Tickets for Steven Gerrard’s final home game for Liverpool this weekend are on sale for more than £1,300. On Tuesday, the prices on ticketbis.net ranged from more than £100 to £1,324.64 before the captain’s farewell against Crystal Palace at Anfield on Saturday. Tickets at that top price in the Main Stand normally sell at £47 for what is a Category C game. Gerrard, 34, ends a 17-year career with the Reds next week at Stoke, before he moves to MLS club LA Galaxy. Reports have suggested  the former England skipper will receive a guard of honour before the match against the Eagles. A win for Liverpool in their final home game would secure a Europa League spot next season. What a loyal Anfield servant Gerrard has been!

FIFA is to announce a new system of match observers to monitor incidents of racism and discrimination at World Cup qualifiers in the build up to the 2018 tournament in Russia. Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure, who suffered racist abuse while playing against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League, will be present at the launch at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday. The observers will be trained to spot incidents of discrimination and report them to FIFA, which can then impose disciplinary sanctions on the countries involved. FIFA president Sepp Blatter has said “a lot of work needs to be done” to combat incidents. Nice one FIFA!

Eden Hazard has been voted the 2015 Footballer of the Year by the Football Writers’ Association. The Chelsea midfielder topped the poll of more than 300 journalists with 53% of the vote, comfortably ahead of the Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane, with his Chelsea team-mate and captain John Terry third. The 24-year-old Belgium playmaker has scored 20 goals in all competitions so far this season and created many more as José Mourinho’s side secured a first Premier League title since 2009-10. Hazard, who also won the Professional Footballers Association’s player of the year award last month, will be honoured with the FWA accolade, which has been running since 1948, at a gala dinner in London on 21 May. The FWA chairman Andy Dunn, of the Sunday Mirror, said: “The list of truly world class players on the Football Writers’ Association roll of honour is a long one and Eden Hazard is a worthy addition. A creator, a goalscorer and the hardest of workers, Hazard has been a constant source of threat for the Barclays Premier League champions. “But it is not just his trickery, his pace, his artistry and his marksmanship that make Hazard such an invaluable component of José Mourinho’s Chelsea squad, it is his durability. Hazard has started all 36 Premier League matches and, considering the particularly close attention he receives from opponents, that is a feat in itself.” As well as Hazard and Terry, the Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fàbregas, their defender Branislav Ivanovic and Thibaut Courtois also featured in the FWA’s top 10. The other players to receive votes were Alexis Sánchez of Arsenal, the Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea, the Manchester City forward Sergio Agüero and Leicester City’s Esteban Cambiasso.

Bayern Munich boss Pep Guardiola says he will still be at the club next season, despite reported interest from Manchester City. Guardiola was asked about his future at the pre-match news conference for Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Barcelona. “I’ve already said 200 million times – I’ll be here next season. That’s it,” the ex-Barca boss, 44, said. “I have a year left on my contract. Next season I will be here.” City boss Manuel Pellegrini could be under pressure after his side lost their Premier League title to Chelsea this season. Newspaper reports on Sunday morning claimed that Guardiola, who is in his second season in charge at Bayern, had reached a verbal agreement to manage them next term. He has won a domestic league title in five of his six seasons as a manager, three with Barcelona and two with Bayern. This is also his fifth season managing in the Champions League semi-finals. However Bayern face a big task to reach the final, having lost 3-0 in the first leg of their tie with Barca. Guardiola said: “Barcelona are strong on the break. If we let something slip, they’ll punish us. “We have to defend well. We can’t go on the all-out attack. We have to control the game. “We’re Bayern – before a game I’ve never said that we have no chance. Of course we do.”

Lower-league footballer Tim Nicot has become the second Belgian player to die of cardiac arrest in the past two weeks. The 23-year-old left-back for fourth-tier Wilrijk-Beerschot was playing in a tournament in Hemiksem when he collapsed on Friday. He was placed in an induced coma and his club confirmed his death on Monday. In late April, Lokeren defender Gregory Mertens, 24, died after collapsing during a reserve game. A club statement said Nicot “fought like a bear” and was the “idol of our supporters”. It described him as “always in a good mood, always making time for an umpteenth selfie with a fan”. Three years ago Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba, then 23, suffered a cardiac arrest in an FA Cup game with Tottenham. He was “in effect dead” for 78 minutes but survived, although he never played again. Nicot’s team-mate Wesley Snoeys said: “So many questions. Always the same question comes up: why why why? You left us far too soon. I will never forget you. Forever in my heart.” Jef Snyders, another Wilrijk-Beerschot player, added: “Football will never be the same anymore. Rest in peace mate.”

