IN NIGERIA

Former Nigerian international, Chikeluo Iloenyosi, has commended the Super Eagles Head Coach Eric Chelle’s ability to foster unity within the Super Eagles squad in such a short time in charge.

Iloenyosi, who is the current Chairman of the Anambra State Football Association, said Chelle has done well so far and was gradually steering the three-time African champions back to their glory days.

Under Chelle, the Super Eagles have played five matches, recording two wins and three draws, a performance that the man fondly called General describes as a pass mark and strong enough to inspire hope for a brighter future.

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Super Falcons has maintained 36th position in the latest FIFA women’s world ranking.

The latest ranking was released on the website of the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) on Thursday.

The Super Falcons, however, remain number one in Africa.

USA ranked first in the world followed by Spain, Germany, Brazil and England

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The Confederation of African Football, CAF, has announced match officials for the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

A total of forty-six Referees, Assistant Referees and Video Assistant Referees would be part of the prestigious continental finals with Africa’s top female officials chosen for the tournament.

It is a record number of match officials, beating the previous best mark of 40 that took part in the 2022 finals.

There would be eighteen Referees, eighteen Assistant Referees and ten VAR operators from thirty different countries on the continent, with hosts Morocco has five as most country supplying the greatest number.

The WAFCON 2024 finals will be staged in Morocco from Saturday, 5th to Saturday, 26th July.

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Nigerian international, Onuche Ogbelu has been included in Esperance’s squad for the FIFA Club World Cup.

Ogbelu is one of the six midfielders in the 25-man squad submitted to FIFA by the Tunisian club.

The 22-year-old recently signed a new two-year contract with the former African champions.

Esperance will open their campaign against Brazil’s Flamengo on Tuesday, 17th June.

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Nigeria defender, Jamilu Collins has been released by Sky Bet Championship club Cardiff City.

The Welsh club confirmed their retained list on Thursday with the name of the left-back conspicuously missing.

Collins is now leaving Cardiff City after three years at the club.

The full-back only made three league appearances for the Bluebirds in the 2024/25 season.

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Former Atalanta forward German Dennis has urged Serie A champions Napoli to sign Ademola Lookman.

Dennis believed that the talented winger would be a perfect fit for Napoli.

Lookman has been linked with a move to Antonio Conte’s side this summer.

Juventus, Arsenal and Liverpool have also been credited with an interest in the former Leicester City player.

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World record holder in the women’s 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan, will be missing when the seventh instalment of the 2025 Diamond League makes its scheduled stop in the city of Stockholm, Sweden on Sunday.

The 28-year-old, who recently emerged as the winner of the event during the fourth leg of the Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco, will not be involved in her favoured discipline after her name was not featured amongst other athletes in the official start list released for the race.

Also, another Nigerian athlete, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, will not be involved as the men’s shot put event is not included in the lineup of events.

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Twelve Nigerian fencers began camping on Thursday ahead of the 2025 African Fencing Championships, which will be hosted in Lagos from 25th to 29th June.

Nigeria’s 12-member team for the tournament are training at the Lagos Fencing Club in Lekki under the guidance of an Italian coach, Riccardo Bardine.

Bardine’s appointment forms part of a strategic four-year partnership between the Nigerian Fencing Federation and the Italian Fencing Federation, aimed at accelerating the sport’s development in Nigeria through technical support and knowledge exchange.

IN ENGLAND

Tottenham has appointed Brentford boss Thomas Frank as their head coach on a deal until 2028.

The 51-year-old Dane replaces Ange Postecoglou, who was sacked earlier this month despite leading Spurs to victory in the Europa League final in May.

Frank spent seven years in charge of Brentford, guiding the club from the Championship to the Premier League in 2021.

He is Tottenham’s fourth permanent manager since June 2021.

Spurs finished 17th in the top flight last season, losing twenty-two of their thirty-eight matches and finishing seven places and eighteen points below Brentford.

Frank has also brought head of performance Chris Haslam and first-team analyst Joe Newton with him from Brentford, while another assistant coach, Andreas Georgson, arrives from Manchester United.

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The 2025-26 Carabao Cup will include a preliminary round to accommodate the increased number of Premier League clubs with European commitments.

Nine top-flight sides are set to participate in European competitions next season, prompting the change to help reduce the number of clubs in the first two rounds.

The preliminary round will feature the two sides promoted from the National League and the two clubs who finished 21st and 22nd in League Two.

They will be separated regionally, as is customary with the competition’s early rounds, meaning Accrington Stanley will face Oldham Athletic while Barnet take on Newport County.

The home sides for those ties will be drawn at the same time as the draw for round one, on 26th June.

