Michel Platini has announced he will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against his ban from football. Suspended UEFA boss Michel Platini and outgoing FIFA president Sepp Blatter had their bans from all football-related activities upheld at a hearing last week. But the suspensions were reduced from eight to six years by FIFA’s appeals committee. Both were found guilty of breaches surrounding a $2m disloyal payment to Platini. A statement released by the Court of Arbitration in the last few minutes read: “In appealing to the CAS, Michel Platini seeks to annul the decisions taken by the Adjudicatory Chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee and by the FIFA Appeal Committee which lead to him being declared ineligible to take part in football-related activity at national and international level for six years. “A CAS arbitration procedure is (now) in progress.”

Tuesday 1 March, 2016:

Aston Villa 1 – 3 Everton

Bournemouth 2 – 0 Southampton

Leicester 2 – 2 West Brom

Norwich 1 – 2 Chelsea

Sunderland  2 – 2 Crystal Palace

Super Falcons of Nigeria coach, Florence Omagbemi has called up 40 players for camping in preparation for the African Women’s Nations cup qualifier against Senegal or Guinea. Senegal and Guinea will contend over two legs in March, with the winner to face Nigeria in home-and-away clashes between 4th – 12th.

Continue reading →

World indoor 1500m champion Abeba Aregawi has been provisionally suspended after testing positive for a banned substance. The Ethiopia-born Swede, 25, failed an out-of-competition test conducted by governing body the IAAF. Aregawi, who won gold at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow and 2014 World Indoor Championships in Sopot, has requested a B sample be tested. There is no suggestion Aregawi’s performance in that race is under scrutiny. Aregawi ran for Ethiopia at the 2012 London Olympics but began competing for Sweden later that year after being granted citizenship. She was due to defend her title at next month’s World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon. Her suspension also means her place in the Swedish team for the Rio Olympics in August is in doubt.

Continue reading →

Former Bayern Munich president and West Germany international Uli Hoeness has been released from prison after serving half of his three-and-a-half-year sentence for tax evasion. The former Bayern Munich player, who was sports director for 30 years before taking over as club president in 2009, was convicted in March 2014 for evading 28.5m euros.

Die hard Man City fan, Noel Gallagher (in blue jacket), turned psychic, predicted how yesterday’s Wembley final would finish. Gallagher was asked earlier yesterday outside Wembley for his prediction – and he got every detail right. “I think it’s going to be mega close and I’m not very optimistic,” he said. “But I’m going to say we’ll win on penalties.”

He was then asked “who’s going to get the decisive penalty?” “Yaya. Roll it in.” Toure swept home the winning penalty to hand Man City the league cup – 3-1 on penalties – and proved Gallagher to be right.

Police are planning for nights of European football at Leicester City’s King Power stadium next season. The Foxes’ miraculous performances in the Premier League have put them on the brink of passage to the elite Champions’ League or, if the dream does not quite come off, the Europa League. Senior officers at Leicestershire Police have been discussing the implications for them should City’s end-of-season league position in May send them into European competition for the first time in 15 years. Officers visited two matches in London last week as guests of the Metropolitan police. The matches, Arsenal’s 2-0 loss to Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday and Spurs’ 3-0 demolition of Fiorentina in the Europa League two nights later gave officers an insight into modern European match policing.

Continue reading →

Issa Hayatou, the head of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), has formally written to Gianni Infantino to congratulate him after being voted in as the new president of football’s world governing body FIFA. Infantino succeeds fellow Swiss Sepp Blatter, after polling 115 votes, 27 more than closest rival Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa, at Friday’s election. Infantino was not the favoured candidate of CAF, who had given its backing to Sheikh Salman.  Despite that, Cameroon’s Hayatou – who had been FIFA’s acting president in the lead-up to the election – sent Infantino a letter, dated 27 February 2016, congratulating him on behalf of the CAF Executive committee and the African football family: “Be assured of the continued support of CAF, African members of the new FIFA Council, as well as our commitment to strengthening the excellent relationship between CAF and FIFA,” Hayatou wrote.

Continue reading →

Sunday 28th February, 2016:

Heartland 0 – 1 Abia Warriors

Ikorodu United 1 – 0 Lobi Stars

Shooting Stars 3 – 0 MFM

Rivers United 2 – 0 Ifeanyi Uba

Kano Pillars 2 – 1 Wikki Tourists

Enugu Rangers 2 – 1 Niger Tornadoes

Plateau United 2 – 1 Warri Wolves

Lionel Messi reached the 30-goal mark for the eighth consecutive season as he helped Spanish leaders Barcelona come back from behind to beat Sevilla. Sixth-placed Sevilla, the last team to beat Barca back in early October, led when Vitolo volleyed in a left-wing cross at the far post. Messi’s sublime 20-yard free-kick levelled before he teed up Gerard Pique to sidefoot in the close-range winner. Barca, who have not lost in 34 games, are now eight points clear in La Liga. The Catalan side’s fightback at the Nou Camp means they have equalled the longest unbeaten run of a La Liga team in all competitions, levelling Real Madrid’s run in the 1988-89 season. But more concerning for the Bernabeu club is the huge gap that has opened up between them and their arch-rivals Barca. Zinedine Zidane’s third-placed side are 12 points adrift of the leaders following Saturday’s home derby defeat by Atletico Madrid. Second-placed Atletico won 1-0 at the Bernabeu to remain Barca’s nearest challengers.

