathon time of the year in Berlin while Olympic double medalist Gete Wami won the women's edition setting a new national marathon record.

Though Haile thought that he would break the record in Berlin , he nad no pacemaker or a strong challenger to help him do so. The world marathon record is held by Kenya 's Paul Tergat at 2:05:56. "I am really amazed by Haile's current form, but breaking a marathon record is not an easy job," Tergat told reporters.

Leaving the group at the half way mark, Haile ran on his own, to finish the race in 2:05:56. His compatriot Gudisa Shentama came in second five minutes later. Gudisa reached home in 2:11:43. Kurao of Japan came in third in a time of 2:13:43.

After a long absence from the international scene, Gete Wami became the first female athlete to win the Berlin marathon. Gete, who won the game in 2:21:34, was never in any real danger of losing the race. Gete, with two Olympic medals to her name, was expected to win the race because she told reporters she would finish the race in less than the 2 hour 20 minutes which happened to be a shade away. Gete however proved that she would be one to watch at the 2008 Olympics to be held in Beijing . Haile Gebreselasie won 80,000 pounds for winning the race while Gete was awarded 65,000 pounds. In related news, world 5,000 meter champion Tirunesh Dibaba won the 5,000 meter race in Shanghai while Kenenisa who took part in the 1,500 meter race and finished second. Tirunesh finished the race in 15:55 to win gold to be followed by rising star Gelete Burka.

Kenenisa was beaten by Kenya 's Augustine Choge in the 1,500 meter race. Kenenisa's second place was a hard earned spot as he was sandwiched by Choge and fellow country man Nicholas Kimbo from the beginning, but that wasn't going to deter the world and Olympic champion from giving it his best fight.

Babylonian talk show crashes

On his Sunday morning ETV sports talk show, Alemu Mekonen brought together a few of Ethiopia 's soccer personalities to talk about the Ethiopian premier league's problems and how to improve on the coming season.

Ethiopian Football Federation (EFF) Secretary General Ashenafi Ejegu who represented all league organizing committee was one of the guests at the show. The other participants were Saint George and Ethiopian Coffee clubs managers Solomon Bekele and Sentayhu Bekele respectively. The National Referee Committee chairman was also part of the brief discussion.

Launching such a talk show right before the start of the new premier league season was an effort considered as productive. The former EFF bureaucrat and now retired Solomon Bekele was quoted as saying that the past season was a successful one for Saint George and the club's relationship with the federation was a also a good one. He failed to mention that the season was one filled with problems and burdens for many clubs. Confidently sitting in front of the camera, Solomon looked like a man from another planet oblivious of what was happening right in front of him.

Considered as EFF enemy number one, Coffee manager Sentayehu Bekele remarked that the last season was the most difficult one for all clubs, particularly for Coffee.

Unfair treatment for all premier league clubs, unfair referring and not sticking to the official match schedule were few of the problems which showed how the federation is running inefficiently, according to Sentayhu who preferred to talk about the coming season rather than lamenting on the past. For Sintayehu, there was absolutely nothing to applaud about last season.

The talks however turned slippery for Ashenafi when he was asked why the clubs couldn't run themselves, and the reason for that is that while being EFF general secretary, Ashenafi is also Ethiopia Bank's team manager. The issue of a potential conflict of interest was in the working. Had he been less smart though, Ashenafi would surely have found himself in real trouble. But he dogged the issue expertly and repeatedly stated that except for two or three clubs, others did not have strong financial or structural formation. According to Ashenafi, this handicap is the mother of all problems and nothing was being done about it. He never assumed responsibility for last season's failure to organizing the premier league and knock out matches, he never assumed responsibility for the refereeing problems or other controversial decisions made by the executive body. As for the referees' problems, he half heartedly accepted the truth saying the EFF was functioning with what they had and that was the best that could be done.

Ato Mekonen, the Ethiopian referring committee chairman, just like the others did nothing, but defend himself and the referees saying that they had done their best.

He never said that most of the referees have low incomes thus being vulnerable for corruption like the time when Arbaminch were denied the title thanks to the assistant referee's blind eye in another simultaneous game. He didn't say why referees the likes of Solomon, owner of Loyal Super Market on Churchill Avenue resigned. But he stressed on the point that the federation was trying to come up with better referees next season and that courses were being given at the moment. Ato Mekonen also avoided taking responsibility as chairman of the national referring committee for any problems arising due to poor refereeing. As a matter of fact, he did not even acknowledge the occurrence of bad refereeing at all.

The first of its kind show ended without any common ground being reached among the participants. Leave alone compromise, the participants didn't even seem to be talking about the same agenda on the day. It was like Babylon , every one speaking a different language. I believe that they should have at least agreed that last season was chaotic. Then it would have been easier for them to discuss how not to repeat the same mistakes in the new season.

Junior team kicked out of CECAFA tournament

The Ethiopian national junior team was kicked out of the CECAFA Junior championship following a humiliating 4-1 defeat at the hands of Tanzania . The Ethiopian side had all the opportunities to make it to the second round, but was outgunned by their Tanzanian counterparts.

The tournament that was held in Burundi brought together eight nations four each in two groups.

Defending champions Ethiopia started the tournament off on the wrong foot as they settled for a goalless draw against Kenya in the opening match. That was followed by a 1-0 victory over Sudan . However, the match against Tanzania was never in their grip as coach Tsegaye Desta fielded a 4-3-3 formation, a formation that was taken to full advantage by the attack minded Tanzania team.

Though the Ethiopian team scored in the second half, the Tanzanians went out on full attack adding two more goals in the second half for a 4-1 score line. Tsegaye's appointment as head coach was a decision that was met by heavy skepticism from the beginning, and now that the result has been evident, the Ethiopian Football Federation could be prompted to rethink its decision.

Winner of the ornament held in Rwanda last season, the Ethiopian youth team had two months to prepare for this tournament, but came home without even making it to the semi finals. German based midfielder Lencho Skiba who joined the junior team played all three games for the junior team after he was denied a place on the senior team against Libya about a month ago. Lencho seems to have impressed Seyoum after he was recalled to the senior squad for the qualification match against Namibia .

Lencho, who is currently based in Germany with Duisburg FC, is the only remaining player while the other two foreign based players Mike Gebru and David, both from Germany retuned home failing to perform convincingly. Lencho in his brief interview with World Sport hopes that he will be given a chance by national team coach Seyoum.Seyoum is expected to prove his worth in the game against Namibia , as the appointment of the former Coffee coach has been in question from the beginning. Namibia lost to the DRC in the opening match of the CAN qualification series.