Latest news with #AleksanderCeferin
Time of India
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Jay Shah meets UEFA president ahead of UCL final, continues cricket's global push
Jay Shah (R) with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin in Munich. (Pic credit: Jay Shah's X post) International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman Jay Shah met UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin in Munich ahead of the UEFA Champions League 2024–25 final between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan. The final is set to be played at the iconic Allianz Arena on Saturday. Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW! Shah, the former BCCI secretary, shared the news on social media platform X, writing: "Honoured to represent cricket in Munich ahead of the @championsleague Final and have discussions with UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin. It's always valuable to spend time with other sporting leaders as the @ICC expands our sport's global reach." — JayShah (@JayShah) The meeting is part of Shah's broader efforts to promote cricket on the world stage. Who's that IPL player? Earlier this year, he also met with former IOC president Thomas Bach in Lausanne in the run-up to the IOC Session. Cricket is set to return to the Olympic Games at Los Angeles 2028, marking a historic re-entry into the world's biggest sporting event. Sai Sudharsan: 'County stints reminded me that basics are most important part of batting' Meanwhile, the Champions League final promises fireworks as PSG, under Luis Enrique, eye their first-ever UCL title and a historic treble, having already secured the Ligue 1 and French Cup trophies. Enrique, who previously won the treble with Barcelona in 2014–15, could become only the second manager after Pep Guardiola to achieve the feat with two different clubs. Inter Milan, aiming to salvage a trophyless season, reached the final after a dramatic 7-6 aggregate win over Barcelona. They are eyeing their fourth Champions League crown, having last appeared in the final in the 2022–23 season where they lost to Manchester City.
Saba Yemen
4 days ago
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
UEFA explains reasons for Russia's continued exclusion
Neon - (Saba): UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin expressed his regret over the exclusion of Russian youth teams from tournaments, considering that children are paying the price for political conflicts that have nothing to do with them. In comments quoted by Kicker newspaper, O Jogo, Ceferin said: "It's sad that we don't allow Russian children to play because of the restrictions. They now think we hate them or their nation. I don't hate any nation." The UEFA president confirmed that some national associations have been subjected to intense political pressure, which prompted them to reject the idea of fielding Russian teams. He added: "It's clear that there will be no change in our position regarding the Russian senior national teams until the conflict is over." In September 2023, the UEFA Executive Committee proposed allowing Russian youth teams to participate in competitions under a "neutral" status, but countries like Ukraine expressed their intention to boycott any matches against Russia, leading to the decision being rescinded. It is worth noting that FIFA and UEFA decided in February 2022 to exclude Russian national teams and clubs from all international competitions, limiting their participation to friendly matches only. Whatsapp Telegram Email Print
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Son Heung Min left empty-handed after Uefa run out of Europa League medals for Tottenham
Son Heung Min was left empty-handed moments before the Tottenham Hotspur captain got his hands on the Europa League trophy when Uefa ran out of medals. The Spurs captain was last among teammates walking up to the stage to celebrate after their 1-0 victory over Manchester United in Bilbao. Advertisement But as Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin continued to hand out trophies, he could be seen discussing with colleagues the eventual issue. Eventually Ceferin handed over the last remaining medal to Yves Bissouma, before Rodrigo Bentancur and Cristian Romero followed. The South Americans also missed out initially, with Son the final player to greet the Uefa president and sharing a brief chat and embrace before making his way to the stage without a medal. Postecoglou declared himself as 'a winner' after guiding Spurs past United, correcting chairman Daniel Levy's initial declaration that the club was going away from 'winners' in their style of manager. Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung Min receives the Europa League trophy from Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin (Andrew Milligan/PA Wire) Tottenham Hotspur's Son Heung Min celebrates at the San Mames (Nick Potts/PA Wire) "I'm a winner. Win is what I do the most," said Postecoglou. "Even when I signed, Daniel said 'we've gone after winners and it didn't work, now we've got Ange'. Mate, I'm a winner." Advertisement Tottenham will prepare for a parade in north London on Friday before finishing off what has been a testing Premier League campaign. After losing 20 times in the league, Spurs will conclude their season on Sunday against Brighton, with the Seagulls still pushing for the points and a shot at European football. Aleksander Ceferin handed out medals to Tottenham players before the trophy lift (AFP via Getty Images) But despite Spurs sitting in 17th and unable to finish higher than 14th, Ange Postecoglou's side can look forward to Champions League football next season.
