BERLIN — A Qatar World Cup ambassador has told German television broadcaster ZDF that homosexuality was "damage in the mind", as the Gulf state prepares to host the global tournament in less than two weeks.
In an interview filmed in Doha and to be screened later on Tuesday, former Qatari international Khalid Salman addressed the issue of homosexuality, which is illegal in the conservative Muslim country.
I know what you’re thinking: “This is insane. Nobody would intentionally miss the World Cup. It’s the largest event on the planet, and for the players, it's something they’ve dreamed about since childhood.”
And to an extent, you’d be correct, but this story isn’t exactly about injuries. It’s about social issues and the appalling track record of the nation that's hosting the tournament. Could it be remotely possible that players would feign injury to avoid being part of an event that's riddled with human rights abuses?
FIFA has written to World Cup teams urging them to focus on the soccer in Qatar and not let the sport be dragged into ideological or political "battles".
The letter from FIFA president Gianni Infantino and the governing body's secretary general Fatma Samoura follows a number of protests made by World Cup teams, on issues ranging from LGBTIQ rights to concerns over the treatment of migrant workers.
"Please, let's now focus on the football!" Sky News quoted Infantino and Samoura as saying in the letter to the 32 nations contesting the World Cup.
The United States’ largest soccer supporters group, the American Outlaws, came under fire Thursday following a New York Times article claiming that a board member accepted a free trip to Qatar in exchange for reporting individuals who are critical of the host nation. The Outlaws have vehemently denied these allegations and issued a statement, saying the organization has never taken money from FIFA or Qatar and will never do so.
Russian President Vladimir Putin wished Qatar success in staging the upcoming World Cup and said the 2018 hosts were sharing their experience in organizing the tournament.
Russia reached the World Cup quarterfinals in 2018 but is barred from the Nov. 20-Dec. 18 tournament due to its invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.
Putin met Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on the sidelines of a summit in Kazakhstan on Thursday.
MALANG, Indonesia - Andi Hariyanto says he will never watch a football match again after his wife, two teenage daughters and a cousin were crushed to death in a stampede at an Indonesian stadium last week.
Watching local team Arema FC play on Saturday was a special outing for soccer fan Andi's family, including his two-year-old son.
NYON, Switzerland - Ukraine has joined Spain and Portugal in their bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) said on Wednesday, in what they hailed as an act of European solidarity.
They said the decision, announced at a news conference at the Swiss headquarters of UEFA, had the full support of European soccer's governing body and also of the Spanish, Portuguese and Ukrainian governments.
"Our bid is not an Iberian bid anymore, it's a European bid," Luis Rubiales, president of the RFEF, said.
Hummel, the designer for Denmark’s World Cup kits, released the Danish jerseys on Wednesday with a message to host nation Qatar. Hummel announced that the kits they designed are in memory of the thousands of migrant workers who died building Qatar’s World Cup infrastructure.
"While we support the Danish national team all the way, this shouldn't be confused with support for a tournament that has cost thousands of people their lives,” Hummel’s statement said.
A total of 2,198 football-related arrests were made in the 2021-22 season in England and Wales, the highest number since the 2013-14 season, a report by the Home Office said on Thursday.
The 2021-2022 season was the first full season where all scheduled matches were played at full spectator capacity following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The arrests made last season were around 59% higher than those in the 2018-2019 season, which was before the COVID-19 pandemic. The most common offense types were public disorder (36%) and violent disorder (20%).
HONG KONG - Iran hopes history will repeat itself at this November's World Cup in Qatar, 24 years after overcoming a fractious build-up to score a memorable triumph over the United States — the country's decades-long geopolitical rival — in France.
As the teams prepare to clash again, and their governments wrangle over reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear pact, the Iranian side's preparations have been thrown into turmoil by a divided squad and maneuvering over its leadership.
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