IN NIGERIA

The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has commended Ogun State ‎Governor Dapo Abiodun for showering players and officials of the Super Falcons and Cameroon ‎with monetary gifts following the two teams’ international friendly ‎match in Abeokuta.

After the match, a delighted Governor Abiodun showered the Super Falcons ‎with the sum of twenty million naira, while gifting the visitors the sum of ten million naira.

‎NFF General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, stated that such incentives constitute gestures of encouragement that propel athletes in various sports to give ‎their very best and perform better in subsequent outings.
‎
‎Nigeria will play in group B alongside Tunisia, Botswana and ‎Algeria of the 12-team Women Africa Cup of Nations ‎finals in Morocco, scheduled for 5th to 26th July.

===============================

The President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Ibrahim Gusau, has tasked the management of Nigerian football clubs on the need to ‎work hard towards ensuring professionalism and financial sustainability.

Gusau made the remarks at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop for chairmen and chief operating officers of Nigeria’s football leagues and premier league clubs in Abuja.

Officials of world football-governing body, FIFA, are in the country to superintend over the programme’s sessions which are expected to offer nuggets on strategic planning, finance, commercial, marketing and governance.

========================

Super Falcons head coach, Justine Madugu says his team will keep working hard to win a record extending-tenth title at the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

Madugu who reflected on his side’s performance in the game, appreciated the players for their performance for beating Cameroon two-nil.

The Coach stated that the team have an objective and they would try as much as possible to do what would make Nigerians happy, which is winning the trophy.

Meanwhile, Super Falcons captain, Rasheedat Ajibade, said the players are ready to give their best in the upcoming 2024 WAFCON tournament in Morocco, despite the distractions the team has endured in recent times.

========================

The Flamingos of Nigeria will face Canada, France and Samoa in Group D at the 2025 FIFA Under-seventeen Women’s World Cup.

The draw ceremony for the ninth edition of the competition took place at the Mohammed VI Football Academy in Rabat, Morocco.

Morocco 2025 will be the first edition of the expanded tournament to feature 24 nations.

It is also the first edition of the global showpiece to be held in Africa.

The top two teams from each of the six groups will advance to the Round of sixteen, and the four best third-placed teams.

The competition will run from 17th October to 8th November, 2025.

=========================

Super Eagles striker, Cyriel Dessers has confirmed that he has no intention of leaving Rangers this summer.

The Nigerian international won the Golden Boot in the 2024/25 Scottish Premiership season.

The 30-year-old finished the campaign with eighteen goals from thirty-five league appearances.

Dessers stated that he’s not carried away with offers from AEK Athens and Olympiakos.

========================

Former Nigerian international Peter Ijeh believes Super Eagles winger Samuel Chukwueze can attain the highest level if he remains consistent with his game.

Ijeh urged the Nigerian international to step up the standard of his game.

===========================

Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal has stepped up its pursuit of Super Eagles star Victor Osimhen following endorsement from their new manager Simone Inzaghi.

The Nigeria international is open to joining the Blue Waves.

The former Lille star has also been presented with a lucrative contract worth thirty million dollars per season plus bonuses

The 26-year-old spent last season on loan at Turkish Super Lig champions Galatasaray.

=============================

Nigeria’s senior women’s cricket team, the Female Yellow Greens, lost by 6 runs to Zimbabwe HPC in their first game at the ongoing 11th Kwibuka Women’s T20i tournament taking place in Kigali, Rwanda.

Nigeria won the toss and opted to field first at the Gahanga B Cricket oval in Kigali.

The annual tournament is in remembrance of the 1994 genocide at the Tutsis in Rwanda.

========================

IN ENGLAND

Chelsea has completed the signing of striker Liam Delap from Ipswich Town for a thirty million pounds fee.

The 22-year-old has signed a six-year contract at Stamford Bridge after the Blues met a release clause in his Ipswich deal that was activated following their relegation from the Premier League.

Chelsea will pay twenty million pounds up front and the Tractor Boys have negotiated a sell-on clause as part of the deal.

Enzo Maresca’s side saw off competition from Manchester United, Newcastle United and Everton to sign the England Under-21 international.

