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Barcelona president Joan Laporta has been charged with bribery in the ‘Negreira affair,’ as authorities investigate alleged referee payments dating back to 2008.

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Barcelona president Joan Laporta is the latest figure to face bribery charges in connection with suspected payments to a refereeing official.

Barcelona is being investigated for “active bribery” in connection with alleged payments to former refereeing vice-president Enriquez Negreira.

The club is reported to have begun paying Negreira between 2001 and 2007, although the statute of limitations on those alleged offenses has expired.

So far, the Camp Nou team have been under investigation for a total of 33 payments totalling €1.6 million made to a company owned by Negreira between 2016 and 2018.

However, the investigation may be extended to 2008, around the time of Laporta’s first term as Barcelona president.

Laporta has now been implicated in the scandal alongside former Barca presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, as well as former directors Oscar Grau and Albert Soler.

Judge Joaquin Aguirre has stated that there were “more than ample indications that Laporta committed the same acts as subsequent presidents,” amounting to paying “large amounts of money” to Negreira.

The statute of limitations for such cases ends at the time of the last payment made, which would be in the summer of 2018, according to El Mundo.

As vice president for the Technical Committee of Referees (CTA) of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Negreira is considered a public official and so the statute of limitations for the crime of continued bribery is 15 years. Thus, he and his son face punishment for cases that stretch back to 2003.

However, for Laporta and his fellow Barcelona officials, the period they can be punished for is just 10 years, meaning the investigation can look into incidents beginning from 2008 until that last alleged payment in 2018.

“It is proven that the payments were made over about 18 years and that they increased year after year,” the judge said. “It is proven that Enriquez Negreira stopped receiving emoluments from FC Barcelona once he ceased his position as vice president of the CTA in 2018.

“It is proven that the investigated Enriquez Negreira sent a burofax (business communication) to FC Barcelona referring to the dissemination of possible irregularities of which he was aware and that would seriously affect FC Barcelona.”

The payments are said to have increased from the initial €70,000 euros to €700,000 annually for 18 years until Negreira resigned from the CTA, and the judge has alleged that the club would have gained preferential treatment from officials.

He added: “By logical deduction, the payments made by FC Barcelona satisfied the interests of the club in view of their duration and the annual increase. From here it is also deduced that the payments produced the arbitration effects desired by FC Barcelona, in such a way that there must have been inequality in the treatment with other teams and the consequent systemic corruption in the Spanish arbitration as a whole, which does not mean that each and every one of the referees were corrupt, but it did mean that a group of them.”

OXFAM in Ghana celebrates rural women in agriculture in Northern Region

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OXFAM in Ghana together with its implementing partners; Shea Network Ghana, SEND GHANA and Norsacc under the Women Economic Advancement for Collective Transformation (WEACT) project, has celebrated women in agriculture.

It formed part of International Rural Women’s Day at Kpulgine in the Mion District of the Northern Region.

     The project partners marked the Day on the theme: “Rural women, cultivating food for all, key for a world free from hunger and poverty”.

     Ms Ubaidatu Iddrisu, Project Manager of Shea Network Ghana, speaking during the event, said rural women had so far played significant roles in the country’s agricultural sector to sustain the nation’s food security.

     She said most of the rural women did not only play critical roles in the agricultural workforce, but also generated income for their families and communities through entrepreneurship agribusiness, food processing and rural tourism.

     She said rural women also played key roles in investing in their children’s education, healthcare, and other essential services for their families.

     Ms Iddrisu indicated that so far, the rural women’s economic empowerment project had served as a catalyst for sustainable development, poverty reduction and the realisation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

     She called on stakeholders to support government to address challenges confronting women such as limited access to land, as well as create an enabling environment for empowering rural women to unlock their full potential.

     Madam Theresa Baveng, WEACT Project Coordinator, urged all stakeholders, especially traditional and religious leaders to support women and girls to achieve their full economic potential by removing and reducing socio-cultural norms, which affected their progress.

     She thanked the Chiefs for allocating land at Salankpang and Kpulgine for women for the farming purposes.

     She highlighted on the WEACT Project and said it was funded by Global Affairs Canada with the aim to enhance women’s economic empowerment, well-being and inclusive economic growth in the shea and cocoa value chains.

