Manchester City ‘have permission to play awful’ – Guardiola

Manchester City’s players “have permission to play awful” as Pep Guardiola insists his men are still far away from what he hopes to achieve at the Etihad Stadium.
City beat Swansea 3-1 at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday afternoon to make it 10 wins out of 10 under their new manager.
Bookmakers have installed City as favourites for the Premier League title and the FA Cup, and are only listed behind Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Real Madrid for the Champions League.
But while Guardiola is more than pleased with how his players have adapted to his methods in their time together so far, he is adamant that there is much more to come.
Asked if he is close to the level he wants to play at following the win in Wales, Guardiola replied: “No, we are far, we are far. It would be boring: if we are close I can go back home.
“We are here to get better, when you think it’s done why should you keep going? It never ends in football. Always you can play better. Individual performance, collective performance, the reason why we play better… the opponents always create different things every game, how we solve that

FIFA racism task force achieved its goal

Nothing sinister should be read into the disbanding of the FIFA task force on racism as it had simply achieved its goals, FIFA secretary-general Fatma Samoura said on Monday.
The 54-year-old Senegalese — recruited to some surprise from the United Nations in May and the first woman and non-European to serve on the FIFA executive — added FIFA could live with the perception by many that it was too soon to end the task force’s work.
“We can live with perception but we are taking very seriously our role as football’s governing body to fight discrimination, it is well reflected in the statutes,” said Samoura, who delivered the keynote address at the Soccerex Global Football Convention.
The task force was established in 2013 by disgraced former FIFA President Sepp Blatter to eradicate racism in football but was disbanded recently with the world sports body controversially insisting the mission had been a success.
“It had a very specific mandate and they came up with very strong recommendations and FIFA is

Manchester United’s Schweinsteiger treatment ‘ignoble’ – Podolski

Lukas Podolski has told Bild he believes Jose Mourinho’s treatment of former Germany captain Bastian Schweinsteiger is “ignoble.”
Schweinsteiger has been frozen out at Old Trafford since the arrival of Mourinho in the summer, with the midfielder yet to make an appearance this season.
And his ex-international colleague Podolski, currently at Galatasaray, said: “Looking at Bastian’s

Walcott is a special player – Wenger

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger lauded Theo Walcott as a “completely different player” after the forward continued his impressive start to the season.
Walcott netted his third Premier League goal of the campaign as Wenger’s men claimed a 3-0 win over Chelsea on Saturday.
The England international was hailed by his manager after Arsenal claimed a league win over their London rivals for the first time since October 2011.
“You cannot question his performance,” Wenger told a news conference.
“But I believe more the change in Theo Walcott is his attitude to this season. He’s ready to fight, commit and straight away he gets the crowd behind him.

Eagles’ club form sign of good tidings against Zambia – Obuh

Former Flying Eagles coach, John Obuh, has urged the Super Eagles players to ensure they replicate their impressive performances for their various clubs when they meet the Chipolopolo of Zambia in their opening group game of the Russia 2018 World Cup qualifying series.
Zambia will host Nigeria in Ndola on October 9 and Obuh believes that if the players replicated the standard they have so far displayed for their clubs, the Eagles would win the game.
Speaking yesterday, Obuh advised the Eagles to forget the failures of the past and focus on qualifying Nigeria for the World Cup.
He posits that Nigeria has all it takes to overcome every team in their group if Super Eagles’ manager, Gernot Rohr, used the best available materials to persecute the tie.
He also predicts that the Eagles will win in Zambia, hinging optimism on the resilience and commitment shown by the players in their recent tune up matches.

FIFA disbands anti-racism task force ahead of 2018 Russia World Cup

FIFA has disbanded its anti-racism task force, declaring the work complete despite ongoing concerns about discriminatory behavior in 2018 World Cup host Russia.
FIFA wrote to members of the task force to say that it has “completely fulfilled its temporary mission” and “is hereby dissolved and no longer in operation.”
“I wish I could say that I am shocked by the decision, but unfortunately I am not,” task force member Osasu Obayiuwana told The Associated Press on Sunday. “The problem of racism in football remains a burning, very serious and topical one, which need continuous attention.
“I personally think there remained a lot of very serious work for the task force to have done — the 2018 World Cup in Russia being one such matter. But it is evident the FIFA administration takes a different position.”

