Kurunmi

January, male, hedonist.keeping it simple so no ambiguity.

[Arsenal News @ArsenalNews_Hub]

🚨 Thierry Henry on Gabriel Magalhães:

“I watched Gabriel Magalhães yesterday, and it reminded me just how exceptional he is. Sometimes I don’t think people fully appreciate what Arsenal have in him.

For me, he’s right up there with the very best defenders in world football. The way he commands the back line, organises his teammates, wins his duels, and stays composed under pressure is outstanding.

Great defenders don’t just make tackles—they make everyone around them better. Gabriel does exactly that. He gives confidence to the whole defence.

In my opinion, he’s one of the best centre-backs in the world right now, and Arsenal are fortunate to have him.”

🔴⚪️ #Arsenal #AFC #GabrielMagalhaes #ThierryHenry #COYG #Brazil #Worldcup

[Football Tweet ⚽ @Footballtweet]

Patrick Vieira and that Vicks VapoRub stained shirt.

🔥 𝗜𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗜𝗖

🗣️ Thierry Henry: "Patrick was the leader. When he spoke, everyone listened."

🗣️ Arsène Wenger: "Vieira was the complete midfielder. He could defend, attack, inspire and dominate."

🗣️ Roy Keane: "Patrick was a great player. Powerful, athletic and technically gifted."

🗣️ Cesc Fàbregas: "When I arrived at Arsenal, Vieira looked like a giant. He could do everything."

🗣️ Dennis Bergkamp: "Patrick was the engine of the team. He drove us forward."

🗣️ Robert Pires: "He was our captain, our boss and our example."

🗣️ Rio Ferdinand: "Vieira had everything. Power, pace, technique and presence."

Happy 50th birthday to a Premier League legend. 🇫🇷

[Ajoje⚽⚖️ @israel_ajoje]

In case you are wondering what is going on, let me explain.

UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin reportedly criticised the expanded 48-team World Cup and described many of its matches as "uninteresting."

In response, fourteen football federations from Africa, the Caribbean and Central Asia have issued a joint communiqué firmly rejecting that view, and Morocco is among the signatories.

In their words, "For our countries, there is no such thing as an unimportant World Cup match."

The communique points out that for nations like Cape Verde, Curaçao and Uzbekistan, qualifying is a historic dream realised across generations, and that for Congo and Haiti, returning after decades carries meaning for millions. "Every team qualified on merit. Every match matters."

The core of the statement is that "Football does not belong to a select group of nations. Its strength comes from its universality."

This is the real tension in modern football. The traditional powers worry that expansion dilutes quality. The emerging nations argue that inclusion is the entire point of a World Cup. Both cannot fully win.

But the federations have a point that is hard to argue with. Tell Cape Verde their qualification was uninteresting. Tell the people dancing in the streets of Praia. They will laugh you out of the room. And geneuinely speakimg, I am with them on this one.

My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.

[AFC Eze @eberefanpage]

It has all worked out

THANK YOU GOD🙏

[Ajoje⚽⚖️ @israel_ajoje]

Remember Leonard Prescott? Bayern's 16 year old goalkeeper that will be featuring for them tomorrow night?

Bayern Munich need a government permit to play him tomorrow. Not a football permit. A labour law permit. Welcome to the world of Sports Lawyers..

Leonard Prescott cannot legally play at 9pm in Germany. He is 16. The law says under-18s are to stop work at 8pm. Bayern are currently applying for a special exemption for him tho.

I always say that sports law does not exist in a vacuum. Wednesday night is the proof. Because right now Bayern Munich are not just dealing with a goalkeeping crisis. They are dealing with a labour law collision that nobody saw coming.

Under Section 8(1) of Germany's Jugendarbeitsschutzgesetz, minors under 18 are prohibited from working after 8pm. The Champions League match against Atalanta kicks off at 9pm and ends around 11pm.

Prescott cannot legally participate without a special exemption permit from the relevant trade supervisory authority. That permit also requires consent from both parents, his pediatrician and his school before it can be approved. According to @Gazpachen Bayern are currently processing that application.

If the permit is approved, German law then requires a minimum of 12 hours uninterrupted rest before his next working period. So the day after a potential Champions League debut, a 16-year-old legally cannot be asked to train before midday.

Hope you have learned something today.

My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.

