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National team lost 10-0 in Japan after mainstays including an experienced goalkeeper refused the head coach’s call
Second-division games in Malaysia don’t make many international headlines but that changed in March when the Myanmar under-23 winger Hein Htet Aung gave a three-fingered salute after scoring for Selangor II. Popularised by The Hunger Games film franchise, this gesture of resistance was adopted by pro-democracy protesters in Thailand and Hong Kong in 2014 and then by Myanmar, after the military took back power in a coup on 1 February.
Before Myanmar’s 2022 World Cup qualifier against Japan last Friday, the goalkeeper Kyaw Zin Htet had called for players to copy Hein’s handiwork. “It would be good if some of them came out and gave the three-fingered salute to an international audience,” the 31-year-old told AFP.
Continue reading...The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has sparked outrage after approving plans to hold South America’s answer to the European Championship in his Covid-stricken country despite warnings Brazil is steaming into a potentially calamitous third wave of infections.
The Copa América was originally due to be co-hosted by Colombia and Argentina, but their struggles with deadly street protests and coronavirus put paid to those plans.
Continue reading...Promises of better working conditions ring hollow for tens of thousands of security guards, who say they still work long hours for low pay
Every day at 5pm, Samuel boards the company bus that takes him to his night shift as a guard at a luxury high-rise tower near Qatar’s capital, Doha. When his shift ends 12 hours later, he says he will have earned £9, just 75p an hour.
Samuel, who is from Uganda, says he almost never has a day off. “You have to tell lies, like ‘you are sick, you’re not feeling good’, so that you get a day off,” he says.
Continue reading...The South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) has announced Brazil as the new hosts of this summer’s Copa América, with Argentina replaced just 13 days before the tournament is due to begin.
“The Copa América 2021 will be played in Brazil,” an official Conmebol statement said. “Tournament start and end dates are confirmed. The venues and the fixtures will be announced by Conmebol in the next few hours.”
Continue reading...When Thomas Tuchel was given the job of reviving Chelsea at the end of January, he wanted to return them to next season’s Champions League via a top-four Premier League finish. The notion that he might actually win the thing for only the second time in the club’s history was ludicrous.
Not any more. On a night of glory for him and his team, the manager applied the final brush strokes to his renaissance masterpiece, out-manoeuvring his friend and rival, Pep Guardiola, and watching Kai Havertz score the decisive goal just before half-time.
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Half-time entertainment. As things stand, it’s one heck of a day for west London. Paul Doyle was at Wembley to see Brentford finally make it to the promised land of the Premier League. Here’s his take on an excellent performance from the Bees.
Related: Ivan Toney, Brentford’s smooth operator, leads the way at Wembley | Paul Doyle
City look a little stunned as they make their way down the tunnel, Pep having very quickly disappeared down it beforehand. Chelsea stroll off, ten feet tall. A gorgeous Kai Havertz finish is the difference; Chelsea are 45 minutes away from their second European Cup! City have some thinking to do.
Continue reading...Marcus Rashford has spoken with the former US president Barack Obama to discuss the power young people can have to make change in society.
Rashford, the Manchester United and England striker, met virtually with the 44th president of the United States in a Zoom conversation organised by Penguin Books.
Continue reading...The Hobbit actor, who is back on TV in the sitcom Breeders, recalls sharp dressing on a budget, discovering Public Enemy and how Michael Caine got him into film
The first music I latched on to was British punk – the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Jam. I just loved the power, the rawness and the rudeness. You had to turn it down when your dad came in the room; your parents were supposed to hate it. Bob Marley and the Wailers and Linton Kwesi Johnson became a religion alongside the Catholicism I was taught in school. From 17, I was a little hip-hop head, mad on Jungle Brothers, Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy. I was obsessed with politics in that way you are as a teenager – when you actually know nothing.
I’m not a particularly knowledgable fan of the Fall, but I loved hearing their early stuff via my older brothers (I’m the youngest of five). I thought this bored Manc with this slightly aggressive snarl was great. I like hearing accents in music. I remember hearing Ian Dury for the first time and thinking: “Jesus Christ!” Not everyone can sound like Rod Stewart. I’m not sure there has to be a template for what a rock’n’roll singer sounds like anyway. You’d want Mark E Smith to like you even though he would really hate you. I have often thought that about John Lydon. I would love to say hello to him, but he’d hate me, just on principle.
