Sports news feed: American athletes free to take a knee

American athletes will be free to take a knee or raise a fist on the podium at the Olympics. Elsewhere, Antoine Griezmann is ending his relationship with Chinese firm Huawei over reports of the surveillance of Uighurs.

American athletes will be free to take a knee or raise a fist on the podium at the Olympics. Elsewhere, Antoine Griezmann is ending his relationship with Chinese firm Huawei over reports of the surveillance of Uighurs.

American athletes free to take a knee

Griezmann terminates deal with Huawei

Wolfsburg cruise to Champions League win in Serbia

December 11 American athletes free to take a knee

American athletes will not face sanctions for kneeling or raising fists on the podium at next year's Olympic Games and beyond.

The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee ( USOPC) made the announcement following pressure from its athletes to be free to make symbolic gestures to highlight racial injustice and police brutality.

The USOPC are hoping to change the controversial Rule 50 of the IOC Olympic Charter, which prohibits inside-the-lines protests at the Games.

December 10

Barcelona forward Antoine Griezmann has announced that he is terminating his sponsorship contract with Huawei over reports the Chinese telecoms giant has been involved in the surveillance of Uighur Muslims.

"Due to strong suspicions that Huawei has contributed to the development of a 'Uighurs alert' through the use of facial recognition software, I am immediately ending my part

nership with the company," the 29-year-old said in a statement posted in French on his Instagram account on Thursday.

US-based surveillance research firm IPVM said in a report released on Tuesday that Huawei had been involved in testing facial recognition software in China that could send alerts to police when it recognised Uighur faces.

Griezmann who was a member of the France team that won the 2018 World Cup in Russia, has been a Huawei brand ambassador since 2017.

December 9 Wolfsburg cruise to Champions League win in Serbia

Wolfsburg cruised to a 5-0 win away to Spartak Subotica in Serbia in the women's Champions League round of 32.

Zsanet Jakabfi scored twice in a game that saw Wolfsburg 2-0 to the good inside eight minutes and never troubled by the Serbian minnows.

Wolfsburg have lost to Lyon in three of the last five Champions League finals including last season, and Lyon suffered a scare in the competition, needing an 88th minute winner from Japan international Saki Kumagai to sneak a 3-2 win at Juventus.

PSG vs. Basaksehir game is completed

Neymar scored a hat-trick and Kylian Mbappe a double as PSG won 5-1 against Istanbul Basaksehir after the remaining 76 minutes of their abandoned Champions League game was completed on Wednesday.

Their game was called off in controversial circumstances on Tuesday, with both sets of players walking off the field following accusations of racist language used by the fourth official towards a member of Basaksehir's staff, which UEFA has said will be the subject of a full investigation.

PSG's victory sees them top their grouo ahead of RB Leipzig, who went through to the last 16 on Tuesday at Manchester United's expense.

December 8 Qatar to play as guests in UEFA World Cup qualifying groups

Qatar will be included as a guest team in Group A of European World Cup qualifying as part of their preparation for hosting the 2022 tournament, according to multiple reports.

As hosts, Qatar qualify automatically for the 2022 World Cup and have to rely on friendly games to get ready for the finals. But the plan is for the tiny Gulf nation to be placed as a 'shadow' team and play friendlies against Portugal, Ireland, Serbia, Luxembourg and Azerbaijan, depending on which team has a free date on a given matchday.

The move mirrors the approach taken by France for the 2016 European Championship that they hosted.

IIHF brass cancel trip to Minsk

The International Ice HockeyFederation(IIHF) has said that COVID-19 infections have forcedits president, Rene Fasel (pictured above),and General Secretary Horst Lichtner to postpone "until further notice"their planned trip to Minsk to meet with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Fasel said he andLichtner "are both in isolation at home for the next 10 days.''

Belarus is scheduled to cohost the next World Championship with Latvia starting in May, but the Latvian government has called on the IIHF withdraw the tournament from Minsk after Lukashenko's disputed election win in August – and a violent police crackdown on antigovernment protesters.

Fasel said the planned meeting with Lukashenko was toexplore "what steps are being taken to ensure that the tournamentcan be held safely and in cooperation with co-hosts Latvia."

This comes a day after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended Lukashenko, who is head of Belarus' National Olympic Committee, as well as Dimitry Baskov, head of the Belarusian ice hockey federation.

Fasel, who is a longtime IOC member, also said that a virtual meeting of IIHF National Associations scheduled for Friday would be postponed.

Hoffenheim condemn online absuse of Samassekou

Bundesliga club Hoffenheim have condemnedonline abuse sent to their Malian midfielder Diadie Samassekou in theearly hours of Tuesday.

"Unfortunately it now seems to be common that people abuse othersonline. We don't accept that and stand for tolerance, respect andbehind @Diadios," the team tweeted following Monday's 3-1 win overAugsburg.

The 24-year-old Samassekou had posted a screenshot of abuse he saidwas received on Instagram.S amassekou added his own message saying: "May God sooth the hate in your heart."

Hoffenheim had previously defended midfielder Ryan Sessegnonafter he received racist abuse in November.

Union extend coach Fischer, assistant

Union Berlin have extended the contracts of coach Urs Fischer and his assistant Markus Hoffmann, the Bundesliga club has announced – without revealing the term of the deals. Fischer led the team to a first-ever Bundesliga promotion in 2018-19 season, his first with the club – and avoided the drop last term.

"The decision to sign Urs Fischer has proven to be absolutely right for Union Berlin," said club president Dirk Zingler. "Together with his team of coaches, he is making a decisive contribution to establishing Union in the Bundesliga and developing the club even further."

December 7 'Angry' Löw never considered resigning

Germany coach Joachim Löw says he didn't think about resigning after the country's humiliating 6-0 defeat by Spain in the Nations League last month. Speaking for the first time since he received the backing of his bosses at the German Football Federation (DFB), Löw said the defeat had made him "angry" - but that his desire was still there.

"We were all bitterly disappointed and angry with the result," Löw told a virtual news conference. "But we are absolutely convinced of the road we have taken in 2019," referring to his decision to rebuild the Germany squad with younger players.

Löw didn't rule out recalling the veteran trio Thomas Müller, Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummels, who were all dropped in 2019, saying that he would "do everything I can to make us successful." But he added that he saw no need for that at the moment.

Reporting by DW's Jonathan Crane.

Grillitsch double ends Hoffenheim drought

Florian Grillitsch struck twice as Hoffenheim secured a muchneeded three points against Augsburg to move them into mid-table in the Bundesliga.

In the final game of Matchday 10, Grillitsch struck each side of Daniel Caligiuri's equalizer before Ihlas Bebou secured a 3-1 victory.

It was Hoffenheim's first league win in seven games, and their first victory since their shock 4-1 win over Bayern Munich in late September.

QPRn and Millwall players to link arms

Players from English second tier clubs Queens Park Rangers and Millwall will stand arm-inarm ahead of their game on Tuesday evening.

Millwall fans booed the 'take a knee' gesture, which continues in England for the Black Lives Matter movement, in their game against Derby on Saturday, triggering widespread criticism.

QPR's director of football Les Ferdinand, the only black director of football in England, said that QPR's players would no longer take a knee because it was "action and not taking a knee that would bring change".

Following events at Millwall, QPR had initially announced that they would reverse that decision, but released a statement on Monday evening saying they would instead stand arm-in-arm with Millwall's players "in a show of solidarity for football's fight against racism".