In the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, the real grass is moved underground when the stadium hosts concerts and events.
This allows the field to stay healthy while the space transforms for huge crowds.
*I may delete this soon*
Every single day, I'm thankful for the brave but tough decision, many years ago, to completely detach my career prospects from Ghana sports.
I live in Ghana. But I refuse to be *of* Ghana. The world is too big and too laden with opportunity to be *of* Ghana.
Can you imagine being tethered to a system like this in order to have a better life?
To be reliant on the institutions being discussed in the last 4/5 days? To be worried that their actions and inactions will affect your quality of life?
It is my hope that every young sports journalist and sports content creator is ready to make the effort and sacrifice required to delink their sustenance from this broken system. To challenge themselves to be more. More than just score-counters, and press conference regurgitators, but commercially viable people that reputable institutions can bank on.
To position yourself to fight the system in a way that will not cut off your oxygen. To be able to pick your moments, pace yourself and act with clarity at your own time.
Yes, the decision will lead you to an extremely lonely road. It is a very tough (t)ask.
You may likely lose a few early friends and all that, but believe me when I say, you will win if you stay the course. The right friends will eventually find you.
Map out a plan. Find helpers. Stay the course. Be uncompromising in your work ethic. There will be a gew bad days and potholes and mistakes you will make.
But — and I am sure of this — fate usually smiles on those who stay true to themselves.
May the force be with us all. As for Ghana sports, it is well. Aluta continua.
Chelsea legend John Terry has recorded a video for his new friend, Samuel Dabo, wishing his football academy all the best and expressing his hope of visiting them one day.
ORAL ADDRESS TO THE WIND - What the Court refused to hear.
In the matter of Abu Trica
1. May it please the Court. I rise this morning with a question I had hoped never to carry into this room. What is the point of justice?
2. I ask it not as a matter of being impolite but as a matter of record, because the conduct of the Republic in this matter has pressed the question into my hands and left me no honest way to set it down.
3. Your Honour will recall that we last stood before this Court. We came ex parte, seeking an order to restrain the removal of Mr Frederick Kumi from the jurisdiction until his application could be heard. This Court, mindful of the liberty of the individual and mindful equally of the sovereignty of the State, declined to make an interim order. The Court directed that the matter proceed on notice, so that the State might be heard before any order touching it was made. We did not quarrel with that direction. We accepted it. We accepted it because we came to this Court in good faith, and because we assumed that same good faith on every side.
4. I also pressed the Court as to the difficulties we were having in having access to our Client. That we had written to the Attorney-General to grant us access to Mr Frederick Kumi and that that request had not been acceded to. We contacted the Interpol Division of the Ghana Police Service, which had custody over him; they told us they did not have him in their custody. We contacted the lawyer on record representing the Attorney-General, he failed to respond to our request even though the message was delivered.
5. This Court again expressed grace, and stayed its hand. The Court directed that we should make all private attempts to get the Attorney-General to grant us access to our client; and that if that fails, this court would grant an order for us to see the client, the next morning. On the Court’s direction, we went to the AGs Office, searched for the lawyer on record to no avail.
6. We reported back to the Court that these attempts had failed; but the Court in its continuous grace decided against the order and directed that we appear today at 11 am.
7. Yesterday, we found out through whistleblowers that he had been sent to the Police Hospital to conduct the preparing to take him out of the Country. We put people on standby, surveilled their vehicle and realized that he was being held in BNI custody.
8. So Yesterday, myself and three other lawyers followed up to the BNI Headquarters and after hours of waiting, we were told that our request to see him was approved. So we should proceed to Blue Gate where he was being kept.
9. When we got there, we were told that it was too late and they wont grant us access. They told us to come back the next day today. This morning on our way to the BNI, we found that Frederick Kumi had been removed at 7am.
10. I must now tell this Court what has reached us since this matter was set down, and, I believe, since I entered this room. The public press this morning reports that Mr Frederick Kumi was removed from this jurisdiction earlier today, aboard Delta Air Lines flight 157, an aircraft that departed at sixteen minutes past nine o'clock. I do not ask this Court to take that report as proved upon my word.
11. I invite the State, which alone holds the truth of it, to rise and tell this Court plainly whether it is so.
12. And if it is so, then let this Court weigh the hour. At sixteen minutes past nine, as this Court had convened us to consider whether a detained man might be permitted to see his lawyers, that man, if the report is true, was already above the clouds and already beyond our borders. The hearing this Court fixed, in fairness, so that the State could be heard, was overtaken by the very party for whose benefit it was fixed.
“He didn't call in the favour when it came to Omar Artan, the Somali referee; to make sure the Iranians weren't treated like rubbish; for visas; for the Senegalese team who were humiliated outside of their bus.”
Mehreen Khan on why the role of Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump in Folarin Balogun’s suspended ban looks even worse when the rest of the World Cup is considered.
If we're rewriting football history now, I have a small suggestion:
I'd like FIFA to rescind the yellow card shown to Michael Ballack in the 2002 World Cup semifinal, the one that ruled him out of the final.
And while we're at it, we might as well replay the final against Brazil.
🔴 Nouveau communiqué de la RBFA concernant l'affaire Balogun :
« Suite à sa précédente déclaration, la RBFA souhaite expliquer publiquement le déroulement des événements de ces dernières heures.
Après avoir appris par voie de presse la décision de la FIFA de lever la suspension automatique du joueur Balogun, la RBFA a adressé un courrier à la FIFA pour en demander une copie ainsi que des explications sur la procédure suivie, tout en exposant sa position au regard de la réglementation applicable.
En guise de seule réponse, la FIFA a informé la RBFA qu'elle considérait ce courrier comme un recours, qu'un juge avait été désigné et que la RBFA ne disposait que de quelques heures pour finaliser ce recours. Aucune information n'a été communiquée par la FIFA.
Pour qu'un recours soit recevable, le règlement de la FIFA stipule que la décision motivée doit préalablement avoir été notifiée au requérant. Alors que la RBFA sollicitait simplement des explications légitimes, la FIFA a elle-même qualifié la démarche de recours tout en veillant immédiatement à ce qu'elle soit déclarée irrecevable.
Tout cela s'est produit alors que, parallèlement, la FIFA refusait de répondre aux demandes légitimes de la RBFA.
Par ailleurs, lors de la réunion de coordination du match, la FIFA a délibérément retiré de sa présentation la section relative à la suspension automatique des joueurs. Ce point avait pourtant été abordé lors de toutes les réunions similaires précédant les quatre rencontres précédentes. La RBFA a interrogé la FIFA, tant oralement que par écrit, sur les raisons de ce changement, sans toutefois obtenir de réponse.
Il convient de préciser qu'à ce jour, la RBFA n'a toujours reçu aucune décision ni aucune explication de la part de la FIFA à ce sujet. Elle n'a donc d'autre choix que de contester l'éligibilité du joueur pour le match à venir.
Indépendamment de l'issue sportive de cette rencontre, la RBFA est vivement préoccupée par le déroulement des événements et continuera de se battre, dans les heures, jours et mois à venir, pour défendre les principes fondamentaux d'éthique et d'équité sportive, ainsi que les intérêts du football dans son ensemble. »
(Officiel)