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Arjen Robben has announced his retirement from football after a 21-year playing career. The former Dutch international made over 300 appearances for Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Bayern Munich, and won a league title in every country he played in. But, the 37-year-old has struggled with injuries after coming out of retirement in 2020 and rejoining boyhood club Groningen in 2020. He endured a seven-month absence last season after making his second debut. Robben also made 96 appearances for the Dutch national team and is the ninth-most capped Netherlands international.  In a heartfelt statement, Robben said: “I have decided to stop my active football career. A year ago I announced my comeback as a FC Groningen player. I embarked on this adventure with great energy and enthusiasm.   “I only had to deal with physical setbacks quite quickly, which prevented me from playing matches for a very long time. After a long road of trial and error I finally managed to play the last g...

Arsenal and England star,  Bukayo Saka has shared an emotional message after suffering racist abuse following the euros 2020 final. The 19-year-old English winger took the last penalty against Italy and failed to score as his effort was saved by Donnarumma. After the game, he was racially abused online alongside Manchester United's Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho.  Saka has now broken his silence on the matter in an open, heartfelt message to all football fans. He wrote: “I have stayed away from social media for a few days to spend time with my family and reflect on the last few weeks,” he said on Twitter.   “This message won’t do it justice, how grateful I am for all the love that I have received, and I feel that I need to thank everyone who has supported me. “There are no words to tell you how disappointed I was with the result and my penalty. I really believed we would win this for you. I’m sorry that we couldn’t bring it home for you this year, but I pr...

Unknown gunmen have killed Philip Udala, Chairman of Udala Football Club in Anambra State. The billionaire was murdered when his convoy was ambushed at Eke-Agu Market junction in Abatete, Idemili North Local Government Area. The attackers initially hit a police facility in the area and were fleeing the scene when they ran into Udala’s convoy. The policemen attached to Udala were killed and vehicles set ablaze. The victims were reportedly still inside. Godsent Eriobu, Udala FC Manager and Secretary of Anambra Independent League (AIFL), also in the motorcade, was shot dead. Rev. Fr Obinna Dike, Chairman of AIFL, said the league lost two key members who loved the game.

Boris Johnson has announced that online racists will be banned from football matches in the wake of abuse aimed at England stars. England trio, Bukayo Saka, Jadon Sancho, and Marcus Rashford were targeted with sickening racial abuse following Sunday's Euros final defeat after they missed penalty shootout against Italy at Wembley. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister told MPs that the government is toughening up the football banning order regime as he clashed with Keir Starmer over his stance on the national team 'taking the knee' before matches. “You will not be going to the match – no ifs, no buts,” the prime minister told abusive supporters, in the Commons, after pressure from Labour to adopt the move. The commitment came as Mr. Johnson defended Priti Patel, his home secretary, for defending fans’ right to boo England players taking the knee at the start of matches.   But Keir Starmer told him: “She’s got this wrong, the whole county knows that, his own MP...

The United Nations on Wednesday July 14 warned that regulation of social media threatens rights of people.  The international group stated that public and private actors are intervening against online content in ways that curtail rights and muzzle criticism. It also disclosed that 40 new laws regulating social media have been adopted around the world in the past two years, with 30 more under examination.   Peggy Hicks of the UN Rights Office in Geneva said;    “You see a digital world that is unwelcoming and frequently unsafe for people trying to exercise their rights.  “You also see a host of government and company responses that risk making the situation worse.  “Virtually every country that has adopted laws relating to online content has jeopardized human rights in doing so. "In responding to public pressure to regulate online content, “some governments see such legislation as a way to limit speech they dislike and even silence ci...

American singer, Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds and his wife, actress Nicole Pantenburg are going their separate ways after 7 years of marraige. In a joint statement shared with PEOPLE Wednesday, the pair announced their split. "After much thought and with great sadness, we have decided to end our marriage," the now-former couple said. "We continue to care and have respect for one another and share eternal love for our daughter and her well-being," they added, referring to daughter Peyton Nicole, 12. "We ask for personal privacy for ourselves and our daughter as we navigate these new steps as a family." It's unclear what led to the split between Edmonds, 62, and Pantenburg, 48. The Grammy award-winning singer and producer began dating the actress back in 2007, and they married seven years later in 2014. At the time, the couple tied the knot in front of a group of celebrity guests including Oprah Winfrey, among others. Pantenburg is Edmon...

A Gambian court sentenced an ally of ex-dictator Yahya Jammeh to death on Wednesday July 14, for his role in the murder of a former finance minister. Jammeh seized power in 1994 as part of a bloodless military coup in the West African state. He then ruled with an iron fist until January 2017, when he fled to Equatorial Guinea after losing presidential elections to Adama Barrow. According to reports, Gambia's government subsequently established a Truth, Reconciliation, and Reparations Commission (TRRC) to investigate Jammeh-era abuses, which heard several hundred witness testimonies between 2019 and May. But Yankuba Touray - a member of the junta that ruled The Gambia for some years after the 1994 coup - refused to testify at the TRRC in 2019. Public prosecutors then charged him with the 1995 murder of former finance minister Ousman Koro Ceesay. On Wednesday, the court in the capital Banjul found Touray guilty of committing the murder, according to an AFP journalist pres...