          Mrs Indrani Barron, Programme Officer, Oxfam Quebec, who is on a project visit to the country, said she was happy to be part of the celebration.

She congratulated the women for their hard work in contributing significantly to working to end hunger in families and Ghana as a whole.

     She entreated rural women to keep up the demanding work to enhance the country’s food security and social independence in their homes and communities.

     The participants included officials of the Department of Agriculture, Ghana Health Service, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Police Service, NCCE, Departments of Community Development and the Department of Social Welfare.

Pink Month: Men urged to assist their wives in examining their breasts

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Madam Khalida M. A. Seidu, a Gender Advocate, has urged husbands to assist their wives to do self-examination of their breasts for early diagnosis and treatment.

She explained that the involvement of husbands in self-examination of the breast at home would help encourage their wives to do regular breast cancer checks and to report to the health facilities for further testing when necessary.

Madam Seidu, who is also a lecturer at Dr. Hilla Limann Technical University, said this in Wa during a free breast cancer screening exercise to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Pink Month).

Madam Seidu, also a Deputy Upper West Regional Women’s Organiser of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), organised the exercise with support from Supper Cool Pack Mineral Water, Cool Pack Mineral Water, and Alhaji Alhassan Uthman Gbangu, a businessman.

A total of 256 women in Wa went through the screening with five of them who were suspected of having breast cancer referred to the Wa Municipal Hospital for further screening and testing.

Madam Seidu explained that the exercise was necessitated by the importance she had attached to the health and well-being of the vulnerable groups in society, especially women, coupled with the month of October being breast cancer awareness month.

She said all the women who came for the screening were educated on the symptoms of breast cancer and how they could do self-examination at home.

Some women, who spoke to the GNA after going through the screening, thanked Madam Seidu for the initiative as it had helped them to know their breast cancer status.

“I thank God for this screening because we usually don’t know our status, but now that I have gone through this, they (the nurses) said I don’t have it, so I am happy.

I hope it will not be only today, she should do it often and it will help us a lot”, Hajia Hamida Nasir, a beneficiary, said.

She encouraged other women to always take advantage of such free screening exercises to know their health status.

She said: “It is better to do it now and know your health status rather than to wait and go to the hospital later to pay and do the same test.”

Hajia Kutum Yakubu, another beneficiary, also expressed gratitude to the benefactor for the kind gesture and prayed for God’s blessing for her to extend the initiative to many women in other parts of the region.

Madam Maria Johana Yuorpor, the Chief Executive Officer of Mara Foods, who also took part in the screening exercise, said breast cancer awareness creation should not only be loud in October but an all-year-round campaign.

She said people were gradually realising the need to go through regular screening and encouraged women to endeavour to do a self-examination of their breasts and to seek specialist attention when necessary.

Madam Adishetu Bolibie, a Midwife at the Wa Municipal Hospital, asked women to look out for abnormalities in their breasts including a “moving” lump, unusual discharges, and pores on the breast and should report to the health facilities for further tests if those signs were seen on their breasts.

X has begun charging new users $1 year to send tweets.

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The “Not a Bot” program is being trialed in New Zealand and the Philippines.

X has confirmed its intentions to charge new users for the site formerly known as Twitter after weeks of rumors. The business provided information on a brand-new subscription service it is testing in New Zealand and the Philippines called “Not a Bot.”

The subscription, which was first reported by Fortune, requires new users to pay the equivalent of $1 USD per year in order to be able to post. “As of October 17th, 2023 we’ve started testing ‘Not A Bot,’ a new subscription method for new users in two countries,” X explains. “This new test was developed to bolster our already significant efforts to reduce spam, manipulation of our platform and bot activity. This will evaluate a potentially powerful measure to help us combat bots and spammers on X, while balancing platform accessibility with the small fee amount.”

Under the scheme, new users will be required to verify their phone numbers and pay the $1 fee if they want to use core features like tweets, retweets, bookmarks and likes. Those who who don’t pay will only be able to use X in a “read only” mode.

The company said that for now the fees will not apply to existing users. “It is not a profit driver,” X said.

However, the initial test will likely fuel speculation that X does plan to one day charge all users. During a livestreamed conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, Elon Musk suggested he was considering some kind of mandatory payment as part of an effort to combat bots and spam.

