World Cup Rush: Nigerian Football body wants $2m from FIFA

Reports suggest that the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) wrote a letter to FIFA, dated 9 April, requesting for $2 of their 2018 World Cup finals qualification bonus. All that countries that qualify for the world cup finals are awarded bonuses by the world’s football governing body.

In hopes to prevent any future protest by the national team as was the case in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the NFF and Super Eagles have already agreed on the salaries and match bonuses. The Super Eagles will also get 30% of the total prize money, should their walk away with the world cup gold.

Nigeria have been pitted against Messi’s Argentina, Croatia and the European surprise package, Iceland. Their opening match is on the 16th of June against Croatia.

Abroad: Kenyan international Aboud Omar fired by Bulgarian club

Aboud Omar has been sacked by Slavia Sofia, accusing him of insulting the club, his teammates and the state of Bulgaria. The 25-year-old left back became the first Kenyan to play in the Bulgarian league in 2016 and quickly helped the team to qualify for the Europa League.

In a statement, the club mentioned that Omar had been malicious for months and they were unsure as to his motivations for the said behavior.

“I decided to remove Aboud Omar from the team and his contractual relations with the club will be suspended under the existing legal order. For no apparent reason, the player became cruel and arrogant.He learned the most vulgar phrases in Bulgarian and began to address them to his teammates without exception. The impudent Kenyan began to curse everything, related to life in our country and did not try to conceal his dislike for the Bulgarian state at all…”

— Ventseslav Stefanov, Slavia President

Stefanov also mentioned that all the players of the seven-time Bulgarian champions unanimously backed his decision to relieve Omar of his duties. The Kenyan international is yet to comment on the issue.

South Africa: “Tau better than Salah and Mane” - El Hadji Diouf

The former Liverpool and Senegal forward heaped praises on the quality of South African football, going further to single out Mamelodi Sundowns striker, Percy Tau. During Diouf’s visit to South Africa in his capacity as an ambassador of the Moroccan 2026 world cup bid, he also challenged South African footballers to get out of their comfort zone and aspire to play in European leagues.

In response to Diouf’s praises, the 23-year old Tau revealed that the former Blackburn man had previously expressed his views when they traveled to Senegal for their final World Cup 2018 qualifier.

“Look‚ I spoke to Diouf in Senegal, and he expressed his views on my game‚ and what he feels. So, I wasn’t surprised by what he said this week. It only shows the good work that I and Sundowns do, and also how the coaches are helping us develop as players because we can easily be compared to European players.”

— Percy Tau, Mamelodi Sundowns

The PSL joint top scorer with eleven league goals this campaign won the 2016 CAF Champions League with Sundowns and has since become a fan favorite at the club. He has distinguished himself as a striker who can race from deep, create chances, make assists and score goals. His coach Pitso Mosimane believes that he should unanimously win the 2017/18 PSL Player of the year. Tau is also determined to make Diouf proud.

“I hope one day he (Diouf) will be happy with what he said. I hope one day he’ll be proud that he said those words to this boy and look at him now.”

— Percy Tau, Mamelodi Sundowns

COSAFA: R1 Million ($84K) Boost for 2017 Women’s Championships

On Wednesday, Kwese sports handed over a prize money worth R1 Million ($ USD 84 000) to the 2017 COSAFA Women’s Championships, putting the competition on the same pedestal with that of the men’s competition.

This is definitely a positive step in the right direction for uplifting the women’s game in Southern Africa which is becoming even more popular. Hopefully, signals like these will act as calls to action for football bodies and other stakeholders informing them that the women’s game is worth investing in. South Africa are the defending champions of the region after beating Zimbabwe by two goals to one in last year’s finals.

World Cup Rush: Boost for Nigeria as Onyekuru returns from injury

The Super Eagles’ attacking bluntness was exposed in their 2-0 loss to Serbia over the International break. The return of Everton’s Henry Onyekuru after a long spell on the sidelines, dating back to December 2017, will give Gernot Rohr a much needed headache in choosing who to put in his final 23 man squad for the FIFA world cup finals in June.

Onyekuru, 20, who is currently on loan at Belgian side, Anderlecht scored nine goals in 19 matches this season, making four appearances in the Uefa Champions League before his knee injury. In the prior to this one, Onyekuru found the back of the net, 22 times for Belgian side, Eupen which allowed for him to feature for the Super Eagles in their final world cup qualifying match against Algeria.

The young forward is ready to put shoulder to the wheel in the next two months for a place in Rohr’s charges.

“I have to prove that I’m able and worthy to go and play - once I do that - it’s up to the manager to select the team.”

