International Football
NEWLY LAUNCHED WOMEN FOOTBALL LEAGUE MAY LAND SUDANESE OFFICIALS IN FIFA TROUBLE
The first ever women’s football league has just been launched in Sudan.
The positive development may however get three top officials of the Sudan Football Association (SFA) into trouble with the Investigative Chamber of FIFA.
Before the launch of the women’s football in Sudan last Monday, the SFA had allegedly claimed it yearly spend FIFA grant on a non-existing women’s football competition.
The claim is one of the reasons one Hassan Mohamed Alkoubani had filed a petition since last year to the Investigative Chamber of FIFA.
In the petition dated 23 September 2018, three officials, including the President of SFA, Dr. Kamal Shaddad, were accused of forgery and falsification of information in a questionnaire submitted to FIFA.
The others accused in the petition are Dr. Hassan Abu Gabal, the General Secretary and Mazen Abu Sin, the SFA official in charge of FIFA communications at the SFA.
The most cogent of the allegations against the trio was that $50,000 was reportedly spent yearly on domestic women’s football competition.
The petitioner quoted the claims by the SFA as published in page 104 of FIFA’s “Global Club Football Report 2018” which states that the SFA was organizing women’s top-tier competition with nine clubs participating and featuring promotion and relegation and played during calendar year season that runs from January to September.
According to the petitioner, “this statement is also forged and merely a series of lies in its entirety, simply because there are no women’s clubs affiliated to Sudan Football Association (SFA) or female players registered and even no women’s football match ever played during its long history (SFA was founded in 1936 and affiliated to FIFA in 1948).”
So on this, the petitioner averred that the three officials of the SFA “knowingly and deliberately submitted a false statement regarding the staging of women’s top-tier competition.
“There is no doubt that the statement’s purpose can have for the effect to establish the proof of a right to receive undue payment of US$50,000 per annum allocated under FIFA Forward Program for Women’s Domestic Competitions.”
The petitioner named 11 football-related personnel in Sudan as witnesses that the FIFA Investigative Chamber can be contacted by either videoconference or by telephone.
Well-travelled Portuguese coach Paulo Duarte has been named as Guinea’s new coach, less than a month before their next round of World Cup qualifiers.
Duarte, 56, has twice previously coached Burkina Faso and taken charge of Gabon and Togo, while also coaching at clubs in Portugal, France, Tunisia, Angola and Saudi Arabia.
Guinea’s football federation gave no contract details when they made the announcement on Monday, but said they would be looking for Duarte to “restructure their national team”.
Guinea trail leaders Algeria by eight points in their World Cup qualifying group with four games remaining, leaving them with only a slim chance of qualification.
They play Somalia away on September 5 and then Algeria at home on September 8 in their next two qualifiers although a stadium ban means Guinea have moved their home game to Casablanca, Morocco.
-Reuters
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Veteran coach Louis van Gaal says he has been cured of cancer and is keen for a return to the higher levels of the game.
The 73-year-old announced three years ago that he was suffering from prostate cancer, but told a Dutch television talk show, “I’m no longer bothered by cancer.”
When he announced his illness, Van Gaal was the coach of the Dutch national team, but he has not worked since the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022.
“Two years ago, I had a few operations. It was all bad then. But it all worked out in the end. I have check-ups every few months, and that’s going well. I’m getting fitter and fitter,” he said.
Van Gaal, whose career has included stints at Ajax Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, reiterated a lack of interest in returning to club management but said becoming the national coach of a top-tier country could tempt him back.
He now serves as a special advisor to Ajax.
-Reuters
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In a compelling twist of football destiny, Davide Ancelotti is stepping into his own spotlight as he begins his first head coaching role at Brazilian club Botafogo—just months after parting ways with his legendary father, Carlo Ancelotti, at Real Madrid.
The 35-year-old has been appointed as Botafogo’s new manager, the club announced on Tuesday, following the sacking of Renato Paiva. Davide, who has spent the last decade working alongside his father at some of Europe’s top clubs—including Bayern Munich, Napoli, Everton, and Real Madrid—has signed a one-year deal with the Rio-based team.
This marks a significant milestone for the younger Ancelotti, whose career has long been shaped by his father’s influence, but who now faces the challenge of carving his own identity on the touchline.
The move comes shortly after both father and son departed Real Madrid at the end of last season, with Carlo taking over the Brazilian national team. Now, in a poetic alignment, father and son find themselves on different paths within Brazilian football—one leading the Seleção, the other steering the fortunes of a storied domestic club.
Botafogo’s decision to appoint Davide follows a controversial parting with Paiva, who was dismissed just days after their exit from the Club World Cup. Though he oversaw a stunning win over Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain, a 1-0 extra-time loss to Palmeiras in the round of 16 proved to be his final act after just four months in charge.
As Davide Ancelotti begins this new chapter, all eyes will be on whether the son of one of football’s most decorated managers can step out from his father’s shadow—and perhaps, in time, build a legacy of his own.
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