As the transfer deadline approaches, Liverpool is in talks with Bayern Munich over a possible deal for central midfielder Ryan Gravenberch.

The two parties are working towards an agreement for Gravenberch, as per Sky Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg, and the player has 'made clear' that he wants out before the end of the transfer window. He's simply waiting for the green light.

In terms of a transfer fee, Plettenberg reports that Bayern has laid out an asking price of $33m (£26m/€30m), which would represent a sizeable profit on the $21m (£16m/€19m) it paid to sign him from Ajax last summer.

Crucially, though, Bayern was only able to pick him up for a relatively cheap fee because he was into the final year of his contract with Ajax. With the protection of a long-term deal, he likely would have been a lot more expensive given that he'd emerged as one of the most exciting young players on the continent.

He was named the Eredivisie Talent of the Year in 2020/21, his penultimate year in Amsterdam, and made the top 20 for the prestigious Golden Boy award (given to the best under-21 player in a top-flight European league) the same year.

Bayern's then-sporting director Hasan Salihamidžić hailed him as 'one of the biggest talents in Europe' on his arrival (via the official club website) and expressed confidence that the club would 'enjoy lots of success with him'. The plan was to make Gravenberch the centerpiece of an imperious Bayern side for years to come.

However, the first year of the Dutchman's five-year contract proved to be a disappointment all round. He would play a mere 576 minutes in the Bundesliga, the equivalent of just 6.4 full matches, and his stocks have consequently fallen to the extent that he's now available for $33m, with Bayern already prepared to cut its losses rather than persevering.#

That doesn't necessarily mean that Gravenberch is a $33m player — instead, his value is simply at a $33m ebb. If Jürgen Klopp can unlock the potential he displayed at Ajax, this has the potential to be one of the great bargains of his tenure.

It also represents an excellent fee in the current central midfield market, especially so late in the transfer window. You need only look to two of Liverpool's closest rivals for favorable comparisons. Manchester United is reportedly demanding $57m (£45m/€52m) for Scott McTominay (via The Telegraph), a somewhat one-dimensional midfielder who's down the pecking order at Old Trafford.

Meanwhile, Manchester City is about to pay Wolves $67m (£53m/€62m) for Matheus Nunes even after his underwhelming start to life at Molineux, which has prompted his managers to shuffle him around the team in search of his best position. Gravenberch could join for half the price of the former Liverpool target, and potentially make a similar impact.

It's fair to say that the 21-year-old may not be exactly what Liverpool needs right now — a specialist number six and an elite left-footed talent in central defense looked like bigger priorities — but for the fee being talked about, you can certainly see why the club is ready to take the risk.

[liverpool]

Novak Djokovic has praised Coco Gauff, saying that she should be aiming high at the 2023 US Open.

Sixth seed Gauff has made a strong start at the last Grand Slam of the season in New York. In the first round, she overcame a dramatic match in which her opponent Laura Siegemund received a time violation to win the match 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

The 19-year-old then locked horns with 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva in the second round. The clash was a battle of the teens but it was the more experienced Gauff who prevailed, taking a commanding straight-sets victory over the Russian, 6-3, 6-2.

Djokovic predicts great things for Gauff

Gauff's success at Flushing Meadows comes off the back of two victories on the North American swing, winning both the WTA 500 DC Open and the WTA 1000 Cincinnati Open earlier this month.

Now, 23-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic has praised the rising tennis star, talking highly of her ability while also suggesting the American's coach Brad Gilbert, who she started working with in July, has been helping her to improve exponentially.

"Coco is on the rise. She’s yet to win a Grand Slam, but played in a final. She’s still young, but now with Brad Gilbert on her side with the experience of coaching some of the greats, things are coming together for her... she’s got the home support. Physically she’s very fit, striking the ball very well," Djokovic said.

The Serb added that while Gauff broke onto the scene at a very young age, she is now coming close to the level where she can win Grand Slams.

"She broke to the top of the women’s game quite early, but it still takes a few years to come together where you feel you’re complete as a player, ready to win Slams, and dominate the game.

"I think she’s coming very close to that stage and level. I’m sure she has high hopes for US Open, and she should. Because she’s playing really well," he added.

In the third round of the US Open, both players will face the 32nd seeds in their respective disciplines. Gauff will play Elise Mertens, while Djokovic is set to go up against his compatriot Laslo Djere as he continues his bid to win his fourth US Open title.

UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is just under two weeks away from his next title defense against Sean Strickland at UFC 293.

