by FSL News | 1 Jul, 2018 | African News
South African giant club Orlando Pirates have confirmed the signing of former Sierra Leone goalkeeper coach Andrew Sparkes.
Andrew, who was the U23 Goalkeeper Coach/Head of Academy Goalkeeping at Swansea City AFC, also worked with Sierra Leone Senior Men’s team during the FIFA 2014 World Cup Qualifiers.
Sparkes, 33, joined Swansea in 2012 from New York Red Bull. His former boss with Sierra Leone Johnathan Mckinstry took to Twitter to wish him good luck.
“Good luck to my former #SierraLeone goalkeeping coach @andrewsparkes1 on his new role with @orlandopirates. A great addition to the team @michocoach ?? He will do a great job for you. Best wishes for the new season! ⚽”
‘Orlando Pirates Football Club is delighted to welcome Andrew Sparkes, Darian Wilken and Franck Plaine to the technical team.
‘Andrew Sparkes joins the stable for the upcoming season as the Goalkeeper Coach of the senior team, while Darian Wilken will form part of the Buccaneers Football Analysis Department alongside Kyle Solomon and Michael Loftman, who both joined the club earlier in the year,” Pirates said on club’s website.
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by FSL News | 30 Jun, 2018 | African News
Algerian international Hillal Soudani has joined Nottingham Forest for an undisclosed fee from Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb.
The 30-year-old, who accounted for 86 goals in Croatia, has agreed on a three-year deal at the City Ground.
The exciting forward, who has also scored 21 goals for Algeria, joined Aitor Karanka’s side ahead of the new season.
He is the fourth overseas signing to join the club this summer following Portuguese trio Gil Bastiao Dias, Diogo Goncalves and Joao Carvalho.
Carvalho cost Forest a club-record fee of £13.2m when he joined from Benfica earlier this month.
Photo: Algeria’s Hilal Soudani (C) vies with Guinea’s Fode Camara (L) during the friendly football match Algeria versus Equatorial Guinea.
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by FSL News | 29 Jun, 2018 | African News
Senegal created a piece of unwanted history on Thursday, becoming the first team ever to be eliminated from the World Cup on the new fair play rule.
Russia 2018 is the first World Cup in which fair play has been active after it was introduced to all FIFA competitions after Brazil four years ago.
With their game against Colombia looking destined for a draw and Poland beating Japan, Senegal was set to qualify for the last 16 as Group H winners.
But Yerry Mina’s late goal gave the South Americans victory and left Senegal and Japan level on points, goal difference and head-to-head.
It meant that, as the full-time whistles blew in Samara and Volgograd, Senegal were eliminated due to having accumulated two more yellow cards than Japan.
Senegal had been the last remaining African side in the competition and the elimination of Aliou Cisse’s side means that there will be no team from the continent in the second round of a World Cup for the first time since 1982.
Group H was won by Colombia, whilst Japan progress despite losing 1-0 to bottom of the table Poland.
Post Match reactions from both coaches.
Senegal coach Aliou Cisse: “It’s the law of football. We didn’t qualify because we’ve earned more yellow cards, but I’m proud of my lads, they’ve worked hard for this tournament and I think we’ve showed we can have a bright future.
“The rules have been established by Fifa and we have to respect it, even though we would have liked to have been eliminated another way.
“I think the players knew all about it. I’m not going to ask my players to go on the pitch and try to avoid being issued yellow cards. Football is a contact game.”
Colombia coach Jose Pekerman: “There is no magic formula to football and one single answer to why one team beats another. I think we worked the set piece very well and that was not a coincidence as we have players who are excellent with their feet and with their head.
“But there were also some very worrying moments, especially in the first half, when Senegal played very well and it was tough for us to maintain our identity. We managed to defend successfully though, and they didn’t create many goal scoring opportunities.
“The match was tough because we couldn’t get the necessary control in central midfield to enable us to feed the right kind of balls to Radamel Falcao. This was a very even group and you see that with Senegal, who had a very good tournament, going home. There was a lot of tension in the air today and, in that regard, I think my team did very well.”
Budweiser Man of the Match
He showed up when it mattered and Yerry Mina was awarded the Man of the Match for his match-winning header that sent Colombia to the knockout stages. It was his second goal of the campaign and he became the third defender at Russia 2018 to score two goals after John Stones and Andreas Granqvist.
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by FSL News | 27 Jun, 2018 | African News
Manager Héctor Raúl Cúper has parted company with Egypt after they were knocked out of the World Cup at the group stage.
The Argentine, who has been the Pharaoh’s boss since 2015 help Egypt to their first World Cup finals after 28 years, but was unable to go pass Group stage as they failed to pick up a point.
The North African nation was beaten by Uruguay, Russia and then Saudi Arabia.
Their build-up and tournament were dominated by a shoulder injury to Liverpool star Mohamed Salah.
Speaking after the Saudia Arabia loss, he said he would “see what will happen” ahead of a meeting with the EFA.
A statement said: “We held a meeting after returning from Russia and the entire board decided to say thank you to Cuper and his technical staff.
“We appreciate the work from the coach, from reaching the Africa Cup of Nations after three years of absence and taking Egypt to the World Cup after 28 years of absence.”
Former Valencia and Inter Milan boss Cuper was appointed in March 2015 and led Egypt to the final of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2017, where they lost to Cameroon.
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by FSL News | 13 Jun, 2018 | African News
#111 Sierra Leone continue to slide in Latest Fifa World Ranking
Sierra Leone men’s senior team have plummeted further eight places down to 111th from 103rd in the latest FIFA rankings.
The latest ranking was released last week on FIFA’s official website.
They finished 2017 as the 97th best-ranked team in the world. Their highest ever rankings came in August 2014, when they were ranked 50th globally.
In Africa, Sierra Leone, who will take on Ethiopia in September hoping to reach Cameroon 2019 Afcon, moved further down on the continent from 22nd position to 26th.
Meanwhile, World top three positions are unchanged as Germany, Brazil and Belgium sit respectively, the Russia-bound duo of Poland and Uruguay have succeeded in making strides within the top 20.
Super Eagles World Cup Group D foes Argentina, Croatia and Iceland are on fifth, 20th and 22nd positions respectively. In Africa, Tunisia moved seven places down from 14th in the previous rankings to 21 as the continent’s top-ranked team.
Senegal follows in 27th place, while DR Congo stayed on 38 with Russia-bound Morocco on the 41st place and Egypt in 45th position.
Ghana, a non-participant at the World Cup and Sierra Leone’s opponent in the contest to Cameroon moved three places to 47th and sixth in the region.
The next rankings will be released on July 19.
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by FSL News | 8 Jun, 2018 | African News
Ghana Football Association president, Kwesi Nyantakyi, has been banned from all football-related activities for 90 days by the Fifa’s independent Ethics Committee.
Nyantakyi, who is also the vice president of the Confederation of African Football, CAF is now under football investigation sword as the sanctioned comes into force immediately.
The chairperson of the adjudicatory chamber of the Ethics Committee has provisionally banned the President of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and FIFA Council member, Mr Kwesi Nyantakyi, for a duration of 90 days.
The duration of the ban may be extended for an additional period not exceeding 45 days. During this time, Mr Nyantakyi is banned from all football activities at both national and international level (administrative, sports or any other).
The decision was taken upon the request of the chairperson of the investigatory chamber of the Ethics Committee carrying out the formal investigation proceedings into Mr Nyantakyi, pursuant to art. 83 par. 1 and art. 84 par. 2 of the FIFA Code of Ethics.
This comes following an investigative piece from Ace investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas’ on corruption in Ghana Football.
The Fifa Ethics Committee document
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