NFF presidential aspirant Segun Solanke has promised to make Nigeria a host for major CAF and FIFA competitions again if elected president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

Solanke said it was unacceptable that Nigeria, one of Africa’s leading football nations, has been left behind while other countries continue to host major continental and global tournaments.

Speaking on his plans, the presidential hopeful said his administration would begin talks with the Confederation of African Football (CAF), FIFA, the Federal Government and other stakeholders to position Nigeria to bid for major competitions.

He said the country would target youth championships, women’s tournaments, continental club competitions and, eventually, FIFA events.

“Nigeria possesses the football pedigree, the passionate fan base and the human resources required to host world-class competitions. What has been lacking is purposeful leadership, strategic planning and the confidence of international football bodies. We will change that,” Solanke said.

According to him, hosting major tournaments would bring benefits beyond football, including job creation, increased tourism, foreign investment and growth for local businesses.

He also promised to work with governments at all levels and private investors to improve stadiums, security and football facilities, while ensuring that the country meets CAF and FIFA requirements.

Solanke said hosting international competitions would also give Nigerian coaches, referees, administrators and young players greater exposure.

“The dream is bigger than football. It is about restoring Nigeria’s pride, rebuilding international confidence in our football administration and giving our youths opportunities to shine on home soil before the world,” he added.

The NFF presidential aspirant said his plans were aimed at restoring Nigeria’s influence in African football and improving the country’s football administration.

He stressed that his ambition was not simply to win the NFF election but to rebuild the structures of Nigerian football and return the country to a leading position in Africa and the world.

“Our mission is simple: restore credibility, rebuild our football structures, empower every stakeholder and return Nigeria to its rightful place as a leader in African and world football. Hosting CAF and FIFA competitions will be one of the strongest symbols of that transformation.”

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are no longer building a squad capable of challenging for trophies, they are constructing one capable of winning multiple competitions in the same season.

The Gunners are closing in on a deal for Newcastle United captain Bruno Guimaraes, with negotiations progressing towards a full agreement after weeks of talks. While the Brazilian’s arrival would significantly strengthen Arsenal’s midfield, the transfer represents something much bigger than simply adding another star name.

It is another sign that Arsenal’s recruitment has shifted from fixing weaknesses to creating relentless competition in every position.

With Champions League football, domestic cups and another Premier League title challenge on the horizon, Arteta appears determined to ensure injuries, fatigue or fixture congestion no longer derail Arsenal’s season.

From rebuilding to fine-tuning

Only a few years ago Arsenal’s transfer windows revolved around replacing departing stars and plugging obvious gaps. That phase is over.

Instead of chasing starters out of necessity, the club are now targeting elite players who can immediately compete for places in an already settled XI. Guimaraes perfectly fits that profile.

At Newcastle, he evolved into one of the Premier League’s most complete midfielders, combining defensive intensity with progressive passing, leadership and an eye for goal.

A midfield built for every scenario

The Brazilian offers qualities that complement Arsenal’s existing options rather than duplicate them.

His ability to receive possession under pressure and break opposition lines has made him Newcastle’s primary playmaker from deeper areas. According to data from last season, no Newcastle player attempted more line-breaking passes per 90 minutes than Guimaraes.

He also combines technical quality with aggression off the ball, allowing him to operate as both a deep-lying midfielder and a more advanced No. 8. Those attributes would give Arteta enormous tactical flexibility.

Whether Arsenal want to dominate possession against defensive opponents or battle physically against Europe’s elite, Guimaraes provides another solution.

Bruno Guimarães could prove to be the ideal midfield partner for Declan Rice, with their skill sets complementing each other perfectly. Rice would primarily shoulder the defensive responsibilities, breaking up opposition attacks, carrying the ball through midfield and providing protection during transitions, while Guimarães would dictate possession and drive Arsenal’s build-up play. 

His ability to progress the ball from deeper areas would reduce the creative burden on Martin Ødegaard, allowing the captain to operate higher up the pitch instead of frequently dropping into midfield. Occupying more advanced positions would give Ødegaard greater involvement in the final third, increasing his chances of creating opportunities and improving his goal and assist numbers after two relatively modest seasons by his own standards.

Squad depth wins titles

Perhaps the biggest lesson Arsenal have taken from recent seasons is that quality alone is not enough. Winning one competition requires an excellent starting XI.

Winning three or four requires an outstanding squad. Manchester City have demonstrated that repeatedly, while Real Madrid continue to rotate elite-level talent without a significant drop in performance. Arsenal appear intent on following the same model.

