Category: Football

DOHA: FIFA’s latest technology developed over the last three years would help make more precise and quicker VAR offside judgements in the Qatar World Cup, affirmed referees chief Pierluigi Collina on Friday. 

The “semi-automatic offside technology” will decide on even the trickiest offside rulings faster than the previous method. A 3D animated rendering of the action will also be shown live to fans in the stadium and on television during the showpiece event starting tomorrow.

“(It) gives us the possibility to be faster and more accurate in terms of decisions about offside,” said Collina, chairman of FIFA’s referees committee.

“Just to be clear, being faster does not mean we will have instantaneous assessment of offside. It will be less than now, certainly, but we cannot have an answer one-second, or basically live.” he added.

The referees head, however, underlined that the final decision always belongs to the match official – on the VAR, the video assistant referee, on the field of play, to the referee.

The innovative system tracks the ball with 12 dedicated tracking cameras that are positioned underneath the stadium’s roof and calculate the precise position of each player on the field using up to 29 data points, 50 times per second.

The optical tracking technology was put to the test at the FIFA Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi earlier this year, as well as at the Arab Cup in Qatar in last December.

“It’s the most accurate supporting offside tool at the moment.” said  FIFA’s director of technology and innovation, Johannes Holzmueller. “We analysed the data and the outcome was very positive.”

Collina added that his team held two workshops for all 32 team coaches and visited each side’s camps to bring clarity among the players about the technology.

Referees at the World Cup had been advised to issue red cards for anything that could harm another player’s health, including elbows to the face, studs-up tackles, and dangerously high feet.

“Here are the best players in the world,” stated Collina. “It would be a shame if some of these players would be unable to play because of an injury caused by an opponent.

“So the first message we went through was to protect the safety of the players. Something that may endanger the safety of an opponent, players and coaches should expect… a red card.”

READ: United eyes legal action against Ronaldo for controversial interview – Reports

MANCHESTER: Premier League franchise Manchester United has allegedly hired lawyers in a bid to explore potential action against Cristiano Ronaldo following the forward’s claims in a recent media interview, English media reported.

According to the details, the Premier League club now seek to engineer Ronaldo’s departure and potentially instructed the forward not to return after the FIFA World Cup 2022.

The decision presumably came in response to Ronaldo’s controversial interview in which he openly criticized United’s top hierarchy, accusing Man Utd of betraying him and saying that he has no respect for manager Erik Ten Hag.

United declared in a press release that it had begun “appropriate steps in response to Ronaldo’s statement.”

“Manchester United has this morning initiated appropriate steps in response to Cristiano Ronaldo’s recent media interview,” the statement read.

“We will not be making further comment until this process reaches its conclusion,” the statement added.

It is pertinent to mention that Ronaldo is due to arrive in Doha, Qatar on Friday alongside the Portugal squad ahead of the team’s first training session on Saturday.

READ: Ronaldo opens up Pandora’s box for Man Utd in explosive interview

Cristiano Ronaldo opened up on his relationship with long-term rival Lionel Messi, insisting that the two superstars shared a great amount of respect towards each other and hailed the Argentina star an amazing player. 

The two have been regarded as the greatest footballers of their generation and shared one of the most enthralling rivalries on the pitch for almost two decades.

Both Ronaldo and Messi have won countless trophies during their illustrious careers and won the Ballon d’Or 12 times out of 13 times between 2008 to 2021, with the former Barcelona star claiming the award seven times compared to Ronaldo’s five.

In the latest part of his explosive interview with Piers Morgan on Talk TV, the ex-Real Madrid superstar has heaped praises on Messi.

“Amazing player is magic, top..” he said. “As a person, we share the stage 16 years, imagine, 16 years we share. So, I have great relationship with him.”

“I’m not a friend of him in terms of, what I mean friend is the guy who was with you in your house, speaking on the phone, no, but it’s like a teammate.” he added.

Portugal forward further said: He (Messi) is a guy that I really respect the way he always speaks about me. Even his wife or and my girlfriend, they always respect and they’re from Argentina.

“My girlfriend is from Argentina. So good. What I am going to say about Messi? A great guy who does great things for football.”

Despite their iconic footballing careers, neither of the two legends has won the World Cup. Although the two have not announced their retirement yet, the showpiece event in Qatar is said to be their last shot to win glory for their national sides.

READ: Shastri slams India coach Dravid for taking break amid New Zealand tour

DOHA: Senegal star Sadio Mane has been ruled out of FIFA World Cup 2022 after a knee injury he sustained in a Bayern Munich match last week. 

