Opening Ceremony: 2018 FIFA World Cup
The goalkeeper of the Argentina men’s national football team, nicknamed La Albiceleste, says professional footballer Lionel Messi needs to be well-supported by his teammates in case the South American squad plans to emerge victorious at the 2018 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup in Russia.
Speaking at the news conference on Wednesday, Nahuel Guzman said Argentine footballers should lessen the burden on Messi, who plays as a forward for Spanish club Barcelona.
“Of course Leo is a very important figure to us. We have to know how to be with him. He has to let us too. And we have to somehow take away the responsibility he already has. He feels it too,” Guzman said.
He added, “We also have several figures to be a friend to him and make him feel good.”
“I’ll try to be with him at any moment. I will try to lift him up if I see he’s doubtful. And we hope to be able to celebrate, next to him, each game. We have to be calm that Leo’s fine,” Guzman pointed out.
Argentina is pitted against Iceland, Croatia and Nigeria in Group D in the preliminary round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The Iran men’s national football team, nicknamed Team Melli, has joined the Portugal national football team, nicknamed A Selecção, Spain’s La Furia Roja and Atlas Lions of Morocco in Group B.
The host nation, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uruguay form Group A in the quadrennial international sports event.
France is drawn in Group C, and will play Australia, Peru and Denmark.
Group E consists of Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia.
While the 2014 FIFA World Cup champion Germany, Mexico, Sweden and South Korea shape Group F, Belgium, Panama, Tunisia and England are in Group G.
Group H has Poland, Senegal, Colombia and Japan.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup will take place from June 14 to July 15. Russia will open the event against Saudi Arabia in a Group A fixture at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.
A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues located in 11 cities. Argentina will start its World Cup campaign against Iceland at Otkritie Arena in Moscow on June 16.
Culled from Presstv
Ten Nigerian children have been rescued from human traffickers planning to fly them to Russia and exploit relaxed visa controls for the World Cup, anti-trafficking officials said on Tuesday.
Five suspects, including a policeman and a quarantine officer, were arrested at Lagos’ main airport for allegedly recruiting the victims, nine girls and a boy, and facilitating their travel, said Nigeria’s anti-trafficking agency, NAPTIP.
The children, who were all in possession of a FIFA fan pass, were intercepted by officials as they tried to board a flight to Moscow on Saturday night, according to the agency.
Five other potential victims, also children, were stopped from boarding when staff noticed they only had one-way tickets.
Officials in Nigeria said last month they had intelligence showing plans were underway to traffic local women to Russia for the World Cup, taking advantage of Moscow’s decision to let spectators enter the country with just a ticket and a fan pass.
“The agency will not give traffickers any opportunity to use the World Cup to ferry Nigerians out into a life of misery abroad,” NAPTIP’s director Julie Okah-Donli said in a statement.
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Head coach of the Spain men’s national football team Julen Lopetegui has been sacked, only two days before his squad, nicknamed La Furia Roja, was to open its 2018 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup campaign against Portugal.
President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Manuel Rubiales Béjar made the announcement during a news conference in Madrid on Wednesday.
Rubiales noted that Lopetegui’s replacement would be announced “soon.”
“We want to thank Julen for all he’s done and he’s a big reason behind us being in Russia, but we feel obliged to dispense with his services,” he added.
“There has to be a message to all RFEF employees and there are ways of behaving that you need to abide by,” Rubiales pointed out.
Lopetegui’s dismissal came after only a day after professional Spanish football club Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, commonly known as Real Madrid or simply as Real, unexpectedly stated that Lopetegui would join the club as their coach next season.
During the official 2018 FIFA World Cup draw ceremony at Kremlin State Palace in the Russian capital city of Moscow on December 1 last year, La Furia Roja joined the Iran men’s national football team, nicknamed Team Melli, A Selecção of Portugal and Morocco’s Atlas Lions in the preliminary round of the tournament.
The host nation, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uruguay form Group A in the upcoming quadrennial international sports event.
France is drawn in Group C, and is pitted against Australia, Peru and Denmark.
Argentina, Iceland, Croatia and Nigeria are drawn in Group D.
Group E consists of Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia.
While the 2014 FIFA World Cup champion Germany, Mexico, Sweden and South Korea shape Group F, Belgium, Panama, Tunisia and England are in Group G.
Group H has Poland, Senegal, Colombia and Japan.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup will take place from June 14 to July 15. Russia will open the event against Saudi Arabia in a Group A fixture at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium.
A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues located in 11 cities.
Iran will start its World Cup campaign against Morocco at Krestovsky Stadium in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on June 15.