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard played down the significance of a standing ovation given to him by Chelsea fans. The midfielder scored in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge on Sunday. “I was more happy with the ovation from the Liverpool fans,” said Gerrard. “Chelsea fans have had respect for a couple of seconds today but have slaughtered me all game. “I’m not going to get drawn into wishing Chelsea fans well. It was nice of them to turn up for once today.” Speaking to BBC Sport, Gerrard added: “It was a nice touch. I know they’ve absolutely murdered me for years because I never signed here. I’ve had great support from the Liverpool fans – that’s all that matters to me.” Gerrard, 34, has been the focus of chants from Blues fans for a number of years. Chelsea tried to sign the former England captain on three different occasions, while last season Gerrard famously slipped to allow Chelsea to score and put Manchester City on course for the Premier League title at the expense of Liverpool. When asked about current Blues boss Jose Mourinho, Gerrard said: “I have huge respect for him. He’s the best manager in the world. I would have signed for him on three occasions if I wasn’t such a big Liverpool fan. “He’s the reason my head was turned on a couple of occasions but he knew why I couldn’t do it, because I love Liverpool Football Club. It always means more when you win for your people.” Mourinho reciprocated the respect for Gerrard, saying the midfielder has been a “special” player as he prepares to exit the Premier League for Major League Soccer side LA Galaxy in the United States. “I’m so happy with the ovation,” said Mourinho. “The negative song Chelsea fans sing for him is respect for an old, dear enemy that fought so much against us in every competition. “After that, the standing applause is amazing. To get it at Anfield, he gets it week-in week-out, year after year, but away from home it shows a lot. “Moments like that and when Crystal Palace come here and fight and win, Burnley fight like lions, us losing at home to a League One team in Bradford, moments like that make this country special.”

Sunday 10 May, 2015:

Taraba 3 – 3 Ifeanyi Uba

Warri Wolves 4 – 1 Nasarawa United

Abia Warriors 2 – 0 Kwara United

Kano Pillars 2 – 0 Wikki Tourists

Enyimba 0 – 0 Giwa

Lobi Stars 0 – 0 El-Kanemi

Sunshine Stars 2 – 0 Shooting Stars

Enugu Rangers 1 – 0 Heartland

Bayelsa United 2 – 2 Dolphins

Akwa United 0 – 0 Sharks

Queens Park Rangers were relegated from the Premier League after being crushed 6-0 at Manchester City on Sunday. QPR are bottom of the table with 27 points from 36 games, nine adrift of 17th-placed Newcastle United with two matches left. Burnley were relegated to the Championship on Saturday despite their 1 -0 victory away to Hull.

Who will take the final relegation spot????

Schalke have cancelled the contracts of Kevin-Prince Boateng and Sidney Sam ‘with immediate effect’ as a ‘consequence’ of their surprise defeat by Cologne in the Bundesliga on Sunday. The Royal Blues were beaten 2-0 at the RheinEnergieStadion to leave their hopes of qualifying for Europe hanging by a thread, and general manager Horst Heldt had promised action would be taken. Boateng and Sam have both been released from the club while Marco Hoger is suspended from training or playing with the first-team squad until after Saturday’s game against Paderborn.

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The regular Championship season has ended. Now the real drama begins. This week, the four teams occupying third to sixth in the final table will embark on the play-offs with one aim: victory at Wembley on Monday 25 May and a slice of the riches and prestige on offer in the Premier League. The final itself is famously billed as the richest game in world football, with roughly £120m on offer for the winner next season, before the bar is lifted again courtesy of the Premier League’s hugely lucrative new TV deal starting in 2016-17. But first, teams must survive the tense, nail-biting, exhilarating or heart-breaking experience of the semi-finals. This season’s promotion race has been the closest since the division was renamed the Championship in 2004, and with just five points separating Norwich, Middlesbrough, Brentford and Ipswich in the table, the play-offs promise to be just as tight.

Play-off Semifinal fixtures:

Friday 8 May 2015:

Brentford vs Middlesbrough 7:45 pm

Saturday 9 May 2015:

Ipswich vs Norwich 12:15 pm

Friday 15 May 2015:

Middlesbrough vs Brentford 7:45 pm

Saturday 16 May 2015:

Norwich vs Ipswich 12:15pm

Final:

Monday 25 May 2015. The winner joins Bournemouth and Watford in the promotion from Championship to the Premier League.

