Spanish La Liga’s 2017/2018 fixtures have been released. The season will kick off on Sunday 20th August.
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La Liga refuse to accept payment of Neymar's £222m release clause.
Neymar’s world-record deal will not be completed anytime soon as La Liga have refused to accept payment of the Brazilian’s £222m release clause ahead of his move to Paris Saint-Germain.
Neymar’s representatives, Juan de Dios Crespo and Marcos Motta were at the league’s headquarters in Madrid to make the deposit but La Liga president, Javier Tebas, reportedly threatened and declined to accept the payment.
“We can confirm that the player’s lawyers came to the La Liga offices this morning to deposit the clause and that it has been rejected,” “That’s all the information we are giving out at this moment.” A statement read.
“The LFP is surprised and does not understand the refusal of La Liga to simply accept the payment of the release clause for the player Neymar. The LFP asks La Liga to abide by the Fifa rules and its responsibilities. The LFP supports Paris Saint-Germain and wishes Neymar to join Ligue 1. The legal services of the LFP are in support and at the disposal of Paris Saint-Germain so that the Neymar contract is approved as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, PSG have paid Neymar’s €222 million release cause in full to Barcelona. This development was revealed by the club in a statement on their website on Thursday afternoon.
‘On Thursday afternoon Neymar Jr’s legal representatives visited in person the Club’s offices and made the payment of 222 million euros in the player’s name with regards to the unilateral termination of the contract that united both parties. As such, the Club will pass on to UEFA the details of the above operation so that they can determine the disciplinary responsibilities that may arise from this case.’
Nigeria adopts 3 word addresses
NIPOST will use what3words to increase the number of homes it can deliver to and improve delivery services in preparation for the take-off of Nigerian e-commerce
Nigeria’s postal service, NIPOST, has just announced its adoption of the innovative global addressing system what3words (www.what3words.com). Nigeria is the seventh country to adopt what3words, and the third in Africa. The system is already being used for mail deliveries in Mongolia, Sint Maarten, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Tonga and Solomon Islands. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and its most populous country with approximately 184 million inhabitants. It has the seventh largest population in the world.
Nigeria’s poor addressing system means that only 20% of its inhabitants receive mail at home. 79% of homes and businesses cannot receive deliveries to the door, and the remaining 1% receive their mail using one of the 478,000 P.O. boxes throughout the country. A postcode system does exist, but only 5% of mail gets properly addressed with the postcode, hampering the efforts of NIPOST to improve its quality of service.
An addressing solution
Determined to improve this situation, NIPOST has set itself the ambitious target of increasing home delivery to 70% within the next 2 years and 90% by 2020 through the Mail for Every House Initiative (MEHI), and has adopted what3words to help it achieve these goals. The innovative global addressing system has divided the world into 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares, each with a unique 3 word address. It means that every home and business in Nigeria has a simple and accurate address that is easy to remember and to use. For example ///bracelets.hesitations.mutes refers to the exact 3m x 3m square at the entrance to the main post office in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
Available in 14 languages, with many more currently in development, what3words is used in over 170 countries by governments, postal services, logistics companies, emergency services and NGOs, as well as individuals. It is more accurate than traditional street addresses, simpler than landmark-based directions, and easier to remember and communicate than GPS coordinates. The system has built-in error detection and is available through a free mobile app and API integration. The system even works offline, without a data connection.
“We are very pleased to be collaborating with what3words as an addressing solution with huge potential to unlock opportunities” said Barrister Bisi Adegbuyi, Nigeria’s Postmaster General. “Better addressing is a key to NIPOST’s agenda, which aims to transform, innovate, and deliver more services to more people all over the country”.
E-commerce potential
Young people make up 62% of Nigeria’s population, and this is reflected in the significant increase in cross border e-commerce in the country; 53,612 parcels and packets were handled in 2016 (approx. 200 per day) which is up 70% since 2014. The e-commerce market is currently worth $12 billion, but there is still huge potential for growth. With improvements to infrastructure, innovation around payment systems and a reliable addressing system, Nigerian e-commerce could be set to take off at an incredible scale.
“With a rapidly growing ecommerce ecosystem, Nigeria is a very exciting country to be working with,” said Chris Sheldrick, CEO and Co-founder of what3words. “Postal services have a critical role in building a strong economy and NIPOST are firmly focused on the future, and are taking steps to modernise and grow their capacity and range of services.”
About what3words:
what3words is an innovative global addressing system. It has divided the world in 57 trillion 3m x 3m squares, each with a unique 3 word address. 3 word addresses are easy to remember, and to share via email, text or over the phone. The addresses are pre-assigned, using an algorithm and each 3 word address refers to a precise 3m x 3m square somewhere in the world. The what3words API is being integrated by business, apps and services across the world in a wide variety of sectors. It is also used by individuals via the free what3words app. The system is currently available in 14 languages, with many more in development, and it is also optimised for voice recognition. Since its launch in 2013, what3words has won many awards, and in 2016 CEO Chris Sheldrick was named EY’s British Accelerating Entrepreneur.
Neymar agrees £450m transfer from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain
Neymar is leaving Barcelona next season and the MSN era has ended.
