City’s police chief says ‘incidents on both sides’ led to violent unrest as ‘around 40’ fined and released
Authorities have released details of the 62 people arrested after violent attacks took place around the football match between Amsterdam’s Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv on Thursday night.
Violence after the game – described by the Amsterdam mayor, Femke Halsema, as “hit and run attacks” on Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters by “boys on scooters” – provoked international horror.
Continue reading...Four suspects still held on suspicion of violent acts and 50 people fined after attacks on football fans
Amsterdam police expect to make more arrests after what authorities called “hateful antisemitic violence” against Israeli football fans, prosecutors said on Saturday.
Four suspects remained detained on Saturday on suspicion of violent acts, including two minors, and 40 people had been fined for public disturbance and 10 for offences including vandalism, prosecutors said.
Continue reading...Tottenham fans will gather before their team’s game against Ipswich on Sunday to call for the release of Emily Damari, the last remaining British hostage held by Hamas in Gaza.
Damari, a Spurs supporter, has been in captivity for more than a year after being taken from her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza during the 7 October attack on Israel by Hamas. Stop The Hate UK, an activist group based in London, has been raising awareness about the 28-year-old, who is one of about 100 hostages in Gaza, and about 70 campaigners held a rally for her outside the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium before Spurs faced Aston Villa last Sunday.
Continue reading...Plane carrying fans home lands in Israel as Amsterdam mayor condemns ‘hit and run’ attacks on visiting supporters
Amsterdam police have made more than 60 arrests after what authorities called “hateful antisemitic violence” against Israeli football fans.
A plane carrying football supporters brought home from the Dutch capital by the Israeli government landed on Friday at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport after the clashes on Thursday, which took place after a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Continue reading...Lightning has killed a 34-year-old player and injured five others during a football match in Peru.
Sunday’s game between Juventud Bellavista and Familia Chocca in Huancayo province, about 70km south-east of Lima, was halted when lightning first struck, but a second bolt hit players as they began leaving the field. Video footage shows eight of the players collapsing after a loud crack.
Continue reading...Sources say key people at Clifford Chance were not consulted, as it emerges another company refused job due to reputational concerns
When the Saudi crown prince locked nearly 400 of his country’s most powerful people in a luxury hotel in 2017 and stripped them of their fortunes, a UK law firm allegedly played a significant role.
On the orders of Mohammed bin Salman, Clifford Chance - a “magic circle” legal giant with headquarters in London – was reported to have facilitated the forced transfer of assets from a Saudi TV station to the government.
Continue reading...Law firm AS&H Clifford Chance failed to include alleged abuse of migrant workers in assessment for Fifa 2034 bid, say rights groups
A report by the Saudi arm of a global law firm on Saudi Arabia’s 2034 Fifa World Cup bid has “whitewashed” the Gulf kingdom’s record of exploiting and suppressing the rights of migrant workers, rights groups have claimed.
AS&H Clifford Chance was commissioned to independently assess the human rights implications of the bid, but the report “contains no substantive discussion of extensive and relevant abuses in Saudi Arabia”, according to a statement released by 11 organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
Continue reading...Iqra Ismail, who does not wear shorts for religious reasons, was prevented from entering field of play during game
The Football Association has apologised to a Muslim footballer after she was barred from playing in a match for refusing to wear shorts due to her religious beliefs.
Iqra Ismail was meant to come on as a half-time substitute for United Dragons in a Greater London Women’s Football League fixture against Tower Hamlets on Sunday, but she was prevented from entering the field of play by the referee.
Continue reading...Letter to governing body accuses Saudis of using sports to ‘distract from the regime’s brutal human rights reputation’
More than 100 professional female footballers have signed a letter calling on Fifa to end its sponsorship deal with the state-owned Saudi Arabian oil company, Aramco, accusing Saudi authorities of “brutal human rights violations”.
A four-year deal signed in April will see Aramco, which is 98.5% state-owned, sponsor major tournaments including the men’s World Cup in 2026 and the Women’s World Cup in 2027.
Continue reading...Police say pair ‘assisting with investigations’ after Dani Cuesta posted photo of himself with ‘Lim go home’ sign
A Spanish couple have been detained after the man held a banner to protest against Peter Lim, the billionaire Singaporean owner of Valencia football club.
Dani Cuesta had shared photos on social media of himself holding a sign that said “Lim go home” at various locations in Singapore, including the residences where Lim reportedly lives and the tourist landmark Merlion Park.
