Jose Mourinho has hit out at the Football Association’s failure to protect Wayne Rooney, saying a week of negative headlines involving the England captain has had “an effect.” Manchester United forward Rooney, 31, is expected to face Arsenal at Old Trafford on Saturday after training at Carrington following his departure from the England squad with a minor knee injury. Since being released from Gareth Southgate’s squad, reports of Rooney allegedly drinking into the early hours at the England team hotel, with accompanying photographs, led to claims he could be stripped of the international captaincy. He has issued an apology and…
Author: David Folami
Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone believes his side can now count themselves as equals when facing Real Madrid in the last La Liga derby at Atletico’s Vicente Calderon stadium on Saturday. Simeone has overseen a dramatic turnaround in Atletico’s fortunes since taking over nearly five years ago, including ending a 14-year winless streak against Real to win the Copa del Rey in 2013. Since then Atletico have lost two Champions League finals to Real, but haven’t lost in their last six league meetings with the European champions. “We believe in our own strengths, we know our own virtues and, above…
Karim Benzema and Sergio Ramos were named among Real Madrid’s injury-ravaged 20-man squad for the last ever derby at Atletico Madrid’s Vicente Calderon on Saturday. Real boss Zinedine Zidane will be without defender Pepe, the influential midfield duo of Casemiro and Toni Kroos, as well as striker Alvaro Morata. However, Zidane confirmed Benzema is fit to start despite only returning to training on Thursday after two weeks out with a hamstring problem. “He is with us, he is better and I am happy that he is in the squad and can play from the start,” said Zidane. Ramos has been…
Barcelona boss Luis Enrique insists Lionel Messi will remain at the Catalan giants for many years to come, but was less explicit over his own future when quizzed on Friday. Barca boss Josep Maria Bartomeu claimed on Thursday that he remains confident Messi, 29, will end his career at the Camp Nou despite having just 18 months left to run on his contract. “I also imagine that Leo Messi will remain for many years at Barca,” said Enrique ahead of his side’s clash at home to Malaga on Saturday. “It would be beautiful for a player that left his homeland…
Nigeria will play an international friendly with Egypt early next year as coach Gernot Rohr continues to tinker the side for the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers. The friendly, which the Nigeria Football Federation confirmed will be will be played in Dubai on January 9th, 2017 will be prosecuted by a sprinkling of foreign players with the majority to be made up of players from the local league. The was a huge outcry after the list for the World Cup qualifier was released with many faulting the non-inclusion of the home-based players who had been part of previous squads. Rohr…
Cristiano Ronaldo and Antoine Griezmann have a late chance to enhance their cases for the Ballon d’Or as the best player in the world in 2016 when Real Madrid travel to Atletico Madrid on Saturday. Both are frontrunners along with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi among a shortlist of 30 for the prize, but Ronaldo is the strong favourite for his fourth Ballon d’Or having beaten Griezmann in the finals of the Champions League and Euro 2016. Whilst Real have reigned in three Champions League meetings between the sides in the past three seasons, Atletico have dominated the derby for the last…
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho claimed on Friday he is not shown the same respect as his Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger, ahead of their Premier League showdown on Saturday. Mourinho, 53, has regularly clashed with Wenger, 67, over the course of his two spells as Chelsea manager and his current role at United. Both men have three Premier League titles each, but with Mourinho having won his last title as recently as 2015 – as opposed to 2004 for Wenger – he feels the media do not give him enough credit. “In the Premier League, going just on the Premier…
Chelsea will make a late decision on the fitness of top scorer Diego Costa following a groin injury that threatened to rule him out of Sunday’s Premier League clash with Middlesbrough. While manager Antonio Conte said Costa was now back in training after pulling out of international duty for Spain in midweek, he suggested there was ongoing concern over his striker. “I have all the players available. They are in good form. Diego Costa had a bit of an injury, after the Everton game, but he started to train with us on Wednesday. “His physical condition is good but there…
Pep Guardiola became the latest high-profile Premier League manager to defend Wayne Rooney on Friday after the England captain apologised following the release of pictures of him socialising in the early hours while on international duty. The Manchester City manager Guardiola refused to offer any criticism of the Manchester United captain, while recalling how he had sometimes had a drink himself during his international career with Spain. Guardiola’s comments followed support for Rooney from Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp, who had said on Thursday that he felt there had been an over-reaction to the episode. Rooney had apologised after he was…
Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney is fit to face Arsenal on Saturday, his manager Jose Mourinho said, after reportedly injuring his knee tripping over an energy drink bottle in the Wembley dressing room last week. Mourinho refused to confirm details of the incident, which apparently happened after England beat Scotland last Friday, or comment on media reports that Rooney had been drunk at the team hotel the following day, but said the striker had been training successfully since returning to United this week. “Over the last two or three days (Rooney) trained like everybody else, he wants to play like everybody…
Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose has urged Senate President, Bukola Saraki not to grant a $30 billion loan request made by President Muhammadu Buhari. Fayose made the call via a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka. The statement reads: “How can a nation be proposing to spend more money when its income has reduced considerably? Yes, it is being argued that nations in recession must spend to get out of recession, but in the case of Nigeria, how do we pay back when as at today, 30 percent of our income is…
Former President Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday,November 17, paid a visit to the family of the late Ibrahim Dasuki. Dasuki, a late Sultan of Sokoto died on Monday, November 14. He was the father of Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd), who was Jonathan’s National Security Adviser during his tenure as president. Jonathan condoled with the Dasuki family and the Sokoto monarchy. “I travelled to Sokoto this afternoon to condole with the family of the late Former Sultan Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki and the current Monarch,” Jonathan wrote on his Twitter page. “I thank the Dasuki Family, the Sultan, the Government and the good…
Governor Ayo Fayose has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Amnesty International to investigate the alleged killing of members of the Shiite sect. According to reports, over 10 Shiite members were allegedly killed on Monday, November 14, 2016, when they clashed with the police. According to Punch, Fayose said the continued detention of the Shiite leader, Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, and other members of the sect, is a violation of their human rights. He said “All well-meaning Nigerians must prevail on the Federal Government to release Ibrahim El-Zakzaky without further delay.” The Governor also called on the human rights organisations…
Chairman of the University Of Calabar Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU), Tony Eyang, has said the union will not back down until its demands are met. ASUU commenced a two-week warning strike on Wednesday, November 16, in protest of the Federal Government’s refusal to implement the 2009 Memorandum of Understanding with the Union among other issues. Speaking to Vanguard on Thursday, Eyang expressed regrets that the Union had to resort to the industrial action. “We are avowed to our responsibility to the future of this country; it is regrettable that over and over again we get to this point…
Former President Goodluck Jonathan was in Sokoto on Thursday, November 17, 2016, to pay a condolence visit to the family of the former Sultan of Sokoto, Late Ibrahim Dasuki. Dasuki died in Abuja on Monday, November 14, 2016, after a brief illness. According to Vanguard, residents of Sokoto gave the former President a rousing welcome when they saw him. Reports say most of them carried placards with inscriptions saying ‘Come back Baba Jonathan’ The former President, on his Twitter timeline, thanked the government and people of Sokoto state for their warm reception. He said “I thank the Dasuki Family, the…
The Federal Government has not paid allowances to any of the country’s former presidents since January 2016, an official has said. According to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, former presidents Goodluck Jonathan, Olusegun Obasanjo and others haven’t been paid due to unavailability of funds. Lawal made the disclosure on Thursday, November 17, during a meeting with members of the Senate Committee on Federal Character and Intergovernmental Affairs. “There is a department responsible for the payment of former Presidents. Presently, funds are not available in service-wide vote to do that,” the SGF said. “We are…
The Federal Government on Thursday expressed the possibility that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) would suspend its going nationwide strike. Dr Clement Illo, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment, told newsmen in Abuja that government was positive that ASUU would resolve the crises soon. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that a meeting with ASUU, convened by the Senate President, the Committee on Labour and the Committee on Education, among others, ended in deadlock on Wednesday. Illo, who described the meeting as “a very positive step”, said the three-hour meeting recorded huge success toward resolving…
The Minister of state for petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu has revealed that the Federal Government’s goal is to deregulate the downstream sector of the petroleum industry. He said though the government is not there yet, it will continue to fine-tune the process until the goal is achieved. According to Kachikwu, “At every given time in the history of every country, you will always have partial deregulation. The reason being that you have to catch up each time and make an amendment, and even if it is just one day, you might have some level of subsidy for that one or two…
National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has mourned the death of Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi. Gbadamosi, a former Minister of National Planning, died on Wednesday, November 16, at his home in Ikorodu, Lagos. Read Tinubu’s statement on the former minister’s death below: “I mourn the passage of eminent Nigerian and Lagosian, Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi. He died at a time when his wealth of experience would have come in handy for the challenges of nation-building. Yet, Lagos was happy to have him. And Lagos is proud of the life he lived and all he achieved.” “He was…
Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha has said that his desire to improve the state keeps him up at night. Okorocha also said that he desires to make the state one of the best in Nigeria. He made the comments on Thursday, November 17, while inspecting some projects in the state. “My interest is to make sure that by the time I finish my second term, Imo State must have been developed more that it is now,” Okorocha said according to The Independent. “I find it difficult to sleep now because I want to change the entire face of Imo so…