Russia has been handed a four-year ban from all major sporting events by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada). It means the Russia flag and anthem will not be allowed at events such as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics and football’s 2022 World Cup in Qatar. But athletes who can prove they are untainted by the doping scandal will be ...

Ten years after Nigeria last hosted a FIFA World Cup event, the country is set for another chance as the world football governing body seems ready to award the country the hosting right of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup for 2020. The breakthrough came following months of pressure on FIFA by the Nigerian Football Federation whose president is said ...

Nigeria has moved five places up, now 47th in the world and sixth in Africa with 635 points in the April FIFA/Coca Cola rankings released on Thursday. In the previous rankings, Nigeria was on 52nd position with 609 points. Meanwhile, Tunisia is the highest ranked African team on 14th place with Senegal and DR Congo on 28 and 38 positions respectively. Germany still ...

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has described Nigeria as a country with unquantifiable passion and love for football, and where football is more than a religion. “I was told that in Nigeria football is passion, but it is a lie because it is more than that. In Nigeria I was told that football is love, but it is a lie it ...

Cristiano Ronaldo said on Friday that he was “confident as always” of winning the upcoming Ballon D’Or for best player in the world. Ronaldo is the overwhelming favourite to collect the award on December 7, after a year in which he led Real Madrid to titles in Spain and Europe. “Last season was exceptional. We won the league and the ...

World champions Germany once again proved their worth on Sunday evening when they beat Chile at the Confederations Cup final in Russia. The Germans outshone their Chileans opponents in a much-anticipated final match courtesy of an early winning goal from Lars Stindl in the 20th minute. Earlier before the match, European champions Portugal edged Mexico with a 2-1 extra-time third ...

The adjudicatory chamber of the independent Ethics Committee, chaired by Hans-Joachim Eckert, has decided to ban the former football official Amos Adamu for two years from taking part in any kind of football-related activity at national and international level. The investigation into Mr Adamu was conducted by Dr Cornel Borbély, chairman of the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee, which ...

World football ruling body, FIFA, has named the President of Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, into one of its most important committees – the Organising Committee for Competitions. Hitherto, the world body had different committees for organization of its several competitions, including the FIFA World Cup, FIFA Confederations Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup, FIFA U20 World Cup, FIFA U20 ...

The FIFA Council have unanimously approved a 48-team World Cup from 2026 at a vote in Zurich. The plans overseen by president Gianni Infantino mean the tournament will now begin with 16 groups of three teams, with the TOP two advancing into a 32 team knock-out stage. Infantino has previously suggested FIFA could introduce penalty shoot-outs after group matches that ...

The excitable minority of Leicester fans who have called for Claudio Ranieri’s head are presumably unavailable for comment after their manager was anointed world coach of the year on a night when Cristiano Ronaldo beat the absent Lionel Messi to the best player title. Just as Leicester’s Premier League triumph had the feel of unrepeatable magic, so we may never ...