Venezuela accuses Peru of ‘kidnapping’ football team in post-match spat

Venezuela accuses Peru of ‘kidnapping’ football team in post-match spat
Venezuela players celebrate after draw with Peru 1-1 during a qualifying soccer match for the FIFA World Cup 2026 at the National stadium in Lima, Peru, on Nov. 21, 2023. (AP)
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Updated 22 November 2023
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Venezuela accuses Peru of ‘kidnapping’ football team in post-match spat

Venezuela accuses Peru of ‘kidnapping’ football team in post-match spat
  • The diplomatic spat began after the match, when Venezuelan players accused Peruvian police of beating them when they went to greet fans
  • “The Peruvian government has carried out another arbitrary act against the Venezuelans,” Foreign Minister Yvan Gil wrote on social media

CARACAS: Venezuela on Wednesday accused the Peruvian government of “kidnapping” its national football team, accusing Lima of refusing to allow the team’s aircraft to refuel after a 1-1 draw between the two teams in a 2026 World Cup qualifier.
The diplomatic spat began after the match, when Venezuelan players accused Peruvian police of beating them when they went to greet fans on Tuesday night.
It was a tumultuous night for the South American qualifiers, after a match between Brazil and Argentina in Rio de Janeiro led to ugly clashes between fans.
“The Peruvian government has carried out another arbitrary act against the Venezuelans by preventing the plane bringing the team back from refueling,” Foreign Minister Yvan Gil wrote on social media.
“This is kidnapping as vengeance against our team which played an extraordinary match” in Lima, he added.
The Peruvian government said that it “has not ordered any measure that prohibits the refueling” of the aircraft” and that “it is taking steps to resolve this situation as soon as possible.”
“The aforementioned aircraft has been experiencing private commercial supply restrictions beyond the control of the Peruvian State,” he added.
Hours earlier, Venezuelan footballer Nahuel Ferraresi showed bandages on his right hand, saying Peruvian police “beat me.”
“These are things which should not happen. The match was over and we went to thank our Venezuelan supporters,” he said.
Ferraresi said another player had handed his jersey over to fans, and he was about to throw his to the crowd when the police blocked him.
“Then others got angry, I don’t know what happened, and (the police) took out their batons to hit us. They hit me twice... but it’s not a serious injury.”
Videos of the incident, which show Peruvian police officers brandishing their batons against the players, have gone viral on social media.
Venezuela’s football federation condemned “acts of discrimination and xenophobia” against the team and their fans.
After the draw, Peru is in last place in the qualifiers, while Venezuela — which has never qualified for a World Cup — is in an unprecedented fourth place.
Before the match, Peruvian police carried out an unusual identity check among fans, and were accused of targeting Venezuelans.
This move comes a week after a controversial decree came into force authorizing the government to expel foreigners.
Peru is home to some 1.5 million Venezuelan immigrants, many of whom have fled a crippling economic crisis at home.


Turkiye football club chief jailed over attack on ref

Turkiye football club chief jailed over attack on ref
Updated 11 November 2024
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Turkiye football club chief jailed over attack on ref

Turkiye football club chief jailed over attack on ref
  • Incident occurred in December 2023 following a 1-1 draw between Ankara’s MKA Ankaragucu and visiting Caykur Rizespor in Turkiye’s top flight

ANKARA: A former football chief in Turkiye’s Super Lig was sentenced to more than three years in prison Monday over an on-pitch attack on a referee, the Anadolu news agency reported.
The incident occurred in December 2023 following a 1-1 draw between Ankara’s MKA Ankaragucu and visiting Caykur Rizespor in Turkiye’s top flight.
Footage from the scene showed Ankaragucu’s then president Faruk Koca rushing onto the pitch and punching referee Halil Umut Meler after he blew the final whistle, shouting: “I’m going to kill you!“
He appeared to be incensed over the ref’s decision to send off one of his players, and disallowing an earlier goal by Ankaragucu. Caykur had scored an equalizer in injury time.
Denouncing the attack as “despicable,” the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) suspended Super Lig matches for eight days and initiated criminal proceedings against Koca and several others.
Several days later, Koca apologized and resigned as club president but insisted his team had been cheated by the referee.
The court on Monday handed him three years and seven months for “intentional injury to a public sports official” as well as six months and 20 days for “making threats.”
It also handed him a five-month suspended sentence for “violating the law on violence prevention in sports.”
During the incident, the referee — who fell to the ground after being punched — was also kicked several times by other club officials, leaving him with a head trauma.
The court also handed prison sentences to three other officials for causing, or trying to cause, “intentional injury” to a public sports official, with sentences ranging from one to five years behind bars.
The incident provoked uproar in Turkiye and a flurry of condemnation, including from FIFA, football’s world governing body.


