Sweden women’s national team defeated Finland 2-1 to move six points ahead in Group A of Australia/New Zealand 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifiers.
FC Barcelona forward, Fridolina Rolfö opened the scoring in the 11th minute through Lina Hurtig’s assist. Ria Oling then set up Linda Sallstrom in the 29th minute to restore parity before halftime break.
Lina Hurtig in the 80th minute converted Sweden’s winning goal from Filippa Angeldal’s assist.
The 2020 Olympics runners-up occupy the first position in Group A with a maximum of 12 points from four games ahead of Finland (6 points), Slovakia, Ireland, and Georgia.
Sweden will next face Slovakia on November 31 while Finland take a trip to Slovakia next year.
Russia and Denmark defeated Azerbaijan and Bosnia and Herzegovina respectively.
Denmark in Group E defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 0-3 to maintain the top position in the group.
Kathrine Kuhl opened the scoring for Denmark almost immediately after kick-off. Lyon player, Signe Bruun doubled the lead in the 14th minute before Emma Snerle made it 0-3 in the 81st minute.
Russia defeated Azerbaijan 0-4 to maintain perfect winning record in the group, thanks to goals from Fedorova, Abdullina, Andreeva and Chernomyrdina.
Denmark with a maximum of 15 points from five games occupy the first position in Group E ahead of Russia on goal difference.
Northern Ireland net eleven to smash record as Rachel Furness ties David Healy’s scoring tally in huge win over North Macedonia.
Rachel Furness has now scored 36 goals for Northern Ireland, the same number as David Healy as Northern Ireland smashed their record margin of victory with an 11-0 win over North Macedonia in Thursday afternoon’s Women’s World Cup qualifier.
It took just four minutes for Northern Ireland to open the flood gate of goals at the Petar Milosevski Training Centre in Skopje, as Furness finished off Demi Vance’s cross from close range for her third goal of the campaign.
Mckenna doubled the lead six minutes later and in the 11th minute Magill then fired home the third before Furness converted the fourth from the spot kick, five minutes later.
She could have had another in the 23rd minute but missed from the penalty kick, before Lauren Wade eventually scored Northern Ireland’s fifth goal in the 26th minute while Kirsty McGuinness and Simone Magill scored another to make it 0-7 before half time break.
Furness’ hat-trick was completed in the 68th minute when she crashed home McGuinness’ cross. Two more goals from Simone Magill, and the other from Rebecca Holloway– who scored her first international goal on a landmark day– completed the rout.
Liverpool forward, Furness wasn’t the only one to net a match ball, her trio bettered by Everton forward Simone Magill’s four goal haul.
However, they were still some way short of the biggest win in Women’s World Cup qualifying. On at least five separate occasions, scorelines of 21-0 have been posted, first by Japan against Guam in 1997, then by Canada against Puerto Rico, New Zealand over Samoa and Austria against American Samoa, all in 1998, before Jordan matched the feat against Kuwait in 2013.
Former Barcelona, Inter Milan and Chelsea striker, Samuel Eto’o has been cleared to stand in elections to be the next president of the Cameroon Football Federation (FECAFOOT).
A total of six candidates, including incumbent Seidou Mbombo Njoya, have been approved by Fecafoot’s electoral committee to stand in the polls on 11 December.
Another former international Jules Denis Onana is also eligible for the elections, however his 1990 World Cup team-mate Emmanuel Maboang Kessack was ruled out as he owes Fecafoot $7,600.
When Eto’o first announced his intentions in September it was amid controversy in Cameroon after candidates with dual nationality had been told they could not stand in the elections, and Eto’o was granted dual Spanish nationality during his time at Barcelona.
According to reports, Italian side, SS Lazio, have completed the signing of Nigeria midfielder Ogonna Chukwudi for the rest of the 2020/2021 campaign.
The Super Falcons midfielder moved from the Spanish side, Madrid CFF –which she joined in January this year– after passing her medical and putting pen to paper.
