The Nation Newspaper

Tag: UEFA

  • Thirty NPFL coaches for Abuja clinic

    Thirty NPFL coaches for Abuja clinic

     

    Over 30 participants drawn from the local league in Nigeria are currently attending coaching clinic at the Abuja National Stadium.

    The coaching clinic which commenced on Tuesday 25th July and end on Thursday 27th July 2017 was facilitated by premium beer brand, Star Lager as part of its continued efforts to support local football in Nigeria, since signing a landmark partnership in 2016 with the League Management Company (LMC).

    The coaching clinic is yet another major gain for Nigerian football occasioned by Star lager beer’s partnership with Arsenal FC as the club’s official beer partner in Nigeria.

    The clinic will equip local football technical supervisors and coaches with the tactical knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the game and improve the overall quality of Nigeria’s local football league.

    The coaching clinic will also feature both theoretical and practical sessions facilitated by members of Arsenal’s technical coaching crew, Simon McManus and James Colinese.

    Simon McManus, UEFA Licensed Coach, is in charge of the technical delivery and implementation of ‘Play the Arsenal Way’ across Arsenal FC’s Soccer School locations (22 countries across 5 continents). He delivers bespoke Arsenal-themed coaching programmes strongly hinged on his philosophy of producing an autonomous supportive environment that helps players adopt a growth mind-set approach, high energy-intense sessions, and ecological approach to skill acquisition and individualization of sessions to maximize the benefits to all participants.

    James Colinese is a FA Level 1 and Level 3 Talent Identification coach. He has worked in the UK and U.S in many coaching capacities. He was also a head coach of the University of Portsmouth FC and ran their entire footballing programme, consisting of 6 travel teams and 4 development squads. He is currently the head coach at Portsmouth College Football Academy, which competes in the ECFA1 league, the highest ranked college league in the country, while also doubling as an academy scout.

    Commenting on the coaching clinic, Portfolio Manager National Premium Lager Brands, Nigerian Breweries, Tokunbo Adodo, said: “We are very proud to have partnered with Arsenal FC and the NPFL on this coaching clinic. The coaching clinic is purely a technical football session to facilitate knowledge transfer between our foreign football club partners and our own football league to develop the quality of the local league. We are confident that this will significantly improve the technical expertise of our local coaches.”

    President of the League Management Company, Mallam Shehu Dikko, said: “The coaching clinic in partnership with Star Lager beer and Arsenal FC is a very good thing for Nigeria’s football. The LMC as a body is very committed to improving the Nigerian football league and as such will go the extra mile to ensure capacity-building events like this hold regularly.”

  • UEFA back England to host 2030 World Cup

    UEFA back England to host 2030 World Cup

     

    UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has given his backing to the 2030 World Cup being held in England – or a combined British bid.

    The Slovenian said earlier in the week that it will be ‘Europe’s turn’ to host the tournament, following 2022 in Qatar and a 2026 event tipped to take place in North America.

    Ceferin has now gone further by backing a return to Britain for the first time since England hosted and won the 1966 World Cup.

    He told the BBC: ‘For me, they are absolutely capable of organising it from an organisational point of view, from an infrastructure point of view.

    ‘But of course it’s a decision not just for the FA, probably the government and all the others too.

    ‘But you know everything about English or British football, so they deserve to have a World Cup in the near future.

    ‘I don’t know how much encouragement they need, but they are capable of organising the World Cup, I’m sure. That’s the decision of the Football Association and if they decide to go, we will strongly support them.

    ‘They will have all our political support. I just hope we will not have two European bidders, because that would not be good.

    ‘I think the ideal situation would be to have one European bidder, and then all of Europe stands together and we can achieve it.’

    while England dream of getting the bid though, the mind for now will centre on the world cup in Russia just few months away. With the premier league now on recess and most leagues across  the globe equally on break, the players will not focus on grabbing their tickets to be part of the Russian party. The world cup qualifiers have taken the centre stage and have become the main subject of discussions in soccer circles.

  • UEFA Match: Many feared electrocuted in Calabar

    UEFA Match: Many feared electrocuted in Calabar

    Many people were reportedly feared dead on Thursday night at a football viewing centre in Calabar, Cross River State after being electrocuted by a high tension cable that fell on them.

