TIRANA, Albania: Albania’s prime minister says French President Emmanuel Macron has apologized to him after the wrong national anthem was played ahead of a European Championship qualifier between the two countries on Saturday.
Edi Rama tweeted Sunday that Macron expressed “his sincere apology for the scandalous gaffe of the French Football Federation with our National Flag anthem!”
France won the Group H game in Paris 4-1.
Albanian players looked bemused — and fans angry — when Andorra’s anthem was played instead of Albania’s. Andorra is in the same qualifying group as France and Albania.
The start of the match at Stade de France was delayed for about 10 minutes, and the right anthem then played.
Another incident occurred when the stadium announcer mixed up Armenia — which is not in the same group — with Albania.
France’s next opponent is Andorra at home on Tuesday.
Macron apologizes to Albania on wrong anthem at football game
Macron apologizes to Albania on wrong anthem at football game
- Andorra’s anthem was played instead of Albania’s
Rybakina has little hope of change to tennis schedule
- Former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina said Friday she agreed with Aryna Sabalenka’s description of the tennis schedule as “insane” — but does not see it changing
BRISBANE: Former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina said Friday she agreed with Aryna Sabalenka’s description of the tennis schedule as “insane” — but does not see it changing.
Speaking after her surprise loss to Karolina Muchova in the Brisbane International, world number five Rybakina said Sabalenka’s criticism of the packed WTA Tour calendar was correct.
WTA rules stipulate that top players must play all four Grand Slams, 10 WTA 1000 events and six WTA 500 tournaments, unless they have a valid reason such as injury.
Players who don’t meet these requirements risk being fined.
Sabalenka said Thursday that she was prepared to be punished by the WTA in order to rest her body and not risk injury.
“The season is definitely insane,” four-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka said.
Rybakina, who beat Sabalenka to win last year’s season-ending WTA Finals, said players should be able to choose their schedules more freely.
“We all want to have more freedom of choosing what to play, what not to play,” said the Moscow-born Kazakh, the 2022 Wimbledon winner.
“You’re kind of forced to play most of the tournaments, so it is not ideal.
“You don’t need to force anyone to play so many tournaments since it’s so tough on the body.
“It’s not easy to show the same good results, be healthy all the time.
“But it’s a topic which we have had for a long time, and I don’t see much changing.”
The WTA told AFP in October that “athlete welfare is always a top priority.”