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Meanwhile, all English Football League clubs – other than the two eliminated in the preliminary round – will participate in round one of the competition.

The eleven Premier League sides not in Europe enter at the second-round stage while the nine sides to have qualified for Europe – Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace – come in at round three.

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Brazil forward Matheus Cunha says his dream had become a reality after completing a sixty-two point five million pounds move to Manchester United.

United activated a release clause in Cunha’s Wolves contract this month.

The deal, which was subject to a visa and a medical, has now been completed.

Cunha has signed a five-year contract, with the option of a further twelve months.

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Brighton has agreed a twenty-nine point seventy-eight million pounds deal with Olympiakos for 18-year-old forward Charalampos Kostoulas.

The teenager was undergoing a medical with the club on Thursday, ahead of signing a five-year contract that will start on 1st July.

The deal represents by some distance the highest fee ever received by a Greek club, beating the sixteen point six million pounds Wolves paid to sign Daniel Podence from Olympiakos in 2020.

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Belgian midfielder Kevin de Bruyne has completed his move to Napoli after he left Manchester City at the end of the Premier League season.

De Bruyne will link up with former Chelsea and Tottenham manager Antonio Conte, who is head coach of the Italian champions.

In moving to Italy on a free transfer, De Bruyne rejected an offer from Major League Soccer club Chicago Fire, and the switch means he can play in the Champions League next season.

Napoli announced the signing of the 33-year-old with a computer-generated image of De Bruyne sitting on a throne wearing a crown, captioned “King Kev is here”.

He left Manchester City after ten years at the club, winning nineteen major trophies after joining from Wolfsburg in 2015.

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England right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold has described joining Real Madrid as a dream come true and huge responsibility as he addressed the audience in Spanish at his presentation on Thursday.

Alexander-Arnold would have been able to leave Liverpool on a free transfer at the end of his contract on 30th June but the 15-time European champions Real paid the Reds a fee to release him early so that he could play for them at this month’s Club World Cup.

A highlights video showing Alexander-Arnold as a young player plus his goals, assists and defending for Liverpool and England was played prior to Real president Florentino Perez welcoming the right-back to the club.

Alexander-Arnold said he was ready to give everything for the team and for the Real Madrid fans.

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A new report says Professional footballers should be allowed at least a four-week off-season break, plus a minimum four-week retraining period before a return to competition.

The study, released by global players’ union Fifpro, led to seventy medical and performance experts agreeing on twelve safeguards they want to introduce in a bid to protect players from exhaustion and excessive workload.

Fifpro said it represents the most extensive expert consensus to date on safeguards against excessive workload in professional football.

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OTHER LEAGUES

Germany winger Leroy Sane has joined Turkish club Galatasaray on a free transfer after leaving Bayern Munich.

The 29-year-old has signed a three-year deal with the Turkish champions, with the club announcing he will earn a guaranteed seven point sixty-six million pounds a year plus a loyalty bonus.

Galatasaray won the league title this season, beating Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce by eleven points.

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Coach Michal Probierz has resigned as Poland manager in the wake of Robert Lewandowski saying he would not play for the country under him.

Lewandowski, who is Poland’s record goalscorer with eighty-five goals in one hundred and fifty-eight appearances, quit his national team on Sunday after Probierz replaced him as captain with Piotr Zielinski.

Probierz’s decision to resign also follows Poland suffering a two-one loss in Finland in a World Cup qualifier.

The defeat left Poland third in their group on six points after three games, with the Netherlands second on six points after two games and Finland top on seven points having played four games.

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Drogheda United have been told they face expulsion from the 2025-26 Uefa Conference League, a decision they will contest at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Two clubs under the same ownership cannot compete in the same competition and the Irish Premier Division club are owned by the US-based Trivela Group, which also owns Danish side Silkeborg.

Both teams have qualified for the third-tier Uefa competition, this season won by Chelsea.

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Cardiff City have confirmed the departure of Aaron Ramsey, with the midfielder set to move to Mexico.

Ramsey agreed a deal to sign for Mexican side Club Universidad Nacional – known as Pumas UNAM.

Wales captain Ramsey, was appointed Cardiff interim manager for the final three games of the 2024-25 Championship season after the club sacked Omer Riza, but was unable to prevent relegation to League One.

The Bluebirds have also confirmed the exits of Jamilu Collins, Raheem Conte, Anwar El Ghazi, Kieron Evans, Dimitrios Goutas and Yakou Meite.

The seven players will leave the Welsh club at the end of their contracts on 30th June.

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OTHER SPORTS

In Basketball; The Cooper Flagg era in Durham has come to an end after just one electric season. Flagg, widely expected to be the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, delivered a memorable year with Duke and is now headed to the pros.

