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Football players Van de Donk and Van de Sanden miss French tournament
5:58 pm: The Dutch soccer players will have to compete against Brazil, Finland and France on the Tournoi de France later this month without Daniëlle van de Donk and Shanice van de Sanden. The players are injured, the KNVB football association reports when the final selection is announced. Goalkeeper Loes Geurts and defender Lynn Wilms are back with the group for the first time since last summer’s Olympics. PSV player Esmee Brugts has been invited for the first time.
Star player Lieke Martens, named best football player in Europe by the Italian sports newspaper Tuttosport last year, is back from an injury. The FC Barcelona attacker missed the previous matches, in November against the Czech Republic and Japan. National coach Mark Parsons is taking 27 players to France.
The first game for the Orange in the exhibition tournament is against Brazil on February 16. In the following week, the duels with Finland and host country France will follow.
Hockey players not to India for international Pro League
2:19 p.m.: The Dutch hockey players will not travel to India for the Hockey Pro League matches in that country on February 19 and 20. Hockey association KNHB has requested the global federation FIH to postpone the matches, which would be finished in Bhubaneswar.
The KNHB’s medical committee issued a negative advice for intercontinental travel in January. This recommendation from the Committee is based on the high number of omikron infections in the Netherlands. After mutual deliberation and consultation with the players, the staff of the Dutch national team announced that they wanted to follow this advice and that they did not want to travel to India at the moment.
The hockey players’ trip to India would last only six days. “This means that a possible infection in the Netherlands just before departure could lead to a positive test in India. The consequence of this could be, for example, a mandatory quarantine or having to postpone the return journey,” the union explains its decision.
The hockey association of India, the KNHB and the FIH have not yet managed to find an alternative date for the two matches between India and the Orange. National coach Jamilon Mülders now fills in the five days that were planned around these two matches against India with a training week. The women played against Spain twice in Valencia last week.
Although the advice of the medical committee also applies to the hockey players, the association decided, in consultation with the staff of this team, to travel to South Africa at the end of January for the matches in the Pro League with South Africa and France. The reason for this is the fact that the selection of national coach Jeroen Delmée will stay in South Africa for a much longer period. “As a result, any contamination acquired in the Netherlands would have no impact on, for example, traveling back together, while the selection in South Africa itself remains in a closed bubble,” according to the association.
The men have now been in South Africa for eleven days and will play against South Africa on Tuesday. To date, there have been no corona infections within Delmée’s group.
Juventus captain Chiellini out for weeks with calf injury
2:19 p.m.: Juventus will miss captain Giorgio Chiellini in the coming weeks. The 37-year-old central defender has suffered a left calf injury. Juventus reports that Chiellini was examined on Tuesday. He had retired on Sunday in the won game against Hellas Verona (2-0).
The club did not mention how long the defender is missing from the team in which Orange international Matthijs de Ligt is also a fixed value in the back. Italian media write that it would be a period of about three weeks. As a result, he would miss the quarterfinals of the Italian Cup against Sassuolo on Thursday, as well as the duel with Atalanta Bergamo and the derby against Torino in the competition. His participation in the first game of the eighth finals of the Champions League with the Spanish Villarreal is also doubtful.
Vitesse holds onto blundering goalkeeper against Ajax
2.10 pm: Vitesse will miss Wednesday evening against Ajax in the quarterfinals of the KNVB Cup, in addition to the suspended Loïs Openda and Jacob Rasmussen, also the sick Enzo Cornelisse. Despite his blunder against FC Twente, trainer Thomas Letsch sticks to goalkeeper Jeroen Houwen.
“Jeroen remains number one. I’m not going to immediately change that after one mistake,” said the Vitesse trainer, who did not especially sit down with Houwen to talk about the unfortunate moment. “Jeroen knows what he has done wrong and that it is better not to throw the ball in the opponent’s feet in the penalty area. When a keeper makes a mistake, everyone talks about it, but no one talks about Matus Bero’s two times that could have put us 1-0, but missed two big chances. Or about the run-up to FC Twente’s 1-0, where several players made a mistake in midfield and in the defense. Four mistakes in a row and no one is talking about it. Unfortunately, mistakes are part of football, but if a goalkeeper makes a mistake once, everything is not immediately bad.”
Return Salah to Liverpool after Africa Cup possibly already Thursday
13.36 o’clock: Mohamed Salah may be back on Thursday for Liverpool, who then face Leicester City in the Premier League. Coach Jürgen Klopp confirmed that the Egyptian, who lost to his country’s finalist in the Africa Cup on Sunday, reported back to the club on Tuesday. That does not apply to Sadio Mane, who won the title with Senegal after penalties. The attacker traveled with his team for a tribute.
