Governing Bodies
EUROPE’S WORLD CUP QUALIFIERS IN NUMBERS
The draw for UEFA Zone World Cup qualifying takes place this Monday 7 December. Fifty five teams will be jostling for 13 places.
Ahead of the draw, FIFA.com looks back at some interesting facts and figures from qualifying on the Old Continent.
1904: Seven European teams joined football world governing body FIFA in its founding year: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. England and Italy (both 1905) and reigning world champions France (1908) followed a little later.
80: A total of 807 goals were scored in 278 matches during European World Cup qualifying for Russia 2018 (an average of 2.9 goals per game). This was a slightly higher figure than four years earlier (2.79 goals).
29: The Netherlands hold the record for the most World Cup qualifying goals scored by a European team. The Oranje have also won more World Cup qualifiers than any other European country, with 82 victories from 125 matches.
55: European qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup set a new record with 54 participating teams, a record that will now be broken as 55 set out on the road to Qatar. Russia are the ‘extra’ side in question, having qualified automatically for the 2018 edition as hosts.
55: Italy have never lost a World Cup qualifier in front of a home crowd (46 wins, nine defeats). Overall, Gli Azzurri have only lost nine of their last 109 World Cup qualifying matches.
43: Belgium and Germany both scored 43 goals in ten matches on the road to Russia 2018 (an average of 4.3 goals per game).
30: Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more goals than any other player in the history of European qualifying (30 goals in 28 matches), finding the target 15 times in qualification for Russia 2018 alone.
22: Almost half of the 55 teams have never qualified for the World Cup finals before.
16: Robert Lewandowski broke the record for the highest-scoring player in a single European World Cup qualifying campaign with his 16 goals for Poland in qualifying for Russia 2018.
10: Germany were the only team to win ten out of ten matches in the group stage of the 2018 World Cup qualifying tournament. No country was able to match this feat in 2014.
10: Montenegro have an identical number of wins (10), draws (10) and defeats (10) from their last 30 World Cup qualifiers.
10: Hungary were the first team to score ten goals in a FIFA World Cup qualifier, beating Greece 11-1 on 25 March 1938.
3: Luxembourg, Portugal and the Republic of Ireland are the only three teams to have participated in all 20 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaigns to date. The road to Qatar 2022 will be their 21st.
4: Four teams made it through 2018 World Cup qualifying unbeaten – Belgium, England, Germany and Spain. Seven teams completed the 2014 campaign without suffering a defeat.
4: Liechtenstein’s 4-0 win over Luxembourg in qualifying for Germany 2006 on 13 October 2004 was the team’s first away win, their first FIFA World Cup qualifying victory and their biggest win of all time.
3: England and Spain boasted the best defensive records in qualifying for Russia 2018, with both conceding just three goals in their ten matches.
2: Gibraltar and Kosovo made their World Cup qualifying debut in their bid to reach Russia 2018. There are no European debutants on the road to Qatar 2022.
1: San Marino secured their first-ever point in World Cup qualifying thanks to a 0-0 draw with Turkey in March 1993. It was their fifth match in the competition. They then took just one more point from their next 61 qualifiers
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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