Turkish football has been plunged into chaos after MKE Ankaragucu President Faruk Koca punched referee Halil Meler following the club’s 1-1 draw with Caykur Rizespor in the Super Lig.

The incident has led to the Turkish Football Federation suspending all leagues indefinitely. TFF chairman Mehmet Buyukeksi called the attack “a night of shame for Turkish football” and emphasised that “sports means peace and brotherhood. Sport is incompatible with violence.”

The incident has drawn widespread condemnation with FIFA President Gianni Infantino calling it “totally unacceptable” and stating that “violence has no place in our sport or society.”

Similarly, Turkey President Recep Erdogan condemned the attack and wished Meler a speedy recovery.

Mr Meler sustained several blows and suffered a minor fracture. He required hospital treatment, and his recovery is being monitored closely.

MKE Ankaragucu regretted the incident and apologised to the Turkish football community. Caykur Rizespor also condemned the violence and sent Mr Meler a message of support.

The TFF has vowed to take decisive action against Koca and Ankaragucu. Buyukeksi stated that “football matches are not a war” and that “(Ankaragucu) and its managers will be punished most severely.”

He added that the penalties will be determined in the coming days.

The TFF further emphasised that the attack was not an isolated incident and blamed “the irresponsible statements of club presidents, managers, coaches and TV commentators targeting referees” for creating a climate of violence.

They also called for criminal proceedings against all involved.

Galatasaray, one of Turkey’s biggest clubs, called for an emergency meeting to address the growing issue of violence in Turkish football.

Similarly, the Association of Active Football Referees and Observers of Turkey called on all referees to refuse to officiate matches until their safety is guaranteed.

The attack on Mr Meler has exposed deep-seated problems within Turkish football.

The coming days will be crucial in determining how the TFF and the clubs will address the issue and ensure the safety of referees and players.

Inter Miami have confirmed that they will participate in the Riyadh Season Cup.

Although this was revealed by Saudi Arabia officials on November 21, the MLS club insisted the reports were inaccurate.

However, on Monday, Inter announced that they will play Al-Hilal on January 29 and Al Nassr on February 1.

The second fixture could see Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo face each other once again in their storied careers.

“These matches will offer important tests for our team, which will benefit us as we approach the new season.

“We’re excited for our group to get the chance to go up against teams with as much quality as Al-Hilal and Al Nassr,” Inter Miami sporting director Chris Henderson said.

Ireland’s fightback fell just short as Zimbabwe sealed a thrilling last-ball win in the T20 series opener in Harare.

Ireland posted 147-8 and the hosts needed nine runs from their final over – winning it with two from Blessing Muzarabani off the last delivery.

Captain Sikandar Raza starred for Zimbabwe, taking three wickets then scoring 65 to lead their run chase.Mark Adair became the first Irish bowler to take 100 T20 international wickets.

He struck twice as the visitors staged a late rally with the ball in what was the first of three T20 matches this week.

Three other Ireland bowlers – Josh Little, Craig Young and Barry McCarthy – also took two wickets for a side captained by Paul Stirling.

Former captain Andrew Balbirnie top-scored with 32 in Ireland’s innings, supported by Gareth Delany, who finished 26 not out, and Harry Tector who added 24.

Raza was supported with the bat by Wesley Madhevere, who scored 25, with wicketkeeper Clive Madande hitting 20

.Two further T20 contests between the sides will take place at the Harare Sports Club on Saturday and Sunday before three one-day games at the same venue on 13, 15 and 17 December.

The Super Eagles of Nigeria will take part in a three-nation tournament as part of their preparations for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Burkina Faso and Democratic Republic of Congo are the two other countries that will be part of the competition.

The tournament will take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where the Super Eagles will also camp ahead of the AFCON.

Burkina Faso and DRC are also among the 24 countries that will take part in the 2023 AFCON finals.

The pre-AFCON tourney will take place in January, 2024.

Cote d’Ivoire will host the AFCON from January 13 to February 11, 2024.

The Super Eagles will take Equatorial Guinea in their opening game on January 14.

Former Nigeria midfielder, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, has said that Victor Osimhen deserves to win the CAF Player of the Year.

The winner of the prize will be announced at an event on December 11 in Morocco.

Osimhen is one of the favourites to win the prestigious individual award.

