Police in Brazil probing rape allegations against football superstar Neymar have closed the case due to a lack of evidence, the Sao Paulo attorney general’s office said Monday.

The police decision will be sent to prosecutors on Tuesday, who will have 15 days to evaluate the case, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office told AFP.

A final ruling on the case will be made by a judge.

A spokesman for Neymar said he was not able to comment on the police decision. Sao Paulo police are due to hold a news conference on Tuesday.

Neymar has vehemently denied allegations he raped a Brazilian woman in a Paris hotel in May.

The ugly affair, which has dominated headlines and conversations in the soccer-mad country for weeks, overshadowed Brazil’s preparations for the Copa America.

Hosts Brazil went on to win South America’s showcase tournament earlier this month without their biggest player, who was injured in a warm-up friendly before the opening match.

The scandal blew up on June 2 when Neymar published a seven-minute video on Instagram, where he had first been in contact with Najila Trindade, revealing that he had been accused of rape.

In an attempt to defend himself against the allegations, Neymar’s video was accompanied by WhatsApp messages and images of his encounter with Trindade — without her consent, possibly breaking Brazilian law.

– Police questioning –

The drama quickly snowballed. Extracts of a televised interview with Trindade, in which she accused Neymar of “aggression together with rape,” aired just one hour before he was about to enter the pitch for the pre-Copa game between Brazil and Qatar.

Neymar tore his right ankle ligament in the 20th minute, ruling him out of the tournament.

In the following weeks, Neymar was questioned by police over the WhatsApp messages.

He also appeared before police in Sao Paulo, where Trindade had filed her complaint at the end of May.

As the case dragged on, police filed a defamation suit against Trindade — who was dropped by multiple lawyers — after she insinuated the force was corrupt.

“The police are bought, aren’t they? Or am I crazy?” she told television channel SBT last month in response to questions over the police investigation of an alleged theft of a tablet device from her home that contained a short video she claims has conclusive evidence she was assaulted.

Despite the seriousness of the allegations, polls have shown that most Brazilians believe Neymar is innocent.

Controversy has followed the Paris Saint-Germain player, who flew back to France earlier this month.

Neymar, who joined PSG in 2017, has made clear he wants to return to Barcelona.

He has yet to feature during PSG’s pre-season tour in Asia and French media reported he will miss Tuesday’s game against Sydney in China.

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Kenya suffered international embarrassment in 2016 when a string of doping scandals brought the country famed for its distance runners within a whisker of disqualification from the Rio Olympics.

“It was a time when Kenya faced an enormous challenge in terms of the very integrity of our sports,” said Japhter Rugut, who heads the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK), established in the wake of the scandal.

Kenya scraped through to Rio. But while its sporting authorities promised to clean up their act, Kenyan athletes have proved harder to convince.

A year after the scare, Jemima Sumgong — who in Rio won Kenya’s first-ever Olympic gold in the women’s marathon — tested positive for the banned substance erythropoietin (EPO) and was suspended.

In 2018, three-time world champion and Olympic 1,500 metre winner, Asbel Kiprop, tested positive for EPO and was also banned.

Between 2004 and August 2018, 138 Kenyan athletes tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, according to a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report published in September 2018.

The report concluded that nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, corticosteroids and EPO were the substances most used by local athletes.

However it found there was “no evidence of an institutionalised system” of doping in Kenya.

Thirty-six Kenyan runners are currently suspended, according to the Athletics Integrity Unit.

– Building awareness –

Nevertheless, efforts to clean up the sport are beginning to bear fruit.

Since its inception, the number of anti-doping tests conducted by ADAK has mushroomed more than 10-fold, from about 100 in 2016 to 1,150 in 2018.

It has created biological passports for about 40 elite athletes to track their data over time, a development made possible by the opening of a WADA-approved blood testing laboratory in Nairobi in 2018.

ADAK, under its slogan “Stay Clean, Win Right”, has also launched a nation-wide awareness-raising program aimed at athletes, coaches and medical staff.

In line with International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) guidelines, Kenyan athletes selected for the 2019 World Championships starting in Doha in September will be subject to a minimum of four blood and urine tests.

“Qualification will be done on time and testing,” says Jackson Tuwei, president of the Kenyan Athletics Federation.

“We have made this very clear to all our athletes that those who want to go to worlds, must also qualify by being tested.”

But beyond the elite level, tackling doping remains a monumental challenge.

There are 4,000 top-level athletes registered with the athletics federation — four times more than in France for example — stretching oversight resources.

These athletes see running — and winning — as the only way out of a life of poverty, and go undetected by the checks and controls as Kenya focuses on its elite athletes.

“There are easily more than 500 top marathon runners… so it is difficult for the federation, given its limited resources, to monitor and control each athlete,” says specialist journalist Elias Makori.

“Every weekend, there are dozens of Kenyans winning marathons all over the world.”

