FIFA vice-president Michel Platini could be facing a life ban from football, according to his lawyer. The suspended UEFA chief is serving a 90-day suspension on corruption charges alongside outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter, while FIFA’s adjudicatory committee considers its verdict. Platini’s lawyer Thibaud d’Ales said the ethics investigators’ “excessive” recommendations are a “scandal”. The adjudicatory committee intends to announce its verdict next month. The Frenchman is facing sanctions over a “disloyal payment” that saw Platini, 60, receive £1.35m from Blatter, 79, in 2011 for consultation work done nine years earlier. The pair, who are serving 90-day provisional bans, have denied any wrongdoing, but admitted there was no written contract. The adjudicatory committee, led by German judge Hans Joachim Eckert, opened proceedings on Monday, after receiving the ethics committee’s recommendations. Platini is currently barred from taking part in the campaign to replace Blatter as FIFA president in February, but is taking his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Swiss Blatter, who has had recent health problems and claimed on Monday that he had been “close to dying”, is also likely to appeal to CAS.

Victor Osimhen, top scorer at the Under-17 World Cup, has been included in Nigeria’s squad for the Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations in Senegal. After scoring 10 goals to help Nigeria win the trophy last month he had been on standby for the tournament which is also a qualifier for the Rio Olympics. Osimhen was drafted in to replace Isaac Success, who has not been released by his Spanish club side Granada. The finals take place from 28 November to 12 December. Matches will be played in Dakar and M’bour, and the top three teams will also earn a spot at next year’s Olympics.

Chelsea FC’s problems transcend the pitch. They made a loss of £23.1m as they won the Premier League last season. According to their annual financial results, the deficit kept them within Financial Fair Play (FFP) limits. Getty Images. “It was a primary aim in the past financial year to be one of the clubs with a continuous record of meeting the regulations,” said chairman Bruce Buck. The Blues, who made a record £18.4m profit last year, announced revenues of £314.3m, down on the 2013-14 high of £319.8m.

Paris St-Germain players will wear special shirts for their next two games as a tribute to those who died in this month’s attacks in the French capital. The shirts will carry the message “Je suis Paris” (“I am Paris”). The French champions said they were acting “in unison with the vibrant solidarity expressed by the French and international football community”. PSG visit Swedish side Malmo in the Champions League on Wednesday before hosting Troyes in Ligue 1 on Saturday.

Boxers Fury (right) and Klitschko (left) pictured feeling good. Strange to think they’ll be knocking each other come Saturday evening.

Tyson Fury faces champion Wladimir Klitschko on Saturday (November 28) night in Dusseldorf, Germany. The fight was originally scheduled for October 24, but Klitschko pulled out with a calf injury. Klitschko, 39, has not lost in 11 years, since his knock-out loss by Lamont Brewster in April 2004. The challenger Fury, 27, remains unbeaten from his 24 fights.

Real Madrid boss Rafael Benitez has been told he retains the club’s full backing following the 4-0 home defeat by Barcelona. Benitez, 55, was only appointed in the summer, but fans chanted for him to be sacked after Saturday’s match. Following a board meeting on Monday, club president Florentino Perez said: “He has all our support and confidence. “Rafa has only just started his job here. Let him keep working and he will achieve his objectives.” Perez added he could “only talk about this moment”. He said: “I cannot say what will happen in the future. No-one can say what will happen in six months.” The 68-year-old rejected suggestions striker Cristiano Ronaldo, the Spanish club’s record goalscorer, had told him he is unhappy playing under Benitez. “Ronaldo has never said anything to me about Benitez,” he said. Perez – who returned to the club in 2009 having resigned as president in 2006 – was also a target for angry fans on Saturday. He said he understood their disappointment but asked them to display “more than ever” their “support to the team and to the players”. Real’s next game is at Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League on Wednesday, followed by an away game against Eibar in La Liga on Sunday.

Dream Team VI Chief Coach, Samson Siasia on Monday named a final 21-man squad for the 2015 U-23 Champion- ship commencing Saturday in Dakar, Senegal. Nigeria will begin their campaign on Sunday against Mali in Mbour. They will also battle Egypt on December 2 in Mbour and three days later play their final group B match against Algeria in Dakar. The top three teams will qualify automatically for next year’s Olympics in Rio d Janeiro, Brazil.

