Round the Clock Sport

The FIFA Council on Friday appointed Senegalese Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura as the Secretary General of the Football Governing Body. Ms Samoura is a 21 year veteran of United Nations Programmes who is currently the UN’s Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Nigeria. The announcement was made by FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the 66 th FIFA Congress being held in Mexico City, Mexico. As a requirement of FIFA Ms Samoura will undergo an eligibility check administered by the Independent Review Committee as per Article 37 of the FIFA Statutes. Ms Samoura is expected to assume the role of FIFA Sec Gen before mid-June. Infantino praised Ms Samoura’s Integrity and said the council was particularly impressed with her operational experience, as well as her expertise in governance and working in multi-cultural environments. He also added that her expertise will complement the long-standing and deep knowledge of world football within the FIFA lea...

34 year old Swede striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be leaving PSG when his contract ends in the summer. Ibrahimovic is the Club’s record goalcorer with 152 goals in 178 appearances since him joining the team in 2012. PSG have won Ligue 1 in every single season he has been at the club and this season he guided the team to wrap up the title with two months to spare. PSG will host Nantes on Sunday in his final Ligue 1 appearance before meeting Marseille in the French Cup final on the 21 st of May. Already an agreement has been put in place for Zlatan to return to the club at the end of his career. Zlatan has finished as Ligue 1 top scorer in three seasons; 2012-13, 2013-14 and the current season 2015-16 he is on pole to take the award home as he leads Olympic Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette by 15 goals. Throughout his four seasons at Parc de Princes he has been included in the League 1 team of the year. On his Official Twitter account Zlatan said that “I came as a King, I leave a Leg...

Tv Broadcaster BT Sport who have the rights to the UEFA Competition, will be broadcasting the UEFA Europa League on 18 th May on their Tv Channel and on the Video-Sharing Website, Youtube. And on the 28 th of May will show the UEFA Champions League game pitting the two Madrid teams live on TV and Youtube. This is in an effort to get a large of their TV audience viewing the two games and increase viewership for the two finals. Liverpool fans in Merseyside will also be treated to a live experience at the City’s Echo Arena where 9,000 fans who will be unable to attend Basel’s St Jakob-Park will be able to watch the Europa League Final. The centre referee for the UEFA Champions League has already been appointed. Atletico Madrid versus Real Madrid Final in Milan this year will be handled by English Referee Mark Clattenburg .  The 41 year old will be Assisted by Countrymen Simon Beck, Jake Collins. The Fourth Official for the game will be Hungarian Viktor Kassai. ...

Claims have already emerged that Leicester has this sporting year emerged as the Sporting Capital of the United Kingdom. Leicester City’s infamous premier league win, that has become every underdogs dream come true, is the force behind this bold declaration. Also alongside it is the fact that Leicester Tigers’ are in the hunt for an 11 th English Rugby Union title, Leicester Riders’ success on the Basketball court and Loughborough University’s 35 consecutive British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUSCS) titles to add to the compelling debate. Leicester City Football Club: When the season began Leicester was given odds of 5000/1 of winning the premier league title. This was due to the fact that they had just battled from the relegation zone and narrowly survived the cut from the 2014/15 season. This season however, they started with all guns blazing as Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy and Ngolo Kante spearheaded their fantastic start. Leicester slowly found themselves top...

Making the playoffs five times in the last six season’s wasn’t enough for Frank Vogel to keep his job as head coach of the Indiana Pacers. This is after the team declined to offer him a new deal after his current one expires at the end of the 2015-16 season. This is information passed on by Team President Larry Bird on Thursday.  Bird told reporters that he spoke with Vogel on Thursday morning with the coach asking him to reconsider his decision. Bird would also shoot down the notion of his former Celtics teammate Kevin McHale taking over from Vogel.  Indiana finished the regular season seventh having 45 wins against 37 losses in the Eastern Conference and lost to the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the 2016 Playoffs.  Indiana will be out looking for a Head Coach and could potentially gamble on their Marquee assistant who has yet to prove himself as a head coach but doing so would mean a season or two of transition.  ...

JAMES TAYLOR Ex-England batsman James Taylor recounted the day his life changed on Sunday. It was a pre-season match for Nottinghamshire County at Cambridge University in the first week of April. There had been no signs or symptoms as he had one of the best ever lead-up to his season. By 5pm, he was in hospital where he remained for 16 days after being diagnosed with Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC) at the Nottingham City Hospital. Taylor was in his prime as a cricketer when his blossoming career was abruptly cut short at age 26. His one-day record was outstanding with his List  batting average being the fourth of all time just behind Legendary duo Michael Bevan and AB de Villiers, and India’s Cheteshwar Pujara.  This case is one of many Athletes whose careers have been cut short or interfered with by Heart Conditions. FABRICE MUAMBA On 17 th March 2012 Fabrice Muamba was playing in an FA Cup quarter-final match against Tottenham...

