GLOBAL ASSOCIATION NEWS
More than eighty percent of female players at top European clubs have suffered regular discomfort due to their
football boots.
According to new research, the European Clubs Association, which represents Europe’s clubs, surveyed three
hundred and fifty players from sixteen top-tier teams.
It found that eighty-two percent felt discomfort which could affect their performance, while a fifth said they customised
their boots in an attempt to improve comfort.
Football boots currently on the market are largely designed for white males.
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NIGERIA
Former Nigeria international, Sylvanus Okpala has urged Super Eagles coach, Jose Peseiro to use mainly home-
based players, in the final game of the 2023 AFCON qualifier against São Tomé and Principe.
Okpala, AFCON winner in 1980, urged the Portuguese coach to use the game to try out home-based players.
Okpala, a member of the late Stephen Keshi’s coaching crew that led the Super Eagles to win the 2013 AFCON, also
urged Peseiro to invite foreign-based players who have not had regular playing time in the Eagles.
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Former Nigerian international, Tijani Babangida believes the current Super Eagles squad have what it takes to win the
2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
He made this known against the backdrop of the team’s qualification to the bi-annual tournament which will be hosted
by Ivory Coast.
Babangida noted that the Super Eagles can win the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations if they truly approach it with the right
mentality, saying the team has an array of talents capable of winning the tournament.
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The management of Shooting Stars Sports Club, has assured the teeming fans of the club that mercurial midfielder,
Taofeek Malomo will remain with the team.
Rumours have linked the dazzling winger with a move to clubs like Akwa United of Uyo and Bendel Insurance of Benin.
The management of the Oluyole Warriors, while noting that 3SC has not been approached by any club for the
signature of the former Joy Cometh FC player, insisted he remains a Shooting Stars’ player.
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Eunisell Limited, sponsors of the Eunisell Boot for the highest goal scorer in the Nigeria Professional Football
League, has announced Enyimba’s Chukwuemeka Obioma as winner of the award.
Obioma scored sixteen goals to emerge as highest goals scorer in the just-concluded 2022/23 NPFL season and will
receive three point two million naira as well as the imposing Eunisell Boot.
He becomes the eighth player to win the Eunisell Boot as a confirmation of his goals scoring prowess.
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Anams Lillian says she is open to representing Nigeria at the international level.
Lilian helped Sam Nelly FC win the Benin Republic Women’s League last weekend.
The young goalie got huge plaudits for her performance in the competition.
She admitted that it is important for her to keep working hard to get recognised by Nigerian coaches.
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ENGLAND
Manchester City have signed Croatia midfielder, Mateo Kovacic from Chelsea for an initial twenty-five million pounds.
The deal for Kovacic is also worth a possible five million pounds in add-ons and he has signed a four-year contract.
Kovacic is City’s first signing of the summer after they won the Treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA
Cup titles last season.
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West Ham have rejected a bid of ninety million pounds from Treble winners Manchester City for captain Declan Rice.
City’s offer was thought to have included an eighty million pounds initial payment but is short of the one hundred
million pounds the Hammers want.
Rice’s contract with the Hammers expires in 2024, although it has the option for a one-year extension until the summer
of 2025.
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Arsenal have submitted a massive one hundred and five million pounds offer for West Ham captain, Declan Rice.
The Gunners’ third offer would arrive within forty-eight hours and Arsenal’s improved bid for the Hammers captain
comprises one hundred million pounds guaranteed cash plus a further five million pounds in add-ons.
The offer exceeds West Ham’s one hundred million pounds valuation for the England star and, if successful, would
make Rice the biggest transfer between two British clubs, eclipsing Manchester City’s one hundred million pounds
capture of Jack Grealish from Aston Villa in the summer of 2021.
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Manchester United says money will be made available for the team’s manager, Erik ten Hag to boost his squad this
summer despite their stalling takeover.
The Glazer family, United’s owners, are dragging their feet as they decide whether Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim or British
billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe should take control of the Old Trafford club.
The club’s third quarter financial update, which revised this year’s revenue forecast upwards to a record six hundred
and forty million pounds, made it clear funds would be available to spend on new players.