======================

Manchester City has agreed a forty-six point three million pounds deal with AC Milan for Netherlands midfielder Tijjani Reijnders.

The 26-year-old will sign a five-year contract at Etihad Stadium after agreeing personal terms with City.

The deal, which is subject to a medical, includes additional payments if certain clauses are met.

City hope to complete a deal for Reijnders in time for the Club World Cup, which kicks off on 14th June.

======================

Manchester City star Jack Grealish is expected to be left out of the team for the Fifa Club World Cup.

The 29-year-old’s future at Etihad Stadium is unclear heading into the summer transfer window amid a growing sense he would benefit from a move before next season.

It remains to be seen whether his reported three hundred, thousand pounds-per-week wages would prove prohibitive towards any potential deal, whether on loan or permanent.

=======================

Arsenal has announced that Jorginho and Kieran Tierney will leave the team upon expiry of their contracts on 30th June.

Italy midfielder Jorginho, who is set to sign for Brazilian side Flamengo, joined the Gunners in a twelve million pounds deal from Chelsea in January 2023 and went on to make seventy-nine appearances.

Thomas Partey’s contract is also due to expire at the end of June but talks are ongoing over a new deal for the midfielder.

England international Raheem Sterling moved to north London on a season-long loan from Chelsea but he will return to Stamford Bridge after scoring just once in twenty-eight matches.

Women’s Champions League winner and England international Chloe Kelly, who joined Renee Slegers’ side on loan in January, is undergoing contract talks with the Gunners upon the expiry of her Manchester City deal.

=======================

Crystal Palace co-owner John Textor will be willing to sell his shares to his fellow owners in a cut-price deal to allow the club to play in this season’s Europa League, according to sources close to Eagle Football.

Uefa’s rules forbid individuals from being involved with more than one club in the same competition to avoid conflicts of interest.

Eagle Football, the multi-club group owned by Textor, owns a majority stake in Ligue 1 side Lyon, who have also qualified for next season’s competition.

Palace qualified for the Europa League by beating Manchester City to win the FA Cup.

Lyon finished sixth in the French top flight to initially gain a spot in the Uefa Conference League, but were given a Europa League place after Paris St-Germain already qualified for the Champions League, won the Coupe de France.

=======================

Birmingham City chairman Tom Wagner says reaching the Premier League next year is certainly the goal, and has revealed he is open to the idea of playing domestic cup matches overseas to boost revenues.

The League One champions broke the EFL record for most points in a season in 2024-25, and the American businessman said he was targeting successive promotions and a return to the top flight.

Leicester City, Southampton and Ipswich Town will each benefit from almost fifty million pounds next season, having been relegated from the Premier League.

======================

Middlesbrough have sacked head coach Michael Carrick after two-and-a-half years in charge.

The former England midfielder, took over at the Championship side in October 2022 for his first role in management.

He guided the team to a play-off finish in 2022-23 but they have missed out on the top six in the past two campaigns.

Carrick’s assistants Jonathan Woodgate and his brother Graeme Carrick have also left the club.

====================

OTHER LEAGUES

Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 137th international goal for the team as they came from a goal down to beat Germany two-one and reach the Nations League final.

The 40-year-old tapped in Nuno Mendes’ low pass in the 68th minute for what proved to be the winner and set up a final against either France or Spain.

Ronaldo’s effort came just five minutes after Francisco Conceicao had cancelled out a 48th-minute Florian Wirtz opener for the hosts.

Portugal won the first tournament in 2019, but their hopes of a second success looked slim.

France and Spain play the second semi-final in Stuttgart on Thursday, with the final in Munich on Sunday.

======================

Two Belgian men have claimed they hid in a toilet at Munich’s Allianz Arena for twenty-seven hours in order to watch last weekend’s Champions League final for free.

Neal Remmerie and Senne Haverbeke told Belgian broadcaster VRT News they managed to get into the ground the day before the match then emerged to watch Paris St-Germain’s five-nil win over Inter Milan.

The pair uploaded a video on the social media platform TikTok which showed them sticking a homemade ‘out of order’ sign on two toilet cubicle doors before they waited in silence for more than a day as stadium staff used the facility.