Nico Rosberg eased to victory at the Russian GP to extend his championship lead to 43 points over Lewis Hamilton. The German was in supreme form in Sochi on Sunday and led from start to finish as he maintained his 100 per cent victory record in 2016. Defending champion Hamilton recovered from 10 th on the grid following more unreliability problems in qualifying to take second place and limit the damage to his title chances. The Briton also had further problems during the race as he was instructed that his car had a ‘water pressure’ problem with less than 20 laps to go after he had cut Rosberg’s lead down to seven seconds. Hamilton after the race did however say that the issue did not show itself in the car and he had to back off and avoid being on full throttle at the straight stretches. There was more drama in the race as Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat hit Ferrari’s Sebastien Vettel twice in two corners. The Russian Carried too much speed into Turn Two on the opening lap a...

Leicester city must wait to claim the Premier League title after being held to a 1-1 draw with Manchester United in a pulsating clash at Old Trafford. Leicester walked into the ‘Theatre of Dreams’ needing any sort of victory to claim their first top-flight title in their 132-year History.  Claudio Ranieri’s men started nervously and found themselves in the backfoot when Antonio Valencia made light work of Christian Fuchs on the left side of the pitch before he picked out Anthony Martial with a pinpoint cross. Martial made easy work of the cross tapping in past Kasper Schmeichel to make it 1-0. This Goal was Anthony Martial’s ninth in the premier league this season.  The Visitors showed character levelling the scores nine minutes later after a Christian Fuchs free-kick was headed home by Wes Morgan.  The second half saw PFA’s Player of the season Riyad Mahrez and teammate Leonardo Ulloa come close, before Chris Smalling’s header rattled the post wi...

F1 Champion Lewis Hamilton clocked the fastest lap in the Russian Grand Prix practise on Friday (April 29). Nico Rosberg, who is chasing his seventh win in a row and fourth of the season, was quickest in the Morning around the Olympic Park but dropped to third in the Afternoon. Hamilton clocked one minute 37.583 seconds on super-soft tyres compared to German teammate Rosberg’s  1:38.450.  Hamilton is the only driver to have won in Russia since the Race’s debut in 2014 and will be seeking for a hat-trick of wins on Sunday to cut down his team mate’s 36 points lead after just three of the 21 races. Friday’s morning practise also saw Daniel Ricciardo test a new head protection device developed by their team Red Bull. The Aero Screen which is the design the former champions believe is preferable to the ‘Halo’ which was tried by Ferrari in Pre-season testing, was used in Ricciardo’s car for one lap. Friday’s afternoon p...

Suspended UEFA President Michel Platini is more optimistic of having his six-year ban from soccer overturned after his appeal hearing at sport’s highest tribunal on Friday, with a decision due within 10 days. Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who like Platini has been banned for six years for an ethics violation, was among three people who gave evidence at the 8 hours hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. CAS Secretary General Matthieu Reeb said that a decision would be announced by May 9 th by its panel of three judges. If Platini is cleared he will resume his duties as UEFA President and among his first roles will be to attend EURO 2016 in his native France in an Official Capacity. Platini and Blatter were banished over a payment of $2.08 million made to the Frenchman by FIFA with Blatter’s approval in 2011 for work done a decade earlier. This payment was deemed as lacking transparency and presented conflicts of Interest since it was done at ...

Confederations of African Football (CAF), has said that Kenya has a lot to do on Infrastructure ahead of the 2018 Africa Nations Championship (CHAN). This statement was made by CAF Secretary General, Hicham El Amrani, who completed a tour of the Country on Thursday. The CAF delegation alongside the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) President Nick Mwendwa toured the country and said that more than 10 stadia fall short of the required threshold due to the poor infrastructure around them and require massive renovations. The inspection saw the delegation go around Stadiums in Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, Meru, and Machakos. Hicham further stated that in order for one to host such a sporting event, a country needs to have at least four stadia with each having four dressing rooms. The FKF Chairman, Nick Mwendwa, stated that they will hold subcommittee meetings involving the media and medical units. He further added that a budget will be completed in the next 10-20 days as they ho...

Red Bull will try out their version of cockpit head protection in Friday's practise at the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi. This device known as the Aero Screen is one of two options that could be introduced into Formula 1 next season. Governing body FIA is keen on introducing a device that increases driver protection from flying debris. So far the focus has been on the other alternative device known as Halo. Halo was tried out on Ferrari cars earlier this year in pre-season testing, prompting mixed reactions from the paddock, with opinion divided over the system's aesthetics. The two devices share a similar elliptical shape above the driver's head, but differ in the way they are fixed at the front of the cockpit. The Halo has a central strut in front of the driver, which disappears from view during driving because of human's binocular vision.   Unlike the Halo, Red Bull's Aero Screen does not have a central pillar in front of the driver, but it too has arisen ques...

                  Wednesday's 1-0 Atletico Madrid victory against Bayern Munich was the 135th clean sheet in 256 games for  Diego Simeone as Manager of Atletico Madrid. This season Atletico have conceded the least goals in the Spanish La Liga having only seen 16 goals past their Goal Keeper. This is the least number of goals conceded across any of the top 4 major leagues across Europe. The closest contenders are PSG and Juventus who each have conceded 18 goals. This definitely sums up the point that Atletico Madrid have the most Disciplined defence in terms of shutting out opponents. The Former Footballer turned Coach is to be praised for his defensive prowess since he took over the Madrid side in December 23rd in 2011 after the sacking of Gregorio Manzano. Manzano was sacked after collecting 19 points in 16 games and living the team placed 10th on the league Standings. Manzano who was on his second stint as Atl...