Football, as other sports, is in disarray at the moment with key officials embroiled in kinds of corruption – both home and abroad. Fury may turn his fury on the IBF and much more.
Taraba Utd players brutalized for asking for owed salaries
The League Management Company have a dicey crisis on their hands as the management of Taraba United, who play in the Nigeria Professional Football League, turned police officers on the players for protesting for their more than 10 months owed salaries at the front of the Taraba State Government House. The chairman of the club is former Eagles winger, Tijani Babangida, but he is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter.
IBF threatens to strip Fury of title
New heavyweight champion, Tyson Fury, with a fight record 25-0-KO18, who won the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles two Saturdays ago by upsetting Wladimir Klitschko, has agreed in principle to give the former champion a rematch – a decision that has infuriated the IBF.
The IBF announced that the title would be vacated if Fury fails to face their mandatory challenger, Vyacheslav Glazkov, before giving a rematch to Klitschko.
Mauritania President stops match, orders penalties
The president of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, allegedly stopped his country’s Super Cup final in the 63rd minute and ordered a penalty shootout.
It was reported that Aziz was so bored with the action between FC Tevragh-Zeina and ACS Ksar, that he asked the referee stop the match and settle it with spot-kicks.
Afterwards, Mauritania football federation president, Ahmed Ould Abderrahmane said: “I deny in the strongest terms the intervention of the President of the Republic. The decision was made due to organizational issues in accordance with the presidents and the coaches of the two teams.” But the question to ask the president will be – where in FIFA statutes does this arise?
Three Ligue 1 matches drawn at same time
Three Ligue 1 matches were played on Wednesday and they all ended goalless. What odds would it be that Angers versus PSG would end with the Parisians not getting the ball in behind the opposing goalkeeper, but it happened despite the best efforts of Angel Di Maria, who hit the post. If i was a betting man and had put that odds with a $20, I would have won about $7,000. But I am not a betting man.
75 members produce 38-38 voting result in Argentina
There was a Mathematical postulated in Argentina during an election of the Argentine Football Association’s (AFA) – the first time in 36 years but in the end, organisers had to call for another one when they discovered that the 75-member electorate had produced a 38-38 result!
Do not ask me how that came about but former AFA president, Julio Grondona, who died last year must have been laughing in his grave. It was described in local parlance as “El Empate Imposible”. Mathematicians will also be scratching their heads as they try to work out that equation!
Curry and Lowry share 85 points but Warriors continue streak
The closest any team has come to beating the NBA defending champions, Golden State Warriors was at the Canada Center on Sunday by the Toronto Raptors, but with point-guard, Kyle Lowry draining 41 points, they still fell short to the Warriors mainly because Stephen Curry scored 44 points and 8/14 shooting three pointers. But it was a career high for Lowry, who became just the second player to score at least 30 points against the Warriors this season. Curry meanwhile has now scored 40 points or more seven times this season.
And finally…
Rogerio Ceni has retired
Brazil’s free-kick-scoring goalkeeper, Rogerio Ceni has retired. The former Brazil international who played for Sao Paulo for 23 years and made 1,256 career appearances hung up his gloves and his boots on Sunday.
The 42-year-old will be remembered for long not for his saves but as a goal scorer – he scored 131 goals in his career, a humongous amount of goals that can be compared even with the best midfielders in the game. The game says a long bye-bye to a true legend.
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