Salah still visits the club doctors. “I have already spoken to him. “I’m ready,” was the first thing he said,” Klopp told the club’s website. “Mo is a skilled player and a physical monster. But we’re going to see how he feels tomorrow after a light recovery training.”
Mane will certainly not be there on Thursday. Klopp: “Sadio probably won’t fly to Liverpool until Wednesday evening. So he won’t be here until Thursday and will certainly not play. The title means so much to him and to his country. We respect that.”
Salzburg receives Bayern in full stadium after relaxation
13.29 o’clock: Red Bull Salzburg can fully utilize the grandstand capacity on February 16 in the home game against Bayern Munich. That means that 30,000 spectators can be present at the game from the eighth finals of the Champions League. This is a result of the relaxation of the corona measures announced in Austria on Tuesday.
“We are very pleased that a meaningful and promising solution has been found shortly before this historic meeting for all of Austria,” said Stephan Reiter, the club’s director. “This is not just about football, but also about many other events that – especially if they take place in the open air – pose virtually no risk.”
More than 50 reports via special discrimination app KNVB
11.54 am: In the past year, 52 reports were received on the special Discrimination Reporter app of the KNVB. Of that number, 47 were for amateur football and five for professional football; 25 reports in amateur football have been subject to disciplinary action, the football association reports. The rest of those reports were mainly picked up by the association advisers of the KNVB, who contacted the clubs involved.
The app was introduced a year ago as part of the plan of attack against racism and discrimination in football, a joint initiative of the national government, KNVB, Eredivisie CV, Keuken Kampioen Division and Women’s Eredivisie. If people witness racism or discrimination on or around the football field, they can report this quickly via the Discrimination Reporter.
The ‘Our Football Is For Everyone’ plan was launched two years ago. It consists of a total of twenty new or enhanced measures to combat racism and discrimination. The guidelines are now all in effect, but the coronavirus has had a major impact on the development of many parts of the plan in the past two years, the union explains in a press release.
“Many matches had to be played without an audience, amateur competitions were shut down or aborted and physical meetings for courses, for example, were not allowed. But where possible, progress has certainly been made that will improve the football world’s ability to fight discrimination.”
Italy thinks about organizing European Football Championship 2032
07:57 am: Italy has indicated to the football association UEFA that it is open to the organization of the European Football Championship in 2032. The Italian football association FIGC has confirmed this. UEFA reported at the end of last year that countries interested in hosting the 2028 and 2032 European Championships can apply before March. The candidates will be announced in April, followed by a decision in September.
“In recent days, the Italian Football Association has indicated to UEFA that it is interested in organizing Euro 2032,” the FIGC reported. The Italians had previously announced that they want to register for the organization of the European Championship in 2028 or the World Cup in 2030. But the FIGC now says it needs “more time” to improve the stadiums and the infrastructure around it. A number of large stadiums have not been renovated since the 1990 World Cup, the last major tournament in Italy.
In two years’ time, the European Championship 2024 will take place in Germany.
Phoenix basketball players win NBA top-flight at Chicago
7:19 AM: Phoenix Suns have won the top match against the Chicago Bulls in the American basketball league NBA. The leader in the western league saw the home team almost get rid of a 15-point deficit in the last quarter, but did not give up the win anymore: 124-127.
Devin Booker for the Suns and DeMar DeRozan for the Bulls were the most productive players with 38 points each. Chicago fell to third place in the Eastern Conference after its third loss in its last four games, behind the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks. Miami won at Washington Wizards (100-121), the Bucks did not play on Monday.
Golden State Warriors, the closest Phoenix Suns to the west, won at Oklahoma: 98-110.
Corona rules keep track team away from Portugal
07:02 am: The Dutch track sprinters are preparing for the upcoming season in the Netherlands for the time being. A training internship in Portugal was canceled because the corona rules are strict there. “If there would be a positive case within the selection, all ‘close contacts’ would also have to be quarantined for seven days,” said national coach René Wolff, who returned to his old position last week after five years.
Wolff resigned in 2017, worked for a year at sports umbrella organization NOC*NSF and then managed the New Zealand sprint team for three years. He succeeds Hugo Haak in the Netherlands, who decided to stop a few months after the successful Games. “I understand that choice. Hugo rolled in as a rider and did a great job. He is now taking the time to develop in other areas, but I think there is an even better coach in him,” said Wolff, who in his earlier period already worked with track toppers such as Harrie Lavreysen, Jeffrey Hoogland and Shanne Braspennincx.
Wolff hopes to organize a training camp in Southern Europe with the sprinters in the second half of March. At the end of April, the season starts with matches in the Nations Cup. The first is in Glasgow. Wolff is especially looking forward to the European Championships in Munich, “On a 200 meter track, very special”, and the World Cup, near Paris in the autumn.