FIFA confirm a 48-team World Cup from 2026
The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) Council have unanimously voted to expand the World Cup to 48 teams from 2026. The confirmation was made on FIFA media twitter handle on Tuesday.
“The FIFA Council unanimously decided on a 48-team #WorldCup as of 2026: 16 groups of 3 teams,” The governing body announced on it’s official Twitter page.
The decision to increase the number of qualified teams for the 2026 World Cup was reached at the Council meeting held in Zurich. There will be 16 groups which will be made up of three teams each.
Prior to this new development, 32 teams with four teams in each groups feature at the World Cup.
Liverpool's Roberto Firmino's house burgled
Burglars forced their way into the house of Liverpool star, Roberto Firmino and carted away valuables (jewelry, watches and clothes) worth £70,000. The Brazilian was on Holiday with his wife and two children before the burglars raided the Victorian property in Liverpool.
After the ugly incident, the club officials moved him and his family into a hotel over Christmas and also provided the 25-year-old with a security team.
‘They’d obviously been watching Roberto come and go, then swooped in. It’s thought they are the same guys who were disturbed mid-burglary on a previous occasion. He was obviously shaken up as he has a young family, so the club had him in a hotel before giving him security at the house.’ A source The Sun
MFM FC To Sensitize Fans
MFM FC have disclosed plans to sensitize new, Agege-based fans of the club
Preparations to organise a seminar for Agege-based fans of MFC FC, ahead of the new Nigeria Professional Football League season, are in earnest, MFM Football Director, Adeyemi Emmanuel has disclosed. The event will hold at the Agege stadium, Lagos
Speaking further on the laudable initiative, Adeyemi said, “Concerning the fans in Agege, you know Agege is a densely populated area in Lagos State and as such we are meant to see different kind of individuals from different social economy background.”
“Before we start the league in 2017, we shall put up a seminar basically for the fans. We shall brief them on what we expect from the fans, we shall reveal our plans for the season and we shall educate them on what the brand MFM FC stands for.”
Meanwhile the club will be meeting with Niger Tornadoes for the NPFL’s first league match of the season scheduled to hold in the coming days at the Agege Township Stadium in Lagos.
2016 FIFA Awards: Ronaldo, Raneiri win prizes.
Real Madrid star Christiano Ronaldo has emerged as the winner of the just concluded FIFA Awards. 2016 was indeed the Portuguese’s year; having claimed the Champions League, EURO’s, Club World Cup, UEFA Best Player, Ballon d’Or and the FIFA Best Player award. He edged out rivals Messi and Griezmann to scoop the gong.
FIFA Player of the Year voting:
Cristiano: 34.54%
Messi: 26.42%.
Griezmann: 7.53%.
List Of Winners
Best Men’s Player of 2016 – Cristiano Ronaldo
Best Women’s Player of 2016 – Carli Lloyd
Best Coach Of The Year (Male) – Claudio Ranieri
Best Coach Of The Year (Female) – Silvia Neid
FIFA Award for an Outstanding Career – Radamel Falcao
FIFA Award for most beautiful goal of 2016 – Faiz Subri
FIFA Fair Play Award: Atletico Nacional
Zlatan wins defamation lawsuit in Sweden
Manchester United forward, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has won a defamation lawsuit in Sweden against a former athletics coach who who accused him of doping at Juventus.
Ulf Karlsson, the head coach of Sweden’s national athletics team from 2001 to 2004 told Journalists “Zlatan gained 10 kilos of muscle in six months at Juventus. That is impossible in such a short time.” He also added, “I think he was doped. I am convinced.”
A district court in Varmland, in west-central Sweden, on Monday convicted Karlsson of defaming the player with the comments and fined 24,000 kronor.
Infertility Is Not A Stigma: 'Merck More than a Mother' campaign launches in Nigeria
Merck More than a Mother continues its commitment to break stigma around infertility and empower infertile women by improving access to information, education, healthcare and change of culture and mind-set to de-stigmatize infertility.
Her Excellency Mrs. Buhari pledged her support and the support of Nigerian Governors’ wives in the implementation of Merck More than a Mother’s activities in Nigeria focusing on eliminating infertility stigma and creating awareness and providing information and education on causes of infertility; facilitating access to healthcare; and economic and social empowerment of infertile women.
