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World Cup: Finalists To Share $66m FIFA Prize Money

Fifa will award the winners of the 2018 World Cup final France $38m in prize money while Croatia, the runners-up in Sunday’s showpiece at Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium will receive $28m. Both amounts are a $3m increase on those awarded to the finalists of the 2014 tournament in Brazil, in which Germany beat Argentina.

Belgium will receive $24m for their victory on Saturday in the third-place playoff in St Petersburg, $2m more than fourth-placed England.

In total the pot of prize money for the 2018 finals in Russia has increased by almost $50m, up to $400m this year compared to $358m four years ago.

France competed in their third World Cup final of the last 20 years, having won the trophy for the first time ever on home soil in 1998 and then losing the 2006 final in Germany to Italy in a penalty shootout.

Croatia, playing in their first ever major international final, were beaten in the 1998 semifinals by France.

VON

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Russia 2018: Kenyan Referee Gets Life Ban For Bribery

A Kenyan referee who had been due to officiate at the ongoing World Cup in Russia has been handed a life ban after being caught in a bribery sting.

Aden Marwa was filmed receiving a 600-dollar bribe during Confederation of African Football (CAF) assignment in Ghana.

He is one of 22 referees sanctioned by the CAF in an unprecedented clean up, announced at the weekend.

Marwa, who was a reserve at the 2014 finals in Brazil, had earlier been removed from the list of match officials due to officiate in Russia.

The life ban was handed out by CAF’s disciplinary board, which also banned 10 other referees for between two years and 10 years for similar offences.

A further 11 persons have been suspended pending an appearance at the board in August.

African football has long been plagued by allegations of bribery but never before has CAF banned such a large number of officials.

Reuters

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Ighalo Reacts To Death Threat To Family

Super Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo, has reacted to the alleged death threat issued to his family in Lagos on the social media due to his failure to score goals from clear-cut opportunities against Argentina, saying it was not deliberate.

The News Agency Of Nigeria reports that Ighalo, who replaced Kelechi Ihanacho in the second half of the match between Nigeria and Argentina in the ongoing World Cup in Russia, failed to convert a through pass from Ahmed Musa had incurred the anger of fans.

However,  most Nigerian fans strongly believed that if Ighalo had scored the goal, it would have seen the Super Eagles through to the Round of 16 of the World Cup.

Speaking through his Social Media timeline, Ighalo, who was involved in Nigeria’s qualification for the World Cup, said that he regretted not scoring the crucial goal.

“It is a great experience to play at the World Cup and I enjoyed every moment of it, but sometimes things don’t work the way you want.

“But life has to go on, I am grateful to God I did not sustain any injury,’’ he said.

NAN reports that after the match which generated a lot of ill-comments from fans, the Changchun Yatai F.C. of China’s striker, apologised to Nigerians and assumed personal responsibility for the blunder.

NAN

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Russia 2018: Super Eagles Will Make Us Proud, Says Osinbajo

Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), has expressed confidence that the Super Eagles would defeat their Argentine counterpart to move into the second round of the FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Prof. Osinbajo stated this while speaking with newsmen on Tuesday at the Alakia Airport in Ibadan on his arrival for the National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs, Clinic.

He said “By the grace of God, victory will be ours. I hope the boys will give their very best. I am sure and confident that they are well prepared for the important encounter. “This is an important encounter to us and I trust it is going to be a great victory for us’’

The Eagles would take on Argentina in their last group D match and they need at least a draw to qualify for the second round of the tournament.

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Russia 2018: Senegal Defeat Poland 2-1

Senegal took full advantage of their opponents’ errors to beat Poland 2-1 in their opening Group H match, finally giving Africa something to cheer about at the World Cup.

The African side took a 37th-minute lead when Idrissa Gueye’s shot took a massive deflection off defender Thiago Cionek to wrong-foot the keeper. Then on the hour, woeful defending allowed Mbaye Niang to tap home into an empty net before Poland pulled one back via Grzegorz Krychowiak’s late header.

Senegal have won 50% of their world cup matches, the best win rate of any African nation in the competition.

All three of Senegal’s world cup wins have been against European nations(fRANCE, Sweden, and Poland).

Poland have failed to keep a clean sheet in each of their last nine world cup matches since beating portugal 1-0 in 1986.

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#Russia2018: Speaker @YakubDogara Charges Super Eagles To Make Nigerians Proud

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Yakubu Dogara, has urged Super Eagles players to make Nigerians proud as they prepare for the first match with Croatia in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

In a statement issued on Friday, Speaker Dogara called on all Nigerians to pray fervently for the success of the Super Eagles, while charging the players to put all they have got into ensuring that they win the group matches and advance to next stage of the competition.

He added that, “Over the years, football has been a major source of unity in Nigeria, we should, therefore, collectively pray for the Super Eagles as they brace up for their match against Croatia .

“Super Eagles proved to be a strong team during the qualifiers with their record and we expect them to replicate same zeal, spirit and patriotism in the World Cup.”

He said with team work and commitment the Super Eagles will surely triumph over their opponents in group and knockout stages of the World Cup.

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#Russia2018: Uruguay Defeats Egypt 1-0

It took nearly 90 minutes, but Uruguay finally got a goal and defeated a stubborn Egypt team, 1-0, in Ekaterinburg on Friday.

A header off a free kick by defender Jose Maria Giminez was the difference after Uruguay’s bigger stars, Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez, squandered several chances.