Continue reading...The former Arsenal and Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has been fined €135,000 (£113,000) by a court in his hometown of Starnberg for damaging his neighbour’s garage with a chainsaw.
Lehmann, who was accused by the public prosecutor of sawing off a roof beam in the garage, was initially fined €420,000 (£351,000) over the July 2022 incident, which was reduced on appeal.
Continue reading...Premier League fans exposed to almost 30,000 messages in one weekend despite restrictions, research finds
Ministers have been urged to intervene to stop football clubs from setting their own rules on curbing gambling advertising, after research showed Premier League fans were bombarded with nearly 30,000 gambling messages on a single weekend.
Clubs in the top flight have so far avoided compulsory restrictions on gambling sponsorship, instead addressing public concern through voluntary measures such as a ban on front-of-shirt logos, starting in 2026.
Continue reading...Buoyed by the team’s success in 2022, the kingdom is eyeing a bigger goal
The rendering is dramatic, a vast white stadium inspired by the design of a Maghrebi communal tent, known as a moussem.
The language used to describe it is no less flowery: think of it as “almost like a Noah’s Ark, a place for all nature and animals to come together”, says Tarik Oualalou, head of Paris architecture firm Oualalou + Choi, one of five teams in the design consortium.
Continue reading...Business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, defends PM over gifts he has received since becoming Labour leader
Keir Starmer’s attendance at Arsenal football matches and Taylor Swift concerts is “part of the job”, the business secretary has said.
Jonathan Reynolds described the occasions for which Starmer had accepted tickets, including a Coldplay gig and football matches, as “major cultural, sporting events”.
Continue reading...Football club announces cancellation or rescheduling of gigs at refurbished Santiago Bernabéu stadium
Real Madrid has cancelled or rescheduled all concerts at its Santiago Bernabéu stadium and is working to comply with council noise regulations after local people complained that a series of loud, late gigs had turned the arena into a “torture-drome”.
Although best known as the home of one of Spain’s greatest football teams, the Bernabéu – which has just undergone a five-year, €900m (£760m) refurbishment – has hosted a string of high-profile concerts over the spring and summer. Recent headliners have included Taylor Swift, Luis Miguel and the Colombian star Karol G.
Continue reading...Tributes paid to ‘genuinely kind’ former England and Lazio football manager in his home town of Torsby
David Beckham joined mourners at the funeral of former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson in his home town of Torsby in Sweden to hear tributes to a “genuinely kind” man who “loved good food and drink and travelling first-class”.
Addressing full pews in the Fryksände church, and hundreds more watching outside on a big screen, the priest, a close friend of Eriksson, Ingela Alvskog, spoke of a final months that had been “full of life” despite him being diagnosed with terminal cancer of the pancreas.
Continue reading...The Chinese Football Association has banned 38 players and five club officials for life after a two-year investigation into match-fixing and gambling. The investigation, part of a crackdown on corruption in the sport, found that 120 matches had been fixed, with 41 clubs involved, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The report did not say whether all the matches were in China.
The former China internationals Jin Jingdao and Gu Chao and the South Korea midfielder Son Jun-ho were among those banned for life, according to findings made public on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Brand partnership for pastis, a traditional Marseille aperitif, with arch-rival decried as ‘stab in the back’
It is the quintessential pre-dinner apéro enjoyed in the Provençal afternoon sun, as unmistakably southern French as the clicking sound of a game of pétanque.
But the cloudy, aniseed-flavoured aperitif Ricard Pastis is leaving an aftertaste even more bitter than its makers intended in the mouths of some football fans in the southern city of Marseille.
Continue reading...The England goalkeeper says decision is example of how she and the Lionesses ‘break barriers and push boundaries’
England goalkeeper Mary Earps has become the first professional female footballer to have a wax figure at Madame Tussauds London.
Members of the public voted for the 31-year-old to be added to the attraction after the Lionesses’ success in reaching the final of the 2023 World Cup and winning the 2022 European Championships.
Continue reading...Eleven Premier League teams start season with major bookmaker backing as industry watchdog report says stats can ‘mask’ scale of problem betting
Official figures on rates of problem gambling in Britain – which have been put as low as 0.3% – can “mask” the scale of harms by including people who never bet, a report published by the industry regulator has warned.
Various surveys suggest a problem gambling rate in Britain in a range of between 0.3% to 2.5%. But in the new report that figure rose sharply when non-gamblers were excluded – and was even higher among those who gambled on online casinos.
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