Samuel Eto'o's private jet seized in Nigeria

Yesterday, Kinnaka's Blog reported that football legend Samuel Eto'o flew into Nigeria yesterday to honour Joseph Yobo in his testimonial match which took place in Port Harcourt, Rivers state. 

The forward came in his private jet and after playing the match, Samuel Eto'o, wanted to fly back immediately. Unfortunately for Eto'o things did not go as planned. The River State authorities reportedly said his jet did not have permission to land there or fly out from the Port Harcourt. He was fined and even after paying the fine, his plane was still not allowed to fly, up until late last night.

As of 1am early this morning, government officials and friends of the footballer were still trying to get his plane to leave the airport. Aww, rich people's problems...

UEFA Champions League semi-finals draw

 The semifinal draw for the UEFA champions league took place minutes ago and teams know who they'll be facing in the race to Milan. Real Madrid will battle it out Manchester city while Bayern Munich will slug it out with giant-slaying Atletico Madrid for a place in the final.

'I'll rather retire from football than play for you' Tottenham star Dele Alli tells Arsenal

Tottenham star and England International Dele Alli has said he will never ever play for rival club Arsenal. Alli who blew kisses to the Spurs fans after opening the scoring in Sunday's 3-0 victory over Manchester United revealed there is no love lost when it comes to his feelings towards Arsene Wenger's men.

When asked by Copa90 what he would do if he was given the choice of playing for Arsenal or ending his professional careeer, he replied dismissively

'I'm hanging my boots up'.

Tottenham sit six points clear of Arsenal  having played one more game.

source:LIB

Idris Carlos Kameni set to Replace Mbia as Team Captain

It is now almost certain that there will be a new captain to lead the Indomitable Lions when they face Mauritania in their 5th 2017 Africa cup of nations qualifier game on June 4th.

The Cameroon Journal has reliably been told that current captain, Stéphane Mbia Etoundi, who has served in that capacity for only two years, is on the verge of losing his place to veteran keeper, Idriss Carlos Kameni.

Kameni has been a long serving member of the current generation of players of the national team and is in superlative form in his Spanish club, Malaga.

Just like was the case with former captain, Samuel Eto’o, Mbia has been tagged by many as “stubborn”  and recent reports have placed responsibility for fresh troubles emerging in the Lions’ den squarely at his door steps.

The Cameroon Journal gathered that Mbia’s arrogance came to the fore last month during the second leg of the double header with the Bafana Bafana of South Africa, in Durban, as the defender virtually put himself on collision course with new head coach, Hugo Broos.

An inside source, told us that Mbia further compounded his fate as Lions skipper, when he scolded at Broos in the dressing room after one of their training sessions, questioning why the coach preferred to settle on younger players for the March 29 game while the “big boys” were left on the bench.

Broos is said not to have spoken back at Mbia. But Sports and Physical Education Minister, Bidoung Mkpatt, as well as FECAFOOT president, Tombi a Roko, are said to have taken turns in an emergency meeting in Durban to chastise Mbia for his attitude. “This match is about the image of Cameroon, and not Mbia,” Bidoung, known for his tough talk, reportedly thundered at the 29-year.

Cameroon plays Mauritania on June 4th and it is strongly held within football circles that the Yaounde-born player may not be the one to lead the squad because of his poor conduct in the last outing.

“I am certain that Mbia will be replaced any time soon…a captain must be exemplary and must not be the one to talk at the coach,” a FECAFOOT official who feared being named, told The Cameroon Journal, when quizzed on the matter.


It would be recalled that Mbia was appointed Lions’ captain just weeks after the 2014 FIFA World Cup in which Cameroon put up a disastrous performance. The appointment by the then Sports Minister, Adoum Garoua, was part of plans to flush out trouble makers from the squad. Eric Choupo-Moting and Vincent Aboubakar were named as his 1st and 2nd deputies, respectively.

Less than six months later, the first “scandal” occurred. Mbia was first accused of imposing his brother, Frank Etoundi, to the national team, at the expense of more performing players at the time.

During the 2015 Africa cup of nations, Mbia was again in the press for another controversy. This time, the former Marseille defender was alleged to have convinced Volker Finke to keep the young sensation, Clinton Njie, on the sidelines – a move that provoked outrage from Lions’ fans. Such claims later turned out to be true, as Njie himself was reported to have told close friends that he was left out of play because he had a fracas with Mbia who vowed to punish him.

