United ‘disgusted’ by racist abuse of Pogba Rashford must ‘demand’ to take penalties: Giggs
LONDON — Manchester United said they “utterly condemn” the racist abuse their World Cup-winning midfielder Paul Pogba received after he missed a penalty in the 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday.
The 26-year-old Frenchman has missed four penalties since the start of last season — the most by a Premier League player — while team-mate and fellow penalty-taker Marcus Rashford has converted all four of his attempts in that time.
Pogba was assailed on social media, becoming the third player in England to have received racist abuse in the past week due to missing a penalty.
United said they were “disgusted” by the abuse and “utterly condemn” it.
“The individuals who expressed these views do not represent the values of our great club and it is encouraging to see the vast majority of our fans condemn this on social media also,” CAPE TOWN — Former Manchester United stalwart Ryan Giggs has admitted he was “surprised” that Marcus Rashford did not insist on taking the penalty in the 1-1 draw with Wolves yesterday night.
United continued their solid start to the Premier League season with a draw at Molineux, having beaten Chelsea in their first game.
Rashford converted a penalty in that victory at Old Trafford, but watched on as an underwhelming Paul Pogba both took and missed a spot kick on Monday.
Giggs felt that Rashford should have been “demanding to take it”.
“Centre-forward, scores a goal in his first league game, penalty, you get another penalty in the next game, you’ve got to be demanding to take it,” Giggs told Optus Sport.
“It’s a shame, he was really disciplined tonight, Pogba.
“Pogba has not got a great record either of scoring penalties. He doesn’t score every penalty he takes.
“It seems like whoever wins the penalty gets to take it, I wonder if Maguire or Lindelof win the penalty, who gets to take it?
“I was surprised. I’m not surprised that Paul Pogba stepped up, because he’s that kind of player, which is obviously encouraging.
“I’m just surprised when you’ve scored a
the club said in a statement.
“Manchester United has zero tolerance of any form of racism or discrimination and a longstanding commitment to campaigning against it through our #AllRedAllEqual initiative.
“We will work to identify the few involved in these incidents and take the strongest course of action available to us. We also encourage social media companies to take action in these cases.” Rashford tweeted his support for Pogba. “Manchester United is a family. @paulpogba is a huge part of that family. You attack him you attack us all...” the England international said.
Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham and Championship side Reading’s Yakou Meite have suffered similar abuse in the past week.
Abraham missed the crucial penalty in the shootout loss to Liverpool in the Super Cup last Wednesday. The posts aimed at him were described as “abhorrent” by Chelsea and manager Frank Lampard said he was penalty the game before, that you get a penalty the next game you don’t take it. So you open up to criticism then, because if Marcus misses it then OK, you can miss a penalty, but now everybody is talking about why Marcus didn’t take it, why did Pogba take it?
“It should have been Marcus. It’s a strange one because before the game you usually have a designated penalty taker and you would think it would be Marcus after scoring last week. Like I say, he’s done it the week before.
“Again, there’s a conversation. Ole’s said after the game that they have two designated penalty takers and looking at this [last week’s] maybe they do, and again tonight they have the same conversation so it’ll be interesting to see, ‘Do you fancy it? No, I fancy it?’
“I can understand that situation because it’s the first penalty, but now Marcus has scored it, usually – you know when we’ve played, if you’ve scored a penalty, especially if it’s a centre-forward or forward player – he’s taking the next one.
“If I’d have gone walking over to Ruud van Nistelrooy he’d have just said, ‘Go back!’ and he’d have put the ball underneath his shirt. There’s no way you’re getting the ball off him.
“So that’s why I find it a little bit difficult to understand, once a centre-forward has scored a penalty, next penalty they get, they’re taking it.” — Sport24.
“disgusted”. Lampard also called for social media sites to do more to prevent players being abused while Abraham has said he wants to “silence the haters” with his performances on the pitch.
Chelsea banned a supporter for life in July for racially abusing Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling.
Five others were excluded for periods of between one and two years for abusive language.
Cote d’Ivoire international Meite missed a penalty in time added on for Reading on Sunday against Cardiff but his side had the match already wrapped up at 3-0.
Some of the tweets aimed at Pogba were later deleted while several accounts appeared to have been taken down.
Twitter’s terms and conditions say it “takes action against behaviour that targets individuals with hateful conduct”. — AFP. MADRID — Ousmane Dembele, Barcelona’s French international striker, will miss five weeks after suffering a hamstring injury, the club said yesterday.
The club said in a statement that tests showed a “fibrillary lesion in the left thigh femoral biceps.”
If Dembele is out for that long, he could miss five matches in La Liga as well as France’s Euro 2020 qualifiers against Albania on September 7 and Andorra on September 20. He suffered a similar problem in May at the end of an injury-ravaged first season in Barcelona. CAPE TOWN — Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says the team opted not to offer a seat on their junior programme to Mick Schumacher as they currently have too many driver options.
Earlier this year Ferrari signed Schumacher, the son of seven-time world champion Michael, to their driver academy.
The German, who won last year’s European Formula 3 championship, continues to race in Formula 2 with Prema while dipping his toes into the F1 world. He was second fastest in his Ferrari test debut in Bahrain.
His decision to sign with Ferrari’s driver academy effectively closed the door to Mercedes, at least for now. CAPE TOWN — Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane has given his thoughts on the vacant Bafana Bafana post and reiterated that he is not interested in taking the job.
The South African Football Association are currently plotting their next move after Bafana coach Stuart Baxter stepped down in the wake of a run to the quarter-finals of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
Mosimane has once again been linked with the position, along with Wits counterpart Gavin Hunt, who recently stated that he felt SAFA should not go through an interview process when considering a locally-based candidate.
And the Sundowns coach has ruled himself out of the running while also echoing the Wolff, though, says they had no option given that Mercedes is already having a hard time trying to find seats in F1 for its current crop of young drivers. “Yes we had thought of it, but how could we?” the motorsport boss told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “We are already struggling to find a seat in F1 for George Russell and (Esteban) Ocon.” Wolff added that he expects it will be only a matter of time before Schumacher, who bagged his first F2 win in Hungary, enters F1. “Mick is a good boy, a character, he grew so much in F3 and F2, and I am sure that, when the time comes, he will do well also in F1.” — Sport24. sentiments of Hunt. “It’s not for me,” Mosimane said as quoted by KickOff. “We have people that South Africa has put that they must give us the right coach. “We’ve put people in place and I’m waiting to see what those guys can come up with in the country and maybe what criteria they are using, I don’t know.” “It does not matter if it’s a national team or a club, it must have its own coach. I hope you understand. If we put CVs, then it goes anywhere. “You can have a very good CV because you were winning in Thailand league and you have five trophies and what. I don’t know whether it’s appropriate for Bafana, you know.” — Sport24.