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Tag: Soccer

  • What needs to happen for Pochettino to officially become USMNT head coach?

    What needs to happen for Pochettino to officially become USMNT head coach?

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    Mauricio Pochettino looks set to become the next head coach of the U.S. men’s national team — but his appointment is not straightforward.

    While the Argentine is out of work following his departure from Chelsea in May, there are more hurdles to be cleared before he can be formally confirmed in his new role.

    So what is the hold-up and how quickly could things be resolved?

    The Athletic has spoken to several sources with knowledge of the situation, who all asked to remain anonymous to protect their positions and because of the sensitivities around the negotiations, to try and answer those questions.

    What has happened so far?

    U.S. Soccer has been searching for a new head coach for its men’s national team since Gregg Berhalter was sacked on July 10 following a disappointing performance in the Copa America.

    A day later, The Athletic reported that U.S. Soccer (USSF) had approached the former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp to gauge his interest in taking over, only for the German to politely decline the opportunity, saying he wanted to take a break from football.

    Pochettino then emerged as the governing body’s preferred candidate and, on Thursday, The Athletic revealed that he had agreed to take the head coach role. Neither Pochettino nor the USSF has said anything publicly on the matter since the story broke.

    So why is the contract not signed?

    The terms of Chelsea’s severance package with Pochettino are where things get a bit more complicated.

    Pochettino left Chelsea one year into a contract which originally stretched to two years, with the option of a third.

    He has verbally committed to taking the USMNT job. Pochettino is free and clear to do so — there is nothing in his Chelsea contract preventing that and club sources insist no money is owed if he takes another position.


    Pochettino left Chelsea with a year left on his contract (Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

    Given national team roles tend to pay less than their club equivalents, Chelsea are actively discussing with Pochettino possible solutions involving third-party sponsorships and other ways to support making the situation financially feasible for the Argentine.

    His Chelsea contract only applies a prohibition on the top-six Premier League clubs for six months. Chelsea retain a strong relationship with Pochettino — Laurence Stewart, their technical director, even sent the USSF a glowing reference for him — and are continuing dialogue with him to enable him to proceed with the USMNT opportunity.

    Do we know what the USSF will pay Pochettino?

    Pochettino’s proposed salary at U.S. Soccer is not yet known, and — as reported above — how exactly it will afford a former Premier League manager who has worked for some of Europe’s biggest clubs is a key question.

    Pochettino may have endured a disappointing season last year — even if Chelsea did recover from a poor start to finish sixth and qualify for the Europa Conference League — but he is still one of the most highly regarded coaches in the game.

    His CV includes spells with Tottenham Hotspur and Paris Saint-Germain, and he has regularly been linked with the manager’s job at Manchester United and high-profile positions in Spain.

    Securing a coach of his caliber will not come cheap, and his terms would certainly eclipse those offered to Berhalter, who coached in Major League Soccer before taking the USMNT job the first time.

    According to the USSF’s tax filing, which was reported by AP, in 2022 Berhalter had a base salary of $1,391,136, and earned $900,000 in bonuses. By way of comparison, when Emma Hayes signed on as head coach of the women’s national team in November 2023, The Athletic reported that she would earn close to $2 million per year.

    Matt Crocker, U.S. Soccer sporting director, said after Berhalter’s sacking that his search for a replacement would not be constrained by finances. “I just want to get the best coach possible that can help the team win,” he said. “Whether they’re from the U.S. or elsewhere. There has been progress made but now is the time to turn that progress into winning.”

    How could the USSF find the money?

    The USSF will understand that hiring a head coach of Pochettino’s status, especially ahead of a home World Cup, necessitates a bigger budget than they would ordinarily contemplate. But it is also true that they will not be able to afford the kind of salary that a top-six Premier League club could offer and they might need to get creative to accommodate the cost of hiring Pochettino.

    When Canada hired Jesse Marsch as their new men’s head coach in May, the deal was only made possible thanks to significant financial contributions from the country’s three Major League Soccer clubs — CF Montreal, Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps. The total sum donated to Canada Soccer was around $1.5 million. That meant Marsch’s official title became ‘MLS Canada Men’s National Team Head Coach’.


    Marsch’s Canada wage includes help from MLS teams (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

    According to conversations The Athletic has had with American MLS club owners, there is no appetite at this stage for a similar arrangement with Pochettino and the USMNT.

    An alternative route would be for the shortfall to be bridged through sponsors. There is a precedent for this, too: when Lionel Messi joined Inter Miami in 2023, the transfer was facilitated by the player being offered a revenue share with some of MLS’ key partners, including Apple, Adidas and the clothing firm Fanatics.

    Exploring more possibilities like this — capitalizing on their prospective head coach’s global profile — seems to be a more likely route for the USSF to be able to afford Pochettino.

    Chelsea, currently without a front-of-shirt sponsor for the new Premier League season, are trying to help facilitate this.

    Will this be resolved — and, if so, when?

    There is an expectation that an agreement will be reached between all parties, given it is in everyone’s interests to do so.

    One possible outcome is that Chelsea pay the difference between what the USSF are offering Pochettino and what the club would have to pay him if he stayed out of work. In that scenario — which is not uncommon in soccer — Chelsea would not have to pay the maximum amount they are liable for under the current severance agreement with Pochettino, but he would still get the full amount he is owed.

    The USSF is hoping to conclude the deal within the next 48 hours, although that decision will need to be ratified at a board meeting. That, however, is likely to be a formality.

    The next USMNT matches are the friendly games against Canada and New Zealand on September 7 and 10 respectively.

    (Top photos: Getty Images)

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    The New York Times

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  • Women’s pro soccer team Tampa Bay Sun ready to rise

    Women’s pro soccer team Tampa Bay Sun ready to rise

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    TAMPA, Fla. — This is history in the making.

    The Tampa Bay Sun prepares for their season opener and gets ready to put down their professional roots in a city that celebrates its pro teams.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Tampa Bay Sun open their season Sunday against Dallas

    • The Sun will play their home matches at Blake High School’s renovated stadium along the Hillsborough River

    • Playing in the USL Super League, the Sun are the first women’s professional team in Tampa Bay
    • All of their games will be streamed on Peacock


    “It’s just really special because we’re the only women’s team here in Tampa Bay,” Sun forward Ashley Clark said. “So that’s really cool.”

    Buccaneers, Lightning, Rays, Rowdies, and now Sun. These ladies have been working hard to establish themselves. The team features a lot of speed and experience. The product on the field is set up for success. It’s also set up to influence the next generation.

    “We’re going to have girls in the stands — the ball girls — that are watching and say, ‘You know what, I want to be like her one day,’” Clark said.

    Once relegated to playing the sport they love overseas, now Bradenton native Erika Tymrak gets to play in her own backyard. The former U.S. National Team member recalled the early beginnings of women’s professional soccer and the obstacles they had to overcome.

    “We didn’t have locker rooms. We didn’t have facilities. The medical treatment was subpar,” Tymrak said. “We were constantly changing pitches going from turf to grass to football fields. There was no consistency.”

    This generation of professional players has everything they need to be successful. The Sun have a new, state-of-the-art facility along the Hillsborough River, where they hope to pack the stands with fans. Sunday’s home opener is just the beginning of what they plan to sustain for a very long time.

    “It’s almost like there’s foundation that was built for a really long time that’s just breaking through and rising up,” Head coach Denise Schilte-Brown said. “And it just seems like it’s in every women’s sport. It’s our time to rise.”

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    Katherine Smith

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  • Comedic misses, brilliant ‘keeping and 24 minutes of pure drama – the 34-kick penalty shootout

    Comedic misses, brilliant ‘keeping and 24 minutes of pure drama – the 34-kick penalty shootout

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    Maybe we should have known right from the start that this was going to take a while.

    Panathinaikos’ Argentinian midfielder Daniel Mancini stepped up to take the first penalty of their shootout against Ajax, the Greek side having scored a late equaliser to force the Europa League qualifying tie on Thursday night to go to spot kicks.

    But while he did technically ‘take’ the penalty, he might as well have just blown on the ball for all the force he put behind it when he kicked the thing. A pathetic penalty that 40-year-old goalkeeper Remko Pasveer saved easily was the most appropriate way to start a shootout that featured slapstick, rank incompetence and occasional bursts of excellence.

    In total, there were 34 penalties. That, we probably don’t need to tell you, is a UEFA competition record. In all, 25 were scored, two missed the target entirely and seven were saved — five by Pasveer and two by Panathinaikos goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski.

    Ajax, who went second in the shootout, had five ‘match points’ — penalties would have won the tie — and flubbed the first four before emerging victorious.

    Striker Brian Brobbey was brought off the Ajax bench during extra time, perhaps not explicitly to take a penalty (there were 10 minutes remaining when he came on) but certainly with a shootout in mind. He was one of the 12 players who had to take two penalties. He missed them both. What’s more, both of them were potential clinchers.

    Missing one penalty in a shootout will bring deep shame and embarrassment, but you’ll get over it. Missing two is the sort of thing that could haunt you for years. Missing two potential winners… well, at least his side won in the end.

    After that first (terrible) penalty from Mancini, the next eight were very smartly taken by, among others, Steven Bergwijn, Kenneth Taylor (both Ajax) and former Leicester City winger Tete (for Panathinaikos).

    Then it started to get weird. Brobbey stepped up, and there seemed to be an expectation that he would make short work of this: he isn’t a regular penalty taker, but had only missed one in his senior career and had a prolific conversion rate as an academy player. The home crowd chanted his name, he puffed out his cheeks, hit it with reasonable power to the ‘keeper’s right… and Dragowski saved it. The air left the stadium like it had suddenly become a spaceship’s airlock.

    Is it possible to ‘morally’ miss a penalty that you actually score? If so, that’s what the Greek side’s next taker, Dutch midfielder Tonny Vilhena, did. He is a Feyenoord youth product and spent eight seasons in their first team… which is another way of saying the Ajax crowd hated him.

    He struck a low kick to Pasveer’s right, and the goalkeeper got down well to get more than a hand (an arm, perhaps?) to it…

    … but the ball squirted from underneath him, briefly looked like it might stay out  — to the point that the Ajax fans started to celebrate  — but eventually span across the goalmouth and trickled into the opposite corner.

    Vilhena, having heard the thoughts of the home crowd, decided to give a bit back by shushing the terraces. Would this come back to haunt him later on in the shootout? Surely not.

    Next up for Ajax was Jordan Henderson, perhaps as much to remind everyone that he still plays for them. Henderson and penalties are not especially good friends: it’s easy to forget because England won, but he missed in their shootout victory at the 2018 World Cup against Colombia, and has since only taken one competitive penalty in regular time for club or country… which he also missed for England in a pre-Euro 2020 friendly against Romania. Happily, he didn’t have any problems here, side-footing straight down the middle and into the net.

