Toure Yaya will play his first game of the African Cup of Nations this afternoon when Ivory Coast take on Nigeria in Sekondi, kick off is at 6pm Spanish time. Tomorrow will see Samuel Eto’o perform as Cameroon play Egypt in Kumasi. Here are the fixtures for Cameroon and Ivory Coast:

Frank Rijkaard has a choice of three possible substitutes for Toure Yaya while the big man is away with the Ivory Coast national team for the African Cup Of Nations. Toure could miss as many as nine games if the Ivory Coast progress to the semi-finals. He will definitely miss both cup games with Sevilla […]

In a press conference this lunchtime, Frank Rijkaard has confirmed that Samuel Eto’o will delay his departure for the African Nations Cup preparations for another week. Eto’o was due to join up with the Cameroon National Team on Monday but Barça have negotiated with Cameroon and he will now be available not only for tomorrow’s match in […]

With the apocalyptic feel surrounding Barça this week it is easy to forget that aside from the not-so-classic Clasico Barça played some good football in December. There were valuable victories over Deportivo, Stuttgart and Valencia, and a half-decent draw with Espanyol, which had given Barça fans some cause for optimism before Madrid came along to spoil […]

Having rushed my report I need to share a few more thoughts on yesterday’s victory. Firstly, Messi’s injury has been confirmed and he looks like being out for five weeks. This means that as well as the Madrid match he will probably miss three more league games: the visit to Mallorca and the home games […]

Samuel Eto’o today received medical clearance to return to action against Deportivo this Sunday (kick off 9pm). Eto’o was injured on the 29th August in the Joan Gamper match against Inter Milan. All reports say that he has been training at an excellent level and if needed he could play 90 minutes this weekend.

Yes, I know it’s yesterday’s news but I’ve been very busy. There were no big surprises in the final results of France Football’s Golden Ball Award. Kaka was the obvious winner for being the best player in last season’s edition of the Champions League. Cristiano Ronaldo just pipped Messi to second place as he won […]

As we all know the press struggle to find credible stories during the international break, do you remember the nonsense about the Barça-Madrid game being brought forward to a Friday - http://fcbnews.com/barca-madrid-on-friday-21st-december/. This week we are back to the old favourite of the offers that are being prepared for Barça’s biggest stars.

It now seems likely that neither Samuel Eto’o nor Deco will be fit in time for the derby match with Espanyol at the start of December. Both players are looking to the weekend of the 8/9 December, when Barça play host to Deportivo, to make their comebacks. Barça will have to make do without them […]

Apologies to those of you who are bored of me writing about Rangers fans, here is today’s latest Barça news. First, congratulations to Victor Valdés for breaking the Barça record for not conceding a goal in European competition for 466 minutes. The last goal he conceded was scored by Riise for Liverpool back in February. […]