Mbia’s troubles would not end there. In August 2015, while he just signed with Trabzonspor, he immersed himself in controversy when he evacuated his family to Turkey, claiming that they were not safe in Yaounde, citing the Boko Haram insurgency. This portrayed Cameroon’s anti-terrorism efforts in very bad light and he was heavily-criticised by many for such claims.

source: CJ

John Terry offers to pay for funeral of 8yr old Chelsea fan who died from leukaemia

Chelsea captain and John Terry has offered to pay for the funeral of an 8 year old Chelsea fan who died from a long battle with leukemia. The young boy, Tommi Miller died after an unsuccessful attempt to carry out a bone marrow transplant.

The Cambridge born boy met Terry, his idol and some other Chelsea players at Stamford Bridge in June last year and Terry says he was devastated to hear of the kid's passing away.

Speaking to Cambridge News, the 35-year-old said:
'Having had the pleasure of meeting Tommi at a Chelsea game I was totally devastated to hear of him passing away. I'm sure his family and friends will give him the send off he deserves.'
The funeral for Tommi will take place on Thursday April 14 with everyone expected to wear Chelsea or Cambridge united Jerseys during the funeral service. His 41 year old mum. Ruth said:
'I'm overwhelmed really, because Tommi was such a great fan of John Terry in particular. He was one of his favourite players.  We don't want a traditional sort of funeral. It's for a child, so we thought we would have it as bright and cheerful as he would want it.
More photos...

GIANNI INFANTINO DENIES IMPLICATION IN THE PANAMA PAPERS SCANDAL

 New FIFA President Gianni Infantino has strongly denied any wrong doing after he was implicated in the ongoing scandal involving the report published by Panama Papers. Leaked documents shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed that Infantino, while he worked for UEFA  signed a deal with one of the men at the centre of the sport’s corruption scandal, Hugo Jinkis.
www.karawadiary.blogspot.com
News of the deal came to light after 11 million documents were leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca .

According to the reports, ten years ago when Infantino was director of legal services at UEFA, the organisation sold the rights for broadcasting its club competitions including the Champions League in South America to an Argentinian company called Cross Trading.

Cross Trading immediately sold the rights on to broadcaster Teleamazonas for about three or four times the amount paid, and Cross Trading is a subsidiary of a company called Full Play.
Full Play is owned by Jinkis, who along with his son Mariano, is under house arrest in Argentina  after he was indicted in the United States in May last year as part of the corruption scandal which rocked FIFA, and which the current FIFA board led by Infantino have promised to sanitize.

Hugo Jinkis and his son, Mariano, are fighting extradition from Argentina to the United States.
 US prosecutors alleged last year that, as the owners of Cross Trading, Jinkis and his son paid millions of dollars in bribes to South American football officials over several years in order to gain lucrative television rights for regional football tournaments.

This is a smack on Infantino's face due to the fact that UEFA has constantly denied dealing with those implicated in the scandal.
Infantino, in a bid to ensure his integrity isn't smeared, posted this statement on FIFA's official website last night.

"I am dismayed and will not accept that my integrity is being doubted by certain areas of the media, especially given that UEFA has already disclosed in detail all facts regarding these contracts.
From the moment I was made aware of the latest media enquiries on the matter, I immediately contacted UEFA to seek clarity. I did this because I am no longer with UEFA, and it is they who exclusively possess all contractual information relating to this query. In the meantime, UEFA has announced that it has been conducting a review of its numerous commercial contracts and has answered extensively all media questions related to these specific contracts.
As I previously stated, I never personally dealt with Cross Trading nor their owners as the tender process was conducted by Team Marketing on behalf of UEFA.
I would like to state for the record that neither UEFA nor I have ever been contacted by any authorities in relation to these particular contracts.
Moreover, as media themselves report, there is no indication whatsoever for any wrongdoings from neither UEFA nor myself in this matter."

Messi sends "autographed" jerseys to Malia and Sasha OBAMA(photos)

Lionel Messi sent Barack Obama’s daughters Sasha and Malia signed Argentina jerseys after they were unable to meet him when they visited his country, Argentina.

Speaking with the Argentinian president, Obama had mentioned that his daughters loved Messi and would love to meet him. Although Messi was in the country for the World Cup qualifiers, they were not able to meet and the Barcelona player made up for it by signing a pair of his number 10 Argentina jersey shirts and sent them to white house. lovely right

Fifa pursuing 'tens of millions' from those named in US investigation

Fifa wants to reclaim "tens of millions of dollars" taken illegally by its members and other organisations.