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    GO DEEPER

    Jordan Henderson – the serial winner who is now just an idea for fans to hate

    Then, another miss: Nemanja Maksimovic erred for Panathinaikos, saved brilliantly by Pasveer. But again Ajax couldn’t take their chance, with Bertrand Traore skewing his effort both high and wide, which is quite difficult to do from 12 yards. It was after this penalty that a squabble broke out in the centre circle, both teams getting tetchy at this extended shootout, and referee Chris Kavanagh booked a player from each side.

    The next penalty was Panathinaikos’ Sverrir Ingason, who went low but too close to Pasveer, who bagged his third save. At this stage, he and opposite number Dragowski hugged and started laughing: yes, it was getting quite silly now. And it got even sillier when Ajax passed up yet another chance to win it, as Dragowski saved from Ajax defender Youri Baas.

    This was the penalty shootout that nobody seemed especially keen to win. On the touchline, the look on the face of Ajax coach Francesco Farioli suggested he was watching himself undergo open heart surgery. His opposite number, Diego Alonso, looked similar.

    However, the next 14 penalties were all excellent, with the goalkeepers barely having a chance. They took kicks themselves and scored with minimum fuss, only ramping up the tension. After all, 14 penalties is a full normal shootout and a half. The Panathinaikos substitutes and coaches, arms locked on the touchline, were told off for encroaching onto the pitch. At some point, Farioli retreated from the touchline and sat alone on the bench, his aorta pulsing about two feet in front of him.

    But then, another chance to win it for Ajax: Panathinaikos centre-back Filip Mladenovic tried to go for power, but it was too close to Pasveer who saved to his left.

    Redemption presented itself. Just as he had earlier in the shootout, Brobbey strode forwards knowing that if he scored, Ajax would be through. He stepped up, puffed out those cheeks again, resolved not to make the same mistake again — this time, he wasn’t going to let Dragowski get anywhere near it.

    And he didn’t — the trouble was that the only people who did get anywhere near it were in the back rows of the Johan Cruyff Arena. Brobbey launched an absolute Chris Waddle of a penalty high into the stands…

    … and then proceeded to crumble to the turf…

    … face down, unable to believe what he had just done…

    … providing a classic ‘you can see the exact moment his heart breaks in two’ moment…

    But wait. Here comes Vilhena. You’ll remember from earlier that the former Feyenoord man had shushed the Ajax fans after (just about) scoring his first penalty, which you can understand: he was getting abuse, he scored, and his work was done for the night because there’s no way he would have to take another penalty, right?

    Ah. Alas for him, he was facing the extraordinary Pasveer again. The 40-year-old isn’t Ajax’s first-choice goalkeeper, but he took his chance to make an impression here: Vilhena tried the same penalty as his first but this time, Pasveer got more of his body behind it and kept it out for his fifth save.

    “Five is quite a lot, yes,” he deadpanned after the game, also saying that he was laughing with former Ajax midfielder Wesley Sneijder, on the touchline working for Dutch TV, during the shootout. “I save a penalty now and then, but I don’t think you often experience something as crazy as this.”

    Pasveer last saved a regulation-time competitive penalty in 2021, in the Eredivisie while playing for Vitesse against Heerenveen. The last shootout he was involved in was again for Vitesse, against AVV Swift in the KNVB Cup (Dutch Cup) in 2017. He didn’t save any that night.


    Ajax goalkeeper Pasveer celebrates during the shootout (Nikos Oikonomou/Anadolu via Getty Images)

    “Remko asked why there was never a picture of a goalkeeper who has kept a clean sheet,” Farioli told AFP, referencing the many photos of Ajax greats that adorn the stadium’s walls. “I told him he should maybe play a bit better. But now I think we should quickly hang up a picture of him.”

    Once more, Ajax had one kick to win it. This time they did something interesting: whereas the other players who had taken a second penalty had done so in the same order as the first round, Ajax mixed things up by sending winger Anton Gaaei up for their 17th penalty, in place of Henderson. He went low into the bottom corner, Dragowski went the wrong way and finally, finally, finally, it was over.

    From the moment Mancini took the first penalty to Gaaei’s winner hitting the back of the net, 24 minutes and two seconds had elapsed. Ajax won 13-12 and progressed to the play-off round. If they beat Polish side Jagiellonia Bialystok they will qualify for the Europa League league phase.

    This wasn’t the longest penalty shootout of all time. That title still belongs to SC Dimona and Shimshon Tel Aviv, who took 56 penalties in the Israeli third-tier play-off semi-final earlier this year.

    But from Pasveer’s saves to Brobbey’s brace of misses and Farioli’s utter despair, there was more than enough drama to go around here.

    Ajax face NAC Breda in their second Eredivisie game of the season this weekend. You suspect a nice, quiet, boring 1-0 win will do them nicely.

    (Top photo: Nikos Oikonomou/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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    The New York Times

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  • Rapids hold off Liga MX giants Club América in penalties to move onto Leagues Cup semifinal

    Rapids hold off Liga MX giants Club América in penalties to move onto Leagues Cup semifinal

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    Why not the Colorado Rapids?

    The Rapids have spent the Leagues Cup wondering how much magic was stored in their reserves. Saturday night against Club América in the quarterfinal, every last drop was required.

    Tense at every touch of the ball and turn of the feet, the Rapids somehow held on against Liga MX giants — and arguably the best team on the continent — Club América. Colorado held them scoreless, then beat them in penalties, 9-8, to move onto a semifinal date with LAFC.

    Rapids goalkeeper Zack Steffen once again came up huge for the Rapids in penalties. After forward Rafael Navarro missed his team’s third penalty and América not yet missing, Steffen had to come up with an enormous save on the last of five penalties to send the shootout to sudden death.

    All four of each team’s next shooters stepped up and scored, including one by América that bounced off the post, ricocheted off of a diving Steffen’s head, then right back in the net. Last up were the goalies: América’s Luis Malagon and big-game Steffen. Steffen sent Malagon the wrong way; Malagon painted the grass outside of the left post.

    Ball game.

    That late in the order, Rapids coach Chris Armas said the next penalty-taker would be decided by who wanted it more. Defender Lalas Abubakar was halfway done with the long walk from midfield to the spot for the Rapids’ 10th penalty of the night. Steffen, who admitted to having to overcome mental and confidence struggles this year, waved Abubakar off.

    He wanted it more.

    “At one point, there were a lot of critics out there about Zack Steffen, but what I’ve gotten to see on the inside of our locker room and on the pitch is a professional, top talent,” Armas said. “He’s a real man on the pitch and he’s a leader, leads by example. He’s everything we want the Colorado Rapids to be about: quality, aggressive, humble.

    “Another day in the office for Zack Steffen.”

    In regulation, the match felt much like last Tuesday’s jaw-clenching win over Deportivo Toluca, sans the ball hitting the back of the net.

    The best first-half chance for the Rapids was in the 44th minute, when midfielder Cole Bassett made a nice move at the top of the box to free up space for a finesse shot to the bottom right corner which went just wide.

    In the second half, the Rapids’ best chance came from winger Calvin Harris after midfielder Djordje Mihailovic glanced a header to a streaking Harris down the middle. Harris took a long distance shot which Malagon had to save. That went down as the Rapids’ lone shot on goal all night.

    América, like Toluca, shot 21 times (four on goal). The possession wasn’t as one-sided as it was four days ago, but América still led in that category, 58% to 42%.

    The Rapids were forced into uncomfortable possession for long stretches of the game as América sat in a compact defense, not allowing for any easy build-up play or transition moments.

    Defensively, the Rapids suffered. Bent, but didn’t break. Lots of talk around the club over the past week has been around being able to come out on top of games in which they suffer.

    For Armas, that mentality has been forged from day one. As the stakes get bigger and the suffering gets worse, the feeling of advancing gets stronger.

    “I think it’s rare that you get to be a part of groups that are really team first, all about the team, who run for each other, suffer together,” Armas said. “They win together, they lose together, they are together. I try to remind them that it’s rare and you’ve got to keep fighting for it and appreciate it (in real time). It’s pure joy that only football and sport can do for you.”

    With the win, the Rapids have now beaten four Liga MX teams in a row and have knocked out the last Mexican team left in the tournament. Before this tournament, the Rapids had never beaten one in sanctioned play.

    They’ll stay in Los Angeles to face LAFC next Wednesday after it beat the Seattle Sounders, 3-0, earlier on Saturday.

    Perhaps even bigger for the Rapids: advance to the Leagues Cup final or win the third-place game, and they’ll punch their ticket to the CONCACAF Champions Cup for the first time since 2022.

    Colorado Rapids teammates celebrate as Club America goalkeeper Luis Malagón, bottom right, reacts on the ground after Malagón missed a penalty shot during the penalty shootout of a Leagues Cup quarterfinal soccer match Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024, in Carson, Calif. (AP Photo/Raul Romero Jr.)

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    Braidon Nourse

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  • Manchester City, the Premier League and the season everything might change

    Manchester City, the Premier League and the season everything might change

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    Follow live coverage of Arsenal vs Wolves in the Premier League today

    Welcome to the season when everything might change, or nothing might change, for the most popular football league on the planet. In the coming months, the hearing against Manchester City for their 115 alleged breaches of Premier League regulations will begin and a verdict is expected before the end of the campaign.

    On Tuesday, in a season-opening interview with journalists, the Premier League’s chief executive, Richard Masters, insisted the competition organisers “actually have a pretty good working, operating relationship” with Manchester City. Yet that is a polite veil over an increasingly peculiar and toxic landscape for English football in which City, who have won four Premier League titles in a row, were “surprised” to find themselves accused by the Premier League of having cheated their way to the summit.

    This summer, during numerous conversations with owners and executives who work or have worked within the Premier League, many speaking anonymously to protect relationships, the divergence of opinions and expectations has been revealing. The matter has been discussed informally between ownership groups within the Premier League and it is the subject of gossip in matchday boardrooms. Naturally, they speculate.

    Some are so worn down by the decade-long pursuit of City that they fear Manchester City’s case may result in a financial settlement rather than a sporting penalty. Then some rival executives consider this outcome to be impossible and utterly outrageous, and say it would cast the death knell for financial sustainability not only within the English game but across European football.

    As one Premier League club executive says: “The collective view I’ve heard is that an appropriate sanction would have to be a points deduction so substantial — we are talking here between 70 and 80 points — that it guarantees City a season in the Championship.”

    Another of the sport’s leading figures suggests the punishment ought to be more creative, that many points could be deducted from City in each of the next three seasons, meaning the club’s chance of Champions League qualification would be severely restricted. Another compares the City case to that of the English rugby union side Saracens who, when Premiership champions in 2019, were deducted 35 points, hit with a £5.36million ($6.9m at current rates) fine and relegated to the second division owing to non-compliance with the league’s salary-cap rules.

    A coach who came up against City has simply made his mind up about their guilt and argues they have not achieved their success with the same level of discipline as their rivals, but suspects it is too late now to truly remedy the matter. At the same time, there are fears that a failure to convict and punish City poses major questions about the Premier League’s ability to run itself, particularly with the prospect of an independent regulator still looming next year. Numerous club executives say their incentives to follow the rules would be greatly diminished if the Premier League proves toothless on City.

