Gabon struggles to prepare for AFCON

With less than a week to go before the Africa Cup of Nations is due to kick off in Gabon, major doubts have been raised about the country's ability to stage the competition.
Despite having previously co-hosted the AFCON with Equatorial Guinea in 2012, Gabon is woefully under-prepared and has had to rely on outside help after tournament sponsors - multinational oil giant Total - officially announced that they would not be lifting a finger.

Ikea has agreed to donate several hundred standing lamps to cover for the inadequate floodlights, while Sports Direct has donated footballs and match official accessories - albeit on the condition that Newcastle United have first dibs on the Gabonese youth team, at the insistence of company chief executive Mike Ashley.
 A whip-round of loose change in the Manchester United dressing room fetched in the region of 12 million pounds, which will be spent on 'party packages' for visiting FIFA dignitaries.

Messi set to go one further than scorpion kick

Not to be outdone by the spectacular scorpion-kick goals scored recently by Giroud and Mkhitaryan, Lionel Messi is said to be working on a new move that he hopes to employ when Barcelona travel to Villarreal on Sunday.
The move is known as the 'anteater', and involves guiding the ball goalbound through defenders' legs using only his tongue.

Other moves spotted on the Barcelona training pitch include the 'roosting kestrel' - whereby Neymar tosses Messi in the air before Suarez supplies the ball that he carries on his back into the goal - and the 'gnat' which involves making such a nuisance of oneself that the opposition defenders decide to give up and go home.