The 33-year-old boasts huge experience, having enjoyed a decade long stay in Sweden where she starred for Umea, KIF Orebro, Kristianstads and Djurgardens before joining CSKA then Madrid CFF.
At international level, the former Nasarawa Amazons midfielder played for Nigeria at three Women’s World Cup tournaments in 2007, 2011, and 2019 and also featured twice at the African Women’s Cup of Nations in 2008 and 2012.
Nigeria’s Wahid Enitan Oshodi has been elected as the Executive Vice President of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Wednesday November 24 in Houston, Texas, in the United States.
From the 136 votes casted, Oshodi polled 116 which is the 85.29% of the total vote to emerge top among the 14 candidates that vie for the office of the Executive Vice Presidents.
Oshodi is the second Nigerian to be elected to the table tennis world body after Segun George and will serve along with seven other elected Executive Vice Presidents.
Earlier this year, he was elected as the Deputy President of the African Table Tennis Federation (ATTF).
Oshodi served as the Commissioner for sports in Lagos State under Babatunde Raji Fashola’s Government from 2011-2015. The former chairman of the Lagos State Table Tennis Association also served as the President of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) from 2013-2017 before being appointed as the Chairman of the Nomination Committee for ITTF.
This is the first time Africa will have two representatives in the ITTF executive committee as Egypt’s Alaa Meshref was re-elected.
Vice President of Africa Table Tennis Federation (ATTF), Mr. Enitan Oshodi; Vice President of International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), Mr. Alaa Meshref; Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his Deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat during a courtesy visit by ITTF and ATTF to the Governor at Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja, Tuesday, August 6, 2019.
Sweden’s Petra Sörling becomes the first woman to be elected today as the eighth President of the International Table Tennis Federation.
Having been nominated by the Swedish Table Tennis Association and accepted by all the 226 member associations across the world, Petra clinched the office of the 95-year-old International Federation unopposed. Along with the eight elected Vice Presidents, she will join the ITTF athletes commission chair, Zoran Primorac of Croatia and IOC member, Ryu Seungmin of Korea Republic to complete the ITTF executive committee board.
The ITTF Executive committee members will serve for a period of four years.
Real Madrid forward, Karim Benzema has been found guilty of conspiring to blackmail former France teammate Mathieu Valbuena over a sex tape.
The French International has been given a 1-year suspended prison sentence and an $84K fine; his lawyer has confirmed he will appeal the decision.
“We are quite flabbergasted by this judgment. An appeal is necessary. He will be exonerated at the height of this appeal.”
The sex tape case began in 2015 when Valbuena, now 37, asked a man in Marseille, Axel Angot, to upload the contents of his mobile phone to a new device and he found some implicating videos in the phone and decided to blackmail and extort Valbuena, who wasn’t having none of it and reported the case to the Police, who then carried out an undercover operation.
Police were tapping their phone calls and recorded Benzema telling someone: “He’s not taking us seriously.” Benzema said he had merely tried to help his team-mate get rid of the compromising video, warning him: “Be careful, Math, they’re big, big thugs.”
According to the Judge, Karim Benzema was not aware of all of the details of the attempted blackmail but did take part in the scheme and used deceit to attempt to achieve the goal, encouraged by co-conspirators.
However, the presiding judge over the Karim Benzema – Mathieu Valbuena sextape blackmail case reached a verdict this morning and he (Benzema) was given a one year suspended prison sentence, meaning, he would serve the sentence if he breaches the terms of the suspended sentence, or commits another offence, only then will he be made to serve the terms of the sentence and in the case of Benzema, it would be one year in prison for him.
It should be recalled that the Real Madrid striker was not present at the trial in October, nor at this morning’s tribunal. The four others on trial, who were found to have been directly involved in the attempt, have been handed sanctions ranging from 18-month suspended sentences to two and a half years in prison.
Both players have been absent from the national team after the incident but Benzema was recently recalled while Valbuena hasn’t been recalled since then and he still plays active football, plying his trade with Greek side, Olympiacos.