    At this point, we should remember that Manchester City are contesting the charges. Upon learning of their alleged breaches in February 2023, City said they were “surprised” by the development. They also said they have a “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence in support of its position” and added that they “looked forward to the matter being put to rest once and for all”. The alleged breaches are extensive and serious, relating to a period between 2009 and 2018 in which City won three Premier League titles and emerged as one of Europe’s strongest teams, as well as hiring Pep Guardiola, the most in-demand coach in world football, to lead the club from 2016.

    City stand accused of failing to provide accurate financial information, “in particular with respect to its revenue (including sponsorship revenue)”; failing to disclose managerial payments during the Italian coach Roberto Mancini’s time at the club between 2009 and 2013; and breaching Premier League rules on profit and sustainability (PSR) between 2015 and 2018. The Premier League also argued City did not comply with UEFA — European football’s governing body — regulations around financial fair play in 2013-14 and between 2014-15 and 2017-18. The Premier League also claimed City did not cooperate fully with investigations in “the utmost good faith”.

    City have been down this road before. They were banned from European competitions for two years by UEFA for alleged breaches of financial regulations in February 2020. Yet the sanction was overturned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in July of the same year when the court ruled “most of the alleged breaches were either not established or time-barred (outside of the organisation’s five-year statute of limitations)”. City were fined €10million (£8.6m; $11m) for not cooperating with the investigation.

    In English football, nobody is prepared to put their name to quotes about the City case. That is not the same for La Liga president Javier Tebas, who has been a longstanding critic of the impact of clubs linked to nation-states. City always insist they are not owned by the state of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the deputy prime minister of the UAE and the minister of presidential affairs. He is the majority shareholder in City via Newton Investment and Development, a company he wholly owns and which is registered in Abu Dhabi.

    Tebas tells The Athletic: “It is difficult for me to say what is proportionate in England because I don’t know so well the English rules and law. But I can refer to what happened at UEFA… then what happened at CAS — in a resolution I would describe as a joke — is they took the sanction away. It was a very controversial decision to take away that sanction. Now, let’s see, I won’t dare to predict, but I am aware that there is a lot of concern among many clubs in the Premier League about what happens with City. What happens with Man City is a before and after moment for the Premier League itself.”


    Javier Tebas is one of European football’s most powerful voices (Oscar J. Barroso/Europa Press via Getty Images)

    The important thing to remember here is that the view of Tebas, or the many clubs in the Premier League to which he refers, will not be a factor in the final verdict. The Premier League has accused City of 115 alleged breaches, but the matter is now referred to a three-person independent commission for assessment. They are not known to the public but have been chosen by Murray Rosen KC, the barrister who is the head of the Premier League’s independent judicial panel.

    A seasoned Premier League executive explains: “It is not the clubs that are prosecuting Manchester City. Unlike the American system, the clubs do not sit around in judgment of each other. They don’t decide whether to approve a new owner or not, like some American leagues. If you’ve got a case to answer, you’re going to have your day in front of an independent commission.”

    While clubs will not have an input on the independent commission, The Athletic has previously reported how, in the years leading up to City being charged, rival clubs at both ownership and chief executive level would seek to impress onto the Premier League the need for progress on that matter. Sometimes it would be informal phone conversations, while legal letters and requests for information would also be sent. Very occasionally, clubs would seek an update within shareholders’ meetings, but for the most part, this became a topic executives pretended did not exist when sat together around the boardroom table.

    Whenever they did ask for updates, clubs would be told by the Premier League that the case remained under investigation and nothing further could be said. Journalists have received the same answer. From a governance perspective, therefore, City’s rivals are powerless on this matter, reduced merely to lobbying around the edges. The pressure came more often from the top of the Premier League table, where bigger clubs argued to the Premier League hierarchy that they would have won more trophies if City had acted differently.

    Yet over time, that anger has filtered across the division. When City sought to appeal against their UEFA ban from the Champions League at CAS, nine Premier League clubs wrote to express their objection to City’s sanction being suspended while they appealed. Some clubs then placed in the top half of the table opportunistically spied a place in European competition if City were out of the picture.

    go-deeper

    GO DEEPER

    Man City charges: What do rival clubs make of the Premier League’s accusations?

    Others across the Premier League do appear to genuinely believe the sport will be healthier if a firm deterrent is in place for financial regulations, while some clubs believe it is implausible, not least in terms of the optics for the Premier League, that City could evade punishment after Nottingham Forest and Everton received points deductions for financial breaches during the previous season.

    go-deeper

    GO DEEPER

    Man City charges explained: The accusations, possible punishments and what happens next

    “There is no happy alternative to enforcing the rules, which everyone has agreed at the beginning of each season,” Masters told Sky Sports News this week. “They have looked each other in the eye and shaken each other’s hand and said ‘We will abide by these rules’. So the Premier League has to enforce rules.”

    There is also the question as to whether any political attempts have been made to exert pressure on the Premier League. Last year, the UK government admitted its embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in London have discussed the charges levelled at Manchester City by the Premier League, but refused to disclose the correspondence. In response to a Freedom of Information request made by The Athletic, the government said it would risk the UK’s relationship with the UAE to do so. Manchester City did not comment when told about the existence of the correspondence and the Premier League declined to say whether it has received any correspondence from the UK government in relation to the matter.

    The Athletic has previously detailed extensive official correspondence demonstrating a desire to impress the interests of the UK government on the Premier League, which has always denied it has been influenced in any way. There is no evidence to say the UAE government has made representations. Asked this week if the Premier League has ever felt pressure from foreign governments, Masters said: “Never, of any flavour or description. It just doesn’t happen.”

    For the independent commission, there are reams of material to sort through. This all began when emails and documents emerged from Football Leaks and were published by German newspaper Der Spiegel in 2018. Those prosecuting City would claim the documents appeared to show City bypassing financial rules within football by disguising state investment as sponsorship revenues. City have always refused to comment on any of the German newspaper’s revelations because they say the leaks were “criminally obtained”.

    During the hearing, both sides will be able to request the presence of any participants from the club or Premier League during the period in question. This may even extend to the Premier League calling upon Sheikh Mansour himself, but nobody can be compelled to attend the hearing. It would be a surprise if Mansour, as the deputy prime minister of the UAE, was to put himself in that position.

    The same may be true of City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak. He is also the CEO of the $300billion Abu Dhabi Mubadala wealth fund — which owns some of City’s sponsors — as well as the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Affairs Authority, which is described as a specialised government agency mandated to provide strategic policy advice to the Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed. As such, several sources close to the Premier League suggested it would be unlikely that any figure directly linked to the state in the UAE would place their reputation on the line at a Premier League commission.


    Sheikh Mansour (left) attended the Champions League final in June 2023 (Michael Regan – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images)

    The more likely scenario is that figures who have worked solely for City would attend the autumn hearing. Both sides have started preparing for cross-examination of witnesses, as to be expected with such an important hearing drawing near. One witness who had already been spoken to by City’s lawyers described the process as “hardcore”, “aggressive”, and “no-holds-barred”.

    When it comes to making a decision, executives spoken to by The Athletic expect the commission to consider the offences in two parts. It will focus on the material alleged breaches, which could bring the most substantive penalties if City are found guilty, but then also the matter of alleged non-cooperation. Every person spoken to by The Athletic for this article said they expect City will face punishment for failing to cooperate, having previously received a fine for this from UEFA. The question is whether the commission judges non-cooperation to be worthy of a sporting penalty or merely a slap on the wrist.

    These executives point out the contradiction in City’s public statement, where they said they welcomed the chance to present their irrefutable evidence but, at the same time, the Premier League charges include allegations that the club obstructed the investigation. City, for example, headed to court to question the league’s jurisdiction to investigate it and then once more, this time with the Premier League, to prevent any details from becoming public.

    Lord Justice Stephen Males, a High Court judge who heard the latter case, wrote in his 2021 judgment: “This is an investigation which commenced in December 2018. It is surprising, and a matter of legitimate public concern, that so little progress has been made after two-and-a-half years — during which, it may be noted, the club has twice been crowned as Premier League champions.” Twice has now become five.

    This is where the suggestion of a settlement between the Premier League and City appears to become less likely. “There’s been plenty of opportunity for settlements in the past, which hasn’t happened,” says one executive familiar with the case. “Either party can at any time effectively take it out of the court and have a conversation without prejudice to say we’ll have a settlement. But the further you go, the less likely that is.

    “But the scale of this is so large that it’s really difficult to have a negotiated settlement. What are you going to settle on? A fine? A small number of points? Look at Forest and Everton. You can’t do that. This is of a scale both in terms of time, depth and severity of charges that is completely off the scale of the others.”

    The desire for a settlement would need to come from City, too, and the biggest clue towards their approach came within one of City’s most infamous leaked emails when a leading City lawyer wrote that Al Mubarak, the club chairman, had said that “he would rather spend 30million on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue them for the next 10 years” than agree to any financial settlement or penalty from UEFA amid the previous case.


    Pep Guardiola, pictured here with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, is hoping to lead Manchester City to an unprecedented fifth straight Premier League title (Simon Stacpoole/Offside via Getty Images)

    One Premier League executive says there is a feeling within the league’s HQ that City have simply “taken the p***” since receiving their first letter from the Premier League on the matter in 2018. This person argues that if City accepted some fault from the outset, they may have taken a substantially smaller punishment than the one which could now be imposed. “They wouldn’t have been relegated, but they have now dug themselves into the massive hole. And it’s either a massive leap that gets them out scot-free or a massive sanction. It is a Hail Mary.”

    The implications of the City case reach far and wide. The Premier League is a phenomenal global success that now drives more in international television revenue than it does from its domestic deal. In the United States, the Premier League’s $450million-per-season deal with NBC dwarfs that of La Liga’s $175m package with ESPN, or Bundesliga’s $30m deal with ESPN. During an interview earlier this summer, The Athletic asked Jon Miller, NBC’s President, Acquisitions and Partnerships, whether the investigations not only into City but also Everton, Nottingham Forest and Chelsea in any way impacted the value of the Premier League.

    Miller said: “It doesn’t question the value at all. What it says to me is that the people who are leading the Premier League very much are hands-on and they’re going to enforce their rules. It’s important that the league has got their hands around this and they’re not afraid to impose discipline where they think it’s needed.

    “I actually applaud them for the stance they’re taking, even if it might move a team into a relegation zone or out of a Champions League or Europa League place. I would rather make sure the league is run on a fair basis, that everybody plays by the same rules.”

    The challenge for the Premier League now is not only with regards to their own case against City but also that City have launched their own legal action against the Premier League, seeking to obliterate the rules, strengthened in 2021, that insist sponsorship deals must be independently assessed to be of fair market value within the competition. The aim was to prevent clubs from being able to receive funds through artificially inflated sponsorship deals linked to a club’s ownership or inflated deals between teams in a multi-club ownership group.

