Team News

Saudi Arabian clubs will be allowed to travel to Iran to play their matches in the Asian Champions League. The agreement reached between Tehran and Riyadh is seen as a historic move between the two countries, after the interruption of diplomatic relations in 2016.

Iran and Saudi Arabia reach an agreement, which has been described as historic, as Tehran will allow Saudi clubs to travel to Iran, to play matches with Iranian teams, on behalf of the Asian Champions League.

Tehran and Riyadh have reached a “groundbreaking” agreement to resume home and away soccer matches between club teams after seven years of competing in neutral venues, the Asian Football Confederation announced.

The move by the two countries’ football federations would contribute to “strengthening closer ties between their respective football communities, allowing clubs to host matches on their home turf and visit their respective stadiums abroad, creating a more engaging and exciting experience for fans and players, said the statement from the highest institution representing football in Asia.

Saudi first league clubs will travel to Iran to play in the Asian Champions League matches.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nasser will thus kick off their Asian Champions League campaign at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium on September 19 against Persepolis, while Al-Hilal and Al-Ittihad will also travel to Iran during the group stage of the competition.

Matches had been played on neutral ground since 2016 because strained diplomatic relations between the two countries meant Saudi nationals were not allowed to travel to Iran.

Saudi Arabia and Iran cut ties after Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran were attacked during protests over Riyadh’s execution of Shiite figure Nimr al-Nimr.

Last month, Iran’s top diplomat preached unity and dialogue during his first visit to Saudi Arabia since the surprise rapprochement was announced, saying bilateral ties were progressing in the right direction.

Skenderbeu returned to the elite of Albanian football after only one season.

Skenderbeu have started the new edition on a good foot, as after 2 weeks they are in first place with 6 full points. The team led by Ivan Gvozdenovic has managed to beat Egnatia with the same minimum score the first week in Rrogozhin and a week later at home Dinamo City.

Ardian Takaj, despite having made a market without much noise, has taken his return to the elite seriously. In 2016, UEFA banned the Croatian national team from European Cups for 10 years on charges of match-fixing, a decision that was upheld by all subsequent levels of adjudication.

Now in Korça they hope that there can be an amnesty and that Skënderbeu will be free, so that he can compete again for the first places. The Korça team is the first and only team to have participated twice in the Europa League groups, and already sees light at the end of the tunnel, as even if there will be no amnesty, most of the sentence is ending and soon Skënderbeu can hope to return to the top of Albanian football.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff says Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s all-time record of 10 consecutive wins is “completely irrelevant”.

Verstappen’s victory at Monza on Sunday means he surpassed his Red Bull predecessor Sebastian Vettel’s run of nine straight victories in 2013, and accomplished something Mercedes did not during their period of domination between 2014 and 2020.

Wolff said: “For me, these kinds of records are completely irrelevant. They were irrelevant in our good days at Mercedes.

“I don’t know how many races we won in a row. [I] didn’t even know there was a count.”

However, Wolff did admit that Verstappen’s success “shows a great driver in a great car competing at an extremely high level”.

In a second answer on Verstappen he added: “By the way, that record, I would think it’s a good one, because it’s perfection.”

And he said that he expected Red Bull to go on to win every race this season, barring an error.

“I think they need to screw it up themselves in order not to win [every race] this season,” Wolff said.

Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur said: “They always had mega pace – from Monza to Monaco, they were performing and this is impressive. But the most impressive for me is that Max – it’s not just about the last 10 races, it’s about the last two years – I would say he didn’t make a single mistake in the races.

“It’s easier to not make mistakes when you have a margin on the others, but even in these kind of circumstances he is able to manage a situation very well.

“To not do a single mistake over two seasons is just mega.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “You have to recognise and applaud what Max is doing at the moment. It’s very special. We shouldn’t detract from that in any way.

“In sport, very rarely things like this happen and it’s a golden moment for him and certainly a golden moment for the team.”

There have been questions within F1 as to whether governing body the FIA should legislate to try to halt Red Bull’s domination, as they did at the end of 2020 when a rule change for the 2021 season affected Mercedes more than other teams and led to a ferocious title battle between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, with the Dutchman eventually coming out on top after winning the controversial season finale at Abu Dhabi.

But Wolff said: “If a team dominates in the way Max has done with Red Bull, then fair dues. This is a meritocracy.