Meanwhile, head coach Jon Scheyer and his Blue Devils staff are deep in preparation to reload the roster following a Final Four run last season.

As the offseason unfolds, Duke basketball dropped a major announcement on Thursday that sets up a marquee non-conference showdown in the upcoming 2025-26 season.

In Tennis, Emma Raducanu swept aside Slovakia’s Rebecca Sramkova to reach the quarter-finals at Queen’s and will regain her place as British number one for the first time in two years.

The Briton was largely untroubled against world number 41 Sramkova, winning 6-4, 6-1 on a packed Andy Murray Arena.

Raducanu is the last Briton standing at the first women’s tournament at Queen’s since 1973 after compatriots Katie Boulter and Heather Watson exited in the last 16 earlier on Thursday.

Raducanu, who will face Chinese top seed Zheng Qinwen next, only had to equal Boulter’s run at Queen’s to overtake her when the official rankings are updated on Monday.

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Also, Total prize money at this year’s Wimbledon will increase by seven to a record fifty-three point five million pounds.

The prize pot, worth fifty million pounds in 2024, is double the twenty-six point five million pounds on offer in 2015.

Carlos Alcaraz and Barbora Krejcikova each took home two point seven million pounds for winning the men’s and women’s singles titles respectively last year.

This year’s winners will receive three million pounds, an increase of eleven percent.

Wimbledon runs from 30th June to 13th July.

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In Formula one, George Russell says it was good that Max Verstappen took accountability for colliding with the Mercedes driver during the Spanish Grand Prix.

The world champion is one licence point away from a race ban as a result of deliberately hitting Russell’s car as his race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya unravelled in the late stages after a safety car.

In addition to three licence points, Red Bull’s Verstappen was also given a 10-second penalty, which dropped him from fifth to 10th in the results.

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In Cricket, Australia suffered a dramatic second-innings batting collapse to leave the World Test Championship final hanging in the balance after another topsy-turvy day dominated by the bowlers at Lord’s.

South Africa had resumed their first innings on 43-4 and managed to reach 121-5 by the lunch break with skipper Temba Bavuma, who made 36, the only wicket to fall in the morning.

Australia captain Pat Cummins claimed 6-28 to play the leading hand after lunch with the last five South African wickets costing just 12 runs.

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In Rugby, British and Irish Lions Tadhg Furlong and Hugo Keenan will play no part in Leinster’s United Rugby Championship final against the Bulls on Saturday.

Both tight-head prop Furlong and full-back Keenan have been dealing with calf complaints, although fellow Lions Garry Ringrose and Josh van der Flier are fit to start against the visiting South Africans.

The fixture in Croke Park is the last game before Andy Farrell’s full party for the tour of Australia assemble and will be played six days before the first game against Argentina at the Aviva Stadium on 20th June.

Furlong has struggled with injuries all season, last featuring in Leinster’s Investec Champions Cup semi-final loss to Northampton on 3rd May and made just nine appearances in 2024-25 for his province and Ireland.

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In Golf, Rory McIlroy found Oakmont Country Club a bruising challenge as only five players from round one’s morning wave ended under par at the US Open.

Masters champion McIlroy had started well and was two under through nine holes, but then unravelled with four bogeys and a double bogey as he posted a four-over 74.

JJ Spaun, who McIlroy beat in a play-off to win The Players Championship in March, leads the way on four under.

South Korea’s Kim Si-woo is at two under, while Belgium’s Thomas Detry, who was three under after nine, bogeyed his final hole to end on one under, alongside American Ben Griffin.

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In Athletics, The final leg of Grand Slam Track, the athletics competition backed by Olympic great Michael Johnson has been cancelled.

It is understood there were concerns about economics of the deal at the final venue of the 2025 calendar in Los Angeles the city that will host the 2028 Olympics.

Organisers will instead concentrate on next season’s programme.

It is also understood Grand Slam Track is set to announce new investors to help fund its second season.

The competition was due to run for four meets in its debut season, culminating at University College Los Angeles’ Drake Stadium on 28th to 29th June.

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In Cycling, Britain’s Jake Stewart won his first World Tour race with victory on stage five of the Criterium du Dauphine after a bunch sprint.

Israel-Premier Tech’s Stewart beat stage hot favourite Jonathan Milan of Lidl-Trek by launching his effort early and getting a jump on the Italian.

Milan’s huge power was not enough to claw back Stewart, whose timing was perfect for what was a tailwind ride to the finish line in Macon after a one hundred and eighty-three kilometres stage.

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT.

I think team first. It allows me to succeed, and it allows my team to succeed….words from Lebron James