    The Times reported in June that City claimed they were the victims of “discrimination” within a 165-page legal document, stating that a “tyranny of the majority” of teams across the league had ganged up on them to implement rules aimed at preventing their success. A verdict on this matter is expected within the next month and, should City have success, it may also undermine a central plank of the Premier League’s broader case against the club because allegedly inflated sponsorship deals linked to Abu Dhabi are among the alleged breaches.

    The Premier League and City have indicated they intend to appeal against the decision if it goes against them in relation to these associated party transactions, according to people close to both parties.

    An experienced football arbitrator sees it like this: “What’s really going on here is that (City) have invoked the dispute resolution proceedings in the covenant with the Premier League. In invoking the dispute resolution proceedings, it gets them into a room with the Premier League on their terms before the November hearing, which is the substantive hearing to determine whether they’re in breach of the 115 charges.

    “So it’s a mechanism by which their KCs can eyeball Premier League KCs and effectively say to the Premier League, ‘We are prepared to take you down if you go forward with what you’re planning to do, then we’re going to have a damages claim against you of hundreds of millions, which you can’t afford. We’ll tie you up in litigation for the next five or 10 years and we will take you down’.

    “It’s an aggressive litigation tactic and they’ve done it for a reason. Their owners will have needed to sign off on this. It’s not lawyers — the lawyers are merely only ever a conduit. They’re an agent for their client and so it is fascinating — I think they’re trying to provoke a rupture in the English game.”

    City, it should be said, are not alone in having concerns about the policing of associated party transactions. When the Premier League voted to toughen up the regulations in February, six clubs voted against the move and two abstained, meaning the vote could be passed via the narrowest of margins with a two-third majority secured by 12 votes in favour.

    City’s rivals, whether rationally or otherwise, fear that legal success for City would only be the start of attempts to destabilise the competitive balance of the English game. “They worry that it will lead to City and Newcastle (owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund) dumping a billion every summer; that’s the fear, that it blows the house down on financial sustainability across the whole of Europe,” says one European football executive.

    As the Premier League pursues City and City sue the Premier League, another subplot emerged this week. The Times reported that some of City’s rivals are considering compensation claims for loss of earnings — whether by not winning titles or failing to qualify for European competition — as a result of City’s dominance over the past decade. A source familiar with the hierarchy of multiple Premier League clubs argued it is unrealistic to expect legal success in this area because even teams with lower wage bills and inferior players can sometimes achieve more than may be expected. “It’s not like it is match-fixing where they have paid the referee or something. It’s too remotely related to the outcome of the match,” they said.

    Clubs will largely be left hoping that the Premier League’s independent commission serves up satisfactory justice. The Premier League handbook allows for any kind of punishment, ranging from reprimands to fines, points deductions or even expulsion from the Premier League.

    City are already facing uncertainty ahead of next summer, when manager Guardiola’s contract is due to expire. He is said to be torn over his future at this stage, regardless of the charges. He has often spoken in support of his club’s defence.

    In May 2022, Guardiola said: “Why did I defend the club and the people? It’s because I work with them. When they are accused of something I ask them: ‘Tell me about that.’ They explain and I believe them. I said to them: ‘If you lie to me, the day after I am not here. I will be out and I will not be your friend any more. I put my faith in you because I believe you 100 per cent from day one and I defend the club because of that.’

    Tebas, La Liga’s president, concludes: “The path the Premier League is taking now is important, after many years in which we have not seen proceedings against their own clubs for financial fair play issues. The path they are trying to take is very important for all of European football.

    “The Premier League’s economic sustainability is very important so that there is no inflation in salaries in the rest of Europe due to inflationary policies with money from outside of football (via state money). The result of Manchester City is important. I insist, there is a lot of concern within the Premier League teams. Without knowing the ins and outs of the charges, I do know something, which is that many clubs expect a sanction to be imposed.”

    Additional reporting: Jacob Whitehead

    (Top photo: Getty; Sebastian Frej/MB Media, Naomi Baker, Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA; design: Dan Goldfarb)

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    The New York Times

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  • The English Premier League Has a New, iPhone-Powered Offside Detection System

    The English Premier League Has a New, iPhone-Powered Offside Detection System

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    “If a harder problem comes up in the future, it’s relatively easy for us to work on the install base, or the technical background that we have in a venue, and just go add 10, 20, 30, 40 different cameras,” he says. “Maybe we want to focus them on certain parts of the field or deploy them for specific purposes.”

    This kind of scalability also brings to the table the concept of the “digital twin” in sports. By capturing streams of video and positioning data as a player moves on the field, that player can be re-created virtually—their movements, likeness, and hand gestures, all rendered digitally in real time. This is something that’s typically been possible with only the types of high-priced cameras and computer systems used in Hollywood and in video game creation.

    If digital twins can be created in sports, their uses go beyond officiating. Broadcasters can use them in digital overlays that show real-time stats, or in virtual reality, so you can watch a game inside your VR headset.

    Soccer is merely the first playground for this tech. Just about any sport can draw value from digital twin creation, and Genius hopes to make inroads in basketball and American football soon.

    But as intriguing as a soccer digital twin sounds, can Dragon actually remedy the game’s offside-detection issues? After all, constant issues with prior VAR systems have inspired no confidence in motion-capture technology among soccer’s main stakeholders nor with fans.

    Genius says it’s been testing Dragon for several years, both in the EPL and several other venues, in multiple formats. The company employs several internal analysts who project tracking data into a video format, then go frame by frame alongside broadcast video to detect any discrepancies. This allows the team to continuously retrain its models until such errors are, in theory, eliminated. Genius analysts consider this the foundational testing level, a baseline on top of which others are layered.

    Dragon’s inputs have been compared side by side with VAR and detection systems to validate their basic accuracy. They’ve also been validated manually: Engineers spent long hours with various sport stakeholders (coaches, players, management), running through complex plays and confirming that the system’s outputs make sense. Every client considering use of Dragon also has internal teams who scrutinize the system and validate its outputs.

    “We’ve done this with groups like FIFA, where we’ve gone through extensive tests,” D’Auria says. “The Dragon system is FIFA-validated. They’ll do tests where players wear a Vicon [motion-capture] system, and we track them, and they compare datasets and look for errors. We’ve gone through five or six machinations of this.”

    It should be noted that both Genius and EPL representatives declined to provide any specific testing information or results to WIRED, stating that, despite evaluating the iPhone system side by side with VAR, comparisons to prior motion-capture systems are tricky due to order-of-magnitude differences in the quantity and quality of data being created. Interestingly, again both the EPL and Genius refused to give any indication on how much more accurate its smartphone tech is compared with VAR.

    Of course, the real evaluation will be made by fans and players, who will need to see Dragon in action to believe it actually makes a difference. The last few years of VAR absurdity have left an understandably bad taste in many mouths where optical tracking is concerned.

    But when that first semiautomated offside call comes in this season in the UK, remember that this isn’t just the same old setup in different wrapping. It’s the next generation of motion capture, one that stakeholders across sports and in the AI community will be watching closely. Fans won’t have much, if any, tolerance for further issues with motion-capture-based systems. Genius and the EPL are confident they’re up to the challenge. We shall see. Let the games begin.

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    Ben Dowsett

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  • Vaseline, hairspray, shaving foam… What’s the best substance to put on goalkeeper gloves?

    Vaseline, hairspray, shaving foam… What’s the best substance to put on goalkeeper gloves?

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    Andre Onana returned to competitive football this weekend in the Community Shield against Manchester City, with his side losing on penalties at Wembley.

    Last season it emerged the Manchester United goalkeeper uses Vaseline on his gloves, which raised several other questions for me. What other substances do we ’keepers put on our gloves to try to gain an advantage? Is there anything in doing so that violates the laws of the game?

    I knew I needed help from someone with better knowledge of the laws of the game than me. Thankfully, over my playing career I was fortunate to build up enough goodwill with a few professional referees that I was able to enlist one of them — Fredrik Klitte, who has been a ref for close to 25 years in Sweden, including the last decade at the top level.

    “It’s legal for a goalkeeper to use Vaseline from a referee’s point of view, as long as the rule book doesn’t say otherwise, which it doesn’t today,” Klitte said.

    When I asked him if he had ever encountered a goalkeeper trying to use any substances on their gloves before, his answer was a firm “no.” He did admit, however, that it could have happened without him knowing. “The referee isn’t required to check a goalkeeper’s gloves in the same way they are supposed to check a player’s studs or shin guards before a match, so it’s possible,” he said.


    Onana turns to the Vaseline (Robin Jones – AFC Bournemouth/AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images)

    Klitte went on to explain there is a line in the rule book that states the referee does have the option to show a yellow card for unsportsmanlike behaviour if they discover a goalkeeper has handball players’ resin (which affords greater grip) on their gloves, for example. But that is rarely, if ever, enforced. “Then you can interpret it as a goalkeeper using incorrect equipment that must then be corrected,” he said. “However, you probably still don’t have support for that, due to the way the rule is currently written.”

    Before I let him go, I asked Klitte one more time just to confirm, “So, technically speaking, a goalkeeper could use whatever they wanted on their gloves to try to improve their grip?”.

    “Yes,” he said confidently. “There is nothing in the laws today that say otherwise.”


    Vaseline sighted at a Premier League game (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

    So with that established, it was time to experiment.

    I wanted to test things that would be practical and we could realistically see a goalkeeper use. That means substances that wouldn’t totally destroy the gloves after one use. Therefore, even though I could fathom that handball resin, pine tar, or Stickum (a substance that was used for years in the NFL to assist players in hanging onto or catching the ball before being banned in 1981) would improve a goalkeeper’s grip, at least temporarily, they would almost certainly destroy the pair of gloves involved in the process and not be worth testing.

    While I was able to find several different recommendations from fellow goalkeepers who swear by little tricks of the trade to improve their grip, including honey, maple syrup, sugary sports drinks and even homemade pastes, three products were mentioned more often than any others: GloveGlu — a product specifically created for goalkeeper gloves to help improve grip — shaving cream and hair spray. These were the three I knew I needed to try.

    The next day, before training with the club where I’m goalkeepers coach, Angelholms FF in the Swedish third division, I ran a few errands around town and picked up a bottle of GloveGlu from the sporting-goods store and a bottle of shaving cream and hair spray from the supermarket. In theory, I could understand why each of these products would work and was excited to try them out for myself to see if there might be something out there better suited for a goalkeeper’s gloves than Vaseline.

    When our ’keepers Robin Streifert and Lukas Bornandersson arrived at the training facility, I informed them we had an assignment in training that day: to test a few products and see if any of them would improve our grip on the ball, however, I waited to inform them exactly what it was that we would be testing. The only information I gave them was to bring an extra pair of gloves out to the pitch with them.

    There was a consensus the GloveGlu would work, since it was made specifically for goalkeeper gloves, but they were highly doubtful about the shaving cream and hair spray.