Cameroon great Roger Milla has told AFP that he never received the credit he deserved for his World Cup goalscoring exploits.
Milla, lured out of retirement at the ripe old age of 38, left an indelible mark on the 1990 finals in Italy.
Considered an intriguing addition to a Cameroon team expected to head home after the group stages, Milla turned the tournament, and the fate of African football, on its head.
Following a shock 1-0 win over Argentina, Milla came off the bench to score twice in the final minutes of a 2-1 win over Romania, his second a fierce strike from the right side of the area.
After a 4-0 drubbing by the Soviet Union, Milla, again, stepped up to the plate.
He came off the bench again to hit his second brace, in extra-time, to secure a 2-1 win over Colombia that sent Cameroon into the last eight, the first African side to make it to the quarter-finals.
In Russia, Cameroon will be absent but Milla can take pride from the presence of a record five African teams — Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia — in the 32-nation World Cup starting Thursday.
Thoughts of that strong African contingent got Milla reflecting on those heroics 28 years ago.
“The most beautiful goal was my second against Romania,” he told AFP.
“I hope you’re going to write about it, because no other player has scored a goal like that!”
He added: “I don’t know why you (the media) don’t talk more about Africans. For me, it’s because of racism!
“If a Brazilian, German or Frenchman had scored a goal like that, you would burst everyone’s eardrums talking about it.
“But since it was a Cameroonian, a black player, it was hardly talked about. Still, Europeans told me that it should be rated among the world’s best.”
Oldest World Cup scorer
Each of Milla’s strikes were followed by what would become his trademark celebration — running to the corner flag and shimmying his hips from side to side as if dancing to his own personal tune.
In the run-up to Italia 90, the striker who had played for French clubs Bastia and Saint-Etienne had been anticipating a life of retirement in the sun on the French Indian Ocean island of Reunion.
But a last-minute request by Cameroon president Paul Biya, who urged him to grab his boots and get on a plane to Italy, made sure Milla, and African football, would never be the same again.
Milla’s magic was felt far beyond Italy.
“After that first qualification for the quarter-finals, FIFA’s eye were opened,” said Milla.
“The whole world understood that in Africa there are a lot of great players, and some great football-playing nations.
“Ghana (2010), Senegal (2002) went on to emulate our achievements. But that year, a door opened for African football.”
Aside from the 1990 finals, Milla had seen a “perfectly good goal” disallowed in a scoreless draw with Peru at Cameroon’s maiden World Cup at Spain ’82.
Then, at USA ’94, he became at 42, the tournament’s oldest ever scorer.
After a 2-2 draw with Sweden and a 3-0 defeat to Brazil, a 6-1 drubbing by Russia, in which Milla scored, capped a poor campaign by the Africans.
“I scored the only goal against Russia in our final match with technical ease and the strength of a player much younger than myself!
“I showed the whole world that, even at 42, if you’ve treated yourself well, you can do it.
“I’m a legend in Africa, and in South America, where ‘King Pele’ asked me why I wasn’t born a Brazilian!
“I did for my country and for my continent, I’d like it if they talked about it more in Europe, and in France, where I spent my entire career.”
Source: AFP
The Egyptian national soccer team received a warm welcome at their World Cup base in the Russian city of Grozny on Sunday (June 10).
Mo Salah appeared at Akhmat Arena with the rest of the Egyptian squad and was personally greeted by the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
The 25-year-old has not played since injuring his right shoulder in Liverpool’s Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid last month and is considered a doubt for Egypt’s Group A opener against Uruguay on Friday.
(Source: Reuters)
As soccer fans count down the last few days before the 2018 FIFA World Cup opening match at Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium on Thursday (June 14), the Russian capital witnessed the opening of another important tournament venue – the International Broadcasting Center (IBC).
As FIFA president Gianni Infantino explained, the IBC is key to the tournament because it will allow audiences across the world to see matches.
The IBC is located on the outskirts of Moscow and is where the VIdeo Assistant Referee (VAR) system operates from.
We will have the entire world being able to benefit from this beautiful and fantastic World Cup thanks to what is happening here in this IBC.
World Cup matches will be refereed with the help of video for the first time in history and according to FIFA director of refereeing Massimo Busacca will only be used in cases of clear mistakes.
Video replays operated by four referees inside the IBC will help referees on the pitch make key decisions. An incident involving ‘clear and obvious’ mistake during a match can be reviewed and changed.
Source: Africa News
Karl Toko Ekambi has now officially joined Villarreal (or, as the good-bye note from Angers put it, the sous-marin jaune, which I rather enjoyed), and becomes the latest in a recent string of African internationals to wear the Villarreal shirt.