Rather than relying heavily on a fixed core, Arteta wants two starting-calibre players competing in almost every position. Such internal competition often raises standards throughout the squad while reducing the physical burden on key players.

Leadership arrives alongside quality

Guimaraes would also bring another valuable trait, leadership.

As Newcastle captain and a regular for Brazil, the 28-year-old has become one of the Premier League’s most influential midfield personalities. Leadership is not only about shouting instructions.

Guimaraes dictates tempo, constantly demands the ball under pressure and takes responsibility during difficult moments. Those qualities become increasingly valuable during title run-ins and knockout football.

Arsenal are thinking beyond England

The pursuit of Guimaraes also reflects Arsenal’s growing European ambitions.

The Gunners have established themselves as Premier League contenders, but Arteta has repeatedly spoken about wanting to compete with the continent’s elite. Champions League success demands greater rotation, greater tactical flexibility and higher-quality replacements than domestic football alone.

Adding a player of Guimaraes’ calibre suggests Arsenal are planning for exactly that challenge.

The message is clear

If the move is completed, Arsenal will have secured one of the Premier League’s finest midfielders from a direct rival. More importantly, it would reinforce a clear message.

Arteta no longer wants a squad capable of competing. He wants one capable of surviving a 60-game season, rotating without compromise and challenging for every trophy available.

For Arsenal, Bruno Guimaraes is not simply another signing. He could be the latest piece in a squad designed to finally turn years of progress into sustained silverware.

Instead of captain Shubman Gill, KL Rahul walked out for the toss.

NEW DELHI: There was a surprise before the start of India’s three-day warm-up match against Sri Lanka XI at the Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground in Colombo. Instead of captain Shubman Gill, KL Rahul walked out for the toss.Sri Lanka XI skipper Sonal Dinusha won the toss and chose to bat first.The three-day warm-up match is India’s final preparation before the two-Test series against Sri Lanka.The first Test will be played in Galle from August 15, while the second Test is scheduled to begin in Colombo on August 23.

Why is Shubman Gill not playing?

Soon after the toss, the BCCI shared an update on Gill’s absence.The India captain suffered an injury to his right ring finger during Thursday’s practice session.“He [Shubman Gill] sustained an impact injury to his right ring finger during India’s practice on Thursday. As a precautionary measure, he will not take the field on Day 1 of the warm-up game against SLC XI. The BCCI Medical Team is monitoring his progress,” the BCCI said.“KL Rahul will lead the team in Gill’s absence,” it said.Teams:Sri Lanka XI: Nishan Madushka, Pasindu Sooriyabandara, Pavan Rathnayake, Ahan Wickramasinghe, Sonal Dinusha (captain), Anjala Bandara (wicketkeeper), Nipun Dhananjaya, Lahiru Kumara, Vishwa Fernando, Asanka Manoj, Isitha Wijesundera, Ramesh Mendis, Dilum Sudeera, Keshara Nuwantha, Ravindu Rasantha.India: Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal, KL Rahul (captain), Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Dhruv Jurel, Manav Suthar, Saransh Jain, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Auqib Nabi, Gurnoor Brar.

WESTFIELD, Ind. — Under the lights at Droplight Grand Park Sports Campus, the Indianapolis Colts turned up the intensity for the lone night practice of training camp. 

What started off as a special announcement became a celebration for the stampede of fans and evolved into the most competitive practice through the first half of camp. The festivities began with Colts principal owner Carly Irsay-Gordon declaring that running back Jonathan Taylor is “here to stay” after the 27-year-old tailback agreed to a two-year, $44 million contract extension. The announcement earned an emphatic roar from the crowd, which was followed by Irsay-Gordon treating fans at least 21-years-old with a free Bud Light can. It set the tone for an electric atmosphere that carried throughout the two-hour workout.

A Yankees fan is suing the team for $10 million after she was hit in the head by a flying baseball bat as she sat in the stands for a June game.

Stephanie Duluc, 37, was sitting in a fourth-row seat directly behind home plate during the team’s June 2 game when Cleveland Guardians infielder Jose Ramirez’s bat went soaring into her section during the fifth inning, according to a lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, according to the New York Post.

Protective netting meant to shield fans from speedy foul balls and airborne bats did not keep Duluc safe. The bat hit Duluc “with such force that it knocked her from her seat and violently threw her to the ground, causing her to sustain severe and permanent injuries,” the lawsuit claims.

Duluc was left with a traumatic brain injury, concussion, severe light sensitivity and permanent damage to her neck and hands, the lawsuit claims.