#FCB #UCL #Bayern

[Ajoje⚽⚖️ @israel_ajoje]

In January 2018, Manchester United signed Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal. No transfer fee changed hands. It was a swap deal with Henrikh Mkhitaryan going the other way, so United fans celebrated what felt like a free signing of one of the Premier League's best players at the time.

Here is what it actually cost them.

Sanchez's base salary was reported to be £391,000 per week. On top of that, he received a £75,000 bonus for every game he started, plus a £6.7 million signing-on fee. United also paid £5 million in agent fees to his representative.

By the time United paid him £9 million just to rip up the final two years of his contract and make him go away, the total bill for a player who scored five goals in 45 appearances came to over £66 million. The "free" transfer ended up costing more than most actual transfers. That is part 3 of many, and that is exactly what we are unpacking today. The wage bill.

Are you with me? Good.

The transfer fee of a player is never the full picture. Not even when you add it to the base salary.. When you read that a player earns £200,000 a week, that figure is almost always the gross amount before tax. Premier League players pay income tax at 45% on all earnings above £125,000.

But it is not just the player paying. The club carries employer National Insurance contributions on top of the gross salary, currently at 13.8% with no upper cap for high earners. So a £200,000 per week salary is not a £200,000 per week cost to the club.

It is closer to £228,000 per week once employer NI is factored in. If you run that across a full year and over a year, you have added over £1.4 million to the cost of one player's salary before a single bonus has been paid.

The country a player is in makes this even more complicated. In Spain, for example,  the top income tax rate sits at 52%, which is why Real Madrid had to pay approximately £600,000 per week just to put £288,000 per week in Cristiano Ronaldo's pocket during his final years at the club.

The player takes home less than half of what the club actually spends on wages. This is one of the structural reasons why clubs in France and Spain have historically struggled to match Premier League offers pound for pound.

The tax environment is not just the player's problem. It is built directly into the competitive landscape of every league. Clubs suffer it too.

Now let us get into the extras, because this is where the real money hides from the headlines.

Sign-on fees are paid upfront, sometimes before the player has kicked a single ball for the club. They compensate for the absence of a transfer fee in situations of free transfer , or simply reward the player for choosing one club over competing offers. Signons are usually huge.

They sometimes are as high as transfer fees. Over the course of his four and a half year contract at United, Sanchez was expected to earn £108 million in wages alongside a reported £20 million signing-on fee. That is a combined commitment north of £125 million on a player who arrived for “free”.

Then there are appearance bonuses, which clubs use to incentivise performance but which can spiral out of control when a player underperforms. Sanchez  reportedly received a £75,000 bonus for every game he started at United, on top of his base salary of £391,000 per week and an annual signing-on fee of £1.1 million for every year of his contract.  

When you give a player such a contract and he is underperforming, what you are basically doing is paying for presence, not impact. And when a player of that calibre delivers five goals in 45 appearances, every single one of those appearance bonuses feels like money poured directly into a drain.

Let us do the full cost calculation of a transfer together. I want to show you something.

Take a £50 million signing. He demands £150,000 per week. That is about £7.8 million per year in base salary. Add employer NI and you are at roughly £9 million per year. Over a five year contract that is £45 million in wages, already almost matching the transfer fee.

Add a £8 million signing-on fee, realistic appearance bonuses over the contract totalling maybe £3 million, agent fees on both sides of the deal at roughly £6 million combined, and you are already past £110 million on a player whose headline cost was £50 million. The number in the press was less than half the story.

This is why the clubs that win long term are not always the biggest spenders. They are the ones who read the full cost of every player before a single decision is made, not just the fee, but the wages, the tax environment, the bonus structure, and the five year total commitment attached to every name on the shortlist.

Part 4 is next. We will be getting into agent fees and commissions, who really pays them, how they are structured, and why the same agent can legally represent both the player and the buying club in the exact same deal. It will be up by 12pm WAT today. Don’t miss it.

My name is Ajoje. I am a FIFA Licensed Agent and International Sports Lawyer. I write on the Law and Business of Football, a lot. Repost and Follow if you want to read more posts like this.

[Nigeria Stories @NigeriaStories]

The arrest of Verydarkman and oppression of young voices is a dangerous path that we must not normalise in Nigeria 🇳🇬.

~ Peter Obi.