— Henry Onyekuru with BBC Sport

Coach Rohr has also made it clear that the door is still open for any player to impress and earn their stripes.

“Coach Rohr says the World Cup door has not been shut against any player and is happy that Onyekuru is back.”

— Toyin Ibitoye, Nigerian Team Spokesperson

DR Congo: FA boss detained for embezzling funds

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Football Association, Constant Omari was taken into custody on Wednesday for allegedly embezzling public funds. Omari, who is also a member of the FIFA council and vice-president with the Confederations of African Football (CAF) was is being held together with the sports ministry secretary general and two vice-presidents of DR Congo Football Association (Fecofa).

The magistrate highlighted that the four men are “currently being heard” over how they used public funds in the organization of club and international matches on the African continent. The lawyer representing the four men mentioned that they were being questioned on the embezzled US $ 1 million meant for four matches.

What’s interesting is that the organizers of the Dr. Congo football league, Linafoot, have suspended activities in “solidarity” of the detained. This story comes a few weeks after we shared that of West Ham United’s Arthur Masuaku and two other teammates who left DR Congo citing poor management and planning by the national team.

Could there be a correlation?

In the midst of the Pogba treatment, Kaka shares his opinion on Mourinho

The Manchester United is not popular for building lasting relationships with most of the players that he has managed in different clubs so far. The latest to be believed to not be on good books with Jose Mourinho is Manchester United’s most expensive player in Paul Labile Pogba. The midfielder has had an inconsistent season, and rumours are quoting that the player feels he is not playing in his best position. Many players have come out to talk about the Portuguese and Pogba probably cannot follow suit as he is still under the boss. Maybe we could hear a lot about his situation sometime later in the future when the boss moves on to another club. The Real Madrid captain, Sergio Ramos shared no sentiment with Jose and claimed that he was just another coach for Real Madrid who cannot be compared to Ancelotti because of his man-management skills. The latest to have a say about the Portuguese is the former Balon d’Or winner, Ricardo Kaka from Brazil. The player joined Madrid the same year that Cristiano Ronaldo made his move to the Bernabeu, but he did not enjoy the best of times with the Los Blancos when Mourinho was in charge.

He said, “Jose Mourinho was a difficult coach for me, and we had a respectful but complicated relationship. I trained, I fought, and I prayed a lot, but having not received the confidence of the coach, I realised that I could not work with him.”

Mourinho is very famous for ousting players in his team as he got rid of Casillas at Madrid, Lampard in his second stint at Chelsea, Schweinsteiger at United among others. Kaka was so unfortunate to be a part of that list as he eventually left Madrid for greener pastures. The Brazilian has since retired in 2017 and hopes that the coach can learn a couple of things that can make him better at producing results on the pitch. Do you think that Mourinho will eventually learn his lesson and treat his players with much more respect and care?  

Controversial Barton to become Fleetwood coach

The 35-year old midfielder who is currently serving his football match ban has been appointed to become the new head coach at low league Fleetwood. The midfielder is infamous for his free-spirited opinions and saying the most bizarre of things that one would not expect. He is very cocky, and it is quite shocking as to how Fleetwood have made this decision to trust the midfielder to lead their team to glory. The player has already represented some big clubs not just in England but in Europe as well as he has played for Newcastle, Manchester City, Burnley, Rangers, and Marseille. The player has signed a three year deal with the club and is expected to retire from being a player first that is after the 2nd of June where his ban will end.

He had this to say about the move, “I’m very excited by the challenge and the project at Fleetwood Town. It’s a club I’ve known for a long time, and a chairman I already have a very good relationship with.”

This move has brought some excitement to the chairman of the club who believes that the Barton will bring his experience and profile. A lot of optimism surrounds this move, but we all know what Joey is capable of. What happens when he does not agree with the chairman of the club or anyone above his pay grade? Will he throw a tantrum like he is known for doing or will he be mature and be smart about not placing himself in awkward situations? This is an interesting one. We will live to see how long this tale will last. Aren’t you as excited as well?

The Premier League (PFA) Team of the Year is out

The Premier League started off in a good style with many teams looking like they were ready to mount a title challenge. In the end, it was only one horse left in the race with Manchester City out to fight against the records because the other teams had failed dismally. It comes as no surprise that the Manchester club dominated the PFA Team of the Year which was announced by PFA on their twitter account. The most obvious inclusions in that team were those of David De Gea, Kyle Walker, Otamendi, David Silva, Eriksen, Kevin De Bruyne, Mo Salah, and Kane. That’s about 8 positions that were uncontested due to their outstanding performances this season. Everyone else, is questionable. The other players that made it to the 11 include Marcos Alonso, Vertonghen and Aguero who was placed on the left flank instead of the centre-forward position where he plays. There seems to some form of bias because a player like Aguero, although he scored 22 goals in the league, he does not deserve to be in that team because his direct competitor in Kane has already scored 26.

