Then President of the Rio 2016 Olympic Organizing Committee Carlos Arthur Nuzman, right, and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, second right, applaud during the opening ceremony of the 129th International Olympic Committee session, in Rio de Janeiro on August 1, 2016, ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Nuzman, the head of the Brazilian Olympic Committee for more than two decades, was sentenced to 30 years and 11 months in jail for allegedly buying votes for Rio de Janeiro to host the 2016 Olympics. The ruling by Judge Marcelo Bretas became public Thursday, Nov. 25, 2021. (Fabrice Coffrini/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Carlos Arthur Nuzman, the head of the Brazilian Olympic Committee for more than two decades, was sentenced to 30 years and 11 months in jail for allegedly buying votes for Rio de Janeiro to host the 2016 Olympics.
The ruling by Judge Marcelo Bretas became public Thursday.
Nuzman, who also headed the Rio 2016 organizing committee, was found guilty of corruption, criminal organization, money laundering and tax evasion. The 79-year-old executive won’t be jailed until all his appeals are heard.
He and his lawyer did not comment on the decision.
Bretas also sentenced to jail former Rio Gov. Sergio Cabral, businessman Arthur Soares and Leonardo Gryner, who was the Rio 2016 committee director-general of operations. Investigators say all three and Nuzman coordinated to bribe the former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, Lamine Diack, and his son Papa Diack for votes.
Cabral, who has been in jail since 2016 and faces a series of other convictions and investigations, told Bretas two years ago he had paid about $2 million in exchange for up to six votes in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting that awarded Rio the Olympic and Paralympic Games. He said the money had come from a debt owed to him by Soares.
Cabral, who governed Rio state between 2003 and 2010, added that another $500,000 was paid later to Diack’s son with the aim of securing three more votes of IOC members.
Bretas’ ruling labels Nuzman as “one of the main responsibles for the promotion and the organization of the criminal scheme, given his position in the Brazilian Olympic Committee and before international authorities.” The judge also said the sports executive “headed and coordinated action of the other agents, clearly as a leader” to illegally garnish support at the IOC.
The judge said he will send the results of the investigation to authorities in Senegal and France, where Papa Diack and Lamine Diack live, respectively.
Rio’s bid beat Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid to host the 2016 Games.
The investigation in Brazil began in 2017 after French newspaper Le Monde found members of the IOC had been bribed three days before the 2009 session in Copenhagen where Rio was picked to host the Games.
The Extraordinary General Assembly of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) seated on Friday in Cairo has ruled to retain the original format adopted for the play-off for the 2022 African World Cup qualifiers.
The draw for the play-off will be held during the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon. Two dates for the draw are proposed – 22 or 26 January.
The format will also be a two-leg format, contrary to speculations that CAF was considering a one leg format to be played in Doha.
The seeded five teams will start mission away from home and host opponents at home in the 2nd leg.
Under the helm of CAF President Dr. Patrice Motsepe, the Extraordinary General Assembly also discussed more issues related to African football, including the agenda of the African World Cup qualifiers and a date of the 2021 African Super Cup game set to be played in Qatar in February.
Egypt, Algeria, Cameroon, DR Congo, Ghana, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia won their respective groups to reach the final qualifying playoff phase for the 2022 World Cup.
According to the qualifying system, the 10 teams will be divided into 2 pots based on their FIFA ranking and a draw will be conducted for the five ties that are scheduled for March 2021.
On the current raking released on 19 November, the top five in Africa are Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Nigeria.
Another ranking is expected to be released on 16 December ahead of the draw to be conducted in January. Nigeria being the fifth ranked appear to be the only one at risk of being overtaken.
Soccer’s lawmakers moved Thursday to make permanent the pandemic-era option of using five substitutes and dropped a proposal to let halftime be extended to 25 minutes.
The International Football Association Board (IFAB) announced the updates to go to its decision-making annual meeting on March 4-5 in Zurich.
In May 2020, high-level competitions were given the choice to allow teams five replacements in a 90-minute game. It was to help manage players’ health and workload in pending fixture congestion when competitions restarted after a near-global shutdown.
The interim rule is currently available through 2022 and is now set to be written into the laws of soccer.
The 25 – minute pause was proposed by South American soccer body CONMEBOL, which wanted the option to stage Super Bowl-style shows at halftime in major games such as cup finals.