“Subscription options have proven to be the main solution that works at scale,” X said in a post from its support account. Musk’s earlier comments proved unpopular and on X rival Bluesky saw a surge in activity following the remarks.

Others have also reported that Musk has long had ambitions to gain access to users’ credit card and billing information, which would further his plan to bring banking and other financial services to X. According to his biographer, Walter Isaacson, Musk’s push to sign-up subscribers was very much intertwined with his quest to build an “everything app,” and Musk grew angry when he learned Apple doesn’t share credit card details of those who sign up with their iPhones.

X didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Better late than never – Ablakwa on Duncan-Williams, Eastwood Anaba’s resignation from the National Cathedral Board

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Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for the Volta Region’s North Tongu constituency, has welcomed the resignation of Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams and Reverend Eastwood Anaba from the Board of Trustees overseeing the construction of Ghana’s National Cathedral.

The North Tongu legislator praised the clergymen’s decision to resign from the board while visiting constituents affected by the spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong Dams.

A statement signed by both Archbishop Duncan-Williams and Reverend Anaba explained that the decision to resign was due to the failure of the government to appoint an independent accounting firm to audit all public funds contributed to the National Cathedral.

Mr. Ablakwa further told Richard Dela Sky on Eyewitness News on Citi FM that the resignations are a confirmation of all the ills he has been speaking about the project and calling for it to be stopped for an independent audit to be conducted.

“I want to commend highly the two revered clergymen. Some may say it is delayed, but I will say better later than never because they have covered themselves in glory with this resignation, and it is a clear confirmation of the things I have been talking about.”

“Look at how they say they have been frustrated within the board about getting the board to carry out an independent audit. If these folks have nothing to hide, why did they really prevent efforts by these respected clergymen to have an independent audit? We will have time in the coming days, for an independent parliamentary inquiry on this matter. Our motion has gone through, the Speaker approved it and the House has voted on it, and we are just waiting for the NPP side to send their membership, and we will have a full-blown inquiry and delve into the matters.”

Fraudsters pose as Moussa Faki, the head of the African Union, using AI.

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The African Union Commission has become a victim of cybercrime after scammers used artificial intelligence capabilities to pose as Moussa Faki, the leader of the continental organization.

The secretariat of the African Union often writes to world leaders whenever Mr. Faki, the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, needs to make a call.

It is customary for the African Union leadership to request meetings with officials from other nations or international organizations in writing, known technically as a note verbale.

Fraudsters faked his voice and placed several video calls to European capitals, ostensibly seeking to arrange meetings.

AU Commission has revealed that the cybercriminals used fake email addresses, too, pretending to be the organisation’s deputy chief of staff, seeking to arrange calls between foreign leaders and Mr Faki.

Mateu Lahoz, a divisive former Spanish referee, is one candidate to replace disgraced Luis Rubiales as RFEF president.

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Divisive former referee Mateu Lahoz has reportedly emerged as a candidate to take over as president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).

Lahoz retired at the end of last season after 30 years as a referee and, according to Marca, has a lot of valuable supporters behind him.

He has the backing of La Liga’s most important clubs, of the league itself, the refereeing body, the Council Superior of Sports and some territorial presidents.

Such strong and plentiful support makes him one of the favourites to replace Luis Rubiales, who stepped down due to the controversy caused by his kiss on Jenni Hermoso after Spain won the Women’s World Cup this summer.

Due to his experience refereeing at international level, Lahoz is believed to have good relations with other associations.

Furthermore, he is said to have had many disagreements with Rubiales, meaning his election as president could mark a significant break from the association’s recent past.

Despite his popularity heading into the election race, Lahoz was seen as a divisive figure during his career as a referee.

His final season as an official was particularly controversial as he faced a great deal of criticism during Argentina’s penalty shootout win against Netherlands in the World Cup quarter-finals last year.

Lahoz broke the record for most yellow cards in a World Cup match by booking 18 people in that contest. Upon his return to La Liga action, he sparked further controversy by handing out the most cards in a La Liga match as Barcelona and Espanyol played out a draw.

Lahoz, 46, is not the only candidate to replace Rubiales, but a full list of names is yet to emerge.

There remains time for the interested parties to declare their intention to run as the next election is expected in March.