The Napoli striker will be up against players like Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, Achraf Hakimi of PSG, and former Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez.

“He [Osimhen] deserves it because for me, he was the most consistent player of last season. He deserves it,” Okocha said during a Bundesliga media round table.

Osimhen led Napoli to their first Serie A title in 33 years last season, scoring 26 goals.

Arsenal on Tuesday night, opened a five-point gap at the top of the Premier League table after they beat Luton Town 4-3 at Kenilworth Road.

Declan Rice was the hero for the Gunners as he headed in a late goal in the 97th minute to seal three points.

Although the hosts began the game in strong fashion, it was Gabriel Martinelli who opened the scoring, tapping home Bukayo Saka’a low cross.

Gabriel Osho made it 1-1 five minutes later, but Gabriel Jesus put Arsenal in front just before the break.

David Raya’s errors allowed Luton to take the lead with goals from Elijah Adebayo and Ross Barkley.

But Arsenal found a response through Kai Havertz (60) to bring the game level again.

Declan Rice then rose highest to head in a goal that broke the hearts of home supporters.

Napoli forward Victor Osimhen clinched the title of the Italian Footballers’ Association Footballer of the Year for his outstanding performance with the Neapolitans in the previous season.

The ceremony on Monday night featured various accolades, encompassing Team of the Year, Coach of the Year, Club of the Year, and Goal of the Season.

Osimhen’s remarkable contribution of 26 goals was pivotal in securing Partenopei’s first Scudetto in 33 years.

This achievement has not only earned the Nigerian striker recognition locally but has also led to his nomination for prestigious awards such as FIFA Best and Ballon d’Or.

Furthermore, Osimhen earned a spot in the Serie A Team of the Year alongside notable players such as Mike Maignan, Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Kim Min-jae, Andrea Bastoni, Theo Hernández, Stanislav Lobotka, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Nicolo Barella, Rafael Leão, and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

Despite a challenging start to the 2023-24 season and recent injury setbacks, Osimhen has maintained an impressive goals-per-game ratio, securing six goals in 10 appearances after 14 games.

Victor Boniface is among the nominees for the Bundesliga Rookie of the Month for November.

It is the fourth time Boniface will be nominated for the award this season.

The Nigerian striker won the award in August, September and October.

The 22-year-old provided two assists for Bayer Leverkusen in November.

RB Leipzig winger, Xavi Simons is the other player nominated for the award.

Simons is also nominated for the fourth time this season.

The 20-year-old scored twice for Leipzig in the month under review.

The other nominee is Freiburg midfielder, Merlin Rohl.

Rohl had two goal involvements in the two games he played last season.

Up to 27 players are close to being suspended for one Premier League.The affected players have accumulated four yellow cards already.

A fifth booking will automatically trigger a one-match ban.

Already, Manchester City travelled to Aston Villa without Rodri and Jack Grealish, who picked up their fifth yellow cards during the 3-3 draw with Tottenham on Sunday.

Those who collected five yellow cards in the first half of the season will miss one match.

It is now 14 fixtures in and the likes of Kai Havertz and Bruno Fernandes will be desperate to avoid another costly booking.

Here are all the players who have been shown four yellow cards:

Kai Havertz ( Arsenal )

Matty Cash (Aston Villa)

Lucas Digne (Aston Villa)

Douglas Luiz (Aston Villa)

Kristoffer Ajer (Brentford)

Lewis Dunk (Brighton)

Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea)

Raheem Sterling (Chelsea)

Jordan Ayew ( Crystal Palace )

Jarrad Branthwaite ( Everton )

Abdoulaye Doucoure (Everton)

Ashley Young (Everton)

Antonee Robinson ( Fulham )

Issa Kabore (Luton)

Tom Lockyer (Luton)

Marvelous Nakamba (Luton)

Bruno Fernandes ( Manchester United )

Sean Longstaff (Newcastle)

Kieran Trippier (Newcastle)

Orel Mangala ( Nottingham Forest )

Ibrahim Sangare (Nottingham Forest)

Anel Ahmedhodzic (Sheffield United)

Oliver Norwood (Sheffield United)

Jack Robinson (Sheffield United)

Destiny Udogie (Tottenham)

Rayan Ait-Nouri ( Wolves )

Hwang Hee-chan (Wolves)

Barcelona could terminate Robert Lewandowski’s contract at the end of the season, because of a games-played clause.