IFAB has rejected it citing “the potential negative impact on player welfare and safety resulting from a longer period of inactivity.”
The IFAB panel comprises the four British soccer federations and FIFA delegates. Their business meeting is held in November to shape the agenda for the annual session.
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, on Thursday, launched the Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme designed to tackle underemployment and unemployment in the country.
Emefiele, at the launch in Abuja, also presented loans ranging from N4.1m to N5m to graduates who applied and were selected.
The scheme as explained by the Governor, was developed in partnership with Nigerian varsities to harness the potentials of graduate entrepreneurs by creating a paradigm shift from the pursuit of white-collar jobs to a culture of entrepreneurship for economic development and job creation.
Emefiele noted that it had become imperative that government at all levels put in place, policy measures to support entrepreneurial development among youths amid the lack of adequate employment opportunities.
He further said, such measures would create an enabling business ecosystem that supports innovation and enables the youth to unleash their entrepreneurial potential, by redirecting their focus from seeking white-collar jobs to a culture of entrepreneurship development.
“The ecosystem should provide support in re-orientating, training, and providing a financing model apt to the peculiarity of the sector within which the businesses operate,” Emefiele added.
Ochai Agbaji had 18 points and Christian Braun added 16 as No. 4 Kansas beat North Texas 71-59 in the first round of the ESPN Events Invitational on Thursday.
Agbaji, born of Nigerian father, became the 63rd player to reach 1,000 points in Kansas history when he hit a 3 to open the scoring 2½ minutes into the game. The guard entered the game just one point away from the milestone.
Kansas is looking to win its seventh in-season tournament in a row.
“These events are important,” Kansas guard Remy Martin said. “We want to go home with the championship, ultimately. That actually motivates you, wanting to win, wanting to win the championship.”
North Texas (2-2) got 23 points from Tylor Perry. All other scorers for the Mean Green were held to single digits, including Thomas Bell, who picked up his fifth foul midway through the second half and finished with nine points.
“Give Kansas all the credit, they were more aggressive than we were,” North Texas coach Grant McCasland said. “They attacked the basket better. I’m proud of the way we responded after being down early the game. Found a way to claw back in it and give ourselves a chance.”
North Texas got within 35-27 at the half after trailing by 13.
KU (4-0) went up 46-31 early in the second half thanks to Martin hitting a pair of a long-range shots and Braun making a 3-point play after a steal. Martin, who had 15 points, recently has been slowed by back discomfort.
“I’m OK,” Martin said. “We’re doing a lot of great treatment. I’m just in there consistently trying to get a little better.”
A dunk by Agbaji and another Martin 3 extended the advantage to 53-35 with 14 minutes left.
WILSON RETURNS
Kansas forward Jalen Wilson had seven points over 18 minutes in his first game of the season. He was suspended for the first three regular-season games after being arrested on suspicion of drunken driving.
“I thought he was pretty good,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “That will probably the least he plays all year. He needs to be out there. We’re better on offense when he’s in the game. Jalen Wilson will figure out a way how to make us better.”
LONG RANGE
North Texas went 4 for 27 on its 3-point tries, while Kansas made 6 of 14.
BIG PICTURE
Kansas: Had scored 87 points or more in each of its first three games but had scoring droughts of 2 ½ and 3 ½ minutes during the first half, and another 2 1/2-minute dry spell in the second.
North Texas: Returned just six players from the 2020-21 squad that earned the school’s fourth NCAA tournament trip and first-ever tournament win with a 78-69 overtime victory over Purdue.
UP NEXT
Kansas: Plays Dayton in a semifinal Friday. The Flyers beat Miami 76-60 on Thursday.
North Texas: Faces Miami on Friday in the consolation round.
India has been elected to the World Heritage Committee of the UN’s cultural organisation for a four-year term, a week after the country was re-elected to the UNESCO Executive Board.
“Happy to announce that India has won the seat on World Heritage Committee from the Asia Pacific region. I thank all our supporters for leading us to this historic win,” Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakashi Lekhi tweeted.
India to UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) tweeted, “India gets elected to the World Heritage Committee with 142 votes for a four year term from 2021-25!” On November 17, India won the re-election to the executive board of the UNESCO for the 2021-25 term.
The committee is responsible for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention, defines the use of the World Heritage Fund and allocates financial assistance upon requests from States parties.
