Author: damazah@gmail.com

As the new season of Ted Lasso started, I was reminded of one of the show’s stranger storylines. When Dani “Football is life!” Rojas gets injured, his teammates blame the incident on a curse said to haunt the treatment room.Absurd? Perhaps. But sports curses aren’t just fictional plot devices. Football is fertile ground for stories of mysterious forces, blamed for everything from missed penalties to decades of failure.Take Mayo’s Gaelic football team. After they won the All-Ireland title in 1951, the story goes that a local priest cursed them, declaring they would not win another final until every member of…

FIFA has hit out at “a concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine” the governing body and president Gianni Infantino over claims surrounding his conduct at UEFA.UEFA confirmed on Saturday a “departure payment” was made to a female employee alleged to have been in a relationship with Infantino when he was the European organisation’s general secretary. The Daily Telegraph reported the woman received a six-figure sum and UEFA confirmed a payment was made along with covering the fees for an MBA course, adding it was “in line” with regulations at the time. The allegations intensify the position of Infantino,…

EastEnders star Kellie Bright is to leave the soap after playing one of its key characters, Linda Carter, for 13 years.She arrived in Albert Square with on-screen husband Mick, portrayed by Danny Dyer, when they became the new owners of the Queen Vic pub.Carter’s matriarch character has been central to major storylines including plots about murder, sexual assault and alcoholism.Bright said she made the “tough decision” to leave more than a year ago but “happily” agreed to stay on to be part of an “exciting storyline”.The BBC has promised “unmissable drama” before her on-screen exit, which is said to be…

Argentina’s forward #10 Lionel Messi cries during the trophy ceremony at the end of the 2026 World Cup football tournament final match between Spain and Argentina at the New York/New Jersey Stadium in East Rutherford on July 19, 2026. (Photo by Paul ELLIS / AFP) Lionel Messi was absent following the death of his father as Inter Miami lost 2-1 to visiting Monterrey on Saturday in a Leagues Cup match. Teams observed a minute of silence before the match for Jorge Messi, who died at age 68 in Argentina, where the Inter Miami captain Lionel Messi arrived on Saturday night.…

“There was no scope in cricket. We used to think playing sport was a waste of time, so I insisted that Auqib focused on his studies,” Ghulam says.But Auqib’s persistence eventually changed his father’s mind.”After seeing his passion for cricket, I accepted it. I realised that, as a parent and a teacher, I shouldn’t force him to do something he didn’t want to do. I started supporting him.”Auqib’s childhood friend, Junaid Dar, remembers growing up in an environment where professional cricket barely seemed possible.”Auqib was obsessed with cricket from childhood. I used to ask him, ‘Why are you doing all…

With Lagos introducing compulsory building insurance, attention is on whether the law can curb recurring  building collapses, writesEbere Nwoji The Lagos State Government has taken a decisive step towards strengthening public safety and risk management by launching the Lagos State Building Insurance Scheme, the first comprehensive state-level implementation of the compulsory building insurance provisions in the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025. The initiative marks a significant shift from decades of weak enforcement under the repealed Insurance Act 2003, which prescribed compulsory building insurance but achieved little in terms of compliance despite recurring building collapses across the country. Structured…

NextSlide recently announced that it’s joining OpenAI, with the presentation startup’s team members now working on ChatGPT. The NextSlide website currently displays a note from founder Ahmed Beshry describing the startup’s product as one “that could turn prompts, notes, documents, or research into a polished, editable presentation.” The ultimate goal, Beshry said, was “to make visual communication more accessible and help more people express their ideas clearly.” So by joining OpenAI, the team will “continue pursuing that same mission: building AI products that help people create, communicate, and turn their ideas into meaningful work.” The financial terms of the deal…

As the August 15 governorship election in Osun State approaches, the alleged arrests of leaders of the ruling Accord Party by the state police command suggest that the police are replaying the Edo State governorship election script where leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state were hounded into detention few weeks to the September 21, 2024 poll, which obviously weakened the capacity of the party in the poll, Ejiofor Alike reports Recent developments ahead of the August 15 governorship election in Osun State suggest the absence of a level-playing field as the processes leading to the election are allegedly being…

Archive footage from 1999 looking back at the total eclipse of the sun from Alderney.Hundreds of astronomers were among those who travelled to Alderney in the Channel Islands to view the eclipse on 11 August 1999.Cloud cover meant it was not the perfect spectacle, but many viewers said the cloud cover made watching easier.The next eclipse to be viewed from the Channel Islands will be a partial solar eclipse when about 94% of the sun will be covered by the moon and will peak at 19:17 BST on Wednesday 12 August.

Welcome to our Who am I? game.The rules are simple. Each day there’s a new footballer and the challenge is to guess who they are in as few attempts as possible.After each wrong guess you unlock a new clue. The fewer clues you need to get the right answer, the more points you score.Three is a good score, four or five points is exceptional.So take part and return for more tomorrow.Today’s player and clues set by BBC Sport’s Huzaifah Khan.After more quizzes? Go to our dedicated Football Quizzes and Sports Quizzes pages and sign up for notifications to get the…