It also says corrupt officials who served on its former executive committee were guilty of selling their votes in World Cup bidding contests.

Former officials Chuck Blazer, Jack Warner and Jeffrey Webb are among those being sued by Fifa, which has submitted documents to US authorities.

In total, 41 individuals and entities have been charged in the States.

Fifa estimates millions of dollars were diverted from the sport illegally through bribery, kickbacks and corrupt schemes carried out by the defendants.

World football's governing body has been in turmoil since May 2015, when a US investigation exposed widespread corruption at the top of the organisation.

Read: Who are the indicted Fifa officials?

Now it is attempting to fight back, describing itself as a "victimised institution".

New Fifa president Gianni Infantino, elected in February, also claimed corrupt officials had "abused positions of trust".

He added: "They caused serious and lasting damage to Fifa, its member associations and the football community.

"The monies they pocketed belonged to global football and were meant for the development and promotion of the game.

"Fifa as the world governing body of football wants that money back and we are determined to get it no matter how long it takes."

Once the money had been recovered, Infantino said it would be directed back to its original purpose of benefitting and developing international football.

He added: "These dollars were meant to build football fields, not mansions and pools; to buy football kits, not jewellery and cars; and to fund youth player and coach development, not to underwrite lavish lifestyles for football and sports marketing executives."

Infantino, 45, was elected as Fifa chief last month, replacing Sepp Blatter, who had been in charge of the governing body since 1998.

Analysis

BBC Sports editor Dan Roan:

Many critics will see this as Fifa effectively suing itself - a convenient and cynical act of hypocrisy, given the organisation's close historical links with the defendants it is now taking action against.

But it should come as no surprise.

Fifa's survival depends on it retaining the victim status afforded it by the US Department of Justice and this helps reinforce the narrative that it was the injured party in football's corruption scandal, rather than the perpetrator.

With millions of dollars being spent each month on lawyers to clean up the scandal, as well as the loss of key sponsors, Fifa could do with the money.

Significantly, it publicly accepts for the first time that some members of its executive committee regularly sold their votes and that South Africa's $10m payment to Warner and Blazer was indeed a bribe for the 2010 World Cup. Strangely, there is no mention of Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, even though both Warner and Blazer were part of that controversial vote too.

It is hard to imagine such an admission while Blatter was still in charge of Fifa, and Infantino will hope it helps him demonstrate that football's governing body has finally turned a corner.

NEW BLOOD IN CAMEROONS NATIONAL TEAM

New Indomitable Lions coach, Hugo Broos has recently published a list of footballers who will play the double confrontation against South Africa on March 26th and 29th. This match which is going to count for the qualifiers of the 2017 AFCON to take place in Gabon. The published list comprises of injured and even  suspended players. However, the return of Alexandre Song is a very striking event. He who put an end to his international career after the debacle of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Three new players, Abang Anatole, Toko Karl and Teikeu Adolphe, have also ben selected to the national team for the very first time

The absence of Idriss Carlos Kameni who underwent a knee surgery was however noticed at the defence bench. He will be replaced by one of the three goalkeepers who have been cshortlisted (Ndy Assembe, Onana André and Ondoa Fabrice).

At the defence,we had Nicholas Nkoulou assisted by Aurelien Chedjou. The innovation here is the presence of Teikou Adolpe of Sochaux-France who has been called up for the very first time. Allan Nyom, Oyongo Bitolo and Sebastien Bassong are all former players.

The main reshufflements in the crew were done at the level of the midfield. Alexandre Song and Landry Nguemo have been enlisted to replace the wounded Enoh Eyong. The new blood on here is Tchiani Tony who is just beggining with the Lions. The absence of Mayi Matip was innevitably noticed though his brother Marvin Matip was called up. Some players are nevertheless part always part of the movemenyt, like Siani Sebastien, Kom Frank and the ever present, Stephane Mbia(captain). The new one here is Ngwen Jonathan who is the only local player called up to the team. Jonathan is reaping the fruits of his good performance at the African Nations championship in Rwanda.

The attack line comprises of Aboubakar Vincent who will not be able to play the first encounter against South Africa due to his for having accumulated yellow cards. Tchoupo Moting's presence is also questionable given the fact that he is yet convalescent. Same situation for Benjamin Moukandjo.
Nevertheless, their lack of form will be compensated by the return of Christian Bekamenga. Hugo Broos could also count on fresh blood coming from Abang Anatole and Karl Toko who will be making their debut with the Lions.