Super Eagles Assistant Coach Salisu Yusuf said on Monday that the Super Eagles would defeat DR Congo in their May 28 friendly, slated for Abuja.

Yusuf, who made the statement in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the Eagles would use the match to send signal of hope to Nigerians.

He described friendly matches as fundamental in shaping the fitness of teams, adding that friendly matches were not just meant to record victory but to strengthen teams.

We are sure of winning Congo DR in order to keep our hope in the World Cup alive and tell Nigerians that we are very ready for the task ahead.

The coach pleaded with Nigerians to continue to support the team, assuring that the Eagles would not disappoint.

He said that the Eagles were one of the best teams in Africa, noting that the team had demonstrated its ability at different times.

Yusuf noted that Nigeria had done well in both qualifications and preparations for the World Cup.

He said that the Eagles were determined to make not just Nigeria but Africa proud in Russia.

The Nigeria Football Federation recently announced a change in the venue of the Nigeria-DR Congo friendly from Uyo to Abuja.

Source: NAN

Sixteen football clubs in Enugu State will be locking horns in the 2018 edition of states Federation Cup.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that states Federation Cup is a prelude to the National Federation Cup, which comprises of 62 teams.

Francis Ugwu, Secretary of Enugu State Football Association, told NAN on Tuesday in Enugu that the states Federation Cup matches would be a 21-day fiesta.

Ugwu said that it would commence on May 5; while the finals would be played on May 26.

He noted that all the matches would be played at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu (The Cathedral).

The Federation Cup by its nature is a knock out tournament.

Where clubs must win each match; or loss and crush out of the tournament entirely.

We are expecting that among the 16 clubs, a winner and a runners-up will emerge and they will represent the state at the National Federation Cup coming up later in the year, he said.

Ugwu said that the clubs participating in the 2018 edition included: Rangers International FC, Crime Busters FC, Purple Krown FC and Vemard Africa FC.

Others are: Ingas International FC, El-Nahog FC, FC International, Flying Angels FC, Samba FC and Disdevt FC.

The rest includes: Enugu Angels FC, Coal City Youths FC, FC Miserere, Lamray FC, FC Star-Plus and Rangers Feeders FC. (NAN)

Source: NAN

Liverpools Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah has been voted Player of the Year by the Football Writers Association (FWA) to complete the double of English soccers major individual awards.

Salah was chosen as player of the year by the Professional Footballers Association (PFA) after an outstanding season in which he has scored 43 goals in all competitions.

The 25-year-old is the first African player to win the FWA award which began in 1948.

Salah narrowly beat Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne in a ballot of over 400 FWA members, with the winning margin less than 20 votes.

Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane was placed third.

What a race it has been between two players who, in a relatively short time, have reached genuine world class. But Mo Salah is the worthiest of winners.

He is also the first African to receive the award and we congratulate him on a magnificent season, FWA Chairman Patrick Barclay said.

Salah has helped Liverpool, who are third in the English Premier League, into the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in 10 years.

The Merseyside club face AS Roma in the second leg in the Italian capital on Wednesday and lead 5-2 from the opening game at Anfield in which Salah scored twice and set up two other goals.

Salah will head to the World Cup in Russia in June to play for Egypt who have been drawn with the hosts, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay in Group A.

The inaugural FWA Womens Footballer of the Year Award was won by Chelsea and England forward Fran Kirby who was also crowned PFA Womens Player of the Year last month.

Source: NAN

Karim Benzema showed he still has fire power as his brace helped Real Madrid to level scores with Bayern Munich in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final and scrape qualification for the final in Kiev on 26 May.

At the final whistle, it was all square at Santiago Bernabau, with both teams tied 2-2. But Madrid escaped with the 2-1 advantage recorded in Munich last week, making aggregate score 4-3.

