Author: Chief Editor

Premier League players are set to be subjected to a strict testing regime if they are to return to training amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to British media reports. The BBC said Tuesday it had seen a copy of official protocols sent to all 20 Premier League clubs detailing the need for corner-flags, balls, cones, goalposts and even playing surfaces to be disinfected after each training session. Other measures in the guidance include twice-weekly testing, and a daily pre-training questionnaire and temperature check. Should a player test positive, with or without symptoms, they will be forced to self-isolate for seven…

Jide Ojo “The President has approved that this administration should implement the Oransanye report. It has reviewed the whole of the size of government and has made very significant recommendations in terms of reducing the number of agencies and that would mean merging some agencies” –Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, on Channels TV on April 30, 2020. Since the news broke on the plan by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to implement the Steve Oronsaye’s presidential committee report on restructuring and rationalisation of Federal Government parastatals, commissions and agencies, heated arguments have ensued on the desirability or…

Lekan Sote So much hysteria is strewn in the way of 5G, the fifth generation of wireless telecommunications technology. One way to understand the difference between the present, and 5G technology, is to remember, “New Improved,” the payoff line of a detergent soap advert. A childhood friend, Prof Kola Odunaike, a physicist at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Ìwòye, Ogun State, submits, “I personally see the current situation (the hysteria on 5G), as technological rivalry between the USA and China, to beat one another (to dominate the) world economy.” Prof Odunaike vouches that radio waves are not radioactive, “therefore, 5G…

Boxing promoter, Bob Arum, can’t envision any scenario in which someone would be able to pay Deontay Wilder and Kubrat Pulev enough money to step aside and allow a Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua fight to happen next, reports boxingscene.com. ESPN.com reported late last month that MTK Global, the company that advises Fury, and Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, have had discussions about finding investors in Saudi Arabia or elsewhere in the Middle East who could help make a heavyweight title unification bout between Fury and Joshua next. Wilder quickly exercised his contractual right to an immediate third fight with Fury after Fury…

The Bundesliga returns on Saturday in empty stadiums, but German fans are being warned to stay away and authorities have warned matches could be halted if too many supporters gather outside the grounds. German football will be blazing a trail among Europe’s top leagues by resuming two months after it was halted by the spread of coronavirus, but its strategy is fraught with risks. In a football-mad country which boasts the highest average attendances in the world, will supporters banished from stadiums be able to stay away? In Saxony, where third-placed RB Leipzig will host mid-table Freiburg on Saturday afternoon,…

Serie A clubs can return to team training from May 18 if they make adjustments to medical protocols, the Italian government announced on Monday. The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) met with the government’s technical scientific committee (CTS) last week to discuss details for a return to group training as the country emerges from a two-month coronavirus lockdown. Italy’s sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora and health minister Roberto Speranza said in a joint statement on Monday that the CTS had largely accepted the FIGC protocol for a resumption of group sessions. “The opinion requested by the government from the Technical Scientific Committee…

AC Milan star Zlatan Ibrahimovic returned to Italy on Monday after two months in his native Sweden, as Serie A prepares to resume group training in a week’s time. Ibrahimovic was photographed arriving in Milan wearing a facemask and gloves before being driven to the team’s training centre at Milanello. The Swede is expected to spend two weeks in quarantine before joining his teammates who resumed individual training last week. Group training is set to start again on May 18. The 38-year-old returned to Sweden on March 12 days after Serie A was suspended as the coronavirus pandemic swept through…

Russia moved to ease a nationwide coronavirus lockdown on Tuesday despite a surge in cases that has seen it register one of the world’s highest number of infections. With pressure building to get the economy moving again, President Vladimir Putin on Monday announced an end to a national “non-working” period in place since late March. Containment measures remained in many parts of the vast country, including hard-hit Moscow which is on lockdown until the end of May, but others began to lift some restrictions. In Bashkortostan in the Urals officials reopened parks and river banks and in Magadan in the…

The UK Government has given the Premier League the green light to restart the season from June 1. Football in the UK has been shut down indefinitely in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 30,000 lives and impacted thousands more. Premier League clubs have committed to finishing the season in some shape or form with plans for matches to be played behind closed doors at neutral venues already drawn up. The league have maintained throughout though that any move to bring the game back must be in line with latest guidelines and government protocol. Under…

With the summer transfer window running concurrently with plans to finish the ongoing 2019/20 football season amid Covid-19 pandemic, there are strong indications that former Manchester United Captain, Gary Neville, could be a stumbling block to Odion Ighalo’s wish for a permanent stay with the former English Premiership champions. The former Super Eagles forward whose loan spell at Old Trafford will expire this month end but may get extension to finish the season with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men, has restated his resolve for a permanent deal at his boyhood dream Manchester United. Ighalo’s dream will come with a price of…