    Since Robin already had a lot of experience with using Vaseline on his gloves, consistently employing it in both training and matches, I thought he would be the perfect candidate to compare it with the effects of GloveGlu. Lukas on the other hand was still relatively new to the Vaseline idea and was a bit sceptical. Therefore, I wanted him to test it for the first time and see if his experience was anything like Robin’s.

    I, on the other hand, would first try out the shaving cream and the hair spray. Then, if I thought it either worth introducing to the training session with Robin and Lukas, we would do so.

    When the goalkeepers were done with their warm-up, Robin came up to me and grabbed the GloveGlu, Lukas took the Vaseline and they started to apply them to their gloves.

    Robin’s gloves had some age to them, and it had been a while since they had been used, but the GloveGlu suddenly gave them some new life. As Robin clapped his palms together and felt the stickiness of the spray start to have an effect, he nodded his head. “This stuff might actually work,” he said.

    The grip initially proved to be good, certainly much better than it would have been without GloveGlu. It took a pair of old gloves that he would never have trusted for a game and made them usable again. However, despite the positive first impressions, the stickiness didn’t last very long.


    GloveGlu was effective, but wore off quickly (Matt Pyzdrowski/The Athletic)

    It was after just a few rounds of our shooting session when Robin noticed the gloves started to feel silky smooth. Balls that initially were lodging snugly into his gloves, started to become more difficult to catch and often bounced back out and into play. At that point, all he had to do was go and reapply the GloveGlu for it to become effective again, but I could sense his frustration each time he had to do that throughout the training.

    Though Robin’s first impressions of GloveGlu were positive, Lukas, on the other hand, was doubtful about the impact Vaseline was going to have almost immediately.

    As he bounced the ball up and down and caught it over and over, he shook his head. “It feels like there isn’t an ounce of grip!”, he shouted. “I don’t know how you guys think this is any good!”.

    Both Robin and I looked at each other and laughed. It was like we already knew what was going to happen.

    After all, when French club Bordeaux’s Swedish goalkeeper Karl-Johan Johnsson introduced the stuff to Robin almost a year ago, he went through the same progression himself. First there is scepticism and doubt, then, intrigue and wonder start to take hold, and by the end of training, nearly every goalkeeper who has ever tried the stuff ends up loving it.

    Unsurprisingly, this is exactly what happened with Lukas.

    When the ball started smacking safely into his gloves over and over again, it brought a big smile to his face. When he went over to the tub of Vaseline after about 20 to 25 minutes of training and grabbed another glob for the palms of his gloves, Robin and I knew he was hooked.

    “OK, OK, you guys were right, this really does work well!”, Lukas said with enthusiasm in his voice.

    Toward the end of training, I decided it was time to give the other two products a try.

    When I read about shaving cream and hair spray online, those who used them believed they were most effective a few minutes after application. So as Robin and Lukas had a water break and we took a little pause in our session, I took out two sets of gloves and applied shaving cream to one pair, hair spray to the other, and then let them rest, palms up, next to the goal.

    While there wasn’t that much I needed to do with the pair that had hair spray on, other than let them dry and rest, I did read that the pair with shaving cream on needed a little more attention. Rather than rubbing the shaving cream into the palm directly, like you would do with Vaseline, I had read it was best to squirt a generous amount onto the palm and then wait to rub it into the latex just before use.


    Matt’s gloves after the initial application of shaving cream (Matt Pyzdrowski/The Athletic)

    When I went over to the gloves during our next pause in training to check on their progress, it didn’t take long for me to realise that the hair spray wasn’t going to have any effect whatsoever. Though it did appear to create a sticky substance on the palms of the gloves, after just one catch of the ball the effect had entirely worn off and actually left a residue on the palms of my glove which became incredibly slippery.

    Though I still decided to give hair spray a shot and had Robin and Lukas pepper me with a few shots, it was clear that catching the ball was going to be an incredibly difficult task. There was no need to explore hair spray any further. It wasn’t going to work.

    After taking off my hair-sprayed gloves, I picked up my other pair that had shaving cream on them, put them on, and began to rub the shaving cream into the palms of my gloves until it was absorbed into the latex.


    Matt’s gloves after rubbing the shaving cream into the palms a few minutes later (Matt Pyzdrowski/The Athletic)

    When I started rubbing my palms together and felt the stickiness take hold, I suspected it was going to work as intended. The palms of the gloves remained moist but also felt a bit sticky after the shaving cream had dried, and after a few bounces of the ball on the grass, my confidence in it grew. I asked Robin and Lukas to come over so I could throw some shaving cream onto their gloves.

    Robin, whose gloves were a little older and more broken down than Lukas’ pair, didn’t feel like there was much of an impact. However, when Lukas jumped in goal and started gripping shot after shot, his grin went from ear to ear.

    “I don’t know what it is, if it’s mental or if I’m just having a good day, but it really does feel like it works!”, he shouted.

    It may sound strange at first that shaving cream could improve the grip of your goalkeeper gloves, but when you understand how latex works, it makes sense.

    Without getting too technical, latex is a foam. It is made up of thousands of tiny holes, much like a kitchen sponge. When the materials that make those tiny holes are dry, the latex becomes hard and brittle. When they are wet, the holes expand and the material becomes softer — again, like a sponge. So by adding shaving cream, you are ultimately helping keep the latex moist and sticky and allowing it to do what it was made to do in this case: grip the football.

    After facing a few more shots, Robin, Lukas and I sat down next to the goal to discuss our findings.

    We quickly agreed that although there was a positive effect to using shaving cream, it wasn’t as effective as Vaseline or GloveGlu and it was hard for us to imagine it would have the same effect as Vaseline in wet weather (Vaseline is designed to moisturize the latex, but also act as a repellent to prevent dirt and grime from covering the palms of your gloves when it rains).

    Plus, in a game situation, when your time is so limited, you would never have enough of a break in play to go to the side of the goal and apply it effectively, whereas GloveGlu and Vaseline were much easier to apply quickly and see immediate results.


    Robin, right, and Lukas discussing their experiments (Cherie Mårtensson/Ängelholms FF)

    It’s been almost a year since Robin first started using Vaseline, and though it’s still an important part of his routine, his use of it has slightly changed. He found out first-hand that the negative side of using Vaseline every day is that it can damage the latex on your gloves and reduce their durability. Though Vaseline is initially moist when you apply it, when it dries out, your gloves are in danger because the Vaseline starts to be absorbed into the pores of the latex, dries it out, and can crack the gloves.

    “At the beginning, I was putting Vaseline on my gloves every day, but it didn’t take long for me to realise that it wasn’t sustainable in the long run because I was going through a new pair of gloves every other week,” he said.

    He would go on to explain, however, that despite Vaseline being tough on the durability of his gloves, throwing some of it on an old pair of gloves did seem to bring some life back to them. Which was something Lukas could also confirm after his own experience with the stuff.

    “I have an old pair that I use now and again in training when it rains and I’m worried my grip will be impacted because of it,” he said. “I throw a dab of Vaseline on them and suddenly they have good grip again. I noticed that today as well. I was unsure what would happen since I was using an old pair of gloves I hadn’t used in a few months, but I was blown away by the results. I haven’t had that good of a grip in my gloves in a long time.”

    Despite the negative impact Vaseline can have on the durability of his gloves, Robin did say he still prefers it to GloveGlu because he feels the effect from it lasts longer and gives a more “stable” feeling. However, he did admit GloveGlu works better in dry weather (which is something that can be a problem with Vaseline) and doesn’t damage the latex as much.


    Some goalkeepers still stick to using their own saliva (ANP via Getty Images)

    Every athlete is always looking for new and innovative ways to uncover marginal gains, and professional goalkeepers adding Vaseline to their gloves is just the latest example of that.

    Though the security and trust Vaseline can provide is an incredibly important feeling for every goalkeeper, all of us agreed that it shouldn’t be used with the expectation that it’s suddenly going to fix all your problems on the pitch. It doesn’t matter how much of it you smear on your gloves, it can’t hide poor technique. That’s why it is important to perfect your technique first, then use Vaseline, GloveGlu, or another similar product as an added tool down the line if you feel it’s needed.

    Most professional goalkeepers have a glove sponsorship and brands will send them new pairs pretty much whenever they ask for them. So clearly, they aren’t worried about their gloves’ durability or about what happens to them after using Vaseline.

    That’s the biggest reason that we all agreed younger goalkeepers and amateurs might be wise to hold off on using Vaseline on that brand-new pair of gloves and instead save it for a rainy day or when they get a bit old and worn and need a new lease on life.

    (Top photo: Charlotte Wilson/Offside via Getty Images)

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    The New York Times

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  • U.S. women’s soccer team beats Brazil 1-0 to win gold medal at Paris Olympics

    U.S. women’s soccer team beats Brazil 1-0 to win gold medal at Paris Olympics

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    The U.S. women’s soccer team is golden once more after beating Brazil in a highly anticipated final match at the Paris Olympics on Saturday.

    A goal from Mallory Swanson, playing in her 100th match for the U.S., in the 57th minute, was the difference between the two rivals.

    Brazil v United States: Gold Medal Match: Women's Football - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 15
    Mallory Swanson of the United States celebrates scoring a goal against Brazil in the second half during the Women’s Gold Medal match during the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

    Brad Smith/USSF / Getty Images


    The U.S. was undefeated heading into the game, but Brazil had the best chances early. Brazilian forward Ludmila was alone in front of the goal in the second minute, but her shot went straight into the arms of goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher.

    Brazil thought they had a goal when Ludmila appeared to score in the 16th minute, but it was quickly ruled out for offside.

    In stoppage time, some heroics from Naeher preserved the win with a one-handed save on Adriana’s header.

    The loss signals more heartbreak for Brazil and its iconic star, Marta. The six-time world player of the year, who announced early this year that she will retire after this year’s Games, has never won a Women’s World Cup or an Olympics. The 38-year-old first stepped onto the Olympic turf 20 years ago at the 2004 Games in Athens.

    To get to the final, both teams had to weave their way through a competitive field of rivals. Twelve nations in total qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

    The United States and Brazil rose to the top of the pack after beating opponents Germany and Spain, respectively, during semifinal matches earlier this week. 

    The Americans won 1-0 Tuesday in a fierce battle with Germany. Forward player Sophia Smith scored the winning goal in the first 15-minute half of overtime after an assist from teammate Mallory Swanson.

    “I’m so proud of us for finding a way in these last few games to get the win,” Smith said after Tuesday’s match. Smith turns 24 on Aug. 10, the day of the gold medal matchup. 

    Brazil v United States: Gold Medal Match: Women's Football - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Day 15
    Marta of Brazil walks on the field in the second half during the Women’s Gold Medal match against the United States during the Olympic Games Paris 2024.

    Brad Smith/USSF / Getty Images


    Brazil had their work cut out for them going into Tuesday’s semifinals against Spain, which boasted an undefeated record at the Summer Games. Still, the South American team managed to defy the odds when they beat the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup champs 4-2.