    Although 30 persons were initially reported dead in the incident at the centre located in Nyaghassang, our reporter who visited the scene on Friday morning said eyewitnesses and hospital officials confirmed about 15 dead, while others were

    The football fans were at the centre to watch a UEFA Europa League quarter-final match between Manchester United and Anderlecht.

    The State Police Public Relations Officer, Irene Ugbo, confirmed the incident but said the number of casualties would be ascertained on Friday.

  • Bartra sends please ‘end all wars’ plea

    Bartra sends please ‘end all wars’ plea

     

    Borussia Dortmund defender Marc Bartra took to social media on Friday to call for an end to all wars after overcoming the ‘worst 15 minutes of his life’ during the bomb attack on the team bus.

    Bartra was hit by shrapnel as three explosions hit the bus as it left the team hotel for Dortmund’s Champions League quarter-final match against Monaco. The Spaniard was taken to the hospital and had surgery on a broken bone in his wrist.

    The 26-year-old has been ruled out for four weeks as a result of his injuries, but his wife Melissa Jimenez and one-year-old daughter Gala have been at his bedside in hospital – and an emotional Bartra posted an update on Instagram.

    ‘Today, I received in hospital the happiest visit. [Melissa and Gala] are my everything, the reason I fight to overcome obstacles, and this has been the worst of my life, an experience that I would not wish on anyone in the world.

    ‘The pain, panic and uncertainty of not knowing what was happening, nor how long it would take… they were the longest 15 minutes of my life.

    ‘To all this I would like to say, that I think the shock of these days is decreasing all the time, and the will to live increases, to fight, work, and smile; to cry, feel, love, believe, play, train, and continue enjoying with my people, loved beings, friends, my passion, to defend, to smell the grass as I do before I play a match to motivate me.

    ‘To see the stands full of people who love our profession, good people who only want us to make them feel emotions in order to forget the world and above everything in this world in which we live, which is increasingly mad.’

    After the operation, Bartra posted a photo of himself online making a thumbs-up gesture with his left hand. He had a bandage wrapped around his right arm, and a smaller bandage around his left wrist.

    Dortmund coach Thomas Tuchel was unhappy at the lack of consultation, describing UEFA’s decision to inform the club of the game being re-scheduled for 22 hours later as leaving a ‘very bad feeling’.

    But Bartra was keen to look at the bigger picture, beyond football, in his impassioned post on Friday, adding: ‘The only thing I ask, THE ONLY, is that we all live in peace, and we leave behind wars.

    ‘These days, when I see my wrist, swollen and badly injured, I feel pride. I look at it with pride thinking out of all the damage they wished to commit on Tuesday, this is all they managed.

    ‘Thanks to the doctors, medics, physios and people that helped me recuperate, the wrist is still perfect.

    ‘To the thousands and thousands of people, the media and organisations, to Borussia Dortmund and my team-mates, who have given me all their love and support.

    ‘However small it may seem, it has filled me with incredible strength to ALWAYS continue moving forward.

    ‘I needed to write, and vent in this way and end everything so I can only think now of making a 100 per cent recovery as quickly as possible. Kindest regards! Marc.’

  • Champions League final for closed roof in Cardiff

    Champions League final for closed roof in Cardiff

     

    The 2017 Champions League final in Cardiff could be played under a closed roof for the first time.

    UEFA will make the decision closer to the June 3 final at the Principality Stadium, local organising committee officials told a Champions League media briefing on Friday.

    The roof of the 74,500-capacity stadium has been closed in the past for Wales rugby internationals, but shutting it for European club football’s showpiece event would see UEFA break new ground.

    There is, however, a precedent for a major football match being staged indoors as England played Argentina at the 2002 World Cup in Japan at the Sapporo Dome.

    ‘I think most footballers prefer natural conditions, but it is an interesting one,’ said the Football Association of Wales’ Alan Hamer, the local organising committee’s project director.

    ‘It is UEFA’s decision, it is their event, and from a purist’s perspective it is what many people would want.

    ‘It’s something that we need to speak to UEFA about nearer the time, and at the moment we’ve not been made aware of any decision.