Willy Caballero was Manchester City’s hero as they beat Liverpool on penalties to win the Capital One Cup at Wembley. The 34-year-old Argentine goalkeeper spectacularly rewarded the faith of manager Manuel Pellegrini with saves from Lucas, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana in the shoot-out after he was selected ahead of first-choice Joe Hart. Fernandinho put City ahead just after the break after an error by Liverpool’s otherwise heroic keeper Simon Mignolet. But two glaring misses from former Liverpool forward Raheem Sterling opened the door for Coutinho’s late leveller. In the shootout, Fernandinho hit a post with City’s first kick, but Jesus Navas and Sergio Aguero were on target as Caballero made his decisive saves, allowing Yaya Toure to convert the winning penalty.

Newly appointed Nigeria’s interim coach, Samson Siasia, have given a hint that he may recall former captain Vincent Enyeama and Emmanuel Emenike back to the Super Eagles squad. Both players had announced their retirement in what was seen as their disapproval of former coach Sunday Oliseh’s ways. Speaking to journalists shortly after his appointment, Siasia said:

Towards the late minutes of today’s match between Manchester United and Arsenal at Old Trafford, Louis van Gaal got out of his seat, a rare sight that elicited cheers from the home fans. Where was he going? The Manchester United boss walks up to fourth official and proceeds to lie down on the floor, presumably questioning the actions of someone on the pitch.

Continue reading →

Nigeria’s Kelechi Iheanacho pictured yesterday with his Manchester City team mates getting a Saturday night train to London from Stockport. They have a date with Liverpool today at Wembley by 5:30pm Nigerian time. It’s the league cup final.

Jurgen Klopp and YNWA banner adorn Wembley way. We might see a battle of the Toure brothers, Yaya for Man City and Kolo for Liverpool.

Let the best team win!

Saturday 27th February, 2016:

West Ham 1 – 0 Sunderland

Leicester 1 – 0 Norwich

Southampton 1 – 2 Chelsea

Stoke 2 – 1 Aston Villa

Watford 0 – 0 Bournemouth

West Brom 3 – 2 Crystal Palace

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo said “if we were all at my level maybe we would be leaders” after his side’s 1-0 derby defeat by Atletico Madrid. A first defeat under Zinedine Zidane leaves Real nine points off leaders Barcelona, and four below Atletico. Real were missing Gareth Bale and Marcelo through injury, while Karim Benzema was replaced at half-time. “I don’t want to disrespect anyone, but when the best players aren’t available it’s harder to win,” Ronaldo said. “I like to play with Karim, with Bale, with Marcelo. “I’m not saying the others like Lucas Vazquez, Jese and Mateo Kovacic are not good players – they are very good players – but it’s not the same.” Afterwards he sought to clarify his quotes, telling Marca: “When I say that, I am talking about my fitness level, not my level as a player. I am no better than any of my team-mates”. Ronaldo used an expletive to describe how he feels the media describe him and added “but I don’t listen to what the press say. The statistics and numbers don’t lie”

Gianni Infantino has succeeded fellow Swiss Sepp Blatter as president of world football’s governing body FIFA. The Uefa secretary general polled 115 votes, 27 more than closest rival Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa. Prince Ali bin al-Hussein (4 votes) and Jerome Champagne (0) were third and fourth respectively. Blatter, who had led FIFA since 1998, stood down last year and was later banned from football for six years for breaching ethics guidelines. Infantino is a 45-year-old lawyer from Brig in the Valais region of Switzerland, less than six miles from Blatter’s hometown of Visp. He only entered the presidential race when it became clear that Michael Platini, boss of European football’s governing body UEFA, would not be allowed to stand.

Continue reading →

Acting FIFA President Issa Hayatou has announced the first-round results:

Gianni Infantino – 88 votes

Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa – 85 votes

Prince Ali bin al-Hussein – 27 votes

Jerome Champagne – 7 votes

Tokyo Sexwale dropped from the race after his speech. Second round of voting will soon commence. Now only a simple majority of 104 votes is required to win the race. Gianni Infantino claimed 88 in the first round and Sheikh Salman 85 so their camps will now be busy lobbying in an attempt to swell their support while the vote is set up. If neither man claims a majority in the second voting, then a third round of voting will hold with the candidate with the fewest votes dropping out..

Shakhtar Donetsk vs Anderlecht

FC Basel vs Sevilla

Villarreal vs Bayer Leverkusen

Athletic Bilbao vs Valencia

Liverpool vs Manchester United

Sparta Prague vs Lazio

Borussia Dortmund vs Tottenham

Fenerbahce vs Braga