First Published: Sep 10 2026 | 3:42 PM IST

The Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, has been named Football Pitch of the Year at the 12th Nigeria Pitch Awards.

The award recognises the quality and standard of the stadium’s football pitch and adds another major honour to the facility in Uyo.

The award was presented at the Nigeria Pitch Awards ceremony held in Ikeja, Lagos, on Tuesday.

The Godswill Akpabio International Stadium has remained one of Nigeria’s major football venues, hosting several important domestic and international matches.

Its pitch has also continued to attract national teams and major football events, further strengthening Uyo’s position as one of Nigeria’s leading football destinations.

The recognition came on a night when several players, coaches, teams and football stakeholders were honoured for their contributions to Nigerian football.

Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen won the King of the Pitch award, while Super Falcons captain Rasheedat Ajibade was named Queen of the Pitch.

Osimhen also won the Rashidi Yekini Award for Striker of the Year.

In another recognition for Akwa Ibom, Governor Umo Eno was named Football Friendly Governor of the Year.

The Nigeria Pitch Awards will also introduce an Emerging Star Award from its next edition for promising footballers below the age of 18.

The new category is aimed at encouraging young players and promoting grassroots football development across Nigeria.

England batter Dan Lawrence races to a half-century during the morning session in day two of the third Test against Pakistan at Edgbaston, as he chases his first Test hundred.

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Ryan Giggs has revealed that Manchester United declined the chance to pursue Kylian Mbappe in 2015 having been left unimpressed after a scouting tip.

Giggs had moved on to the coaching staff at Old Trafford under Louis van Gaal after concluding his playing career, and was advised that the club should look at a youngster who then played for Monaco.

“So, I’m in the south of France. I was coaching United, so it’d be 2015. I’ve been for a walk in the local village and I’m walking back to the hotel. I’m walking on the beach back to the hotel. And you can feel, I can feel someone, you know, when you feel someone like following you,” Giggs explained on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast.

“And I’m like, I get to the hotel and then all of a sudden I can feel someone coming up to me. Anyway, this guy is called Lionel, French guy. So he comes up to me and says ‘hi, I’m Lionel. I just wanted to just say hello. I’m a big United fan and big fan of yours. But I watch a lot of youth football in France, and you have to look at this player. He’s called Kylian Mbappé. He’s at Monaco and I think he’s a player for Man United.’

“A few weeks later, he emailed me all the details. So me and Albert [Stuivenberg] again, who’s the coach with Arsenal, he was another assistant at United at the time. We used to in the afternoons just go and watch games or go and watch players at the training ground. So anyway, I’ve told him about this thing. He says ‘come on, let’s get him up.’ And we got a few youth games with Monaco and we seen him and just like, ‘wow, what is this?’ You know, you can see players and they can be special, but he did look exceptional, obviously.

“So anyway, we told the scouting team. They went to watch him. Someone in France went to watch him and he was actually playing PSG. Monaco were playing PSG. So they went to Paris to watch him. Anyway, I think a few weeks later, I said to this guy ‘how did it go?’ and he went ‘yeah, they weren’t too sure about him, so we just left it, and that was it.’”

Mbappe soon made his senior breakthrough at Monaco, helping the club to the Ligue 1 title in 2017 before joining Paris Saint-Germain for the second highest transfer fee of all time and firing France to World Cup glory. He left PSG for Real Madrid in 2024.

What could be Cristiano Ronaldo’s last chance to win a first Asian Champions League title for his Saudi club will get underway next week. Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr is one of five Saudi Pro League teams in the tournament. Combined, they’ve spent more than $2 billion on foreign players since 2023, with Al-Ahli lifting the continental trophy in each of the last two seasons. Al-Ahli captain and goalkeeper Edouard Mendy is hoping to make it three in a row in the 32-team tournament. “This is the biggest club in Saudi Arabia and Asia and we will do everything to win,” Mendy, who signed from English Premier League club Chelsea in 2023, told The Associated Press. “Last year, we won the Champions League and we will have to use all the things we did then to be successful this time, too. We are building year after year.”

The tournament is divided into two geographic zones until the playoffs, with the top eight teams from each progressing to the Round of 16.

Al-Ahli starts its defense against Pakhtakor of Uzbekistan in the in the western zone. Saudi league champion Al-Nassr’s roster contains 41-year-old Ronaldo and his Portugal teammate Joao Felix, last year’s domestic league player of the season. Al-Nassr was a finalist in the second-tier continental championship last season.

Felix, who joined the Riyadh club in 2025 for a fee of around $60 million, is determined to win a major title under new coach Ange Postecoglou.

“We have a really good squad, a deep squad, our goal is to win every competition we can,” Felix told AP. “We want to win the league, the cup and the Champions League – everything. We don’t play to dream – we play to win.”

