Governing Bodies
TO BE OR NOT TO BE? CAS SET TO DECIDE MAN CITY’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FATE THIS MORNING
Time is ticking down to 9.30 this morning as Manchester City will know whether the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) will overturn the two-year ban from the UEFA Champions League.
City had their appeal heard last month and according to Daily Mail, manager Pep Guardiola insisted he had not lost any sleep over the decision, which could cost City around £170million if their appeal is rejected.
As well as their two-year ban, City were also hit with a fine of almost £27m but the fear of a mass player exodus is even more worrying for the club.
City’s biggest stars could decide to leave the former Premier League champions if the ban is upheld or even reduced to a one-year suspension.
However, Guardiola himself insists that he hasn’t lost any sleep over the decision and is confident City will be playing in the Champions League next season.
Following City’s thrashing of Brighton on Saturday, Guardiola said: ‘I am going to sleep because I cannot do anything.
‘I am confident in the club, I know the arguments, the defence they have and in the next season we are going to be in the place where we won on the pitch this season.
‘I know there are many teams in the Premier League waiting too – but we are going to wait for what is happening on Monday.’
A number of other Premier League clubs will be eagerly awaiting the verdict as Champions League expulsion for City would mean a fifth-placed finish will be sufficient to qualify for the competition.
Chelsea, Leicester, Manchester United, Sheffield United and Wolves could potentially benefit from the ban being upheld.
UEFA’s club financial control body had originally found that City had committed a ‘serious’ breaches of the organisation’s FFP rules between 2012-16.
The investigation followed claims in German magazine Der Spiegel, based on leaked documents, that City’s owner Sheikh Mansour was topping up the value of sponsorship agreements, in breach of FFP rules.
City always denied the magazine’s claims and described the investigation as ‘flawed’ due to the leaked documents.
Guardiola’s team remain in contention in this season’s Champions League. They lead 2-1 after the first leg of their last-16 tie against Real Madrid.
hopes of playing in the Champions League next season rest on the verdict of their appeal, which will be announced this morning.
City had appealed against their two-year ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), handed down to them in February by UEFA for breaches of club licensing and financial fair play regulations.
The club has always denied any wrongdoing and are confident they will be exonerated once the verdict is announced at 9.30am.
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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The league title will be icing on Soname’s birthday cake on Sunday
As major global sporting events beckon, Morocco’s monarch launches the Kenitra-Marrakech High-Speed rail project
Nigeria Premier League attains a crescendo this weekend
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