Accused of violent behaviour

Throughout the whole season Vinicius de Oliveira junior is targeted with racial abuse from spectators.

Because of this stupid conduct towards the midfielder seven people got arrested. When Valencia played Real Madrid on 21 May three youngsters were detained two days later under suspicion of racial chants. Spanish police have also imprisoned four others in connection with hanging of a doll with his image this January, and those were accused of hate crime.

The player itself has received a red card in the match that was suspended for 10 minutes, but it got erased by the football commission. Punishment for the home team was: closure of the south tribune of the Mestalla arena for five games plus had to pay 45.000 euros financial fine.

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Eleventh appearance for the tournament that will happen on twelfth month

Couple of nights ago winner number two was decided of the Champions league who is going to play in the last club intercontinental competition of 2023.

Auckland city is the second champion that will represent the Oceania region on the Club World Cup, and together with the host it is the third participant for the event that will organize Saudi Arabia from 12 until 22 December. For the New Zealand club this would be eleventh appearance at the finals.

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First final from second competition

Out of three tournaments that started in the summer of 2022 season, one of them will have its last game literally on the last night of this month.

And that final is of Europa league. Instead of be second the middle significant club international event is first on schedule for kick-off. Because there is only one duel until the end this might be prolonged deep into the night, and besides the trophy, one of the two following clubs who wins is going to automatically qualify for Champions league 2023-24 season (if they are not already inside through their national championships).

Wednesday, 31 May at 21.00 CET: Sevilla - Roma (playing on Puskas arena in Budapest, Hungary).

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Stadium tragedy

Last Saturday night during the second leg of the quarter-finals between Alianza and Club deportivo from the El Salvadorian championship happened a stampede when 12 spectators have lost their lives, and hundreds were harmed. While the investigation is still ongoing 24 hours ago the results of giving answers to this catastrophe slowly starts to unravel.

Five people was arrested: the president of the home team as well as the security and the financial manager together with the general manager of Estadios deportivos de El Salvador and the person who have the stadium keys who are charged with culpable homicide, injury and public damage. This tragedy has happened because of negligence and greed by the organizers who illegally sold more tickets than the maximum capacity of Estadio Cuscatlan where the match got played.

Immediately after this disaster, the El Salvadorian Liga primera division for 2022-23 season officially got suspended, while Alianza received a one year stadium ban and had to pay 30.000 dollars (27.736 euros) fine.

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Women mingles with men, endless part

Like in other confederations in Oceania too there are (new) things happening for the first time.

The assistant referee from Tonga Lata Kaumatule was the first female to officiate at men football game last Wednesday between Solomon warriors and Lupe o le soaga. Just 24 hours later her colleague duo from New Zealand have made their mark in Vanuatu on Ifira black bird - Pirae where Anna-Marie Keighley was the main judge on the pitch that was helped by Sarah Jones as lineswoman.

As a debut, the first three names have made their presence in an international club competition: the Champions league.

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Disobedience will not be tolerated

Two clubs has thought a way of how to punish footballers in a totally ridiculous and a stupid attempt.

At the second weekend of this month players from Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 were asked to wear numbers in colours of the rainbow due to the international day of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia that was noticed on 17 May.

However, in this campaign some players refused to wear it. Mostafa Mohamed of Nantes was punished financially for declined to go out with it for personal reasons, while five opponents from Toulouse (also for personal reasons) were thrown out of the list. The French football federation did not penalized the disobedience, but this cannot be said to the clubs who act it very harsh against 'the offenders'.

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United logo revealed

For the first time in history of the World Cup three countries are going to host the event in 2026. With the help of several agencies, and under the name "We are 26" the world football organization last Wednesday has unveiled the logo for the spectacle that will begin in three years from now.

However, majority of the fans do not like this logo, gave negative comments about it as are saying that the design is uninspiring, too simple, disappointing, creators have no imagination, lack of creativity, very cheap, little kids can do this as well in elementary school....

Also two dates were confirmed for this event: 25 May has been set as the deadline where coaches of the 48 teams would have to give their final list of players who will participate in the competition, and the last game itself (grand finale) would be played on Sunday, 19 July.

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Performing the draw of its main championship

Five days ago the African football organization has accepted the calendar up until 2026. And in this plan are mentioned two championships that are going to happen.

