Injured Mbappé out for 3 weeks, will miss Bayern 1st leg
Injured Mbappé out for 3 weeks, will miss Bayern 1st leg/node/2243911/football
Injured Mbappé out for 3 weeks, will miss Bayern 1st leg
PSG’s French forward Kylian Mbappe lies on the ground after getting injured during their French L1 match against Montpellier Herault SC at Stade de la Mosson in Montpellier on February 1, 2023. (AFP)
Injured Mbappé out for 3 weeks, will miss Bayern 1st leg
PSG said in a statement Thursday that tests revealed a tear in his left thigh
The injury comes at a bad time for PSG as it enters a hectic period this month
Updated 02 February 2023
AP
PARIS: Kylian Mbappé has been ruled out for three weeks with a left-thigh tear and will miss the first leg of Paris Saint-Germain’s round-of-16 game against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Mbappé sustained the injury in the first half of PSG’s game at Montpellier on Wednesday and limped off the field. TV cameras also showed him rubbing the back of his left thigh as he walked to the dressing room.
PSG said in a statement Thursday that tests revealed a tear in his left thigh.
The injury comes at a bad time for PSG as they enter a hectic period this month. PSG play away at bitter rival Marseille in the French Cup and in the league, either side of the home game against Bayern on Feb. 14. They also have a league game at fourth-place Monaco.
Mbappé faces a race to be fit in time for the league game at second-place Marseille on Feb. 26. The return leg against Bayern is on March 8.
His injury also raises questions about his recent workload. Mbappé played and scored for PSG just 10 days after playing in the World Cup final for France on Dec. 18 — where he became only the second player to score a hat trick in the final.
PSG coach Christophe Galtier selected him to face Strasbourg on Dec. 28 and away to Lens on Jan. 1. The decision was taken in full agreement with Mbappé, who wanted to play in both games.
Tottenham official Fabio Paratici to serve worldwide ban
Paratici, a former sporting director at Juventus who has taken up a new position at Tottenham, was handed the longest ban of 2½ years by the Italian soccer federation
Updated 30 March 2023
AP
MANCHESTER, England: Tottenham managing director of football Fabio Paratici will serve a worldwide ban for his part in a false accounting scandal involving Juventus, FIFA said Wednesday.
Italy’s most famous soccer team was hit with a 15-point penalty in January and bans were handed out to a number of its officials, including former president Andrea Agnelli and former CEO Maurizio Arrivabene.
Paratici, who had already left his role as sporting director and taken up a new position at Tottenham, was handed the longest ban of 2½ years by the Italian soccer federation. That has now been extended worldwide.
“FIFA can confirm that following a request by the Italian FA (FIGC), the Chairperson of FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee has decided to extend the sanctions imposed by FIGC on several football officials to have worldwide effect,” the governing body said.
The decision will have a significant impact on Tottenham at a time when the Premier League club is conducting a search for a new manager following the departure of Antonio Conte.
Conte, who is Italian, left the London club by “mutual agreement” on Sunday, just over a week after a post-match outburst in which he criticized the players and made withering comments about Tottenham’s ownership.
Paratici would have been expected to play a key role in identifying and hiring Conte’s successor, with former Bayern Munich coach Julian Nagelsmann among the names linked with the job.
On Tuesday, Paratici spoke about Conte’s exit and of his determination to see Tottenham have a successful end to the season.
“We will fight to achieve our targets. We are prepared to fight until the end of the season,” Paratici said. “Everyone has to be focused on the last part of the season.”
Prosecutors had been investigating since 2021 whether Juventus cashed in on illegal commissions from transfer and loans of players. Juventus said at the start of the coronavirus pandemic that 23 players agreed to reduce their salary for four months to help the club through the crisis. But prosecutors claim the players gave up only one month’s salary.
Juventus, who deny wrongdoing, have appealed the 15-point penalty to Italy’s highest sports court within the Italian Olympic Committee, known as CONI. An appeal hearing at CONI is slated for April 19.
On Monday, the club’s lawyers appeared before a judge to face the first in a series of court dates. The hearing was postponed until May 10 for administrative reasons.
Agnelli and 11 others face charges of false communications by a company listed publicly on the Milan stock exchange, obstructing watchdog agencies, false billing and market manipulation.
