Paris, France | AFP | The action was spectacular, exciting and colourful for 12 months around the globe, but the thrilling and sometimes surprising images also caught the wider significance of modern sport. Megan Rapinoe Megan Rapinoe lapped up the rapturous reception when the US women’s football team appeared in New …
Read More »FIFA to organise ‘big event’ in fight against AIDS, malaria and TB
Lausanne, Switzerland | AFP | FIFA are organising an event to raise funds and awareness to tackle AIDS, tubercolosis and malaria, their president Gianni Infantino told AFP on Friday. Infantino said the idea was in response to Thursday’s announcement tmat governments, philanthropists and private firms had pledged just over $14 …
Read More »It is Messi vs Ibrahimovic for FIFA goal of the year
Lausanne, Switzerland | AFP | Lionel Messi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic are the star names on the 10-player short-list announced on Monday by FIFA for its Puskas award for goal of the year. They are joined by three women and five men, with goals scored between July 16, 2018 and July …
Read More »UEFA prepares to fight Infantino’s Club World Cup plan
Lausanne, Switzerland | AFP | A united response to FIFA’s plans to enlarge the Club World Cup to 24 teams will be the subject of debate on Wednesday at a meeting of football power brokers organised by UEFA. Ahead of the Europa League final in Lyon, the governing body of …
Read More »Top S.Africa court ends Pistorius’s final appeal bid
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s highest court has rejected Oscar Pistorius’s request to appeal against his 13-year jail term, ending the long legal battle over his killing of his girlfriend in 2013. The former Paralympic athlete, 31, had asked the Constitutional Court to review the jail term, which …
Read More »Arrests after Burundi president ‘roughed up’ on football field
Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | Two Burundi officials have been arrested after their town’s football team allegedly “roughed up” President Pierre Nkurunziza who was playing during a match with his personal team, legal sources and witnesses said Friday. A legal source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the administrator …
Read More »FIFA report details spending of Blatter era
Lausanne, Switzerland | AFP | A copy of a report seen by AFP into the state of FIFA commissioned by Gianni Infantino after his election as president shines a light on the murky ways of the old regime at world football’s governing body. The 98-page “Progress at FIFA – Status Report” …
Read More »Ghana looks to convert grassroots rugby into global success
Accra, Ghana | AFP | Some of the girls wear hijabs, others are barefoot and the sandy pitch is marked out in charcoal. But the 14 players could be Ghana’s rugby stars of the future. One of them, Maimuna Dawda, used to watch matches on television before she got the …
Read More »From Russian doping to FIFA bribery, 2017 proves dark time
Paris, France | AFP | Russia being banned from the Winter Olympics stole the headlines but may also have overshadowed an otherwise sorry year for sport in terms of scandals. It was a particularly damaging year for sporting officials, not least from the world of football and FIFA in particular. Former …
Read More »Farah shock winner of BBC award
Paris, France | AFP | Britain’s four-time Olympic gold medallist Mo Farah was named BBC sports personality of the year for the first time on Sunday, edging out motorcycling champion Jonathan Rea to the award. Farah, 34, successfully defended his 10,000-metre title at the World Championships in August, although he missed …
Read More »
The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price