Other Leagues
GERMAN PLAYERS TO BOYCOTT QATAR VOLLEYBALL TOURNAMENT OVER BAN ON BIKINI
Germany’s beach volleyball stars Karla Borger and Julia Sude have said they will boycott a tournament in Qatar next month because it was “the only country” where players were forbidden from wearing bikinis on court.
“We are there to do our job, but are being prevented from wearing our work clothes,” Borger told radio station Deutschlandfunk on Sunday (Feb 21).
“This is really the only country and the only tournament where a government tells us how to do our job – we are criticising that.”
The Qatar volleyball association reacted to the news by explaining it was “committed to ensuring that all athletes are made to feel welcome and comfortable at next month’s event”.
It said all athletes were free to compete in their international unifoms. “We would like to make clear that we are not making any demand on what athletes should wear at the event,” a statement insisted.
Qatar is hosting the upcoming FIVB World Tour event but strict rules about on-court clothing have led to World Championships silver medallist Borger and her doubles partner Sude shunning the event.
The tournament in March is the first time that Doha has hosted a women’s World Tour event, though the city has been a regular fixture on the men’s tour for seven years.
Yet female players have been asked to wear shirts and long trousers rather than the usual bikinis, a rule which the world beach volleyball federation FIVB claims is “out of respect for the culture and traditions of the host country”.
In a decision supported by the German volleyball federation DVV, Borger and Sude told Spiegel magazine during the weekend they “would not go along with” the rules imposed by the Qatari authorities.
Borger said that they would normally be happy to “adapt to any country”, but that the extreme heat in Doha meant that bikinis were necessary.
Her team-mate Sude pointed out that Qatar had previously made exceptions for female track and field athletes competing at the World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019.
The country also allowed female beach volleyball players to compete in bikinis at the ANOC World Beach Games in 2019.
Though not as hot as the scorching summer months, temperatures in the Gulf state can reach as high as 30 deg C in March.
Speaking to Deutschlandfunk on Sunday, Borger questioned whether Qatar was a suitable host nation.
“We are asking whether it’s necessary to hold a tournament there at all,” she said.
Qatar has hosted an increasing number of major sporting events in recent decades, though its human rights record, lack of sporting history and brutally hot weather make it a controversial venue.
Heat and humidity were major issues during the road races at last year’s World Athletics Championships held in Doha.
Discriminatory labour practices and alleged human rights abuses in Qatar have been the subject of intense scrutiny ahead of next year’s football World Cup.
-AFP
Jose Mourinho got off to a strong start in his first game as manager of Benfica as his side eased to a comfortable 3-0 win over AVS Futebol SAD in a Primeira Liga clash.
Mourinho, who left Turkey’s Fenerbahce last month, was appointed Benfica manager on Thursday, a day after Bruno Lage was sacked following their shock 3-2 Champions League defeat by Qarabag.
Heorhiy Sudakov opened the scoring for Benfica on the stroke of half-time, before Vangelis Pavlidis and Franjo Ivanovic sealed the three points on Saturday.
Despite the win, the former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester United boss was quick to keep expectations in check.
“We worked for an hour and a half yesterday,” the 62-year-old told reporters.
“I thank the players for their professionalism, their passion for the club, but at the same time for the way they welcomed me, the way I felt they were embracing what we were working on, and that’s it.
“If we had lost, it would obviously have been a disaster in terms of points. Winning isn’t phenomenal, but it was the best thing we could do, they needed to win after losing two points and after a psychologically heavy defeat.
“I told them after the game, it was good, but it was nothing extraordinary, hurry up, tomorrow there’s training in the morning.”
Benfica are second in the Portuguese top-flight standings with 13 points from five matches.
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A quarter of a century after waving Jose Mourinho out of the door, Benfica look to have finally coaxed the ‘Special One’ back — gambling that the sorcery which lit up Porto and dazzled Europe can now be summoned in Lisbon red.
Few recall that before Porto acclaimed him, Mourinho’s first managerial baptism came at Benfica back in 2000 in a tumultuous three-month stint that ended with fans chanting his name as he walked away.
Now, at 62, the prodigal son is set to return to Lisbon, Portuguese TV station RTP reported on Wednesday, amidst the wreckage of a 3-2 home collapse against Azerbaijan side Qarabag, who turned a two-goal deficit into a Champions League scalp.