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Manchester United are heading for record revenues despite not playing in the Champions League last season.
United announced their third-quarter results at lunchtime on Tuesday, less than an hour after another noisy and visual
protest at Old Trafford against the Glazer family, who own the club.
That protest was timed to coincide with the launch of United’s kit for the 2023-24 campaign.
The Glazer family indicated they were ready to sell the club last November as they launched an assessment of
‘strategic financial alternatives’.
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David de Gea has signed a contract extension at Manchester United before the club backed out of the agreed deal.
The goalkeeper is said to have put pen to paper on terms that drastically slashed his current three hundred and
seventy-five thousand pounds a-week wages, only for United not to sign it themselves.
They have now lodged a fresh proposal with the goalkeeper, with an even lower salary, and his future at Old Trafford is
increasingly uncertain.
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Bundesliga players have picked Premier League champion, Ruben Dias as the best defender in the world.
This was after the opinion of about two hundred and fifty-two Bundesliga players was taken by the German sports
magazine, Kicker.
The two hundred and fifty-two players who participated in this year’s polls were quizzed on several topics, including
who the best defender in world football is.
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Liverpool are set to challenge Real Madrid for the signing of PSG forward, Kylian Mbappe.
Mbappe’s future in the French capital is in doubt after he informed PSG by letter that he does not plan to extend his
contract beyond next summer.
He insisted he would be happy to see out the final year of his contract at the club, but the French champions have no
intention of allowing him to leave for free next June and would prefer to sell him this summer.
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Chelsea midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek is close to joining Italian giants AC Milan.
Loftus-Cheek, who has ten England caps, has been at Stamford Bridge since he was a youth player and also had
loans at Crystal Palace and Fulham.
In his time at Chelsea he won two Premier League titles, the Fifa Club World Cup and the Uefa Supercup.
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Tottenham have signed Italian goalkeeper, Guglielmo Vicario from Serie A side Empoli on a five-year contract.
He is the second signing under new manager Ange Postecoglou, after Sweden midfielder Dejan Kulusevski turned
his loan spell into a permanent move.
Vicario, impressed in his two years at Empoli, earning a first international call-up last season.
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Tottenham striker, Harry Kane is open to joining Bayern Munich this summer after the German club launched a shock
bid to sign him.
The Bundesliga side, managed by former Chelsea boss, Thomas Tuchel, are confident that the England captain
would accept a move to Bavaria this summer.
Tottenham are adamant Kane is not for sale and would reject all offers for their talisman.
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Former Manchester United defender, Gary Neville is to join Dragons’ Den as a guest Dragon for the 2024 series.
Neville has a business portfolio that spans property, hospitality, education, media and sport.
He will join regular Dragons Peter Jones, Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman, Sara Davies and Steven Bartlett for
episodes of series twenty-one.
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Liverpool target, Ryan Gravenberch believes he will still be a Bayern Munich player next season.
The Dutch midfielder left his boyhood club Ajax to join Bayern last summer, but was limited to just three Bundesliga
starts in his first season at the club after falling out of favour under Julian Nagelsmann and Thomas Tuchel.
Gravenberch admitted that he expected to play more, and Jurgen Klopp has given Liverpool the green light to pursue
the player as he looks to strengthen his midfield.
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Also, Liverpool have joined the race for Napoli striker, Victor Osimhen.
Osimhen, is one of the most coveted players in world football after scoring thirty-one goals in thirty-nine games to help
Napoli to the Serie A title.
European giants Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea are said to be rivals for his signature in the
summer transfer window.
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Arsenal have signed centre-back, Amanda Ilestedt from Paris Saint-Germain.
The Sweden international won the French Cup during a two-year spell at PSG, having joining from Bayern Munich in
2021.
She began her senior career at FC Rosengard, with whom two of the five league titles she won came under current
Arsenal boss, Jonas Eidevall.
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Aston Villa midfielder, Lucy Staniforth has joined the England squad on standby for the Women’s World Cup,
replacing the injured Jess Park.
Forward Park, returned to Manchester City for rehabilitation on a shoulder injury.
Staniforth joins Maya Le Tissier on standby and will remain with the squad until the Lionesses’ opening match against
Haiti on twenty-second July.
