Football

England U-21s coach, Aidy Boothroyd, is virtually growing grey hairs over the possibility of their youngsters switching allegiance to Nigeria with the three time African champions on the brink of qualifying for Russia 2018 World Cup.

Bundesliga giant Bayern Munich has indicated interest in appointing former coach Jupp Heynckes as interim head coach until the end of the 2017/18 season following the sack of Carlo Ancelotti last week. The 72-year-old retired from football following the 2012/13 season, in which he led the Bavarians to an unprecedented treble of Bundesliga, DFB Cup and UEFA Champions League titles.

Nigeria, Egypt and Tunisia could all book their spots at next year's World Cup in the penultimate round of African qualifiers at the weekend.

Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and South Africa have all received byes in the first round of qualifiers for the 2018 Africa Women’s Championship to be held in Ghana next year. This comes after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) released the fixtures for the tournament which will be held in November next year.

Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr has claimed that his team will not underrate Zambia when the two teams face off at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in a World Cup qualifying game.

World football governing body, FIFA has handed out punishments to eight African nations for various offences committed during September’s 2018 World Cup qualifiers. Gabon fielded an ineligible player – Merlin Tandjigora, who should have been suspended in the 3-0 home defeat by Ivory Coast on 2 September.