Ironically, Benfica knocked Mourinho’s former employers Fenerbahce out of Europe barely a fortnight before the Turks bundled him out of a job.
Mourinho’s accomplishments are well known.
The Portuguese, who was born in the coastal town of Setubal, a half-hour’s drive from Lisbon, is widely regarded as one of the best coaches of his generation.
He has claimed league titles in four countries and is one of six managers to lift the European Cup with two clubs as well as the only coach to win all three current UEFA club competitions.
Mourinho’s brief stint after being appointed Benfica manager in 2000 was nothing short of dramatic but it was also crucial as he started building a name and legacy that has kept the club’s fans dreaming of what could have been for over two decades.
Hired in September that year to replace Jupp Heynckes after a dismal start to the season, with two wins out of five games under the German, Mourinho arrived at a club in political turmoil with presidential elections looming and a broken changing room.
Working alongside assistant Carlos Mozer, a former Benfica and Brazil great as a defender, Mourinho managed to block the outside noise from his players and transformed the struggling squad, culminating in a stunning 3-0 victory over heavily favoured local rivals Sporting that left fans jubilant.
But the honeymoon was short-lived. Despite a record of six wins, three draws and two defeats in 11 matches, Mourinho departed just two days after that triumph due to disagreements with newly-elected president Manuel Vilarinho.
“It is a very sad day for us, the day we end our contractual relationship with Benfica,” Mourinho announced on December 5, 2000, in a press room filled with fans chanting his name.
“(Before Mourinho) Benfica played terribly … We had a rubbish team; even I could have played, or at least been a regular substitute,” Vilarinho told reporters.
“And Mr Mourinho, who is an excellent coach and leader of men, almost a wizard, manages to change those mentalities.
“Mr Mourinho beat Sporting 3-0 … And this is a Saturday. On Monday, we have a board meeting and Mr. Mourinho says this: ‘Either you renew my contract for another year or tomorrow I won’t be coaching any more’.
“And he left … I think he never liked me, I don’t know why, he must have thought I didn’t like him,” Vilarinho added, trying to explain how Benfica allowed Mourinho to leave.
Mourinho went on to manage lowly Uniao Leira for a season before joining Porto and leading the Northern Portugal side to unprecedented success by winning back-to-back league titles, a Portuguese Cup, the 2003 UEFA Cup and Champions League in 2004.
After two decades of a roller-coaster career at Chelsea, Inter Milan, where he won the Champions League, Real Madrid, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, AS Roma and Fenerbahce, he is heading home to finish a job that is 25 years overdue.
-Reuters
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Domestic football has resumed in Sudan for the first time in over two years, as the country launches a one-month competition featuring eight top clubs to determine its national champions amid ongoing conflict.
The return of league action comes despite the devastating civil war that has gripped Sudan since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the national army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The conflict has claimed more than 150,000 lives and displaced around 12 million people, creating the world’s largest displacement crisis.
Among the teams participating in the makeshift tournament are Sudan’s football giants, Al Hilal and Al Merrikh, who have dominated the domestic scene since the national league’s inception in 1965, winning all but four of the titles between them.
During the height of the conflict, both clubs were forced to relocate operations to Mauritania in West Africa, where they played league matches last season.
Al Hilal emerged champions in that campaign while hosting their continental fixtures on neutral ground due to security concerns.
Now back on Sudanese soil, both teams have kicked off their campaigns in the newly introduced Sudanese Elite Championship, which will determine the clubs eligible for the 2025/26 CAF continental competitions.
Matches are being staged in the relatively safer cities of Ad-Damer, located 430 kilometres from the embattled capital Khartoum, and Atbara, about 320 kilometres north.
Al Hilal began their campaign with a win over Al Merghani Kassala, while Al Merrikh also secured victory, edging Ahly Madani 1–0 over the weekend. Their much-anticipated derby clash is scheduled for the final day of the competition on July 22.
The other clubs in the competition are Zamalek, Umm Rawaba, Al Amal Atbara, Hay Al Wadi Nyala, and Merrikh Al Abyad. Each team will play the others once, with seven rounds of fixtures to be completed over the month.
Despite the return of league football, Sudan’s national team remains in limbo, having not played a home match since March 2023.
The Falcons of Jediane are set to compete at the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco and are also in contention for a historic first appearance at the FIFA World Cup in 2026.
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