MADRID, May 25 : Four men detained in Spain earlier this week over a suspected hate crime in the hanging of a black effigy of Brazilian football star Vinicius Jr from a bridge have been released on bail, a Madrid court said on Thursday.
The men, who are also being investigated for an offense against Vinicius’ moral integrity, have been banned from approaching and communicating with the Real Madrid winger pending further investigation, a court statement said.
The inquiry was opened after an inflatable black effigy dressed in the No. 20 jersey of Vinicius Jr was hung from a bridge in front of Real Madrid’s training grounds before a match against Atletico Madrid in January.
Alongside it was a large red and white banner — the colors of Atletico — that read “Madrid hates Real”.
Three of the arrested men were members of “a radical group of fans of a Madrid club” who were previously flagged during matches as “high risk”, according to police.
The court said the four suspects are also banned from approaching the Real Madrid training grounds.
They will not be allowed within 1,000 meters of the Santiago Bernabeu and Civitas Metropolitano stadiums, nor any LaLiga stadium during football matches.
Vinicius Jr has been in the spotlight since Sunday when racist chants were hurled at him at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium.
His complaints about Spain and LaLiga not doing enough to fight racism have sparked a worldwide wave of support and a national debate in Spain.
Four detained for alleged hate crime against Vinicius freed on bail
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Four detained for alleged hate crime against Vinicius freed on bail
- The court said the four suspects are banned from approaching the Real Madrid training grounds
No alternative to Bayern sackings, says ex-president Hoeness
- "The overall development was simply too unsatisfactory" Hoeness told newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung
- Hoeness revealed "nobody" at the club was consulted about the decision to fire coach Julian Nagelsmann in March
BERLIN: Former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness said in an interview published on Friday the club had no alternative but firing chief executive Oliver Kahn and sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic.
Hoeness explained the club needed to take action, with news of the sacking becoming known just moments after Bayern won their 11th straight Bundesliga title.
“The overall development was simply too unsatisfactory” Hoeness told newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, referring to the club’s poor second half of the season.
Nine points ahead of Borussia Dortmund at Christmas, Bayern entered the final round of the season two points behind.
Their 2-1 win over Cologne in the last match of the campaign, along with Dortmund’s 2-2 draw against Mainz, meant they won the title on goal difference.
Bayern sacked Kahn and Salihamidzic on Thursday, but did not tell the players or make the news public until moments after the full-time whistle.
Captain Thomas Mueller found out in a post-match interview, after putting on a t-shirt commemorating the win.
Hoeness, who played for Bayern before running the club in various capacities for decades, revealed “nobody” at the club was consulted about the decision to fire coach Julian Nagelsmann in March.
“Even Herbert Hainer (Bayern president) was informed far too late... and something like that simply doesn’t work.”
While saying that Salihamidzic “remained a good sporting director,” Hoeness said former goalkeeper Kahn had not done enough work in the sporting department.
“Oliver had defined his role for himself in such a way that he largely stayed out of sports. Yet sport is the main task.
“Our product is football” the 71-year-old added.
Inter’s Gosens returns, Gnabry dropped from Germany squad for upcoming friendlies
- Flick returns to a more conventional squad after experimenting with new players for Germany's last round of friendlies in March
- The 26-man squad named Friday contain no new call-ups, though AC Milan defender Malick Thiaw is uncapped despite having been in the March squad
FRANKFURT, Germany: Inter Milan midfielder Robin Gosens is set to return to the Germany team for the first time in nearly a year, while Bayern Munich forward Serge Gnabry was left out as coach Hansi Flick announced his squad for upcoming friendly games Friday.
Flick returns to a more conventional squad after experimenting with new players for Germany’s last round of friendlies in March following a group-stage exit at the 2022 World Cup. Those experiments brought mixed results with a 2-0 win over Peru and a 3-2 loss to Belgium.
The 26-man squad named Friday contain no new call-ups, though AC Milan defender Malick Thiaw is uncapped despite having been in the March squad. Eight players return after not being selected in March, including Manchester City midfielder Ilkay Gündogan, who missed Germany’s last friendlies after becoming a father, Bayern forward Leroy Sané and Real Madrid defender Antonio Rüdiger.
Gosens is back for the first time in nine months after his role in helping Inter to the Champions League final, albeit mostly as a substitute. He was listed as a defender in Friday’s announcement, reflecting his usual role for Germany as a left-back, not the midfield role he typically plays for Inter.
