International Football
FIFA GIVES EXPLANATION ON MESSY MESSI ‘VOTE RIGGING’
Following the tainted outcome of the hitherto very glamorous FIFA The Best Award ceremony in Milan on Monday, FIFA has come up with some explanations.
Sports Village Square recalls that three countries came out to dispute their votes ‘allocated’ to Lionel Messi in the lead category.
The winners are determined by votes of national team coaches, captain and a journalist from each country. In Nigeria for instance, the votes will be from Super Eagles head coach, the skipper and traditionally, The Guardian newspaper gets the allocation for the media vote.
The emergence of Messi as the winner of the best player threw up controversies as both Ronaldo and Virgil van Dijk were largely considered to have had better performances than the now six-time winner, Messi.
Others, like the Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, even posited that Mohamed Salah and Senegal’s Sadio Mane had better performances given the impression that the collation of the votes may have been manipulated.
The disputed claims, so far, are from Egypt, Sudan and Nicaragua. Egypt protested to FIFA that the votes from the country, which expectedly put Mohamed Salah as number one were discarded.
Salah placed overall fourth in the poll, having 26 points, which is 20 below that of eventual winner, Messi.
Had the votes from Egypt been counted, Sallah would have had additional 15 points, comprising of five each from the coach, the captain and the media – who all claimed they voted Salah as their number one. But those votes from Shawki Ghareeb and captain Ahmed Elmohamady were not taken into account.
Salah also lost another five point as Sudan’s coach, Zdravko Logarusic, claimed he voted for the Egyptian, but it was inexplicably allocated to Messi.
Had that not been the case, the winner, arithmetically, would have been Mohamed Salah and not Messi.
But FIFA came out with its own explanation, strangely saying that the three votes from Egypt were rejected because they were signed in capital letters.
Furthermore, FIFA said that the Egyptian’s voting forms were not signed by the federations’s general secretary, which is mandatory.
From there, the Egyptian FA was contacted by FIFA requesting confirmations from their captain and coach. FIFA insisted the Egyptian FA did not respond until August 21 and therefore, the votes from the Egyptian FA could not be counted.
But a counter claim is that the Egyptian FA said they officially sent their votes to FIFA on August 15, four days before the deadline.
According to the FIFA voting office, which is monitored by independent observer PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Egyptian FA received two reminders to submit the properly signed voting forms by August 19.
FIFA insisted that the Egyptian FA did not respond until August 21 and therefore, the votes from the Egyptian FA could not be counted.
Regarding the claims of vote switching made by the Sudanese coach, Zdravko Logarusic, who claimed he voted for Salah, Mane and Kylian Mbappe – all being players of African origin, FIFA insisted that the votes were not switched and that the document it has read that the coach voted Messi, Van Dijk and Mane.
What then must have gone wrong? ‘We have checked the voting documents submitted by the Nicaraguan and Sudanese FAs and all these documents are signed and confirmed with the official stamp of the Nicaraguan and Sudanese FAs,’ the spokesman said, according to Daily Mail of UK.
‘Having compared with the vote sheets submitted by the FAs and the ones we have published we confirm that we have the right votes signed by the player/coach.
‘We are asking the Nicaraguan and the Sudanese FAs to inquire on this matter.
International Football
Players’ union, FIFPRO, wants 20-minute halftimes, more cooling breaks amid extreme heat
Global players’ union FIFPRO is exploring whether extending halftime to 20 minutes and introducing more frequent cooling breaks could better protect players from extreme heat.
Nine of the 16 host cities for the 2026 World Cup face conditions considered “extreme risk” for heat-related illness.
Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Guadalajara, Houston, Kansas City, Miami, Monterrey and Philadelphia are expected to face dangerous levels of heat and humidity, posing player safety concerns and fuelling calls for mandatory cooling aids or schedule changes.
FIFPRO’s heat risk assessments are based on wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT), a measure combining temperature, humidity, solar radiation and wind speed to estimate how environmental conditions affect the body’s ability to cool itself.
Under FIFPRO guidelines, a WBGT reading above 28 degrees Celsius indicates conditions in which matches should be postponed or rescheduled to protect players’ health.
By comparison, world soccer governing body FIFA’s own guidelines set the extreme risk threshold higher, at 32 degrees Celsius WBGT – but even by that standard, six of the nine cities are still projected to exceed safe limits.
Major League Soccer in the U.S. has a threshold of 29 degrees Celsius WBGT.
“Cooling breaks at the 30th minute and 75th minutes are quite traditional, but from a physiological point of view it does not make sense,” said Vincent Gouttebarge, FIFPRO’s Medical Director.
“Even if you ingest more than 200 millilitres of fluid, you already cannot take it all. So I would definitely like to see some project where we look at the efficacy of perhaps more frequent but shorter cooling breaks – every 15 minutes, rather than only one during each half.”