– ‘A culture of honesty’ –

“In East Africa, unlike anywhere else in the world, hundreds and hundreds of professional athletes make a very good living from road running,” says Brett Clothier, director of the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), a watchdog set up to police anti-doping in athletics.

“Many of these athletes are never tested out of competition.

“Such athletes have the motivation, opportunity and financial means to boost themselves, and therefore there is a high demand for doping products.”

For Brother Colm O’Connell, legendary coach of two-time Olympic 800m champion David Rudisha, the education of athletes is at the heart of combating the scourge.

“I also think we must instil in our young people, as they grow up through the ranks, becoming athletes, we must instil a culture of honesty, fair-play, that you can win without, you can win clean,” he said.

Other significant hurdles remain.

No one is tracing doping substances stocked by pharmacies and hospitals. The regulation of athletics agents is lax. Allegations of corruption, too, have marred efforts to clean up the sport.

Even identifying athletes can sometimes prove problematic, with runners registered under different names from one document to the next.

Political support is also not assured. Kenya’s parliament this year cut funding for ADAK by nearly 15 percent, trimming its budget to around $2.5 million (2.2 million euros).

With the Tokyo Olympics looming less than a year away, Kenya is confident it will avoid a repeat of the Rio Games controversy, even if more work needs to be done.

“For now, there are signs that our joint efforts are working and that we are on the right track,” says Clothier.

“The main thing is that the struggle, and close collaboration, with AIU continues.”

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Moses Basena has been appointed as the new head coach of Rwanda Premier League side Sun Rise FC on a two-year contract.

The former SC villa manager has been unemployed since he left the Jogoos in November 2018 when results were not going his way. .

Basena is a Germany trained tactician who holds a CAF ‘A’ coaching license with over fifteen years’ experience in football management.

Basena has recently been in charge of a number of top flight clubs including Simba in Tanzania, UPDF, Express, KCCA FC and URA FC in Uganda.

He also served as the Cranes interim for six months after Micho resigned until December 2017 when FUFA appointed Sebastien Desabre as Uganda’s national team coach.

During his playing days, he featured for Coffee, Sports Club Villa (winning three League titles with Sports Club Villa in 1990, 1991 and 1993) and the national team Uganda Cranes.

Sun Rise completed last season one place above relegation and they hope Basena turns their fortunes around.

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Uganda Cranes forward Muhammad Shaban has terminated his contract with Raja Casablanca of Morocco after just one year.

The former Onduparaka striker leaves the club after failing to secure a starting role in the first team and spending most of the time in their reserve team.

His agent Niwagira Ronald Santos confirmed the development through a statement on his facebook page;

“Ronnie santos sports Management, the official representative of Mohamed Shaban – Uganda cranes have this afternoon reached an agreement with Raja Casablanca to end our relationship which started 13th.August 2018.

“Due to some reasons which remain confidential per now, we have agreed to terminate the contract effective today 29th July 2019.

“We wish to thank Raja Casablanca for giving us a chance to work with you, it’s been a pleasure putting on the green and colours.”

Muhammad Shaban joined the Moroccan side from KCCA FC on a three year deal for $130,000 in August 2018.

During his time at the club, they won the CAF super cup defeating Tunisian side Esperance 2-1 in Qatar but was unused substitute.

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Just ten days after Algeria triumphed at the Caf Africa Cup of Nations 2019 in Egypt, Caf staged the draw for the first round of qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Only 28 of the continent’s teams – those ranked lowest in July’s edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking – were involved in the draw. The sides will play home-and-away knockout fixtures.

The teams involved in the first qualifying round were: Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Seychelles, Sao Tome, Chad, South Sudan, Gambia, Mauritius, Liberia, Ethiopia, Comoros, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan, Togo, Malawi, Angola, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Central African Republic and Tanzania.

The 14 winners will join the continent’s top-ranked 26 sides, who have been exempted from the initial round of qualifiers.

The 40 teams will then be split into ten groups of four for the second qualifying round.

The details for group stage draw will be communicated later. However, the matches will kick off in March 2020.

The ten winners of those groups will then be drawn against each other in home-and-away fixtures, with the five victors advancing to Qatar 2022.

The Qatar World cup will be played from 21st November to 18th December 2022.

The 14 ties of Caf’s first qualifying round for the 2022 World Cup: The games will played between 2nd and 10th September.

Ethiopia vs Lesotho

Somalia vs Zimbabwe

Eritrea vs Namibia

Burundi vs Tanzania

Djibouti vs Eswatini

Botswana vs Malawi

Gambia vs Angola

Liberia vs Sierra Leone

Mauritius vs Mozambique

Sao Tome e Principe vs Guinea-Bissau

South Sudan vs Equatorial Guinea

Comoros Islands vs Togo

Chad vs Sudan

Seychelles vs Rwanda

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