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Lines of disappointment etched into Spurs fans' faces evaporate into the Bilbao air
I didn't really cry until Son Heung-min was handed the trophy – the camera hadn't cut to him enough at full time. Of all the players who look sad when they're sad, Sonny really looks sad. Building up to the Europa League final all I could imagine was a disconsolate South Korean walking around the pitch applauding mournfully. The Harry Kane walk. His smile when shiny-shoed Aleksander Ceferin hands him the trophy broke me. Apparently the Uefa Cup weighs 15kg – the same as my three-year-old. That trophy certainly looked lighter than when young Ian demands to be carried home from the park. As a very sleep-deprived middle-aged dad of young kids, the emotion of football back home hits a lot harder than it used to. I found myself weeping at the videos of Crystal Palace fans after the FA Cup final. Someone focused from person to person, pausing for just enough time on each of them to give you the impression that you could see the etched lines of disappointment they'd experienced over the years just evaporating into the air. It cuts to a couple probably in their 60s. She's in a Crystal Palace shirt, cartoon-shuddering up and down in tears, being pulled into a protective embrace by, I presume, her partner. Big grey beard, dressed like he's off to the garden centre, he holds her close and stares into the distance. The hug unfurls and she wipes away a tear. Maybe they'd only just met – it's a time to hug strangers – but I'd like to think these two have had a Selhurst Park routine for decades, struggling to process what was happening in front of them. At full time in Bilbao one camera is trained on a section of the Spurs support. It focuses on an old guy, Spurs shirt over his jumper – the sensible way to dress for a summer evening game. The whistle blows and he is enveloped by a younger guy, his son you'd imagine. The camera pans left, and in and out of shot is the bald crown of a man bent double, weeping – bleating even – into his Spurs scarf. As I wrote a few months ago after that James Tarkowski goal led one Evertonian to wave the corner flag over his head like a drunk pole vaulter, how lucky that something exists capable of liberating such happiness. Perhaps the first column I wrote for the Guardian was about Spurs reaching the Champions League final after that breathless night in Amsterdam in 2019 – and realising in the exhausting tearful aftermath that despite having a ticket, I needed to watch the game with my dad. Who knew writing an article about loving football and your relationship with your father would resonate? If we're honest, my dad was less bothered about the whole affair than I was. Now 10,000 miles away in Melbourne, flying back for the game seemed a stretch. A lot of the week was stressing about finding my parents a TNT Sports login. 'Eureka,' Dad WhatsApped on Wednesday afternoon. 'Game tonight shown free for Virgin customers.' Perhaps the biggest hurdle overcome. The second half consisted mainly of messages of increasing desperation at how deep the Spurs defence were getting, working out how many goals we needed before we could relax. We settled on four. 'This might be a long 20 minutes.' 'It's already lasted 30.' 'Agony.' Weirdly the post-game call might have been the first which didn't end up extolling the merits of Jimmy Greaves. Watching from Australia at 5am, part of the emotion is clearly tangled up in a homesickness that hits you at moments when you feel like you're in the wrong place, even if you know you're in the right place for many more important, prosaic, life reasons. But you could feel the reflected pride in the country. ABC breakfast radio (basically the Today programme) rang me for an interview while I was walking a pram up Northcote High Street at 8.15am. A man in full Spurs kit pushing a pram on the other side of the road cheered in my direction. There is no objectivity here – we are all just a tapestry of our own biases – but my happiness for Ange Postecoglou is almost as great as my happiness for the club. This gruff, Greece-born Aussie is loved here for what he has achieved in the game; people (and not just football fans) are calling it the greatest achievement by an Australian coach in any sport. He did it in the most demonstrably unequivocally