Plateau United of Jos Coach, Abdul Maikaba, has blamed the delay in the kickoff of the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) for the poor performance of the country’s clubs…

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Eden Hazard scored his first goal for Real Madrid in over a year and his team appeared to turn a corner as they beat newly-promoted Huesca 4-1 in La Liga on Saturday.

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The Kaduna State Ministry of Health says it has confirmed one new case of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
With the new case, the number of active cases in the state has increased from three to four.

The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Mohammed Baloni, disclosed on Saturday that the new case is a close contact of one of the three active cases announced earlier in the week.

According to Baloni, contact tracing is ongoing to identify persons the new case has interacted with so that they can be monitored and tested if they meet the case definition.

“Our medical professionals are attending to the four active cases in the state.

“They are receiving treatment at the Infectious Diseases Centre, the state’s premier isolation centre, and we wish them a speedy recovery.

“Medical professionals in the Ministry of Health have already successfully managed the first six COVID-19 cases in the state to full recovery and discharge.

“The index case, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, was discharged on April 22, after two consecutive negative test results.

“Five cases were earlier discharged in the one week, starting from April 14, 2020,’’ she said.

Baloni, who noted the efforts of medical professionals in the state in containing the further spread of the virus, appealed to them and other stakeholders involved in the efforts of the Ministry of Health to manage and contain COVID-19 in Kaduna State, to remain dedicated.

According to the commissioner, the testing capacity of the state is improving.

She said that the state had one lab that had been accredited by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to conduct COVID-19 tests.

‘’Two other labs, one in Kaduna and the other in Zaria, are undergoing NCDC verification and are expected to secure test accreditation shortly.

“As of Friday, April 24, Kaduna State had 133 persons tested, out which 10 have tested positive,’’ she said.

The commissioner, however, underscored the importance of hand-washing, personal hygiene, social distancing, and the avoidance of large gatherings in containing the spread of COVID-19. He added: “It is important to stay home, stay safe and save lives.”

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Michel Platini wishes the FIFA Ethics Committee which banned him from the sport would disappear, he told two Swiss newspapers in an interview to be published on Saturday.

Platini was banned from football activities over a two million Swiss francs (1.8 million euros, $ 2 million) payment from FIFA, took his case to the Swiss courts and was provisionally cleared last week. He is now campaigning for FIFA, the governing body of world football to lift his four-year ban from the sport.

The former UEFA president said in his interview that his goal “is to change this biased and opportunistic justice so that it can no longer, in the future, remove adversaries. I do not want more injustices.”

“This masquerade of justice must be stopped,” Platini said. “In this battle I will stop at nothing.”

Platini did not suggest any alternative system for fighting corruption in FIFA.

While Platini’s lawyer says the courts have cleared the former France captain, Swiss prosecutors have insisted that the investigation “is not completely over”. Platini could still be required to appear before a judge if new evidence is found.

In his interview, Platini said: “I want this Ethics Committee whose sole purpose is to serve as a weapon of FIFA to remove opponents to disappear.”

He added that he hopes his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights “will put an end to this system where people are both judges and interested parties and whose only objective is to protect their bonuses, their business and themselves.”

Platini, who insists the payment was for work he had done, said that during his FIFA appeal, “two out of four judges were taking a nap and even by the end had not understood that I had produced the bill to make FIFA pay me what they owed me.”

“And that’s ethical behaviour?” he asked.

Sourced From: The Guardian Nigeria