IFFHS NEWS AND STATISTICS OF THE WEEK 32
Picture : Zinedine Zidane and Pep Guardiola - the UEFA Champions League in the Final Round !
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE NEWS
After the matches City - Real, Bayern - Chelsea, Juve - Lyon and Barcelona - Napoli, we knew the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Champions League with great matches like Barcelona - Bayern, Lionel Messi against Robert Lewandowski !
After the defeat against Lyon, Juve has changed his coach. Sarri out, Juve has chosen Andrea Pirlo as new Manager for the next season ! Andrea Pirlo, one of the greatest Playmakers in the World (picture with IFFHS Trophy in 2008), made his debut with one of the greatest clubs in the World !
MIXED FOOTBALL OFFICIAL !
Ellen Fokkema becomes the first woman to play with men’s team when Netherlands try gender-neutral senior football.
A new pilot project in Netherlands will try gender-neutral football where a dutch 19-year-old woman gets permission to play in a men’s team from next season ! KNVB (Dutch Football Association) stands for diversity and equality, so it gave the permission to Ellen Fokema, 19 years old, to be able to join VV Foarut in the Dutch Fourfth Division ahead of the 2020/21 season. Ellen plays already in the U18 National Team of Netherlands.
Letting a woman be part of a men’s team is the starting point for a project that will see if more women should be allowed to be part of Dutch men’s teams more permanently.
Women’s football was recognized in the Netherlands in 1971 and has since been officially part of KNVB. « Mixed football » for girls and boys up to 12 years was introduced in 1986. Now it can be the case that « Mixed Football » can also become part of senior football ; a revolution in football !!
CAMEROON 1990 WORLD CUP SQUAD AWARDED 30-YEAR-OLD PROMISE
Nineteen players of the famous Cameroon Italia’90 World Cup squad that became the first African team to reach the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup will ultimately be given the houses promised by President Paul Biya thirty years after their achievement. Three of the players, midfielder Louis Paul Mfede, defender Benjamin Massing, and defender and captain, Stephen Tataw have since died.
A Presidential order signed two days ago made a fulfillment of the thirty-year-old promise potentially effective after undue delays caused by a failure by the then Sports Minister to present a list of 22 beneficiaries, rather presenting a 44-beneficiary list. Two months ago, a handful of the concerned, led by defender Bertin Ebwelle Ndingue wrote to the President and their plea was harkened to. This clears the way for each of the 19 players still alive to have the houses located in the political capital, Yaounde, economic capital, Douala, and the Atlantic coastal setting of Limbe.
Meanwhile, the members of the Cameroon 2000 Olympic football gold-winning squad, led by defender and captain, Geremi Njitap Fotso (PICTURE) have seized the opportunity to lay claim as well to like promises made to them twenty years ago. The Olympic gold medalists insist that the achievement has been Cameroon’s greatest football success story on the world stage, and so should be given the required attention, especially after a promise made by President Biya. However, it is not clearly known what caused the delay in matching action with promise two decades later.
TRANSFERS
Dejan Lovren (Croatia) from Liverpool FC (England) to Zenith St Petersburg (Russia)
Kathleen Sousa (Brazil) from Girondins Bordeaux (France) to Inter Milan (Italy)
Nathan AKE (Netherlands) from Bournemouth (England) and Ferran Torres (Spain) from Valencia CF (Spain) to Manchester City FC (England)