Spain midfielder Gavi does not want Leandro Paredes to be suspended despite being thrown to the ground by the Argentina midfielder in a shocking post-match brawl at the World Cup final.

Paredes, along with team-mate Nahuel Molina and Argentina coach Roberto Ayala, were involved in the fracas seconds after the final whistle blew on Spain’s 1-0 victory in New Jersey, which saw Ferran Torres snatch an extra-time winner.

Fifa has confirmed that no red card was shown to Paredes on the field, but on Monday evening Fifa announced that its disciplinary committee had appointed a disciplinary and ethics prosecutor to investigate possible breaches of the Fifa disciplinary code during the incident.

Gavi told El Partidazo de COPE: “I don’t think (Paredes) should be suspended. I understand it’s not a good image for children, but I think there’s also that side to football, which is a bit more physical, more aggressive.

“The most logical thing would have been to send him off during the match, and that’s it. In the end, I think it’s all football, and it has to be that way.”

Paredes grabbed Eric Garcia by the throat before hurling Gavi to the ground to the ground by his bib.

Molina appeared to spark the chaotic melee by striking Spain captain Rodri as he ran across to celebrate with his Spain team-mates, while Ayala appeared to punch Dani Olmo in the face.

It was initially reported by TV broadcasters showing the final that Paredes had been dismissed for his part in the brawl, but Fifa has since indicated this was not the case.

Argentina had Enzo Fernandez sent off in second-half injury time, with the second yellow card shown for a wild challenge on Pau Cubarsi.

Ayala said his altercation with Olmo was “more of a push than a punch” but nevertheless pledged to apologise to Olmo for his conduct.

He told Capital Radio in Valencia: “When the match ended, I saw a scuffle in the middle of the pitch, and I went over to stop it from escalating, because that’s not who we are.

“I take responsibility for what I did. My intention was simply to go and separate them, nothing more.

“It was more of a push than anything else; it wasn’t a punch. It was a reaction to something that was said, but if I see Olmo, I’ll apologise to him in person.”

Ayala said there had been “a certain animosity” from some quarters towards the Argentina team in general at the World Cup, and added: “They didn’t want our team to do well. We play for our people. In my position, I can’t allow feelings to change my actions. I’m sorry.”

Additional reporting by PA

A disappointed John McGlynn challenged his Falkirk side to show more hunger and bravery after a draw at lower-league Alloa all but ended their hopes of League Cup progression.

The 1-1 draw was followed by Alloa winning the bonus point in the subsequent penalty shootout.

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Winning the group is now beyond the Premiership side, with even a victory in their final game against Stranraer on Saturday unlikely to be enough to secure a best runners-up spot.

The Falkirk boss admitted it is a time of “transition” at the club, but he remains hopeful that things will start looking up for his squad.

“It wasn’t the result we were looking for. We needed to get three points to have any chance of qualifying,” said McGlynn.

“Our be-all and end-all was to try to qualify. To do that, we needed the points. It wasn’t really the performance we anticipated.

“It wasn’t a great performance by any stretch of the imagination. All the stats will suggest we probably should have won, given what we had, but we weren’t clinical in front of goal and we weren’t convincing enough with the quality of balls into the box.

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“We got some quality balls in, but then we’ve got to be a bit hungrier and a bit braver to go and put our heads on things.

“It’s a massive disappointment. We are in transition. There’s no magic wand. It’s going to take a bit of time.

“It’s the biggest turnover in players we’ve had, and we’ve got players coming in who are still trying to understand the way we play. It’s not quite clicking yet as well as any of us would like, including the fans.

“It was a good turnout of fans. I thank them for coming and apologise for our performance. It’s not what we’re used to and not what we expect.

“This is going to take a little more time than any of us would like. We’re disappointed and frustrated, but we’re going to stick together and see it through.”

When it kicks off in Morocco on July 26, the Women’s African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) promises to provide great goals, games and memories as 16 teams compete for the continental title. While the focus will be on the stars on the pitch, there may also be some attention on the fact that very few of the head coaches are female. 

Cameroon‘s appointment of Valentine Nguel just weeks before the tournament, brought the number of WAFCON nations with female coaches to four – along with Zambia, Kenya, and South Africa. Still, the vast majority are men. Other teams have appointed female assistants in order to comply with a rule passed by FIFA earlier this year, which requires women’s teams to have at least one female coach on the bench.

Africa may be moving slowly in the right direction with two head coaches of 12 at the 2025 WAFCON (16.7%) to four of 16 (25%) in 2026, but there is still a long way to go.