Riyadh rival Al-Hilal has won a record four Asian titles. After spending more than $200 million in the summer on English Premier League stars and three internationals – Ollie Watkins of England, Brazil’s Gabriel Martinelli and Crysencio Summerville of the Netherlands – Hilal will be dealing with high expectations.

Al-Ittihad, winner in 2004 and 2005, is aiming for a third continental crown. Al-Qadsiah, under former Liverpool and Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers, is making a first appearance in the competition.

The Saudi teams have avoided Iran’s two representatives – Esteghlal of Tehran and Tractor – in the group stage.

With tension high due to war in the region, the Iranian clubs are set to host home games in neutral countries. Esteghlal will host Al-Sadd of Qatar in the Iraqi city of Basra in the opening round. Tractor will travel to the United Arab Emirates to face Shabab Al-Ahli in Dubai.

Clubs from Japan have lost the last two finals to Al-Ahli. And Japan, like Saudi Arabia, has five representatives in the tournament. Of them, only Gamba Osaka and Kashima Antlers have lifted the trophy before, in 2008 and 2018 respectively.

South Korea is the most successful nation in terms of combined Asian titles. South Korean hopes will rest with three-time champion Pohang Steelers and two-time winner Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors this season. Shanghai Port and Beijing Guoan are China’s representatives in the tournament. Thailand has three teams for the first time. Australia’s hopes rest on Newcastle Jets, making just a second appearance in the group stage.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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Conor Benn is seeking to capture his first world title against Ryan Garcia this weekend, and three-time super-middleweight world champion Carl Froch has provided his final prediction for the fight.

A 15-time national amateur champion, Garcia has been tipped for the top since his pro debut in 2016, but it took until this year for the Californian to get his hands on world honours; dethroning Mario Barrios to claim the WBC welterweight crown back in February.

Meanwhile, Benn has often been criticised for not pursuing the traditional route, but he was controversially installed as the WBC’s mandatory challenger earlier this year, when he announced that he would be returning to 147lbs for the first time since April 2022.

The pair are set to collide in a high-profile showdown this weekend and speaking with The Sun Sport, Froch admitted that he ‘cannot see Benn winning the fight’, believing Garcia to be a level above the Essex-born contender.

“I wouldn’t say that Ryan Garcia is the upper echelon of the elite level as a professional boxer but he is still a world champ. He is a very good fighter, he is fantastic and he has got loads of experience. I just think that is going to be far too much for somebody of Conor’s level, but don’t write off Conor’s self-belief, discipline and work ethic.“

“I can’t see him winning this fight, but that’s not because I don’t want him to win it, of course I want him to win it, he is British, it’s Conor Benn and I am a massive fan.”

‘The Cobra’ then went on to reveal his concerns regarding Benn’s return to welterweight – which will be his final outing at 147lbs – and whether he will be able to absorb a clean shot from Garcia, predicting that the contest could be over faster than many anticipate.

“I don’t know how Conor beats him at this weight, at 147lbs, because he doesn’t look like a big puncher down at 150/154. Now he is down at 147 and he looks like a bald chicken, he looks like Gollum; all drained and scrawny like he is going to snap.“

“He has got to go in there with Ryan Garcia, who is really lightening fast, a good counter-puncher, he can punch like f**k, he is going to hurt him.”

“He is not punching hard below 160 and his punch resistance, we are going to find out, because he [Garcia] will clip him with a hook on the way in. Conor will leap in and leave his feet behind, he will be all eager and he will walk onto a hook.“

“If he can take that, he has got a chance in the fight, but if he starts wobbling early doors, it won’t go past four rounds.”

Garcia-Benn goes ahead on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, with Jai Opetaia taking on reigning WBC cruiserweight world champion Noel Mikaelian in the co-main event.

The Big 12 is 2-1 against the ACC so far this season.

Colorado beat Georgia Tech, Cincinnati beat Boston College, and TCU lost to North Carolina in Week 0.

The wins over the ACC were negated, though, by Baylor’s loss to Auburn and Oklahoma State’s loss to Tulsa.

In other words, the status quo remains.

This week, the Big 12 has six nonconference games against Power 4 opponents. The league needs to win these types of showdowns to gain respect on the national level.

Another round of poor results will only deepen the hole the Conference finds itself in.

But the top matchup of the week is a Conference game when BYU hosts Arizona. And the featured team of this story is Kansas State after their lopsided win in the opener.

Here’s my Big 12 Column for Week 2.

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Featured Team of the Week: Kansas State

Washington State at Kansas State

Saturday, September 12
9:00 AM PT, TNT

All eyes are on Manhattan as Kansas State hosts Washington State.

The Cougars exceeded expectations in the Apple Cup. The result was a loss, yet the team passed the eye test. That makes this matchup with K-State an attention-grabber.

The preseason expectations for the Wildcats were muted. They have a first-time head coach in Collin Klein, an unproven asset that may turn out to be a home-run hire.

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But their quarterback is still Avery Johnson. Probably unfairly criticized and undervalued, Johnson is a walking threat. The senior QB is a very capable runner.