Barcelona, Arsenal advance into Women’s Champions League semifinals
Fridolina Rolfo scored twice in the first half for Barcelona and Mapi Leon added another to make it 3-0 by the break
Updated 30 March 2023
AP
BARCELONA: Barcelona cruised into the last four of the Women’s Champions League for the fifth straight year by routing Roma 5-1 in the second leg of the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Arsenal also advanced after beating Bayern Munich 2-0 at Emirates Stadium in London to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the first leg and end the German side’s 14-match winning streak in all competitions.
Barcelona advanced 6-1 on aggregate and will face defending champions Lyon or Chelsea in April’s semifinals. Arsenal will play Paris Saint-Germain or Wolfsburg.
Fridolina Rolfo scored twice in the first half for Barcelona and Mapi Leon added another to make it 3-0 by the break. Asizat Oshoala and Patri Guijarro scored two more shortly after interval before Annamaria Serturini netted a consolation goal for Roma.
After winning the opening leg 1-0 at Stadio Olimpico in Rome in front of a record-setting crowd of 39,454, Barcelona dominated from the start at Camp Nou.
Oshoala knocked down a cross for unmarked Rolfo in the 11th minute to fire home a low shot from 10 meters (yards) to double the aggregate lead.
Some 20 minutes later, Leon unleashed an unstoppable left-foot drive from well outside the area that gave diving Roma goalkeeper Camelia Ceasar no chance.
In first-half stoppage time, Caroline Graham Hansen broke down the right to provide a precise cross for Rolfo at the far post to tap in her second.
Just seconds in the second half, Aitana Bonmatí presented another perfectly timed cross from the right for Oshoala to make it 4-0 from close range. And minutes later, Guijarro headed in Hansen’s corner for the fifth.
Arsenal suffered an early blow when captain Kim Little had to be substituted soon after the kickoff due to an injury but then scored twice in a six-minute span in the first half to turn things around.
Pressuring their opponent, Arsenal won the ball back inside Bayern’s half and played a series of quick passes to tee up Frida Maanum, who drove a shot from just outside the area into the roof of the net to put the hosts 1-0 ahead in the 20th minute.
Six minutes later, Katie McCabe set up the second with a cross from the left for Stina Blackstenius to head in the decisive goal and send Arsenal into the semis for the first time in 10 years.
Arsenal then wasted a string of clear scoring chances in both halves to stretch the advantage.
The English club has won its last six home matches in all competitions without conceding a goal.
From streets of Cairo to the biggest Arab clubs: The rise of Ramadan football tournaments
From humble beginnings among groups of soccer-loving friends the contests have become more organized and professional, even attracting the attention of major sponsors
‘These matches were initially played on the streets, on cold, hard asphalt, but around the year 2000, youth centers started to host them on well-equipped pitches,’ said one organizer
Updated 30 March 2023
Mohammad Shamaa
CAIRO: For more than 25 years, football tournaments have been among the most popular of the special events in Egypt associated with the holy month of Ramadan.
They began when groups of friends would gather together to organize matches so that they could indulge their passion for the game and show off their skills. But as the years have passed they have become more organized and professional, in some cases even attracting the attention of major sponsors.
The growth of these Ramadan soccer competitions can be traced back through the years to humble beginnings in the neighborhoods of Cairo before they expanded to other parts of the country and then elsewhere in the Arab world. Along the way, they moved from the streets to youth centers and, eventually, major sports clubs.
“The Ramadan football tournaments first started in the streets of the capital, where players had to be self-reliant,” Mohammed El-Sayed, a sports journalist with Egyptian newspaper Akhbar El-Youm, told Arab News.
“Youths from different regions would organize their own teams and rounds within each region. They took the streets as their stadium and there were no uniforms involved; the team unity alone was enough.
“In the past, Ramadan football tournaments were always played immediately before iftar. Young people took advantage of the quiet streets at that time to hold matches, while children and young adults gathered around to watch them as a form of entertainment.”
Hatem Hussein, also known as Mizo, is one of the best-known players who took part in Ramadan tournaments during the 1990s.
“I was playing in the streets (back then) and we were all very eager to play … the competition was strong,” he said. “We always adopted the knockout matches method: The team that eliminated all its competitors until the end of the tournament would be considered the winner.
“The prizes were symbolic and reflective of the entry fee that the teams paid at the beginning. Second and third place both took home a complete sports kit.”