Joshua Kimmich had opened scoring for the visitors in the third minute. But Benzema neutralised the goal in the 11 minute with a header. And he shot Madrid ahead one minute after the second half started after a dreadful error by Bayern goalkeeper Sven Ulreich .

Former Madrid player James Rodriguez was on song for Bayern in the 63rd minute, in the nervy match, in which Bayern dominated possession 61-39. Bayern also had more shots on target 8-3, with Madrid keeper Keylor Navas, doing the yeomans job of saving many goal moves.

The victory over Bayern Munich will be Madrids third consecutive final. They become the first club in history to reach three straight European Cup finals for the second time.

They will know their opponent tomorrow after the match in Rome between Liverpool and Roma. Liverpool led the first leg 5-2.

Benzemas two goals on Tuesday night were another feather in the cap for coach Zinedine Zidane, who had decided to start the French striker, despite only one goal in his previous 12 games.

It was another brave call from Reals coach, who now stands on the brink of history himself, with Carlo Ancelotti and Bob Paisley the only other managers to have ever won Europes premier competition three times.

Zidane also sprung a surprise by dropping Casemiro to the bench and bringing the more mobile Mateo Kovacic into midfield while Lucas Vazquez played in the unfamiliar role of right back.

It meant no place again in the starting line-up for Gareth Bale, who was named as a substitute for the fifth time in six knock-out matches. He replaced Benzema in the second half.

Bayern came without a host of star players, with Javi Martinez, Arturo Vidal, Arjen Robben, Jerome Boateng, Kingsley Coman and Manuel Neuer all injured. Martinez was fit enough to make the bench.

Kimmich had given Bayern the lead after 28 minutes at the Allianz Arena and here he did it in three, slamming home after Sergio Ramos poked Corentin Tolissos cross straight to his feet.

Real were rattled, their fans tetchy, and if Bayern had held on for longer the pressure might have told. Instead, the home side were level by the 11th minute, Benzema peeling free of David Alaba at the back post and heading in.

Marcelo and Toni Kroos both weaved their way into Bayerns six-yard box, but failed to pick a final pass, while at the other end, Vazquez was enduring a torrid time at right back.

After another ball was threaded inside the wingers left shoulder, Robert Lewandowski unleashed and James should have scored but was unable to adjust his body to the follow-up.

A breathless opening 45 minutes ended with Bayern wanting a penalty as the ball struck Marcelo on the arm but referee Cuneyt Cakir waved away the appeals.

Real were certainly the more relieved to hear the half-time whistle but they were given a gift shortly after the restart.

Tolissos backpass was misjudged and underhit but Ulreich still had the chance to clear. Instead, the keeper got his feet in a tangle and ended up in a heap on the floor, presenting Benzema with an open net.

The game looked finished but Bayern came again and after 10 minutes of desperate Real defending, it was no surprise when they scored. James chased down his own rebound before beating Keylor Navas at the near post. The on-loan Colombian chose not to celebrate against his parent club.

Bayern had 27 minutes to find a third and there were a handful of near misses. Thomas Muller was denied by Navas and Mats Hummels headed agonisingly wide in injury time, but Real held on for their fourth final in five years.

*With AFP report.

Source: NAN

Wimbledon announced a hefty 34 million prize-pot on Tuesday, along with a new sustainability project aimed at ensuring it is not just the grass courts that remain green at the All England Club.

Organizers of the oldest grand slam tournament revealed the prize fund, the equivalent of $46.57 million, for the 2018 championships, up 7.6 percent from last year.

That figure includes awards of 2.25 million each for the mens and womens champions an increase on the 2.2 million Roger Federer and Garbine Muguruza received in 2017.

Wimbledons 2018 prize money eclipses the 55 million Australian dollars ($41.32 million) paid out at Januarys first grand slam of the year in Melbourne, but at current exchange rates is just shy of the 39.2 million Euros ($47.18 million) on offer at the French Open starting later this month.

