Sports Briefs
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STEPHEN Keshi, coach of Super Eagles, has accepted terms offered to him by the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, to continue to coach the Nigerian team. Paul Bassey, a member of the NFF’s technical committee, who disclosed this, said that Keshi had accepted to continue as head coach of the three-time African champions.
“He (Keshi) has accepted the terms. Keshi has agreed to come back to work and that’s where we are for now,” Bassey told supersport.com.
When asked about the contract, Keshi refused to make a definite statement. “My dear brother, I was offered a contract by the NFF and it is not for me to make any statement on this. The NFF is the body to make a decision on this and that is that,” Keshi said on Monday, March 22.
Keshi was first named head coach of the Super Eagles in 2011, but his contract lapsed after Nigeria was eliminated from the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
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Woods Fights for A Place in US Team
TIGER Woods is working hard to qualify for the United States 2016 Ryder Cup team. The former world number one golf player, who ruled himself out of contention for last year’s match at Gleneagles, while taking a break from injury, is expected to make the team for 2016 edition of Ryder Cup. David Love III, captain of the US Ryder Cup, said he was optimistic that he would be in the team. Now ranked 96 in the world, the 39-year-old Woods started only two events this year, but he is said to be on another break to regain form.
“He’s expecting to make the team,” Love was quoted as telling BBC Radio. “He and I keep in touch a lot more than we have. He still has a good attitude and is working hard.”
Woods, who won the last of his 14 majors in 2008, made his Ryder Cup debut in 1997 and has made a total of seven appearances in the event.
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Platini Fears Return of Hooliganism in Football
MICHEL Platini is worried about a return to hooliganism in football. He warned that such a return to hooliganism would spell a doom for the game and a return to “dark days.” The Frenchman who was re-elected unopposed for a third term as president of the Union of European Football Association, UEFA, on Monday, March 23, said there was a rising trend of “nationalism and extremism” being observed in many stadia across Europe.
The 59-year-old UEFA boss reiterated calls for a European sports police force to avoid events witnessed in the “not-so-distant past.”
“A past where hooligans and all manner of fanatics called the shots in certain European stadiums,” he added.
The former France international was speaking in his opening speech to the UEFA congress, whose 54 member nations gave another four-year term after he stood unopposed. “In recent months, we have all been struck by certain images that I thought were a thing of the past. Some of us experienced that past at first hand. In my case, it was exactly 30 years ago,” he said.
Indeed, Platini was a player with Juventus, an Italian football team, when crowd trouble prior to the 1985 European Cup final against Liverpool at Heysel Stadium led to the deaths of 39 people.
As recent as March 11, the Greek Cup quarter-final between AEK Athens and Olympiakos was called off after a pitch invasion by fans in the Olympic Stadium.
Earlier in the year, the Greek Super League was suspended for a week by the government after persistent crowd trouble.
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Alonso to Return for Malaysian GP
BARING any contrary advice from his doctors, Fernando Alonso, McLaren driver, would to return to racing track at the weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix.
Alonso, a double world champion, missed the season opener in Australia on March 15, while recovering from concussion suffered in an accident in pre-season testing.
McLaren said in a statement Alonso, 33, felt his steering go heavy before the crash, which authorities have not been able to fully explain.
But McLaren has decided to fit the car with an extra sensor to gather data, following Alonso’s visit to the factory last week, when he drove the simulator and went over the data from the accident with the team’s engineers.
Afterwards, McLaren said: “Fernando is very much looking forward to getting back into the car and making a substantial contribution to our collective efforts with Honda, to accelerate the required improvement to our on-track performance.”
Alonso has decided to fly to Malaysia for the race following medical tests by three eminent doctors at Cambridge University on Sunday, March 22.
— Apr. 6, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT
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Tags: AEK Athens BBC Cambridge University David Love III European Cup Fernando Alonso FIFA World Cup Gleneagles Greek Cup Greek Super League Heysel Stadium Honda Juventus Malaysian Grand Prix McLaren Michel Platini New Contract NFF Nigeria Football Federation Olympiako Paul Bassey Ryder Cup Stephen Keshi Super Eagles Tiger Woods UEFA Union of European Football Association
