Popular television host Frank Edoho has opened up about his deepest personal fear, saying he does not want to die because of emotional pain caused by a woman.

Edoho made the revelation during an interview on the YouTube channel Outside The Box, released on Saturday, where he reflected on male vulnerability, silent struggles and how he hopes to be remembered.

“I don’t want to go to the gates of heaven and they ask me what killed me and they say it’s a woman. Whether that woman be my daughter, my wife, my mother, I don’t want that. I don’t want that to be my way out of this portal,” he said.

The broadcaster, best known for hosting the Nigerian edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, said he hopes to leave the world having made a positive impact on others.

“I want to die with a smile on my face saying that all the people I met, I tried to put a smile on their face, and to have the only regret that I wish I did more good. Not that I wish I had more time, that’s all,” he said.

Frank Edoho also spoke about the pressures men face and the tendency to endure emotional pain without seeking help.

“The task of manhood is very daunting. Men don’t speak. Men go through a lot. Whatever a man is going through, he’s just silent. He doesn’t say it. He holds it to himself. And some of them go to the grave with it. Too many, actually,” he said.

He disclosed that he went through a difficult personal period for two years without telling anyone.

According to Edoho, his years in broadcasting taught him how to hide personal struggles while maintaining a calm appearance on air.

“For two years, there was a couple of years back I was in a very dark hole but nobody knew. I couldn’t call you guys. I just said, you know what, this is a journey I have to make on myself to reorganise myself. And I’m happy I did. But at the time, I thought that the walls were caving in,” he said.

“Broadcasting taught me how to have a poker face. No matter what you’re going through, when it’s time to go on air, ‘Hi, good evening, welcome, I hope you’re having a nice time’, the only reason you’re not there is that you’re dead. If you’re alive, it doesn’t matter what you’re going through, you have to be there doing just that.

Madonna, Shakira and K-pop megastars BTS will headline a Super Bowl-style half-time show at the World Cup final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, FIFA said Thursday.

Coldplay’s Chris Martin is curating the show, which is a first for a football World Cup final but has raised concerns about how long half-time will be.

The biggest-ever World Cup, with 48 teams, kicks off on June 11 in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino announced in March last year that there would be “the first-ever half-time show at a FIFA World Cup final”.

He did not say at the time who would be performing or how long the show would last.

“This will be a historic moment for the FIFA World Cup and a show befitting the biggest sporting event in the world,” he said on Instagram.

The move mirrors the show held during the final of the 2024 Copa America in Miami, when Colombian star Shakira performed at half-time at the Hard Rock Stadium.

There was also a half-time show at last year’s FIFA Club World Cup final, also at MetLife Stadium, which stretched the break in excess of the regulation 15 minutes.

Infantino added that FIFA also planned to “take over” New York’s Times Square on the final weekend of the World Cup.

The half-time extravaganza will support FIFA’s Global Citizen Education Fund, an initiative working to raise $100 million for children worldwide during the World Cup.

Shakira last week teased the new official song for the World Cup, releasing a brief video of the track filmed at Brazil’s iconic Maracana Stadium.

In the 67-second video, Shakira appears on the pitch at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, where she performed in a free concert at the city’s Copacabana Beach before two million people.

Holding the “Trionda”, the official match ball of the 2026 World Cup, Shakira performed excerpts of the song in English, joined by dancers dressed in the colors of teams including the United States and Colombia.

The song was produced with Nigerian artist Burna Boy and is set for official release on Thursday. The clip, also shared by the FIFA World Cup account, ends with the message: “We’re ready!”

Shakira has a long association with the World Cup, performing at the 2006 and 2014 World Cup finals in addition to producing “Waka Waka” for the 2010 tournament.

AFP

FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Tuesday defended World Cup ticket prices, insisting that football’s global governing body was obliged to take advantage of US laws that allow tickets to be resold for thousands of dollars above face value.

FIFA has faced searing criticism over the cost of World Cup tickets, with fan organization Football Supporters Europe (FSE) branding the pricing structure “extortionate” and a “monumental betrayal”.

FSE filed a lawsuit with the European Commission in March targeting FIFA over “excessive ticket prices” for the tournament.

FIFA’s own World Cup resale website, FIFA Marketplace, last week advertised four tickets to the July 19 final in New York at a cost of more than $2 million each.

Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Infantino said the eye-watering prices reflected demand to watch the World Cup.

“If some people put on the resale market, some tickets for the final at $2 million, number one it doesn’t mean that the tickets cost $2 million,” Infantino said.

“And number two it doesn’t mean that somebody will buy these tickets,” Infantino said. “And if somebody buys a ticket for the final for $2 million I will personally bring him a hot dog and a Coke to make sure that he has a great experience.”

Fan groups have contrasted the difference in price of tickets for this summer with the Qatar World Cup in 2022.

The most expensive ticket for the final in 2022 was around $1,600 at face value, while in 2026 the most expensive ticket for the final is about $11,000 at its original price.

Infantino was adamant that the steep increase in face-value prices were justified.

“We have to look at the market — we are in the market in which entertainment is the most developed in the world. So we have to apply market rates,” Infantino said.

“In the US it is permitted to resell tickets as well. So if you were to sell tickets at the price which is too low, these tickets will be resold at a much higher price.

“And as a matter of fact, even though some people are saying that the ticket prices we have are high, they still end up on the resale market at an even higher price, more than double of our price.”

Infantino said that FIFA received in excess of 500 million ticket requests for 2026, compared with fewer than 50 million combined for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

The FIFA leader added that 25 percent of tickets for the group phase were priced at under $300.

“You cannot go to watch in the US a college game, not even speaking about a top professional game of a certain level, for less than $300,” Infantino said. “And this is the World Cup.”