Newcastle star Sandro Tonali confesses betting on AC Milan in front of prosecutors, and if found guilty of violating the FIGC code of conduct, he may receive a three-year suspension.

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According to a report, Sandro Tonali has admitted to the prosecution that he bet on AC Milan matches while he was a member of the team.

The Newcastle player was questioned by the prosecutor’s office in Turin for about three hours, and according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, he admitted to them that he had gambled on football games, especially Milan-related contests.

That acknowledgment makes things more difficult. Tonali maintains he didn’t wager on Milan games when he was playing, and if this allegation is upheld, he won’t be punished with match-fixing because his influence would not have affected a game.

However, the fact he gambled on his own team could result in a ban longer than three years from the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) prosecutor.

Tonali has also declared that he suffers from a gambling addiction, which means part of his punishment could be diverted to mandatory therapy sessions.

The Italy international will hope to receive a similar punishment to Juventus midfielder Nicolo Fagioli, who was sentenced to a seven month ban plus a fine and therapy.

The FIGC prosecutor’s office is not the only body looking into Tonali’s bets, though, as there is also a criminal investigation into his activities on the illegal gambling platform.

The 23-year-old risks a substantial fine for using unauthorised betting websites. Investigators will be able to compare what he said in his statement with what they found on his mobile phone and tablet, which were confiscated.

As well as Tonali and Fagioli, Aston Villa’s Nicolo Zaniolo has also been implicated in the betting scandal and faces a similar punishment.

Lionel Scaloni confesses Inter Miami star is “controlling his minutes” his stellar two-goal performance in 2026 World Cup qualifier, saying Lionel Messi’s fitness is “not scaring” Argentina.

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After playing a pivotal role in Argentina’s 2-0 victory over Peru, Lionel Scaloni claims he is not concerned about Lionel Messi’s physical condition.

Argentina maintained their spotless record in World Cup qualifying with goals from Messi in each of their goals. With 12 points after four games, the defending champions are already five points ahead of Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

  • Lionel Messi Lionel Scaloni Argentina 2023GettyTHE BIGGER PICTUREMessi’s match-winning performance comes following concerns about his fitness after he missed several MLS matches for Inter Miami because of muscle problems. However, Scaloni saw no reason to be concerned about the 36-year-old based on his display in Lima.

“I saw him as if he had not had an injury or a break. It is true that the team has understood him for a while now, he plays in a very marked way that benefits him,” he said. “I hope he plays as long as he can, everyone is happy to see him on the pitch.

“We won’t be affected by his break because we won’t be competing again until March. I imagine he will do his preseason with his team, it is not something that really worries us. It was already seen today, without having a lot of minutes like it was said… The most important thing is that he is healthy and that’s the best thing, he is managing his minutes.”

  • Lionel Messi Inter Miami 2023GettyWHAT HAPPENS NEXT?Messi is now set to return to MLS action with Inter Miami, who will conclude their MLS campaign with a double-header against Charlotte.

The foreign minister of Algeria declares “complete sympathy” with the Palestinian people.

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Ahmed Attaf, the foreign minister of Algeria, urged the international community on Tuesday to aid the Palestinians, with whom Algeria, he said, stands in complete solidarity as the Israel-Hamas conflict heats up.

Attaf added, “Our brothers in the Gaza Strip are living in appalling humanitarian conditions,” at the 20th session of the ministerial meeting of African and Nordic nations in Algiers.

Algeria “calls on the international community to take prompt action to come to the help of the downtrodden and persecuted, to put an end to this assault, and to relaunch the peace process,” the speaker declared.

The meeting of African and Nordic ministers is taking place from October 16 to 18, under the theme of “strengthening dialogue based on common values”.

Key topics being discussed are irregular migration, climate change, cross-border terrorism and developing trade and economic cooperation between the two blocs. 

The conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas has triggered a wave of pro-Palestinian solidarity across North African countries, with demonstrations in Algeria, Libya and Morocco.

On Monday, Algeria’s Supreme Security Council issued a statement stressing “its rejection of the occupation operations against defenceless civilians” and emphasised its solidarity with the Palestinian people.

They added their conviction that”the radical solution does not lie in genocide or forced displacement, but rather in establishing the Palestinian state.”

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