That left-wing position should have been left to his colleague in Raheem Sterling who has had an outstanding season with Manchester City having scored 16 league goals and provided 8 assists. Furthermore, Marcos Alonso has been playing for a struggling club in Chelsea who are failing to make it to next season’s UEFA Champions League. The most consistent player in their Chelsea team was Kante by far, but still, that player could not make it into the PFA team of the year. Instead, credit must be given to Ben Davies who has been called upon to deliver for Tottenham in the absence of Danny Rose who has been injured for the greater parts of the season. That decision to leave out Davies is very questionable.

Finally, we end with the inclusion of Vertonghen in the heart of the defence alongside Otamendi. What we have realised is that the team is dominated by the teams in the top 5 of the league but yet there are other teams who performed beyond expectations and still had players who were outstanding. The player in question should be replaced by Burnley’s Tarkowski who has had a remarkable season this year representing Burnley who are 2 points behind Arsenal and sitting on the 7th spot. Do you think anyone else should have been included in the team? We want to know. Drop those comments below.

Harry Kane trying to keep up with Salah

This season has seen the rise to stardom by an African player in the Premier League once again but this time by a player who had already failed to make the cut in this league before moving to Liverpool. You guessed right, Mo Salah has been in the limelight for the greater part of the season and has even gone ahead of the most clinical English striker in Harry Kane. The Tottenham forward had enjoyed the success of winning the Golden Boot twice in a roll before this season and was probably confident of pipping the usual front-runners in Aguero, Lukaku and probably a striker in Morata who had brought a huge hype when he moved to Stamford Bridge. Little did he know that he would be given a run for his money by an Egyptian winger who had failed to cement a first team spot when he was playing for Chelsea before leaving for Italy. This season, Harry Kane has been behind the Liverpool forward and he recently appealed for a goal in order to catch up with Salah. The Liverpool forward scored his 30th Premier League goal during last weekend and Kane had to wait for Tottenham’s game in hand played on Wednesday to also score a goal in a match that ended in a draw for the Spurs against Brighton & Hove Albion. There are only four games left to play and the Tottenham striker has vowed not to give up without a fight. Again we ask, will Kane have enough to pip his counterpart for his most prized asset? Drop your comments below.  

Newcastle is now safe from the drop

Newcastle United have secured their place in the English Premier League for the 2018/19 season. This came after they came back from 1 goal down to defeat a rejuvenated Arsenal side 2-1 at home. This victory marks the first time the club has won a league match against Arsenal since 2005. Arsenal took the lead from Lacazette’s goal who was thankful to the new signing Aubameyang for setting him through on goal. Many anticipated that Aubameyang was going to be Lacazette’s replacement but the two have proved that they can play together which is giving a selection headache to Wenger at times. Maybe the pair has benefited from Mkhitaryan’s injury as they have shared the pitch more since the Armenian’s setback. Arsenal had a couple of other chances but could not bury them away and were left to rue those chances later on in the match. Ayoze Perez was the first to score for Benitez’s side as he finished intelligently from the near post after darting past Mustafi. The German defender has been a suspect since his acquisition and he really has to do a lot to win the Arsenal fans over. Matt Richie the winner at the 68th minute which secured their 4th straight win.

Newcastle have reached the 40-point mark which means that they are safe from the drop. This defeat for Arsenal means that the club have suffered their fifth successive league match away from home for the first time since 1984. It only proves that the club is unreliable because they had seen a turn in results after their bad patches in the earlier parts of the season. So much for a club that claims to be a big club in England.

Lallana goes to Africa for rehab

For so long, Africa has been at the backseat. People aspired to go abroad for the best facilities in healthcare, sports, only to mention but a few. Today, we see the tables turning. This is thanks to Adam Lallana’s decision to fly to South Africa to get treatment and rehab after suffering another hamstring injury. The Liverpool midfielder has been named Klopp’s workhorse for his tireless pressing during the first campaign of the Liverpool boss. The player has since suffered from recurring injuries which have kept him out of the squad and have seen the club pretty much brought in a replacement in Oxlade-Chamberlain who joined from Arsenal. Lallana returned this season but his last match was against Crystal Palace in March in which he only played for 5 minutes. An international player from England has left not only his country but his continent, Europe, to come to Africa for his rehab as confirmed by Liverpool Echo.