un-Angeball way. Perhaps if Spurs had defended like that for a few games this season his job wouldn't be under threat. The change from the high line, heart-stopping playing out, full-backs seemingly always out of position to this dogged, shithousing, controlled bus-parking over the final and the away games in Bodø and Frankfurt. All part of the plan, Ange claimed afterwards. It felt weirdly refreshing to see Guglielmo Vicario getting it launched and Sonny tucking in at left-back. Antonio Conte and José Mourinho would be proud. One of the beauties of an early, early kick-off is that you can spend the whole day letting it sink in, and satiating the thirst for content. Watching the full time whistle over and over again, watching entire press conferences, actually enjoying X. The Ange biographer and Sydney Morning Herald football correspondent Vince Rugari had kept his receipts: going through the most over-the-top posts about how out of his depth Postecoglou is over the past year or so, and quoting them with increasingly smug petty satisfaction. One of the great uses of social media. But to write off Postecoglou's previous achievements is to write off football in Australia, in Japan, in Scotland. A man who arrived in Melbourne as a five-year-oldwith his family and nothing else … that he has ended up being managed by Ferenc Puskas, becoming a coach, winning and winning and winning and landing a European trophy is inspirational. In the same way Palace winning the FA Cup is good for English football, Ange winning the Europa League is good for the world game. Even if he might have gone by the time you read this, I hope he stays. Yes Erik ten Hag won the FA Cup and Manchester United stayed hopeless. But Spurs aren't United. Despite being 'my big team that win things', they don't win things. Any trophy with Spurs should be rewarded. A Tottenham fan called Bert messaged me on Instagram at 3.30am Spanish time with a question for the Guardian Football Weekly podcast. 'Why are there no cabs in Bilbao?' A glorious image, wandering the streets, staring at anything moving that might be a taxi, finally seeing one and the light's off and it's full, walking again, but all the while safe in the knowledge that it has been zero days since Spurs won a trophy.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Tottenham trio forced to wait for winner's medal
Amid the celebrations that followed Tottenham's Europa League triumph, three players were left waiting for their winner's medal. Manager Ange Postecoglou was first to receive a medal from Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin following the 1-0 win over Manchester United. Injured trio James Maddison, Timo Werner and Lucas Bergvall and Will Lankshear - who spent the second half of the season on loan at West Brom - were also in the line and had a medal draped around their neck. However, club captain Son Heung-min, Cristian Romero and Rodrigo Bentancur weren't so lucky and had to wait until they got into the dressing room to get theirs. "To our great displeasure, we did not have enough medals available on stage during the trophy ceremony presentation due to an unexpected discrepancy in the player count, as more team members - including injured players - participated in the ceremony than initially anticipated," Uefa said. "The missing medals were promptly delivered to the winning team in the dressing room, along with our sincerest apologies for the oversight." According to Uefa's rules, both the winning and losing teams are presented with 50 medals each. It is at the discretion of the club as to how those medals are distributed between players and staff. Uefa had prepared 30 medals to hand out on the pitch prior to Spurs lifting their first piece of silverware in 17 years. But as well as Tottenham's 23-man matchday squad and the manager, several members of the team who were unavailable to feature also took part in the ceremony. Son, as skipper, was waiting patiently at the back of the line so he could collect the trophy and take it to his team-mates before lifting it into the air. The South Korea forward had to make do with just a hug from Ceferin but he was later seen sporting a winner's medal - the first he has picked up in his senior career at club or international level. Latest Tottenham news, analysis and fan views Get Tottenham news sent straight to your phone