Gosens has 14 appearances for Germany and started all four games at the European Championship in 2021, making waves with a goal and two assists in a 4-2 win over Portugal, but has played only once since September of that year.
Gnabry misses out despite a late-season burst of form which saw him score five goals and assist one more in Bayern’s final five games, helping his team to overtake Borussia Dortmund for the Bundesliga title. Others from the March squad who have been dropped include Eintracht Frankfurt’s attacking midfielder Mario Götze and Wolfsburg forward Felix Nmecha. Bayern’s Thomas Müller remains out of the squad and hasn’t been selected since the World Cup.
As the host nation for next year’s European Championship, Germany do not have to play qualifying games. They host Ukraine on June 12 in what the German soccer confederation considers to be the team’s 1,000th game. That will be followed by matches at Poland on June 16 and home against Colombia on June 20.
Germany:
Goalkeepers: Bernd Leno (Fulham), Marc-André ter Stegen (Barcelona), Kevin Trapp (Eintracht Frankfurt).
Defenders: Matthias Ginter (Freiburg), Robin Gosens (Inter Milan), Benjamin Henrichs (Leipzig), Thilo Kehrer (West Ham), Lukas Klostermann (Leipzig), David Raum (Leipzig), Antonio Rüdiger (Real Madrid), Nico Schlotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund), Malick Thiaw (AC Milan), Marius Wolf (Borussia Dortmund).
Midfielders: Julian Brandt (Borussia Dortmund), Emre Can (Borussia Dortmund), Leon Goretzka (Bayern Munich), Ilkay Gündogan (Manchester City), Jonas Hofmann (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich), Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen).
Forwards: Niclas Füllkrug (Werder Bremen), Kai Havertz (Chelsea), Leroy Sané (Bayern Munich), Kevin Schade (Brentford), Timo Werner (Leipzig).
French Open lets Belarus’ Sabalenka skip standard news conference after questions about Ukraine war
- Sabalenka, who is from Belarus, didn't appear at a news conference Friday after reaching the fourth round at Roland Garros for the first time
- Sabalenka said she “did not feel safe” at her news conference Wednesday and wanted to protect her “mental health and well-being”
PARIS: Two years after Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open when she was fined, then threatened with disqualification, for skipping news conferences, another top tennis player — No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion — was allowed to avoid the traditional postmatch session open to all accredited journalists and instead speak Friday with what was described as a “pool” of selected questioners.
Sabalenka, who is from Belarus, didn’t appear at a news conference Friday after reaching the fourth round at Roland Garros for the first time with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Kamilla Rakhimova.
After each of her previous two wins this week, Sabalenka was asked about her stance on the war in Ukraine, which began in February 2022, when Russia invaded that country with help from Belarus.
Sabalenka said she “did not feel safe” at her news conference Wednesday and wanted to protect her “mental health and well-being.” Sabalenka’s desire to bypass the standard Q-and-A was supported by the tournament and the WTA. She will not be fined.
The topic of the war was raised at both earlier news conferences by Daria Meshcheriakova, a part-time journalist from the Ukraine for a sports outlet she said gets 7 million views per month. Meshcheriakova, who said she used to be an employee of the German embassy in Kyiv, left Ukraine 10 days after the war began and moved to the Netherlands.
Sabalenka’s first match at this French Open was against a player from Ukraine, Marta Kostyuk, who refused to shake hands at the net afterward — as she’s done against all opponents from Russia or Belarus since the attacks began. Kostyuk was booed by fans apparently unaware of why she declined the usual gesture.
Two spokespeople for the French Tennis Federation wouldn’t say who was allowed to talk with Sabalenka on Friday, but a transcript was distributed to the media. The first “question” was: “Before we start, I know there was a tense situation in your second-round press conference, and if you wanted to address it at all.”
The response, according to the transcript: “After my match, I spoke with the media like I normally do. I know they still expect some questions that are more about the politics and not so much about my tennis. For many months now I have answered these questions at tournaments and been very clear in my feelings and my thoughts. These questions do not bother me after my matches. I know that I have to provide answers to the media on things not related to my tennis or my matches, but on Wednesday I did not feel safe in (the) press conference. I should be able to feel safe when I do interviews with the journalists after my matches. For my own mental health and well-being, I have decided to take myself out of this situation today, and the tournament has supported me in this decision. It hasn’t been an easy few days, and now my focus is (to) continue to play well here in Paris.”