This is a sign that Africa is rising and is not far behind as everyone anticipated. Lallana is believed to be using the facilities at Sports Science Institute in Cape Town, South Africa. His manager Jurgen Klopp confirmed that the player’s setback was very serious hence he required the best attention in a race against time to make it to the England squad that will fly to Russia for this year’s World Cup tournament. The player has made just 13 appearances this season and it would be a very big call by Southgate if he decides to pick him ahead of other players who have played more games this season. We wish the best for Lallana in his recovery and hope he will spread the word of how good the continent has been to him.

PSL South Africa: Sundowns edge closer to title after edging Golden Arrows

Time seems to be delaying the inevitable as far as the South African Premier Soccer League title is concerned. Title favorites, Mamelodi Sundowns saw off Golden Arrows 1-0 at Loftus Versfeld Stadium. The Brazilians are now six points clear of second placed Orlando Pirates with only three matches left to play. Bafana baStyle’s superior goal difference of 12 mean that if they can grind out one more win, they certainly will become champions, yet again - to make it a record 8 PSL titles and the third one in 5 years.

The Brazilians had to score from the penalty spot in the 24th minute after a thoroughly entertaining first half which saw the woodwork doing all the work for the visitors, Golden Arrows. Pitso Mosimane named an unchanged line-up from the 2-0 win over Bidvest Wits with the trio of Themba Zwane, Percy Tau and Sibusiso Vilakazi leading the charges and causing all sorts of problems for the Abafana Bes'thende. Uruguay’s Gaston Sirino was the first to beat goalkeeper Mbaeva after showing some composure inside the Arrows box only to have his shot rattled by the cross bar. Vilakazi was then brought down inside the box by Mathiane which Ricardo Nascimento converted for the Tswane boys. Even after half time, Sundowns were pretty much in control, playing enterprise football full of trickery. Arrows goalkeeper had to pull off some heroic saves to keep the match at 1-0.

Zimbabwe vs Botswana: A rare match to celebrate Zim’s 38th independence

Zimbabwe celebrates independence day on the 18th of April every year and this time, an international mouthwatering clash between the Warriors and neighbors, Zebras is on the menu. Despite the fact that the match falls out of FIFA’s calendar for internationals, they got approval and it’s being labeled the President’s Cup tie.

The Southern African country is expected to have several other festivities at the National Sports Stadium in Harare. The activities include the lighting of the independence day flame, parades of the police and army, colorful displays by drum majorettes and all being capped off by the Warriors-Zebras clash which is expected to be available to fans for free. The coaches could only name local-based players for the squad and they have indeed picked up the best of the bunch from their respective countries.

The Zimbabwean gaffer, Sunday “Mhofu” Chidzambwa would ideally be using this match to widen his selection options for the COSAFA Castle Cup scheduled for next month. The Zebras’ David Bright called up most of the players that featured in their 1-0 victory over Lesotho, two weeks ago. The two countries last faced off in 2013 and Zimbabwe who is ranked 108, 41 places above Botswana by FIFA are expected to come out on top.

World Cup Rush: Lauren believes history will repeat itself for African teams

Former Arsenal and Cameroonian international, Lauren has assessed Africa’s world cup chances and came to a conclusion that there can be no light at the end of the tunnel. Lauren believes that amongst Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, and Tunisia - none of them will get past the last eight. The former defender believes that the management of African teams and the football culture as a whole needs some “structural” changes if performance on the global stage is to improve. He is also convinced his experiences have positioned him to add value to the footballing world.

“To be honest with you I can’t see any of them go further than the quarter-finals. This is my honest opinion because we are still one step behind the top teams. I don’t like to lie to people. I am very honest, I speak my mind because we don’t do things the right way.It happens in football, it happens in so many other African societies. But maybe I will try to help African football with the knowledge I have got about business and how to do things in a structural way”

— Laureano Bisan Etamé-Mayer, Retired Cameroonian Footballer

Lauren represented Cameroon at the world cup finals in France 1998 and Japan/South Korea 2002. To date, the best performers from Africa have only managed to go as far as the quarter-finals. Cameroon first achieved the feat in 1990, Senegal in 2002 and most recently, Ghana in 2010.

FIFA World Cup 2026 Bids: Will Morocco’s homosexuality ban stop their World Cup progress?

Even though after getting South Africa’s unqualified backing as well as support from a host of countries in their 207 member states, the North African country’s bid to host the 2026 world cup might be in jeopardy. Unlike the Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, bidders for the 2026 world cup were required to frank risk assessments as well as commission independent human rights reports. A FIFA task force has been recently deployed into Morocco to inspect the extent of the law that states that homosexuality is a criminal offense in the country guaranteeing six months to three years in Prison.