See shading! Manny Pacquaio implies Floyd Mayweather Jr was hugging him during their fight rather than punch him. Ironically Mayweather was arrested and jailed for domestic violence for beating his baby mama, Josie Harris, a few years ago. Do you agree?

The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has lined up two friendlies (against Canada and New Zealand) for the African champions and female senior football team, the Super Falcons of Nigeria. NFF women committee chairperson, Dilli Onyeadinma disclosed that the Falcons will leave early for Canada after their two-leg Olympic Qualifier against Mali. “Once we are through with the qualifiers we will proceed to Canada. We have plans for the team to play against New Zealand and Canada before the Falcons play their opening game.” These friendlies are warm up matches for the Women’s World Cup to be held in Canada where the Falcons will seek to better their best outing which was a quarterfinal berth at the 1999 version in held in USA.

The 1999 team featured the following players: Ann Chiejine, Yinka Kudaisi, Martha Tarhemba, Adanna Nwaneri, Eberechi Opara, Kikelomo Ajayi, Stella Mbachu, Rita Nwadike, Gloria Usieta, Marvis Ogun, Prisca Emeafu, Judith Chime, Nkiru Okosieme, Florence Omagbemi, Maureen Mmadu, Florence Iweta, Nkechi Egbe, Patience Avre, Mercy Akide and Ifeanyi Chiejine. This team played a remarkable quarterfinal game against Brazil at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, Landover, Maryland. Brazil was leading 3 -0 in the first half before Nigeria equalized 3 – 3 in the second half (through  Emeafu, Okosieme and Egbe) before loosing 4 – 3  to a golden goal scored by Brazil in the 104th minute. Some said it was a revenge of Nigeria’s golden goal against Brazil’s men’s team at Atlanta’96 Olympics.

A reminder that the BBC’s Women’s Footballer of the Year vote closes on Monday, 11 May at 10:00 BST. The nominees are Spain’s Veronica Boquete, Germany’s Nadine Kessler, Scotland’s Kim Little, Brazil’s Marta and Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala. The winner will be revealed on BBC World Service on 26 May and you can make your choice via this link or by SMS, with full details found here.

Naija and African people, let’s make out time and vote for our girl Oshoala! We don vote o!

The three rival FIFA presidential candidates to Sepp Blatter will hold talks in Switzerland on Monday with rumours one or more will pull out. Dutch FA chief Michael Van Praag, ex-Portugal international Luis Figo and FIFA executive committee member Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein will meet in Nyon. There is speculation one, or even two, candidates may drop out and support the best challenger to Blatter, 79. UEFA is based in Nyon but the talks will not be held at its headquarters. It is thought the candidates will use the opportunity to decide how they can best proceed given that Blatter is the overwhelming favourite to be re-elected. An announcement could potentially be made in the days following the meeting. On Monday Prince Ali, of Jordan, said he would not be distracted from the task of trying to oust Blatter from office. “I will continue the race until the end,” he said in a statement. Blatter, the Fifa boss since 1998, is seeking a fifth consecutive term of office and has yet to issue an election manifesto. Speaking to reporters earlier this year he said his “mission” within football’s world governing body had not yet concluded. In March, Blatter rejected a joint offer from the BBC and Sky to take part in a televised Fifa presidential election debate. The vote – which will be held on 29 May in Zurich at Fifa’s annual congress – requires the winning candidate to secure a two-thirds majority in the first round of voting. If subsequent rounds are required then a simple majority is all that is required for victory.

Pearson

Leicester manager Nigel Pearson has been named Premier League manager of the month for April. The Foxes boss oversaw a run of four straight wins that lifted the club out of the relegation zone. This is the first time 51-year-old Pearson has won the top-flight managerial award. It comes after successive victories over West Ham, West Brom, Swansea and Burnley lifted City off the bottom of the table for the first time since November.

Aston Villa striker Christian Benteke is the player of the month for his five goals in four games. This included a hat-trick in Villa’s 3-3 home draw with fellow relegation-threatened QPR and the winner in his side’s 1-0 win at Tottenham, which helped put distance between Tim Sherwood’s side and the bottom three.

