Author: Opalim Lifted

Manchester City launched their Premier League championship defence with an easy victory against Burnley, thanks to Erling Haaland’s deadly finishing display. The goalscoring superstar, who scored 52 goals as City won the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League last season, required just 185 seconds to open his account for the new season, dealing the newly promoted Clarets a blow from which they never recovered. When Rodri headed down Kevin de Bruyne’s cross, Haaland pounced in the area and curled in a stunning left-foot shot into the top corner beyond Burnley keeper James Trafford after 36 minutes to virtually end…

By Sikiru Abolade For 10 days last month, the attention of the domestic club football-watching public was fixed on Lagos’ Mobolaji Johnson Arena, venue of the inaugural edition of Naija Super 8, a pre-season tournament. I started following the tournament on television from the day the organisers, Flykite Productions, announced it, as well as its objective of bringing fans back to stadiums. It will be dishonest of me to claim I was persuaded that the tournament’s stated objective was realizable. I actually thought it was halfway between drunken optimism and pompous nonsense. The problems of domestic club football, responsible for…

Tottenham Hotspur’s record goalscorer Harry Kane is poised to leave the club soon, but the England captain’s departure would not affect the club’s preparations for the coming season, manager Ange Postecoglou said on Friday. Kane was scheduled to go to Germany later today to finalize a 100 million euro ($109.78 million) agreement with Bayern Munich. “I don’t have a blow-by-blow account of the whole thing, but my understanding is that it’s progressed to the point where it looks like it’s going to happen,” Postecoglou told reporters before his team’s Premier League encounter against Brentford on Sunday. “That’s all the information…

The Federal High Court in Lagos has set August 15 as the hearing date for a motion filed by Godwin Emefiele, the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, to stop his trial, which was begun by the Federal Government through the Department of State Services (DSS). Simultaneously, the court will hear an application from the DSS to appeal the N20 million bail already granted to Emefiele by the court. Presiding Justice Nicholas Oweibo has set this date to give the defence time to react to the prosecution’s extra counter-affidavit, which was sent to the defence just before the…

A blurry-eyed Anthony Joshua woke up to a message at 07:00 informing him that Dillian Whyte had failed a voluntary drugs test, forcing their all-British heavyweight rematch to be cancelled at just a week’s notice. “Damn, here we go again—late replacements aren’t good for anyone,” was his first thought, he says, quickly followed by: “Do I fight or do I not fight?” Joshua felt a responsibility towards his promoter, the undercard boxers, and the fans who had booked travel and accommodation and insisted the show should go ahead. “Let’s just rock and roll,” the 33-year-old decided. Joshua has been here…

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has indicated that the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) may jump to about N750 per litre. Chinedu Ukadike, the association’s national spokesperson, stated this in Abuja. He stated that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is currently maintaining an ex-depot price of N587.7. If the NNPCL lowers its pricing, “other marketers will do the same.” Furthermore, IPMAN urged the government to undertake policies to prevent future naira depreciation. “There will be a 10% increase because the dollar was N750; now it is over N900; that is almost a 20%…

Andy Murray apologized to the Canadian Open fans after retiring from the competition due to abdominal pain. After defeating Max Purcell in the second round, the 36-year-old Briton was set to meet Italian seventh seed Jannik Sinner in the last 16. He told the audience in Toronto, “I feel like I’ve let you down.” “This could be my last time playing here,” Murray remarked. So finishing like this feels bad.” Because the Canadian Open alternates between Toronto and Montreal, the men’s event will be held in Montreal next year. Murray has only given up a walkover seven times in his…

Folashodun Shonubi, Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said on Thursday that the Nigerian Naira is severely undervalued based on economic modelling utilizing purchasing power parity. This information was revealed at a lecture titled ‘Diaspora Remittances and Nigerian Economic Development’ at the National Institute of Security Studies (NISS) in Abuja. “If you were to conduct an economic modelling of Nigeria using purchasing power parity, you would discover that the Naira is currently significantly undervalued,” Shonubi, CBN Acting governor said. He emphasized the importance of taking strict steps to restrict illegal remittances and channel them via appropriate channels…

Cristiano Ronaldo has yet again left the competition behind as the five-time Ballon d’Or winner was named Instagram’s top earner for the third year in a row. Ronaldo, who in July was ranked as the world’s highest-paid athlete by Forbes for the first time since 2017 following his move to Saudi Arabia, has now topped the 2023 Instagram Rich List, a global marker of online influence. The list, compiled by Instagram scheduling tool Hopper HQ, is based on internal and publicly available data on how much each user can charge for a post on Instagram and YouTube. The Portugal forward…

Residents of flood-prone areas in Adamawa have been encouraged to migrate to safer areas by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). Mr. Ladan Ayuba, Head of Operations, NEMA, Adamawa Field Office, made the announcement on Thursday while interacting with reporters. The 2023 Annual Flood Outlook, according to Ayuba, anticipated flooding in five of the state’s 21 local government units. He named Demsa, Fufore, Numan, Yola-South, and Yola-North as locations affected and asked other authorities to take proactive flood mitigation measures to prevent the calamity. According to the NEMA official, Damare village in Gerei LGA is one of the safer areas…