by FSL News | 12 Jan, 2019 | African News
Mauritania coach Corentin Martins has signed a new two-year contract extension which will see him remain as head coach until 2021.
The 49-year new deal comes after leading the country to the Africa Cup of Nations finals for the first time in history, a few months ago.
Mauritania, a country in northwest Africa covered almost completely by the Sahara desert, came from behind to beat Botswana 2-1 with two goals from Ismael Diakite, as they book their 2019 AFCON ticket.
The Al-Murabitun under the French man was named as the National Team of the Year at the recent Confederation of African Football awards.
A draw for Mauritania in their final Nations Cup qualifier away to Burkina Faso in March will see them finish top of Group I.
Angola and Botswana are the other two teams in the group.
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by FSL News | 11 Jan, 2019 | African News
Leicester’s Malian midfielder joins Turkish Sivasspor
Malian international and Leicester forward Fousseni Diabate has joined Turkish side Sivasspor on loan until the end of the season.
On 13 January 2018, Diabaté moved to Leicester City for an undisclosed fee from French Ligue 2 side Gazelec Ajaccio.
The Midfielder made his debut for Leicester City in the FA Cup fourth round match against Peterborough United and scored twice in a 5–1 win.
The 23-year-old in total has made 19 appearances for the club in all competitions, scoring two goals on his debut in the fourth round of the FA Cup last season, when Leicester beat Peterborough 5-1.
Sivasspor finished seventh in the Turkish Super Lig in 2018.
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by FSL News | 9 Jan, 2019 | African News
Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah on Tuesday at a colourful ceremony held in Dakar, Senegal, won the 2018 CAF Player of the Year award.
Salah, 26, beat Liverpool team-mate Sadio Mane of Senegal and Arsenal and Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to the title.
He received the award at a ceremony in Senegal on Tuesday.
With the Liverpool striker keeping the award in 2018, he has joined the list of the few players who won two awards in a row such as El-Hadji Diouf from Senegal (2001, 2002), Samuel Eto’o from Cameroon (2003, 2004) and Yaya Toure from Ivory Coast (2011, 2012)
“I have dreamt of winning this award since I was a child and now I have done so twice in a row, ” Salah said.
The former Napoli striker scored 44 goals for Liverpool during the 2017-18 season, helping the Reds to the Champions League final before scoring twice for Egypt at the World Cup in Russia.
He has scored 16 goals in 29 appearances across all competitions for Liverpool this season.
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by FSL News | 8 Jan, 2019 | African News
The Confederation of African Football, CAF has confirmed Egypt as host of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
The news broke after their executive meeting in Dakar, Senegal on Tuesday morning.
South Africa and Egypt were the only two nations to submit bids for the tournament.
Cameron was stripped of hosting rights late last year.
Read Related…AFCON host to be unveiled today
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by FSL News | 8 Jan, 2019 | African News
The Confederation of African Football (Caf) will announce the name of which country hosting the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday.
CAF officially stripped Cameroon off the hosting rights back in November after failing on organizational requirements.
Egypt or South Africa will host the tournament after Morocco surprisingly withdrew their bid.
CAF released a statement saying that the Executive Committee will summon on Tuesday instead of Wednesday.
It means the 2019 hosts will announce a few hours before the Aiteo CAF Awards ceremony to determine the continent best Player of the Year.
Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are the final three names for the award.
Guinea’s football federation announced on Monday that it has agreed to move its staging of the Nations Cup from 2023 to 2025.
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by FSL News | 8 Jan, 2019 | African News
Guinea will host the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations instead of the 2023 edition, according to the Confederation of African Football (Caf) president Ahmad.
Speaking on a visit to Guinea on Sunday when he was joined by Fifa president Gianni Infantino, Ahmad said Guinea’s President Alpha Condé had agreed to a delay in hosting the tournament.
Ahmad told reporters it is a similar situation to Cameroon, who will stage the 2021 finalsafter being stripped of hosting the 2019 Nations Cup in November.
The Guinea Football Federation (Feguifoot) statement comes just a few days after its president Antonio Souare told BBC Sport they had not been “notified, neither by a letter or a decree” about the proposed delay in hosting.
In 2014, Caf awarded Nations Cup hosting rights to Cameroon (2019), Ivory Coast (2021) and Guinea (2023).
After the reported changes to the schedule, Ivory Coast – which is now set to host in 2023 – lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the Caf decision to hand the 2021 tournament to Cameroon.
On 9 January, Caf is set to announce who will host this year’s finals – with both Egypt and South Africa having made bids to replace Cameroon.
Speaking to BBC Sport before Sunday’s visit by Ahmad, Souare also questioned whether African countries will be able to single-handedly host the expanded Nations Cup, which moved from 16 teams to 24 in 2017, in future.
“To go from four to six stadiums, all of a sudden, for one country do we maybe have to do co-hosting?” he added.
“I’m saying this as an African football leader and administrator, after thinking about it. And I’m still thinking about it.
“It’s not just the six stadiums, we have to build hotels – 2-3 star hotels to lodge the public that comes, but for the teams, you need 4-5 star hotels.
“Then you also have the hospitals, telecommunications, roads, airlines. It’s all this. There are many things.
“Would co-hosting, like we have have seen between Gabon and Equatorial Guinea, be a possible fallback solution?”
The Nations Cup has been co-hosted twice before, by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in 2012 and by Ghana and Nigeria in 2000.
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