Croatia sends World Cup player home for refusing to play in Nigeria match – Shelley Ng | Fox New

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Croatia sent one of its players home Monday after he refused to take the pitch during the team’s opening World Cup match.

Head coach Zlatko Dalić confirmed forward Nikola Kalinić was sent packing from the team’s basecamp in Roshchino, Russia.

“During the Nigeria encounter, Kalinić was warming up and was supposed to come on in the second half. However, he then stated that he wasn’t ready to come on due to a back issue,” Dalić said Monday. “The same thing happened during the Brazil friendly in England, as well as before the practice session on Sunday.”

Teams participating in the World Cup are required to declare their official roster of 23 players ahead of the tournament.

It is too late for Croatia to call a replacement to take Kalinić’s spot, so the team will continue its World Cup run with just 22 players on its squad.

Croatia’s next match is on Thursday against Argentina in Nizhny Novgorod.

 

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2018/06/18/croatia-sends-world-cup-player-home-for-refusing-to-play-in-nigeria-match.html

Image: Croatia’s Ante Rebić kicks the ball during the team’s opening World Cup match against Nigeria. Nikola Kalinić (not pictured) was sent home for refusing to participate in the Saturday match (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

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We Need More Elijahs in Our Time

There is something viscerally political about Bishop David Oyedepo’s poise. Take this statements of his as an example: “A goat has teeth… It’s time to show the enemy that you have teeth.” 
 
Well, teeth are used for chewing and biting (among other functions). So what does “biting” the enemy mean? And who is the enemy? Different individuals and societies may have different ideas about who or what “enemy” means. But, at least, Oyedepo invites us to not assume that our status quo will change without a fight.
 
The Bishop says that John the Baptist died due to insufficient violence (against his enemy? Herod?)! That was the guy in the Christian New Testament book; the man who, had he lived up to his destiny, would have baked Herod to ashes. Elijah talked without backing up his words with the necessary violence against the system of Herod’s injustice.
 
Lesson: don’t talk if you can’t back up your words with actions. As powerful as John the Baptist was a little girl took his head off his neck. John Ross Macduff understood this when, in “Elijah, the Prophet of Fire,” he writes:
“He is presented to our view without a note of premonition,–ushered at once on the stage of stirring action full panoplied,–in the colossal manhood and maturity of his being.” At the moment of his introduction in the Bible, Elijah was in direct confrontation–not conformation or confirmation–with the authority of a wicked king or political ruler.
 
What is the relevance of Elijah to today? How is Elijah useful for anyone’s authority to challenge wicked status quos of injustice, man-made economic and judicial strangulation? To expect a change without understanding that what changes anything is power is toying with your head on a plate for Herod’s daughter’s amusement!
 
The year is ending. Another begins. Shortly, too. If you desire change, get ready, pay the price. Never complain when the prize is given to those who pay the price. Learn to battle like Elijah. “A quiet mouth is a quiet destiny” goes the saying. Yet, worse than a “quiet mouth is a powerless mouth. Many will be dazed come 2018. They will say, “Aha, Elijah has come again!” Be one.
–David Olali, PhD
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