All rounds from qualifying games of the World Cup that will kick-off in three years time have been determined. The 9 elimination groups of 6 teams from first phase would be known on 12 July 2023 at Cotonou in Benin, while playing years are: from November 2023 right through October 2025 when the 10 match nights would complete. Stage two have to commence on November 2025, and the inter-confederation play-offs will occur in March 2026.

Just 3 months before the start of the main championship on the continent the Africa Cup of nations draw was  confirmed that will be staged on the ceremony in Ivory coast on 12 October 2023.

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Groups for season number three

In a televised ceremony from 16 May, the North, Central America and Caribbean confederation has performed the draw for its Nations league event for 2023-24 season. As was announced earlier, for the first time League A is going to be expanded with four new teams (from 12 to 16). The outcome for the 37 of them that were divided in 9 groups is the following:

League A

Group 1: Panama, Guatemala, El Salvador, Martinique, Curacao, Nicaragua.

Group 2: Haiti, Jamaica, Honduras, Cuba, Suriname, Grenada.

Whoever are placed in the first two positions, those teams are going to play the quarter-final stage together with the first four high ranked ones (Mexico, United States of America, Costa Rica, Canada) which will be joined in the process. These duels are scheduled to kick off this November. Once the group stage is completed, part number two of this competition (finals or semi-finals, classification and last game) have to be played in March next year.

At 2024 in one of the oldest team competition in the world would play participants from this region. This being said six teams will fight to enter the Copa America event, and those are going to come only from league A.

League B

Group 1: Guadeloupe, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Sint Maarten.

Group 2: Trinidad and Tobago, Dominican Republic, Montserrat, Barbados.

Group 3: French Guiana, Bermuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize.

Group 4: Guyana, Antigua and Barbuda, Puerto Rico, Bahamas.

League C

Group 1: Bonaire, Saint Martin, Anguilla.

Group 2: Aruba, Cayman islands, United States Virgin islands.

Group 3: Dominica, Turks and Caicos islands, British Virgin islands.

Games for the last two leagues (B and C) would be played this fall (September, October, November).

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Balkan countries punished

Three nations from the Balkan area that are neighbours with each other have been penalized for various reasons of the same preparational competition: elimination games for European championship 2024. Last Wednesday the European football organization have collected 75.250 euros just from this trio.

On the address of Montenegro football association came the financial punishment of 20.000 euros. Its fans were chanted bad language at a home duel against Serbia on 27 March.

For the same match Serbia itself received a ban together with penalty: prohibition of selling tickets for the next away game (scheduled for 20 June), one match without spectators (07 September versus Hungary) and 50.000 euros fine. Also, because of racist chants that their spectators used, a probationary ban was activated (when the team played a Nations league duel from last year).

Lastly, Croatia had to say goodbye to 5.250 euros. Reasons for this ban are throwing objects on the pitch by their fans and the very late kick-off against Wales of 25 March (instead of 20.45 this duel began at 20.50 CET).

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Agreement between two presidents

Partnership agreements among two confederations are happening almost every day, however the following story does not happen often. Seven days ago it was signed an unusual and (until now) very rare deal between a confederation and one member association which comes from another continent.

The president of African region Patrice Motsepe and the boss of the Saudi Arabian association Yasser al Misehal have agreed to put their signature on a document of future cooperation. Both leaders have signified this partnership as an opportunity, development and growth of tournaments between these two and to strengthen friendly games on club and national level. Time period of this contract is five years.

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Robbed while on duty

Last Monday morning after the celebration with his club, the house of the 22-year-old got burgled. Experienced thieves took the opportunity while no one was at home, and his parents were in Seville to watch their son.

At that Andalusian city Real Madrid won the Copa del Rey crown on 06 May. Practically the victory was ensured by Rodrygo de Goes who scored two goals that night. But at the exclusive Madrid residential district of La Moraleja thieves got operated at his home. The exact amount of what was taken away was not revealed by the police.

In this way the midfielder has joined its teammates on the list with Daniel Carvajal, Karim Benzema who were victims last year together with Carlos Casimiro, Thomas Partey which were robbed way way earlier...

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Turnaround was earned for next knockout round

Europa league 2022-23 season, knockout stage 4 (round of 4), leg 2, single night:

Sevilla - Juventus 1:1, after extra-time 2:1

Scorers: 0:1 65 (64.21) Dushan Vlahovic

               1:1 71 (70.57) Jesus Saenz de la Torre

               2:1 95 (94.40) Erik Lamela

- At a really stupid move and because of time wasting, on 115 (114.32) the home defender Marcos Acuna received his second yellow card which was instantly transformed into a red one.