“As long as you comply with the regulations – technical, sporting and financial – we just need to say, well done. And if it takes a long time [to catch up], then it takes a long time.

“I remember people crying foul when it was us. Entertainment follows sport, not the other way around. You can’t be WWE [wrestling] – we don’t want to be scripted content.”

Neymar, the striker of Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal, gave an interview to Globo’s Esporte Espectacular, in which he pointed to Vinícius and Rodrygo as his successors in the Brazilian national team. He spoke about the possible arrival of Carlo Ancelotti on the “canarinha” bench, assured that he will play for Santos again and described the situation that he and the Argentinian Leo Messi experienced at PSG as “hell”.

The Brazilian assured that he was very happy to see Messi winning the last World Cup with Argentina in a season that was not easy for his friend, due to the situation he experienced at PSG: “I was very happy for the year he had, but at the same time very sad, because he experienced both sides of the coin. He reached heaven with the Argentine national team, while with PSG he lived like hell. We lived through hell, both he and I.

Messi left PSG in a way that, from a football point of view, he did not deserve. For everything he is, everything he does, everyone who knows him knows. He’s a guy who trains hard, if he loses he gets angry, but he was unfairly accused, in my opinion. It made me very happy that he won the World Cup. As you said, the football was fair this time. Messi deserved to end his career like this”.

Asked if he sees Real Madrid players Vinícius and Rodrygo with the ability to take the lead that Neymar now has in Brazil, the Al Hilal forward had no doubt: “Vini and Rodrygo are two players of great quality, two stars who will certainly will take this role. In my opinion, they are already leaders because they have already established the name, whether I am there or not.

I’ve never been a selfish guy, on the contrary, the more protagonists you have in your team, the better your team will be. I am happy that they are reaching this level, that they are already helping the Brazilian national team, which is very important. They are two guys I really like. Vini and Rodrygo are two friends, I talk a lot with both of them”.

Regarding the possible arrival of Carlo Ancelotti, the current coach of Real Madrid, on the Brazilian bench, Neymar opened the doors of the national team: “If it is Ancelotti, he will be very well received, he is a well-known coach, who has won everything in his career.

If I have the chance, I will definitely enjoy it a lot, I will absorb everything I can from Ancelotti. I don’t know if today the national team can do something different from its entire history, have a foreign coach or not, but it depends on the president and I’m sure he will make the right decision”.

However, Neymar admitted that his favorite to lead Brazil was Fernando Diniz, the current interim coach, a position he combines with the post of Fluminense coach: “In my opinion, the ideal man for the national team today would be Fernando Diniz. He is a great coach and the national team would do very well with him.”

Regarding his return to Santos, the club where he trained, Neymar left a clear message for his followers: “Of course I want to play for Santos again. I know this is putting a lot of pressure on me right now, but I want to. I already said it when I left: I’m leaving, but I’ll be back. I want to play for Santos again, I don’t know when, but you can be sure that I will be back.”

Pole position for Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari car at his home track in Monza. The Spaniard of the Italian team left behind for 13 thousandths the world champion and the unbeaten man of this season, Max Verstappen, while another Ferrari car, that of Charles Leclerc, will start from the third place.

Carlos Sainz’s first pole in 2023 ????

And what a pole to remember!!!!!!!!! ????????#ItalianGP #F1 @CarlosSainz55 @ScuderiaFerrari pic.twitter.com/WG2gXByED4— Formula 1 (@F1) September 2, 2023

This is the 14th stop of the 2024 Formula 1 world championship, while for the first time this season Ferrari manages to record pole position but also appear competitive compared to Red Bull and other cars.

George Russell’s Mercedes GP will also start from the second row, followed by Sergio Perez, Alex Albon, Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso.

Skenderbeu has surprised everyone with his return to the Superior Category. In two matches, Korčari have received full points and are already at the top of the ranking.

A week ago they defeated Egnatia in Rrogozhin, the surprise of the last championship, while in the second week they won 1-0 in Korça against Dinamo.

The first half started with Dinamo more demanding, creating several opportunities to score, but lacked concretization, while Skënderbeu was very careful in the background and tried several times on the counterattack.

At the start of the second half, Behiratche scored an own goal, giving the advantage to Skënderbeu, which remained unchanged until the end of the meeting.