Barca fans are still grappling with this shocking news.
The Brazilian footballer has reportedly put pen to paper a five-year £450m deal with french outfit, Paris Saint Germaine (PSG) which would see him net £515,000 a week after tax. The striker has gone into the world record books and history as the highest transfer paid for a footballer. He is expected to arrive Paris by Friday to complete his move.
While many believe the move was right as he will step out of Lionel Messi’s shadow, others opined that it was unwise of him to have chosen money over Barcelona.
Messi paid a video tribute on his instagram page today.
He will reunite with his former colleague, Dani Alves at the French club.
Neymar‘s contract at PSG to be:
Per year: £30,992,000
Per month: £2,384,000
Per week: £596,000
Per day: £85,142
Per hour: £3,547
Messi paid a video tribute on his instagram page today.
He will reunite with his former colleague, Dani Alves at the French club.
Neymar‘s contract at PSG to be:
Per year: £30,992,000
Per month: £2,384,000
Per week: £596,000
Per day: £85,142
Per hour: £3,547
Messi, Suárez & Neymar are the only trio ever to score 100+ goals in a season.
2014/15: 122
2015/16: 131
2016/17: 111
Kelechi Iheanacho moves to Leicester City in £25m deal
Nigerian footballer, Iheanacho Kelechi has sealed a move to Leicester City from Manchester City in a deal valued at £25m.
The club has also insisted on a £50 million buy-back option for the striker
Iheanacho, who had a medical at Leicester’s training ground on Tuesday is expected to be officially unveiled in the next 24 hours. The 20 year-old could make his Leicester debut in Friday’s friendly against Borussia Monchengladbach at the King Power Stadium.
As revealed by Telegraph Sport last month, Leicester agreed a fee and terms nearly four weeks ago for the Nigeria international and have had to be patient while the impasse with his agents was resolved.
Federal Government Begs Dangote to Complete Refinery Before 2019
The Federal Government has said it relies heavily on the Dangote refinery to fulfill its promise to Nigerians to end fuel importation by December 2019.
To this end, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, who visited the Dangote oil refinery site at Lekki Free Trade Zone, in Lagos, said the government is ready to play its part as a responsible government to assist in making sure the project is completed before the scheduled date.
The minister, who said he was overwhelmed by the dimension of the project, explained that the present government had always believed that the private sector holds the ace in industrialization efforts of the government, and noted that the belief has been reinforced by what Dangote Group is doing.
Said he: “It is good to say that private sector is the answer to Nigeria’s problems with a project as big as this. The challenge I will give you today is that of time; I see your time for completion is 2019 December, but I am sure you will understand my greed if I tell you that the refinery component of this project should come earlier than the set date. I have made very firm commitment to Nigerians that I must stop the importation of petroleum products by 2019 and I am going to keep to it. It is absolutely important that we do this early and given the feat that we have achieved in terms of speed of construction and I urge you to do all within you to achieve its completion before the due date.
“I am sure His Excellency President Buhari will be absolutely enthused if he were to find himself, not only crystallizing the policy position we have taken so far, but also coming here himself to come and open a facility as big as this before the end of his first term. Whatever configurations your engineers have come up with, I urge that they go back to the drawing board and get me my refined products before your said date.”
In his response to the government’s challenge, Dangote said he has accepted the challenge and would do all possible to achieve the feat.
In this regard the President of Dangote Group, stated: “On the honorable minister’s challenge, we are going to make it by the grace of God. I am sure the minister will support us to make sure that we meet his challenge.
“What the minister is trying to do is the best so far for our country, his own version is that Nigeria should not think of exporting crude; you know the problem we have in Africa is that we only export raw materials, not finished goods, so he is saying that, look, we should all do this by adding value and I pray that even at 2.5 million barrels, we should not export much, in terms of the crude.
“We will go back and see what to do to make this happen by fast tracking our processes since the Minister has assured of government’s cooperation and support”.
Earlier in his welcome address, Dangote explained that his group is building the world’s largest single line refinery, Petrochemical Complex, and the world’s second largest Urea Fertiliser plant. The refinery, according to him will have the capacity to refine 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The Petrochemical Plant will produce 780 KTPA Polypropylene, 500 KTPA of Polyethylene, while the Fertiliser project will produce 3.0 million metric tons per annum (mmtpa) of Urea.
“In addition, we are also building the largest sub-sea pipeline infrastructure in any country in the world, with a length of 1,100 km, to handle 3 billion SCF of gas per day. We also plan to construct a 570 MW power plant in this complex. As a matter of fact, gas from our gas pipeline will augment the natural domestic gas supply and we estimate an additional 12,000MW of power generation can be added to the grid with the additional gas from our system.
“We will be adding value to our economy as all these projects will be creating about 4,000 direct and 145,000 indirect jobs. We will also save over $7.5 billion for Nigeria annually, through import substitution and generate an additional $5.5 billion per annum through exports of the refined petroleum products, fertilizer and petrochemicals. We envisage that these projects, which would cost over $18billion, would be completed in 2019”.
Betty Irabor shares marriage nuggets, appoints daughter as editor.