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England defender, Alex Greenwood has picked up an injury in England training on Tuesday to leave Sarina Wiegman
sweating on her fitness ahead of next month’s World Cup.
The Lionesses recently joined up to prepare for the tournament in Australia and New Zealand and were holding an
open training session at St George’s Park.
During a small-sided game, Greenwood went in for a tackle and was left in a heap on the floor clutching her left leg.
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OTHER SPORTS
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In Tennis; British number one Katie Boulter suffered a first-round exit at the Eastbourne International as she lost to
Croatia’s Petra Martic.
Lucky loser Martic, ranked 30th in the world, secured a 6-4 7-5 victory over Boulter in blustery conditions.
It is Boulter’s second consecutive first-round defeat after an early exit at the Birmingham Classic last week.
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Britain’s Lily Miyazaki, Naiktha Bains and Anna Brogan secured victories in the opening round of women’s Wimbledon
qualifying on Tuesday in Roehampton.
Miyazaki, a semi-finalist at the Surbiton Trophy earlier this month, beat South Korea’s Han Na-lae 6-2, 6-4.
Bains, fought back from a set down to overcome Katarina Zavatska of Ukraine 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
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Fans at next summer’s Paris Olympics will not be able to buy alcohol inside stadiums after organisers decided not to
seek an exemption to ‘Evin’s Law’.
VIP guests in hospitality areas will be served with alcoholic drinks.
The French law bans the sale of alcohol in stadiums to the general public, but allows for exemptions to a limited
number of events per year.
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In Cricket; the England and Wales Cricket Board has recommended Yorkshire are fined five hundred, thousand
pounds and deducted points across all formats for their handling of the Azeem Rafiq racism scandal.
Former Yorkshire player Rafiq said English cricket was “institutionally racist”, and racist language was used
“constantly” at the club.
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In Athletics; Armand Duplantis improved his own best pole vault attempt of 2023 by a centimetre to 6.12 metres at the
Golden Spike athletics meet in the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
The US-born Swedish athlete, the reigning Olympic and world champion, previously cleared 6.11 metres in Hengelo,
Netherlands, Fourth June.
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OTHER LEAGUES
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Italy has banned players from wearing the number eighty-eight as part of an initiative aimed at fighting anti-Semitism in
football across the country.
Members of Italy’s government and Italian Football Association president, Gabriele Gravina signed an agreement on
the issue on Tuesday.
The number eighty-eight can be a reference to a German Nazi slogan.
The agreement also allows for games to be interrupted “in the event of anti-Semitic chants, acts and expressions”.
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Inter Milan are preparing to launch a new bid to bring Chelsea striker Romelu Lukaku back to Italy.
Lukaku spent last season on loan at Inter after rejoining the club following his disastrous 2021-22 campaign at
Chelsea.
The Nerazzurri are keen to keep him at the San Siro, but have already had one offer turned down by Chelsea.
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Former Juventus boss, Andrea Pirlo has been appointed manager of Serie B side Sampdoria on a two-year deal.
Pirlo, was in charge of Juventus in 2020-21, winning the Coppa Italia and Italian Super Cup, before being sacked after
finishing fourth in Serie A.
His most recent role was at Fatih Karagumruk which he left in May after finishing seventh in the Turkish Super Lig.
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Former Napoli defender, Kalidou Koulibaly has issued a warning to his former team-mate Victor Osimhen ahead of
Nigeria’s anticipated summer transfer.
Koulibaly spent eight years in Naples, coming close to claiming an elusive Serie A title before watching on as the club
fitted with his replacement Kim Min-jae – succeeded this year.
Koulibaly, who completed a twenty million pounds move to Saudi pro League club Al-Hilal this week, heaped praise on
the in-demand forward and implored him to come to his own decision on his future.
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Real Madrid manager, Carlo Ancelotti has settled a High Court dispute with Everton.
Court records showed the Italian was suing Everton, who he managed between December 2019 and June 2021.
The claim related to “general commercial contracts and arrangements” but the listing gave no other details.
A statement from John Mehrzad KC and Quastels LLP on behalf of Ancelotti said the two parties had “reached an
amicable resolution to their dispute”.
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