Sports
Adebayor Unsure Of Future With Togo
Togo striker Emmanuel
Adebayor is unsure about his international future after he was stripped of the captaincy for their match against Liberia.
He was only told on the day of the 2017 African Cup of Nations tie that the captain’s armband had been given to Mathieu Dossevi for Sunday’s 2-1 win.
The 31-year-old scored the winner but said he was unsure if he will play against Djibouti in September.
“For now, I don’t know – I’ll be here and I’ll talk with the coach,” he said.
“I need to know whether he really needs me in the team or not.
“I have been the captain for seven or eight years and then one morning I’m told I won’t be the captain – that means that we can go to Djibouti and he will put me in the stands.
“So I’d rather quit the team than be sidelined or put in the stands there and I think this will be better for me and the team.
“We can change captains everyday if we are playing street games in Lomé, but this is a national team.
“But what is sure I am going on holidays and allow me to enjoy my holidays before I decide.”
He has said that if he decides to play again he does not want to captain the Hawks.
“From now on, I will never captain this team again,” he added.
“To tell me on the day of the match that I will not captain the team then it is very disrespectful” .
Togo’s new coach Tom Saintfiet however tried to play down the issue.
“I don’t want to talk too much about this topic because I think that Emmanuel Adebayor is a natural captain for the team,” the Belgian coach said.
“He does not necessarily need to have the captain’s armband when he plays, he is the captain and the greatest Togolese player.
“He has played today as a great captain without armband.
“For me every player is like a captain, so we have eleven captains on the pitch and every player must be responsible as a captain.
“We may have a captain but you can only win a match with eleven players.”
Saintfiet and Adebayor had also fallen out in the build-up to the match against Liberia when the striker was dropped from the squad for a friendly against Ghana.
The coach said the Tottenham player and two other players were axed as they had not attended all the training sessions nor stayed at the team hotel.
Adebayor for his part insisted that he had told the coach he would not play in the friendly in the days before the match.
Both men seemed to have made amends before the Liberia match insisting “there was no problems at all.”
The striker has taken several breaks from playing international football in the past, including in the wake of the terrorist attack on the Togo team bus at the 2010 Nations Cup finals in Angola.
Sporting have not received an offer for striker Viktor Gyokeres and there is no gentleman’s agreement for him to leave for £59million, says club president Frederico Varandas.
Sweden international Gyokeres, 27, has been heavily linked with Manchester United and Arsenal after scoring 97 goals in 102 matches during two seasons in Portugal.
He has a 100m euro (£85m) release clause in his contract.
It has been widely reported that, after staying at Sporting last summer, Gyokeres and Sporting agreed he could leave for 70m euros (£59m) this summer.
However, Varandas said the club’s only promise to Gyokeres was that they would not demand his full release clause.
“I can guarantee that Viktor Gyokeres will not leave for 60m euros plus 10m euros because I never promised that,” Varandas said.
“To this day Sporting has not had an offer for Gyokeres, neither today nor last season.”
Gyokeres spent three seasons with Coventry City in the Championship before joining Sporting under Ruben Amorim.
Manchester City director of football Hugo Viana was sporting director at Sporting last summer, when Gyokeres’ agent sought assurances about his leaving if a suitable offer arrived.
“One of the agent’s biggest concerns was whether we would demand the termination clause,” said Varandas.
“He wanted to guarantee certain things. And what was agreed? That Sporting would not demand a release clause now.
“For one reason: he was going to be 27 years old and no player leaves Portugal at 27 for 100m eurors or 90m euros.
“In that same meeting the agent wanted to anchor the exit to a value. I said this sentence: ‘It’s not worth us setting a value because I don’t know what will happen in a year’s time. I don’t know if it will be 40m euros, 60m euros or 80m euros. What I can guarantee is that I will not demand 100 million euros.’”
Concacaf President Victor Montagliani has criticised a proposal to expand the 2030 men’s World Cup to 64 teams.
The plans, put forward by South American governing body Conmebol, have also drawn opposition from Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
The tournament will be hosted by Spain, Morocco and Portugal, after the opening matches are held in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
The 2026 World Cup, which will take place across the United States, Mexico and Canada, has already been expanded from 32 to 48 teams.
But Conmebol said it wanted to add more participants to mark the competition’s 100-year anniversary.
“I don’t believe expanding the men’s World Cup to 64 teams is the right move for the tournament itself and the broader football ecosystem, from national teams to club competitions, leagues, and players,” Montagliani told Tidesports source
“We haven’t even kicked off the new 48-team World Cup yet, so personally, I don’t think that expanding to 64 teams should even be on the table.”
Concacaf is the governing body of football in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
The decision to expand the 2026 World Cup to 48 teams was taken in 2017 following a unanimous vote at a Fifa congress.
Fifa’s 75th congress will be held in Paraguay on 15 May, when Conmebol’s proposal could be discussed.
If the proposal is accepted, the 2030 edition would consist of 128 matches, double the number played under the 64-game format used from 1998 and 2022.
In March, Ceferin described the proposal as a “bad idea” while AFC president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa said it would cause “chaos”.
“If the issue remains open to change, then the door will not only be open to expanding the tournament to 64 teams,” said Salman.
“But someone might come along and demand raising the number to 132 teams. Where would we end up then? It would become chaos.”
Brazil qualified for the 2026 World Cup this week with a 1-0 win against Paraguay in South American qualifying to give Carlo Ancelotti his first win as manager.
Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jnr scored from close range in the second half, finishing after fine work from Manchester United-bound playmaker Matheus Cunha.
The victory, Ancelotti’s first after a 0-0 draw against Ecuador on his debut last week, means Brazil has now qualified for every edition of the World Cup.
“We needed to win and qualify for the World Cup,” said Vinicius Jr.
“Now the coach will have more time to work. Of course today wasn’t one of our best performances, but the important thing is always to win.
“Now it’s time to celebrate qualifying.”
Elsewhere, World Cup holders Argentina played out an entertaining 1-1 draw with Colombia in Buenos Aires.
Liverpool winger Luis Diaz opened the scoring with a fine individual goal, dancing through three defenders before finishing past Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Argentina was reduced to 10 men with 20 minutes remaining when Chelsea midfielder Enzo Fernandez was sent off for a high-boot challenge on Colombia’s Kevin Castano.
But Lionel Messi’s side found an equaliser nine minutes from the end through Lyon’s Thiago Almada, leaving Colombia four points clear of seventh-placed Venezuela.
Ecuador, Argentina’s nearest challengers, booked their spot at next summer’s tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States after a 0-0 draw away at Peru.