South Africa leads the way. Desiree Ellis is one of the world’s most successful female coaches and led South Africa to the 2022 title. The four-time African Women’s coach of the year would like more countries to follow the example set by hers.

Helping female coaches

“Our federation took a stand long ago that all female teams will be coached by females,” Ellis told DW.

“That needs to happen and federations need to be brave and appoint female coaches. They need to not just appoint them but give them support, otherwise they are not going to succeed.” 

South Africa is one of 14 members of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA). Even before the FIFA regulation announced in March, this regional organization already had a rule in place making it mandatory for women to form part of the coaching teams.

“This is to force federations to provide more opportunities for female coaches, and we can see that in South Africa, it’s yielded good dividends,” Ellis said. 

Jackline Juma is head coach of Kenya’s U-20 women’s team and would like to see something similar set up all over the continent.

“We don’t have many female coaches in charge of African female teams… It’s because they still don’t trust women, don’t give them chances, the support is not as much as for male coaches,” Juma told DW.

She believes that such attitudes mean help is needed. 

“At least, get restrictions when it comes to club licensing so that for female football teams, priority should be given to female coaches as head coaches so this would give us a good number of female coaches rising up.” 

Juma suggests that the first assistant coach should also be female with men allowed to fill out the coaching staff after that. 

Setting pathways

More jobs coupled with role models like Ellis can inspire a new generation of female coaches and Vicky Huyton, who founded the Female Coaching Network in 2014, told DW that while just 20% of female national teams have female coaches, they account for 90% of major championships.

Inspiring young girls is, however, just the beginning of what can be a long and difficult journey to the upper reaches of the sport. While there are some countries that have made strides, some federations still have much to do in this field to enable coaches to reach their full potential.

“I am contacted quite often by amazing female coaches in Africa –various countries, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria.”  Huyton told DW.

“Often they say ‘I have a passion, I have a want but I have nowhere to go.’”

Huyton would like to see a clear pathway in place for all young coaches.

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“They don’t know how to take that route and that’s not necessarily the coach’s fault, that’s the federation or governing body who aren’t reaching out to these women and saying ‘if you want to be national team coach, this is what you have to do.’ I honestly think that in some sports even the governing bodies don’t know how to get them there.”

Huyton admits that all around the world there is a long way still to go but that there is a fundamental lesson that Africa can learn from Europe.

“From a level-one grassroots coach volunteering once a week, what does that pathway look like to go all the way to a national team coach?” she asked.

“It’s really important to understand what the journey looks like. People think that women don’t want to coach…it isn’t true.”

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Reasons for optimism

The lack of representation at the top level is not confined to Africa. Men are a common sight on the benches of women’s games all over the world, including Europe. At the Women’s Euro 2025, just seven of the 16 teams had female coaches, an increase from past tournaments but still fewer than half.  

England’s national team may be European champions and led by a woman, but female coaches are still a minority in the country’s Women’s Super League, regarded by most as the strongest domestic competition in the world.

In Africa, progress is being made and while it is slower than many would like in terms of women rising to senior positions, there are reasons to be optimistic, according to Ellis. 

“Now, you have Lamia [Boumehdi] who has just won CAF (Confederation of African Football) coach of the year, being appointed as U20 coach of Morocco,” Ellis said.

“You have Adelaide [Koudougnon] qualifying Ivory Coast for the first time to the U17 tournament, you have Carol [Kanyemba] of Zambia going to back-to-back World Cups with the U17s, you have Mildred [Cheche] going to the U17 World Cup with Kenya. There are a lot of future coaches coming up.”

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Edited by: Chuck Penfold

Olympique de Marseille are reportedly considering signing 2018 World Cup winner Djibril Sidibé (33), according to RMC Sport.

A free agent since leaving Toulouse FC, the French full-back is reportedly seen internally as a real opportunity in the transfer market. With considerable top-flight experience under his belt, the player who came through the ranks at ESTAC Troyes is coming off the back of two full seasons in which he made a total of 63 appearances (three goals, seven assists) for the Violets.

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This profile has caught the eye of Marseille, where he would immediately be seen as a key figure in the dressing room, whilst several Italian clubs have recently informed the player’s entourage of their desire to lure him across the Pyrenees.

It now remains to be seen which path Sidibé will choose, as he could return to European competition in the south of France, with Marseille having secured their place in the Europa League group stage at the end of the 2025-26 season.

