DOHA — FIFA is confident semi-automated technology to assist with quicker Video Assistant Referee decisions could be ready for the World Cup in Qatar later this year, world football's governing body president Gianni Infantino said on Monday. Additionally, body cameras are in consideration to prevent referees from being attacked.
Trials on the AI technology will continue in the coming months, but Infantino said there was significant progress.
PARIS - The Paris police chief said on Thursday that he might have been wrong when he said up to 40,000 Liverpool fans tried enter the Champions League final with fake tickets and that there was no scientific evidence to support the claim.
Didier Lallement added during a hearing in the French Senate that the police action around the match between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France was a "failure" both because fans were harmed and the image of France was degraded.
BELLINZONA, Switzerland - The trial of former FIFA president Sepp Blatter and French footballing legend Michel Platini over alleged corrupt payments ground to a halt on Wednesday when Blatter said he was too ill to testify.
Swiss prosecutors accuse the pair, once among football's most powerful figures, of unlawfully arranging a payment of $2.08 million in 2011. Blatter and Platini both deny the charges. But Blatter, looking frail during the hearing at the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona, said he was unable to address the court due to chest pains.
SAN FRANCISCO - Players and coaches for the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics as well as the U.S. men's soccer team on Sunday urged Congress to support stricter gun laws amid a surge in mass shootings in the United States.
A shooting in Philadelphia left at least three people dead and 11 others wounded, police said on Sunday in the latest case of gun violence in the United States following recent massacres in Texas, New York and Oklahoma in which dozens died.
CARDIFF - Ukraine coach Oleksandr Petrakov said his players would hang a flag in their dressing room given to them by soldiers on the frontline before their World Cup playoff against Wales on Sunday.
Soccer, football, calcio, whatever you call it, it is one of the most uniting sports on the planet. That was as evident as ever on Wednesday before the World Cup qualifying game between Scotland and Ukraine. As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, there was an extraordinary moment of solidarity before the game. Watch as Scotland fans sing Ukraine’s national anthem.
DOHA — Climate advocates have cast doubt on Qatar's efforts to host soccer's first carbon-neutral FIFA World Cup by offseting or eliminating emissions that contribute to global warming, according to a report released Tuesday.
Organisers in the Gulf Arab state are omitting some greenhouse gas emissions from their calculations and will rely on flimsy carbon offsets to reach carbon neutrality, said the report, complied by Carbon Market Watch, an advocacy group.
PARIS - Chaotic scenes at the French national stadium before and during Saturday night's Champions League final were branded a national embarrassment, while French ministers blamed Liverpool fans for the trouble.
The final between Liverpool and Real Madrid kicked off with a 35-minute delay after police tried to hold back people attempting to force their way into the Stade de France without tickets, while some ticket holders complained they were not let in.
The 2022 Champions League Final — the most anticipated match of the year featuring Real Madrid and Liverpool, two of the world's most-followed clubs — was delayed 36 minutes after chaos outside the Stade de France in Paris resulted in the closure of gates and the slow filtering of supporters into the Liverpool end.
The original postponement was for 15 minutes, although an additional 15 was later added, as UEFA initially blamed the late arrival of Liverpool fans for the delay.
Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp dedicated Saturday's Champions League final against Real Madrid in Paris to the people of Ukraine, expressing support for the country against Russia's invasion.
The game, a rematch of the 2018 final, had been scheduled for St Petersburg's Gazprom Arena but was shifted to the Stade de France after Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of its neighbor.
"I am happy that the game is here for thousands of reasons," Klopp told reporters. The war is still going on and we have to think about that."