Football, BVB: Erling Haaland expects a quick comeback after his injury. “It looks good. I’m already training very well again,” said Haaland in an interview with Sky on Wednesday and predicted: “I’ll be back soon.” This means that the 21-year-old could possibly be available again in the top game against Bayer Leverkusen on February 6th. According to media information, the Norwegian national soccer player tore a muscle fiber in the duel against TSG 1899 Hoffenheim last Saturday. The Dortmund team has not yet confirmed this diagnosis and only spoke of “muscular problems, which, however, require treatment and further examinations in the coming days.”
“It’s the worst feeling not being able to play. My biggest wish for the rest of my career is not to be injured. That’s the most important thing. If I’m not injured, I can play more,” said Haaland. On the other hand, being able to deal with injuries is good for your head. “And it only makes me hungrier to succeed.” Haaland, who was injured in the 3-2 win in Hoffenheim on Saturday, had already missed his team twice in the first half of the season due to muscle injuries. During these two mandatory breaks, he missed a total of six league games, three Champions League games and the DFB Cup match against FC Ingolstadt. BVB lost four of these ten games without the exceptional striker. In the remaining 20 games of the season, Haaland scored 23 times in all competitions and prepared six goals. Haaland made it 1-0 against Hoffenheim.
Football, Gianni Infantino: The Fifa president has backpedaled after his abstruse Africa statement in defense of his controversial World Cup plans. “Certain comments” seemed to be “misinterpreted” and “taken out of context,” said a statement released by the World Football Association after the Swiss’s speech to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on Wednesday. “I want to make it clear that the broader message I gave in my speech was that everyone in a decision-making position has a responsibility to help improve the situation of people around the world,” Infantino said in the statement. It was “a general comment” that was not directly related to the plans to shorten the World Cup rhythm to two years.
“We have to involve the whole world. We can’t say to the rest of the world: Give us your money and your players – and watch on TV,” Infantino said on Wednesday after he had come up with his World Cup idea. He continued: “We must give hope to Africans so that they no longer have to come across the Mediterranean to perhaps find a better life or, more likely, death at sea.” In addition, Infantino had once again defended the World Cup hosts Qatar, which had been criticized for human rights violations, before the Council of Europe and rejected reports of thousands of deaths on the construction sites.
Football, Markus beginning: In the course of the scandal surrounding his supposedly fake vaccination card, Markus Anfang, 47, was banned for a year by the sports court of the German Football Association (DFB). In addition, the former coach of the second division Werder Bremen has to pay a fine of 20,000 euros. The professional ban from the beginning applies retrospectively from November 20th. His former assistant coach Florian Junge was suspended for ten months and fined 3,000 euros. The DFB announced this on Wednesday.
“Through their actions, Markus Beginning and Florian Junge have violated the role model function as coaches to a considerable extent,” said Hans E. Lorenz, chairman of the DFB sports court: “In view of the confessions they have made, however, it is justified to extend part of the ban Suspend probation to give them the opportunity to re-engage for the 2022/2023 season.” At the beginning, the ban will be suspended from June 10th until June 30th, 2023, at Jung from June 1st.
Beginning recently admitted to having deceived with a fake vaccination certificate. “He admitted to having presented a false vaccination card,” said Bremen’s chief public prosecutor, Frank Passade, in early January. In the course of the affair, he resigned in Bremen at the beginning of November. His successor was Ole Werner.
According to a DFB announcement, in late summer 2021, the Beginning and Young “each obtained a fake vaccination card that incorrectly identified them as ‘double vaccinated against the corona virus'”. They then presented this to Werder, “so that from early autumn they no longer took part in the tests prescribed by Werder Bremen in the DFB/DFL hygiene concept. In addition, both also presented the counterfeit vaccination card to the Bremen health department in order to avoid contact as a result of the contact to withdraw from the legally required quarantine with the Bremen player Marco Friedl, who was suffering from Corona at the time.