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New Zealand rugby union great Jonah Lomu has died aged 40. Lomu, who scored 37 tries in 63 matches for New Zealand between 1994 and 2002, had been diagnosed with a rare and serious kidney condition by 1996. It forced him to quit the game and he had a kidney transplant in 2004, but the organ stopped functioning in 2011. “Jonah was a legend of our game and loved by his many fans both here and around the world,” said New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Tew. “We’re lost for words and our heartfelt sympathies go out to Jonah’s family.” Family spokesman John Mayhew told New Zealand television that Lomu’s death was “totally unexpected” and that he had only arrived back from the UK on Tuesday, after spending time there for the Rugby World Cup. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said: “The thoughts of the entire country are with his family.” Speaking to the BBC, New Zealand Sports Minister Jonathan Coleman said Lomu “was the first global rugby superstar”. He was a “huge inspiration to Polynesian men and actually in later years with his battles against kidney disease, very inspirational to people suffering from chronic diseases as well”, he said. Lomu is survived by his wife Nadene and two sons.

AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli has had surgery to fix a groin problem in Munich. The club said in a statement:”The injury has been ongoing for weeks and conservative treatment has not had the desired effect.” Balotelli is expected to be sidelined until the new year.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter and vice-president Michel Platini have had their appeals against 90-day bans rejected by world football governing body’s appeal committee. They were suspended in October while FIFA’s ethics committee investigates corruption claims against them. Blatter, 79, is accused of signing a contract “unfavourable” to FIFA and making a “disloyal payment” to Platini. Both deny wrongdoing and could appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke was also suspended in October but there was no mention of him in Wednesday’s FIFA statement. The adjudicatory panel of FIFA’s ethics committee is due to hold hearings into the misconduct charges before Christmas.

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Claude LeRoy resigned as coach of Congo Brazzaville just hours after securing a place for the country in the final of qualifying for the World Cup. The 67-year-old Frenchman told officials directly after the Red Devils beat Ethiopia 2-1 in Brazzaville on Tuesday for a 6-4 overall victory. ” After two formidable years , I’ve decided to embark on another adventure,” he told local reporters. There is now speculation he could take over as Cameroon boss again. Volker Finke was sacked as coach of the Indomitable Lions before the recent World Cup qualifiers, when they beat Niger 3-0 on aggregate. Alexandre Belinga is currently the interim coach of Cameroon while the football association recruit a replacement. LeRoy has coached at a record eight African Nations Cup finals, including winning the tournament with Cameroon in 1988. He only once failed to reach the quarter-finals of the Nations Cup and took Congo to the last eight place at the tournament in Equatorial Guinea in January.

The Nigeria Football Federation has appealed passionately to kidnappers of the 72 –year old mother of U-23 National Team Head Coach, Samson Siasia, to release the old woman. On learning of the unfortunate incident on Tuesday morning, NFF President Amaju Pinnick was downcast. “This is quite disturbing. We are just preparing for a crucial 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying match, and the U-23 boys are already in The Gambia for a pre-Cup of Nations training camp. Why this? “All we can do is to appeal to the kidnappers to free Samson Siasia’s aged mother. Samson is on a critical national assignment presently and the last he needs is this kind of distraction.” The 72 –year old Mrs Ogere Siasia, according to Samson, was abducted in the village of Odoni, Bayelsa State by three men on motorbike. A distressed Siasia said his mother happened to be the only one at home in his village taking care of his father who is visually impaired.

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Swaziland’s hopes of reaching their first ever Fifa World Cup got dashed as they crashed 2-0 to Nigeria at the Adokiye Amesiamaka Stadium, Port Harcourt on Tuesday evening. A trade mark free-kick from Moses Simon and Efe Ambrose’s strike breezed aside Harris Bulunga’s side who had boasted about their chances of upstaging the Super Eagles before their home fans. The Super Eagles made their intent of winning known as early as the second minute when pressure on the visitor’s backline and got a corner kick unexploited by Simon. Nigeria pushed forward on their second attack of the game, patiently passing the ball around midway inside the Swaziland half of the pitch. They were unable to find a way through the sea of players camped in front of them, however, and Odion Ighalo ended up losing the ball on the right wing.

