Soccer
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been handed a further six years and eight months ban from the game and fined a million Swiss francs ($1.07 million) by the body's Ethics Committee after a probe into massive bonus payments.
The latest investigation looked into World Cup bonus payments made to Blatter and some former top FIFA officials, including former general secretary Jerome Valcke, former vice-president Julio Grondona and ex-finance director Markus Kattner.
The new bans start when the current suspensions of 85-year-old Blatter and Valcke, 60, end in October 2021 and October 2025, respectively.
The goverment of the Brazilian state of São Paulo, announced that football matches and competitions are suspended from March 15th until, initially, March 30th. Clubs and the local football federation are considering to host their games in the neighbouring state of Rio de Janeiro.
With the growing increase in the number of new inpatients, the state has 87.6% occupation of intensive care beds dedicated to the disease, while in Greater São Paulo this rate is 86.7%.
Joan Laporta, who was president from 2003 to 2010, was elected FC Barcelona's President with an absolute majority of 54.28% of the votes. Laporta will serve a six-year term upon taking the reins again.
"We experienced the same thing in 2003. We were losing, had a huge debt and were having to pay too many expenses and income was lower than revenue. The situation today is very similar and my formula to get out of it is very simple. We need to control expenses, restructure the debt and work to generate new sources of income," Laporta told the BBC prior to the election.
The champion of the Chinese Football League, Jiangsu FC, ceases playing with immediate effect. This was announced by the retail giant Suning, which owns the club. Jiangsu had won the Chinese Super League title for the first time only about three months ago.
According to the group, they want to focus on the retail business in the future. Other business areas not related to the core business would be closed and scaled back. At the beginning of the month, the Group announced that it was in a difficult situation due to the Covid-19 crisis. Jiangsu has allegedly amassed around $90 million in debt.
Since the awarding of the 2022 World Cup ten years ago, over 6500 guest workers have died in the host country Qatar. This is the result of an evaluation by the "Guardian", which was published on Tuesday.
According to the report, the information about the deaths comes from inquiries to the governments of the countries of origin; the victims come mainly from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
According to the newspaper, the actual death rate is probably considerably higher: The figures presented do not include workers from the Philippines and Kenya, which also make up a large number of the guest workers in Qatar, according to the Guardian. Cases from the last months of 2020 are also not included.
The Bayern Munich completed a sextuple of titles in the 2019-2020 season with a 1:0 win against Tigres, from Mexico. Benjamin Pavard scored the solo goal for the German side.
The other silverware for Bayern were the UEFA Champions League, the European Supercup, the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the German Supercup.
Mohamed El Shenaway saved two penalties in the shootout as Al Ahly edged Palmeiras 3-2 to finish third at the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020 after 90 minutes had ended with the score 0-0.
As FIFA prepares to turn the competition into a 24 team format to be contested in China next year, human rights supporters point out that not enough is being done to prevent the abuse of workers in this year's host country, Qatar.
FC Bayern faces Tigres UANL at this Thursday's final, and is also facing criticism, having gone as far as banning a fan for a critical banner display.
Robert Lewandowski's scored twice to help FC Bayern Munich beat the Egyptian Al Ahly SC 2-0 and book a FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020 final against Tigres UANL.
In the final on Thursday, Hansi Flick’s team will take on Mexican club Tigres, which beat Brazil’s Palmeiras 1-0 on Sunday. That made Tigres the first team from CONCACAF to reach a FIFA Club World Cup final.
Tigres become first Mexican side to reach FIFA Club World Cup final, after beating the Brazilian Palmeiras 1:0. Andre-Pierre Gignac scored for the Concacaf champions.
Tigres will now face the winner of the match between Bayern München versus Al Ahly, to be played Monday, February 8th.
This Sunday's edition of the newspaper El Mundo exclusively unveils Leo Messi's contract with FC Barcelona. The contract dates to 2017, covering four seasons for a total of 555 million euros and it is "the sum of a fixed salary, image rights, a series of multi-million euro bonuses unheard of to date, allowances and a string of variables depending on various objectives".
According to the newspaper, Messi has already secured 92% of the contract, despite the team's setbacks in the Champions League's recent seasons, the competition that has the highest bonuses.
Barcelona denied "any responsibility for the publication of this document".
Rumours about a breakaway Super League received an official remark from FIFA today, stating that any players competing in such competition would be barred from FIFA and its affiliated competitions.
Santos will face Palmeiras, who overcame River Plate on Tuesday in the other semifinal, in the decider of Copa Libertadores on January 30 at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
After drawing the first leg 0-0 in Buenos Aires last week, Santos were vastly superior to their sluggish opponents, hitting the post inside the first minute and then taking the lead after a quarter of an hour.
In a thrilling match in São Paulo, the game hinged on a series of contentious decisions that went against the visitors after consultations with the Video Assistant Referee (VAR). River won the game 2-0 but it was not enough to revert the 3-0 Palmeiras' victory in Buenos Aires.
Palmeiras will play either Boca Juniors or Santos in the final of the Libertadores, South America's equivalent of UEFA's Champions League, later this month.
Japanese soccer legend Kazuyoshi Miura is set to play another season after extending his contract with Yokohama FC. Miura will be aged 54 when the season starts.
The striker is one of the most revered sportsmen in Japan and was at the forefront of the country's football boom in the early 1990s when he was the poster boy of the newly launched league in 1993.
The Guinness World Record for the oldest professional footballer is held by Israeli Isaak Hayik, who played in goal last April for Israel's Ironi Or Yehuda, aged 73.
Poland and FC Bayern München striker Lewandowski was named The Best FIFA Men's Player for the first time in his career.
Likewise, defender Lucy Bronze is also a maiden recipient of The Best FIFA Women's Player Award after rounding off an impeccable spell with Olympique Lyonnais in style before returning to England to play for Manchester City WFC. 12).
Jurgen Klopp was declared the winner after a close race with Hans-Dieter Flick (FC Bayern München), with the outcome, decided on voting by the national team coaches.
France Football announced Monday its all-time Ballon d'Or soccer Dream Team after voting by 140 journalists:
- Lev Yashin
- Cafú
- Paolo Maldini
- Franz Beckenbauer
- Lothar Matthäus
- Xavi
- Diego Maradona
- Pelé
- Messi
- Cristiano Ronaldo
- Ronaldo
After a draw made on Monday, UEFA Champions League round of 16 ties are:
- Borussia Mönchengladbach (GER) vs Manchester City (ENG)
- Lazio (ITA) vs Bayern (GER)
- Atlético (ESP) vs Chelsea (ENG)
- Leipzig (GER) vs Liverpool (ENG)
- Porto (POR) vs Juventus (ITA)
- Barcelona (ESP) vs Paris (FRA)
- Sevilla (ESP) vs Borussia Dortmund (GER)
- Atalanta (ITA) vs Real Madrid (ESP)
The first legs are scheduled for 16/17 and 23/24 February, with the second legs on 9/10 and 16/17 March.
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Stephanie Frappart from France is the first woman to whistle the Men's Champions League. The 36-year-old whistled 3-0 in the match between Juventus and Dinamo Kiev and received much praise for her unagitated and assertive performance.
According to the new FIFA regulations, professional female soccer players worldwide should be able to take paid maternity leave. For at least 14 weeks, two-thirds of the salary will be paid, and discrimination based on pregnancy will be prohibited. Also, clubs will be obliged to reintegrate the players after their return and to provide medical support. Now the FIFA Council still has to approve the new regulations.