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Uefa president Michel Platini says he has "weighed up the future of football" after confirming he will be a candidate to be the next president of Fifa. The 60-year-old ex-France midfielder has received indications of support from four continental confederations. Polling for the election takes place on 26 February, with Sepp Blatter standing down as a result of a corruption crisis at world football's governing body. "This was a very personal, carefully considered decision," Platini said. Swiss Blatter, 79, has been in charge of Fifa since 1998.  

The election will be held in Zurich at an emergency congress attended by the Fifa member associations. Candidates have until 26 October to be nominated.Under Platini's presidency, Uefa has seen a number of major developments. Next year's European Championship will feature more teams than ever, up from 16 to 24. Then in 2020, the tournament will be staged in 13 cities across as many countries. In club football, the Champions League has grown in popularity, with British broadcaster BT Sport agreeing to pay £900m for exclusive live rights to European football's top club competition from 2015-16. However, Platini has faced criticism, largely over his support for Qatar's staging of the Fifa World Cup in 2022.

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Ngwa Bertrand

29.Jul.2015

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Tottenham have made a £7million bid to sign Lyon winger Clinton Njie, according to reports. Spurs have been scouring Europe for a winger this summer to add to their options, and having missed out on Monaco’s Yannick Ferreira Carrasco, attention has turned to Njie. 

A speedy attacker who can play as a striker or out wide, the 21-year-old has been compared to Cristiano Ronaldo by some observers. And now transfer insider Alan Nixon says Spurs have made a £7m bid to bring him to White Hart Lane.

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Ngwa Bertrand

21.Jul.2015

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Reports from some local media outlets in Cameroon say thugs visited the office of Prof. Joseph Owona on the first floor in the building hosting the Cameroon Football Federation. The bandits robbed precisely the office of Joseph Owona. Cameroon security services are yet to established the date when the robbery did take place. At the time of writing this report, no information had filtered as to what the men of the underworld took away from the Owona office.

Ever since Joseph Owona and his gang took over the management of Cameroon Football Federation two years ago, this is the second time that unknown men have broken into the headquarters of the Cameroon Football Federation. The first time was in December 2013, when thieves reportedly made away with computers, documents and sports equipment. The results of the investigation opened after the first burglary are till this day being awaited.

However, a highly placed Cameroon football personality said the presidency of the republic has expressed concerns over revelations made by Cameroon Concord's Editor-in-Chief on state television last month. Mr. Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai told CRTV's Fon Echikeye on Sports Vision that Prof. Joseph Owona and his Normalization Committee have spent 11 billion FCFA in two years with nothing to show for it. 

Cameroon Concord understands head Coach Volker Finke constantly pays for everything in the national team. During a friendly match in Gabon some few months ago, it was Coach Volker Finke who paid the match officials and bought drinking water for the players. In another friendly encounter against Burkina Faso in Paris, France, it was again Mr. Finke who paid the 21, 000 Euros as part of Cameroon's share of the deal. It will interest our readers to know that Prof. Minkwa Shey sent by Joseph Owona to Paris eventually got to the stadium some 20 minutes towards the end of the Cameroon-Burkina Faso game. When questioned by Cameroon Concord's Chi Prudence on his lateness, the arrogant Owona acolyte blamed it on the traffic in Paris.

Cameroon Concord widely believes that the happenings inside the building of the Cameroon football Federation are actions carried out by the secret service in an investigation on Prof. Joseph Owona and his crime syndicate.

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Ngwa Bertrand

20.Jul.2015

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Agent Santos Marquez has accused Real Madrid president Florentino Perez of discriminating against black players, claiming Samuel Eto'o was sold because of the colour of his skin. Perez infamously dismissed Claude Makelele's talents after allowing him to join Chelsea in 2003, while Eto'o made just three appearances before joining Mallorca and subsequently achieving superstardom at Barcelona.

Marquez, who currently counts Iker Casillas among his clients, has now revealed that he fell out with Perez over his treatment of the pair. "It was over Makelele, for a lack of respect," he told AS when asked why their relationship ended. "Florentino doesn’t like black players; he’s not a racist but he doesn’t like them. "I also fought with him over Eto’o. Samuel was just as much a Galactico as Figo. He left for the colour of his skin." 

Marquez also alleged that Perez affords his favourite players preferential treatment and puts pressure on his coaches to continually select the likes of Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema. "The squad knows who [Perez's favourites] are and so does the coach," the agent added. "The only clash he had with [former Madrid coach] Ancelotti was over Bale. He thinks that Bale is the best in the world.

"He doesn’t know how to take care of the Ballon d’Or winner [Cristiano Ronaldo] he already has in the squad. Bale is going to play wherever he likes. "Another is Karim Benzema. He got rid of [Gonzalo] Higuain, [Angel] Di Maria, [Vicente] Del Bosque... none of whom were that bad. "Del Bosque has won everything there is to win but what happened to him is what happened to me – he’s a not exactly a looker. "So Florentino brought in a handsome bloke [Carlos Queiroz] who almost ruined the team."

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Ngwa Bertrand

20.Jul.2015

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