Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has suspended the Super Eagles from international competition for two years following their poor performance at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

“Mr President has directed that Nigeria will withdraw from all international football competition for the next two years to enable Nigeria to reorganise its football,” Ima Niboro, Jonathan’s senior communications adviser, told reporters.

“This directive became necessary following Nigeria’s poor performance in the ongoing Fifa World Cup,” he said.

Nigeria were knocked out in the first round.

After meeting the country’s World Cup organising committee, Jonathan also said the accounts of the committee should be audited.

“If any financial misappropriation is discovered, all officials responsible will be held accountable,” Niboro said.

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Two match officials, Uruguay’s Jorge Larrionda and Italy’s Roberto Rosetti, whose blunders have prompted FIFA to rethink using video technology, will not referee another match in the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

They were left off the list of 19 referees announced by FIFA on Tuesday to take part in the rest of the competition although football’s world governing body gave no explanation.

Larrionda and his linesman failed to see an England shot clearly cross the line in a 4-1 loss to Germany in a second round game on Sunday.

Frank Lampard’s shot hit the bar and bounced down behind the line before spinning back into play. It would have made the score 2-2.

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Barcelona’s new striker David Villa scored the only goal of the match between Spain and Portugal last night to see the European Champions beat the Portuguese 1 – 0 at Cape Town Stadium.

Villa pounced in the 63rd minute of an absorbing encounter that saw plenty of chances and Portugal’s Ricardo Costa sent off, chipping a rebound over goalkeeper Eduardo after his first shot was saved.

It was enough to put Spain into a last eight showdown on Saturday against the South Americans, who crushed Japanese hopes in a dramatic 5-3 penalty shoot-out earlier in the day.

Whoever gets through that match has either Argentina or Germany awaiting them in the semi-finals.

In a stadium packed to the rafters with Spanish and Portuguese fans, Spain quickly signalled their intentions with Fernando Torres testing Eduardo with a shot from the edge of the box in the opening minute.

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Arjen Robben returned for Netherlands to help them with a comfortable 2-1 win over Slovakia in Durban on Monday and put them into the World Cup quarterfinals. Brazil thrashed Chile 3 – 0 to show that they can still be considered to be favorites to  lift the World Cup on June 11.

Winger Robben, making his first start in South Africa after suffering a hamstring injury, rifled home a solo effort after 18 minutes to give the Dutch the lead, before Wesley Sneijder wrapped it up six minutes from the end.

Slovakia, who last week sent holders Italy packing with a 3-2 upset, got a consolation with the last kick of the game when Robert Vittek netted from the penalty spot.

“That was nice today. If you’re at the World Cup it should be fun. We didn’t play our best match today but the important thing is that we advanced,” said Robben, adding he has not yet reached his peak form just three weeks after his injury.

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Germany thrashed England 4-1 to leave Fabio Capello pondering his future as national coach while Diego Maradona’s Argentina saw off Mexico 3-1 as the former champions paved the way for a last eight showdown in Cape Town on July 3. Both matches were marred by bad refereeing decisions.

But both last 16 games were mired in controversy.

Capello slammed the Uruguayan referee as his team crashed out in a Bloemfontein humiliation.

Frank Lampard had a legitimate goal disallowed by referee Jorge Larrionda when England were trailing 2-1 just before half-time.

With England surging forward, the midfielder unleashed a drive that beat goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, came off the underside of the crossbar and landed over the goal-line before bouncing out.

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The World Cup champions Italy joined humiliated France yesterday when they were dumped out of the World Cup by Slovakia.

It marked the first time the winner and runner-up from the previous World Cup had both failed to reach the second round and stunned four times winners Italy who looked shameful and shell-shocked after their miserable tournament.

Both European giants finished bottom in their groups.

Slovakia, appearing for the first time as an independent nation, stunned the ageing Azzurri 3-2 to reach the second round together with Paraguay in Group F.

Japan scored a convincing 3-1 win against Denmark in the highest-scoring day of the World Cup so far, with the net bulging 12 times.

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SAFA are keeping the lid on who will succeed Bafana coach Carlos Alberto Parreira – even though the Brazilian has disclosed that the next man to lead the national team has already been decided. Parreira says that an announcement will be made soon and that “it is a very good appointment.”

Parreira bowed out of his $200 000-a-month job after Bafana’s elimination from the 2010 Soccer World Cup in which they drew with Mexico 1-1, lost to eventual Group A table-toppers Uruguay 3-0, but rebounded to beat a woeful French side 2-1.

According to the KickOff website, SAFA have always stated that the new Bafana Bafana coach will be a South African and that preference would be given to Parreira’s long-standing assistant Pitso Mosimane who also occupied that position during the tenure of former Bafana coach Joel Santana.

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