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The groups for 2016 African Nation Championships (CHAN) is out following the draw held in Kigali, Rwanda on Sunday. The home-based Super Eagles team will battle Tunisia, Guinea and Niger Republic in the group stages of the tournament to be held next year in Rwanda. CHAN is exclusively for home based players. Nigeria came second in the last event help in South Africa with Nigeria’s Ejike Uzoenyi winning the Golden Ball of the tournament as the best player.

The Full Draw:

Group A: Rwanda, Gabon, Morocco, Ivory Coast

Group B: DR Congo, Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia

Group C: Tunisia, Nigeria, Niger, Guinea

Group D: Zimbabwe, Mali, Uganda, Zambia

The five candidates for the 2015 BBC African Footballer of the Year have been revealed during a special live launch broadcast in Johannesburg, South Africa. Algeria’s Yacine Brahimi, the 2014 winner, is on the shortlist along with Gabon’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ghanaian Andre Ayew, Senegal’s Sadio Mane and Yaya Toure of Ivory Coast. The winner will be decided by African football fans, who have until 7pm Nigerian time on 30 November to vote for their choice. The winner will be announced on Friday, 11 December between 4:30 pm and 5pm during a special live broadcast on both BBC World News and BBC World Service, with the BBC Sport and BBC Africa websites also carrying the announcement.

Liberia’s Musa Bility has been ruled out as a candidate for the FIFA presidency following integrity checks. Football’s world governing body has approved five of the presidential candidates, with suspended Uefa boss Michel Platini also not included. The Frenchman could be added should his ban end before February’s election. Prince Ali bin al-Hussein, Jerome Champagne, Gianni Infantino, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa and Tokyo Sexwale have been approved. FIFA said it would not comment further on the reasons for Bility’s exclusion, which the 48-year-old president of the Liberian Football Association can challenge at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The election is to find a successor to the suspended Sepp Blatter, who is under criminal investigation. The 79-year-old Swiss announced he would be stepping down in June, with world football’s governing body at the centre of a corruption scandal.

Players of the Super Eagles of Nigeria were captured on photos this morning as they departed Nigeria for Swaziland ahead of their World Cup qualifier match against Swaziland to be played tomorrow (Friday November 13th). They flew on Arik Air. The Super Eagles had been camping and training in Abuja ahead of the game. The return leg will be played in Port Harcourt, Nigeria on Tuesday 17th November, 2015. Goof luck to them.

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AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli may require surgery on a troublesome groin injury. The 25-year-old, who has made only four appearances since re-joining Milan on loan from Liverpool earlier this season, has been sidelined for over a month with the problem and travelled to Denmark on Monday for a consultation with a leading specialist. AC Milan said in a statement: “The medical staff of AC Milan and Liverpool FC will soon agree on which treatment the player will undergo.”

French triathlete Laurent Vidal has died of a heart attack, aged 31. Vidal competed at two Olympics, finishing fifth at London 2012. He retired suddenly in April last year after suffering a cardiopulmonary arrest during a swimming training session, but recovered after being placed in an induced coma. World Triathlon confirmed the news on Tuesday, tweeting:  “We are terribly saddened to hear of the passing of Laurent Vidal. He touched us all.”

The Moscow Antidoping Center has had its accreditation suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The move was one of the key suggestions of a WADA commission report examining allegations of doping, cover-ups, and extortion in Russian athletics. The ban, which takes immediate effect, prohibits the centre from carrying out any WADA-related anti-doping activity. The centre may appeal against the ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport within 21 days of receipt of notice. “The Moscow laboratory is provisionally suspended, and the status of the laboratory’s accreditation beyond that will be decided by a disciplinary committee which will be formed shortly to review the case,” WADA president Sir Craig Reedie said. In WADA’s independent commission report, which was published on Monday, officials from the Moscow laboratory were accused of intentionally and maliciously destroying more than 1,400 samples after receiving written notification from the anti-doping organisation to preserve target samples. The report also advocated the permanent removal of the laboratory’s director Grigory Rodchenkov, whom it accuses of asking for and accepting bribes and intentionally destroying samples he was told to keep. Following the closure of the laboratory, all samples will be transported to an alternative WADA-accredited facility.