World Cup
FINAL DRAW ASSISTANTS TO REPRESENT RUSSIA AND SEVEN WORLD CUP WINNERS
Ten Days to the Final Draw of the 2018 World Cup which is being eagerly awaited, FIFA has revealed the high-profile draw assistants who will be lending a helping hand on 1 December.
Seven of them are the representatives of countries that have won the World Cup in the past.
The football icons are: Laurent Blanc, Gordon Banks, Cafu, Fabio Cannavaro, Diego Forlan, Diego Maradona and Carles Puyol will be the footballing royalty assisting draw conductor, Garry Lineker and Russian femal journalist, Maria Komandnava at Moscow’s State Kremlin Palace. The eighth draw assistant is Russian football legend Nikita Simonyan,
Together with the trophy bearer, Miroslav Klose, they will represent the eight FIFA World Cup-winning nations.
“The Final Draw is an exciting moment for all of us football fans for obvious reasons.
“But it is also a magical one because it allows us to look ahead to the big emotions that await us during the World Cup while also bringing the spotlight to those who have made history,” said FIFA president Gianni Infantino.
“It is a great line-up and I am delighted to have FIFA Legends from all of the former World Cup winning countries represented in the Final Draw show.”
A combined 13 different finals of the World Cup will be represented with the presence of the eight draw assistants in Moscow. Of the group, 91-year-old Nikita Simonyan can lay claim to competing at the earliest edition, representing his country at Sweden 1958, while Diego Forlan donned the colours of Uruguay at the most recent tournament, Brazil 2014.
“It has been almost 20 years since my unforgettable World Cup experience, and taking part in the Final Draw is an incredible way of feeling closer to the excitement of that tournament again,” said France legend Blanc, who tasted success at the global finals on home soil in 1998.
Two-time World Cup winner Cafu, who played at four World Cups with Brazil and was also a draw assistant four years ago, is eagerly awaiting the Final Draw in the Russian capital.
“The Final Draw is a magical moment when the whole planet joins in enthusiasm and expectation, so it makes me happy to be a part of that once again,” the former full-back said.
“I was fortunate enough to come to Russia several times over the course of this World Cup cycle and I am quite certain that the country will deliver yet another fantastic event in Moscow.”
Exactly four months after they were bumped and relegated to the third-place match of the Africa Cup of Nations by the Super Eagles, South Africa’s Bafana Bafana are in jitters as they will come up against the three-time African champions again, in a crucial 2026 World Cup qualifying match in Uyo.
Only three days ago, the Super Falcons pushed the Banyana Banyana, reigning African champions, off the bus to this year’s Women’s Olympic Football Tournament, instead grabbing the ticket to make sure of a first appearance at the glamour tournament for the first time in 16 years.
The assured manner of Nigeria’s victories in the two fixtures have left the hierarchy of South African football flummoxed, and there is no adequate time to recover or rejig strategies before the Bafana Bafana come up against the Super Eagles in a Day 3 encounter of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying series at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo on Friday, 7th June.
With two points from their previous two matches, but aware of the hold they have over the Bafana Bafana, the African vice champions are confident of the three points on the day, which could see them fly to the top of the pool.
It was on 7th February at the Stade de la Paix, Bouake that the Super Eagles kicked Bafana to the third-place match of the 34th Africa Cup of Nations. Despite achieving parity late in the game, the Bafana were cut to size during the penalty shootout with Nigeria’s South Africa-based goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali saving two of the kicks by the Bafana.
South Africans’ boasts of bouncing the Super Falcons in the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament fixture in revenge, ended belly-up with the Banyana failing to score a goal in 180 minutes of action, with the two teams separated by Rasheedat Ajibade’s goal from the penalty spot in Abuja on Friday, 5th April.
Despite being a point ahead of the Super Eagles in their World Cup qualifying group, the Bafana will fall behind once they submit to the superior strength, skill and savvy of the Super Eagles on another Friday in June.
It can be recalled that when the two teams also met at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019, at the quarter-final stage, Nigeria triumphed 2-1 in Cairo.
Players of the Super Eagles are already getting in the mood to deliver the big punches to Bafana in Uyo in a few weeks’ time. Only on Thursday night, top striker Victor Boniface returned from the injury that kept him out of the AFCON, by coming off the bench to score in Bayer Leverkusen’s Europa League quarter-final duel with West Ham of England.
African Player of the Year Victor Osimhen has also been unable to stop scoring for his Italian Serie A side, SC Napoli.
Goalkeeper Nwabali remains in awesome shape, and midfielder Alex Iwobi and Ademola Lookman shone brightly in the defeat of Ghana in a friendly in Morocco last month.
There is no end to aspirations. That is what Morocco is doing as they planned the world’s largest stadium as one of their package for the milestone 2030 World Cup which marks the 100th year of the tournament.
A British firm, Populous has reportedly won the bid for the design of the what is called Morocco’s Grand Casablanca Stadium. It is being designed to hold 115,000 spectators in its bowel.
According to Populous in its website, the stadium derives its identity from the culture of the “season” in Morocco, as its structure is located under a large tent roof that appears as an exciting intervention in the forest landscape, noting that the stadium site extends over an area of 100 hectares in the city of Mansouria in the province of Benslimane (38 km north of Casablanca).
The British company explained that the stadium will be compatible with the FIFA standard. The company’s president, Francois Clément, said that the expected pace of construction “indicates the commitment of all parties concerned to deliver this project on time and within budget, and will constitute a rich asset for the Kingdom of Morocco, as well as raise it to the highest global platform for the development of sports infrastructure.”
The proposed stadium will compete with the Santiago Bernabeu and Camp Nou stadiums in Spain. Morocco is co-hosting the World Cup with Spain and Portugal Preparatory work has already begun to build the stadium on a 100-hectare site after funding for the project was approved last October.
According to the Morocco World News website, the budget for the new stadium project amounts to 5 billion Moroccan dirhams (460 million euros).
Japan have been awarded a 3-0 victory after North Korea called off a World Cup qualifier between the sides that was scheduled to be held in Pyongyang earlier this month, Japan’s Football Association (JFA) said on Saturday.
The JFA said FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee had informed them that the match had been forfeited, which means Japan are guaranteed a top-two finish in their group which also includes Syria and Myanmar.
With 12 points after four games, Japan have qualified for the third round of World Cup qualifiers as well as the 2027 Asian Cup. Japan beaten North Korea 1-0 in another qualifying match in Tokyo this month.
“Although the players lost an important opportunity to play, I see this as a positive step forward,” Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu said in a statement.
“Naturally, we will not be satisfied with this result, but will continue to build up our strength for the national team activities in June, the final qualifying round, and the World Cup.”
North Korea, which has no formal diplomatic relations with Tokyo, decided not to stage the match in Pyongyang over worries about infectious diseases in Japan and had asked for the game to be moved to a neutral venue.
FIFA said the game would not be rescheduled due to the lack of dates on the fixture calendar.
-Reuters
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