=====================

OTHER SPORTS

In Boxing; Despite announcing his retirement from the sport of boxing back in January, just weeks after his second loss to Oleksandr Usyk, it looks increasingly likely that Tyson Fury will be going back on his word once again.

January was not the first time Fury has announced his retirement, in fact, it is something he has done many times throughout his career to get people talking and invested in him.

Fans are eagerly awaiting news on when and who his next fight will be against if he decided to come back once again.

Since Fury’s second loss to Usyk, he has been strongly linked to finally getting a deal secured to face Anthony Joshua.

===========================

World Boxing has apologised to Olympic champion Imane Khelif after the Algerian was named in the governing body’s announcement of mandatory sex testing.

Last week, the governing body revealed that Khelif, 26, must undergo sex testing if she wishes to compete in any women’s event organised or sanctioned by World Boxing.

The Algerian won women’s welterweight gold at last summer’s Olympic Games in Paris.

It came after the boxer was cleared to compete despite being disqualified from the 2023 World Championships organised by the International Boxing Association for allegedly failing to meet gender eligibility criteria.

=======================

In Tennis, Top seed Jannik Sinner cruised into the French Open semi-finals with a ruthless straight-set victory over Alexander Bublik, bringing the Kazakh’s remarkable run in Paris to an end.

The Italian was in imperious form and is still yet to drop a set at Roland Garros as he won 6-1, 7-5, 6-0.

Sinner is hunting a first major title on the Paris clay having previously only gone as far as the last four, losing a five-set thriller to Carlos Alcaraz last year.

Victory extended Sinner’s winning run at the majors to 19 matches after triumphs at last year’s US Open and the Australian Open in January.

=========================

Also, Novak Djokovic has continued his quest for a standalone record 25th Grand Slam title by swatting aside third seed Alexander Zverev to reach the French Open semi-finals.

The 38-year-old sixth seed won 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 to set up a meeting with world number one Jannik Sinner on Friday.

Djokovic, who has three Roland Garros titles, lost the opening set to 2024 runner-up Zverev after being broken in the first game of the match.

Djokovic or Sinner will meet the winner of defending champion Alcaraz and Italian eighth seed Lorenzo Musetti, who also play on Friday.

===========================

Coco Gauff battled back from a set down to beat Australian Open champion Madison Keys in an error-strewn quarter-final at Roland Garros.

The second seed battled past her fellow American 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 in a tense last-eight clash littered with a whopping 14 double-faults and 101 unforced errors.

Gauff will face the winner of the last quarter-final between Mirra Andreeva and world number 361 Lois Boisson for a place in her second French Open final on Thursday.

==========================

Eleven people have been killed and dozens injured in a crush outside a cricket stadium in Bengaluru, which was hosting a victory parade to celebrate the home team’s Indian Premier League win.

The state’s chief minister Siddaramaiah said thousands of people had lined the streets on Wednesday to welcome the Royal Challengers Bengaluru who beat the Punjab Kings in the IPL cricket final the day before.

Siddaramaiah told reporters that authorities had not expected the number of people who had turned out.

==========================

In Golf, Rory McIlroy says professional golfers are well within their rights to skip media duties as he admitted he was left annoyed by a story regarding his equipment at last month’s US PGA Championship.

The Masters champion said a combination of tiredness, poor play, wanting to see his daughter and reports of his driver failing a legality test contributed to his decision not to speak to reporters after each of his four rounds at the year’s second major.

McIlroy said the relationship between players and the media is a two-way street, adding that players would continue to turn down requests to speak as long as it was not mandatory.

==========================

In Athletics; The Minnesota Twins dismantled the Athletics 10-3 at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California, systematically exploiting every weakness in their opponent’s game plan.

Willi Castro’s explosive two-homer performance and the Minnesota Twins’ devastating offensive surge in the sixth and seventh innings highlighted the vast gulf between these two franchises.

The Athletics’ defensive struggles and pitching woes were laid bare as they suffered their eighth consecutive defeat and nineteenth loss in their last twenty games, marking one of the most catastrophic stretches in franchise history.

========================
FOOD FOR THOUGHT.

Hard days are the best because that’s when champions are made….words from Gabby Douglas.