About 20km northeast of Farafra, on the east side of the road, blinding-white chalk rock spires sprout almost supernaturally from the ground, each frost-coloured lollipop licked into a surreal landscape of familiar and unfamiliar shapes by the dry desert winds.
These sculptural formations are best viewed at sunrise or sunset, when the sun lights them with orangey-pink hues, or under a full moon, which gives the landscape a ghostly Arctic appearance.
The sand around the outcroppings is littered with quartz and different varieties of deep-black iron pyrites, as well as small fossils.
On the west side of the Farafra–Bahariya highway, away from the wind-hewn sculptures, chalk towers called inselbergs burst from the desert floor into a spectacular white canyon.
Between them run grand boulevards of sand, like geologic Champs-Élysées. No less beautiful than the east side of the road, the shade and privacy here makes it a great area to camp.
About 50km north are two flat-topped mountains known as the Twin Peaks, a key navigation point for travellers.
A favourite destination of local tour operators, the view from the top of the surrounding symmetrical hills, all shaped like giant ant-hills, is spectacular.
Just beyond here, the road climbs a steep escarpment known as Naqb As Sillim (Pass of the Stairs); this is the main pass that leads into and out of the Farafra depression and marks the end of the White Desert.
La Bahia (The Beautiful) is an 8000-sq-metre, floor-to-ceiling extravagance of intricate marquetry, plasterwork and zouak (painted wood), and certainly one of Marrakesh’s most eye-popping sights.
The salons of both the Petit Riad and Grand Riad host intricate marquetry and zouak ceilings, but the Cour d’Honneur, a grand courtyard, with its 1500 sq metre floor of Italian Carrara marble, is the undisputed highlight.
Despite the vast area on show, only a portion of the palace’s eight hectares and 150 rooms is open to the public. Its grand spaces sometimes play host to important cultural events.
History
Built by Grand Vizier Si Moussa in the 1860s, the palace was later expanded and embellished from 1894 to 1900 by his son and successor Abu ‘Bou’ Ahmed. The Cour d’Honneur (courtyard) was converted into a harem by Bou Ahmed after he became Grand Vizier in 1894. Indeed, the expansion and beautification of Bahia Palace was driven by Bou Ahmed’s desire to accommodate his four wives and 24 concubines.
Bou Ahmed died in 1900, and in 1908 the palace’s beguiling charms attracted warlord Pasha Glaoui, who claimed it as a suitable venue to entertain French guests. They, in turn, were so impressed that they booted out their host in 1912, installing the protectorate’s resident-general in his place.
When Morocco gained independence from France in 1956, the palace was used as a royal residence, until King Hassan II transferred it to the custody of the Moroccan Ministry of Culture, so the building could serve as a cultural icon and tourist attraction.
A grand, tiled courtyard with a number of raised flower beds, from which large leafy trees grow.
Touring The Palace
Petit Riad
Closest to the entrance, the single-storey Petit Riad is similar in layout and size to traditional houses of the medina, but it’s notable for the ornamentation of its salons. Its walls of intensely elaborate white plasterwork are inscribed with verses from the Quran. In the 19th century when it was originally decorated, this plaster would have been carved in situ while wet – just imagine the artisan skill required to work so swiftly and accurately.
Cour D’honneur
Sandwiched between the Petit Riad and the Grand Riad, you’ll pass through two courtyards. The first is relatively plain, but the second, called the Grand Cour or Cour d’Honneur, is the undisputed heart of the palace and one of the most spectacular open spaces ever to be conceived in Morocco. It is 1500 sq metres in size and was restored to its original brilliance in 2018. The floor is a vast expanse of Italian Carrara marble, encircled by a gallery uniquely coloured with bright blue and yellow plaster and woodwork.
Grand Riad
Step through the doorway from the Cour d’Honneur into the large courtyard of the Grand Riad, studded with fountains and lush foliage and sound-tracked by birdsong. This is the oldest part of the palace complex, completed in 1867 by Si Moussa, a former slave who rose through the ranks to become one of Sultan Hassan I’s most important aides. The riad’s salon is bedecked with carved wood lintels, zouak artistry and stained-glass detailing – Bahia Palace was thought to be the first building in North Africa to use stained glass as a decorative feature.
A colourful tiled mural, which appears like a large flower, on the ceiling of the Bahia palace, Marrakesh.
The Spanish Grand Prix has signed a new contract to remain on the Formula 1 calendar at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya until 2026.