These injuries are so severe they have prevented her from returning to her job as the chief of staff at the Bronx-based SOMOS Community Care, which owns the seats in the section where Duluc was sitting. The organization helps people find help with food and housing in their community.

The lawsuit argues that the beloved New York team is responsible for her injuries because the netting in that section was “significantly lower” than other nearby sections, leaving an “unprotected opening” for the bat to fly through.

Less than two weeks after filing the lawsuit, Duluc appeared on PIX11’s Monica Makes It Happen to discuss a recent event sponsored by her company. Her attorney, Jon L. Norinsberg, told the Post that her appearance does not mean she is not injured.

“Ms. Duluc continues to suffer significant residual deficits from her traumatic brain injury, including persistent headaches, sensitivity to light, balance issues, and other cognitive impairments,” Norinsberg said.

“A brief television appearance does not mean she has recovered or is capable of performing her professional duties on a sustained basis,” he added.

Duluc’s lawsuit may face trouble over the century-old “Baseball Rule,” a doctrine that usually exempts teams and owners from liability over foul ball, bat or other similar injuries.

However, stadiums may be found liable if they are found to have failed to provide adequate protection for fans.

The Independent has contacted the Yankees for comment.

Man Utd play double European champions Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday and Luis Enrique’s side are something of a benchmark for Michael Carrick.

It won’t be a full-strength Paris Saint-Germain side that Manchester United face in Gothenburg this weekend, and the beating heart of Luis Enrique’s brilliant side might not all be present, but for Michael Carrick, the game will provide a chance to see how his own creation shapes up against a team that are something of an inspiration.

Speaking before landing the United job, Carrick spoke glowingly about Enrique’s side and said they are a team he would have loved to have played for in his prime. So much of their success is built around an ability to keep the ball in midfield and the technical brilliance of players like Joao Neves, Vitinha and Fabian Ruiz.

That is exactly the style Carrick espoused as a player. His game was less about physicality and breaking up play and more about setting the tempo through passing and controlling the game.

Now that he has been given the keys to Old Trafford on a permanent basis, Carrick wants to build a midfield that resembles PSG’s, making this week’s game in Sweden an interesting barometer.

The challenge for Carrick is that PSG have it easy in Ligue 1 and can rotate so heavily in domestic competition that their best players are almost always fresh for the Champions League. The Premier League offers a different test and while Carrick wants control, the trends in this country have moved away from that approach.

Instead, last season was about duels and physicality and set-pieces. Perhaps there will be a reversion to something more like the football that Carrick admires this season, and if there is he wants to be leading the charge.

As a head coach at Middlesbrough and United, he has preached possession as a fundamental principle to his style. This pre-season is the first chance he has had to really put a fresh stamp on the team he inherited last season.

He has signed two midfielders with high-level technical ability and has repositioned Mason Mount as a deep-lying midfielder capable of dictating a game through passing rather than physicality. Carrick wants a United team able to keep possession and dominate teams with the ball.

Barcelona used to set the standards for that in Europe, but it feels like the mantle has been passed to PSG and Carrick hasn’t hidden his admiration for what they do.

“Of course they’re winning, but it’s the way they play that really stands out,” he said. “The midfield rotations, the constant connections, the quick, short passing… it’s exactly the kind of football I enjoy.

“Then you look at the pace, movement and energy of the forwards. The way they attack space is incredible and, as a midfielder, that’s the dream because you’ve always got options ahead of you.

“You’re constantly involved, always getting on the ball, always looking to play forward and keep the game flowing. That’s the kind of football every midfielder loves.

“They’re simply a fantastic team to watch.”

There are enough clues there to realise it’s a style Carrick would love to implement now he has a two-year contract at United and on the evidence of the club’s transfer activity and pre-season so far, that is what he is trying to do.

Mount and Kobbie Mainoo fit that bill, as do £50million Andrey Santos and £35million Youri Tielemans. That quartet could yet be strengthened in the final weeks of the summer window.

They will still have some way to go to rival Vitinha, Neves and co in Paris, and will have to do it in a far more demanding league, but the template for Carrick’s dream United midfield seems clear.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Caitlin Clark sat at the dais Thursday night, staring at the stat sheet and reliving the eight turnovers and her two missed free throws with seven seconds left in regulation.

Then she took the blame for the Indiana Fever‘s stinging 86-84 overtime loss to defending champion Las Vegas.

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“Obviously, it just can’t happen,” the three-time All-Star said just hours after she was one of 12 players named to the FIBA Women’s World Cup team. “Those are free throws I usually make and certainly frustrating. Obviously, one of them gives us a two-possession lead and kind of caused my pain there, for sure, so that’s on me.”

