Sergio Ramos, a former Sevilla, Real Madrid, and Spain star, has been fined by the Madrid Council for breaking property laws.

The 38-year-old defender is still without a club after leaving Sevilla on a free this summer, but will not have been short of a place to stay.

He is, with his brother Alvaro Rene Ramos, a part-owner of the society which manages a rental company called Sermos 32, who have been found guilty of renting out tourist accommodation without a licence.

Five separate fines have been given out to Sermos 32 between the period of February 2023 and March 2024, say El Confidencial, although it is not clear how much those fines amount to. The last known value of Sermos was €12m in 2020, when the company lost €121k.

Ramos was one of several names caught up in the fines, including the great grandson of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, Juan Jose Franco Suelves, whose company was sanctioned on three occasions.

Victor Osimhen, Napoli FC and Super Eagles forward sensation made history as he starves off competition from teammate, Victor Boniface, Robert Mizo of Bayelsa United and Emeka Obiora of Enyimba International FC to emerge the Striker of the Year and King of the Pitch for the third straight year, making him the first player to achieve this feat on the platform of the prestigious Nigeria Pitch Awards.

Asisat Oshoala, the African Football Queen was voted the Queen of the Pitch ahead of Rasheedat Ajibade of Atlético de Madrid Femenino and Chiamaka Nnadozi, the Paris FC Goalkeeper.

The Award Ceremony began with a very colourful, energetic and exciting dance from the Akwabio Cultural Group. Leading the long list of dignitaries were Ibrahim Musa Gusau, President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, the General Secretary of the Federation, CP Patrick Ateyero, the CP Sports of the Nigeria Police Force who was standing in for the Inspector-General of Police, Nigerian Ex-international and the 1997 CAF African Footballer of the Year, Victor Ikpeba, CP Waheed Ayilara, Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Police, Mr Oluwadare Ojelade, a Director in SIAO Partners, Finidi George and the entire technical crew, all members of the Super Eagles present in Uyo, representives of MTN Nigeria, GTI and other nominees.

The NFF President reiterated the Federation’s support for the Nigerian Pitch Awards while hailing organizers for the transparency and credibility displayed in the award process. Speaking on Nigeria’s 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualification on the heels of the Nigeria – South Africa qualifier match played on the 7th June at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo, Ibrahim Gusau, while appealing for support and prayers, assured Nigerians of the determination of the Federation and the players to secure a World Cup slot.

Speaking on the award process, Mr Oluwadare, the SIAO representative, stated that voting for the 2023 edition of the Nigeria Pitch Awards commenced on Monday 11th December 2023 and closed on Friday 19th January 2024. ‘The results’, he noted, ‘passed through 3 levels of scrutiny: They were collated and reviewed by a team set up specifically to handle this process … A second level of verification was done by another independent unit and’ thirdly ‘Quality Control’s Arm of the firm completes the rigorous but exciting exercise’.

Organizers honoured IGP Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector-General of Police who pioneered the introduction of football as an event in the finals of the 14th BIPOGA in Ibadan in February 2024. Also honoured were John Momoh, Chairman and CEO of Channels for the Channels Kids Cup initiative and Ibrahim Gusua, the NFF President.

In the Goalkeeper of the Year category, Ojo Olorunleke emerged winner ahead of Amas Obasogie of Bendel Insurance FC and Kayode Bankole of Remo Stars FC.

Ola Aina, Nottingham Forest FC and Super Eagles left full back was voted Defender of the Year to beat his Super Eagles teammates Calvin Bassey of Fulham FC who won it last year and Bright Osayi-Samuel, Fenerbahçe SK.

Alex Iwobi, in form Fulham FC midfielder emerged Midfielder of the Year ahead of Wilfred Ndidi, Leicester City FC defensive midfielder and Al Hassan Yusuf of Royal Antwerp FC.

Super Eagles Manager was voted the Coach of the Year 2023 for his exploits while he was Coach of Enyimba International FC where he led the team to finish top of the NPFL league.

MTN Nigeria was voted Best Corporate Sponsor of Football 2023 as the brand saw off competition from GTI Financial and Nigeria’s sports betting giant, Bet9ja.

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the Governor of Lagos State was voted the Football Friendly Governor of the Year while Lagos State emerged the State with the Best Grassroots Football Development Programme in the country in 2023.

The highly competitive Sam Okwaraji Award for commitment to the development of Nigerian football for 2023 went to Hon. Kunle Soname, the chairman of Remo Stars.

Full Result

Goalkeeper of the Year

Ojo Olorunleke – Enyimba FC

Defender of the Year

Ola Aina – Nottingham Forest FC –

Midfielder of the Year

Alex Iwobi – Fulham FC

Striker of the Year

Victor Osimhen – Napoli FC

Queen of the Pitch

Asisat Oshoala – Bay FC

King of the Pitch

Victor Osimhen – Napoli FC

Team of the Year

Enyimba International FC

Coach of the Year

Finidi George – Enyimba FC

Sam Okwaraji Award

Kunle Soname – Chairman, Remo Stars

State with the Best Grassroots Football Development Programme

Lagos State

Football Pitch of the Year

Godswill Akpabio Int’l Stadium

Football Friendly Governor of the Year

His Excellency, Babajide Sanwo-Olu – Lagos State

Best Corporate Sponsor of Football Award

MTN Nigeria

Sportsmanship Award

Hon. Kunle Soname – Chairman, Remo Stars FC

Football Journalist of the Year – Print

Johnny Edward – Punch Newspapers

Football Journalist of the Year – Tv

Mozez Praiz – Supersport

Football Journalist of the Year – Radio

Anthony Bekederemo – Brila 88.9 FM

Football Journalist of the Year – Online

Tobi Adepoju – Oganla Media

The Nationwide League One (NLO) is set to sign its largest sponsorship deal worth millions of naira and also announce a partnership with two foreign service providers.

The four (4) year sponsorship agreement breaks records and represents a major step forward for the development of grassroots football in Nigeria.

NLO Chairman and former Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State, Silas Agara, shared further information about the agreement with.

“We are pleased with the various brands that have shown interest in the NLO in recent months as we want the NLO to become a global phenomenon as the most successful grassroots football league in Africa, as called for by the President of the NFF, Ibrahim Musa Gusau

“One of our partners is a lottery company licensed by the Nigerian Lottery Commission; will be the LO title sponsor. We have signed a sponsorship agreement with a term of four years. And we will reveal them on Thursday, March 14, 2024.

Twenty-four hours later, exactly on Friday, March 15, the NLO will present four of its possible partners.

“One of them is a service provider: a sports tracking platform based in Croatia with more than 25 million monthly active users worldwide. This is very good for our clubs. They have also directed the NLO to help them integrate other leagues in Nigeria.

“This is not about any monetary value, but about sharing the benefits of the development of our league and we have agreed to work with them.”

However, there is another IT company that has agreed to develop websites for all NLO clubs. They will also open social media channels for all clubs.

“They will train club officials to manage the websites and then market the website and social media so that clubs can generate funds to support their clubs.”

“The NLO sees this as a good avenue for club development and another source of income for NLO clubs.”

Agara further hinted: “Two more technical partners will join NLO as they will help facilitate talent discovery through the use of technology.

“The country’s third-tier national football league sees them as a development partner, and we have agreed to give them access to our data. The benefits for NLO are the revenue share from selling the data, we have a device that allows us to monitor what we see.”

In order to expand its reach to a wider audience and passionate fans of the league, NLO has in a separate development launched its two (2) channels on Blend TV.