Sports
I’m still in charge, Eguavoen denies stepping down as Eagles coach
Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation, Austin Eguavoen, has denied stepping down as the interim coach of the Super Eagles after the two 2025 AFCON qualifiers against the Benin Republic and Rwanda.
Eguavoen was appointed by the NFF to take charge of the two games following the inability of the federation to secure the services of German coach, Bruno Labbadia, over what they call stringent German tax laws.
“In the event, Technical Director of Nigeria Football Federation, Coach Augustine Eguavoen, will now take charge of the Super Eagles for the upcoming 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying matches against Benin Republic (Uyo, September 7) and Rwanda (Kigali, September 10),” the statement announcing his appointment had partly read.
The 59-year-old led Nigeria to a convincing 3-0 win over the Benin Republic in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, last Saturday before being held to a goaless draw in the second game of the series by Rwanda on Tuesday.
After Tuesday’s goaless draw in Kigali, Eguavoen was said to have stepped down as interim coach but the gaffer has denied the reports ahead of next month’s AFCON qualifiers double header against Libya.
“It’s quite unfortunate that people just trigger something that is not correct. And the situation we are in now, we don’t need negative stories,” Eguavoen said on arrival at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja in a media chat.
“I only talked about sitting down with the hierarchy of the federation after these two games and we will see how to go about prosecuting the next games.
“But when I saw that story I was worried. Whatever people are reading out there aren’t correct. I’m still very much in charge. I’m the Technical Director of the NFF, saddled with the responsibility of taking the Super Eagles at this moment,” he said.
Sports
You can’t have it all – Pundit slams Iwobi’s Fulham teammate for Man City failure
Alex Iwobi’s colleague has been blamed for the Cottagers’ loss at the Etihad Stadium.
Alex Iwobi played commendably in Fulham’s 3-2 defeat by Manchester City on Saturday, but his colleague has been on the receiving end of fierce criticism from ESPN’s Alejandro Moreno.
Despite scoring twice — and having gone ahead — through Andreas Pereira and Rodrigo Muniz, a Mameo Kovacic brace and Jeremy Doku strike sealed a nervy victory for Pep Guardiola’s men, who returned to winning ways after consecutive Premier League draws against Arsenal and Newcastle United.
Success for City means they stay level with Arsenal on 17 points with Liverpool one clear atop the standings.
However, Saturday’s match could have gone differently had Adama Traore converted his multiple chances, failing to put away three opportunities categorised as clear-cut.
According to FBref, Marco Silva’s men edged the Expected Goals (xG) 2-4-1.5 and Traore failed to take opportunities adding up to xG of 1.0.
This prompted Moreno’s remarks about the Spain international’s showing in Manchester, with the former striker focusing on the 28-year-old’s lack of composure in front of goal.
“Adama Traore is proof to the rest of the world that you just can’t have it all,” said Moreno on ESPN. “You can have the pace and you can have the strength, but when it comes to finishing…that’s the story of his career and it’s not just today (Saturday).
“This is something we have seen from Adama Traore that the final product is just not there. His ceiling is so much lower than it should be.
“If you just take the physical aspects of the game, Adama Traore is at the top of the world but when it comes to that final product, he goes all the way down to the very bottom.”
Sports
US court orders Mayweather to pay Nigerian firm $2.4m over contract breach
A US court has upheld the ruling that Floyd Mayweather Jr., the former world boxing champion, must pay Zinni Media Concept Limited, a Nigerian company, $2.4 million in damages for breach of contract.
According to a statement from Alex Nwankwo, the company’s media executive, Zinni Media reached an agreement with Mayweather to make various appearances in Africa, including one in Nigeria, in June 2017.
However, the former boxer unilaterally terminated the deal without cause and refused to reimburse the company for the advance payment paid for the service.
Nwankwo claimed that Mayweather’s legal representatives implied that because the company was not based in the US, the boxer could not make any refund.
“After several unsuccessful attempts to recover the appearance fees from the American boxer, the company instituted a legal action against Mayweather in 2018 where it alleged breach of contract, unjust enrichment and fraud against the former champion. We are grateful that two courts have granted a prayer by Zinni Media Ltd to impose terminating sanctions against Mayweather,” the statement reads.
In October 2023, a lower court in California ruled that Mayweather should pay Zinni $1,638,542 in damages, $721,881.32 in prejudgment interest, $16,270 in sanctioned attorney fees, and $285 in costs. The total compensation amount ordered was $2,376,978.
The boxer, however, appealed the judgment before the California court of appeals.
In the latest ruling, dated August 27, 2024, Eva McClintock, clerk of the appellant court, affirmed the lower court’s verdict.
Nwankwo added that despite the court of appeal’s ruling and the case’s finality, Mayweather had still refused to pay the judgment money, which continues to grow at 10 percent per annum.
He said the court had instructed USA attorneys to enforce the judgment by targeting Mayweather’s 2015 Bugatti GSV or his 2015 Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta, both valued over the damages.
Sports
Manchester City midfielder, Matheus Nunes, arrested for alleged phone theft
Manchester City midfielder Matheus Nunes has reportedly been arrested on suspicion of stealing a mobile phone at a nightclub in Madrid.
The 26-year-old Portuguese international was allegedly detained in the early hours of September 8 at La Riviera, a popular disco, and taken to a local police station for questioning, Dailymails reports.
His arrest occurred around 5:30 a.m. after Nunes was accused of taking a phone from a 58-year-old man who had attempted to photograph him in the nightclub’s restroom without his consent, according to Spanish daily El Mundo.
Born in Brazil, Nunes is said to have taken the phone in a moment of anger and refused to return it.
El Mundo stated that the police reportedly arrested him after being called to the scene and found the phone in his possession.
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