    ‘If we had really poor weather which put the pitch in jeopardy then it’s an obvious decision. But we’ll see what comes out of it.’

    More than 170,000 people are expected to arrive in Wales for the June 3 final, with the women’s Champions League final being held at the Cardiff City Stadium two days earlier.

    The Principality Stadium will be renamed the National Stadium of Wales for the event as UEFA regulations prevent a commercial title from being used.

    A global television audience of 200 million is expected to watch the final, a figure which organisers say is double the size of American Football’s Super Bowl, with the event said to have an economic benefit of £45m to Cardiff and the wider region

    ‘We are the smallest country to host the Champions League final and it puts us in the shop window for future events,’ Hamer said.

    A free four-day UEFA Champions Festival will be staged in Cardiff Bay from June 1-4 and some of the attractions planned include a floating five-a-side football pitch in the bay, the UEFA Champions Gallery football museum and live musical entertainment.

    Should Cardiff deliver a successful 2017 Champions League final, the FAW could bid to host the event again in three years’ time.

    Many venues who meet the criteria of staging the Champions League final will be unable to do so that year because of preparations for the 2020 European Championship which will be held throughout the continent rather than in one country.

  • UEFA approves reform package, dishes out 1m Euros to members

    UEFA approves reform package, dishes out 1m Euros to members

    European football governing body UEFA on Wednesday approved a reform package to bring its statutes in line with the world governing body FIFA.

    The European body will also dish out an additional 1 million Euros (about 1.07 million dollars) to each of its 55 members.

    UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin meanwhile warned that his association would not cave in to “blackmail’’ from the continent’s leagues.

    The leagues have started allowing their clubs to schedule games at the same time as Champions League and Europa League matches.

    The UEFA congress in Helsinki approved reforms which include a maximum three four-year terms for its president and executive committee members.

    The reforms also bring ethical and good governance into the UEFA statutes.

    Ceferin spoke of an overhaul of the foundations, adding that these changes are essential if we are to rebuild our image, restore our credibility and strengthen our legitimacy.

    Recent corruption affairs in world football have also harmed UEFA, with former president Michel Platini banned over a “disloyal payment” he received from former FIFA boss Joseph Blatter.

    Ceferin was elected UEFA president in 2016 in succession of Platini.

    The reforms came into effect July 1 but the term limits already apply to the eight new executive committee members elected on Wednesday.

    They are Zbigniew Boniak of Poland, Ireland’s John Delaney, Reinhard Grindel of Germany, Karl-Erik Nilsson of Sweden, Italy’s Michele Uva and Servet Yardimci of Turkey.

    Others are the re-elected David Gill of England and Dutchman Michael van Praag.

    Grindel was meanwhile also elected to complete the term of now-suspended compatriot Wolfgang Niersbach on the FIFA Council until 2019.

    New council members from Europe on full terms are Hungary’s Sandor Csanyi, Costakis Koutsokoumnis of Cyprus and Montenegro’s Dejan Savicevic.

    “The additional payments of 1 million Euros to each member-federation meanwhile are the result of big earnings from national team events such as Euro 2016,’’ Ceferin said.

    UEFA made a profit of 102.1 million Euros in the 2015 to 2016 season, which included the continental tournament in France.

    Its reserves have risen to 633 million Euros.

    “UEFA is not here to accumulate wealth, while [associations] struggle to develop football in the furthest reaches of [their] territories,’’ Ceferin said.

    He called for an ongoing dialogue with the European Club Association (ECA) and the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL).

    They have both been critical of UEFA decisions such as a Champions League reform, and want a bigger saying in general.

    Ceferin named the stakeholders as partners they must respect.

    “We will never give in to the blackmail of those who think they can manipulate small leagues or impose their will on the associations based on the big income they generate.’’

    ECA officials Karl-Heinz Rummenigge of Germany and Andrea Agnelli of Italy were named full members of the executive committee where the EPFL also would be represented.

     

  • Champions League: Barca won’t be cheap -Higuain

    Champions League: Barca won’t be cheap -Higuain

     

    Juventus star Gonzalo Higuain believes Barcelona had a “bad day” in their Champions League capitulation in Paris and insists there will be no repeat.