According to Sport, there is a break clause in Lewandowski’s deal with the LaLiga champions.

The clause states that if the Poland international does not start or feature for over 45 minutes in a game, in over 55 per cent of games this season, Barcelona have the option to terminate his contract worth millions.

Barca’s struggles this season have led fingers to be pointed, with Lewandowski’s occasional poor performance singled out.

With the forward earning a high salary at a club with well-documented financial troubles, the club may be looking to move him on.

Bayern Munich midfielder Jamal Musiala will be back in the squad for Saturday’s Bundesliga match against Union Berlin, but the young talent is still not ready to play a full game.

Musiala suffered a muscle injury earlier this month and has been sidelined since. He also missed Germany’s final friendly games of the year against Turkey and Austria.

“We hope there’s no reaction. Then he’ll be in the squad, but it’ll be a brief appearance at most,” coach Thomas Tuchel said during a news conference on Friday.

Forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and defenders Minjae Kim and Noussair Mazraoui are also available.

The game at Bayern will mark the Bundesliga debut of Union’s new coach, Nenad Bjelica, who replaced long-serving Urs Fischer, who was dismissed in November.

Bjelica had his first game in charge in the 1-1 draw with Braga on Wednesday in the Champions League. With the result, Union extended their winless run to 16 consecutive games.But Tuchel stressed his focus is on his team.

“You can’t read too much into the game [against Braga] because there was an early red card. We’ll also look at games involving the clubs he’s coached previously.

“We have to concentrate on ourselves and do things better. We want to take it up a notch. The main attention is on us,” Tuchel said.

Bayern are second in the Bundesliga, two points behind leaders Bayer Leverkusen.

Tuchel also confirmed that Bayern will play a friendly game at Basel on January 6 before they resume their Bundesliga season following the winter break on January 12 against Hoffenheim.

Harrison Jalla, the chairman of the Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria (PFAN) Task Force, says Super Eagles cannot make much impact in the 2024 African Cup of Nations(AFCON) in Cote D’Ivoire due to a lack of tactical skills.

Jalla said this in Lagos on Friday that the team had lost its self-esteem, struggling to beat countries like Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

He said changes had to be made, and these changes had to be done early enough to avert a catastrophe when Nigeria would play at the AFCON 2024 in Cote d’Ivoire.

“Nothing has changed since Coach Jose Paseiro took over the Super Eagles. The team does not really lack talents both home and abroad, but what is missing is the managerial skills needed to harness its potential,” Jalla said.

He said the Eagles had not been able to secure a good coach and a manager since the death of Stephen Keshi.

QJalla stated, “Paseiro has no capacity to transform the team. He has done too much damage by his technical ineptitude. Nigeria cannot afford to carry baggage like Paseiro to the AFCON. The Super Eagles have lost their self-esteem and now struggle with countries like Guinea Bissau, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe.

“Nigeria should forget about anything positive from AFCON if Paseiro is still in charge.”

He added that the solution is to build a brand new Super Eagles with home base players as its nucleus. Jalla added that a full-fledged home base Super Eagles would have defeated Lesotho and Zimbabwe hands down.

Twenty-four countries will feature at the biennial competition, which kicks off on January 13 and ends on February 11, with Nigeria drawn against host country Cote d’Ivoire.

Former Italy striker, Mario Balotelli has labelled Brendan Rodgers as a “disaster”.

He also described the current Celtic boss as the worst coach he has ever played under.

Balotelli played under Rodgers after Liverpool decided to sign him from AC Milan for £16million in 2014.

However, he struggled for form, scoring only one goal in 16 Premier League appearances.

Balotelli managed four goals in 28 games in total at Anfield.

However, it was after Balotelli left for Nice when Jurgen Klopp took over at Liverpool, that he and Rodgers began feuding publicly.

Balotelli seems to have reignited their feud in an interview with TVPlay.

He said: “Brendan Rodgers is the worst coach I have ever had.

“He was number one as far as training sessions were concerned, what with keeping possession of the ball and the small-sided games. But as a person he was a disaster.”

With one round of fixtures remaining before the conclusion of the group stage phase of the 2023/24 UEFA Champions League finals, 12 teams including Arsenal, Manchester City, Barcelona and Inter have qualified for the knockout round of the competition.