[Nigeria Stories @NigeriaStories]

Davido call for Verydarkman to be freed

[Samuel @SamuelIse3]

If you stand with Verydarkman retweet this post! Justice for VDM

[Gooner Chris @ArsenalN7]

📸 Picture of the day 😂 You can’t skip this awesomeness without hitting that ❤️ button

[Queen Aeesha🌹✨ @Queen_Aeesha]

No Arsenal fan will pass without liking and retweeting this😭❤️❤️

[Gooner Eurychus 🏆 @GoonerEG]

Jakub Kiwior appreciation post. He has been outstanding. Just Repost

[Gooner Chris @ArsenalN7]

No natural striker.
Injuries galore.
Endless bad luck.
Mbappé, Vini Jr, Bellingham.

We didn’t just beat them, we swept them away

[now.arsenal @now_arsenaI]

Thierry Henry once conquered the Bernabeu. Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli repeated the feat last night.

Different era. Same stadium. Same celebrations.

[Queen Aeesha🌹✨ @Queen_Aeesha]

I love you sooo much Arsenal 🥹❤️

[Arsenal @Arsenal]

Ninety long minutes at the Bernabeu, and we heard you all game long.

Thank you, Gooners ❤️

[Inibehe Effiong @InibeheEffiong]

QUADRI ALABI, TEEN WHO STOOD IN FRONT OF PETER OBI’S CONVOY REGAINS FREEDOM FROM KIRIKIRI MONTHS AFTER BEING FRAMED FOR ARMED ROBBERY BY LAGOS POLICE

We are excited to announce that Quadri Yusuf Alabi, the 17-year old teenager who gained fame during the 2023 elections after he spontaneously jumped and stood in front of the convoy of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. @PeterObi, has been freed by the court today, 17th April, 2025.

Our client, Quadri was abducted by two ‘Area Boys’ who are notoriously known in the community as Lege and Baba Waris close to his family residence at Amukoko, Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Government Area and dumped at the Amukoko Divisional Police Headquarters (Pako Police Station) in Lagos State.

Quadri was returning from work when he was grabbed by the duo, who along with other jealous and entitled Area Boys in the community, have been harassing him and threatening to deal with him since 2023 for not giving them ‘their share’ of donations gifted him during the last elections period.

Quadri’s family informed us that the Baale of the community equally pressured them to buy a cow and rice and cook for the community to appease the Area Boys.

The abductors initially told the officers at Amukoko Police Station that our client was involved in street fighting.

To the consternation of Quadri and his family, the police on 26th January, 2025 took Quadri before a Magistrate in Apapa, and obtained an order remanding him at the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Kirikiri on a trumped-up charge of armed robbery.

The police fraudulently joined Quadri with four strange adults who had no form of connection or relationship whatsoever with him and claimed that the four strange men were his case mates.

As part of the diabolical frame-up of our client, the officers at Amukoko Police Station also misrepresented his age to be 18, knowing that disclosing his actual age would likely raise eyebrows.

When we were briefed by Quadri’s mother a week ago, after the matter was brought to public attention by Ms. Hassana Nurudeen, the Co-founder of Ray of Hope Prison Outreach (@Hausa_girl), we swiftly escalated the case and took necessary steps towards securing his freedom.

At the Court today, the presiding Magistrate, His Honour, A. O. Olorunfemi (Mrs.), confirmed that the legal advice issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), of the Ministry of Justice, Lagos State, Dr. Babajide Martins showed that there was no evidence to substantiate the allegation of armed robbery against Quadri.

In his Legal Advice, the DPP recommended the non-prosecution of Quadri. Thus, the presiding Magistrate discharged him and he was accordingly freed.

We commend the DPP for standing by the truth in this matter.

We demand that the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, and the Inspector General of Police, should as a matter of urgency, remove the DPO of Amukoko Divisional Headquarters and subject him to orderly room trial along with the IPO, one Inspector Odigbe Samuel, and other officers who participated in this evil, sinister, oppressive, and corrupt scheme of framing-up a teenager for armed robbery at the behest of rogue ‘Area Boys’.

We demand that the Nigeria Police Force should pay the sum of One Hundred Million Naira (N100,000,000.00) to our client as compensation.

Also, we also demand a public apology from the police.

If the above three remedial demands are not fully complied with immediately, we shall initiate legal actions to seek redress.