What followed were topics such as how Sabalenka played Friday, her previous track record at Roland Garros, her fitness training and what types of movies she has been watching.
At the 2021 French Open, Osaka — a four-time major champion and former No. 1 — shined a light on the issue of athletes’ mental health by saying she did not want to speak to the media during the tournament. She was docked $15,000 for skipping the news conference after her first-round victory in Paris, then was threatened by all four Grand Slam tournaments with possible additional punishment, including disqualification or suspension, if she continued to sit out those availabilities.
Osaka then pulled out of the competition, saying she experiences “huge waves of anxiety” before speaking to the media and revealed she has “suffered long bouts of depression.”
Jose Mourinho charged by UEFA for verbally abusing referee at Europa League final
- UEFA said the Roma coach is charged for “insulting / abusive language against a match official” after Sevilla’s victory in Budapest this week
- Footage circulated Thursday of Mourinho approaching referee Anthony Taylor in the garage and calling him a “disgrace” with an expletive
NYON, Switzerland: Jose Mourinho was charged by UEFA on Friday after being filmed aggressively cursing at the English match referee in a stadium garage after the Europa League final.
UEFA said the Roma coach is charged for “insulting / abusive language against a match official” after Sevilla’s victory in Budapest this week.
It was one of a slew of disciplinary charges UEFA opened into incidents at a testy, bad-tempered game that lasted more than three hours on Wednesday.
Footage circulated Thursday of Mourinho approaching referee Anthony Taylor in the garage and calling him a “disgrace” with an expletive.
Later Thursday, Taylor and his family were harassed and verbally abused by Roma fans at the airport in Budapest.
Roma lost to Sevilla in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw that saw players and officials clash on the field and in the technical area.
UEFA charged both teams with improper conduct – typically activated for at least five yellow cards shown – and Roma was charged over crowd disturbances and acts of damage.
Sevilla was also charged because dozens of its fans invaded the field after the match.
UEFA gave no timetable for its disciplinary panel to judge the cases.
Stuttgart beat Hamburg 3-0 in 1st leg of Bundesliga playoff
- The win puts Stuttgart, which finished third from bottom in the Bundesliga, on course to stay in the first division
- Hamburg, the last remaining founding member of the Bundesliga, were relegated in 2018 and have been bidding for promotion since
STUTTGART: Hamburger SV’s five-year wait to rejoin the Bundesliga looks set to continue.
Serhou Guirassy helped to put Stuttgart in a commanding position to keep their place in Germany’s top division with a 3-0 win over Hamburg on Thursday in the first leg of their playoff.
Guirassy had failed to make the most of a one-on-one chance and had a penalty saved in the first half, but the Guinea forward grabbed Stuttgart’s third goal early in the second half.
Hamburg’s task was further complicated in the 69th minute when substitute Anssi Suhonen was sent off minutes after coming on for a studs-up lunge at Josha Vagnoman’s thigh.
The win puts Stuttgart, which finished third from bottom in the Bundesliga, on course to stay in the first division before the second leg of the playoff in Hamburg on Monday. Hamburg finished third in the second division.
There was a minute’s silence before Thursday’s game in tribute to the 15-year-old player who died after a post-match brawl at an international youth tournament in Frankfurt last weekend.
Stuttgart got off to a great start with Konstantinos Mavropanos heading the opener inside the first minute.
The visitors had Daniel Heuer Fernandes to thank for keeping the score down. The Hamburg goalkeeper saved from Chris Führich, then got the better of Guirassy in a one-on-one, and also saved Guirassy’s penalty in the 27th. Two minutes later he produced another save to deflect Führich’s effort away.
Fuhrich effectively created the second goal in the 51st when he eluded two Hamburg defenders and played a perfectly weighted pass for Enzo Millot, who crossed for the unmarked Vagnoman to score.
Guirassy finally scored with a header to a corner three minutes later.
Hamburg, the last remaining founding member of the Bundesliga, were relegated in 2018 and have been bidding for promotion since. They finished fourth in 2019, 2020 and 2021 before finishing third last year for a playoff against Hertha Berlin. Hertha prevailed on that occasion.