Arsenal sealed their qualification on Wednesday following a 6-0 win over French Ligue 1 side Lens at the Emirates Stadium courtesy of goals from Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martineli, Martin Odegaard and Jorginho respectively.

The Gunners were able to achieve a knockout phase qualification six years after they last reached the round of 16 during the 2016/17 campaign.

Bayern Munich, with 13 points, have already been confirmed as the runaway winners of Group A after the Bavarians were held to a goalless draw by Copenhagen at the Allianz Arena, an outcome which further put United in the brink of not qualifying to the round of 16.

Manchester United thrice threw their lead away after Andre Onana conceded two questionable goals, as the Red Devils settled for a 3-3 draw against Galatasaray on Wednesday evening, a match Erik ten Hag’s team needed to win to maintain a higher chance of qualifying for the knockout round.

To qualify for the round of 16, the Red Devils, who are on four points at the bottom of Group A, must secure the maximum three points against Bayern Munich in their last game of the group at Old Trafford and hope Galatasaray, one four points too and Copenhagen, on five points, play out a draw.

On Tuesday, Barcelona, now on 12 points, qualified for the knockout phase of the Champions League for the first time since the 2021/2022 seasons.

This was confirmed after the Spanish champions defeated Porto 2-1 courtesy of goals by Portuguese duo of Joao Cancelo and Joao Felix.

Both Manchester City and Real Madrid have been confirmed as the Group G and Group C respectively— they are the only two teams to win all of their group stage matches in the ongoing campaign so far.

City came back from two goals down to beat RB Leipzig 3-2 on Tuesday.

Despite the defeat, RB Leipzig joined the defending champions as the two teams that qualified for the round of 16 from the group.

Meanwhile, Jude Bellingham scored again as Real Madrid beat Victor Osimehn’s Napoli 4-2 at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday. Napoli only need a draw in their last Group C game against Braga to secure a back-to-back Champions League knockout qualification.

From Group D, Real Socieded and Inter, both on 11 points each, have been confirmed as the two that have qualified for the knockout round.

On Wednesday, Umar Saqid’s Real Socieded played a goalless draw against RB Salzburg while 10-man Inter came back from three goals down to secure a point against Benfica.

Spanish side Atlético Madrid, Italian outfit Lazio, both from Group E and German giants Borussia Dortmund and Dutch side PSV Eindhoven have also secured their spot in the Champions League knockout round.

Manchester United manager, Erik ten Hag has said he would be the one to blame if they fail to qualify for the Champions League Round of 16.

The Red Devils are still bottom of Group G following their 3-3 draw at Galatasaray on Wednesday night.

Ten Hag’s men must now beat Bayern Munich in their last fixture and hope FC Copenhagen and Galatasaray play out a draw.

“I blame myself if we go out. Know that we are in a project and we are improving.

“We are in the right direction. I know where we have to go, what steps to take and I’m sure we will be successful in the long term,” Ten Hag said.

Manchester United legend, Rio Ferdinand has claimed that Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi unfollowed Alejandro Garnacho on social media.

Ferdinand made the claim as Garnacho recently scored a spectacular overhead kick during Man United’s Premier League win over Everton.

Speaking on Vibe with FIVE YouTube show, Ferdinand said, “My lad [Garnacho] said to me the other day Messi unfollowed him. He said Messi unfollowed him.

“Because he comes out, don’t care, ‘I’m a Ronaldo man’. Who’s the GOAT? Ronaldo. (Even) when he’.

Garnacho and Messi are both international teammates with Argentina’s senior team.

The 19-year-old joined Man United from Atletico Madrid in 2020.

Former Arsenal winger, Freddie Ljungberg has doubts about whether the Gunners can end their title drought this season under manager Mikel Arteta.

Arsenal are searching for their first league triumph since 2004.

Arteta’s side moved top of the Premier League table on Saturday after beating Brentford 1-0.

However, Ljungberg is concerned by Arsenal’s attack, with Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli all down on their goals-per-minutes ratio when compared with last season.

“I think definitely they are ready to challenge for the title,” Ljungberg said on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football.

“But the stats here are quite telling and I don’t think they work in their favour,” the retired footballer added as he looked at Arsenal’s attacking numbers.