Fans of less successful clubs form more of a bond with each other. Motortion Films/shutterstock.com Martha Newson, University of Oxford Football fans tend to be highly loyal to their group, just as the kin groups of our ancestral past would have been. This intense state of belonging, when a person feels as one with their group, is called identity fusion. ...

Tributes were paid to Diego Maradona on Wednesday after the Argentinian football legend died aged 60. The World Cup winner suffered a heart attack at home just a fortnight after undergoing surgery for a blood clot on his brain. Maradona, who was also being treated for alcohol dependency, is regarded as one of the greatest ever footballers. He famously scored ...

Nigerian striker Kelechi Iheanacho celebrates after scoring in a European football game. Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Chuka Onwumechili, Howard University In Nigeria, a large number of players move from one club to another in the country’s top division of 20 clubs. Although exact figures are sketchy, there are many footballers who engage in this migration, covering large distances. Some players move between ...

Super Eagles fans have slammed the national team coach Gernot Rohr and his team following their lethargic performance against Sierra Leone in Friday’s 2022 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier at the Samuel Stadium, in Benin City, Edo State, Saturday PUNCH reports. Nigeria let a dominant four goal lead slip in a 4-4 draw with Sierra Leone in Benin City. A double from ...

Raymond Ozoji, Awka It’s a new dawn for football activities in Anambra state as new state executives emerged at the weekend from what may be described as a peaceful election at the Catholic Retreat Centre Okpuno Awka, Awka-South local government area of Anambra state. Engr. Victor Aniekwena, who was unanimously elected as the Vice-Chairman Anambra State Football Association said his ...

James Reade, University of Reading Uncertainty is what makes sports entertaining. If you always knew who was going to win a match, that would be boring. In the 1960s, an economist called Walter Neale said that the New York Yankees prayer should be: “Oh Lord, make us good, but not that good.” This “peculiar economics of professional sports”, as Neale ...

Glasgow Rangers midfielder Joe Aribo is a major doubt for Super Eagles’ international friendlies against Ivory Coast and Tunisia next month, after he suffered a setback during his recovery, Saturday PUNCH reports. Aribo has made four appearances for the Eagles and scored twice since he made his debut for the Eagles in a friendly against Ukraine a year ago. The 24-year-old has ...

Former Super Eagles goalkeeper Ike Shorunmu has told  Saturday PUNCH a private hospital in Ibadan declined treating Ajibade Babalade before the retired 3SC defender died in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Friday afternoon. According to Shorunmu, Babalade’s teammate at the 1992 Africa Cup of Nations in Senegal, the former footballer died in Ibadan after suffering cardiac arrest. Babalade, 48, died while ...

Luka Modric blows out his cheeks. “It would be a huge loss,” he says. “Like when Cristiano left. But you can’t think about the past. It’s football and that’s it.” Modric has faced Lionel Messi 21 times and is the only player since 2008 other than Cristiano Ronaldo to beat him to the Ballon d’Or. He knows what it would ...

Lionel Messi has told Barcelona he wants to leave the club after nearly two decades with the Spanish giants. The club confirmed to The Associated Press yesterday that the Argentina great sent a document expressing his desire to leave. The announcement comes 11 days after Barcelona’s humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals, one of the ...