FIFA has recognized this weeks Nigeria Football Federation elections and said Thursday it had sent a letter congratulating new president Amaju Pinnick.FIFA can now stand down over its threats to ban Nigeria a€” the current African champion a€” following months of turmoil and alleged government interference to influence the leadership of the Nigerian federation. FIFA rules do not allow governments to interfere in football matters.Nigeria was banned for nine days in July after outgoing NFF President Aminu Maigari was arrested on his return from the World Cup in Brazil and a sports ministry-appointed official was put in charge of the federation. The ban was lifted when Maigari was reinstated.The West African country was again threatened with suspension last month when Maigari was ousted from office for a second time in elections not recognized by FIFA.Pinnick, a sports administrator from the southern Delta state, was elected new president on Tuesday in a process overseen by Maigari a€” one of the conditions laid down for the elections by FIFA. Pinnick needed two rounds of voting to secure the required two-thirds majority. FIFA said in a statement to The Associated Press that it had been notified of the results of the vote in the southern city of Warri.The elections for a new NFF executive were still rocky, with one of the seven initial candidates for the presidency declared ineligible after he failed to turn up amid reports that some officials were detained by state security forces. The start of the vote was delayed for two hours.Failure to organize credible elections could have led to Nigerias team being thrown out of the ongoing African Cup of Nations qualifying competition, preventing it from defending its title in Morocco early next year.The NFF said Pinnick had received a congratulatory message from FIFA President Sepp Blatter, but Nigerian authorities were also warned not to interfere again in football by FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke.We now expect the NFF and its new leadership to carry out its activities without any hindrance in order to avoid having to again refer the case to the appropriate FIFA bodies for an automatic suspension, Valcke wrote in a letter, according to the NFF.___Gerald Imray is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GeraldImrayAPwholesale nfl jerseys china . Some will say that Martin is too sensitive while others will say that it is part of the way football is in the locker room. But to have to absorb what was said to him for any rational and intelligent person is too much. cheap nba jerseys . And by all indications, the team is expected to select phenom Connor McDavid with their selection. The Buffalo Sabres, who were knocked down to the second overall pick after finishing with the worst regular season record, are expected to take the other generational player in Jack Eichel. http://www.cheapnbajerseyssale.com/.9 million deal Thursday. The 25-year McGinn had 19 goals and 19 assists in 79 games last season in helping the Avalanche tie a franchise record with 52 wins. cheap nba jerseys authentic . -- Thirty years ago, the Detroit Pistons beat the Denver Nuggets 186-184 in triple overtime, a game that remains the highest scoring in NBA history. nba jerseys from china . -- The Oakland Athletics and free agent right-hander Bartolo Colon have agreed to terms on a US$2 million, one-year contract, bolstering their depleted starting rotation.BETHESDA, Md. - Tiger Woods was back on the PGA Tour for the first time in more than three months Thursday and said he felt "fantastic." He was talking about his back, not his game. One day into his most recent return from injury, thats what mattered to him. Woods opened with two straight bogeys, made five more bogeys in a seven-hole stretch around the turn at tough Congressional and finally found his groove late in the opening round of the Quicken Loans National for a 3-over 74. Woods was tied for 83rd — only 19 players had a higher score — and he will have to score better Friday if he wants to avoid missing the cut for the first time in two years. "I made so many little mistakes," Woods said. "So I played a lot better than the score indicated." Congressional had a lot to do with that. Two weeks after a U.S. Open that had no rough, Congressional made it feel like one. Any shot just off the fairway was buried, making it difficult for even the powerful players to reach the green on some of the longer par 4s. Greg Chalmers finished with three straight birdies for a 66 and a one-shot lead over Ricky Barnes and Freddie Jacobson. Defending champion Bill Haas, Patrick Reed, U.S. Open runner-up Erik Compton and Tyrone Van Aswegen shot 68. Compton birdied his last four holes. "I didnt think it was easy at all," Chalmers said. "I played really well, and I think anybody who plays really well can shoot a low score. You just have to be coming out of the fairway, and I didnt that the majority of the time today." Only 26 players in the 120-man field broke par. This day, however, was all about Woods. He has been golfs biggest draw since he turned pro in 1996 and accumulated 79 wins on the PGA Tour and 14 majors. He won the last two times he played Congressional, in 2009 and 2012. Even with an early start, the gallery lined the entire left side of the 218-yard 10th hole, with hundreds of others watching from the patio and veranda of the famed clubhouse at Congressional. Two holes into Woods opening round, they had reason to ask: We waited three months for this? But it wasnt just Woods. He played with Jason Day and Jordan Spieth, and that trio of top-10 players combined for six bogeys in two holes. All three of them were in the fairway on the same hole one time the entire round — on No. 11, the hardest at Congressional, and only because Days tee shot ricocheted off a tree. Day had a 73, while Spieth shot 74. "It was cool playing the first one back," Spieth said. "I love playing aalongside Jason, as well.dddddddddddd. We are all rooting for each other, and thats a good feeling. It was hard to root for each other because it just looked like the lid was closed on the hole. But once we all started hitting a couple fairways, it got better at the end." Mike Weir of Brights Grove, Ont., the lone Canadian in the field, also opened at 3 over. Woods looked about the same as he has all year. He gave away shots with his short game, with some ordinary chips and not making as many putts as he once did. On his second hole, No. 11, he had a 50-foot putt from the fringe that came up 18 feet short of the hole. He missed consecutive 6-foot putts — one for birdie, one for par. He did most of the damage to his card around the turn, failing to get up-and-down for par on the 15th, 17th and 18th holes, hitting a poor chip from the side of a bunker on the long par-3 second, pulling a pitching wedge into a bunker on No. 3 and missing a 5-foot putt. That put him at 6 over for the round. At the time, Day was 4 over and Spieth was 5 over. "We were all kind of looking to break 80," Woods said. "It was a bit of a fight today for all of us, but we all hung in there." Woods found some rhythm from there, hitting an approach from 196 yards on the 467-yard fourth hole to 3 feet, and ending with short birdie putts on the par-3 seventh and short par-4 eighth by wisely using the slopes in the greens to feed it close to the hole. More telling was his final hole. He thought he had a chance to end his round with a 35-foot birdie putt, and as it broke just right of the cup, he quickly dropped to a crouch and then rose up to go mark his ball. That was the best evidence there was no problem with his back. "The backs great," Woods said. "I had no issues at all — no twinges, no nothing. It felt fantastic. Thats one of the reasons why I let go on those tee shots. I hit it pretty hard out there." Woods last played at Doral on March 9, when he closed with a 78 while coping with pain in his lower back. He had microdiscectomy surgery March 31, causing him to miss the Masters and U.S. Open. His return this soon was a surprise, and Woods was candid in saying that he might not have played if the Quicken Loans National did not benefit his foundations work with children. He also made it clear he was not risking further injury by playing now. The only issue Thursday was rust. "We saw what happened when he found his rhythm," Spieth said, alluding to Woods making three birdies over his last six holes, and missing only one green. ' ' '