LONGER HALFTIMES
Gouttebarge also questioned whether the traditional 15-minute halftime interval is sufficient when matches are played in extreme heat.
“You can imagine that halftime of 15 minutes might not be enough in order to decrease the core temperature,” he said.
“It could be a halftime of 20 minutes which would be significant. That has been shown in the laboratory and FIFPRO, together with the national union in Portugal in August, we are going to test this kind of mitigation strategy.”
The urgency of stronger heat protocols became clear at this month’s Club World Cup where two matches — Benfica-Bayern Munich in Charlotte and Chelsea-Esperance in Philadelphia exceeded the WBGT threshold FIFPRO considers unsafe.
“According to our position, those games should have been postponed later that day or rescheduled,” Gouttebarge said.
FIFPRO officials acknowledged that FIFA has responded constructively during the tournament by lowering thresholds for mandatory cooling breaks and improving pitch-side hydration, but stressed that proactive planning is critical.
“FIFA have been quite responsive once the tournament was under way,” said Alex Phillips, FIFPRO General Secretary.
“They have actually modified how they’ve been dealing with heat during the matches based on FIFPRO’s input, which is credit to the work of the team. Obviously, it would have been better if that happened in advance, but it’s better that they have adapted.”
FIFPRO warned that the risks highlighted at the Club World Cup are a preview of what players could face at the expanded 2026 World Cup.
“This is not just affecting the Club World Cup, but also future tournaments either in the U.S. or elsewhere in the world,” said Alexander Bielefeld, FIFPRO Director of Policy & Strategic Relations.
“We need a better balance between commercial interests and the health and safety of players,” he added, referring to earlier kick-off times to accommodate European television audiences.
-Reuters
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Former Manchester United and England midfielder Paul Ince has been charged with drink-driving, police said on Monday.
Ince, who earned 53 caps for England and won two Premier League titles during his six years at United, has been released on bail and will appear in court on July 18.
“The incident involved a black Range Rover which had collided with the central reservation barrier. Officers attended the scene and arrested a 57-year-old man,” the Cheshire police said in a statement.
“Paul Ince, of Quarry Road, Neston, has since been charged with drink-driving.”
Reuters has contacted Ince’s representative for comment.
After retiring as a player, Ince led Milton Keynes Dons to a League Two title in 2007-08. He most recently managed Reading during 2022-23.
-Reuters
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International Football
From garbage collector to Starman of Ancelotti’s Brazil team: the story of Ribeiro
“I was without a team for a year and a half, doing trials… and no club in Brazil wanted me.!” Alex Ribeiro
Alexsandro Victor de Souza Ribeiro (Rio de Janeiro, 1999) was, until a few days ago, a semi-unknown to the general public in Brazil.
However, Carlo Ancelotti, impressed by his strong performance against Real Madrid in the Champions League, insisted on calling up the Lille centre-back… and giving him his debut.
Not only that. He started alongside Marquinhos against Ecuador (0-0) and Paraguay (1-0) and helped the Seleçao keep two consecutive clean sheets for the first time in the qualifying rounds.
Alex, as he likes to be called, impressed with his 1.92 meters (6′ 1″) frame and confidence. According to ‘R10Score’, he was the Brazilian player who completed the most actions with the ball (186) and the second with the most cuts (11).
He completed 154 of the 166 passes he made (92% accuracy) and won 12 of the 16 duels he was involved in: 5 of 7 at ground level and 7 of 9 in the air. “A gentleman defender,” boasted the official Ligue 1 Portuguese account.
His path to the elite wasn’t easy. “I don’t think you know this, but this is my first game as a professional in Brazil. Strange, isn’t it? There’s nothing better. To debut in Brazil like this, with a win and qualification,” he boasted after defeating Paraguay.
These first few days with Ancelotti have been unique; I’ll remember them for the rest of my life. I’ve responded well not only to myself, but also to the coach and the Brazilian people. I was able to demonstrate my ability to those who had doubts. Few people give me the opportunity that the manager has given me,” he insists
The Lille centre-back took his first steps in Flamengo’s youth system, where he even met Vinicius.
“When we played against Real Madrid, Vini came up to me and hugged me. He said, ‘I’m glad to see you here, brother.’ That inspired and motivated me even more,” he told ‘Globo Esporte’.
‘Fla’ cut him off. He had to make a living as a street vendor. He also collected trash, especially cans. “I was without a team for a year and a half, doing trials… and no club in Brazil wanted me, so I went to Europe to play in Portugal’s Third Division.”
Praiense (2018-20), Amora (2020-21), and Chaves (2021-22)—the latter already in the Second Division—were his springboard to Lille. The Bulldogs signed him in 2022-23 for €2 million. He has become a more than worthy successor to his compatriot Gabriel Magalhaes.
“Little by little, my name is spreading. My football is reaching everywhere. This includes Brazil,” he said before making his debut with the Seleçao. Now that he’s made it, he has another challenge: “I want to continue it.”
-Marca
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