Deutsche Welle (English edition)
Sports news feed: Gladbach won't let Rose go cheaply, Wübbenhorst sacked by Lotte
Borussia Mönchengladbach sporting director Max Eberl insist that they will not let coach Marco Rose leave on the cheap. Elsewhere, Imke Wübbenhorst, the only female coach in men's football in Germany, has been sacked.
Borussia Mönchengladbach sporting director Max Eberl insist that they will not let coach Marco Rose leave on the cheap. Elsewhere, Imke Wübbenhorst, the only female coach in men's football in Germany, has been sacked.
Gladbach won't let Rose go cheaply
Imke Wübbenhorst sacked by Lotte
American athletes free to take a knee
December 16
Eberl: 'Five million euros for Rose not enough'
Borussia Mönchengladbach sporting director Max Eberl says that five million euros would not be enough to prise head coach Marco Rose away from the club. "When a coach is in demand, there has to be an appropriate fee," he told Sport Bild. "The most important colleagues must be remunerated accordingly, and that applies to transfer fees too."
Rose, who took charge of Gladbach in summer 2019 and has since led the Foals into the knock-out stage of the Champions League for the first time, has been linked to the Borussia Dortmund job following Lucien Favre's sacking on Sunday.
"All the excitement doesn't affect me because I don't take any notice of it," said Rose ahead of Gladbach's 3-3 draw away at Eintracht Frankfurt on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Eberl also called speculation surrounding the possible transfers of midfielders Florian Neuhaus and Denis Zakaria as "disrespectul - firstly because we're living in a time when we're all rightly demanding a bit more modesty, and secondly because we [Gladbach] are not nobody anymore."
December 15
Imke Wübbenhorst sacked by Lotte
Imke Wübbenhorst, the only female head coach in the top four divisions of German football, has been sacked by Sportfreunde Lotte, with the team third bottom of the fourthtier Regionalliga West.
Wübbenhorst, 32, took over at Lotte in April 2020 with the aim of returning the club to the third division. But, after just three wins in 19 games and the worst goal difference in the league (-24), she was relieved of her duties following a 2-0 defeat to league leaders Rot-Weiss Essen.
"Things cannot continue as they have been doing," said club chairman Sven Westerhus in a statement. "Every single player has to get that into their heads. We now expect the team to win more points and stay in the division."
Wübbenhorst, who holds an A License coaching badge and who represented Hamburg as a player, became the first woman to coach in semi-professional men's football when she took over fifth-division BV Cloppenburg for four games in 2018. In 2019, she won Germany's "Football Quote of the Year" after quipping: "I'm a professional: I pick the team based on penis size."
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
Antoine Griezmann terminates Huawei deal
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 partnership 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.Faselsaid 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 DiadieSamassekou 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.Samassekou 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 UrsFischer 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 absolutelyright for Union Berlin," said club president Dirk Zingler. "Together with his team of coaches, he is making a decisivecontribution to establishing Union in the Bundesliga and developingthe 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.
QPR 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".