NEWCASTLE: Eddie Howe has said he is not the master of Premier League “dark arts” despite claims to the contrary by the likes of Erik ten Hag and Thomas Frank.
In fact, he does not even know where the tag has come from as he says it does not reflect how his Newcastle United team have performed this campaign.
The Magpies have shocked the top flight this season with their quick, compact and pressing style, much akin to the first incarnation of Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
However, their streetwise style has drawn comparisons to Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid from some quarters, with gamesmanship said to be a part of the Magpies’ armory as they battle to upset the top order.
Brentford boss Frank, following Newcastle’s 2-1 victory over his side, was the latest manager to throw shade on Howe and his players, claiming “dark arts” were at play at the Gtech Community Stadium.
United’s boss Howe, though, is not interested in any of that kind of chatter, claiming his side just do what is required to win.
He said: “I don’t even know what the dark arts are. If someone could explain that to me that would be great.
“I’ve said many times we just do what we can to try and win, but always within the rules of the games.”
Does this type of criticism bother Howe? He admits that it is irrelevant, as long as it does not get under the skin of referees.
He added: “It shouldn’t have an impact on referees. They should just referee the game as they see it. As I say, someone has to sit down and explain the dark arts.
“Erik made his comments quite clear about time wasting but we don’t want that in any game. We want to try and impose ourselves, have a quick game and have the ball in play.
“I understand the statistic that our ball is in play the least but that could be due to a number of reasons, not us slowing the game down.”
The Magpies head to in-form Aston Villa on Saturday with Howe looking to get one over on a manager who could have been sitting in his place.
Newcastle moved to buy Unai Emery out of his contract at Villarreal but were eventually turned down by the Spaniard, and instead opted for second-choice Howe.
It was a “Sliding Doors” moment for the United boss, one that has proved transformative not only for himself, but also Newcastle.
Howe said: “Without a doubt it was [life changing].
“I don’t really think back to that moment; maybe I should. But I very rarely tend to go back. I always believe your life takes the journey it is meant to go on.
“I was due to come here; that is what happened. But I am here because Unai turned the job down, so I’m delighted that he did.
“Fate has a strange way of working and now we come together. I have nothing but respect for the job he has done and the career he has had. But I’m very thankful he made that decision.”
Howe is set to be handed a fitness boost by the return of Miguel Almiron to full training, while it looks like an injury sustained by Allan Saint-Maximin before the trip to West Ham is not as serious as first feared.
Paraguayan Almiron has been working hard to return to fitness in order to make a comeback.
And Howe has revealed the top scorer is ahead of schedule, and has a chance of featuring at Villa Park.
He said: “He has done really well. He is ahead of schedule at the moment, so fingers crossed he gets through training and is available for us very soon. I think we’ll need to see how he trains. He’s had limited training time but he’s looked really good.”
On Saint-Maximin, Howe said: “He is away getting treatment at the moment, but hopefully at some stage next week he will be back with us.
“I am a firm believer that you do not have to be in Newcastle to get the best treatment. It is all about the player.
“It is a squad game. We are going to need everyone to be involved. And hopefully when anyone gets the opportunity they can change the game and help us get a positive result.
“I can only pick 11 players and I have a very strong squad, so I think the understanding of the group has been really good.
“There have been no internal issues. Of course, when players don’t play they are disappointed, but I have to make the right decisions for the team.”
Newcastle United reject ‘dark arts’ claims as Eddie Howe thanks Unai Emery for ‘Sliding Doors’ moment
https://arab.news/r3hzh
Newcastle United reject ‘dark arts’ claims as Eddie Howe thanks Unai Emery for ‘Sliding Doors’ moment
- Magpies have shocked the Premier League this season with their quick, compact, pressing game
- Brentford boss Thomas Frank is the latest manager to cast doubt over St. James’ Park side’s tactics
UAE women’s team Banaat FC seeking silverware in sophomore year
- Banaat, meaning ‘girls,’ aiming for league title this season
- Founder Budreya Faisal seeks to ‘empower’ girls via football
DUBAI: Following an impressive debut in the UAE Women’s Football League last season, Banaat FC have their sights firmly fixed on the trophy in their sophomore campaign, which they kicked off with a bang last Sunday with a 5-0 win over PSA.
The brainchild of Budreya Faisal, an Emirati entrepreneur with extensive sports marketing experience, Banaat FC was founded in 2023.
Its mission is “to empower young girls in the UAE through football, providing top-tier training in a culturally inclusive environment, while championing Arab representation in the sport.”
Faisal’s vision is to provide Arab women with a football club that reflects their identity and values, starting with the club’s name, Banaat, which means ‘girls’ in Arabic.
In their first year, Banaat FC won 10 of 11 games to qualify for the top division league, which they ultimately finished in third place.
They enter this 2024-2025 campaign having signed a landmark three-year deal with Nike. This makes Banaat the first independent women’s football club in the Middle East and North Africa region to partner with the athletic footwear and apparel powerhouse.
The Banaat FC jersey design features a bougainvillea, known in Arabic as ‘Jahannamiya,’ which is the unofficial UAE flower, known to thrive in harsh conditions.
The team’s kit is available exclusively at the Nike store in Dubai Mall. “It’s the best honor to have them as our main sponsor,” Faisal told Arab News in an interview after the kit launch recently.