At the same time, Klein was hired specifically for his offensive system.

It sounds like a match made in heaven. Kansas State crushed their FCS opponent in the opener. A convincing win over WSU would make K-State a contender in the Big 12.

Miller covers College Basketball and College Football as well as Formula 1 racing as a Senior Writer and Assistant Editor for SuperWest Sports.

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Mauricio Pochettino has claimed Tottenham should have been awarded the 2017 Premier League title after rivals Chelsea admitted to breaching financial rules.

The Blues, who beat Tottenham to the title in the 2016-17 season, were fined £10m this summer after admitting to making secret payments to agents between 2011 and 2018.

Chelsea admitted to paying up to £47m to unregistered agents and third-parties over the signings of several key players during that period, including to star forward Eden Hazard.

The breaches took place during the Roman Abramovich era and Chelsea’s new owners, BlueCo, self-reported them following the club’s takeover in 2022 – but they did not face sporting sanctions.

But what if they had been? During a wide-ranging interview, Pochettino said title rivals Tottenham and Chelsea “didn’t compete with the same rules” – and other clubs may feel similarly.

“Maybe we could’ve signed some players that would have made the team better or scored more goals,” Pochettino said. “It’s not me complaining. It’s the truth.”

FA Cup – 2011-12

Runners-up: Liverpool

This was right at the start of the period where Chelsea faced sanctions from the Premier League, while the Stamford Bridge club were also charged by the FA for alleged breaches of the governing body’s rules around agent regulations, primarily relating to the seasons between 2010/11 and 2015/16. The 2012 FA Cup final, where Chelsea defeated Liverpool 2-1, featured the old guard of John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, but the opening goal at Wembley was scored by Ramires, the Brazilian midfielder who joined in 2010 from Benfica and whose transfer subsequently fell under investigation.

Carabao Cup – 2014-15

Runners-up: Tottenham Hotspur

You could forgive Mauricio Pochettino for not mentioning the 2014-15 Carabao Cup in the same breath as the 2016-17 Premier League title, but it’s still a trophy where Spurs ultimately finished runners-up to their London rivals. John Terry and Diego Costa scored for the Blues at Wembley as Chelsea won their first trophy under Jose Mourinho’s second spell at the club. Eden Hazard, Willian and Ramires all played in the final and they were among the players whose signings were found to have been involved in the making of secret payments to agents.

Premier League – 2014-15

Runners-up: Manchester City

Chelsea won the title at a canter in Mourinho’s second season of his return, with the signings of Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa proving pivotal. Eden Hazard was the player of the year and midfielder Nemanja Matic was named in the team of the year; the signing of Matic, from Benfica in January 2014, was another transfer that fell under the Premier League’s investigation. Manchester City never felt like true challengers this season. Manchester City, however, continue to await the verdict of the hearing into their own financial charges. The Premier League have City’s alleged rule-breaking took place between 2009 and 2018. City have always strenuously denied the charges. Arsenal finished third that season.

Premier League – 2016-17

Runners-up: Tottenham Hotspur

If there was a season for Tottenham to win the Premier League under Mauricio Pochettino, this would have been it. Tottenham went unbeaten at home in their last season at White Hart Lane, while scoring more goals than Chelsea and conceding fewer than the eventual champions. They finished the season with a club-record 86 points. “For sure, we [Tottenham] deserve to be champions for that year because we were second best,” Pochettino. “We should have been awarded it. We should win one title, one Premier League. They [Chelsea] were punished, they admitted it, so that’s it. The title should be for the team that was second. It’s not me complaining, it’s the truth. We didn’t compete with the same rules. The Chelsea fans will be upset with me because I’m saying this. But if we were at Tottenham and broke the rules, I’d admit the same and say ‘look, we don’t deserve the title because we broke the rules’.”

While Pochettino praised Antonio Conte’s impact at Chelsea, with the Italian leading the Stamford Bridge to the title in his first season in English football, a year after the Blues had finished 10th, the Argentina said he had “no doubt” that Eden Hazard once again made the difference that season. The Belgian winger scored 16 Premier League goals that season while centre-back David Luiz, another Chelsea player whose transfer to the club fell under the Premier League’s investigation, having joined the Blues from Benfica in 2011 and Paris Saint-Germain in 2016, had his finest season in English football as part of Conte’s back-three.

FA Cup – 2017-18

Runners-up: Manchester United

A second FA Cup final falls under the period that was investigated by the FA and Premier League. Eden Hazard scored a first-half penalty as Antonio Conte’s Chelsea defeated Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United. Hazard would also scored in Chelsea’s 4-1 win over Arsenal in the Europa League final the following the year. Under Roman Abramovich’s 19-year ownership, between 2003 and 2022, Chelsea won 21 major trophies, including two Champions Leagues, five Premier Leagues, five FA Cups, two League Cups and two Europa Leagues.