The organisers have agreed to upgrade the race track and facilities in time for next year’s grand prix on 22 May.
It will be the sixth race on a record 23-grand prix schedule.
The new contract contains a commitment to ensure that the track becomes “a model and world benchmark of sustainability”.
F1 has a corporate target to be net-zero carbon as a sport by 2030.
Roger Torrent, the Catalan minister of business and labour, said: “We want the circuit to become an exponent of the green transformation and the adaptation of infrastructures to the demands of the climate emergency.”
Ralf Rangnick is set to be appointed as interim Manchester United manager until the end of this season.
He will succeed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who left the club this month, and after his initial six-month spell in charge, the German will take on a consultancy role with the club for two further years.
But what attracted United to Rangnick and vice versa? What kind of manager is he? Is he likely to be a success and what will his role beyond this season entail?
And what will his appointment mean for Cristiano Ronaldo?
To answer these questions, the BBC spoke to St. Louis SC sporting director Lutz Pfannenstiel, who worked with Rangnick at Hoffenheim, former Leicester defender Christian Fuchs – who played under him at Schalke – and European football journalists Raphael Honigstein, Guillem Balague and Julien Laurens.
‘The best man on the market’
Rangnick’s appointment comes at the end of a thorough recruitment process conducted by United, who were impressed during an initial conversation with the German earlier this week.
The 63-year-old has built an impressive coaching reputation during his time in Germany, chiefly through spells at Stuttgart, Hannover, Hoffenheim, Schalke and RB Leipzig.
He would be joining a club that are eighth in the Premier League, having lost their way under Solskjaer, whose final match was a 4-1 humbling at Watford and their fourth defeat in five league games.
Honigstein: He had a similar offer of an interim job from Chelsea not that long ago and he said ‘no, that’s not for me’. In this case there are three different things.
Firstly, it is Manchester United and that still has a special ring to it. There is a romance, especially for an anglophile like Rangnick, who studied and lived in England and loves the Premier League.
Secondly, it is six months. It is more than two thirds of the season with a lot of football still to be played.
Thirdly, United have effectively said to him ‘we might only want you as a short-term manager, but we want to tap into your football knowledge beyond that’. This comes at a time when the structure at United is changing a bit, with a new chief executive coming in and an openness to bringing in more football expertise from outside.
We all look at what Thomas Tuchel has done in an even shorter space of time at Chelsea. He has no experience of English football, comes in January and, just by giving a team that was completely rudderless some structure, he goes on to win the Champions League.
I think United will have thought ‘can we get a Tuchel-type guy to give us an immediate lift, immediate structure?’. The team is better than their current results and performances.
Pfannenstiel: Ralf is a big expert, really one of the best coaches or managers Germany produced in the past 15-20 years, I would say.
Everything he did so far was successful and he always was very clear that if he gets the opportunity to work for a big club in England, he wants to do that.
So, looking at this interim head coach, I think he is the one who really can get everything stabilised to really get United back on track. I think he probably was the best man on the market.
Laurens: I’m gobsmacked and I’m still not sure. He’s one of the greatest thinkers in football in the past 20 years and inspired all the great German coaches.
But he’s a builder, that’s what he does and you don’t do that in six months.
For a quick fix, I wouldn’t put him in that role. He will give his opinions on players and methods, but will not be able to interfere like he did at Leipzig. I was a bit surprised. I can see why he took that job – you can’t say no to United whoever you are.
He knows English football but has not managed or played here before.
‘Pressing, high-intensity and always exciting to watch’
Rangnick’s trophy haul as a manager is modest, but his influence on the game is vast, not only as a coach and director of football but as a thinker on the game.
His biggest achievements have been in building sides from the bottom up – most notably at Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig.
He is often cited as the originator of the modern pressing game, with Tuchel, Julian Nagelsmann, Ralph Hasenhuttl and Jurgen Klopp among those he has influenced.
Pfannenstiel: His football is very direct, lots of pressing, lots of counter-pressing, lots of high-intensity football – something which is always exciting to watch.
If you look back at how Hoffenheim played, especially how RB Leipzig played, I think this is what you can expect – some really, really high push-up football where they are pressing and stressing the opponent, forcing the opponent to make mistakes.
He is very clear, very direct and most importantly everything he does is with a clear goal. He is not a guy who jokes around all day. He wants things to get done – that’s the way he will approach that. Ralf was always successful – and I believe he always will be successful because he is as intense as his football will be on the field. He expects a lot from the players, but he also expects a lot from himself.
