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Man City’s Domestic Success Unrivalled -Guardiola

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Manchester City’s recent dominance of English competitions is unrivalled, says manager Pep Guardiola after winning a third successive Carabao Cup.
Goals from Sergio Aguero and Rodri before Mbwana Samatta’s reply saw City beat Aston Villa 2-1 at Wembley, last weekend.
On top of three League Cups, Guardiola has won two Premier Leagues, an FA Cup and two Community Shields with City.
“Since we started to win, the last nine [domestic] competitions we played, we won eight,” he told Tidesports source
“That is awesome. No club before in the history of domestic trophies, not counting Europe, won the amount of titles in a row we have won.
“Not even the biggest Liverpool in the 80s, the biggest Manchester United with Sir Alex Ferguson or Jose Mourinho, or Arsene Wenger [with Arsenal).
“These clubs were amazing but were never able to win in the last nine titles, domestic eight.”
Liverpool won six league titles, two FA Cups and four successive League Cups in the 1980s, while United accumulated 13 Premier League titles including three in a row on two occasions under Ferguson, with Wenger guiding Arsenal to an unbeaten league season.
Guardiola, who joined Manchester City in 2016, led his side to the domestic treble of Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup last season, having also won the season-opening Community Shield.
The Spaniard says his side cannot compete for the title this year because Liverpool is “exceptional”. but believes his players’ desire to keep winning trophies has made City a “big, big club”.
“Never before we could go to Madrid, and Europe, and bigger stages and win the way we did,” Guardiola said about his side’s 2-1 victory against Real Madrid in the Champions League last-16 first leg last week.
“That doesn’t mean we’re going to qualify, but this is the first step. To believe we can go there and play, face-to-face, and win it.
“This is more important than come the end of the season we won one title or two titles.”
ity dominated for long spells of the final but Aston Villa almost took the game to extra time when Bjorn Engels’ header was turned onto the post by Claudio Bravo.
Villa boss Dean Smith said he was proud of his players’ efforts against “one of the top teams in the world”.
“We knew we would have to be patient without the ball,” said Smith, who admitted he thought Engels’ header moments from time was going in.
“They went 2-0 up and it is a mountain to climb against a team of that quality but we nearly climbed that mountain.
“I thought the lads showed a lot of heart and a lot of quality as well.”
Wins for West Ham and Watford in the Premier League on Saturday meant Villa dropped into the relegation zone, albeit with a game in hand.
But Smith is confident his side can take heart from their performance at Wembley.

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Siasia Blames NFF Over FIFA Ban

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Former Super Eagles Coach, Samson Siasia says the Nigeria Football Federation supported FIFA to have him banned for alleged involvement in match-fixing in August 2019.
In a recent interview with Athlist, the 56-year-old, whose ban ends in a few months, said the NFF not only refused to support him but also carried out FIFA’s instruction not to let him know he was under investigation by the world football body.
“Nigeria abandoned me at that time of need; that’s my own take on how this thing played out,” the former Eagles striker and member of the 1994 AFCON-winning squad, said.
“It’s an allegation; they said bribery. What is bribery? Is it not when money changes hands? Was there any proof of that? There were none.
“I spoke with someone who was trying to hire me as a coach in Australia. I didn’t know the guy was a match-fixer, but FIFA knew this guy. Why would they allow him to be around any FIFA tournament?
“So, when they found out through emails, our correspondence about how this guy would take me to Australia, I played in Australia, so I felt it would be nice to go back there.
“We talked about how much salaries, transfers, bonuses, and sign-on fees were, and that was all.
“When FIFA was looking for me, I didn’t even know. I am not affiliated with FIFA; their affiliation is with the NFF. So, they went to the NFF and told them not to let me know that they were investigating me. But if they didn’t tell me, how was I supposed to defend my self Siasia added, “Then they sent me a letter, but it went to my spam. It was two days before the ban that I found out that FIFA was looking for me.
Siasia added, “Then they sent me a letter, but it went to my spam. It was two days before the ban that I found out that FIFA was looking for me.
“Then we started to see how we could communicate with them to see how I could have a hearing. But they said the time had elapsed and I should go to the CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport).

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WADA Plans Review Of Failed Tests

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The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will launch an independent review after 23 Chinese swimmers were cleared to compete at the Tokyo Olympics despite testing positive for a banned substance.
WADA has said it was not in a position to disprove an assertion from the China Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) that contamination was the source of the heart medication trimetazidine (TMZ) for which the swimmers tested positive.
Findings of the independent investigation, led by Swiss prosecutor Eric Cottier, are expected to be delivered within two months.
“WADA’s integrity and reputation is under attack,” said Wada president Witold Banka.
“WADA has been unfairly accused of bias in favour of China by not appealing the CHINADA case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“We continue to reject the false accusations and we are pleased to be able to put these questions into the hands of an experienced, respected and independent prosecutor.”
United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) Chief Executive Travis Tygart said WADA and CHINADA had swept these positives under the carpet, claims WADA described as completely false and defamatory while adding that it had referred the comments to its lawyers.
Aquatics GB said it was extremely concerned by the allegations, which it said threatened “potential loss of trust and reputational damage to sport”.
WADA was notified of CHINADA’s decision in June 2021, ahead of the delayed Games, and said it had no evidence to challenge China’s findings and that external counsel had advised against appealing.
In addition to the independent investigation, WADA said it will send a compliance audit team to assess the state of China’s anti-doping programme and invite independent auditors “from the broader anti-doping community” to join the trip.
WADA director general Olivier Niggli said: “While not one shred of evidence has been presented to support any of the allegations made against WADA, we wish to deal with the matter as quickly and as comprehensively as possible so that the matter is appropriately handled in advance of the upcoming Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Details of the positive tests were revealed by the New York Times, which shared reporting with German broadcaster ARD.
China won six swimming medals at the Tokyo Olympics, including three golds.

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AFN Lists Strong Squad For Bahamas Relays

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The Athletics Federation of Nigeria has listed Tobi Amusan, Favour Ofili and Omolara Ogunmakinju among the athletes to represent the country at the World Athletics Relays at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium in Nassau on May 4 and 5.
The body shockingly left out Favour Ashe, Nigeria’s fastest man so far this year, who would have helped Nigeria secure a 4x100m slot at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Auburn University undergraduate has been in great form this outdoor season, breaking 10 seconds twice (9.96 and 9.99).
The 21-year-old was not among the 29 names World Athletics released on Tuesday in the final entry list by Nigeria for the event, and AFN has yet to give reasons for its decision t Meanwhile, Godson Oghenebrume and Udodi Onwuzurike head the list of eight sprinters listed for the men’s 4x100m event.
Others are Alaba Akintola, Karlingthon Anunagba, Consider Ekanem, Seye Ogunlewe and Israel Okon Sunday.
The team will strive to be among the best 14 finishers to secure a lane in Paris for the first time since 2008, when the quartet of Onyeabor Ngwogu, Obinna Metu, Chinedu Oriala, and Uchenna Emedolu did not finish in the first heat of the event at the Bird’s Nest in Beijing, China.
For the men’s 4x400m, African Games 400m champion Chidi Okezie headlines the list of eight quarter milers listed to return Nigeria to the Games since 2004, when Godday James led the team to a bronze medal finish in Athens, Greece.
Others are Sikiru Adeyemi, Dubem Amene, Ezekiel Nathaniel and his brother, Samson Nathniel, Dubem Nwanchukwu, Samuel Ogazi, who has been improving since his switch to the University of Alabama and holds the Nigerian U-18 record and Ifeanyi Ojeli.

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