International Football
Emirates Extends FA Cup Sponsorship
The oldest football competition and also the most glamorous domestic knockout football competition, The FA Cup in England has received further boost as sponsors, The Emirates have extended the partnership for another three years.
In essence, the tournament will retain the nomenclature, The Emirates FA Cup through until 2021.
In 2015, Emirates became the title partner of the FA Cup, the world’s most prestigious domestic cup competition. The partnership between Emirates and the FA’s flagship competition has helped widen the reach to fans around the globe.
Just ahead of the semi-finals in April of last year, the airline unveiled an exclusive Emirates FA Cup branded A380, with the logo of the iconic cup adorning both sides of the double-decked aircraft.
The Emirates FA Cup branded aircraft has made its way to the extensive Emirates A380 network, allowing fans from around the world to connect with the competition in a unique way.
The airline also took the coveted Emirates FA Cup trophy on its first-ever trip to Africa with a stop at the airline’s Headquarters in Dubai in October 2016.
The four day tour through Ghana and Kenya including visits to schools and training centres allowed thousands of football fans in Africa to get a little closer to the competition and gave them the opportunity to be photographed with the popular trophy. There are plans in place to extend the tour to take the Cup to even more cities on the Emirates network in the coming year.
The 2017/18 Emirates FA Cup tournament began on Friday 4 August and saw 737 teams entering the competition and 185 extra-preliminary games taking place across the country. Last year’s competition involved more than 11,000 players from over 700 teams, playing in matches attended by over 1.8 million fans.
Sir Tim Clark, President of Emirates Airline said, “We remain incredibly proud to continue our role as the first ever title sponsor of such a prestigious and historic tournament.
The spirit of this competition, bringing together both small clubs and Premier League giants alike to face each other before an audience of passionate fans is what drives us to continue our investment in this tournament.
Through our support of the Cup, Emirates remains committed to the sport of football and its continued development. We look forward to the future of our partnership and helping to connect fans across the globe to one of the world’s most celebrated sports.”
Mark Bullingham, FA Group Commercial Director added, “We are delighted to be continuing our partnership with Emirates through to 2021.
Working alongside such a well-established and iconic global brand has helped us to make the competition more accessible to fans across the world. With the support of Emirates, last season’s competition reached over 912 million fans worldwide.
The partnership will also allow us to continue our investment into the game at all levels. We look forward to continuing to work together to ensure the Emirates FA Cup remains the best loved and revered domestic cup competition in the world.”
The competition continues with the preliminary round on the weekend of 18/19 August and will culminate in a showpiece Final at Wembley Stadium connected by EE on Saturday 19 May 2018.
Representatives from four national players’ unions on Thursday launched a new global organisation in Madrid, which they say will strengthen footballers’ rights and improve dialogue with governing bodies.
Opening a new front in the battle over who speaks for players, the International Footballers’ Association (AIF) was unveiled, with David Aganzo, president of Spain’s Association of Footballers (AFE) and a former head of the global union FIFPRO, appointed to lead the organisation.
Players’ unions from Brazil, Mexico and Switzerland were also represented.
The initiative drew a swift rebuke from FIFPRO, which said in a statement that Aganzo was acting out of self-interest and aligning himself with organisations linked to football governing bodies, as well as groups expelled from FIFPRO over alleged mismanagement.
Aganzo rejected the criticism, saying he “will not seek confrontation with FIFPRO”.
The launch comes amid strained relations between players’ unions and football authorities, particularly over the expanding international match calendar.
Relations between FIFA and FIFPRO deteriorated in 2024 after the union lodged a complaint with the European Commission, arguing that the global governing body was abusing its dominant position by adding competitions without sufficient consultation.
Aganzo denied suggestions that the new initiative was backed by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, but said “direct dialogue with FIFA” was essential.
AFE’s Extraordinary General Assembly approved the initiative in February with 99.8% of votes cast in favour of spearheading the creation of the AIF.
The same assembly also backed AFE’s withdrawal from FIFPRO, citing what it described as a “complete lack of transparency, as well as its total lack of dialogue with international bodies.”
“We represent over 30,000 footballers, and we come here with a new model aimed at safeguarding players’ rights and facilitating direct communication with all international bodies,” Aganzo told reporters.
“We are in contact with 15 to 20 unions already who were very aware of this moment and waiting for this announcement to make their move and join our initiative.”
He declined to identify any unions beyond those present.
Asked about a report that a senior envoy to U.S. President Donald Trump had urged FIFA to replace Iran with Italy at the upcoming World Cup, Aganzo urged caution.
“These are more political issues; on April 30th, I’ll be speaking to Gianni (Infantino) at the FIFA Congress, and we will discuss those things,” Aganzo said.
“People who want to go to the World Cup have to earn their place on sporting merit.”
-Reuters
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A new trial over the death of Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona will begin on Tuesday, with seven members of his medical team charged with negligent homicide nearly a year after a previous case collapsed in a mistrial.
An enduring presence in Argentina – from towering murals to tattoos, opens new tab – Maradona died on November 25, 2020, at 60, after a heart attack while he was recuperating from brain surgery to remove a blood clot.
A court in San Isidro, near Buenos Aires, will hear testimony from just under 100 witnesses as it tries Maradona’s medical team over alleged negligence in the death of the 1986 World Cup champion.
His medical team has denied wrongdoing. The defendants are psychiatrist Agustina Cosachov, neurosurgeon Leopoldo Luque, psychologist Carlos Angel Diaz, physician Nancy Edith Forlini, nurse Ricardo Almiron, head nurse Mariano Ariel Perroni, and physician Pedro Pablo Di Spagna. An eighth defendant, nurse Dahiana Madrid, will be tried in a separate jury trial, with no date yet set.
Two months into the first trial, which started last March, a mistrial was declared when one of three judges, Julieta Makintach, resigned after video surfaced showing her being interviewed by a camera crew in the corridors of the courthouse and in her office as part of a documentary, in breach of judicial rules.
The retrial will require both prosecutors and defense lawyers to reassess their strategies after the first trial aired photographs, videos, audio recordings and forensic evidence. Many witnesses, including Maradona’s children and his former wife, Claudia Villafane, have already testified.
Prosecutors argued in the initial trial that medical professionals broke treatment protocols and that the home where Maradona was recovering from surgery amounted to a “theatre of horror,” where necessary care was not provided.
The defense countered that his death was inevitable given his longstanding health problems. Maradona struggled for decades with cocaine and alcohol addiction.
The negligence charges emerged in 2021 after prosecutors appointed a medical board to investigate Maradona’s death. The panel concluded his medical team acted in an “inappropriate, deficient and reckless” manner.
-Reuters
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Aliou Cisse has been named coach of the Angola national team, the country’s football federation (FAF) announced on Thursday, 24 hours after the Senegalese left his post in Libya.
The 50-year-old coach, who led Senegal to their maiden Africa Cup of Nations title in 2022, ended his short stint with the Libyan national team on Wednesday, after taking charge in March 2025.
“Welcome, Aliou Cisse, head coach of the Angola national team,” the FAF said on Facebook. Angola, which failed to reach this year’s World Cup, will start their 2027 AFCON qualifying campaign in September.
-Reuters
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