SPORTS

Madrid, Spain | AFP | Philippe Coutinho came off the bench to score his first goal for Barcelona in a 2-0 win at Valencia on Thursday that saw his new club ease into another Copa del Rey final. Coutinho broke the deadlock in the 49th minute of the semi-final, second …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP | A lucky Kenyan gambler won a record-breaking 230 million shilling ($2.2 million) sports betting jackpot, thanks to an English Premier League goal from fellow countryman Victor Wanyama of Tottenham Hotspur. Gordon Opiyo, a 31-year-old shopkeeper in Nairobi’s sprawling, poor Kibera neighbourhood, took home the biggest …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard believes the English champions’ defence of their title was always going to be compromised by a return to Champions League football this season. Despite the Belgian’s 13th goal of the season, Chelsea crumbled to a 4-1 defeat at Watford on …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Swansea’s Ghanaian forward Andre Ayew hit back at West Ham’s sacked director of recruitment Tony Henry for calling into question the attitude of African players. Henry was dismissed by the London club on Friday following an investigation into a report by the Daily Mail …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | The social media frenzy surrounding Alexis Sanchez’s high-profile move to Manchester United dwarfed interest shown when Neymar moved from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain, executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward said Thursday. Sanchez joined United from Premier League rivals Arsenal last month in a deal that saw …

Hanoi, Vietnam | AFP | FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Thursday said football’s governing body will decide next month whether to officially endorse the video assistant referee, a move that could see the controversial technology used at the World Cup. VAR, so far trialled in nearly 1,000 matches, reviews key …

Seoul, South Korea | AFP | Almost all the dog meat restaurants in South Korea’s Pyeongchang county, where the Winter Olympics opening ceremony will be held on Friday, have defied a government request to stop serving the food, an official admitted Thursday. South Koreans are believed to consume about one million …

Pyeongchang, South Korea | AFP | International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach said on Wednesday that Africa could host the Olympics for the first time as early as 2032. It came after the IOC approved plans to target Africa to host the fourth Summer Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in …

Kampala, Uganda | MOSES MAGOGO | COMMENT | My experience is that leadership is about seeing tomorrow from the position of today. Humanity naturally resists change and introducing new ideas definitely meets a lot of resistance of moving from the comfort zone. It is also true that you cannot achieve …

London, United Kingdom | AFP | Chelsea’s troubled season hit a new low on Monday as the Premier League champions crashed to a 4-1 defeat at Watford that heaped fresh pressure on beleaguered boss Antonio Conte. Less than a year after being hailed as the mastermind of Chelsea’s title triumph, …