It wasn’t a great night for Clark by any measure. While she scored 20 points, had eight assists and made two go-ahead 3-pointers in the final 4 1/2 minutes of regulation, it was the miscues she rued after first watching a 20-point first-half lead slip away and then failing to protect a three-point lead in the final seconds of the fourth quarter and a two-point lead at the end of overtime.

Jackie Young took advantage of the first opening by scoring a franchise-record 15 consecutive points to finish the second quarter and start the third. Chelsea Gray then made the Fever pay for their late miscues — making a buzzer-beating 3 to tie it at 75 following the missed free throws and then making another buzzer beater to win it following Clark’s final turnover, forced by A’ja Wilson.

Clark went 7 of 20 from the field, 2 of 10 on 3s and had more fouls (four) than rebounds (three). Still, she didn’t make any excuses.

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“I didn’t know we scored nine points in the third quarter, but you know we still battled, still fought, we put ourselves in position to win the game,” Clark said. “And then, honestly, it was me that made the costly errors for us. So that’s on me to helps us win. That’s my job. That’s what I get paid to do.”

As usual, though, it wasn’t just Clark.

Kelsey Mitchell, July’s WNBA Player of the Month, missed one of two free throws with 9.2 seconds to go in the fourth quarter. And then, instead of fouling to prevent the tying 3-point attempt, or corralling the loose ball, Gray got her chance to tie the score.

“Aliyah Boston read it perfectly, her timing was perfect,” coach Stephanie White said, noting they gave up 18 points on turnovers, too.. “It’s a loose ball and it bounced their way. We’ve got to come up with that play.”

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White also acknowledged making her own mistake — not calling timeout at the end of overtime when they were struggling to get a shot, which led to Clark’s turnover.

And, though, that seemed of little solace to Clark, White saw it another way.

“Players already hate that they miss free throws, right? They hate that they miss plays,” White said. “You’ve just got to keep them positive in those moments.”

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

WWE SmackDown star Blake Monroe recently opened up about the creative process behind her current entrance music. The Glamour surprisingly revealed that she is directly responsible for a specific element of the song that many fans have actively criticized.

Monroe officially arrived on the Friday Night Show on June 27 and quickly established her dominance after attacking Giulia. The star has appeared in segments and promos, but she has still not competed in a televised in-ring match on the brand.

The former AEW star recently made an appearance on TMZ’s Inside the Ropes, where she was asked whether she had any input in the creation of her WWE entrance theme, “Glamour Is Forever.” Monroe confirmed that she was heavily involved throughout the process and even addressed one of the song’s most debated elements.

Monroe explained that she deliberately wanted a signature opening line, “glamorous forever,” to make her entrance instantly recognizable. She cited WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus as inspiration, pointing to the iconic opening of her entrance music. Blake Monroe revealed that after receiving the first version of the track, she worked with friends with musical experience to refine it further by slowing it down and adding electric guitar before approving the final version.

“Yeah. So I connected with them. I sent them like a bunch of inspiration, which was Sabrina, Ariana Grande, and then kind of described my character cause the song, if you actually listen to the lyrics, is kind of like the way I dress and I act and everything. And then they sent me the first, and I said I wanted the star, which people hate, you know, I say ‘Glamorous forever.’ People like, ‘Why did they put that in there? They ruin everything.’ And I’m like, yeah, why did they do that? That’s crazy. It was actually me. I knew I wanted something signature at the start. You know, like Trish Stratus, it’s like, it’s just iconic. So, I wanted that, and then they sent me the first version, and then I got my friends who’s, like, big into music to kind of help me, and we slowed it down, and we added like electric guitar, and it’s pretty good. They killed it.”

You can watch the full interview below:

WWE star Blake Monroe made a major statement about the end of her AEW character

Blake Monroe signed with WWE last year in June after finishing her run with All Elite Wrestling, where she performed as Mariah May.

The SmackDown star recently shared her thoughts on closing the chapter on her former AEW persona, explaining why she believes it was the right time to move on.

During an interview with Danise Salcedo, Monroe was asked about leaving the Mariah May character behind and embracing a fresh start in WWE. She admitted that she views the conclusion of her AEW run as a fitting ending rather than an unfinished story.

“Our dearly beloved friend Mariah did pass away, she got killed off at the end there, but it felt like the perfect end for her and her story, and her impact on people. Now we start something new,” said Monroe.

It will be interesting to see what Triple H and his creative team have in store for the former NXT Women’s North American Champion and when she makes her official in-ring debut on SmackDown.

If you use quotes from the article, please credit TMZ’s Inside the Ropes and provide an H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.