The Nigerian women leaders also supported the empowering of infertile women who form a vulnerable part of the population. Infertile women in Nigeria and many other African countries who can no longer be treated have been empowered socially and economically to lead independent and happier lives through Empowering Berna initiative. Empowering Berna is part of Merck More than a Mother campaign.
Helen Phillip, a Nigerian woman from the North shared her story of suffering from infertility stigma and expressed her gratitude to the support Merck more than a Mother provided her through establishing new business so that she can become an independent productive member in her community.
“In Nigeria we have been advocating for the end of harmful traditional practices including the stigmatization of women which is prevalent all over the country. Women have not been coming out openly because they are traumatized. With this campaign we will encourage them to speak out and we pledge our support and collaboration,” said Hon. Aisha Alhassan, Nigeria’s Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development.
“Merck More than a Mother campaign is a great initiative to break the stigma around infertility and to empower an unprivileged category of women in Africa, women who suffer infertility. Infertile women have been neglected, mistreated and discriminated because they cannot bear a child, yet 50% of infertility is due to male factors. We can together improve access to education, information, awareness, health care and change of mind-set and culture to stop these women’s suffering,” said Dr. Rasha Kelej, Chief Social Officer, Merck Healthcare.
Prof. Isaac Adewole Hon. Minister of Health emphasized: “We are responsible for policy at the Ministry level and this is where we can make a difference in improving access to fertility care in Nigeria. We will work through training institutions we are responsible for to strengthen fertility management by making it a sub-specialty. We will also as a Ministry work with private sector, the Senate and the National Assembly to improve governance and quality of care to provide standards to protect infertile men and women seeking treatment.”
Merck More than a Mother was first implemented in Kenya in 2015 followed by Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, Central African Republic and Nigeria.
Watch Nigeria’s infertile women sharing their stories of social suffering of infertility stigma and their transformation after the economic and social empowerment provided by Merck more than a Mother through Empowering Berna project:
- Merck More Than a Mother – The Story of Empowering Helen Philip, Nigeria (https://youtu.be/_t6OdLNWqkI);
- Merck More Than a Mother – The Story of Empowering Victoria John Kuba, Nigeria (https://youtu.be/r36tBURbdGM);
- Merck More Than a Mother – The Story of Empowering Kachollom. M. Sha (https://youtu.be/FQdODovfhP0);
- Merck More Than a Mother – The Story of Empowering Khadijat Yaya, Nigeria (https://youtu.be/49YDQPZpldM);
- Merck More Than A Mother – The Story of Empowering Oluchi Omenife, Nigeria (https://youtu.be/Yc-ugNhpdkg);
- Merck More Than A Mother – The Story of Empowering Chinelo Azodo, Nigeria (https://youtu.be/MmjwBol4kI0);
- Merck More Than A Mother – The Story of Empowering Ijeoma Ezeaku (https://youtu.be/HgOgzwOn16k);
- Merck More Than A Mother – The Story of Empowering Nneka Omenife, Nigeria (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etPmh-YmjpY&t=16s).
John Terry pays glowing tribute to Mikel
Chelsea legend, John Terry has has penned a tribute to John Mikel Obi, who joined Chinese side, Tianjin Teda last week on a £140,000-a-week deal after failing to feature under Chelsea’s new boss, Antonio Conte.
Mikel left Chelsea having won eight major domestic honours and two European trophies, as well as tasting global success last summer by winning bronze in the Olympic Games. Terry spoke of his admiration for ‘great friend’ Mikel and picked out a favourite performance from his ex-team-mate.
Speaking ahead of the Blues’ 4-1 victory over Peterborough in the FA Cup, the former England International said, “On Friday, we said goodbye to John Mikel Obi after more than 10 years with us in which we won everything – two Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups, the Champions League and the Europa League,”
“He has been a big part of this club’s success over the past decade and put in some great performances, none more so than in Munich, where he was immense. I want to say on a personal level, that he was a great friend and a great player. I wish you well “Old Boy”.
Love ya.”
La Liga Weekend: Zizou's Unbeaten Army, Pique's conspiracy theory and more.
By: Olawale Adigun
ZIZOU’S UNBEATEN ARMY
This was supposed to be a job too big for him. How was he supposed to cope with the high demands of Florentino Perez ? How was he going to deal with the ego of Cristiano Ronaldo, was he ready for Barcelona? Can he even retain the Champions League ?
