Thursday 26 October 2017

New FIFA rule might force Nigeria to pay England for Moses and others


Federation International de Football Association (FIFA) is currently looking into several options in their bid to effect changes to the rules guiding players’ nationality switch after representing another country at junior level. Head of FIFA stakeholders committee, Victor Montagliani, confirmed they are looking into the rule, which currently forbid players who have played a competitive international for one team from switching to another national side even when they hold dual nationality. Already the Cape Verde football federation has proposed for the rule to be relaxed especially when the player has only featured in few games for his original side, but has no chance of earning a recall.  The other option the Montagliani lead committee are looking at is a compensation scheme in cases where a player goes through the training system of one country and represents it at youth level before switching to another.
Presently, Nigeria have three players who have represented England at youth level in Victor Moses, Alex Iwobi and Ola Aina representing in the Super Eagles; and if the new rule is approved, England could be entitled to some compensation from Nigeria.
Leicester City set to appoint Claude Puel as new manager
Former Premier League Champions Leicester City have been hunting a new manager since sacking Craig Shakespeare. And former Southampton manager Claude Puel is seen as the ideal man to sort out the Foxes after leading Saints to eighth last term. Former Manchester City manager Manuel Pelligrini has also been linked with the job and current Premier league bosses like Watford's Marco Silva, Burnley's Jojn Dyche and Huddersfield manager David Wagner. Caretaker-chief Michael Appleton led Leicester to only their second Premier League win of the season 2-1 at Swansea on Saturday, October 21, as they moved out of the drop zone. And the ex-Blackburn chief said afterwards he hoped to "be given a chance" to revert to assistant boss when a permanent manager was found.
Then Appleton guided the Foxes to an impressive passage into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday evening of October 24 with Kelechi Iheanacho, Islam Slimani and substitute Riyad Mahrez.
We are aiming for the semifinals in Russia 2018
Super Eagles technical adviser Gernot Rohr has revealed that his team is aiming to reach the semifinals of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. The German led the team to Russia in a game to spare earlier this month and he has already began planning his next move for the team. Nigeria have advanced into the last 16 of the World Cup on three previous occasions, including in 2014 when they were beaten 2-0 by France.
 “They (Nigeria) are already out of the group stage to go to the round of 16, especially in 2014 when they faced the French team,” Rohr told L'Equipe.
“We will try to do well, unfortunately, here, the ambitions are a little more excessive: the team must reach at least the semifinals. “We have the ambition of the leaders to manage, even if I get along very well with the president (Amaju Pinnick), who came to get me. “There are many people at the federation (NFF). As in all African countries, it's never easy. But for now, it's going very well.”
Nigeria face Algeria on November 10 in their final World Cup qualifier before facing Argentina in a friendly four days later in Russia.
Former Brazilian goalkeeper escapes death from armed men, lose SUV to them
Former Brazil international Jefferson was attacked by an armed gang on his way to training for his club Botafogo and had his Range Rover jacked in the process. The goalkeeper had been on his way to training when a group of men in a car wielding pistols pulled up alongside him and forced him out of the car. The 34-year-old, capped 22 times for Brazil between 2011 and 2015, is seen kneeling on the pavement with his hands in the air. The shocking footage, captured on CCTV, then sees the three thugs speed off in Jefferson's Range Rover, abandoning their other car. Jefferson was driving the 4x4 in Rio de Janeiro.  
According to local reports, police recovered the Range Rover during a raid. The car was being stored in the Rio suburb of Fazedinha. Jefferson wrote on social media: "I've sadly become another victim of the violence that ravages our city. I was on my way to training in Botafogo when I was overpowered by armed men who intended to steal my car and my belongings. God gave me the calmness to deal with the dangerous situation, and thanks to Him I did not suffer any violence."
The goalkeeper had a spell in Europe between 2005 and 2009 with Turkish sides Trabzonspor and Konyaspor. Jefferson helped Brazil win the Confederations Cup in 2013. He was No 2 for Brazil in the 2014 World Cup - sitting on the bench when Germany humiliated the Selecao 7-1 in the semi-final.

By Mercy Kukah 


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