But the often-boisterous champ isn’t focused on Strickland. Instead, it seems he still has his sights set on potential future opponent Dricus Du Plessis.

Du Plessis, who is fresh off a win over former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 290 in June, was expected to be the next challenger for Adesanya’s title.

The reigning champ even entered the cage to confront him following the victory and the two exchanged words in the days after.

“Even after [UFC 290], he’s like, ‘Oh, bro, all you had to do was put some gloves on, we could have got it on right there.’ B——- f—. You wouldn’t have,” Adesanya said.  ‘Cause guess what? He didn’t want it…People were like, ‘Oh, he’s so classy walking away. He’s so [classy].’ I’m like, ‘Bro, he didn’t even walk away. He felt me.’ He didn’t wanna feel me.”

But the fight never came to fruition due to a lingering foot issue for Du Plessis, who turned down the fight at UFC 293.

Now Adesanya says he may have missed a big opportunity

“I’m not mad, I’m disappointed,” Adesanya told MMA Fighting. “He missed out on his opportunity. That would have been [huge], but again, I think it’s for the greater good. That’s OK. When it happens, it will be one the biggest fights in sporting history. All in due time.”

Though the champion says he has other plans in mind for Du Plessis.

“It could happen in South Africa,” Adesanya said. “It could happen somewhere on the great continent of Africa. (Or) it could happen in Nigeria, Morocco, even South Africa — it would be better if we had it in South Africa. I’d like to whoop his a– in his own home country.”

One thing is certain, when the fight does happen (if it does happen), it’ll be must-see TV.

[brobible]

Colombia women's team coach Nelson Abadia has left his role, the country's football federation said on Thursday just weeks after the South Americans achieved their best-ever World Cup finish.

Abadia, 67, succeeded Fabian Taborda in 2017 and led Colombia to the quarter-finals at this year's tournament in Australia and New Zealand, where they lost 2-1 to England.

Under Abadia, Colombia finished as Copa America Femenina runners-up last year and won gold at the 2019 Pan American Games.

"The technical director Nelson Abadia and the Colombian Football Federation have terminated their contractual relationship..." the governing body said in a statement.

"In the coming days, the Colombian Football Federation will announce the person who will take over as coach of the Colombia Women's Senior National Team."

Next year, Colombia will compete in the CONCACAF W Gold Cup in February and March as well as the Olympics in Paris.

[reuters]

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has launched a portal for the recruitment of ad hoc staff for the 2023 off-cycle governorship elections.

The off-cycle polls are scheduled for November 11 in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states.

Ad hoc staff include supervisory presiding officers, presiding officers, assistant presiding officers, registration area technicians, and registration area centre managers.

In a notice on Wednesday, the electoral umpire said the portal for applications opens at 8am on August 31 and will close at 12am on October 2.

“Are you ready to play a crucial role in the democratic process? The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) invites you to become an Ad-Hoc Staff for the upcoming off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi States,“ the notice reads.

“The Commission has approved the activation of INECPRES both the Mobile App for Android phones only and the web portal (laptops/desktops only), to this end the portal will be available to eligible applicants for registration of all categories of ad-hoc staff (SPO/PO/APO/RATECHs/RAC Managers) except the Collation officers.”

INEC said applicants must not be political party members and must not have demonstrated or expressed support for any candidate or party.

The commission said the applicants must reside in the state selected except for registration area technicians.

Applications can be made via the web address pres.inecnigeria.org or by downloading the INECPRES mobile android app via https://inecpres-app.com/pres-app.apk.

[TheCable]

A human rights lawyer, Prof. Mike Ozekhome (SAN) on Wednesday said the Nigerian Navy, traditional rulers, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and others are complicit in the theft of crude oil in Nigeria.

Ozekhome was speaking as one of the panelists who discussed, “The Impact of Maritime Security Threats on the Nigerian Economy: Nigerian Navy Perspective” at the ongoing 63rd Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja.

The senior lawyer said the Nigerian Navy has the mandate of protecting the territorial waters in the country and that, it has sophisticated equipment to carry out the responsibility, thus, the Navy cannot say, it is free from theft of crude oil in the country.

He also blamed government officials for the crude oil theft, saying that, the issue is like a situation where a non-state actor becomes more powerful than the state itself.

“The people stealing the oil are government officials in collaboration with the Nigerian Navy. The Navy has the constitutional duty to protect the nation’s territorial waters and all the economic activities therein”, he said and called on the Nigerian Navy to name those behind the crude oil theft for them to be shamed and prosecuted.