Benteke

Thursday 7 May 2015:

Napoli 1 – 1 Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

Sevilla 3 – 0 Fiorentina

Togo goalkeeper Kossi Agassa has urged the country’s football authority to put its house in order as the Hawks attempt to return to the Africa Cup of Nations. Despite boasting a large array of European-based players and reaching the quarter-finals in 2013, Togo failed to qualify for this year’s tournament in Equatorial Guinea. And the highly experienced Agassa, 36, has warned that the country risks missing out again in 2017 unless a Fifa-endorsed normalisation committee, set up to run Togo’s Football Federation (FTF), brings order to the administration of football in the West African country. “Togo’s problem is a deep one and it’s all about the federation,” Agassa told BBC Sport. “We have good players but we are always facing different problems within the federation. “Bringing success is not about the players but it also includes the football authority.

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Two days after saying he would be open to a re-match with Manny Pacquiao, unbeaten American Floyd Mayweather Jr. reversed course on Thursday while describing the Filipino as “a sore loser”. In an interview with Showtime to be broadcast on Saturday, Mayweather expressed his disgust that Pacquiao had blamed an injured right shoulder for his defeat by the American in the so-called “Fight of the Century” in Las Vegas. Pacquiao, the former eight-division world champion, lost a unanimous decision to Mayweather on Saturday in the richest prize fight ever before undergoing successful arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder four days later. “I’m not going to buy into the bull— … and I don’t want the public to buy into the bull—-,” Mayweather said in a sampling of quotes released by Showtime on Thursday. “He lost. He knows he lost. I lost a lot of respect for him after all of this.” Asked by Showtime whether he had noticed Pacquiao being hampered by his shoulder during their 12-round bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Mayweather replied: “Absolutely not.” He then added: “He was fast. His left hand was fast. His right hand was fast and he was throwing them both fast and strong. Excuses, excuses.” Barely one hour after the contest ended, Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, said the 36-year-old southpaw had been troubled by a previous injury to his right shoulder. “You guys saw the fight yourself. When you review the film, you’ll see how infrequently he threw the right,” Arum told reporters. On Monday, an MRI scan in Los Angeles confirmed the Filipino had a torn rotator cuff and on Wednesday he underwent surgery. Earlier this week, Mayweather said he would be willing to give Pacquiao a rematch next year, telling ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith that he would delay his proposed retirement from the sport. “I will fight him in a year after his surgery,” Mayweather told Smith in a text. Mayweather has one fight remaining on his Showtime contract and has repeatedly said he intends to quit after a bout in September, although after Saturday’s fight he told reporters that he is “human” and occasionally contradicts himself. On Thursday, however, the 38-year-old American made a complete U-turn on that statement. “Did I text Stephen A. Smith and say I will fight him again? Yeah, but I change my mind,” said Mayweather. “At this particular time, no, because he’s a sore loser and he’s a coward … If you lost, accept the loss and say, ‘Mayweather, you were the better fighter’.”

Qatar have appointed Uruguayan Jose Daniel Carreno as their new head coach to steer them through the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign, the Asian Football Confederation said on Friday. The former striker had been in charge of Qatar Stars League outfit Al Arabi this term after winning the Saudi league and cup double with Al-Nassr last year. He succeeds Algerian Djamel Belmadi, who was sacked last month after a winless group stage exit at the Asian Cup in January. Carreno is charged with leading Qatar to a first World Cup finals ahead of the Gulf state staging the tournament in 2022. Qatar have been drawn in Group C of the joint qualifying tournament for Russia 2018 and the 2019 Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates, which starts next month, alongside China, Hong Kong, Bhutan and Maldives. Lebanon have also made a coaching change ahead of the qualifying campaign with Montenegrin Miodrag Radulovic tasked with leading the West Asians after replacing Italian Giuseppe Giannini. Lebanon, the surprise package in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers after making it through to the final stages for the first time, are in Group G along with South Korea, Myanmar, Laos and Kuwait. Radulovic has twice coached club sides in Kuwait, who are expected to challenge Lebanon for the runners-up spot in the pool behind the Koreans.

Brazilian great Pele is recovering in a Sao Paulo hospital after undergoing surgery on a prostate condition. The 74-year-old was operated on after being admitted to the Albert Einstein Hospital on Tuesday, having also been treated at the same hospital in November. A medical statement quoted on the Globoesporte website read: “Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pele) is in hospital after he underwent a surgical procedure of transurethral resection of the prostate. “His condition is stable and he is in a room at the hospital.” According to the statement, Pele’s condition is being monitored by doctors Gustavo Caserta Lemos and Fabio Nasri. However, it does not say when the three-time World Cup winner might be discharged. Pele was also treated at the Albert Einstein Hospital late last year after being diagnosed with a urinary tract infection that stemmed from a November 13 operation to remove kidney stones. He has only one kidney, having had one removed towards the end of his playing career.