Aftermath of Scottish Premiership victory on Saturday marred by vandalism, unrest and abusive behaviour
A number of churches in and around Glasgow were subject to vandalism and anti-Catholic abuse over the weekend, the Guardian has learned, as Rangers supporters rampaged through the city centre on Saturday.
Windows were smashed at the St Maria Goretti church estate in Cranhill, north-east Glasgow. At another church, which has asked not to be identified, a banner with anti-Catholic slogans was draped across railings in time for evening mass, before it was removed by church officials. There were further reports of abusive heckling of those within church grounds. The Guardian understands that two incidents were reported to Police Scotland.
Continue reading...The home side moved above Leicester into third after a crucial and richly deserved victory in front of 8,000 fans at Stamford Bridge
Jacob Steinberg has filed his report from the Bridge, so I’ll leave you with that. Thanks for your company, emails and abuse - night!
Related: Chelsea gain quick revenge over Leicester and boost top-four hopes
Chelsea now have two shots at a Champions League place next year - one against Aston Villa on Sunday, the other against Manchester City in Porto. Leicester need a favour from Villa or Liverpool’s remaining opponents, Burnley and Crystal Palace. And they have to beat Spurs at home.
Continue reading...Malcolm Bidali, a Kenyan who blogged about migrant workers’ plight, detained by Qatari security services
A Kenyan security guard in Qatar who has written about the plight of migrant workers has been “forcibly disappeared”, human rights group say.
Malcolm Bidali was detained by the Qatari security services over a week ago and is being held in an undisclosed location, according to a coalition of rights groups, which include Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Continue reading...In an exclusive interview, the legendary manager and son Jason reflect on the brain haemorrhage that nearly killed him and the film they have just made, his upbringing in Scotland, the lows and highs at Manchester United, his admiration for Steven Gerrard … and that Champions League final
“You’re lying on your bed and you are on your own,” Sir Alex Ferguson says as he remembers being in hospital exactly three years ago this week when, after suffering a brain haemorrhage, he came close to death. “It can become lonely and frightening,” the greatest manager in the history of British football continues as he relives that raw memory.
Ferguson and I are just starting an interview which is shaped by so many layered and rollicking recollections. Memories of the ghostly shipyards of Glasgow and his teeming life as a boy in Govan ripple through him. He relives the pain and sectarianism he experienced at Rangers, the fire and transformation he generated at Aberdeen and the early abuse and enduring glory of his 27 years at Manchester United. Memories of his father, with whom he fell out until football reunited them, merge into an evocation of everything his wife Cathy has done for him.
Continue reading...Boris Palmer posted comment online about former footballer Dennis Aogo
The leadership of Germany’s high-flying Green party is facing the first test of its authority ahead of national elections in September, after a prominent Green mayor posted a racial slur about a German national footballer on social media.
Regional leaders of the party voted at the weekend to expel Boris Palmer, the provocative mayor of Tübingen, over a Facebook post in which he referred to the former Germany international Dennis Aogo as an “awful racist”, in reference to an unsubstantiated anecdote on social media that the footballer, who has a Nigerian father and a German mother, had once bragged about the size of his penis, using the n-word.
Continue reading...Manchester United have missed out on a proposed new training kit deal worth £200m over 10 years after the Manchester-based company The Hut Group had concerns about the supporters’ campaign to boycott the club’s commercial partners in protest at the Glazers’ ownership, the Observer understands.
Richard Arnold, United’s group managing director, was told on Friday that THG had pulled out of a contract which was due to start on 1 July.
Continue reading...The Football Association is in talks with Uefa over relocating the Champions League final to England after Turkey was placed on the UK government’s travel red list.
Uefa had been expected to confirm details on Friday for the final on 29 May, with Manchester City and Chelsea fans expected to be allocated at least 4,000 tickets each for the match in Istanbul.
Continue reading...Our cartoonist celebrates our 200th birthday with a section-by-section reimagining of the first edition in 1821
The Guardian’s picture editors select photo highlights from around the world
Continue reading...A medical board appointed to investigate the death of Diego Maradona has concluded that the football icon’s medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless manner,” according to a copy of the report shared with Reuters on Friday.
Maradona’s death in November last year rocked Argentina, where he was revered, and prompted a period of mourning and finger-pointing about who was to blame after his long battle with addiction and ill health.
Continue reading...Liverpool have agreed to open discussions with fans following the toxic backlash from their involvement in the controversial European Super League.
Fenway Sports Group, the club’s owner, was among the main drivers of the project which collapsed within 48 hours of plans being launched after outcry from all corners of the game with fans protesting outside Premier League matches to voice their opposition.
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