As a way of addressing the issue of crude oil theft, Ozekhome stressed the need for strong technology to monitor crude oil theft and piracy and that Nigerian youths should be given employment and empowerment.

He also made a case for serious legal reform to put stiffer punishment for crude oil theft to act as a deterrent to others and that government should legalise the illegal refineries that are in the Niger Delta region of the country.

Earlier in his paper, Commander Obiora Bede Anyikwa identified crude oil theft, smuggling and illegal refineries as major security threats to Nigeria’s maritime environment.

Commander Anyikwa disclosed that Nigeria has been removed from the list of piracy-prone countries because of the efforts of the Navy.

While lamenting that some of the actions of non-state actors undermine the performance of security agencies, the Navy Commander called for the upgrade of the maritime domain awareness capability for improved operational efficiency as well as approval for Nigerian Navy lawyers to prosecute maritime offenders.

[Nigerian Tribune]

Mrs Jeddy-Agba, represented by Enoch Simon, a director in the litigation department of the Attorney-General of the Federation’s office said:” since 2019, the Federal Ministry of Justice has not received any budgetary allocation for settlement of judgment debt”.

The solicitor-general decried that in spite of available legal framework in the country, the timely prosecution of fundamental right cases and enforcement of the resulting judgments, remained a major challenge for the government.

She said it was unfortunate that the ministry was often compelled to pay judgment debts that emanated from unlawful actions of law enforcement institutions and agents.

“Most often, security or law enforcement agencies are the actual judgment debtors since their actions and inactions occasion the infractions.

“However, the ministry of Justice is dragged into the arena either because the Attorney-General of the Federation is sued as a nominal party or the judgment creditor approaches the AGF to grant consent, pursuant to the provisions of section 84 (1-3) of the Sheriffs and Civil Process Act.

“As a matter of due process and FGN Financial Regulations, if is the policy of the Federal Ministry of Finance that payment of judgment debt by any agency must be based on clearance by the Attorney-General and requisite budgetary appropriation,” she said.

The solicitor-general said some of the debtor agencies do refer judgment debts to the Attorney-General for intervention.

Similarly, the Executive Secretary of the NHRC, Tony Ojukwu, SAN, said the Commission would in line with its mandate, continue to hold the government and its agencies accountable.

He maintained that under the NHRC Act, decisions of the commission are at par with high court judgements.

Meanwhile, in his remarks, frontline human rights activist, Femi Falana, SAN, said Nigerians must always stand up to defend their rights and demand strict adherence to the principles of the rule of law.

Mr Falana lamented that government does not pay any monetary judgment and therefore, called the people to demand for their rights when violated.

Speaking on the implementing the decisions of ENDSARS judicial panels of inquiry, Prof, Joy Ezelio, Dean Emeritus Faculty of Law, UNN said:” you cannot talk of justice without remedies.

”We must have a system that activates itself, unmet justice brings ugly side of the people.

”Why would a government not implement the recommendations of panels it setup ” she asked.

NAN

After mutinous soldiers in Gabon announced they had deposed the country’s president, many residents danced in the streets and declared themselves free from the presidential family’s 55-year rule. It’s becoming a familiar scene in West and Central Africa, which has recorded eight coups since 2020.

“It is an expression of the popular dissatisfaction,” said Hermann Ngoulou in the Gabonese capital of Libreville. “The country has been experiencing a deep crisis on all levels due to bad governance, the rising cost of food (and) the high cost of living.”

There have been about 100 documented coups across Africa since the 1950s. This resurgence of military takeovers is often prompted by diminishing democratic dividends, according to analysts.

In Gabon, the coup occurred shortly after the president was declared the winner of the election from which international observers, for the first time, had been barred.

That’s not unusual in a region where elections are often alleged to be flawed, longtime leaders pursue the extension or elimination of term limits, and civic space is eroded by misgovernance, said Tiseke Kasambala, the director of Africa programs at the Washington-based Freedom House watchdog group.

In the end, the result is “widespread resentment and frustration amongst citizens,” she said.

At least 27, or half, of the 54 countries in Africa are among the 30 least developed in the world, according to the latest United Nations Human Development Index. Most are in West and Central Africa, often endowed with natural resources whose rich profits are little seen by everyday citizens.

The failure of leaders to significantly improve the lives of their populations has left people frustrated and desperate, said Remi Adekoya, a politics lecturer at the University of York.

