THE RESTORATION OF BIAFRA NATION

  Chelsea boss, Thomas Tuchel, has explained the difference between managing the Blues and his former club, Paris Saint-Germain. Tuchel said there is no time to breathe when managing in the Premier League than in the Ligue 1, adding that life in England is proving to be brutal. Recall that Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard at Chelsea last January after he was sacked by PSG last December. “To go from Ligue 1 to the Premier League? It’s brutal, honestly. Very brutal,” Tuchel told L’Equipe ahead of Chelsea’s Champions League tie with Real Madrid on Wednesday. “In France, we played the same number of matches, two cups, and there are also 20 teams in the Championship. But the intensity and challenge of the Championship are really very different here. It’s a completely different level. “It’s pretty ruthless, it keeps you on your own, and it makes you get up early in the morning. There is simply no time to breathe. There is not too much time to sit down, to be relaxed or comfort...

  Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has said that his team will approach their UEFA Champions League, UCL, semi-final second-leg tie against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday at Etihad with a small advantage. Guardiola explained that Man City players would play to win the game against PSG at home. The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach said this on Monday during his pre-match press conference ahead of Man City’s clash with PSG. Guardiola’s men had won the French Ligue 1 champions 2-1 in the first-leg in Paris last week. “What we’ve to do is win tomorrow and after we see what happens,” Guardiola said. “Now we arrive in a good moment. I said to the guys don’t think too much to win the game. “The same message we’ve done for the last six or seven months is the same message for tomorrow. “We approach the game with a small advantage and we’ve to play to win the game. This is what we’ll do.”

Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi, is closing in on the late Argentina legend, Diego Maradona’s record of 59 career freekicks after scoring in a brace in his side’s LaLiga 3-2 win over Valencia on Sunday. Messi’s freekick against Valencia over the weekend was his 50th in a Barcelona shirt. The Argentina captain found the net against Jasper Cillessen in the second half at Mestalla. In doing so, Messi brought his total freekick tally to 56, with club and country. That’s only three off Maradona’s Argentina record of 59 career freekicks. Messi has already overtaken Manuel Pelegrina’s 45 and Daniel Passarella’s 43 in terms of countrymen’s freekick totals. Messi will now hope to continue his impressive display when Barcelona tackle Atletico Madrid on May 8.  

  Delayed by a year due to the pandemic, Canada finally gets its chance Tuesday to kick off qualifying for the FIFA Futsal World Cup. The Canadian men open against Haiti in a CONCACAF Futsal Championship that is down to 13 teams with the withdrawal of French Guiana, Martinique and Guadeloupe. The tournament, which runs through Sunday in Guatemala City, will determine the four representatives from North and Central America and the Caribbean at this September's World Cup in Lithuania. Canada, under head coach Kyt Selaidopoulos, has been drawn in Group C with reigning CONCACAF champion Costa Rica and Haiti. The top two in each of the four groups advance to the quarterfinals with the final four booking their ticket to Lithuania. All games are being played at the Domo Polideportivo, which hosted the 2000 FIFA Futsal World Cup. The Canadian team met in Chicago, stopping in Houston before arriving in Guatemala City a week ago. "We're basically in a bubble," said ...

  The UEFA draw for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 was made this week and 51 teams will be involved in fighting for 11 tickets to the tournament that will take place in Australia and New-Zealand. The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 will be the first Women’s World Cup with 32 teams and the confederation allocations are as follows: AFC 6 slots CAF 4 slots CONCACAF 4 slots CONMEBOL 3 slots OFC 1 slot UEF: 11 slots Intercontinental play-offs 3 slots A 10-team tournament will be held in Australia and New Zealand to decide the last three finalists. AFC 2 CAF 2 CONCACAF 2 CONMEBOL 2 OFC 1 UEFA 1 The teams will be split into three groups, two of three teams and one of four, with seeding decided by FIFA ranking. All three groups will be played as separate knockout competitions, with the winner of each qualifying for the finals. In the two three-team groups, the seeded team will go straight to the final (after playing a friendly against Australia or New Zealand) and meet the winner o...

  As the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar draws near, concerns continue to be raised over the country's labour practices. In March, a number of countries playing in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers staged protests against the Qatari authorities over the death of over 6,500 migrant workers between 2010 and January 2021, a figure revealed in February 2021 by an investigation by The Guardian newspaper. Germany and Norway were involved in the protests during the international qualifying matches, and they were joined by the Netherlands as noted on the tweet below: The Netherlands have joined Norway in protesting Qatar's human rights record before their World Cup qualifiers  pic.twitter.com/TFXLxlyy7q — Goal (@goal) March 27, 2021 In 2010, Qatar was awarded the hosting rights of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, and as  early as 2012, red flags were raised over the huge influx of migrant workers to the country which employs them through the controversial kafala system. The kafal...

  North Korea has notified authorities that its team plans to skip next month's World Cup qualifiers hosted by South Korea due to COVID-19 fears, the South's football association said on Monday (May 3). North Korea's football association (PRKFA) sent a letter on Friday to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) declaring that its team would not participate in the second round of qualifiers, Korea Football Association (KFA) spokesman Lee Jae-chul said. The AFC is asking North Korea to reconsider the decision, he added. Matches across Asia in the second round of qualifying for next year's World Cup in Qatar have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with all but three games due to be played in March postponed until June. The AFC announced on Apr 12 that rather than having the typical home-and-away format, each group of five nations would play in one host country. South Korea was named as host for H Group, which includes the two Koreas as well as Turkmenistan...