GFFN | Léo Aschi

Jonas Vingegaard, the 29-year-old Dane, who was sitting second overall in the 2026 Tour de France, abandoned the race on Sunday after a heavy crash about 20 kilometres from the finish of the 15th stage at the Plateau de Solaison.

Vingegaard went down in a roundabout, taking down several of his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates and Mexican rider Isaac del Toro, who was able to continue.

The winner of the Tour in 2022 and 2023 climbed into the ambulance with his right arm in a sling, writhing in pain.

Yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogacar managed to avoid the crash. 

Vingegaard was visibly in pain following the crash, which caused another four riders to also fall.

He was then helped into a medical vehicle with his arm in a sling. Hours later, his team announced that Vingegaard will undergo surgery on a fractured collarbone following his crash.

“Jonas sustained a fractured collarbone and multiple abrasions. Due to the severity of the collarbone fracture, surgical intervention has been recommended and will be performed in the coming days,” his Visma-Lease a Bike team said in a brief statement.

Quitting the race

It was the first time that Vingegaard had been unable to finish a Grand Tour.

In his five previous participations at the Tour, he won twice and finished second in the other three.

Vingegaard was bidding to become just the ninth man to win the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France in the same year, two years after his chief rival Pogacar achieved the same feat.

His rivals in the battle for the yellow jersey slowed their pace waiting to see if he would rejoin their group before their teams informed them that he had quit the race and they could push on.

That incident briefly impeded their chase of the seven breakaway leaders but they reached the final 11km-long climb to the finish around two-and-a-half minutes behind Swiss rider Mauro Schmid, who had stolen a march on his break companions.

Sunday’s stage was 183.9km from Champagnole in the Jura to Plateau de Solaison in the Alps.

Race leader and reigning champion Pogacar’s team-mate Isaac Del Toro, who was seventh overall, was one of the other fallers, although he was able to set off again soon afterwards to rejoin the peloton.

Vingegaard’s American team-mate Sepp Kuss was another to tumble and he took a lot longer to get going again.

When he did, he was a long way behind the group of leaders.

Vingegaard’s crash came just hours after he and Pogacar were amongst a number of riders to have been woken up at their hotels in the night by anti-doping controllers.

Vingegaard was woken up at 2:00 am, while Pogacar was disturbed three hours later.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Tyson Fury has claimed Anthony Joshua was ‘pulled out’ of their sparring session in 2010, despite his past suggestion that “AJ” put a ‘beating’ on him.

This week, the two British heavyweights will box in warm-up fights for their own long-awaited clash. Fury will face Mariusz Wach in Thailand on Friday, before Joshua fights Kristian Prenga in Saudi Arabia on Saturday.

Joshua vs Fury is signed and is expected to take place in late 2026, with London’s Wembley Stadium a likely venue in November – if ring walks take place at 2am local time, according to Saudi matchmaker Turki Alalshikh.

Yet it would not be the first time Joshua, 36, and Fury, 37, have shared a ring. In 2010, Fury sparred Joshua and later said: “He came at me for three rounds, and he gave me a beating; I’m not going to deny it.”

Now, however, Fury has told Pro Box TV that he remembers“not a lot really”. “He was an amateur boxer, I was pro – maybe 10-0 or something.

“So yeah, there wasn’t much to think… There was a lot of people in the gym, so there was a lot of witnesses there.

“So yeah, he was just an amateur boxer really. I remember him putting his legs up like this, in the ropes, after about three rounds – turning away in the corner. I remember that quite vividly.

“But yeah, listen, he was just an amateur boxer at that time. He wasn’t like an Olympian or anything, so it wasn’t really: ‘Ooh, the sparring, what do I remember from it?’ I’ve sparred maybe 400 or 500 heavyweights, don’t remember very much from many of them really.

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“A vivid memory I do have of it, though, is: I remember in about round three, he started putting his legs up – or round four, he started putting his knees up in the corner. I was like: ‘What the f*** is this?’

“And then they pulled him out and put somebody else in. That was that.”

Joshua would go on to win Olympic gold in 2012, before he and Fury became two-time world heavyweight champions as pros, with each man’s second reign coming to an end at the hands of Oleksandr Usyk.

The unbeaten Ukrainian dethroned Joshua in 2021, in the first of two points wins over AJ. Then in 2024, he outpointed Fury twice, becoming undisputed heavyweight champion with the first of those victories.