“Africans do not think the idea of military rule is great; it is the disappointment in what is supposed to be a democratic rule that is causing people, if not openly support military dictatorship, to not be against it,” Adekoya said. “The leaders who are supposed to be democrats are not abiding by the rules of democracy … and people are wondering, what is in this system for me?”

Research network Afrobarometer's 2023 surveys found that the number of people supporting democracy and elections in Africa has fallen. Only 68% of respondents across 34 countries preferred democracy to any other system of government, down from 73% a decade ago.

“A significant correlation” was established between the number of Africans reporting substantial corruption in the presidential office and dissatisfaction with democracy.

Most respondents believed elections are “an imperfect but essential tool for choosing their leaders,” the study noted.

On Aug. 26, as Gabonese went to the polls, authorities cut off the internet. As service returned in the hours after the coup, the president used it as a megaphone to the world, sharing a video in which he called on friends of Gabon to “make noise” for his restoration.

International sanctions imposed to reverse coups in Africa have often failed, resulting instead in more hardship for populations already struggling with high rates of poverty and hunger.

Niger was the world’s third-least-developed country before the coup there in July, and has 4.3 million people in need of humanitarian aid, according to the U.N. Sanctions aimed at reversing that coup resulted in “serious socio-economic crises” for Niger’s residents, the head of West Africa’s regional ECOWAS Commission, Omar Alieu Touray, told reporters recently in Nigeria.

Even as frustration grows against what some describe as “electoral coups” that keep longtime leaders in power, analysts warn that military regimes are never the answer, and efforts to intervene should be aimed at entrenching democracies.

“If a country requires reforms before elections, then the best way to support these reforms must be seriously considered, even if the protagonists include military coup leaders,” wrote Ornella Moderan, head of the Institute for Security Studies Sahel program.

The mutinous soldiers in Gabon claim to have taken power in the interest of the people — a familiar line in past coups elsewhere.

Militaries have sometimes been encouraged by what appears to be popular support, Adekoya said. “What is most encouraging for any would-be coup plotter today is the reaction of the crowd to the coups, the fact that on many streets in these countries, people are coming out to celebrate them,” he said.

But military regimes have not proven to be a better alternative for good governance.

In Mali, where soldiers have been in power since 2020, the Islamic State group almost doubled the territory they control in less than a year, according to U.N. experts. And in Burkina Faso, which recorded two coups in 2020, economic growth slowed to 2.5% in 2022 following a robust 6.9% the year before.

In other places like Chad, military regimes have been accused of clamping down on dissidents, sometimes resulting in extrajudicial killings.

African countries run by regimes have experienced “a breakdown in the rule of law, an increase in arbitrary arrests and detentions, bans on peaceful protests and impunity for human rights violations committed by military forces,” said Kasambala with Freedom House.

Still, some of the regimes are supported because of “intrusive” external forces, she said, citing former French colonies such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso where “perceived French interference in the affairs of government and what is seen as the propping up of authoritarian rulers has generated widespread anti-French sentiment.”

In the end, Africans weary of decades of misrule are not asking for much, Adekoya said.

“People are just asking for some slight improvements to their fortunes, some slight sense of security, and free and fair elections,” he said. “Once you have the majority of people feeling ‘the system is not working for me,’ then that system is in trouble.”

[news.yahoo]

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has condemned the planned demolition of illegal structures in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, had vowed to demolish all illegal buildings and structures, as part of efforts to restore the Abuja Master Plan. He also threatened to revoke lands that were allocated, but not developed and reclaim uncompleted buildings that had become a safe haven for criminals.

Wike vowed not to spare anyone, irrespective of status, who had distorted the master plan, encroached the green areas and would also ban motorcycle and tricycle operators, open grazing, roadside markets in the FCT.

However, speaking at the NLC National Symposium in Abuja on Thursday, NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, said the planned demolition was a war against the poor and a violation of their human rights.

Ajaero, who Spoke on the theme, “Nigerian Economy and the Crisis of Survival: Robbing the Poor to Pay the Rich”, urged Wike to halt his plans unless there were alternative shelters for the affected poor.

“The new attack by Wike to drive the poor out of Abuja, it’s a war where they tell you that you build in a place that is not part of the master plan, the master plan is only known to them.

“The NLC is saying that those structures are not illegal, those structures should be made legal unless there is alternative to them.

“There is no area they map out, either quarter plot or half plot for the poor to build in Abuja and when the poor manage to get small shelter, it’s been demolished on daily basis. It is a war against the poor.

“The number of people Adolf Hitler killed under a gas chamber will be a child play for people who will die because of shock over demolition”, Ajaero added.

[TheWill]