Additional information: Sevilla have qualified for the final knockout stage.

Conference league 2022-23 season, knockout round 4 (phase of 4), leg 2, single night:

Basel - Fiorentina 1:2, 1:3 after additional 30 minutes

Scorers: 0:1 34 (34.08) Nicolas Gonzalez

               1:1 54 (54.02) Zeki Amdouni

               1:2 71 (71.19) Nicolas Gonzalez

               1:3 120+9 (128.33) Antonin Barak

- On the second half of extra time (from 107 until 117) this match was interrupted because the medical team had to give help to a visiting fan.

AZ - West ham 0:1

Scorer: 0:1 90+4 (93.33) Pablo Fornals

Additional information: in the last game of this tournament for this season will play Fiorentina and West ham.

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Kings are dethroned: Europe awaits new champion

Champions league 2022-23 season, knockout stage 3 (last 4), leg 2, night 2 of 2:

Manchester city - Real Madrid 4:0

Scorers: 1:0 23 (22.42) Bernardo Silva

               2:0 36 (36.05) Bernardo Silva

               3:0 76 (75.26) Manuel Akanji

               4:0 90+1 (90.39) Julian Alvarez

Additional information: the old continent will have a new winner next month after the title defender was ousted 5:1 in an overall result by Manchester city who deservedly entered the final.

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Disappeared after mysterious circumstances

An incredible story from last week that finished with a happy ending came from Egypt.

On 18 April the club whose full name is Engineering for the petroleum and process industries or for short is called ENPPI played a league game against Aswan. During the match in the second half Eric Traore have refused to enter as a substitute, and after it he turned off his communication device and walked off in an unknown direction. Since then the midfielder could not be found while attempts to locate the Burkina faso player through his wife and agent had been to no avail. Egyptian football association was notified of this disappearance, but complaint to the police was not filed.

Three weeks later the 26-year-old was found safe with the help of his mobile phone that was finally switched on. For the whole time the footballer was in Cairo, did not travel abroad, and had to explain why he left the club without their permission.

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Logo, groups and schedule confirmed

Edition number 18 of the Asian Cup 2023 is going to be played next year. And for this tournament everything was revealed last Thursday.

First the logo came out. As this event will be played in Qatar, maroon colour dominates the top of the trophy (which can be found on the flag of the host country), while around it all is blue (who represents the sea).

Hours later the best 24 teams of the continent have learned their fate. On a division into six groups of four teams the schedule looks like this:

Group A: Qatar, People's Republic of China, Tajikistan, Lebanon.

Group B: Australia, Uzbekistan, Syria, India.

Group C: Islamic Republic of Iran, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Palestine.

Group D: Japan, Indonesia, Iraq, Vietnam.

Group E: South Korea, Malaysia, Jordan, Bahrain.

Group F: Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Kyrgyzstan, Oman.

Lastly the complete layout was revealed. Kick-off times of every pair, stadia and location on this tournament that would be held from 12 January until 10 February 2024.

On the website of the confederation can be found each detail and information about this competition of the above things.

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Fighting for place in final

The European international competitions are slowly ending. Because of the importance fierce battle is expected on the terrain as 12 clubs will fight to earn their place on just 3 last matches of the season. Since the following duels are second leg of the semi-finals, some pairs might be prolonged. Commencing from the second part of this month the schedule is the following:

Champions league...

Tuesday, 16 May at 21.00 CET: Inter - Milan.

Wednesday, 17 May at 21.00 CET: Manchester city - Real Madrid.

... Conference league...

Thursday, 18 May at 21.00 CET: AZ - West ham.

Thursday, 18 May at 21.00 CET: Basel - Fiorentina.

...and Europa league.

Thursday, 18 May at 21.00 CET: Bayer - Roma.

Thursday, 18 May at 21.00 CET: Sevilla - Juventus.

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Prize given to last best continental player

The North, Central America and Caribbean confederation is the last of the six (in total) to name its best player from the previous year. And for 2022 (again) this award goes to Alphonso Davies.