Bundesliga, FC Bayern: National player Niklas Süle leaves FC Bayern Munich at the end of the season. The negotiations with Süle had “drawn out for a very long time, and we made him an offer, he didn’t accept this offer,” said CEO Oliver Kahn on Wednesday. Defender Süle switched from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim to Munich in the summer of 2017 for around 20 million euros. The 26-year-old is now free in the summer.
FC Bayern has been looking at alternatives for central defense for a long time. Kahn also referred to Lucas Hernandez or Benjamin Pavard from the current squad, who can defend centrally. There are “many possibilities, but clearly FC Bayern always has to deal with players when one leaves us,” he said. Recently, there was speculation about Antonio Rüdiger and Andreas Christensen from Chelsea. Both professionals are also free transfers in the summer.
Sports policy, DOSB: Member of the Bundestag Stephan Mayer (CSU) has resigned from his post as Vice President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation. This was announced by the DOSB on Wednesday. The 48-year-old was elected to the presidium at the general meeting on December 4, but would have had to wait a twelve-month waiting period after the end of his job as parliamentary state secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior before he was allowed to do voluntary work in the DOSB. Mayer was recently appointed sports policy spokesman for the Union parties.
The DOSB Presidium “will deal with the consequences” of the withdrawal “at its next regular meeting in March,” said the statement from the sports umbrella organization. “I agree with Stephan Mayer, whom I would like to take this opportunity to thank again for his willingness to do voluntary work in the DOSB, that we will continue to maintain good and constructive cooperation for the benefit of sport in Germany in the new constellation be,” said DOSB President Thomas Weikert. The committee around the longtime table tennis official currently only has three vice presidents: Verena Bentele, Kerstin Holze, Miriam Welte and Oliver Stegemann. Like Weikert, they were newly elected to the presidency in December in Weimar.
tennis: US Open winner Daniil Medvedev has averted an imminent quarter-final end at the Australian Open of tennis professionals. After a 2-0 set deficit and a match point saved, the number two in the world won in Melbourne against Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 6: 7 (4), 3: 6, 7: 6 (2), 7: 5, 6:4. Medvedev thus advanced to the semifinals and will meet Greek world number four Stefanos Tsitsipas on Friday. In the other semi-final match, the 20-time Grand Slam tournament winner Rafael Nadal from Spain plays against the Italian Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini for a place in the final.
In the women’s category, former French Open winner Iga Swiatek (Poland) finished the run of 36-year-old Estonian Kaia Kanepi with 6: 4, 6: 7 (2), 3: 6. She now meets Danielle Collins in the semifinals on Thursday, who put an end to the strongest Grand Slam performance by Frenchwoman Alizé Cornet. The American won 7: 5, 6: 1 and is among the top four players in a major tournament for the second time. Collins is the second American to reach the semifinals of the Australian Open. In the other semi-final her compatriot Madison Keys challenges top favorite and number one Ashleigh Barty (Australia).
Olympics: The large wave of arrivals by German athletes to the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing begins at the weekend. The two flag-bearer candidates Claudia Pechstein (speed skating) and Francesco Friedrich (bobsleigh) are flying from Frankfurt to China on Saturday with a total of 144 athletes, coaches and supervisors. This was confirmed by the German Olympic Sports Confederation on Wednesday. Two days later, the next DOSB entourage will leave with 97 people. The last major delegation sets off on Tuesday with 92 participants for the Beijing Games, which open on February 4th. A total of 149 Olympic starters were nominated.
Corona measures: The southern federal states continue to advance in terms of viewership for the professional leagues. After Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg was the second federal state to decide on far-reaching openings for the stadiums and halls. According to the decisions made on Wednesday, up to 6,000 spectators will be allowed at major events with the 2G Plus rule in the future. For events with 2G regulation, the number is capped at 3000.
In general, the arenas can only be used to a maximum of half, with a maximum of 10 percent standing room. So far, only sporting events with up to 500 visitors were allowed in Baden-Württemberg in 2022. On Tuesday, Bayern decided to go its own way and announced the admission of up to 10,000 fans. The federal-state consultations on Monday did not result in any uniform new regulations.