Paris, France | AFP | Exactly 60 years ago, in an era when going to a big football match meant cramming together with no thought to social distancing, 127,000 people crowded into Hampden Park in Glasgow to see the European Cup final and were rewarded with “a fantasy staged in heaven”. …
Read More »Football to allow five substitutes during post-virus fixture backlog
Lausanne, Switzerland | AFP | Football teams will be allowed to use five substitutes when play resumes after the coronavirus pandemic, the sport’s law-making body announced on Friday. The International Football Association Board (IFAB) said in as statement that it had agreed to a proposal by world governing body FIFA for …
Read More »Football’s return ‘good for everyone’ – Mourinho
London, United Kingdom | AFP | Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho believes bringing football back, even behind closed doors, would be a much-needed morale boost for fans starved of action during the coronavirus crisis. No Premier League games have been played since March 9 due to the pandemic, which has claimed more …
Read More »UEFA to meet on April 23 to discuss plans for resumption of football season
Paris, France | AFP | UEFA will hold an Executive Committee meeting by videoconference next Thursday, April 23, European football’s governing body has confirmed, as it continues to look at ways of restarting the season in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. Before that, the heads of each of UEFA’s …
Read More »A month into lockdown, football forced to play waiting game
Paris, France | AFP | A month has now passed since the last football matches were played before packed stadiums in Europe, and the havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic means that nobody can say with any certainty when the sport might return. A crowd of 50,000 filled Ibrox Stadium in …
Read More »‘No match worth risking a life’, says FIFA boss Infantino
Zurich, Switzerland | AFP | FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Friday said that “no match” is worth “risking a single human life” and that world football’s governing body would be able to help financially national federations during the coronavirus pandemic. The majority of top football leagues and international competitions have been suspended due to the …
Read More »All international football should be postponed, says FIFA
Paris, France | AFP | FIFA on Friday recommended that all international football matches scheduled for March and April be postponed due to the spread of the new coronavirus. Falling short of banning matches outright, world football’s governing body said that clubs would be allowed to refuse to send their …
Read More »How the coronavirus has hit global sport
Paris, France | AFP | The Milan-San Remo cycling one-day classic and the Alpine skiing World Cup finals were postponed on Friday, the latest high-profile sports events to be scratched from the international calendar due to the global spread of the deadly coronavirus. AFP Sport looks at the effects on sport …
Read More »Ten years of Onduparaka FC: Challenges and prospects for the club
Arua, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Onduparaka, which started as a village team in Arua has marked 10 years of its existence and consistency in the Uganda Premier League. Its rise to one of the top-flight teams over the years has not only opened up the region to the sports world …
Read More »Matches on and off the field
Nigerian wives pick a side | OLUDAYO TADE | There are about 100 million active soccer fans in Nigeria and the majority actively follow Europe’s UEFA Champions League and the UK’s Premier League, according to the Nigeria Football Market Report 2019. It says Nigeria; the most populous country in Africa …
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