NEWS ANALYSIS

Why FIFA’s reform proposals are neo-colonial | CHUKA ONWEMECHILI | FIFA has ended its 6-month management takeover of the Confederation of African Football (CAF). But the future of the game on the continent is still clouded with uncertainty. In June last year the world football governing body effectively took over …

DP leaders explain frustration with Mao as leader Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Norbert Mao, the current leader of Uganda’s oldest political organisation; the Democratic Party (DP) is at his best when gabbing – and some of his fellow leaders do not like that. They wish he could lead …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | In quashing the idea of married priests in the Amazon, Pope Francis has appeased traditionalists while disappointing progressives who had hoped for a historic turning point in the Catholic church. In his “apostolic exhortation” on the Amazon basin published Wednesday, Francis slammed the …

Nyon, Switzerland | AFP | Manchester City have been banned from European competitions for the next two seasons for “serious financial fair-play breaches”, UEFA announced on Friday, with the verdict immediately contested by Pep Guardiola’s English champions. City, who were also fined 30 million euros ($32.5 million), announced they were …

Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | When Cyril Ramaphosa took office as South African president two years ago, the media coined the term “Ramaphoria” to describe the giddy expectations he had stoked. Those heady days now seem firmly in the past. Ramaphosa, 67, has been praised for turning the page …

It has nothing to do with peace | FRED KAPLAN | President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled their Middle East peace plan on Jan.28. While it’s more substantive than many expected, it doesn’t amount to a peace plan at all. First, the fact that the Palestinians played …

Nigerian wives pick a side | OLUDAYO TADE | There are about 100 million active soccer fans in Nigeria and the majority actively follow Europe’s UEFA Champions League and the UK’s Premier League, according to the Nigeria Football Market Report 2019. It says Nigeria; the most populous country in Africa …

Why government faces dilemma in fighting human trafficking Kampala, Uganda | IAN KATUSIIME | When Bernadette Akampurira went to Jordan, an Arab country in the Middle East region, in search of the proverbial green pastures in March last year, she was hopeful. She was one of the thousands of Ugandans …

It could be online ID | LUCIAN TIPI | In an interview, PayPal’s chief executive, Dan Schulman, recently discussed the prospects for blockchain – the encrypted, decentralised online ledger system that underpins Bitcoin and myriad other cutting-edge projects. While talking about blockchain’s potential for improving how people make payments around …

  Paris, France | AFP | A British man managed to pass on the coronavirus to at least 11 other people without ever setting foot in the epicentre of the outbreak in China, in an infectious journey that shows how the deadly virus can spread rapidly around a globalised world. …