Novak Djokovic will not want to miss the chance to win a record 21st Grand Slam title at the Australian Open, says tournament director Craig Tiley.

The Serb is level on 20 Grand Slam wins with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

“One of them will surpass the others. I don’t think Novak would want to leave that to someone else,” said Tiley.

“Novak has won nine Australian Opens, I’m sure he wants to get to 10.”

The tournament runs from 17-30 January in Melbourne and last month Djokovic said he was uncertain if he would play.

Tiley has spoken to the world number one but is still unaware if he has been vaccinated against Covid-19.

He said that currently 85% of professional players are vaccinated and he expects that figure to be “between 90-95%” by the time of the event at Melbourne Park, where fans and staff will also be banned if unvaccinated.

Tiley said there were “one or two players” who had medical exemptions which are in line with Victoria’s state health rules.

“And so it should be, because there shouldn’t be any preferential treatment coming into the state compared to what the regular community is going through,” he said.

Tennis Australia has also announced there will be a record 17 warm-up events staged across the states of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, mostly in the respective state capitals of Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide.

They begin with the ATP Cup team competition, which returns to Sydney from 1-9 January.

Former Barcelona striker Samuel Eto’o has been cleared to stand in elections to be the next president of the Cameroon Football Federation (Fecafoot).

A total of six candidates, including incumbent Seidou Mbombo Njoya, have been approved by Fecafoot’s electoral committee to stand in the polls on 11 December.

Another former international Jules Denis Onana is also eligible for the elections, however his 1990 World Cup team-mate Emmanuel Maboang Kessack was ruled out as he owes Fecafoot $7,600.

The other three names on the list of eligible candidates for president are Crepin Soter Nyamsi, Justin Tagouh and Zacharie Wandja.

One other person, Manuel Boyomo, has also been prevented from taking part in the polls because he failed to provide the required number of endorsement letters.

When Eto’o, 40, first announced his intentions September it was amid controversy in Cameroon after candidates with dual nationality had been told they could not stand in the elections.

Eto’o, who also had spells with Inter Milan and Chelsea, was granted dual Spanish nationality during his time at Barcelona.

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.

The five winners will qualify for the World Cup.

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.