Ibrahimovic threatened to break my legs over Pogba deal – Raiola

Mino Raiola has revealed that Zlatan Ibrahimovic jokingly threatened to “break his legs” if he had allowed Paul Pogba to join any other club besides Manchester United.
Raiola represented both players, along with Henrikh Mkhitaryan, brokered separate deals that took all three stars to United in the summer — with Pogba’s €105 million world record deal the most significant of them all.
“Zlatan told me, ‘Do not transfer Pogba elsewhere or I will break your legs’,” Raiola told Volkskrant.nl.
The duo have given Jose Mourinho plenty of options on the field, but while Ibrahimovic settled quickly and has already scored four goals for the Red Devils, Pogba has struggled to come to

Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling hails Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers ahead of reunion

Manchester City star Raheem Sterling has hailed former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers ahead of their Champions League reunion on Wednesday.
Rodgers, now in charge of Celtic, gave Sterling his debut as a 17-year-old when the pair were together at Anfield, but the England international left in acrimonious circumstances to join City in July 2015 and, just months later, Rodgers was sacked.
Rodgers said they never fell out throughout his protracted departure from Anfield and Sterling told reporters ahead of Wednesday’s game against Celtic: “He’s someone who gave me my full chance in the Premier League and gave me loads of starts and loads of confidence.
“It will be good to see him again and wish him well, but on the day it all comes down to trying to win that football match. He was massive for me. Every manager that I’ve worked with I’ve tried to

Nigerian table tennis players can get better with sponsorships – Aruna

Table tennis players need sponsors to get better and rub shoulders with their counterparts who are dominating the sport, Africa’s topmost player, Quadri Aruna, said on Sunday.
Aruna told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone from his base in Portugal that the best players in the world had the best training and support.
“In my opinion, and which I believe will help the sports development in Nigeria, every private company or organisation should be compelled to lend a hand to at least one sport.
“Sponsorship of a sport to either a national or international competition should be included annually in their Corporate Social Responsibility.
“If this can be achieved, Nigeria will be on the right track to dominating in sports.
“Attention should be given to other sports too like it is to football. Yes, globally football gets more attention but Nigeria is taking it to the extreme.
“China and other countries dominating in table tennis put the best facilities in place to achieve

Kehinde Fatai on target as Ufa sink Spartak Moscow

A goal from Nigerian striker Kehinde Fatai earned Ufa a 1-0 win at Spartak Moscow on Sunday to end the Russian league leaders’ unbeaten start.
A pre-season arrival from Sparta Prague, Fatai’s 39th minute strike after defender Ilya Kutepov’s blunder gave Ufa a second consecutive league win.
They are placed eighth while Spartak remained top on 19 points, one point ahead of reigning champions CSKA Moscow.

Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne ruled out for four weeks – report

Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne is reportedly set to be out for four weeks with the hamstring injury he sustained in Saturday’s victory over Swansea City.
De Bruyne was substituted with a suspected muscle injury in the 81st minute of the 3-1 victory and HLN in Belgium says he is set to be absent for a month as a result.

Schalke suffer fifth straight league loss with Hoffenheim defeat

Schalke lost their fifth straight game in the Bundesliga this season with Hoffenheim turning up the heat on their coach Markus Weinzierl with a 2-1 win.
Eric Choupo-Moting headed Schalke in front in the fourth minute, but it proved to be a false dawn for the Royal Blues.
Andrej Kramaric headed Hoffenheim back on level terms in the 17th minute and the hosts took a deserved lead through Lukas Rupp five minutes before half-time, after Nabil Bentaleb gave away possession cheaply in midfield.
Ralf Fahrmann went up for a late corner as Schalke tried desperately to find an equaliser, but