Last time out, Fury outpointed Arslanbekh Makhmudov in April, as the Briton ended his fifth retirement from boxing. That result followed Joshua’s December win over YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul, whom AJ stopped in six rounds.

Joshua beat Paul 10 days before surviving a fatal car crash in Nigeria, which claimed the lives of two of his friends.

EXCLUSIVE: The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has told Fox News Digital that soccer players representing the Palestinian Authority it targeted with military strikes were allegedly also working as terrorists for Hamas and Jihadist groups.

“In recent weeks, false claims have been circulated alleging that the IDF deliberately targeted innocent Palestinian soccer players throughout the war,” the IDF said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“In light of these claims, the IDF is now revealing the identities of Palestinian soccer players, referees, and coaches who were presented as athletes and innocent civilians, but who in fact served as terrorists in the military wings of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, and were struck and eliminated by the IDF during the war.

IDF CLAIMS TO HAVE TAKEN OUT HAMAS COMMANDER WHO PARTICIPATED IN OCT 7

Fan displays a Palestine flag amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas at Israel-France soccer match on Nov. 14, 2024. (REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes)

“Following an intelligence assessment, the IDF can now disclose these terrorists’ organizational affiliations and operational roles. In many cases, they were portrayed internationally only as players, with no mention of their affiliation with terrorist organizations.”

The IDF identified the players as Mohammed Mohammed Hassan Barakat, Mahmoud Kamal Mohammad Ali Al-Rifi, Mohammed Mansour, Ahmed Mohammed Hassan Abu Al-Atta, Abdullah Riyadh Abdullah Khattab, Ali Mahmoud Ahmed Al-Kurd, Mohammad Emad Ata Hussouna, Tariq Ziad Hussein Al-Hour, Mohammed Ziad Hussein Al-Hour, Mahmoud Osama Al-Jazzar and Mohammad Nidal Mohammed Al-Hawajri.

According to the IDF, three of the players were allegedly involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre, and others allegedly served in other terror operations and leadership roles.

“The false campaign portraying the IDF as deliberately targeting members of the soccer community, which was created as part of a broader effort promoted by various actors against the State of Israel, accompanies other false narratives advanced throughout the war,” the IDF added.

“In those campaigns, Palestinian terrorists struck and eliminated by the IDF were presented as journalists, humanitarian aid workers, and other civilian professionals, while their involvement in terrorist activity was deliberately concealed in order to promote false claims that they had been targeted because of their civilian professions.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Permanent Observer Mission of the State of Palestine to the United Nations for a response to the IDF’s claims.

IRAN ALLEGEDLY USED SOCCER CLUBS TO SPY ON CITIZENS, OPPOSITION GROUP URGES FIFA BAN REGIME BEFORE WORLD CUP

FIFA President Gianni Infantino shakes hands with Basim Sheikh Suliman (left), vice president of the Israeli Football Association, as Jibril Rajoub (right), president of the Palestine Football Association, leaves the stage at the 76th FIFA Congress in Vancouver, Canada on April 30, 2026. (Reuters/Jennifer Gauthier)

The official Palestinian Football Association (PFA) reported earlier this month that about 1,009 members of its athletic community had been killed by IDF forces since the war began in October 2023, according to Al Jazeera.

The IDF’s exclusive disclosures come against the backdrop of a fierce diplomatic and public relations battle on the global sports stage.

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For over two years, the Palestinian Football Association, headed by Jibril Rajoub, has aggressively lobbied the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and FIFA to suspend Israel from international competition. Rajoub and the PFA have repeatedly cited the mounting death toll of Palestinian athletes and the destruction of sports infrastructure in Gaza as grounds for an immediate, indefinite ban.

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The campaign reached a boiling point at recent FIFA Congresses. However, following extensive legal reviews, FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee ultimately rejected the PFA’s demands to suspend Israel entirely.

Instead, FIFA recently opted to impose a fine on the Israel Football Association (IFA) for unrelated disciplinary breaches and ordered the Israeli team to display a “Football Unites the World – No to Discrimination” banner during upcoming matches.

However, FIFA did not let the IFA walk away completely untouched. In a compromise measure, FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee opted to penalize the Israeli association for unrelated disciplinary breaches.

The IFA was fined 150,000 Swiss francs (approximately $190,700) for multiple breaches of anti-discrimination obligations. Additionally, FIFA ordered the IFA to implement a mandatory anti-discrimination prevention plan and required the Israeli team to prominently display “Football Unites the World – No to Discrimination” banners during upcoming matches.

File photo of David Warner© Getty Images