Organizers also issued a warning that players who compete while knowingly carrying an injury, and quit mid-match, face being docked all their first-round prize money. The move is aimed at preventing a repeat of the rash of retirements in early action last year.

In the wake of first-round withdrawals we pledged to act on it, and we have done so, Wimbledon chief executive Richard Lewis told reporters.

We were very influential in the creation and adoption of the 50-50 rule and hope the introduction of it will play a significant role in mitigating the problems of first-round singles retirements.

Under the new rule, if an injured player withdraws onsite after midday on the Thursday before the Championships they will receive 50 percent of the first-round prize money. The replacement lucky-loser will get the other 50 percent.

With pound signs dominating the headlines at the club in leafy south-west London, tournament organisers also underlined their commitment to combating corruption in the sport and rolling out a sustainability program.

Central to the greening of the championships is a ban on plastic straws some 400,000 were used at last years tournament the introduction of electric vehicles in the courtesy car fleet; additional water-fill points around the grounds and the provision of paper bags at Wimbledons shops.

Sustainability is an important and necessary area of focus, particularly for major events, Lewis said. We have put in place a sustainability vision which is to sustain the running of the club, and the championships in a way that minimizes the impact on our environment.

Organizers also reiterated they would be implementing rules first announced last November.

In addition to stripping players of their first-round prize money if they pull out of a match or perform to what the club deems below professional standards, Wimbledon will strictly enforce warm-up timing to speed up the game, but will also extend the time allowed between points from 20 to 25 seconds.

The U.S. Open, the final grand slam of the tennis calendar starting in August, is yet to announce its prize money.

Wimbledon, the only grand slam event to be played on grass, will take place from July 2-15.

This years championships mark the 150th anniversary of the club, 50 years of Open tennis and 125 years of the womens singles championships.

Source: NAN

Coach Zinedine Zidane said he would not have wanted it any other way after Real Madrid scraped their way into a third consecutive Champions League final on Tuesday.

After their last-gasp win over Juventus in the quarter-finals, Real were left hanging on against Bayern Munich at the Santiago Bernabeu as Karim Benzemas double secured a 2-2 draw and 4-3 win on aggregate.

When Joshua Kimmich gave Bayern an early lead and James Rodriguez levelled with 27 minutes remaining, Real looked in danger of surrendering their 2-1 advantage from the first leg.

By the end, Reals fans were begging for the full-time whistle and if it is to be Liverpool in the final in Kiev, Jurgen Klopps men will take heart.

Zidane, however, insists the grit his team have shown to overcome Paris Saint-Germain, Juve, and now Bayern, should not be underestimated.

In football, you have to suffer, Zidane said. You cannot be in the final without suffering, its even better, more beautiful when you win like that.

Madrid never gives up. It is the same in adversity, we believe in what we do and we get things done by believing in ourselves and fighting.

Real, and Zidane, are now on the brink of a third consecutive Champions League triumph, and 13th overall in Europes premier tournament.

Whether it be Liverpool or Roma they face in Kiev, Los Blancos will be strong favourites to lift the title.

We are only in the final, Zidane said. You can be happy, you have to be, it is not normal to be in the final for the third consecutive time.

But now that we are, what we have to do is try to win. We will fight to defend our title.

Spectacular Navas

Benzemas two goals were also credit to Zidane, who had picked the striker despite a poor run of form that had included only one goal in 12 games.

He never gave up and Im happy for him, Zidane said. I defended Karim as I defend all my players, I defend them until the end.

Bayern, meanwhile, are left wondering what might have been after dominating large spells of the two legs but paying a heavy price for individual mistakes.

Benzemas second, which proved decisive, was a gift, with goalkeeper Sven Ulreich making a mess of Corentin Tolissos under-hit back pass and allowing the Frenchman to slot into an open net.

If you look at both games it is quite apparent we were the best team, Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes said.

Im very disappointed in the result. We dominated, I believe, and they should thank Keylor Navas for his performance in goal, he was spectacular, particularly towards the end of the match.

