IFFHS NEWS AND STATISTICS OF THE WEEK 35


Picture : OL on the Top of Europe !


LYON : FIVE CONSECUTIVE UEFA WOMEN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE !


It's a feat that has only been achieved once - by Real Madrid in the 1950s, when Alfredo Di Stefano was the star in Spain.That is, until now.

On Sunday, Lyon wrote their names into history, again, by winning their fifth Women's Champions League (UWCL) title in a row, beating Wolfsburg 3-1 in Bilbao.



Eugénie Le Sommer, Wendie Renard and Sarah Bouhaddi won yesterday their seventh Champions League title !


Every time this team steps on a pitch, they seem to set new records. No one has played in more semi-finals, more finals, or won more UWCL titles in history than them, a record they have now extended from six to seven.

No club has won more matches in the competition. No club has won more games in the competition. No club has scored more goals in the competition. And Lyon played without UEFA Champions League Record Goal Scorer Ada Hegerberg, the first woman BALLON D'OR 2018 : Amandine Henry, Griedge M'Bock and Nikita Parris, three absolute World class players !



Delphine Cascarino, one of the young players in Lyon, named Player of the match !


This period of dominance that Lyon are enjoying will go down in history as one of the greatest eras for not just a football team, but a team in any sport, and many of the players involved over the last five years will go down as some of the greatest to play the game.



TRANSFERS



Timo Werner, Hakim Zyech, Ben Chilwell and Thiago Silva : FC Chelsea on the top of transfers !




Reinier Carvalho loaned from Real Madrid to Borussia Dortmund




Lionel Messi : the question ?




Christen Press and Tobin Heath to Manchester United ?




Pernille Harder from VFL Wolfsburg to FC Chelsea ?




CAMEROON CLUBS REQUEST FOR FIFA-APPOINTED FEDERATION ADMINISTRATOR.

In a letter addressed to the leaderships of FIFA and CAF, the Association of Cameroon Amateur Football Clubs, ACEFAC, and other stakeholders have requested that an administrator  “from abroad,”  they call general delegate, be appointed to manage the affairs of Cameroon football until the next truly authentic executive of the federation is voted into office. This comes ahead of the debut of the professional football season scheduled for September 26th in a match pitting PWD Bamenda against Union Douala at the Japoma stadium on the outskirts of the economic capital, Douala.

The letter to FIFA and CAF precipitated by what ACEFAC describes as poor management of Covid-19 funds from those institutions decries what they term as whooping instability in Cameroon football since 2013 which has registered the annulment of three general elections and the march past of three normalization committees at the helm of the federation. To add onto the bargain, the federation has been severally and recurrently dragged to the Lausanne-based CAS(Court for the Arbitration of Sports) in litigations with clubs and officials. Youth and Women’s football have also been in the doldrums. The members of ACEFAC therefore concluded that Cameroon football needs an entirely neutral and foreign football administrator,  while work begins on overhauling its texts and preparing yet another Elective General Assembly of the federation.

Cameroon dropped from their 5th position of FIFA ranking after their 1990 World Cup exploits and have since experienced a disquieting freefall as to be hardly ever amongst the first fifty in the monthly cue-up. This has been attributed to poor and corrupt management of federation affairs, as well as controversial electoral procedures, year in, year out.

 

CAMEROON NATION HONOR DOUBLE WORLD CUP CAPTAIN AT FUNERALS.

Stephen Eta Tataw has been interred in the capital city, Yaounde, far off   from his native Ossing village situated in the restive Anglophone regions of the country where armed separatists are combating government forces to regain their statehood. The two-day funerals held over August 28th  and 29th closed with the representative of the Head of State, Sports and Physical Education Minister, Narcisse Mouelle Kombi posthumously decorating the deceased footballer with the medal of Commander of National Order of Valour, one of the highest distinctions in the country.



After coffining of the mortal remains of the deceased at the Yaounde Central Hospital, the funeral cortege drove through several popular neighborhoods before the late player was laid in state at the Multi-purpose Sports Complex for an all-night vigil. The Holy Mass that kick-started the activities was transmitted live on one of the three State-owned television channels, CRTV Sports and Entertainment. In orations at the end of the mass, representatives who spoke were: the elder sister for the family, the head from one of his former clubs, former national team administrative director, Indomitable Lions deputy trainer on behalf of the current national team players, secretary general of the association of former national team players, traditional ruler from Ossing village, secretary general of the football federation, and then Samuel Eto’o Fils, on behalf of the President of the Confederation of African Football, Ahmad Ahmad. On a personal note, Eto’s promised to be always available for Tataw’s family. 24 hours on, the representative of the Head of State was at the head of several members of government, and a heavy presence of fans and football officials at the requiem mass at the Sports Complex. In his oration, the guest of honor described the late Stephen Tataw as a talented, loyal and patriotic citizen in his days, before posthumously decorating him one rung above his 1990 Officer of the National Order of Valour. 

57-year-old Stephen Tataw who died on July 31st, 2020 and who has been interred in the Mvolye cemetery in Yaounde, rose from the ranks of his Sonara FC High School team to sport the shirts of Cammark, then multiple Cameroon champions, Tonnerre Yaounde, where from Cameroon Manager Claude Leroy gave him his first Cameroon cap in 1988. His star shone when during the AFCON hosted by Morocco he was credited to have prevented the hosts from winning the cup when he virtually pocketed star player, Aziz Bouderbala in a key game. He wore the captain band from 1990 to 1995, captaining 7-time participants, Cameroon in two FIFA World Cup finals; and finally closed his amateur career with Olympic Mvolye before an inconclusive professional trial at Queens Park Rangers, and subsequently, failing to make it at an obscure J-League outfit, Tosu Futures. 

The man fondly called Janvion after the celebrated France Les Bleus defender from 1975 to 1982, Gérard Janvion,  had two children, Ivana and Stephen Tataw Jr. to whom the officials of Tonnerre Yaounde retired the father’s jersey yesterday, in hope of succession in like duties.