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Dominic Thiem also skips the entire South American trip
11:44 pm: Dominic Thiem has withdrawn from all upcoming clay court tournaments in South America. The former number 3 in the world, who has been sidelined in recent months with a wrist injury, hopes to make his comeback in Indian Wells in March.
Thiem, 28, was scheduled to participate in an ATP tournament in Cordoba this week, but withdrew at the last minute. “I still have pain in my hand and I have not trained enough,” the Austrian said at the time. He would be in action next week in Buenos Aires and a week later in Rio de Janeiro.
Thiem, winner of the US Open in 2020, last played in June last year. As a result, he has dropped to place 37 in the world ranking. Indian Wells, the first masters tournament of the year, starts on March 10.
Greece in talks with Poyet about Van ‘t Schip’s succession
11:33 PM: The Greek Football Association is in talks with Uruguayan Gustavo Poyet to succeed John van ‘t Schip as national coach. For 54-year-old Poyet, it would be his first job as national coach.
“The executive committee of the Hellenic Football Association has accepted at a meeting the nomination of Gustavo Poyet for the position of national coach. Negotiations will follow to reach a final agreement,” the Greek federation said. Poyet was a trainer at Brighton & Hove Albion and Sunderland in the past. He also had the Greek top club AEK Athens under his wing.
At the end of November, Van ‘t Schip decided not to extend his expiring contract. “Talks have been held to continue, but the Greek Football Association has taken so much time to come to a decision that I felt it was time to move on,” said Van ‘t Schip about his decision.
Van ‘t Schip failed to qualify with Greece for next year’s World Cup. The Greeks finished third in the group, behind Spain and Sweden.
Marcel Keizer wins the opening match of the World Cup for clubs with Al Jazira
10.58 pm: Marcel Keizer has started the World Cup for clubs well. His club Al Jazira from Abu Dhabi easily eliminated AS Pirae, which comes from Tahiti, in the first round. The match was the first of the World Cup and ended in 4-1. Later, Champions League winner Chelsea will still enter the tournament, which will be held in the United Arab Emirates. Keizer’s team already led 3-0 at halftime. Both sides scored once more in the second half.
Keizer has been the trainer of Al Jazira, the champion of the United Arab Emirates, since 2019. Keizer also started the 2018-2019 season as the club’s coach, but left for Sporting from Lisbon halfway through that season. There he was fired. Keizer previously coached SC Cambuur and Ajax, among others.
France bids for European Women’s Football Championship 2025
5.50 pm: France has officially applied for the organization of the European Championship women’s football in 2025. In the summer of 2019, the country already organized the World Cup, where the Netherlands came second. On July 7, 2019, the Orange squad lost in Lyon in the final against the United States (2-0).
The tournament will be assigned by UEFA in December this year.
The upcoming European Championship will be played in England this summer. Initially, the tournament would take place in 2021, but due to the shift of the European Championship for men – due to corona – the women’s tournament had to give way. The 2023 World Cup will be played in Australia and New Zealand.
Formula 1 team Alpine appoints two new technical bosses
5:36 p.m.: Formula 1 team Alpine has appointed two new technical bosses. As the so-called chief technical officer, Pat Fry will oversee all technical processes and set the performance targets for the car. Matt Harman becomes technical director and will be responsible for, among other things, structuring the technical organization and developing talents. Both already worked for Alpine.
Laurent Rossi, general manager of the French racing stable, spoke positively about the two at the announcement. “Pat is one of the most experienced engineers in Formula 1, while Matt’s dedication and expertise will be important to get the most out of our cars.” Harman previously worked for Mercedes for eighteen years, Fry for the Formula 1 teams of McLaren and Ferrari.
A successor has yet to be found for one of the departed team bosses, Marcin Budkowski.
Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso will drive for Alpine in 2022.
Strong start golfer Huizing in United Arab Emirates
5:23 p.m.: Golfer Daan Huizing has started well at the Ras al Khaimah Championship in the United Arab Emirates. The 31-year-old Huizing is in ninth place after the first round with a score of -4.
Huizing scored an eagle, or two strokes below the course average, on the fourteenth hole at the Al Hamra Golf Club. He also hit four birdies and two bogeys. Wil Besseling is on +1, Darius van Driel disappointed with a score of +7.
After the first day, the German Sebastian Heisele and Scott Jamieson from Scotland are in the lead. They both came out with a score of 7 strokes under par.
Joost Luiten is not participating in Ras al-Khaimah. He has stayed in the United Arab Emirates to train and will be back in action next week.