On Ulreichs error, Heynckes added: He had a little blackout, he got confused, he didnt realise he couldnt pick it up with his hands.

Its terrible for a player to live through such a moment, but nevertheless we did have a lot of opportunities, and all in all our keeper performed well.

Source: NAN

If I offended any of you here please forgive me. I didnt do that deliberately, Governor Muhammadu Bindow of Adamawa has told party chieftains.

Bindow urged stakeholders and other members of All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state to forgive him, if he wronged them.

Bindow made the plea Monday at a stakeholders meeting in Yola to discuss the upcoming party congress.

The governor assured all the stakeholders that he has no candidate for the coming party congresses, and urged all those seeking positions to go and mobilize support.

My administration is ready to work with all those elected in the congresses, he stressed.

Bindow expressed satisfaction with the turnout of stakeholders from various interest groups in the state and urged for more unity in the party.

Speaking at the occasion, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustafa stressed the need to abide by the party guidelines for hitch free congresses.

We are one family and must not allow internal political bickering to affects our party in the state.

We won in 2015 general election and shall win in 2019, but we need to create a situation that would make it much easier for us to win again, Mustafa said.

In his remarks, the APC National Vice Chairman North East, Alhaji Mustafa Salihu, lauded the stakeholders for putting aside their differences to attend the meeting and urged contestants to show sportsmanship.

We must work to retain government at all levels; we need to put all our personal interests aside for our party, Salihu said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that former SGF, Babacir Lawan. who also attended the meeting however criticized the meeting for not discussing the issue of zoning ahead of the congresses.

According to him, the APC constitution promotes zoning of positions particularly in diverse states like Adamawa and wonder why the issue was not discussed.(NAN).

Source: NAN

Gov. Rochas Okorocha has said that the members and leaders of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Imo are not aware that Sen. Hope Uzodinma has joined the party.

The party in the state heard about the rumour of his entry into the party like any other Nigerian, Okorocha said in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Sam Onwuemeodo, in Owerri on Tuesday.

He said leaders of the party, including state, local government and ward executives as well as National Assembly and State Assembly members met at Imo International Convention Centre, Owerri, to deliberate on issues.

It is insulting on the party in the state for someone to be talking about joining the party from Abuja.

The procedure is that you start from your ward to your Local Government and then the State, and the state will inform the Party at the national level that you are now a member, the governor said.

He said Uzodinma could not come from nowhere to join the party and still believe he could be relevant.

None of the big names in Imo Politics identified with us when we were forming APC rather they told our people that we were working with Muhammadu Buhari to Islamise the state and Igbo land.

They called me Alhaji in Government House, They called me Okoro-Hausa, they attacked us harassed us, intimidated us, humiliated us with security agents under the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, he said.

Okorocha said those who wanted to join the party now through backdoors never believed there could be tomorrow.

He said unless Uzodinma joined APC from the right source, we will not welcome him to APC in Imo State.

Okorocha said that no one should join APC from the window.

The worker deserves his wages and where you have worked is where you will be paid from.

Now, I have to tell you people all that concerns our party, how and where we have to strategise to win the 2019 election.

Let me remind you all that this journey didnt start today, he said.

Uzodinma was among leading members of the Ali Modu Sheriff-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who formally defected to APC in Abuja on Thursday.

The defectors included 34 state chairmen of the group and former senators Gbemisola Saraki and Teslim Folarin.

The defectors were led to the APC National Secretariat, Abuja, by Mr Cairo Ojougboh, and were received by the National Chairman of APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

Source: NAN

President Muhammadu Buhari, has for the first time, made a brief remark on former President Olusegun Obasanjos controversial letter and called it abusive.

Buhari said he did not want a response to the letter which derided the government and urged Buhari not to seek a second term

Even when the Minister of Information and Culture wanted to reply that abusive letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo I had wanted Lai not to reply to the letter, but I said I should allow him to highlight the achievements of our administration.