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Genevieve magazine, Betty Irabor and her husband, Soni Irabor celebrated their 34th wedding anniversary sme days ago. The couple who are blessed with two children got married on 29th July 1983. The media enterpreneur also took to her Instagram page to share nuggets on having a successful marriage. Read below:
“What Soni and I have has taken all of 34 years to build… So don’t for one minute think it happened overnight. We have walked on that street called hope but having each other makes it bearable. A successful marriage doesn’t happen over night it requires sacrifice &it takes effort & nurturing.
You want a good marriage? Work at it! Young couples seem to just want everything NOW NOW because they have to prove a point and impress their audience and in the process put a lot of pressure on their marriage. A gd Marriage takes 2, it thrives on love in action, not in mere words.
Marriage requires commitment, empathy, TRUST ( leave each other’s phones ALONE) don’t marry anyone you cannot trust! Don’t overburden each other with over expectations and believe me the grass is not greener on the other side; avoid comparing your marriage/partner to others that seem rosier; water your own garden! In life, everything is turn by turn.
Ojukokoro is a vice that destroys relationships! If you both can’t afford it then you don’t need it. Let you marriage grow organically. Do everything in love..don’t overburden each other with unrealistic demands.
Marriage won’t necessarily fix a bad relationship especially if your partner has habits that he/she won’t let go. Fix those issues before you say I DO! If he or she is violent and slaps you around now, marriage won’t fix that, if he is insecure because you are a boss woman, that insecurity may linger and lead to resentment with time.
Be careful who you marry..don’t set yourself up because “all your friends are getting married.. That’s a trap! Don’t over try to change your partner into who they are not; marriage isn’t about changing your partner’s essence rather it is about finding the good in each other.
Celebrate each bite size milestone. a successful marriage starts from the foundation .. If the foundation is not built on CHRIST how can it withstand the storms?
To my young daughters and sons out there I say, dont despise the days of humble beginnings & don’t allow anyone or society force u into a marriage you’re not ready for. If u marry In haste u will repent at leisure… As for me, I believe marriage rocks ..but get ready to work it.”
She also announced the appointment of her daughter, Sonia Irabor as the new editor of Genevieve Magazine.
“Today my daughter Sonia who joined Genevieve at 13 as teen zone columnist is now Editor of Genevieve. A mother’s prayer answered. Sonia has been Genevieve Asst Editor for close to 5 years after her degree in Media studies and Later a post graduate in Drama studies This is very historic for me . Join me in wishing her well on this journey even as she also keeps in view her dream to become an actor..
After seeing Sonia’s potential Toyin Eriye then editor of Genevieve mag invited her to write for the magazine.. That’s how it started.Congratulations dear Sonia as you become Genevieve mag Editor.” She tweeted.
Super Eagles' Onazi and wife welcome first child
Say hello to the latest parents in the world!
One year after Super Eagles player, Eddy Ogenyi Onazi and Sandra Ogunsuyi exchanged marital vows, the couple have welcomed their first child; a baby girl in the United States.
The excited father shared the news on his official instagram page. “Only God knows how I feel right now. God you are faithful this is the best gift you can get on a new month. ”
" I have never concealed anything" – Cristiano Ronaldo releases statement after appearing in court.
Portuguese superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, appeared in a Spanish court today, to testify in his €14.7m tax evasion case. The 32-year-old was accused of taking “advantage of a company structure created in 2010 to hide income generated in Spain from his image rights from tax authorities.”, a crime deemed “voluntary and conscious breach of his fiscal obligations in Spain”. If found guilty, the former Manchester United forward could face a fine of “at least €28m” and a prison sentence of three-and-a-half years.
The Real Madrid forward who boycotted the press after the hearing released a statement, denying all wrongdoing. Read below:
“The Spanish Treasury knows in detail all my income, because we gave it to them, I have never concealed anything, nor did I intend to evade taxes. I always do my tax returns voluntarily, because I think we all have to declare and pay taxes according to our income. Those who know me, know what I ask my advisors: to have everything up to date and properly paid, because I do not want problems.
“It is time to let justice work, I believe in justice. In order to avoid unnecessary pressure or to contribute to a parallel trial, I have decided that I will not make any further statements on this subject until such a decision is made.”
Manchester United confirm Matic signing
Manchester United have confirmed the signing of Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic in a three-year deal valued at £40million. The 28-year-old who will earn £140,000 a week will wear the No 31 at United.
Speaking on the Serbian international’s move, Jose Mourinho said: “Nemanja is a Manchester United player and a Jose Mourinho player. He represents everything we want in a footballer; loyalty, consistency, ambition, team player. I would like to thank him for his desire to join us because without that, it would be impossible to have him here. I am sure our players and supporters will love him. A big welcome to our new number 31.”
Nemanja Matic said: “I am delighted to have joined Manchester United. To work with Jose Mourinho once again was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. I have enjoyed my time at Chelsea and would like to thank the club and the fans for their support. I cannot wait to meet my new team-mates and to start training with them. This is a very exciting time for the club and I am looking forward to playing my part in creating more history for this great club.”