Starting the column on a sad note I believe is not the best way to go today. Even if the headline gives in-sight into what the column is all about, serving the column with positive news is best way to start the day. Though, all the four African representatives exited the maid-en edition of the Club World Cup in the United States at the group stage, three of the quarter-final matches will be played today, since the first of the quarters between Brazilian Fluminense and Saudi Arabian side, Al Hilal, who ended Pep Guardiola’s Man-chester City 4-3 run in the sec-ond round, held last night. The PSG tie against Bayern Munich today is the headline fixture of the quarter-finals. This game is touted as a potential early final. Before this game, Chelsea will play Brazilian side, Palmeiras Fc in the first game of the day with the tie between Real Madrid and Dortmund closing the day. Antony, Alejandro Garnacho, Tyrell Malacia, Marcus Rash-ford and Jadon Sancho have all informed Manchester United they want to leave. As a result, United have delayed their re-quired return date until later in July to allow them time to ex-plore potential solutions further. The rest of the squad will begin reporting back from Monday. If their futures are not resolved during this period, they will re-turn to Carrington, where they will continue to have full access to medical and training support. Life has a way of playing some funny games. While I was scrolling the media for the latest news in the transfer window, with special interest in Arsenal, what came out was odious news that shocked me to my marrow. It was the news that Ghanaian Thomas Partey, the former Arse-nal player, has been charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault. Reports have it that the offences are report-ed to have taken place between 2021-2022, the Metropolitan Po-lice said. The charges involve three women, with two counts of rape relating to one woman, three counts of rape in connection to a second woman and one count of sexual assault linked to a third woman. The Ghanaian international denies the charges and “wel-comes the opportunity to finally clear his name”, his lawyer said. Mr Partey, of Hertfordshire, is expected to appear at Westmin-ster Magistrates’ Court on Tues-day 5 August. In a statement, his lawyer Jenny Wiltshire said: “Thomas Partey denies all the charges against him.”He has fully coop-erated with the police and CPS throughout their three-year in-vestigation. “He now welcomes the oppor-tunity to finally clear his name. Given that there are now ongo-ing legal proceedings, my client is unable to comment further.” The issue for the day is about the death of four men all connect-ed to football one way or the oth-er. While two are still playing be-fore they met their unfortunate death, one has retired, while the fourth is a youth coach. They all passed on the same day, Thurs-day June 3rd 2025. Death, this four-letter word, reigned supreme on Thursday, and the day deserves the unen-viable title, ‘Dark Thursday’. Even, if death is man’s inevita-ble end, its occurrence on Thurs-day in Nigeria, in Spain and in other parts of the world came with it a bang that shook world football to its foundation. If Peter ‘Dodo Mayana’ Rufai lived for 61 years before death came calling on Thursday, how does one views the death of Di-ego Jota, the 28-year Portuguese footballer that met his untimely death on Thursday? What of his brother, Andre Silva, who was in the same car with him where he met his untimely death? Also on Thursday, Bayern Youth Coach, Mohannad Al-Laili, also bid this sinful world good bye. While the cause of the death of Rufai is shrouded in secrecy, Jota’s death was through a car accident on his way to London where he was to resume training with Premier League champions Liverpool. Truly, the bible says in Eccle-siastes verse 1-2, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.” The bible even gives us up to 70 years to live on earth. So what went wrong with these guys that failed to live up to the expected 70 years? No one has the answer. Death will come when it will. How and when it will come is beyond human comprehension. No one has any defense against death. The truth about death is that God decreed it at the begin-ning, and it remains so. “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; For dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” (Gen 3 v 19 NKJ). Dr. Olusegun Odegbami (MON) former Super Eagles cap-tain, in his tribute on Friday not-ed that in his radio programme today, he would share his experi-ences with others on the great, legendary goalkeeper, Peter Ru-fai, including “bits and pieces about the ‘Night of Tributes’ coming up on Monday, July 28th, to celebrate the lives of Christian Chukwu, Charles Bassey and Obisia Nwakpa, as preparations are ongoing for their funerals in the month of August. “I shall also be inquiring about why retired Nigerian athletes may be dying relatively young; why most struggle to survive during their post-athletics ca-reers; why we do not hear of more success stories about re-tired athletes…” Peradventure, after the radio programme this morning, we will have inclination to why most Nigerian athletes struggle to sur-vive during their post-athletics careers.