I think it really fits well to the players Manchester United have and to the style the fans love to see at Old Trafford. I think Ralf could be the next German who really puts his stamp and his legacy on a club’s future.
Fuchs: He has a very clear philosophy of how he wants to play, the idea of coaching and pressing – and that will never change.
He is looking to have a personal interaction with you. I was in Vienna with the Austria national team, we had a couple of beers and were talking for a long time about the philosophy of Hoffenheim.
But then he said ‘at the moment, you’re not the player for me’.
He was very up front, very straightforward and that’s what I appreciated. Two years later he said ‘I want to sign you now’.
He thought I was not ready, but that’s all credit to him for being very straightforward and very realistic. He said ‘keep playing, keep learning’ and two years later he said ‘now, you are ready’.
It is the little things – the positioning, when to push forward and all of those things that can impact your game massively. Under him I came to Schalke, a big club and expectations were high right away, but he made me feel comfortable and appreciated. This kind of man-management is very important in the game.
He knows what he wants and he will demand from these players to stick together and work hard together.
It is hoped Rangnick will take over at United after this weekend’s Chelsea game, for which Michael Carrick will remain in charge
‘It is going to be difficult if Ronaldo is a no for him’
United will be the first truly elite European club that Rangnick will have managed.
He joins them after a summer of investment during which they added a number of high-profile players to a squad already loaded with internationals carrying big reputations, the most notable being five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo.
Honigstein: He has always been nice handling people, but some people cannot handle someone wanting you to change very quickly. They find it annoying and threatening, exhausting to find someone who pushes you all the time. Some players respond really well and go to the next level because they needed that push.
The problem for Rangnick has more been the people upstairs because to these guys once you are in a certain position it becomes about keeping your job rather than doing your job. These types have been threatened by someone who says ‘this is not good enough, we need to change this’.
Balague: It looks like it’s an interim job and it looks a bit dangerous. If you’re creating a new structure, Ralf is someone who has a clear idea of what he has to do.
He can’t stand people that do not want to change and I feel there’s a lot of those at United. You have to be nice to people and move people along. Is he nice now?
Something that has been missing at United is a lack of clarity in decisions.
Honigstein: He won’t have as much authority as a guy who comes in on a three-year deal, but at the same time you can do whatever you want because you are going to be gone anyway. He can be more ruthless in a way.
It is going to be difficult if Ronaldo is a no for him, for example. That could be one not-so-easy thing to work out – how does Ronaldo fit into Rangnick’s kind of football? Maybe he can. Maybe the idea can change, maybe Ronaldo can change? It is going to be one of the most fascinating part of this story.
But Ralf has learned to deal with people even if they are not on the same wavelength. The journey, the excitement of six months at Manchester United, with top four, Champions League and FA Cup still to play for, will take on its own dimension.
‘Organisation, structure and planning, the future is really brilliant’
Since 2012, Rangnick has operated in a number of high-profile sporting director roles, most notably with the Red Bull stable of clubs and RB Leipzig especially, during which the club rose from the fourth tier of German football to challenging for the Bundesliga title.
He is currently head of sports and development at Lokomotiv Moscow.
Honigstein: I’m not sure if that future role will have real power. I don’t think United are set up for that.
But he is at a point in his career where he has set up his own consulting company and is working with clubs, federations and sporting directors.
I think he is at a point where he wants to use what he has learned and give it to whoever needs it. They pay him for his advice and if they don’t like it, he moves on. I think he is beyond the cliche of the guy who comes in and has to have full control.
Pfannenstiel: We like to call him, in Germany, the football professor. Everything he does is very well thought out, the way he puts structures in place at every club is something amazing.
Looking at the way Red Bull Salzburg was built or how RB Leipzig was built from a training centre up to the professional team, the youth development… that’s all with a lot of thought, a lot of science in it. His organisation, his structure and his planning, the future is really brilliant.
Looking at the way he planned his career after finishing his deal in Leipzig, he wanted to be more on an advisory side anyway and that’s what he did in Moscow.
Knowing Ralf and his career and how the football world works, if he comes in and does an unbelievable job and everybody is happy, I think that plan to be an adviser, in the next two years after this season, could easily turn into a long-term appointment as well.
Everything is possible and I think it is all about results and being successful.
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