Forty one coaches, captains with the help of media and fans from across the region have revealed their favourite on a televised event from 05 May. The mentioned jury gave this prize to the 22-year-old Canadian defender, and for now is written in the record book as the only player who have won it for the second consecutive year in a row (after 2021). Keylor Navas of Costa Rica is the other footballer as well who lifted this trophy two times: the goalkeeper was best in 2014 and 2017.

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Causing panic literally out of nothing

It looks like one English newspaper (Daily mail) is using disinformation telling stories from themselves that the Champions league final is going to be moved (again) from Turkey. At an absolutely notorious, ridiculous and stupid text Istanbul would lose staging the last game of the season because of the presidential elections that are scheduled to be held in the country on 14 May. The 'real' reason for this shift are the possible riots for the match who will be played at 10 June. However, today the European football organization have said that definitely the champion would be crowned at the most populous city of the continent.

Portugal had twice in the past hosted this final stealing it away from Istanbul because of a health crisis (2020 and 2021).

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One goal was enough for first halves

Conference league 2022-23 season, knockout round 4 (phase of 4), leg 1, single night:

Fiorentina - Basel 1:2

Scorers: 1:0 25 (24.45) Arthur Cabral

               1:1 70 (70.17) Andy Diouf

               1:2 90+2 (91.49) Zeki Amdouni

West ham - AZ 2:1

Scorers: 0:1 41 (40.55) Tijjani Reijnders

               1:1 67-pen (66.43) Mohamed Said Benrahma

               2:1 75 (75.00) Michail Antonio

Europa league 2022-23 season, knockout stage 4 (round of 4), leg 1, single night:

Juventus - Sevilla 1:1

Scorers: 0:1 25 (25.06) Youssef en-Nesyri

               1:1 90+7 (96.32) Federico Gatti

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Media will show future football tournaments

On 27 April Coupang media group has exclusively bought the rights to show every football competitions from Asia. For the South Korean territory and on the Play streaming service, the broadcaster is going to offer its viewers club and team events in male and female category. This partnership is signed to be valid as far as 2025 until 2028 period.

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Neither club have gain advantage despite beautiful and powerful strikes

Champions league 2022-23 season, knockout stage 3 (last 4), leg 1, night 1 of 2:

Real Madrid - Manchester city 1:1

Scorers: 1:0 35 (35.20) Vinicius de Oliveira junior

               1:1 67 (66.52) Kevin de Bruyne

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Revealed a draw date for next season event

At 16 May the draw of season number three of the North, Central America and Caribbean version of Nations league is going to be performed. From this edition the league A would be extended for two more teams, and therefore more qualifying matches will be played. The new cycle will begin from this fall (in September, October and November) where the group part would be completed, and from March 2024 the final classification is going to be decided. Also, the 2023-24 and 2024-25 editions will serve for Copa America 2024 (where six teams from the region would participate) and Gold Cup 2025 tournaments.

On the other corner of the globe, this Thursday (11 May) we are going to find out how the six groups would look like for the Asian Cup 2023 (2024) competition. Starting from January next year Qatar will be the host of the 23 teams, where among them one debutant would have the honour to compete with the best of Asia.

Both events can be watched live on social media.

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And then there were four

In the penultimate phase of the international European league events the first 90 minutes will be played. Only three duels (together with this one) awaits the following 12 clubs until the end. By just coming to this stage it will probably be the toughest one as each club wants to participate in the so called final game. There is plenty of time for that, but for now the semi-finals first leg have to be staged at:

Champions league...

Tuesday, 09 May at 21.00 CET: Real Madrid - Manchester city.

Wednesday, 10 May at 21.00 CET: Milan - Inter.

... Conference league...

Thursday, 11 May at 21.00 CET: Fiorentina - Basel.

Thursday, 11 May at 21.00 CET: West ham - AZ.

...and Europa league.

Thursday, 11 May at 21.00 CET: Juventus - Sevilla.

Thursday, 11 May at 21.00 CET: Roma - Bayer.

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Defending champions beaten, but no harm done for them as nevertheless they have qualified through

For the first time in three seasons (since 2019) the Club World Cup is going to be played in the current year. Today (were officially confirmed) the first champion was decided along with the host where both of them are from the Asia, although from earlier it was known that these two finalists have already qualified for the competition.

Al hilal was the Champions league winner from 2021 who failed to lift the trophy for the second consecutive time. However, the club will still participate at the final intercontinental tournament of the year posing as hosts (because they are the Saudi professional league champions of 2022-23 season).

When the previous team have entered the Champions league final on 26 February (from the West region), automatically it was known that their rival will secure its place on the competition that will be played in the twelfth month of 2023. And that opponent is the new winner of the continent that won three titles, and likewise Urawa red diamonds is going to appear for the third time as well in the final intercontinental club trophy of the year.

Until the end five more champions (from their own confederations) have to reveal themselves so that the list is complete for the event that is going to be staged in Saudi Arabia from 12 until 22 December.

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Going into history

Since July 1999 it showed reviews, different matches, preparations from trainings, talks... Twenty four years later all the previous things would go to history.

Because Barcelona did not renew the agreement with the telecommunication company Telefonica, its channel (Barca television) will stop transmitting signal to viewers next month. The club have send a letter to the multinational firm notifying that the deal extension would not happen, thus the last program will emit be 30 June on the date when the existing contract is due to expire. Hundred and fifty professional people are going to stay without a job (among them contractors and collaborators).

From 2017 this channel has started to broadcast on Digital terrestrial television in the Catalunya region on a free-to-air format, but due to huge expenses the signal is going to be forced to extinguish itself. After it would be off, the image of the club is going to be focused primarily on social media.

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Women officials team in top division

It is no secret that females judge matches among males in football. Furthermore they performed various tasks making history at two continents.

On 29 April a female team trio was designated to officiate Yokohama flugels marinos and Nagoya grampus from the J1 league. Leader of the game was Yoshimi Yamashita who had help from her colleagues Makoto Bozono and Naomi Teshirogi as lineswomen. Also, the main 37-year-old experienced referee was the first woman to guide a duel in the same championship last September.

Just yesterday Brazilian Daiane Muniz was among the video assistant referee team for a international club match. Her name has appeared at Huracan - Danubio who have met in the group stage of Copa Sudamericana.

Each of the above two examples happened for the very first time in Japan and South America.

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Promotion of a tourism means suspension

Yesterday, in a little bit hilarious removal from the first team of all time, suddenly one of the famous striker at PSG got himself in 'real' trouble.

After the game in the national championship all players hoped that they will have two days rest from footballing activities. However, instead of winning they lost the match, thus the coach changed his mind. So, Monday was a working day, but among everyone in training session one audibly name was missing: Lionel Messi. Without permission from the club, the seven Ballon d'Or winner flied over to Saudi Arabia to promote their tourism project.

The ending result is: this 'insubordinate player' is ousted for two weeks (from group workout together with playing official duels) nor is going to be paid for that suspended period (two weeks) and what is worse (for some) is that now his contract extension hangs in the balance (where almost certain will leave the club).

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Because the offer is way too low, threat of not showing might be imminent

This summer (20 July until 20 August) in Australia and New Zealand the World Cup for women will be played. But from now the president of the world football organization is saying that some areas (nations) of the European continent might not see any of the games.

Without naming them, Giovanni Infantino states that media shows disappointing interest to broadcast this event. Less valued and unacceptable are the offers who comes from the big five countries ranging it from 20 to 100 percent lower (compared to the male competition which are 50 - 60 percent).

One (and maybe the only) reason for this is the very big time difference with the Oceania region. Having most of the kick-offs at night time (locally), they are transformed to the other side (at 09, 10) in the morning at Europe. According to the boss, these times are "reasonable" (and they really are), however the problem is that people are at work those hours.

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Money has been found

For the reconstruction of its Spotify Camp nou stadium which awaits an increase from 99.354 to 105.000 seats Barcelona have gathered 1.45 billion euros. Seven days ago it was announced that 20 different investors are going to finance the 'Espai Barca' project, and those money will be returned from a range of 5 to 24 years.

Work of the iconic arena begins 01 June and is expected to finish until 2026. During that time the club would transfer playing on another place.

At 2020-21 season Barcelona has reported a loss of 481 million euros, thus this financial hole / injection was urgently needed for the primary objective: expanding its own complex.

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Televisors as a main sponsor

In the middle of March the deal was revealed that one consumer electronic firm will be a partner with a prominent international club competition at South America. Throughout the continent, the Telephone communication limited Technology company would be seen all over the games that are going to be played within Copa Libertadores. Mainly leaders in global television industry, the logo (Tcl) will be visible on the referees t-shirts together with billboards advertisement around and inside stadia.

From 2023 this sponsor has extended the contract and is going to last until 2026.

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