Quadri’s case is a painful example of the putrefying corruption, monstrous impunity, and pervasive injustice in the Nigeria Police Force.

There are many Quadris languishing in detention centres across Nigeria because of the unbridled criminality, lawlessness, and lack of accountability in the Police institution and the weakness of the justice system.

History will vindicate the just.

Signed:

INIBEHE EFFIONG, ESQ.
(Lead Counsel).

[Kurunmi @Kurunmi2]

Well done 👏

[Inibehe Effiong @InibeheEffiong]

QUADRI ALABI, TEEN WHO STOOD IN FRONT OF PETER OBI’S CONVOY REGAINS FREEDOM FROM KIRIKIRI MONTHS AFTER BEING FRAMED FOR ARMED ROBBERY BY LAGOS POLICE

We are excited to announce that Quadri Yusuf Alabi, the 17-year old teenager who gained fame during the 2023 elections after he spontaneously jumped and stood in front of the convoy of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. @PeterObi, has been freed by the court today, 17th April, 2025.

Our client, Quadri was abducted by two ‘Area Boys’ who are notoriously known in the community as Lege and Baba Waris close to his family residence at Amukoko, Ajeromi-Ifelodun Local Government Area and dumped at the Amukoko Divisional Police Headquarters (Pako Police Station) in Lagos State.

Quadri was returning from work when he was grabbed by the duo, who along with other jealous and entitled Area Boys in the community, have been harassing him and threatening to deal with him since 2023 for not giving them ‘their share’ of donations gifted him during the last elections period.

Quadri’s family informed us that the Baale of the community equally pressured them to buy a cow and rice and cook for the community to appease the Area Boys.

The abductors initially told the officers at Amukoko Police Station that our client was involved in street fighting.

To the consternation of Quadri and his family, the police on 26th January, 2025 took Quadri before a Magistrate in Apapa, and obtained an order remanding him at the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Kirikiri on a trumped-up charge of armed robbery.

The police fraudulently joined Quadri with four strange adults who had no form of connection or relationship whatsoever with him and claimed that the four strange men were his case mates.

As part of the diabolical frame-up of our client, the officers at Amukoko Police Station also misrepresented his age to be 18, knowing that disclosing his actual age would likely raise eyebrows.

When we were briefed by Quadri’s mother a week ago, after the matter was brought to public attention by Ms. Hassana Nurudeen, the Co-founder of Ray of Hope Prison Outreach (@Hausa_girl), we swiftly escalated the case and took necessary steps towards securing his freedom.

At the Court today, the presiding Magistrate, His Honour, A. O. Olorunfemi (Mrs.), confirmed that the legal advice issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), of the Ministry of Justice, Lagos State, Dr. Babajide Martins showed that there was no evidence to substantiate the allegation of armed robbery against Quadri.

In his Legal Advice, the DPP recommended the non-prosecution of Quadri. Thus, the presiding Magistrate discharged him and he was accordingly freed.

We commend the DPP for standing by the truth in this matter.

We demand that the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Command, and the Inspector General of Police, should as a matter of urgency, remove the DPO of Amukoko Divisional Headquarters and subject him to orderly room trial along with the IPO, one Inspector Odigbe Samuel, and other officers who participated in this evil, sinister, oppressive, and corrupt scheme of framing-up a teenager for armed robbery at the behest of rogue ‘Area Boys’.

We demand that the Nigeria Police Force should pay the sum of One Hundred Million Naira (N100,000,000.00) to our client as compensation.

Also, we also demand a public apology from the police.

If the above three remedial demands are not fully complied with immediately, we shall initiate legal actions to seek redress.

Quadri’s case is a painful example of the putrefying corruption, monstrous impunity, and pervasive injustice in the Nigeria Police Force.

There are many Quadris languishing in detention centres across Nigeria because of the unbridled criminality, lawlessness, and lack of accountability in the Police institution and the weakness of the justice system.

History will vindicate the just.

Signed:

INIBEHE EFFIONG, ESQ.
(Lead Counsel).

[Gooner Chris @ArsenalN7]

🔴⚪️ Calling all Gooners who BELIEVE Arsenal will WIN the Champions League. Drop your handles, REPOST and make sure you all follow each other. Turn on 🔔 for regular gains ⚪️🔴