The Bayern forward was diagnosed with an injury to his right fibula after he limped off during a Bundesliga match against Werder Bremen, 13 days before his national team’s Qatar campaign.

Mane will miss out on the World Cup since he has not recovered in time before the megaevent, confirmed Senegal’s team doctor on Thursday

“Unfortunately, today’s [Thursday] MRI shows us that the improvement is not as favourable as we imagined and unfortunately, we have to withdraw Sadio from the World Cup,” said Manuel Afonso in a video posted on the official Senegal Twitter account. He added that surgical intervention was needed.

The former Liverpool forward’s phenomenal run this year earned him the runners-up spot in the 2022 Ballon d’Or – bagged by Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema.

Mane, 30, was named African Player of the Year as he was voted ahead of ex-teammate Mohamed Salah and Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.

Senegal will face host Qatar four days after its opening game against the Netherlands. Its final game in Group A is against Ecuador on November 29.

The absence of its talisman will be a fatal blow for Senegal, as Mane inspired his national side to the African Cup of Nations title at the start of 2022, scoring the winning penalty in a shoot-out with Egypt.

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DOHA: FIFA President Gianni Infantino will stand unopposed for a third term as head of world football’s governing body next year, FIFA confirmed on Thursday.

A brief statement from FIFA said that Infantino would be the only candidate when the election takes place at the 73rd FIFA Congress in Kigali, Rwanda on March 16.

“No other candidature has been submitted,” the statement said.

Infantino’s third term follows in the line of previous FIFA presidents — Joao Havelange was in charge from 1974 to 1998 and Infantino’s predecessor Sepp Blatter held office from 1998 to 2015.

Infantino was elected in 2016 promising to “restore FIFA’s image” after the federation was plagued by scandal in the final years of Blatter’s time in charge.

The German Football Federation (DFB) said on Wednesday it would not support Infantino’s re-election.

DFB president Bernd Neuendorf said he had hoped Infantino would show “deeper consideration for human rights and more commitment to humanitarian issues”.

Neuendorf has been a strong supporter of calls from rights groups for FIFA to set up a compensation fund for migrant workers who build the World Cup stadiums.

Infantino can point to the growth in FIFA’s turnover during his time in charge — the governing body is forecasting turnover of $7 billion for the four-year cycle till 2022.

But many of his proposals for the reform of club football, including a plan to expand the Club World Cup to 24 teams, have received a lukewarm reception.

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DOHA: Argentina and superstar Lionel Messi arrived in Qatar for the World Cup early on Thursday, just hours after a 5-0 warm-up victory, while defending champions France have also touched down in Doha.

Messi, 35, has a sackful of trophies but the tournament in Qatar is likely to be his final chance to equal the achievement of fellow Argentine great Diego Maradona in leading his country to World Cup glory.

He landed with the Argentina squad in the Qatari capital Doha at 2:30am (2330 GMT, Wednesday) from Abu Dhabi where they had beaten the United Arab Emirates 5-0 Wednesday in a friendly in which Messi scored.

One of the favourites going into this year’s World Cup, the South Americans will begin their campaign on Tuesday against Saudi Arabia in Group C, which also includes Mexico and Poland.

The 1978 and 1986 World Cup winners extended their unbeaten run to 36 matches as Messi scored his 91st international goal.

Messi was cautious about the team’s chances in Qatar, even though they are among the favourites.

“We have a very nice group that is very eager, but we think about going little by little. We know that World Cup groups are not easy,” the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner said in an interview with CONMEBOL, the South American football federation.

France arrived in Doha on Wednesday, seeking to become the first team to retain the World Cup since Brazil in 1962.

Ten members of the 2018 title-winning squad are in the squad, including captain Hugo Lloris, Kylian Mbappe and Antoine Griezmann.

But the defending champions, grouped with Australia, Denmark and Tunisia, are without first-choice midfield pair Paul Pogba and N’Golo Kante.

Ballon d’Or winner Karim Benzema, who has missed a series of games for Real Madrid this season because of injury, is set for his first World Cup appearance since 2014.

The United States return to football’s top table after an eight-year absence and Christian Pulisic says this World Cup is an opportunity to change global perceptions of American soccer.

“That’s what we’re here to do,” Pulisic told AFP. “Maybe it hasn’t been the top sport or whatever back in the States.

“But we want to change the way that the world sees American soccer. That’s one of our goals.”

The build-up to the tournament in Qatar has been dominated by concerns over Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers, women and the LGBTQ community.

