9, June 2016
Honoring Stephen Keshi: CAF President expresses “immense sadness” 0
Issa Hayatou, the President of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has sent a message of condolence to the President of the Nigeria Football Federation following the sudden death of the Great Stephen Keshi. Issa Hayatou expressed his “dismay” and his “immense sadness” to the Nigerian football family.
In the correspondence, the CAF President revisited the rich career of the deceased saying Keshi remains the first African coach to have qualified two African teams in a World Cup final: Togo in 2006 and Nigeria in 2014. He won the Africa Nations Cup with Nigeria both as a player and a coach in 1994 and 2013 respectively. Stephen Keshi is also the only African technician to have taken a selection from the continent to the second round of a World Cup tournament. He did that in 2014 in Brazil with Nigeria.
Rest in peace the BOSS
10, June 2016
Football under tight security: Euro 2016 kicks off today 0
The 2016 edition of the European nation’s cup, Euro 2016 will begin today with the opening encounter between host France and Romania. For the first time in history, 24 teams will be taking part in the final round of the competition with some 51 matches scheduled to take place in ten different locations across France including new stadiums in Bordeaux, Nice, Lille and Lyon.
The tournament will be taking place under tight security as over 90.000 police, soldiers and private security officers have been mobilized for the event. Despite the security concerns, over 90 per cent of the tickets have been bought already with about 80.000 still up for grab.
The 24 teams will be divided into six groups of four teams each and the groups winners and runners up sail through to the knock out stage which begins from the round of 16. All 24 teams are now in France after playing warm up matches in the billed up to the event.
The fixtures for the weekend will comprise France versus Romania today, followed by Albania versus Switzerland on Saturday. On that same Saturday, there will also be Wales versus Slovakia and England versus Russia. The final of the tournament will be on July 10 still at the Stade de France which was the target during the recent terrorist attack in Paris.
Cameroon Tribune