    The U.S. women’s team is now the winningest team in the Olympics with five gold medals. The Americans have defeated Brazil twice in an Olympic final — in 2004 and 2008. The last time the U.S. women’s team brought home gold was at the 2012 Games in London. 

    Germany won the 2016 women’s finals in Rio and Canada took home gold in 2021 in Tokyo.

    Paris 2024 Olympic Games - Day 15 - Women's Football - Gold Medal Match
    Actor Tom Cruise celebrates during the women’s gold medal match between Team Brazil and Team United States.

    Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images


    Tom Cruise, former U.S. star Megan Rapinoe and former NBA star Sue Bird were among those in the crowd at Parc des Princes.

    It was the third victory for the United States over Brazil in an Olympic final. The Americans also beat the Brazilians in 2004 in Athens and four years later in Beijing.

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  • USWNT wins fifth Olympic gold medal in women’s soccer with a 1-0 victory over Brazil in final

    USWNT wins fifth Olympic gold medal in women’s soccer with a 1-0 victory over Brazil in final

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    The U.S. women’s soccer team won its fifth Olympic gold medal by beating Brazil 1-0 on Mallory Swanson’s early second-half goal in the tournament final Saturday at the Paris Games.The Americans, who hadn’t won gold since the 2012 London Olympics, closed out an undefeated run to the title in their first international campaign under new coach Emma Hayes.Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher preserved the win with a one-handed save on Adriana’s header in stoppage time at Parc des Princes.The loss is more heartbreak for Brazil and its iconic star, Marta. The six-time world player of the year has never won a Women’s World Cup or an Olympics. This is expected to be her last major international tournament.It was the third victory for the United States over Brazil in an Olympic final. The Americans also beat the Brazilians in the 2004 in Athens and four years later in Beijing.Brazil has never finished better than runner up at the Olympics.Three years ago in Tokyo, the U.S. settled for the bronze medal. The Americans were knocked out in the quarterfinals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.Swanson’s 57th-minute goal came in her 100th appearance with the United States.Tom Cruise and former U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe were among those in the crowd.The U.S. also won gold in 1996 at the Atlanta Games in the first women’s soccer tournament at the Olympics.

    PARIS —

    The U.S. women’s soccer team won its fifth Olympic gold medal by beating Brazil 1-0 on Mallory Swanson’s early second-half goal in the tournament final Saturday at the Paris Games.

    The Americans, who hadn’t won gold since the 2012 London Olympics, closed out an undefeated run to the title in their first international campaign under new coach Emma Hayes.

    Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher preserved the win with a one-handed save on Adriana’s header in stoppage time at Parc des Princes.

    The loss is more heartbreak for Brazil and its iconic star, Marta. The six-time world player of the year has never won a Women’s World Cup or an Olympics. This is expected to be her last major international tournament.

    It was the third victory for the United States over Brazil in an Olympic final. The Americans also beat the Brazilians in the 2004 in Athens and four years later in Beijing.

    Brazil has never finished better than runner up at the Olympics.

    Three years ago in Tokyo, the U.S. settled for the bronze medal. The Americans were knocked out in the quarterfinals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

    Swanson’s 57th-minute goal came in her 100th appearance with the United States.

    Tom Cruise and former U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe were among those in the crowd.

    The U.S. also won gold in 1996 at the Atlanta Games in the first women’s soccer tournament at the Olympics.

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  • USWNT wins fifth Olympic gold medal in women’s soccer with a 1-0 victory over Brazil in final :: WRALSportsFan.com

    USWNT wins fifth Olympic gold medal in women’s soccer with a 1-0 victory over Brazil in final :: WRALSportsFan.com

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    By ANNE M. PETERSON, AP Soccer Writer

    PARIS — PARIS (AP) — The U.S. women’s soccer team won its fifth Olympic gold medal by beating Brazil 1-0 on Mallory Swanson’s early second-half goal in the tournament final Saturday at the Paris Games.

    The Americans, who hadn’t won gold since the 2012 London Olympics, closed out an undefeated run to the title in their first international campaign under new coach Emma Hayes.

    Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher preserved the win with a one-handed save on Adriana’s header in stoppage time at Parc des Princes.

    The loss is more heartbreak for Brazil and its iconic star, Marta. The six-time world player of the year has never won a Women’s World Cup or an Olympics. This is expected to be her last major international tournament.

    It was the third victory for the United States over Brazil in an Olympic final. The Americans also beat the Brazilians in the 2004 in Athens and four years later in Beijing.

    Brazil has never finished better than runner up at the Olympics.

    Three years ago in Tokyo, the U.S. settled for the bronze medal. The Americans were knocked out in the quarterfinals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

    Swanson’s 57th-minute goal came in her 100th appearance with the United States.

    Tom Cruise and former U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe were among those in the crowd.

    The U.S. also won gold in 1996 at the Atlanta Games in the first women’s soccer tournament at the Olympics.

    ___

    AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

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  • Half of Championship Clubs Accepted Gambling Deals despite Rising Controversy

    Half of Championship Clubs Accepted Gambling Deals despite Rising Controversy

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    As the 2024-25 English Football League (EFL) Championship season kicks off, 12 of the 24 teams of the division have secured partnerships with gambling operators despite increasing concerns and criticism over the role of gambling in sports. UK clubs have taken measures to ensure the sport’s integrity and protect consumers from gambling harm, but lingering concerns remain.

    Second-Division Clubs Rely on Such Revenues to Remain Competitive

    The Championship, which many view as the most competitive second-tier league worldwide, is sponsored by operator Sky Bet, which has held the title sponsorship rights for several years. This season, 12 teams out of 24 have established partnerships with gambling firms, marking a significant presence of the betting industry in the sport.

    Several  Championship clubs have announced new betting operator partnerships over the past few weeks. Hull City, for example, has teamed up with Yolo Group’s Sportsbet.io brand, which will feature on the back of the team’s shorts. Cardiff City has also agreed on a two-year deal with QuinnBet to become its back-of-shirt sponsor. 

    Some examples of front-of-shirt sponsorships include Sunderland and Stoke City, which partnered with Spreadex, Watford featuring MrQ, and Middlesbrough sporting Kindred Group’s Unibet brand. Unlike the Premier League, which said it would prohibit new front-of-shirt gambling sponsors beginning in 2026-27, Championship clubs have not faced similar commercial pressures.

    Many clubs, particularly those in the lower leagues, rely heavily on the financial backing provided by gambling firms to maintain operations and compete at a high level. The upcoming UK gambling white paper does not envision gambling sponsorship restrictions, relying on teams to self-regulate and ensure that any deals do not threaten the sport’s integrity.

    A Complete Sponsorship Ban Remains Unlikely

    Luton Town is the only club in the Championship to have publicly committed to the Big Step campaign, aiming to remove gambling sponsorships from football. That sets the Hatters apart from the rest of the league, with little indication that most intend to walk away from the bookmakers’ mega-deals.

    GambleAware, a leading charity advocating for the protection of consumers from gambling harm, has consistently called for the UK government to implement stricter regulations, including a complete ban on gambling sponsorships in sports. However, clubs remain hesitant to support such drastic measures, not wanting to miss out on a substantial revenue stream.

    Responding to the continuing public outcry, England’s top soccer leagues recently introduced a new Code of Conduct for Gambling-Related Agreements in Football. This code outlines values like protection, social responsibility, reinvestment, and integrity, hoping to alleviate the deep-rooted ethical concerns surrounding gambling sponsorships and balance stakeholder interests with safety and integrity.

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    Deyan Dimitrov

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  • Morocco wins its first Olympic soccer medal with a 6-0 rout of Egypt for men’s bronze

    Morocco wins its first Olympic soccer medal with a 6-0 rout of Egypt for men’s bronze

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    NANTES, France — Soufiane Rahimi scored two goals and Morocco won the bronze medal with a 6-0 rout of Egypt on Thursday for the team’s first-ever podium finish at the Olympics.

    Abde Ezzalzouli, Bilal El Khannouss, Akram Nakach and Achraf Hakimi also scored for Morocco, which went into halftime with a 2-0 lead to the delight of Moroccan fans at La Beaujoire Stadium.

    Rahimi scored eight goals at the Paris Olympics, most in the tournament. At 28, he is one of the overage players allowed on the under-23 Olympic squads.

    It was Egypt’s third fourth-place finish at the Olympics — after Amsterdam in 1928 and Tokyo in 1964.

    Morocco has been inspired throughout the tournament by its senior men’s team, which was a surprise semifinalist at the World Cup in 2022.

    The team also trounced the United States 4-0 at Parc des Princes in Paris in the quarterfinals but lost to Spain 2-1 in the semifinals.

    Moroccan fans have been fervent in their support throughout the tournament. In the group stage, they rushed the field and threw bottles in a 2-1 win over Argentina, causing the game to be suspended for around two hours.

    Rahimi’s first goal came off a header in the 26th minute that Egypt goalkeeper Alaa Hamza got a glove on but couldn’t stop.

    Less than three minutes before Rahimi’s goal, Ezzalzouli scored from the top of the penalty box into the far corner. He joined his Moroccan teammates in a prayer on the corner of the field following the goal.

    Morocco saw the return of midfielder El Khannouss, who was suspended for the semifinal. He made it 3-0 by shaking off a series of defenders for a goal in the 51st.

    Rahimi’s second came in the 64th and he assisted on Nakach’s goal in the 73rd.

    Hakimi, who plays in France for Paris Saint-Germain, scored on a late free kick.

    Egypt was without Omar Fayed, who was sent off with a red card in the semifinal against France.

    Egypt also lost winger Zizo, one of the teams overage players who had to leave in the 12th minute after pulling up with an injury.

    ___

    For more coverage of the Paris Olympics, visit https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games.

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  • U.S. women’s soccer team to play Brazil for Olympic gold medal

    U.S. women’s soccer team to play Brazil for Olympic gold medal

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    U.S. women’s soccer team to play Brazil for Olympic gold medal – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    The U.S. women’s soccer team advanced to the Olympic final with a 1-0 victory over Germany on Tuesday. The team will face Brazil in the gold medal match on Aug. 10. “CBS Saturday Morning” co-host and CBS News and sports correspondent Dana Jacobson has an Olympic recap from Paris.

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  • Changing the Game: Local Parents Launch New Scottsdale Recreational Soccer League

    Changing the Game: Local Parents Launch New Scottsdale Recreational Soccer League

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    Addressing the Need for a Non-Coed, Competitive and Affordable Experience for Scottsdale Youth


    SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., August 6, 2024 (Newswire.com)
    –
    Nexus Youth Soccer League (NYSL), started by Scottsdale parents Kenna and RJ Watters, is thrilled to announce the launch of its new, non-coed, next-level recreational youth soccer league specifically designed for multi-sport girls and boys in grades 3-8. 

    Nexus Youth Soccer League aims to bridge the opportunity gap between recreational and club soccer programs, providing a competitive and enjoyable environment without the high costs and time commitments typically associated with club soccer. 