3rd-place Nottingham Forest face home defeat to Newcastle

3rd-place Nottingham Forest face home defeat to Newcastle
Updated 11 November 2024
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3rd-place Nottingham Forest face home defeat to Newcastle

3rd-place Nottingham Forest face home defeat to Newcastle
  • Man Utd win to end Van Nistelrooy’s interim spell; Ipswich shock Spurs

LONDON: Third-placed Nottingham Forest’s fine run came to an end in a 3-1 home defeat to Newcastle on Sunday. 
Forest had won three games in a row to sit just behind Liverpool and Manchester City at the top of the table and their dream run looked set to continue at the City Ground.
Murillo’s towering header from Anthony Elanga’s free kick opened the scoring.
But Newcastle hit back strongly after half time.
Alexander Isak’s fourth goal in as many games began the fightback.
Joelinton then curled in a sensational strike from the edge of the box before Harvey Barnes sealed the three points that lifts the Magpies into eighth.
Arsenal and Chelsea both start the day 10 points behind leaders Liverpool and in desperate need of a win if they are to challenge for the title.
Captain Martin Odegaard starts for the first time in two months for Arsenal, who are aiming to snap a three-game winless streak in the Premier League.
Meanwhile, Manchester United signed off Ruud van Nistelrooy’s temporary stint in charge with a 3-0 win over Leicester on Sunday as Ipswich stunned Tottenham 2-1 for their first Premier League victory in 22 years.
Ipswich will play host to Amorim’s first match in two weeks and go into that game buoyed by their first win since ending a two-decade wait to return to the top flight.
Spurs were finally made to pay for their slow starts at home as they went behind for the 13th time in 15 Premier League games at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2024.
Sammie Szmodics took advantage of statuesque Tottenham defending to open the scoring with an overhead kick on 31 minutes.
Liam Delap doubled the visitors’ lead in far less spectacular fashion as he lashed in from point-blank range after Radu Dragusin directed a cross toward his own goal.
Spurs had come back to win in eight of the previous 12 matches they conceded first at home this year but this time left themselves with too much to do.
Rodrigo Bentancur reduced the arrears with a powerful header from Pedro Porro’s corner but they fell to a fifth league defeat in 11 games.
Ipswich move out of the relegation zone at Crystal Palace’s expense, while Spurs slip to 10th.
Elsewhere, in Italian football, Atalanta moved level with Serie A leaders Napoli on Sunday after coming back from a goal down to beat spirited Udinese 2-1 and continue an unlikely title bid.


Messi and Inter Miami ousted from Major League Soccer playoffs. Atlanta United upset top seeds 3-2 in Game 3

Messi and Inter Miami ousted from Major League Soccer playoffs. Atlanta United upset top seeds 3-2 in Game 3
Updated 10 November 2024
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Messi and Inter Miami ousted from Major League Soccer playoffs. Atlanta United upset top seeds 3-2 in Game 3

Messi and Inter Miami ousted from Major League Soccer playoffs. Atlanta United upset top seeds 3-2 in Game 3
  • Atlanta United stunned Inter Miami 3-2 on Saturday night to win their best-of-three first round playoff series in three games
  • Ninth-seeded Atlanta United will play No. 4 Orlando City in the Eastern Conference semifinal

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida: Lionel Messi walked off the field and into the tunnel leading to the Inter Miami locker room a few seconds after the final whistle blew, hardly any emotion on his face.

He didn’t want to see the celebration.

Atlanta United ousted Messi and Major League Soccer’s biggest-spending team earlier than anyone imagined from the MLS Cup playoffs. Jamal Thiare scored twice, Bartosz Slisz’s header in the 76th minute was the winner, and Atlanta United stunned Inter Miami 3-2 on Saturday night to win their best-of-three first round playoff series in three games.

“There’s some fairy dust in our locker room, man,” Atlanta United goalkeeper Brad Guzan said after stopping seven shots, some of them in spectacular fashion, and giving Slisz a big hug in response to his goal. “I couldn’t be more proud of our guys.”

Two free kicks by Messi in the final minutes hit the wall of Atlanta defenders, and time eventually ran out on soccer’s most decorated player and his team. Messi’s header — yes, header — in the 65th minute tied the match at 2-2, but the hosts never reclaimed the lead. Atlanta took the lead with an Inter Miami player down and the hosts lobbying for play to be halted, but the whistle never came and Slisz became one of many heroes for the winners.

“It’s everybody. It’s a joint effort,” Atlanta United interim coach Rob Valentino said. “We talked about it before the game, we talked about it all year long that it’s not going to be just one player. It’s a collective effort and that’s what happened tonight.