Pleas from football’s world governing body FIFA for a switch of focus to football have gone unheeded by some countries.

Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal said on Wednesday supporters boycotting the tournament were “right to do that” but hoped his team would do enough to persuade fans at home to follow them from afar.

“I hope that we play so fantastic that at the end of the tournament when we play the final they shall look on television and see how good we are.”

The veteran coach hit out at FIFA earlier this year, calling its decision to award Qatar the World Cup “ridiculous”.

“I think you have to play in football countries. (They have) more experience with everything,” he said on Wednesday.

England supporters from India outnumbered fans from England nearly 10 to one as Gareth Southgate’s team rolled into their World Cup base on Tuesday.

The supporters said they were angered by reports in the British and French media that they were “fake fans”.

Sajidh, 29, said Indian football fans in Qatar had been “outraged” by reports suggesting they had been paid to wear the shirts of World Cup nations.

“It is purely fake news and I would like to say loud and clear that none of us have been paid in any way,” added Sajidh, who gave only one name.

“We are diehard England fans.”

World Cup organisers weighed in on the issue on Wednesday, saying supporters from across the world had contributed to the local atmosphere.

“Numerous journalists and commentators on social media have questioned whether these are ‘real’ fans,” they said in a statement.

“We thoroughly reject these assertions, which are both disappointing and unsurprising.”

READ: World Cup finalist Pakistan lose rating point in latest T20I team rankings

KARACHI: Shakira has stepped back from performing at the glittering opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar due to personal reasons. 

With the biggest football event of the year just around the corner, the famous ‘Waka Waka’ singer has changed her mind and decided to withdraw her name from the list of performers at Sunday’s opening ceremony, reported Spain’s Marca Magazine.

According to Marca, the claim about the Columbian singer’s purported withdrawal from the opening ceremony was made on the show El programa de Ana Rosa.

“It’s been confirmed to me that Shakira will not perform at the opening ceremony, but they won’t say if she will have another role throughout the World Cup,” said Adriana Dorronsoro quoted Spanish news outlet.

The report further added that Sandra Aladro, another contributor to the Telecinco program, also confirmed the development after speaking to Shakira’s entourage.

“They have confirmed that she won’t be performing,” Aladro said. “She was going to be a guest performer, now she will have to send a statement to explain everything.”

It is pertinent to mention here that the colourful opening ceremony of the magaevent will take place on November 20, ahead of the opening Group A match between hosts Qatar and Ecuador.

Shakira set the stage alight with her mythical ‘Waka Waka’ song in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and ever since she has been ruling football fans’ hearts all around the globe.

READ: Pakistan suffer narrow defeat from Nepal on international football return

KATHMANDU: Pakistan men’s football team had an unwanted return to international football as the side suffered a narrow 0-1 defeat at the hands of Nepal at the Dasharath Stadium here on Wednesday.

Pakistan put up a valiant fight in their first international match after a gap of more than three years as they kept their opponent at bay for the majority of the match.

The first half of the match ended with no goal from either side, while the rest of the match too, was nearing a goalless draw and Pakistan were sensing a draw on their return.

Anjan Bista, on the other hand, made a move inside the box in the 83rd minute, got on the end of a cross from the right, and broke the tie with a fantastic goal.

 

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It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) carried out a robust training camp for the players in Lahore under the supervision of head coach Shehzad Anwar.

Despite Pakistan’s defeat, football fans extended their support towards the national side.

READ: WATCH: Strong wind spoils New Zealand-India trophy unveiling 

DAKAR: Ballon d’Or runner-up Sadio Mane was named in Senegal’s World Cup squad by coach Aliou Cisse on Friday in spite of a recent injury.

Cisse, who captained Senegal at the 2002 World Cup, said he hoped the condition of the Bayern Munich attacker would improve within a few weeks and declared himself “really optimistic” that the injury would not require an operation.

Mane’s involvement in the tournament was in doubt after he limped off during Bayern’s 6-1 win over Werder Bremen on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old was diagnosed with an injury to his right fibula and will undergo further tests.

“I preferred to keep him in the group,” Cisse told reporters.

“Sadio Mane is an important player in our squad, it is important to continue to follow his injury, hoping that in two or three weeks there will be progress. But we are really optimistic.

“We will give ourselves all the necessary means to allow Sadio Mane to recover.”

Mane’s fitness has been a major cause of concern in Senegal, the current African champions, with state president Macky Sall tweeting on Wednesday: “Sadio, heart of a Lion! All my heart is with you!”