    League owners Kenna and RJ were inspired to start this league because of their experience with coaching multiple teams in another kids soccer league over the last couple years. “As our daughter approached the age of 10, we realized that there just weren’t many opportunities for her to continue playing soccer recreationally in our area, and almost nothing that is not co-ed. As coaches, we have seen how these co-ed teams with just one or two girls are such an intimidating environment for them. So they end up not playing to their full potential because they’re simply outnumbered. We wanted more for our daughter and we know there are so many more female athletes out there, too, who want to play and learn in a positive, encouraging environment, giving them the space to hone their skills, build relationships, and grow their love of the game,” says Kenna.

    The statistics back up their experience. According to a 2017 study by the Women’s Sports Foundation, girls drop out of sports at twice the rate of boys by age 14 and found that 38% of girls aged 7-17 who had left sports cited “I wasn’t having fun” as a key reason for quitting. The Watterses believe that their program will bring that fun back into youth soccer while also creating an environment that is competitive by encouraging the players to commit to learning the sport at a deeper level than traditional recreational soccer programs.

    With one practice per week and one game every Saturday, this Scottsdale youth soccer league ensures a balanced approach that fits into busy family schedules. “Kenna and I both were multi-sport athletes growing up. We know that every activity or sport a kid does throughout their childhood contributes to developing a multi-faceted character with all these different experiences and memories,” says RJ.

    Registration for the NYSL fall soccer league serving the Scottsdale, Arcadia, and Biltmore area is now open through Aug. 31, 2024. Parents and players interested in participating can visit www.nexusysl.com to register and get more information about Nexus Youth Soccer League.

    About Nexus Youth Soccer League:

    Nexus Youth Soccer League (NYSL) is a non-coed, competitive recreational soccer league in Scottsdale designed for boys and girls in grades 3-8 who are passionate about  playing soccer.

    Source: Nexus Youth Soccer League

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  • Rapids use last-minute header to force penalties, beat Club León in shootout

    Rapids use last-minute header to force penalties, beat Club León in shootout

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    If not for Rafael Navarro’s first goal in eight games in the last minute of second-half stoppage time, the Colorado Rapids’ exit from Leagues Cup would have rested on a lengthy, controversial reversal of an offside call. Instead, the Rapids won in penalties, 4-3, after a 1-all tie in regulation.

    At first glance, Club León’s Iván Moreno was called offside in the buildup of a play on a breakaway. Rapids keeper Zack Steffen saved Moreno’s 1-on-1 shot, but the ball bounced off the post and onto Edgar Guerra’s feet for an easy tap-in in the 79th minute.

    A lengthy VAR review took place when the linesman’s flag went up. The crowd of 13,644 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park groaned in disagreement when the offside was overturned. The noise grew much louder when the replay was shown on the video board.

    In order for an offsides call to be overturned, the error in judgment must be clear and obvious. Midfielder Cole Bassett stuck around referee Julio Luna during the nearly five-minute VAR review, but couldn’t get an explanation out of him for the duration.

    “(Luna) did not say much, to be honest. Looking back, I don’t think it was (clear and obvious),” Bassett said. “But they made that decision, we had to respond to it afterwards and we all looked at each other and said ‘10 minutes’ and we went up from there.”

    Then Navarro struck in the 90+7th minute when Bassett found Keegan Rosenberry, who flicked the ball onto a wide open Navarro for a tap-in header. The goal was Navarro’s first in eight matches across all competitions and the first since he signed a permanent deal to the Rapids.

    Then after missing his previous three penalty attempts this season, he buried his try in the penalty shootout after regulation ended scoreless.

    “It was a very tense moment and you have to be very calm in those moments,” Navarro said through Rapids language specialist Andre Hilf. “Everybody has supported me, so getting there, to be able to take the PK and working towards that has been special.”

    Leagues Cup rules force penalty kicks if the score is tied after regulation. And with a spot in the round of 32 on the line, Djordje Mihailovic came up big with the Rapids’ first goal of the shootout in his first match back from the Olympics in Paris. Bassett, Navarro and Moïse Bombito all made their attempts while Andreas Maxsø missed his.

    Steffen came up with the shootout’s first save on Leon’s third attempt and won it with another save on León’s final attempt. With six saves in regulation, Steffen was easily the Rapids’ best player of the night.

    Rapids coach Chris Armas praised the keeper for the way he stepped up in the moment. For Steffen, an all-around night of that nature was much needed.

    “It’s been an up-and-down year for myself, so it feels good,” Steffen said. “It gives me confidence to just keep going.”

    The Rapids will play against FC Juarez in the round of 32 on Friday after being stunned by Portland by a score of 4-0 last Thursday. In the tournament’s second iteration, this will be the Rapids’ first time in the knockout stages.

    For Armas, the preparation for the match will be more about his own squad’s recovery than it will be about scouting Juarez. The one thing he’d change about the way his team played against León will certainly require the extra rest.

    “The thing I’m asking for is tempo to start with, tempo to play with on the front foot and to be very proactive in all phases,” Armas said. “We’ll look to see if there are tendencies or any similarities with Juarez and León, but it’s mostly going to be about us recovering, figuring out our lineup and how we want to get a tactical plan ready.”

     

    Originally Published:

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    Braidon Nourse

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  • USWNT shows composure with 4-1 win over Germany in key Olympic group-stage matchup :: WRALSportsFan.com

    USWNT shows composure with 4-1 win over Germany in key Olympic group-stage matchup :: WRALSportsFan.com

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    By Leo Santos

    MATCH STATS

    The U.S. women’s national team was tested during its second group stage match of the 2024 Paris Olympics, but the team showed more than enough composure to walk away with a 4-1 win over Germany and a likely spot into the quarterfinals. 

    The speedy dual threat of Sophia Smith and Trinity Rodman was showcased at the start of the match as Rodman delivered a cross into the box and Smith was able to get onto the end of it for a 1-0 USWNT lead. It was a dream start and lead that vanished quickly as Giulia Gwinn’s low-driven strike from outside of the box leveled the score for Germany. 

    That moment gave the young USWNT its most difficult test under new head coach Emma Hayes. Would the team crumble as Germany gained momentum, or would it show determination to retake the lead again? 

    Luckily for Hayes and USWNT fans, Mallory Swanson answered that question four minutes later by getting on the rebound of a Smith shot and scoring to make it 2-1 for the Americans. 

    The U.S. didn’t concede another goal in the first half, but it was dealt a blow when defender Tierna Davidson suffered an injury serious enough to take her out of the match in the 44th minute.

    Once again, the USWNT flexed its muscles as Smith’s deflected shot in the 44th minute gave the U.S. and 3-1 lead heading into the halftime. 

    In the second half, the U.S. was able to neutralize No. 4 ranked Germany, who only registered six shots on target, by having plenty of the ball (62% possession to be exact) and creating more opportunities. Lynn Williams finished the scoring for the U.S. in the 89th minute as she was teed up by Swanson and struck the net from close range. 

    The result almost seals the deal for the U.S. to have a spot in the quarterfinals, barring a dramatic turn of events on Matchday 3, but Hayes would most likely be proud of how her young squad stayed determined in a match against a strong opponent while facing adversity. 

    The USWNT wraps up group stage play at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, July 31 against Australia. 

    SEE MORE: Women’s soccer recap, July 28: Day of drama as Canada, Australia, Japan stun

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  • Canada faces more allegations of drone use as scandal widens

    Canada faces more allegations of drone use as scandal widens

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    MARSEILLE, France — Embattled Canada women’s soccer coach Bev Priestman apologized to her players Sunday and pledged to cooperate with an investigation into the drone-spying scandal at the Paris Olympics.

    The team was deducted six points and Priestman was banned for a year after two of her assistants were caught using drones to spy on New Zealand’s practices before their opening game Wednesday.

    “I am absolutely heartbroken for the players, and I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart for the impact this situation has had on all of them,” Priestman said in a statement. “As the leader of the team on the field, I want to take accountability, and I plan to fully cooperate with the investigation.”

    Priestman led Canada to the Olympic title in Tokyo in 2021, but her reputation has been marred by the scandal, which has raised questions about the practices of the country’s men’s and women’s soccer teams and how widespread the issue could be.

    She also apologized to Canada as a nation, but appeared to try to defend her legacy.

    “This program and team have allowed this country to reach the pinnacle of women’s soccer, and their winning of the gold medal was earned through sheer grit and determination, despite reports to the contrary,” she said. “I fought with every ounce of my being to make this program better, much of which will never be known or understood. I wish I could say more, but I will refrain at this time, given the appeals process and the ongoing investigation.”

    It has emerged that a complaint against the women’s team for filming an opponent’s training session was made at the 2022 CONCACAF W Championship, which served as a qualification tournament for last summer’s Women’s World Cup.

    The revelation is part of the fallout of the drone scandal.

    FIFA banned Priestman — who had already been sent home from France — two of her coaches and imposed a hefty $226,000 fine on Canada Soccer.

    Canada was looking into an appeal, but said they suspected a “systemic ethical shortcoming.”

    Also Sunday, Canada sports minister Carla Qualtrough said the government will withhold funding “relating to suspended Canada Soccer officials for the duration of their FIFA sanction.” Drone surveillance of a closed practice, she said, “is cheating.” She called the episode a “significant distraction and embarrassment” for all Canadians.

    Canada Soccer CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue said this week he learned of a possible drone incident involving the men’s national team at the recent Copa America.

    He said it was his understanding that it did not have an impact on the competitive integrity of the tournament but would not offer details.

    Asked whether men’s coach Jesse Marsch was aware of possible drone usage at that tournament that ended this month in the United States, Blue said Marsch was aware after the fact and has “denounced it as a practice to his staff.” Canada lost in the Copa semifinals to Argentina 2-0.

    A CONCACAF official confirmed a complaint at the 2022 W Championship but offered few details. The United States defeated Canada in the tournament final in Mexico, with both countries earning a berth in the Women’s World Cup and Olympics.

    The Sports Network in Canada reported other incidents of surveillance, including at the Tokyo Games, citing unnamed sources with knowledge of the filming.

    FIFA declined comment when asked by the AP if the matter would lead to a wider investigation into drone spying in soccer.

    The case is an embarrassment for the Canadian federation, which is teaming with the United States and Mexico to host the 2026 men’s World Cup across North America.

    Meanwhile, Canada’s sanctions are likely heading for the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s special Olympic court in Paris.

    Canada Soccer and the Canadian Olympic Committee said late Saturday that they planned to appeal the points deduction, which make it difficult, but not impossible for Canada’s women to advance to the knockout round.

    “We feel terrible for the athletes on the Canadian women’s Olympic soccer team who as far as we understand played no role in this matter,” David Shoemaker, the Olympic committee’s CEO and secretary general, said in a statement. “In support of the athletes, together with Canada Soccer, we are exploring rights of appeal related to the six-point deduction at this Olympic tournament.”

    Canada was set to play host France on Sunday night in Saint-Etienne. Interim coach Andy Spence is leading the team, along with assistant Neil Wood and goalkeepers coach Jen Herst.