The growth of these Ramadan soccer competitions can be traced back through the years to humble beginnings in the neighborhoods of Cairo before they expanded to other parts of the country. (Supplied)
Karim Al-Bibani, an organizer of Ramadan tournaments in the Abdeen area, near the center of Cairo, said: “These matches were initially played on the streets of Cairo, on the cold, hard asphalt, but around the year 2000, youth centers started to host them on well-equipped pitches.
“In part, this was a result of the large number of housing units that were being built, which left little or no space for playing football on the streets.
“The tournaments have now moved to youth centers because of their good playgrounds, strong lighting and better capabilities. These centers organize the tournament and are responsible for it, financially.”
As the popularity of the seasonal competitions grew and spread, it was no surprise that established football clubs wanted to get in on the act.
“In the past 15 years, Ramadan tournaments began to move to major clubs, and a number of great players who had retired from their clubs began to play in these tournaments,” said sports journalist El-Sayed. In particular, an increase in the number of five-a-side pitches with artificial grass that were being built helped to fuel this trend, he added.
“The participation of the retired players is the reason Ramadan tournaments started to expand outside Egypt,” El-Sayed said.
As a result of these popular veteran stars taking part, in recent years Ramadan tournaments have increasingly become big business, attracting lucrative sponsorship deals, said journalist Mahmoud Essam
“For the big clubs, sponsorship will be at a higher level, including real estate and mobile phone companies, among others,” he said. “These sponsorships depend on having big names participating in these tournaments.”
Uganda prevail over Tanzania after 36 minutes of first half added time
Play was halted to allow players from both teams an opportunity to break their Ramadan fast
Uganda registered its first victory in the qualifiers and are deadlocked with Tanzania on four points and a negative two goals difference
Updated 29 March 2023
Arab News
RIYADH: Uganda’s 0-1 victory over Tanzania, in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, came after the referee added a staggering 36 minutes of added time in the first half.
The referee added the stoppage time after play was halted to allow players from both teams an opportunity to break their Ramadan fast and further time was added as a result of a power outage in the stadium.
Uganda revived its hopes of qualifying for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire, thanks to its victory in the fourth round of the Group F qualifiers.
Rogers Mato scored the winning goal for Uganda in second half added time.
Uganda also registered its first victory in the qualifiers and are deadlocked with Tanzania on four points and a negative two goals difference.
Both teams have also recorded away victories, Tanzania winning in Uganda before the result was reversed in the latest encounter.
Algeria qualified for the continental championship by topping the group standings with 12 points from four victories.
Tunisia dodge bottles to secure Cup of Nations place
Haythem Jouini scored the match-winner on 16 minutes in the eastern city of Benghazi
Victory assured Tunisia of a top-two finish in Group J and a place at the 24-nation African football showpiece
Updated 29 March 2023
AFP
JOHANNESBURG: Tunisia qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations by winning 1-0 in Libya on Tuesday while dodging dozens of plastic bottles flung on the pitch by home supporters.
Haythem Jouini scored the match-winner on 16 minutes in the eastern city of Benghazi, powerfully heading an Ali Maaloul corner into the net.
By the final whistle the pitch was littered with bottles as Libyans vented their anger after Tunisia dominated for long periods and inflicted a second loss in five days on their neighbors.
Victory assured Tunisia of a top-two finish in Group J and a place at the 24-nation African football showpiece in the Ivory Coast next January and February.
They are likely to be joined by Equatorial Guinea, who are six points ahead of Libya with two rounds remaining in June and September.
Tunisia are the seventh qualifiers after the Ivory Coast, Morocco, Algeria, Senegal, South Africa and Burkina Faso.
Elsewhere, veteran forward Cedric Bakambu scored for the Democratic Republic of Congo and was later sent off as they drew 1-1 with Mauritania in Group I.
Bakambu netted after nine minutes in Nouakchott, Mohamed Soueid levelled 12 minutes into the second half, and the 10 Congolese then repulsed endless Mauritanian attacks.
All four teams remain in contention with Gabon having seven points, Sudan six, Mauritania five and DR Congo four.
The last of 44 matchday three and four fixtures is scheduled for Wednesday in Kigali, where Rwanda can climb above Mozambique into second place if they defeat Benin in Group L.