He will be, as far as I can tell, the second Cameroon international to play for Villarreal. The first was Cyrille Makanaky, who spent one season with us (1992-93) when we were in the Segunda. He was a member of Cameroon’s marvelous 1990 World Cup squad.
Makanaky is still remembered in Malaga, where he played for two years before joining the Submarine —to this day, “makanaky” is the local, colloquial term for a marijuana cigarette. I have heard conflicting stories as to why: one is that it had to do with his dreadlocks, primarily; the other, which has more of the ring of truth about it given his mediocre play for the boquerones, is that Cyrille was a great customer of the local ‘grass’ sellers around the Rosaleda. Regardless, everyone agrees that his one season in Villarreal which followed was largely anonymous—16 Segunda matches for a team that barely avoided relegation—and he drifted off in search of greener….pastures. (To Maccabi Tel Aviv, actually).
Moving on, in recent years we have had a number of players who have represented African countries internationally—Wakaso Mubarak (Ghana) never made much of an impression here but, Ike Uche (Nigeria), Eric Bailly (Ivory Coast) and of course Cedric Bakambu (DR Congo) certainly did. (And we have Alfred N’Diaye on our books now, though he spent last year on loan at Wolves).
But between Makanaky’s 1993 departure and Wakaso’s arrival in early 2011, I could only find one other African Submariner. (Note: I’m referring in all cases to nationality per FIFA, not necessarily country of birth—after all, Ekambi was born in Paris).
Culled from Villarreal
Under pressure from pro-Palestine campaigners, Argentina has canceled a controversial World Cup warm-up match against Israel in occupied Jerusalem al-Quds amid an international outcry over the regime’s crimes against the Palestinians.
A senior source at Argentina’s Football Federation, who was speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the game had been called off.
In an interview with the ESPN sports channel, Argentinean striker Gonzalo Higuain confirmed the cancelation, saying, “They’ve finally done the right thing.”
Additionally, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires said in a statement that it “regrets to communicate the suspension of the match” due to “threats and provocations” against Argentinean striker Lionel Messi.
The Palestinian Football Association (FA) had earlier called on Arab and Muslim sports fans to burn photos and T-shirts of Messi if he attended the friendly match.
Palestinian FA chairman Jibril Rajoub made the call after a protest outside the Argentinean representative’s office in the West Bank city of Ramallah, saying, “Messi. Don’t come. Don’t whitewash the face of racism.”
The match, which was Argentina’s final game before the Russia World Cup 2018, was set to be played on Saturday at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem al-Quds amid international anger over a decision by the US to recognize the occupied Palestinian city as Israel’s “capital.”
Israel lays claim to the whole Jerusalem al-Quds, but the international community views the city’s eastern sector as an occupied territory and Palestinians consider it as the capital of their future state.
Following the cancelation of the Argentina-Israel soccer friendly, the Palestinian Football Association thanked Messi and his team mates for their decision.
“The Palestinian FA thanks Argentina’s players led by star Messi for refusing to be used to serve a non-sporting goal,” Rajoub said in a statement. “Values, morals and sport have secured a victory today and a red card was raised at Israel through the cancelation of the game.”
Moreover, the Avaaz campaign group praised Argentina’s “brave ethical decision.”
“This proves Argentina understands there is nothing friendly about playing in Jerusalem (al-Quds), when just miles away Israelis snipers are shooting unarmed protesters,” said Alice Jay, campaign director at Avaaz.
Reports said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier called Argentinean President Mauricio Macri to ask him to persuade the team not to suspend the event.
The cancelation of Argentina-Israel match sparked cheers in Gaza, where over 120 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since March 30, which marked the start of a series of protests demanding the right to return for those driven out of their homeland.
The Gaza clashes reached their peak on May 14, the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), which coincided this year with the US embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds.
Fans of the World Cup bound Nigerian team are celebrating the latest cheerleader to come on board in the form of a video commercial by soft drinks company, Pepsi.
The video which is doing the rounds on several social networking sites features players from the Nigerian football team and prominent Nigerian celebrities including pop stars Wizkid, Davido and Tiwa Savage.
In a campaign dubbed #NaijaAllTheWay speaks of a Naija Spirit that can not be defeated even when Nigerians lose. The artists and footballers proudly thump their chests in a salute, almost similar to the now famous Wakanda salute from Black Panther.
The Super Eagles on Saturday lost a friendly game against England that seemed to deflate the hype that had been fuelled by sales of three million jerseys on Friday.
Nigeria’s goalscorer in the game, Alex Iwobi is featured in the video, alongside another star player, Victor Moses, and the legendary Jay Jay Okocha.
Source: Africa News
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