Egypt played without its own star, Mohamed Salah, who was nursing a shoulder injury yet had been expected to play.

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World Cup: Spain Appoints Fernando Hierro As New Coach

The Spanish Football Federation has appointed Fernando Hierro as their new head coach for the 2018 World Cup tournament in Russia shortly after the sacking of Julen Lopetegui this morning.

Fernando, a former Real Madrid captain and assistant manager who was sporting director for the Spanish FA will now take Lopetegui’s position and will then hold his first training session on Thursday ahead of Friday’s opening clash against Portugal.

Lopetegui was dismissed on Wednesday by Spanish football chiefs who were left furious after Real Madrid announced him as their next coach despite committing his future to Spain’s national team by signing a deal until 2020.

A statement by the President of Spanish Football Federation, SFF, Luis Rubiales says “We have been forced to dispense with the national coach. We wish you the greatest of luck. The negotiation has occurred without any information to the RFEF. Just five minutes before the press release. There’s a way to act that needs to be fulfilled”

Fernando Hierro who played 584 games for Real Madrid made 89 international appearances for Spain and netted 29 times. He also captained Spain in the 1994 World Cup.

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World Cup: Magic Pig Predicts Super Eagles Will Get To Semi-Final

A psychic pig has given hope to Nigerians by predicting that the Super Eagles will get to the semi-final of the tournament.

The black micro pig called Mystic Marcus has a history of predicting winners and rightly called Donald Trump to become the president of the United States of America.

The owner Juliette Stevens told Daily Mail that Mystic Marcus has a 100% winning record.

Juliette used 32 apples with flags of the all the participating countries and Mystic Marcus was made to eat the four semi-finalists.

After eating Argentina, he sniffed out Saudi Arabia and Iran before choosing Nigeria.

The other countries he picked out were Belgium, Argentina and Uruguay.

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World Cup: Super Eagles Are Biggest Threat To Any Opponent, Says Messi

As the 2018 FIFA World Cup begins Thursday in Russia, Argentina captain Lionel Messi has said the Super Eagles of Nigeria are a strong side that can cause problems for any opponent.

Both teams Both will play each other on June 26 in the last game of group D at the 2018 FIFA World Cup at Saint Petersburg.

“It will be important to start strongly. Iceland did well in their last tournament so the first match
will not be comfortable. But these are the ones to win if you don’t want the next matches to be even
more complicated.

“We don’t know so much about Nigeria but the African teams are normally compact, tough and strong. So it will be no walkover,” Messi told UK tabliod, Express.co.uk.

“We know it won’t be easy but I’m certain that Argentina has a squad capable of being a champion in
Russia. If the players all believe the same then we can be contenders,” he added.

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Spain Sacks Coach After He Takes Real Madrid Job

Less than 24 hours after the unexpected announcement that Spain manager Julen Lopetegui would take over at Real Madrid next season, the Spaniard has been sacked by the country’s football federation.

His dismissal comes just two days before Spain’s opening World Cup game against Euro 2016 winners Portugal on Friday.
“We have been forced to make this decision,” Spanish Football Association President, Luis Rubiales said according to a series of tweets from the official Royal Spanish Football Federation’s official twitter account (RFEF).
“RFEF cannot be sitting on the sidelines whilst someone negotiates with one of its employees and then find out five minutes later before the news is made public.
“It’s a difficult and painful situation, and we would have liked for it to have finished differently with Julen. But we didn’t plan the way it played out.
“We are all affected by this, but we have to think about what is best for the whole of RFEF and the national team.
“I’m sure in time, we will be stronger for this decision. We wish him the best of luck.”
On Tuesday, it had been announced that former goalkeeper Lopetegui would join Real, who last month won the Champions League for the third year in a row, following the resignation of Zinedine Zidane at the end of May.
Lopetegui took charge of Spain in July 2016, leading the 2010 World Cup winners to nine wins and one draw in a qualifying group that included four-time winners Italy.
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U.S., Mexico, Canada To Host 2026 World Cup

The 2026 World Cup will be held in the United States, Mexico and Canada after FIFA’s congress voted on Wednesday to back the tri-nation joint bid for the tournament.

All 211 Member Associations of FIFA voted at the body’s 68th Congress in the Russian capital to choose between African candidate Morocco, and the joint bid of the USA, Canada and Mexico.

The North American bid beat the rival Morocco proposal, winning 134 votes to 65 for Morocco.

Morocco was bidding for the fifth time to host the world’s biggest single-sport fiesta, and has launched a compact bid in which all host cities are within a radius of maximum two hours by air travel.

In contrast, the USA-Canada-Mexico bid spans the entire North American continent, and could present host cities that are the farthest apart in the history of the competition that began in 1930.

Styled the ‘United Bid’, the candidacy of USA-Canada-Mexico says it potentially has 23 host cities, with 17 of these located in the USA. There are three in Canada and three in Mexico.

Morocco’s candidacy, on the other hand  I’m was believed to be strong with support from a majority of African countries and the European confederation.

USA hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1994, while Mexico hosted in 1970 and 1986.

Canada has never hosted the World Cup but staged the Olympic Games in 1976, the U17 World Cup in 1987, the U20 World Cup in 2007 and the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2015.

The 2022 FIFA World Cup finals will take place in Qatar, while the 2026 finals will be the first to have 48 teams in attendance.

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