Sports
Man Utd To Be Barred From European Competition?
Manchester United could be barred from playing in European competition next season even if they qualify for the Champions League.
United are likely to be playing European football next season although it remains to be seen if they will be in the Champions League. They are currently sixth, nine points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa, but there is the prospect of them also qualifying for either the Europa League or the Europa Conference League, but they are now facing up to the potential of UEFA barring them altogether.
According to sources, UEFA’s new regulations on multi-club ownership means that clubs owned by the same party cannot compete in the same European competition. New United co-owner, Ratcliffe also owns Ligue 1 club, Nice, and at the time of writing, both clubs are set to qualify for the Europa League, even if the Premier League gains an extra Champions League place.
Were they each to qualify for the same competition, precedence would be given to the team that finished highest in their domestic league, which is currently Nice. United may well need to win the FA Cup to ensure they are granted priority.
However, there remains a situation in which both teams qualify for the Europa Conference League, and Nice do so via a higher Ligue 1 finish than United’s Premier League ranking, and that would leave the Red Devils without any European football.
United have a game in hand on fourth-placed Villa and winning that would bring them within six points of Unai Emery’s men. They have a difficult run-in, though, in which they will play Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal before the conclusion of the campaign. They also have an FA Cup semi-final against Coventry coming up. United’s next encounter comes against Brentford when the Premier League resumes. The two teams ahead of them, Villa and Tottenham, play Wolves and Luton Town, respectively.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor