Sports
Man Utd kick off Premier League season before Man City face new-look Chelsea
Manchester United kick-off the 2024/25 Premier League season at home to Fulham on Friday before Manchester City begin the defence of their title at free-spending Chelsea on Sunday.
New Liverpool manager Arne Slot will be under the spotlight on Saturday with a trip to newly-promoted Ipswich for his first competitive game since succeeding Jurgen Klopp.
AFP Sports looks at what to expect from the opening weekend of the new season:
Ten Hag needs fast start
Manchester United’s shock FA Cup final win over Manchester City back in May went a long way to keeping Erik ten Hag in charge at Old Trafford.
The Dutchman has been backed by United’s new football operations hierarchy, led by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, and was handed a contract extension to 2026.
Leny Yoro, Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs De Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui have arrived to strengthen Ten Hag’s squad for around £150 million ($192 million).
But after finishing eighth last season — United’s worst ever Premier League finish — Ten Hag needs a fast start to the new campaign to dispell doubts he is the man to lead the club forward.
Fulham won at Old Trafford for the first time in 20 years in February.
Any repeat on Friday will have United fans fearing another season to forget.
Ipswich plan Slot shock
Arne Slot faces a tricky start to his Premier League career when Liverpool travel to an Ipswich side back in the top-flight after a 22-year absence and buoyant after successive promotions.
Liverpool are yet to make a single signing in the transfer window but have been rampant in pre-season with eye-catching wins over Arsenal, United and Sevilla.
Victory at Portman Road would bring some relief to Liverpool fans still coming to terms with the end of Klopp’s iconic reign.
The Reds could then build some momentum with a comfortable run of fixtures to come before the October international break.
But Ipswich defender Axel Tuanzebe is confident of maintaining Ipswich’s proud home record over the past two seasons.
“We’re going to empty the tank and give everything we’ve got,” Tuanzebe told the BBC.
“They’re just humans” he added. “It is just 11 v 11 on the pitch. Not many teams win at Portman Road and we intend to keep it that way.”
Chelsea chaos v City continuity
New Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has a baptism of fire against his former club.
Maresca was part of Pep Guardiola’s coaching staff at City before leading Leicester to promotion from the Championship last season.
The Italian inherits a chaotic situation at Stamford Bridge with a first team squad now boasting over 50 players and question marks over the future of most of them.
Chelsea’s issues were exposed in a torrid pre-season, that included a 4-2 defeat to City in the USA.
By contrast, there have been few changes for Guardiola’s champions.
Brazilian winger Savinho is the only new arrival, while Argentine forward Julian Alvarez departed this week for Atletico Madrid.
City’s England trio of Kyle Walker, John Stones and Phil Foden, plus Spanish midfielder Rodri, only returned to training this week after competing in the Euro 2024 final and are unlikely to start against Chelsea.
Fixtures:
Friday (all times GMT)
Manchester United v Fulham (1900)
Saturday
Ipswich v Liverpool (1130), Arsenal v Wolves, Everton v Brighton, Newcastle v Southampton, Nottingham Forest v Bournemouth (all 1400), West Ham v Aston Villa (1630)
Sunday
Brentford v Crystal Palace (1300), Chelsea v Manchester City (1530)
Monday
Leicester v Tottenham (1900)
Sports
Nigerian coach sells Osimhen’s boots
The Super Eagles striker last wore the boots when he scored a hat-trick for Nigeria in the last 2026 World Cup qualifying series against the Benin Republic.
Assistant coach of Solution FC – an Anambra-based Nigeria National League side – Olisa Ezeasor has sold the pair of boots gifted to him by Super Eagles striker, Victor Osimhen.
He put the boots up for sale at N1m, barely two months after he was gifted them by Osimhen.
The Super Eagles striker last wore the boots when he scored a hat-trick for Nigeria in the last 2026 World Cup qualifying series against the Benin Republic.
The PUNCH reported that Eseasor sold the boots to a football administrator, Fola Olatunji-David, for an undisclosed fee.
According to him, he needed the money for business.
“Officially putting this boot up for sale. Price: One million naira only. Size: 44/45. Money needed to support my personal business,” Eseasor posted on Saturday.
On Sunday, he returned with an update on the sale and also announced a giveaway of N250,000 from the proceeds.
“Update: Boot bold. Purchased by Fola Olatunji-David.
Price: undisclosed.“In order to give back to my mutual community, who have been active under my posts since my small fame in this space, I’ll be doing a giveaway worth N250,000. N10,000 for 25 persons. Follow my account, on my post notification, and comment done with a screenshot of my post notification on. I’ll select winners from the comments. Entries start now.”
Sports
Mikel Obi ready to reset Nigerian football governance
“If you want us going forward, you must make sure things are done properly. Get the right people, people that have the same direction and thought, so when the players come back home to play, there is a good environment for them to play and perform.”
Image credit : arise.tv
Former Super Eagles captain John Obi Mikel has announced his interest in taking a leadership role within the Nigeria Football Federation, stressing that he would only step into such a position if it operates without corruption
.Mikel’s comments follow Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, a setback he believes highlights deeper structural problems within Nigerian football.
The 37 year old said the issues extend beyond the pitch and require a complete reset driven by integrity and accountability.
Mikel, who has long been vocal about his commitment to national service, said he has always prioritised Nigeria throughout his football career.
“One thing I have always done since my early days is fought for the country. I don’t know how many players have done that like I have, through the U17, U20, the senior national team.”
“Years of sacrifice. I have never for once said no to my country.”
He added that he remains ready to contribute, but only under the right conditions.
“When I know I can give my opinion and help, I will always be ready. But again, I won’t have corruption tied to me. I am never going to do that if I am going to say yes.
“If you want us going forward, you must make sure things are done properly. Get the right people, people that have the same direction and thought, so when the players come back home to play, there is a good environment for them to play and perform.”
Beyond his playing career, Mikel has gained administrative experience. In July 2023, he was appointed Honorary Adviser on Sports in Plateau State by Governor Caleb Mutfwang, where he has contributed to sports development and strategic planning.
His leadership role, combined with his global football profile, has led many observers to view him as a potential reformist figure who could help reset Nigerian football governance.
Sports
Former Falcons coach Waldrum questions NFF on FIFA’s $960,000 “Where’s that money?
Waldrum said that corruption is never questioned in Nigeria, unlike in the US, where people will seek to know how public funds are spent.
Randy Waldrum, former head coach of the Super Falcons, has questioned the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) over $960,000 it allegedly got from FIFA in preparation for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
In a viral video on X, Waldrum said that a FIFA insider informed him that every nation that participated in the competition was given money to prepare their squad.
The NFF is claimed to have received roughly N1.4 billion in Naira in October 2022 to support the team.
The former coach lamented that despite receiving the huge sum of money, the NFF could not even put the team in camp before the World Cup and could not afford business-class tickets for the team.
Waldrum said that corruption is never questioned in Nigeria, unlike in the US, where people will seek to know how public funds are spent.
The coach also said that the NFF could only allow him to work with just seven staff, despite that it was FIFA that paid for the bonuses of the technical staff, adding that he was at the tournament without an analyst and not even a scout.
“I have a real close contact here in the US that is very connected with some of the board at FIFA.
“This person told me that in October, every country was given $960,000 from FIFA to prepare for the World cup, where is that money,” Waldrum said.
” If Nigeria got that money why didn’t we have a camp in November? We went to Japan, we flew in and played the game and went home.
“We wasted the last five days of that window to train.“So, all these questions I have is where is this money?
And the other thing I found out through my FIFA connections is that if countries don’t have the money to buy business class tickets for everybody, FIFA will fund the money and buy those tickets and just deduct it from the monies you get from FIFA after the World Cup.
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