    The Serie A champions face Barca in the quarter-finals after the LaLiga giants scraped through their last-16 tie against Paris Saint-Germain.

    Barca  were crushed 4-0 in the first leg in Paris before advancing with an incredible 6-1 victory at home.

    But Higuain knows a repeat of such a performance by Barcelona is unlikely, warning his team to prepare for the best Luis Enrique’s men can offer.

    “Barcelona had a bad day in Paris but I doubt they’ll have another,” he told UEFA.

    “Football can change very quickly and a team that looked like they were eliminated are now in the quarter-finals.”

    Higuain is enjoying a fine first season at Juve, having scored 23 goals in all competitions since his move from Napoli.

    The 29-year-old Argentina international is hoping the time has come for Juve to win a first Champions League since 1996.

    “I hope it’s the right year to win the Champions League, that’s why I came here,” Higuain said.

    “We also fight for the sixth consecutive league title and Coppa Italia.”

  • Liverpool beat Everton to boost top-4 chances

    Liverpool beat Everton to boost top-4 chances

    Liverpool enhanced their prospects of a top-four place by beating derby rivals Everton 3-1 on Saturday at Anfield.

    It was however a defeat which severely damaged Everton’s hopes of breaking into the battle for a UEFA Champions League qualification spot.

    Sadio Mane gave the hosts an early lead when he played a one-two with Roberto Firmino and finished off an angled run with a shot into the far corner.

    A Philippe Coutinho shot was palmed up by Toffees keeper Joel Robles and headed off the line by Phil Jagielka before the visitors equalised.

    Jagielka flicked on a corner kick at the near post and, after Ashley Williams got a touch, Matthew Pennington arrived to slot in.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that it was his first Everton goal on his first appearance of the season.

    However, the situation lasted just two minutes and 57 seconds before Coutinho beat two players and curled a shot into the top corner.

    He then set up substitute Divock Origi — on for the injured Mane — to power in Liverpool’s third.

    The result put the Reds seven points clear of fifth-placed Manchester United —- who have three games in hand, including at home against West Brom later on Saturday.

    Everton are seven points off the top four having played more matches than their rivals.

  • Barca fined £16,500 over fans’ improper celebration

    Barca fined £16,500 over fans’ improper celebration

     

    UEFA has fined Barcelona for fans running on the pitch to celebrate their dramatic Champions League victory over Paris Saint-Germain.

    Sergi Roberto’s added-time goal sealed an incredible 6-1 win for Luis Enrique’s men at the Nou Camp, sparking jubilant scenes among players and supporters alike.

    Some fans could not resist jumping over the advertising hoardings and celebrating on the playing surface with their heroes, who had just reached the quarter-finals.

    UEFA says the £16,500 (19,000 euros) fine includes a mandatory sanction because five players were shown yellow cards during the second leg.

    Three other clubs have also been fined for incidents at recent Champions League and Europa League games.

    Saint-Etienne must pay £43,250 (50,000 euros) for fans’ improper conduct and lighting flares at Old Trafford during their 3-0 defeat against Manchester United.

    Napoli have been fined £32,900 (38,000 euros) for a range of offences during their 3-1 home loss against Real Madrid.

    UEFA also asked Rostov to pay £13,900 (16,000 euros) for fans lighting fireworks at Sparta Prague’s stadium last month.

  • Germany confirm bid to host Euro 2024

    Germany confirm bid to host Euro 2024

     

     

     

    The German Football Association has confirmed its intention to apply to host the 2024 European Championship.

    The DFB on Friday voted unanimously to place a bid that will include 10 stadiums, which will be selected by September 15.

    Germany, which hosted Euro 1988 as well as the World Cups in 1974 and 2006, is the first country to confirm its interest in staging the tournament.

    Turkey has expressed its interest in hosting its first tournament while Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden are preparing a joint bid.

    ‘The 2024 European Championship can be an important flagship project for the whole of German football,’ DFB president Reinhard Grindel said in a statement.

    ‘We will submit a first-class application and make sure that we select the 10 possible venues in a transparent, comprehensible process.’

    Associations have until April next year to submit their bids with the winner expected to be announced by UEFA in September 2018.