    “There’s no training for this,” Spence said at practice on Saturday. “I’ve been asked to lead and that’s what I’m going to do to my very best capabilities.”

    The Canadians won their opener 2-1 over New Zealand and have three points.

    It is possible with a win against France and another against Colombia in the final group match Wednesday that the Canadian team could advance even with the deduction.

    Former national team player Diana Matheson said in a social media post that “Canadians are with you. … Take 6 points away from us? Fine, let’s go get 9.”

    The scandal erupted in the days leading up to the Olympic tournament when New Zealand complained about drones flying over practice. Two team staff members, assistant coach Jasmine Mander and analyst Joseph Lombardi, were sent home.

    Priestman initially removed herself from the opener but was later suspended for the tournament.

    ___

    AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

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  • FACT FOCUS: Associated Press video manipulated to make it appear Slovak flags banned at soccer match

    FACT FOCUS: Associated Press video manipulated to make it appear Slovak flags banned at soccer match

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    Manipulated video from an Associated Press report circulated on the eve of the match between Slovakia and Ukraine at this year’s European Championship, with the false claim that Slovak flags had been banned from all games because of their similarity to the Russian flag.

    “UEFA has banned the Russian flag from being carried to all matches of the Ukrainian national team at Euro 2024 after some of them were hung in the stands in other matches,” says the voiceover made to sound like an AP reporter. “Security staff will seize Russian flags from all fans, regardless of the country of the rival. It also became known that the ban will also apply to the flags of Slovakia at the upcoming match with Ukraine. The organizers claim that the Slovak flag is very similar to the Russian one, which can cause provocations against Ukrainians.”

    No such video exists and the AP has not reported that there is a ban of Slovak flags at the soccer tournament.

    Here are the facts.

    CLAIM: A video shows an AP report that says Slovak flags will be banned at Euro 2024 games because of how similar they are to the Russian flag.

    THE FACTS: The 33-second video was created using fabricated audio combined with an actual AP video about a Tesla shareholder vote.

    In the video, footage from Euro 2024 is shown over what is a voiceover purportedly by AP reporter Tom Krisher. After about 28 seconds, Krisher appears on screen. The voiceover claims that given the flags’ similarities, Slovak flags will not be permitted at the tournament.

    Both flags have white, blue and red horizontal stripes positioned in the same order. Slovakia’s flag also includes the country’s coat of arms on its left side.

    But the video was fabricated. The AP has not reported that there is any such ban.

    “The video circulating on social media is not an AP video and features a false and manipulated clip of an AP staffer,” AP spokesperson Nicole Meir wrote in an email. “The AP did not report on a UEFA ban of Slovak flags.”

    The footage of Krisher was taken from an AP video published on June 13 about a Tesla shareholder vote to restore CEO Elon Musk’s $44.9 billion pay package that was thrown out by a Delaware judge earlier this year. Krisher covers the auto industry for the AP, Meir confirmed.

    After Russian flags were displayed in the stands at other matches, the UEFA said that security staff would try to intercept and remove Russian flags from being displayed at the Munich stadium where Ukraine played Romania on Monday afternoon in its first Euro 2024 match, the AP has reported.

    Russian teams were banned by UEFA from international competitions within days of the full military invasion of Ukraine starting in February 2022.

    German authorities previously said they only wanted to allow flags of the participating teams to be brought to stadiums and official fan zones broadcasting games on big screens in the 10 host cities.

    ___

    This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

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  • Controversy surrounds French ban on hijab as 2024 Paris Olympics get underway

    Controversy surrounds French ban on hijab as 2024 Paris Olympics get underway

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    French Olympic sprinter Sounkamba Sylla took to social media days before the 2024 Olympic Games began, saying she would not be allowed to participate in the opening ceremony because of her hijab.

    “You are selected for the Olympics, organized in your country, but you can’t participate in the opening ceremony because you wear a headscarf,” Sylla wrote on her private Instagram, according to The Associated Press.

    The criticism was the latest in an ongoing controversy over France’s rule prohibiting female Muslim athletes from wearing the hijab, or headscarves, during the Olympics. The athletes, while competing for France, are considering civil servants and must adhere to principles of secularism, according to the country’s rules.

    French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra later said she’d be allowed to participate in the opening ceremony and the Games by covering her hair in a way that did not appear religious.

    An overview of the Trocadero venue with the Eiffel Tower in the background, in Paris, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024.

    Francois-Xavier Marit/Pool Photo via AP

    Bans on hijab in French sports

    Bans on wearing hijab in French sports have applied at all levels, including amateur and youth levels, even outside the Olympics, according to Amnesty International.

    There isn’t a national law or policy banning hijabs in sports, but individual sports federations have their own regulations prohibiting the headscarf. Football (soccer), basketball and volleyball are some of the team sports banning them, Anna Blus, a women’s rights and gender justice researcher at Amnesty International, told ABC News.

    A ban against wearing the hijab in football was instituted in 2006. In basketball, it began in 2022 and in volleyball in 2023.

    “We have documented over the years — (for) around 20 years — measures are being introduced constantly to limit Muslim women’s rights,” Blus said of France.

    “There’s definitely been an increase in these types of measures in different areas of life over the past 20 years,” Blus said.

    Ibtihaj Muhammad, from United States, waits for match against Olena Kravatska from Ukraine, in the women's saber individual fencing event at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

    Ibtihaj Muhammad, from United States, waits for match against Olena Kravatska from Ukraine, in the women’s saber individual fencing event at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

    AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File

    In 2023, France’s highest administrative court sided with the French Football Federation allowing its hijab ban in the sport.

    “The reasoning it gave was very, very problematic, because it said that these types of bans like the one in the Football Federation, were legitimate — the justification could be to avoid clashes or confrontation,” Blus said.

    “It’s suggesting that clashes or confrontations might occur if someone wears a hijab, and that in order to protect that athlete, she can be banned, and she should be banned from wearing it. It’s extremely problematic,” Blus said.

    Basket Pour Toutes, a collective that says it is fighting against discrimination in basketball, said the argument the ban seeks to maintain public order “tends to stigmatize a part of the population which is already the subject of numerous prejudices,” the group said on its website.

    Basket Pour Toutes, which translate to “Basketball for all” in English, also said “secularism is not above fundamental freedoms.”

    “The (French Federation of Basketball) maintains that the ban on equipment with religious connotations is based on the principle of neutrality which itself derives from the principle of secularism. But this duty of neutrality only applies to public service agents and not to its users,” Basket Pour Toutes wrote.

    Since the court decision came out, the Hijabeuses — a collective of female athletes who wear the hijab and had brought the complaint against the Football Federation — have made an application to the European Court of Human rights, which has jurisdiction over France.

    Egypt's Dina Meshref in action at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 24, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.

    Egypt’s Dina Meshref in action at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 24, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.

    AP Photo/Kyusung Gong

    Their application is still pending and could likely take a couple of years, Blus said.

    “Litigation is only one kind of tool that can be used and it takes many years sometimes,” Blus said. “I think there is much more that we can do as human rights organizations and as campaigners to stand against these types of discriminatory measures.”

    Human rights groups criticize bans

    Human rights groups have called on the International Olympic Committee to publicly ask sporting authorities in France to overturn bans on wearing the hijab in the Olympic Games and at all levels of sport, saying prohibitions are in place across at least six sports.

    “The country’s discrimination against women and girls wearing the hijab is particularly concerning given the IOC’s celebration of Paris 2024 as the first ‘Gender Equal Olympics,’” the groups — including Human Rights Watch, Basket Pour Toutes and the World Players Association — wrote in a joint letter to the IOC.

    “Women and girls in France who wear the hijab have been and are being prevented from playing multiple sports including football, basketball, judo, boxing, volleyball and badminton — even at youth and amateur levels. The hijab bans in sports have resulted in many Muslim athletes being discriminated against, invisibilised, excluded and humiliated, causing trauma and social isolation — some have left or are considering leaving the country to seek playing opportunities elsewhere,” the letter said.

    Gold medalist Feryal Abdelaziz of Egypt poses during the medal ceremony for women's kumite +61kg karate at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.

    Gold medalist Feryal Abdelaziz of Egypt poses during the medal ceremony for women’s kumite +61kg karate at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan.

    AP Photo/Vincent Thian

    Other athletes, including Diaba Konate, a French basketball player who played for Idaho State and University of California, Irvine up until this past April, have also criticized the ban. Konate said she was kept from being able to play for the French National Team again. She’s not on the French team playing in the Olympics.

    “I love basketball, my family, and my faith,” Konate said in an open letter. “It would break my heart to give up any one of those, and yet that is what the current French Federation of Basketball guidelines are forcing me to do.”

    Blus said activism among Muslim athletes and activists in France is growing in a very difficult environment.

    “It’s really important that big international organizations, such as ours, express their solidarity with Muslim women, because they have very often — really particularly in France, but also in other countries — (been) subject to negative stereotypes, demonization, homogenization of what it might mean to them to wear hijab,” Blus said.

    “It’s really a matter of feminist solidarity and of women’s rights and human rights,” Blus said.

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  • The Olympics are on. These are the Denver athletes competing

    The Olympics are on. These are the Denver athletes competing

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    Kids hold up signs for the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team’s Colorado players as they play the Korea Republic at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City. June 1, 2024.

    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    It’s no secret that Denver’s an athletic city.

    But some of our peers are a bit more skilled than others — and those Denverites are on the world stage in Paris right now for the 2024 Olympics.

    Here’s a quick list of the Mile High athletes going down the Seine river in the Team USA boat.

    Metro Denver Olympic athletes

    • Derrick White, basketball — Parker
    • Jimmer Fredette, basketball (3×3) — Denver
    • Adrienne Lyle, equestrian — Greenwood Village
    • Wyndham Clark, golf — Denver
    • Jess Thoennes, rowing — Highlands Ranch
    • Rylan William Kissell, shooting — Highlands Ranch
    • Mallory Swanson, soccer — Highlands Ranch
    • Colin Duffy, sport climbing — Broomfield
    • Emma Weber, swimming — Denver
    • Anna Hall, track and field — Greenwood Village
    • William Kincaid, track and field — Littleton
    • Jordyn Poulter, volleyball — Aurora

    Some local stars are in Paris competing for the U.S. or their own countries. Nuggets players Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray are competing for Serbia and Canada, respectively. Djordje Mihailovic of the Rapids is on Team USA.

    When are the 2024 Olympics?

    Competition began Wednesday, July 24, for some team sports and qualifiers. (Allons-y, USWNT!)

    The Olympic opening ceremony is underway this Friday, July 26. The games will conclude on Sunday, Aug. 11. 

    The final roster for the U.S. Paralympic Team is set to be announced on Aug. 19. The 2024 Paralympics is set to begin Wednesday, Aug. 24. 

    Visit our friends at CPR for the full list of Colorado athletes and how to watch their events in Mountain Standard Time.

    Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated what country Jamal Murray is playing for in the Olympics.

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