“Under the new nondiscrimination requirements under FIFA’s statutes and under the Human Rights Policy, one of the red lines is anti-gay activity laws or policies. Morocco, if they’re serious about winning, would need to be prepared to repeal the article of the penal code which punishes people for being gay.”

— Human Rights Watch director of global initiatives, Minky Worden

Unlike USA-Canada-Mexico, According to ESPN, Morocco had refused to acknowledge the anti-LGBTQ law as a risk and provide a remedy in their 483 paged document.

“Morocco’s human rights report presented to the FIFA is an intentional silence on an issue that Morocco knows too well is a crime on its soil.”

— El Haij, President of Moroccan Association for Human Rights

In August 2017, Morocco rejected recommendations from the United Nations to decriminalize same-sex relations and shun violence against the LGBTQ community.

“Article 1 of the Constitution highlights the special framework of the federative constants of the Moroccan nation, namely, the moderate Muslim religion, national unity with its multiple components, constitutional monarchy and the democratic choice. Thus, the Kingdom does not accept these recommendations since they are in contradiction with the above-mentioned federative constants.”

— Morocco’s Response to UN

One of the members of the Moroccan bid team, a human rights board member maintained that Morocco could have values different from FIFA or some societies would be vigilant in welcoming visitors intolerance and kindness.  

“I don’t think that [ban on homosexuality] will be an issue because organising a World Cup is mainly about infrastructure, being passionate about football, and the ability to organize a safe World Cup. We have our laws and we have our values and maybe FIFA also have their values. We may have some differences but we just need to have the ability to respect the differences and to be tolerant.”

— Jamal Elamrani, Moroccan Bid’s Human Rights Board Member

What effect do you think this report has on Morocco’s chances to land this bid?

CECAFA Tournament: Zanzibar shown the door for age-fixing

The U-17 East African soccer tournament sponsored FIFA kicked off in Burundi and the word drama could just about sum up the experiences so far. The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa) has expelled Zanzibar for fielding nine players born before 2002 for their intended opening match against Sudan. Zanzibar was fined (USD) $15 000 which is almost equal to their budget for air tickets, accommodation, and meals.

Ethiopia’s team was also fined (USD) $5 000 for fielding three over-age players and had their 3-1 victory over Somalia forfeited to a 3 - 0 defeat. The Cecafa committee also recommended that only the three Ethiopian players in question be expelled from the tournament. These changes mean that only 7 teams are now participating in the ongoing tournament with Uganda, Tanzania and Sudan occupying group B whilst Ethiopia, Kenya, Burundi and Somalia make up the group A crew. Kenya had a flying start beating hosts, Burundi by 4 - 0 while Uganda and Tanzania played to a 1-1 draw. Kenya will qualify for the semi-finals should they beat Ethiopia in their next match.

“Zanzibar presented nine players over the age limit for their intended opening Group B match against Sudan on Sunday. The match was not played and the organizing committee found that only 12 players in total were born before 2002 as required by the rules.”

— Rogers Mulindwa, Cecafa Media Officer

PSL South Africa: Pirates coach reveals focus as title chances fade away

The Sea Robbers boss, Milutin Sredojevic has revealed that the club has met their 2017/18 season goals adding that their priority is now securing CAF Champions League automatic qualification. Orlando Pirates continued their unbeaten run by beating AmaZulu 2-1 on Sunday, reducing the gap between themselves and table-topping Sundowns to just 3 points who happen to have a game in hand. With three matches left for Pirates and Sundowns needing just 6 points from possible 12 to win the PSL title, it is almost game over for Pirates. Next up, the Buccaneers face the challenge of Bidvest Wits who are the latest victims of Bafana BaStyle’s predatory season. Mamelodi Sundowns capitalized on Wits’ mistake over the weekend to claim a comfortable 2-0 victory with Sibusiso Vilakazi and Themba Zwane getting on the scoresheet while Percy Tau was at the center of the slick build ups that led to the goals.

Amabhakabhaka are seven points ahead of third and fourth-placed Maritzburg United and fellow Sowetonians, Kaizer Chiefs. A win against the Clever Boys will secure second place and ensure they feature in next year’s continental showpiece, the CAF Champions League.

“We shall see. We are only thinking about the next match. We’ve no right to talk about anything else. So this is the target we are looking to achieve and stability in building the team to make supporters happy by playing good football. Next match is for the CAF Champions League.”

— Milutin “Coach Micho” Sredojevic, Orlando Pirates Coach