It was the fifth win-or-else victory for Atlanta United this season — starting with two must-win matches to keep hope alive at the end of the regular season against the New York Red Bulls and Orlando City, then a wild-card match at Montreal, Game 2 of this series at home and then Saturday’s stunner.

And the East is suddenly wide open.

Ninth-seeded Atlanta United will play No. 4 Orlando City in the Eastern Conference semifinal, while sixth-seeded New York City FC will face the seventh-seeded New York Red Bulls in the other East semifinal.

No. 2 Columbus was already gone. No. 3 Cincinnati was ousted Saturday. And then came the biggest surprise of all — No. 1 Inter Miami’s season is over.

“Once you get in, this league is like this,” Valentino said. “You’ve got to have that belief in yourself because nobody on the outside is going to believe in you.”

The team with the best record won the MLS Cup four times in the league’s first seven seasons. In the 22 seasons since, the top overall seed has gone on to win the title only four more times.

And on paper, there may never have been a bigger upset than this one — a No. 9 seed vs. a No. 1 seed, and not just that, a No. 1 seed with Messi in the lineup. Messi’s $20,446,667 in total compensation from Inter Miami this season was about $5 million more than the entire Atlanta payroll, and Inter Miami spent a record $41.7 million on payroll this season.

It got Inter Miami the Supporters’ Shield, the best regular-season record in MLS history and an invitation to next year’s Club World Cup, which came as no surprise. But it didn’t even get the club into Round 2 of the playoffs, which will be remembered as a massive flop.

“Our biggest objective, we didn’t manage,” Inter Miami coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino said.

Atlanta United fully believed it was going to pull this off.

For whatever reason, Atlanta was a matchup nightmare for Inter Miami this season. It beat Inter Miami three times, all of them with Messi in the lineup; every other MLS team combined to get three wins over Inter Miami.

A five-minute, three-goal barrage in the first half set the tone. Inter Miami opened the scoring and Atlanta United punched right back — twice.

Thiaré was denied by the goalpost 14 minutes into the contest, when his deflection of a flick into the box narrowly missed. And Inter Miami grabbed a 1-0 lead about two minutes later — Messi was stopped by a diving Guzan, but Matías Rojas was there to lift the rebound into the net from a tight angle near the right post.

The lead didn’t last long. Thiaré saw to that.

He took a pass and was completely unmarked, firing into the upper right corner to beat Inter Miami goalkeeper Drake Callender — who had no chance — to tie the match in the 19th minute. And not even two minutes later, Alexey Miranchuk tapped a pass to Thiaré who went over Callender for a 2-1 Atlanta lead.

Just like that, the best team in MLS regular-season history — and the best player in the sport’s history — was in big, big trouble. Inter Miami thought it tied the match in the 25th minute, only for Diego Gómez to be called offside. And the hosts argued wildly for a penalty kick later in the half, arguing that there was a handball in the box (replay suggested they had a case), but they still went into the half down 2-1.

“A very clear penalty,” Martino said. “The ref didn’t even check it.”

Messi tied it midway through the second half, no one knowing at the time that it would be the final hurrah for Inter Miami’s season. For some reason, Inter Miami’s pyrotechnics crew shot fireworks off as time expired, as if the team was celebrating something.

On this night, it was Atlanta United that sent Inter Miami’s season up in smoke.

“I hope we’re not done now,” Valentino said.


Weah scores for Juventus in Turin derby win and Leao nets 2 in AC Milan draw at Cagliari

Weah scores for Juventus in Turin derby win and Leao nets 2 in AC Milan draw at Cagliari
Updated 10 November 2024
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Weah scores for Juventus in Turin derby win and Leao nets 2 in AC Milan draw at Cagliari

Weah scores for Juventus in Turin derby win and Leao nets 2 in AC Milan draw at Cagliari
  • Weah’s father, former Ballon d’Or winner George Weah, was watching from the stands
  • Parma came back from a goal down for a 2-1 win at last-placed Venezia with goals from Emanuele Valeri and Ange-Yoan Bonny

ROME: Timothy Weah’s first-half goal for Juventus in a 2-0 derby win over Torino on Saturday marked the US international’s third goal in four Serie A matches.

Weah, who also scored recently against Inter Milan and Parma, was in the right spot to redirect in a rebound of a shot from Andrea Cambiaso.

Weah’s father, former Ballon d’Or winner George Weah, was watching from the stands. Timothy Weah had another potential goal waved off for a handball.

Kenan Yildiz sealed it for Juventus with a crouching header late in the second half.

Juventus moved up to third, level on points with second-placed Inter Milan, who host league leaders Napoli on Sunday.

Leao scores 2 in AC Milan draw

Rafael Leao took advantage of his spot in AC Milan’s lineup after surprisingly being benched lately, scoring twice and helping to set up a third in a 3-3 draw at Cagliari.