Obasanjo wrote a damning letter on 23 January to President Buhari and touted a Coalition for Nigeria Movement which has been launched in Abuja to topple the APC and Buhari from office.

The movement was launched at the Shehu Musa YarAdua Centre .

Buhari in a special interview session with Voice of America, Hausa service, in Washington, United States on Tuesday morning dismissed the letter in few words.

On his purported comment on youth while in London, President Buhari also dismissed the report, saying that the media only preferred to interpret and report what they like instead of concentrating on developmental journalism.

You know Nigerias population is now between 180 and 190 million and 60 per cent of this population is youth that is 30 years down ward.

You know in the North most youths are uneducated or are school dropouts. If not because we had good harvests in the last two farming seasons the situation would have been worsen.

Even if these youths travel out of the North for greener pasture they hardly make it economically because what they earn as income cannot afford them to meet their basic needs or return home.

All these explanations I made, they refused to highlight them in their report and you know the media in Nigeria in most cases only do what they like.

He said, for instance the nations achievements in the agricultural sector where millions of Nigerians benefitted financially was left unreported by the media.

Buhari also used the opportunity to debunk the insinuation that Christians were being killed by herdsmen.

He said that clashes between farmers and herdsmen had been in existence for the past years, saying that Nigerian herdsmen were not of the habit of carrying dangerous weapons while moving their animals around the country.

Buhari said he approved the recruitment of 6,000 policemen in addition to the current strength.

The recruitment is part of measures to address the nations security challenges including the clashes between farmers and herders.

Buhari is in the U.S. on the invitation of the American President Donald Trump.

He revealed that additional security measures were being put in place to check cases of insecurity in Nigeria.

We will put in place more measures to check insecurity in country including increasing the number of policemen and train them.

I have approved the recruitment of 6,000 policemen by the police authorities and I directed that those recruited must come from all the 776 local government areas of the federation.

Even if it means recruiting one person each from the 776 they should do that instead of going to motor parks, railway stations or market for the recruitment exercise.

I gave (Police authorities) them this directive, he said.

In 2015, Buhari also approved the recruitment of 10,000 policemen.

The president, who expressed reservation on the call for the establishment of state police as being advocated by state governors, said Nigerians must abide by constitutional provision in regard to the matter.

Source: NAN

The visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to U.S. President Donald Trump has yielded the finalisation of negotiations to repatriate more than 500 million dollars (about 190 billion Naira) of Nigerias looted money traced to the U.S.

Nigerias Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, told the Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Washington, DC, that he and the Attorney-General of the U.S. would be meeting on Tuesday to finalise the agreement.

Malami explained that the technicalities involved were being taken care of by both officials of the Nigerian Governments and also from the U.S. side.

He said: On the part of assets recovery, we have made considerable progress through this visit.

Theres goodwill by the two presidents to have a road map for the repatriation of illicit funds and assets traced to the U.S. as proceeds of illicit transactions.

This illicit funds and assets are to the tune of 500 million dollars and above for immediate repatriation.

We are looking at the shortest practicable time for it to be repatriated.

There is political commitment demonstrated by the two presidents.

The over 500 million dollars is not all the recovery, it is only for the immediate repatriation while we continue with our efforts to recover more.

Malami defended Nigerias human rights record, saying the Buharis administration is the first in the history of Nigeria to pay compensation for human rights violations.

He said in April, the Federal Government paid N135 million for the eight Apo traders who were found to have been victims of extra judicial killings by the Nigeria Police.

Of the police officers indicted, two were sentenced to death. The payment of compensation was also as a result of the recommendation by the National Human Rights Commission and government did not appeal against it, he said.

He noted that Trump approved of what Buharis administration is doing.

Trump said Buhari is a great leader; he said he has a great respect for him; and he said Buhari has cut down on corruption, Malami said.

Source: NAN