Cisse admitted the possible absence of the talisman would be a massive blow for the continent.

“Losing Sadio Mane is not an easy thing for a coach, for the team, even for African football,” he said.

“We don’t want to think about it but inevitably we have to be prepared should Sadio Mane be absent.

“For now, we still have time ahead of us. I don’t want to talk about the absence of Sadio Mane even if, in the back of my head, I’m trying to prepare for it.”

Mane, who has scored 33 goals in 92 international matches, is joined in the squad by Abdou Diallo, another player who has recently missed game time due to injury as well as Everton midfielder Idrissa Gueye and Chelsea pair Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Koulibaly.

Left back Saliou Ciss, who is currently without a club, is omitted with Fode Ballo-Toure or Ismail Jakobs providing the options on the left.

“I chose a team that can meet the demands of this competition. We gained experience in 2018 and through our continental championships. We are going to Qatar, aware of our qualities and above all with high ambitions.”

Senegal have been drawn in Group A and play their opening game on November 21 against the Netherlands, before going on to meet tournament hosts Qatar and Ecuador.

SENEGAL SQUAD

Goalkeepers: Edouard Mendy (Chelsea/ENG), Seny Dieng (QPR/ENG), Alfred Gomis (Rennes/FRA)

Defenders: Youssouf Sabaly (Real Betis/ESP), Kalidou Koulibaly (Chelsea/ENG), Abdou Diallo (RB Leipzig/GER), Pape Abou Cisse (Olympiakos/GRE), Formose Mendy (Amiens/FRA), Ismail Jakobs (Monaco/FRA), Fode Ballo-Toure (AC Milan/ITA)

Midfielders: Nampalys Mendy (Leicester/ENG), Cheikhou Kouyate (Nottingham Forest/ENG), Pape Matar Sarr (Tottenham/ENG), Idrissa Gueye (Everton/ENG), Krepin Diatta (Monaco/FRA), Moustapha Name (Pafos/CYP), Mamadou Loum (Reading/ENG), Pape Gueye (Marseille/FRA), Pathe Ciss (Rayo Vallecano/ESP)

Forwards: Sadio Mane (Bayern Munich/GER), Boulaye Dia (Salernitana/ITA), Nicolas Jackson (Villarreal/ESP), Bamba Dieng (Marseille/FRA), Iliman Ndiaye (Sheffield United/ENG), Ismaila Sarr (Watford/ENG), Famara Diedhiou (Alanyaspor/TUR)

READ: Ireland beat Pakistan in third T20I to seal historic series 2-1

LONDON: Cristiano Ronaldo has lashed out at Manchester United’s top hierarchy for not trusting him when he missed the pre-season due to his daughter’s illness and claims that  “the Glazer family do not care about the club”.

Ronaldo took the world by storm in his latest interview with the British news channel Talk TV, accusing Man Utd of betraying him and saying that he has no respect for manager Erik Ten Hag.

In the latest clip of a 90-minute interview released on Monday, the 37-year-old star footballer revealed that he was subjected to suspicion by two senior figures at Old Trafford when he said his daughter, Bella, was suffering from bronchitis – just three months after her twin brother had died.

“I spoke with the director and the president of Man Utd and they kind of didn’t believe that something was going wrong, which made me feel bad,” said Ronaldo.

“We had one week in hospital because Bella had a big problem and I didn’t go to the pre-season because of that.” he added

Man United forward also took a dig at the club’s owners – the Glazer family – saying they did not care about the club on the sporting side.

“Manchester are a marketing club – they get money from the marketing,” he said. “The sports, they don’t really care in my opinion.

The Glazers, who took over the club in a leveraged buy-out in 2005, leaving United with a debt of over £500 million, have been harshly criticized by fans and blamed for the club’s downfall.

“The fans are always right. The fans should know the truth. They should know that the players want the best for the club, I want the best for the club.” he said.

“This is why I came to Manchester United, this is why I love this club but you have some things inside the club which doesn’t help it reach the top level as City, Liverpool and even now Arsenal.”

Ronaldo claimed that under the prevailing set-up it would be difficult for the club to compete for top honours in the next two to three years.

“It will be hard for Manchester United to be top of the game in the next two or three years,” he said.

Currently, the five-time Ballon D’Or winner is with the Portugal squad in Qatar for FIFA World Cup 2022 and in his Instagram post, he pressed that his absolute focus was on national teamwork.

Reportedly, Man United United will seek legal advice before deciding how to respond to Ronaldo’s accusations and will await the release of the full interview later this week before taking any step.

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