Tennis players without Rojer in Davis Cup against Canada
2:44 pm: Jean-Julien Rojer is missing from the selection of the Dutch Davis Cup team for the meeting with Canada in The Hague. The 40-year-old doubles specialist was a permanent fixture in the team of captain Paul Haarhuis for many years.
With Botic van de Zandschulp and Tallon groenpoor, Haarhuis has two tennis players at his disposal who are making their way up the world rankings. Van de Zandschulp is in 50th place, Greek track is number 62 in the world. The rest of the team consists of Robin Haase and the doubles specialists Wesley Koolhof and Matwé Middelkoop. Haarhuis opts for the same players as in September last year, when the Orange squad forced a place in the qualification round of the Davis Cup in Montevideo with a win over Uruguay.
“I am very happy that these guys are making themselves available for the team and that we can play against Canada with such a strong line-up,” said Haarhuis. “The team has made a big step in terms of level in the past year. We have a very tough challenge with Canada to qualify for the Davis Cup Finals. Fortunately, we have the home advantage. We are very happy that some audience can be present at the game.”
The stake in the duel with Canada on the clay in the Sportcampus Zuiderpark is a place in the Davis Cup Finals at the end of this year. Canada has two tennis players from the top of the global ranking with 21-year-old Felix Auger-Aliassime (ninth in the world) and 22-year-old Denis Shapovalov (twelfth). They gave their country the win of the ATP Cup in Australia last month and both reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino (left) and IOC president Thomas Bach in archive footage.
Ⓒ HH/ANP
IOC members critical of football federation FIFA about World Cup plans
8.29 am: Members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have strongly criticized the plans of the global football federation FIFA to host the World Cup every two years at the Beijing congress. IOC President Thomas Bach quickly cut the discussion off because FIFA president and IOC member Gianni Infantino was unable to defend himself. Infantino has been a member of the committee since 2020, but he decided to cancel his planned trip to Beijing on Tuesday and was therefore absent from the 139th IOC session.
“This plan could cause untold damage and endanger the sport as a whole,” said Mustapha Berraf, the Algerian president of the African Federation of Olympic Committees. “Other sports are pushed into the background as a result and that is unacceptable. It also creates another gap between men and women in sport, despite all our efforts to achieve greater equality.” Berraf received support from other IOC members.
The IOC has previously said that it considers a World Cup every two years undesirable. Bach did not want to elaborate on the matter in Infantino’s absence. “We would like to have this discussion with the FIFA president, but unfortunately that is not possible at the moment. Out of respect for our fellow IOC member, we will not go into this in more detail now,” said Bach. “We will let him know what has been said here on this subject.”
Infantino caused quite a stir last week by saying in his speech during a visit to the Council of Europe that a World Cup every two years could improve people’s lives. According to Infantino, it would create opportunities for African refugees, among others, who now cross the sea on shaky boats and sometimes drown there. Later, Infantino said he had been misunderstood.
Former PSV player Atiba Hutchinson celebrates his goal.
Ⓒ HH/ANP
Canada very close to first FIFA World Cup since 1986
07:27 am: The Canadian soccer team has won its sixth consecutive World Cup qualifier and has come very close to participating in the global tournament. The team of national coach John Herdman won 2-0 at El Salvador, via goals from 38-year-old former PSV player Atiba Hutchinson and Jonathan David.
Canada is 4 points ahead of the United States and Mexico after 11 of the 14 qualifying matches, both of which also won. Panama is eight points behind Canada in fourth place. The top 3 of Concacaf, the federation for countries from North and Central America and the Caribbean, qualifies directly for the World Cup in Qatar. The number 4 goes into the play-offs.
Canada participated in the World Cup once, in Mexico in 1986. “We have our destiny in our own hands,” said Herdman. “We continue to believe in it, our whole country is behind us. We are almost where we want to be.” Herdman’s squad can win the ticket to Qatar in March during the last series of qualifiers, against Costa Rica, Jamaica and Panama.
The Americans recovered with a win over Honduras (3-0) from last weekend’s loss against Canada. Weston McKennie, Walker Zimmerman and substitute Christian Pulisic scored the goals in cold Minnesota. Midfielder Luca de la Torre of Heracles Almelo played the entire match for the Americans, former Ajax player Sergiño Dest stayed on the bench. Mexico defeated Panama 1-0 on a penalty kick saved by Raúl Jiménez in the 79th minute. Ajax midfielder Edson Álvarez was missing from Mexico due to a knee injury, PSV player Érick Gutiérrez was reserve.