French Football Federation President Noel Le Graet, has said the outcome of the verdict of Benzema’s sex-tape trial won’t stop the 34-year-old Striker from playing with the French National team.
Aminata Diallo makes first public appearance since police custody stay in Hamraoui affair. She had not appeared publicly since November 9th.
On Thursday, Diallo, midfielder in the PSG women’s team, attended the release of the autobiographical comic book dedicated to the French international, “Je m’appelle Kylian”.
At last, Aminata Diallo will return to the pitches on Tuesday. Twelve days after being placed in police custody in connection with the assault on her teammate Kheira Hamraoui on November 4, then exonerated.
The 26-year-old midfielder returns to the training center for PSG players on Tuesday morning. This recovery will be done individually due to the international truce and the cases of Covid-19. A first step for the young woman to start after the “Hamraoui affair”.
This is the first time in twelve days that Aminata Diallo will return to her daily life as a professional PSG player. She has not been able to rub shoulders with her teammates in Bougival (Yvelines) at the training center since Wednesday, November 10 and her detention in the judicial police of Versailles.
As for Kheira Hamraoui, her reinstatement will have to wait as her psychological and physical state would not yet allow her to find the grounds.
Silent since the news broke out about his extra-marital affair, the former French international finally spoke a few minutes ago through a message posted on Instagram
Eric Abidal posted an apology to his wife on Instagram after reports that he cheated on her with former Barcelona player, Kheira Hamraoui who was physically attacked recently.
The former Barcelona sports director confessed he had an adulterous relationship with the 31-year-old player during her stay in Catalonia between 2018 and 2021.
Éric Abidal on Instagram:
“Hayeta Abidal forgive me. No matter what your decision is, you will remain in my eyes the woman of my life and especially the mother of our wonderful children. I deserve this humiliation even if it kills me alive. I pray to God one day you forgive me.”
Hayet Abidal, who has already filed for divorce is still on investigation after it was reported that one of the suspects while attacking Kheira Hamraoui said “So, you sleep with married men”, a sentence which thus encouraged the investigators to explore the hypothesis of a settling of score linked to Eric Abidal.
As a reminder, in this case, Aminata Diallo, 26-year-old PSG midfielder, was the first person placed in police custody and saw her name mentioned in many media around the world, suspected of having sponsored the attack against a background of sporting rivalry. However, 48 hours later she was released and definitively exonerated, without the information being relayed as much as the first. An unfair and shocking situation that she will try to overcome definitively by returning to football, after returning to training on Tuesday, November 23.
The Nigerian American Football Association set for qualifiers as 40 secondary Schools fight for promotion slot
The Nigerian American Football Association (NAFA) has flagged off her Secondary School Flag Football League qualifiers games, which kick started on the 22nd of November 2021.
The American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of soccer and rugby. This tournament is the first of its kind to be happening in Nigeria, which will bring Nigerian fans of the NFL and Super Bowl together as Stars are about to shine from the Nigeria sphere.
The qualifiers consists of 40 secondary schools in Lagos State with Diary Farm field Agege hosting day one of the qualifiers.
This was made known to the media during the press conference for the tournament at the New Hall College of the New Chevvy Estate by the president of the Association Mr Babajide Akeredolu.
“This week marks an epoch making period of the Nigerian American Football Association,” he said.
“NAFA was established to harness and unleash the best of American football into the Nigerian Economy. Our believe in the sport to drive a collaborative culture, create new opportunities for work and scholarships for Nigerian youths, promote healthy living, commercial opportunities and foster a society in dire need of strategy, structure and passion can not be understated”.
He further explained that the aim is to make the sports popular in Nigeria and most importantly represent Nigeria by kick starting a professional American football league that will consist of American football teams all over Africa, divided into 4 regional conferences.
The tournament parades 19 male teams and 21 female teams. Matches will be played across 4 centers in lagos namely Diary farms field Agege, Green Spring field, Elegbata stadium and LASU field.
The last round of matches will be played on the 26th of November at the LASU Field, Lagos.
MOLATsportgist 