Governing Bodies
ANOTHER FOOTBALL COLD WAR LOOMS AS NORTH & SOUTH KOREAS ARE PITCHED TOGETHER IN OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS
BY LIAM MORGAN
North Korea and South Korea have been drawn together in the final round of Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifying for the women’s tournament at next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo.
The two Korean teams were placed in Group A with Myanmar and Vietnam, while Group B features Australia, China, Thailand and Chinese Taipei.
South Korean city Jeju will stage Group A matches and China will play host to Group B, with the exact location not yet confirmed.
The eight-team qualification round will take place from February 3 to 9.
The
top two in each group will progress to two-legged, home-and-away play-offs on
March 6 and 11.
Winners of the two play-offs will join hosts Japan as the Asian representatives in the Olympic women’s football competition at the Games in Tokyo.
North Korea, who played at the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games, are the top-ranked team in Group A.
South Korea have never qualified for an Olympic women’s football tournament and have only beaten their rivals from the North once in 19 meetings.
North and South Korea being drawn in the same group comes after the two nations played each other in a feisty men’s qualifier for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar earlier this week.
South Korea were unhappy with the game in Pyongyang, the first competitive men’s match to be held in the North Korean capital, as it was not broadcast and there were no fans in the stands.
All foreign media – including those from the South – were also barred from attending the game at Kim Il Sung Stadium.
The Korean Football Association has since written to the AFC asking for sanctions against North Korea, marking the latest tension between the two countries, who are still technically at war.
The tension has seen an almost entire shutdown of inter-Korean dialogue and Pyongyang has consistently criticised Seoul since the collapse of a summit between leader Kim Jong-un and United States President Donald Trump in February.
North and South Korea are still hoping to jointly bid for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, although their candidacy appears unlikely given the current situation.
South Korea is also considering jointly hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup, which could also be scuppered by the current political climate.
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Governing Bodies
Nigeria becoming an epicentre of global badminton as Francis Orbih enters the Badminton World Federation Council
Laurels on the courts and now glory in the boardroom sums up the mark that badminton is making in Nigeria.
The President, Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN), Francis Orbih, has been elected as a council member of the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
The election took place during the BWF Annual General Meeting on Saturday in Xiamen, China.
Orbih emerged victorious over top contenders from other African countries.
He will join Cameroon’s Odette Assembe Engoulou on the council, while Chipo Zumburani (Zimbabwe) and Hadia ElSaid (Egypt) missed out.
An elated Orbih expressed his gratitude to fellow badminton presidents across the globe for their trust and support.
He said, “I am deeply honoured by the trust placed in me by my peers across the badminton world.
“I look forward to quality representation, driving development initiatives, and strengthening badminton’s global reach over the next four years.”
Orbih also acknowledged the support of the Federal Government of Nigeria, particularly the National Sports Commission (NSC), which he said played a significant role in his successful bid.
“The Chairman and the Director General of the NSC monitored the entire process. I’m grateful for their involvement and confident Nigeria will benefit from this,” he stated.
He further appreciated the BFN board members and the Nigerian badminton community for their prayers and continued belief in his leadership.
“From the day I declared my intentions, the board members of BFN have been supportive, and I promise not to disappoint them,” Orbih concluded.
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A former member of the FIFA Council, Mamoutou Toure, has been released from jail in Mali after almost two years in detention for alleged corruption, Malian media reports said on Wednesday.
Toure, president of the Malian Football Federation since 2019, was released after 622 days in prison on Tuesday.
He served on the FIFA Council, world football’s all-powerful decision-making body, for four years until last month when he lost his seat after failing to contest new elections.
The 67-year-old was arrested in August 2023 on allegations of embezzling $28 million of public funds but was granted a provisional release order by the Malian courts, reports said.
He was accused of misconduct during his time as the National Assembly’s financial and administrative director from 2013-2019.
Toure denied all charges and, during his time in jail, was last August re-elected as Malian Football Federation president for a second consecutive term, with his supporters claiming he was a victim of a conspiracy fuelled by detractors.
While in jail, he received a letter of support from FIFA president Gianni Infantino. However, as of last month, Toure is no longer a member of the FIFA Council or the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee.
-Reuters
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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has denied reports of an outstanding debt to former captain Christian Chukwu and has challenged anyone with verifiable documents to prove otherwise.
Chukwu, a former national team captain and chief coach, died last Saturday.
The Nigeria Football Federation decried statements in a section of social media that the football-ruling body was indebted to the deceased.
Reacting to one statement on social media that claimed NFF owed the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations-winning team captain the sum of $128,000, NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said: “There is no record in the NFF of any outstanding indebtedness to ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu.
“During the first term of the Board headed by Amaju Pinnick, a committee was set up to diligently peruse the papers of coaches who were being owed, even from previous NFF administrations.
“That committee was given the clear mandate to verify all debts and ensure that the coaches being owed were paid immediately. I am aware that the ‘Chairman’ was in the employ of the NFF between 2002 and 2005, before he was relieved of the post following the 1-1 draw with Angola in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Kano in August 2005. There is certainly no record of indebtedness to him in the NFF.”
Sanusi challenged anyone with genuine and verifiable documents of NFF indebtedness to any coach, who has worked with any of the National Teams over the past two decades, to come forward and tender those documents.
“As a credible organization that is very much alive to its responsibilities, if we are confronted with any genuine document of indebtedness to any coach, we will offset the debt immediately.”
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