Still, Milan struggled at relegation-threatened Cagliari just four days after a win at Real Madrid in the Champions League.

The pre-game attention was on 16-year-old Francesco Camarda getting the nod at center forward following an injury to Alvaro Morata, but it was Leao who made the biggest impact.

Nadir Zortea put Cagliari ahead in the second minute before Leao struck back with a brace before halftime.

First, Leao scored with a lob following an excellent setup from Tijjani Reijnders. Then the Portugal winger took a throughball from Youssouf Fofana and dribbled around the goalkeeper for his second.

Gabriele Zappa equalized for Cagliari shortly after the break and Milan went ahead again with a goal from Tammy Abraham, who had just come on for Camarda.

On a play that began with Leao inside Milan’s half, Abraham redirected in a rebound following a shot from Christian Pulisic.

Zappa then completed a brace, too, with a spectacular volley.

Milan remained seventh.

Parma win matchup of promoted clubs

Parma came back from a goal down for a 2-1 win at last-placed Venezia with goals from Emanuele Valeri and Ange-Yoan Bonny. Hans Nicolussi Caviglia put Venezia ahead five minutes into the matchup of promoted clubs.

Parma hadn’t won since beating Milan in August.

Lecce fire Gotti

Relegation-threatened Lecce fired Luca Gotti following a 1-1 draw with Empoli on Friday. The southern club did not immediately name a new coach.

It’s the second coaching change in Serie A after Daniele De Rossi was replaced by Ivan Juric at Roma.
 


Man City beaten again at Brighton to open door to Liverpool

Man City beaten again at Brighton to open door to Liverpool
Updated 09 November 2024
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Man City beaten again at Brighton to open door to Liverpool

Man City beaten again at Brighton to open door to Liverpool
  • City had not suffered defeat in the league for nearly a year prior to losing at Bournemouth last weekend
  • Pep Guardiola has lost four straight matches for the first time in his illustrious managerial career

LONDON: Manchester City slumped to a fourth consecutive defeat after blowing the lead to lose 2-1 at Brighton on Saturday, allowing Liverpool the chance to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League.
City had not suffered defeat in the league for nearly a year prior to losing at Bournemouth last weekend.
But after also exiting the League Cup to Tottenham and being on the end of a 4-1 thrashing by Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League, Pep Guardiola has lost four straight matches for the first time in his illustrious managerial career.
The English champions looked set to bounce back from their chastening night in Lisbon on Tuesday when Erling Haaland prodded in his 15th goal of the season at the second attempt after his initial effort was saved by Bart Verbruggen.
City, though, were opened up at will in the second half and were finally punished by a pair of Brighton substitutes.
Joao Pedro fired in the equalizer after City failed to clear in a goalmouth scramble.
Matt O’Riley has had to wait for his Premier League debut after suffering a serious ankle injury days after sealing a move from Celtic.
The Danish international marked his bow in style when he slotted in from Pedro’s pass seven minutes from time.
Liverpool can stretch their lead at the top of the table to five points with victory over Aston Villa at Anfield later on Saturday.
Wolves ended a wait since April for a Premier League win by beating fellow strugglers Southampton 2-0 to move off the foot of the table.
Gary O’Neil was under huge pressure to deliver after a 13-game winless run in the top flight and got the perfect start when Pablo Sarabia swept home Matheus Cunha’s pass for Wolves’ fastest ever Premier League goal.
Cunha smashed home a stunning second goal himself early in the second period to give Wolves a vital three points, which sees Southampton replace them at the bottom of the table.
“He’s huge for us. He has such ability,” said O’Neil on Cunha’s influence. “A big win for us and Matheus Cunha had a big say in it.”
Fulham moved into seventh by inflicting more misery on Crystal Palace with a 2-0 win at Selhurst Park.
Emile Smith Rowe pounced on an error from Maxence Lacroix to open the scoring in first-half stoppage time.
The Eagles’ hopes of a fightback were hit when Daichi Kamada saw red for a wild lunge on Kenny Tete.
Harry Wilson came off the bench to score twice in stoppage time to secure a 2-1 win over Brentford on Monday and the Welsh international was an impact substitute again to wrap up the victory seven minutes from time.
Yoane Wissa scored a brace as Brentford twice came from behind to beat Bournemouth 3-2.
Twice the in-form Cherries led through Evanilson and Justin Kluivert.
But the Bees have taken 16 points from a possible 18 at home this season.
Brentford quickly levelled on both occasions through Wissa and Mikkel Damsgaard.
Wissa then completed the comeback with his seventh goal in eight league appearances this season.
West Ham and Everton did little to quell the discontent among both fanbases in a 0-0 draw.
There were loud boos at full-time at the London Stadium from the West Ham support, but a point does edge Everton four clear of the bottom three.