Maguire to miss Man United’s game at Liverpool due to injury
Manchester, Dec 15: Harry Maguire will miss Manchester United’s Premier League game at Liverpool on Sunday because of an injury, head coach Erik ten Hag said on Friday. The defender appeared to strain his groin in Tuesday’s Champions League defeat against Bayern Munich. Luke Shaw, who was also injured in that game, has returned to training and Marcus Rashford is also in contention to play at Anfield after missing the Bayern game through illness. The United manager added that Anthony Martial, who also missed the Bayern match because of an illness, is not available. United will be without captain Bruno Fernandes, who is suspended. (AP)
Mourinho gets away with fine
for labelling referee unstable
Rome, Dec 15: Roma coach Jose Mourinho escaped a touchline ban after cooperating with the Italian football federation’s disciplinary prosecutor and was instead only fined 20,000 euros (USD 22,000) on Friday for labelling a referee unstable. Before a recent match with Sassuolo, Mourinho questioned the abilities of referee Matteo Marcenaro. “We had him three times as a fourth official and I don’t think he has the emotional stability for games of this level,” Mourinho said. During the same news conference, Mourinho attacked Sassuolo forward Domenico Berardi, saying the player “exaggerates fouls to draw yellow cards.” Mourinho later said his Italian wasn’t proficient enough to explain certain concepts. Roma was also ordered to pay a fine of 20,000 euros (USD 22,000), with the money from both the club and Mourinho going toward medical research. (AP)
Arteta cleared of misconduct after angry comments about officials
London, Dec 15: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was cleared of a misconduct charge following his angry comments about the standard of officiating in the Premier League. Arteta said after Arsenal’s 1-0 loss at Newcastle on November 4 that he felt “ashamed” and “embarrassed” at the performance of the match officials and that the decisions reached were a “disgrace.” He was angry, in particular, how the contentious winning goal from Anthony Gordon was allowed to stand after a video review checking three potential infringements. It was alleged by the Football Association that Arteta’s comments constituted misconduct because they were “insulting toward match officials and/or detrimental to the game and/or brought the game into disrepute.” An independent regulatory commission found the charge to be not proven and then dismissed it. (AP)
German fans fall silent at games to protest Bundesliga investment deal
Munich, Dec 15: Football fan groups across Germany plan to fall silent at games this weekend to protest the league’s plan to sell a stake in TV and marketing income to an outside investor. Fan clubs and groups known as “ultras” from many of Germany’s largest clubs, including fans of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, said on Friday they will fall silent for the first 12 minutes of their teams’ upcoming games in a reference to the influence of fans as the proverbial 12th player of a football team. “We are not prepared to stand idly by as German football gets sold out,” the groups said in a joint statement. Fans have been protesting with banners at Bundesliga games for months and fear an investor could pressure the league to change how the competition is run and focus more on TV viewers than the fans in the stadiums. (AP)
Premier League to have its first
female referee on December 23
London, Dec 15: Rebecca Welch will become the first female referee in the Premier League when she takes charge of the match between Fulham and Burnley on December 23, the competition said on Thursday. Welch has already worked as the fourth official in the Premier League, for the match between Fulham and Manchester United on November 4, and she was the first woman to referee matches in the second-tier Championship and FA Cup. Welch has been a referee since 2010, initially balancing the role with her job in the National Health Service before becoming a full-time match official. Other countries have been using female referees for years. In Germany, Bibiana Steinhaus was the first woman to referee a Bundesliga game, in 2017. Steinhaus is married to Howard Webb, who is the current chief refereeing officer of the top refereeing body in England. French referee Stéphanie Frappart became the first woman to take charge of a men’s World Cup game when she handled Germany vs Costa Rica in November last year, having previously done games in the Champions League and in the French league since 2019. (AP)
Female fans in Iran allowed into Tehran Stadium for men’s games
Tehran, Dec 15: Female football fans in Iran claimed a small win in their long campaign to be allowed into stadiums to watch men’s games after decades of near total exclusion and harassment. A photograph was posted on social media by the campaign group Open Stadiums of three female fans inside the Azadi Stadium in Tehran for one of the biggest games in Iran, between city rivals Persepolis and Esteghlal. Up to 3,000 tickets were set to be made available for women. “Historical day for women’s rights activists and the fight for equal access to public spaces will continue,” the activist group posted. Women have been mainly prohibited from attending men’s football games and other sports events in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Though some women have attended selected games in recent years, Open Stadiums has said that too few fans could buy tickets and they faced harassment from morality police. (AP)