These were questions posed when Frenchman , Zinedine Zidane was appointed as Real Madrid manager, but, 55 games later, Zizou has shut his critics with results, performances and trophies. Infact, Zidane has won more trophies than he has lost games (lost 2, but won the Uefa Champions League, Uefa Super Cup and Club World Cup).
Real Madrid produced another effective performance against Granada to make it 39 games unbeaten, equaling Barcelona’s record of 2015/2016 under Luis Enrique. All through Zizou’s reign as manager till date, some sections of the media have still questioned Zidane’s ability as a manager and gradually he’s winning them over, same way he’s won over his players. Managing Cristiano Ronaldo has not been an easy feat, but the 1998 World Cup winner has done that effectively, kept him out of the last laliga game of 2016, same as the first game of the new year but restored him back at the weekend against Granada. Although, Ronaldo’s position on this rotational policy is not publicly known, one feels that CR7 is cool with it.
Anyone who feels Zidane is still lucky, would need a brain MRI because the results don’t lie. Real are four points clear at the top and five clear of Barcelona and guess what, the World champions still have a game to spare. Players like James Rodriguez and Isco might be discontent with the game time they are getting but Zidane still offers them a chance to fight for their place, but to be objective, when everyone is fit, its difficult for James and Isco to break through. And if everyone remains fit, Real Madrid would be on their way to the second Liga title in nine years.
PIQUE’S CONSPIRACY THEORY
Gerard Pique remains a divisive figure in Spain, at political and at football levels and the reasons are not far fetched. The Catalonian has always advocated for Catalonian independence from Spain, this makes him an easy target especially when he plays against teams based in the capital, Madrid. Pique speaks three languages, can form opinion, arguments that are purely non-football, very intelligent, seen as a future Barca president.
But Pique has to stop being a cry-baby and focus on getting Barcelona’s flailing title charge back on track. At the Ceramico, (Villareal over the weekend re-christened El Madrigal to El Ceramico) Villareal couldn’t hold on to Nicola Sansone’s goal and Lionel Messi’s magical freekick (30th of his career) in the 90th minute rescued a point for Barcelona.
After the game, Gerard Pique was seen pointing fingers at Laliga Chief, Javier Tebas shouting “Did you see that, yes You, you, you !” . Pique was obviously furious with referee Ignacio Igliesas who failed to spot Bruno’s handball in the area but Shakira’s boyfriend has to realize that whatever campaign is on to stop Barca from retaining the title only exists in his head. Real have won the title once in 8 years, its been his Catalan club dominating everybody. Villareal could have also had a penalty of theirs and it was still Pique who would have been the culprit.
Pique has to realize that creating a siege mentality wont work in Barcelona’s favour, they have enough problems to deal with, problems Luis Enrique’s future, Neymar’s form, Ivan Rakitic’s on and off involvement with the team and the general air of vulnerability on the pitch .
Five points behind Real is worse, but if Zidane’s charges beat Valencia (game at hand) that makes it eight, even a Clasico victory won’t solve any problem. There’s also the case of Sevilla who are a point and place above Barca. Maybe its time to focus more on the Copa and the Champions League.
RESULT IS KING FOR ATLETI
2016 ended with plenty questions rather than answers for Diego Simeone, but he will be happy with Atleti’s start to 2017, a comprehensive result away from home in the Cup and another away win at Ipurua where Eibar threatened fire and brimstone with nothing to show for it at the end.
Saul Niguez and Antoine Griezmann got the goals (it was Grizzy’s first Liga goal in 10 games). The performance wasn’t up there but Simeone would take the result as it puts them in touching distance between them and Barcelona and Sevilla. Winning the title shouldn’t be in the discussion for now but staying touch with the top 3.
Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Micheal Owen, others present as Ronaldo presents 4th Ballon d'Or trophy!
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Ballon D’Or trophy presentation at the Bernabeu on Saturday was not only witnessed by club officials, colleagues and fans, the ceremony which took place ahead of their clash with Granada was also witnessed by past football heavyweights. Brazilian football legend, Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Kopa, Michael Owen and current manager Zinedine Zidane were there to pay tribute to the Portuguese talisman.
The 31 year-old also watched a video message by ex Real Madrid men, Kaka and Fabio Cannavaro.