Football

Juventus complete Higuian signing for €90m

Published

10 years ago

on

July 26, 2016

By

Feyijimi Emmanuel

Juventus has completed the signing of Argentine superstar, Gonzalo Higuian.

He was the Serie A’s leading scorer with a mind-boggling 36 goals in 35 games. The fee is reported to be around €90m.

Juventus will pay in two installments and have already made a payment of €45m with the rest to come later.

ALSO SEE: How Brexit changes football

Napoli had been adamant that Higuian’s release clause would have to be met if he was to go anywhere and Juventus having met it has won the race against Arsenal, who was also said to be interested.

Higuian is set to make about €7m a year from this deal and should be with the Bianconeri for the next five years.

He joins fellow new signings, Miralem Pjanic, Marko Pjaca, Medhi Benatia and Dani Alves in the Juventus team in what has been a very productive summer.

Related Topics:Gonzalo Higuian Juventus Napoli FC

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Vote-buying remains a major concern One of the strongest warnings from Osun was the continued presence of vote-buying and voter inducement. Yiaga Africa said the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were consistent with its independent statistical projections, but cautioned that this did not remove concerns about the integrity of voters' choices amid reports of vote-buying and inducement. The concern is particularly significant ahead of 2027, when political competition will take place nationwide and involve presidential, National Assembly and state-level contests. The International Republican Institute (IRI), following a pre-election assessment mission conducted in August, identified monetised political competition, election-related violence, insecurity and declining public confidence in INEC among the structural challenges facing the 2027 elections. IRI recommended stronger investigation and prosecution of vote-buying and voter inducement, urging INEC, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and security agencies to act on credible allegations. Technology improves transparency — but has limits The Osun election also demonstrated how electoral technology can improve transparency. INEC's electronic transmission of polling-unit results through the IReV platform provided observers and members of the public with a mechanism to monitor uploaded results. Yiaga Africa subsequently said the official results were consistent with its independent statistical estimates, describing the outcome as evidence that the announced results reflected the ballots counted at polling units. However, technical problems with BVAS were reported during voting. CDD said difficulties involving biometric verification and slow processing occurred in several LGAs, including Irepodun, Ejigbo, Obokun, Osogbo, Olorunda, Ola Oluwa, Ede North and Ede South. 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The institute urged security agencies to identify high-risk areas early and develop location-specific plans to prevent intimidation, disruption and attacks on electoral participants. Osun offers lessons ahead of 2027 Despite the challenges, observers say the Osun election also provides evidence that improvements in election administration can produce positive results. Yiaga Africa's assessment found that INEC and security agencies largely passed the test of conducting the election, while its independent verification indicated that the official results accurately reflected the ballots counted at polling units. The challenge ahead is to build on those gains while addressing the weaknesses exposed during the election. For INEC, that means improving BVAS reliability, strengthening result-transmission and collation procedures and maintaining clear communication with voters and political parties. 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