“I think us being in the Nike store, having our jerseys sold there, it’s not something that’s ever happened here for a women’s team. So I feel like this partnership is helping us change the game at a much faster speed.”
The partnership with Nike is about more than just a football kit. The collaboration encompasses a variety of initiatives including community events and workshops featuring international Nike athletes.
The aim is to improve the perception of women’s football in the UAE, as well as support the club’s ambition to become Dubai’s first professional women’s club.
“It’s crazy. The kit launch event was so emotional and overwhelming. I felt so proud,” said Banaat FC center-back Farah Al-Zaben.
“If you think about it, we’re only 1 year old and to be 1 year old and have a partnership with Nike, it’s not an easy thing to get. And it’s all testament to Budreya’s hard work and her belief in the vision of the club and what we’re trying to do.
“Of course we’re here to win the league, to compete, it’s the No. 1 goal for us this season, but it’s also us existing to show the other teams how it’s done properly, how it should be done.
“Because from what I’ve seen so far in women’s football, there’s not a lot of attention to details and how things are done. It’s just things getting done for the sake of it and not to actually help grow the game and expand it in the region.
“So it’s amazing. We’re talking about Nike, it’s not like any other partnership. We’re so lucky and this is just the beginning. I can’t wait to see what else is coming.”
Indeed there is a lot more in the pipeline, according to Faisal, who says community outreach events will be a key part of their work this season.
More sponsors will be onboarded as well, with the main focus being on winning the league in order to make it to the Asian Women’s Champions League qualifiers and get a chance to compete at the continental level.
UAE league champions Abu Dhabi Country Club have made history at the current inaugural Asian Women’s Champions League, by becoming the first Arab team to qualify, and then advancing to next March’s quarterfinals.
“This is the most important thing for us right now. I just sent them a message, to one of their coaches, saying, ‘I cannot wait for you to bring that trophy home.’ They can go all the way,” said Faisal.
“They’ve been here for 12 years, as the only professional club here, paying their players, having incredible staff there, they’re Abu Dhabi’s club. Them just making it that far gives us all a much bigger chance next year to improve things locally.
“Because you can’t have a team do that well and then you come back here and look at the league and find no league. It’s because of that achievement that we’re going to get a lot closer to professional football here and a lot sooner than everyone expected.”
While Banaat’s first season was filled with unprecedented milestones, it also served as a reality check for how much work needs to be done to elevate women’s football in the UAE and to professionalize the landscape.
Last season’s league featured 10 teams split across two divisions, with some eventually dropping out from the bottom one. This season there are only nine teams, and most of them are from academies, featuring younger players.
“This is tough, it’s much tougher than I thought it would be,” said Faisal.
“I’ve always worked in professional football, but with men’s football. I understand that the women’s league here is still not a professional league, as in players are still not paid and we don’t have enough clubs.
“But because I come from a very professional environment, I thought it would be easy to professionalize things. But what I’ve learned is that I have to change my expectations and almost erase a lot of what I’ve learned before because this is a completely different game and industry.
It’s not just women compared to men. And there’s so much more room for growth here, so much we can impact and change, which are all good things, it’s just not as smooth as I thought it would be. And it’s also very expensive.”
Faisal believes people have underestimated the appetite for women’s football in the country. She is confident things will change with more light being shed on the game, especially through the establishment of the Asian Women’s Champions League.
CAF, the governing body for football in Africa, recently enforced a rule stipulating that all men’s clubs must establish women’s teams to obtain professional club licenses and take part in regional and continental competitions.
The AFC, Asian football’s governing body, is meant to follow suit but such licensing criteria are yet to be enforced. Once they are though, things can develop rather quickly for women’s football in the UAE.
“Imagine that many more opportunities for girls to play and to get paid to play,” said Faisal.
“That’s going to be a new experience for them all and will show them what it’s like to actually be professional footballers. Because our players are as committed as any professional.
“They commute from Abu Dhabi, Khor Fakkan, Al-Ain, everywhere, four times a week, to come to training for an hour and a half. So they spend a good four to five hours in the car, just to come and train, and they don’t get paid.
“So they’re doing more than what men are doing, because men get paid to live in the same city. They’re putting in more effort for no financial return. But they know that, at least the girls on my team, that we’re here to change that for the better and push other clubs.
“And already we’re talking to other pro clubs and helping and advising them on their women’s programs. Because they’re seeing the appeal. So it’s going to change a lot of things for women here.”
Among the difficulties faced by Banaat in year one was multiple coaching changes. They have found stability with their current coach, Shamel Soqar, who took the helm midway through last season and helped steady the ship.
“We’re all grateful for him, because we believe he kept the team going,” said Al-Zaben, who has played for Jordan on different age-group national squads and competed at the U17 Women’s World Cup in 2016.
“Three different coaches in one season; we started off winning each and every single game, but we didn’t end up on the best note. But if anything this is just going to drive us to do better this season, fight for every single game as if it’s the final game,” said the 25-year-old.
“Because this season is different, everyone is seeing what we’re doing, it’s not just the social media part of things, but also the hard work we’re putting in as players, as coaches, as management, there’s a lot behind the scenes, especially for this season, because the mentality is different.
“Last season it was our first season ever, the team was two months old, we were there to do our best and hopefully get a result. But this season we’re there to win it and nothing else, there’s no other option.”
Al-Zaben added: “I’ve never seen the team this committed and working this hard because this season we’re literally taking it personal, every single game we’re there to win, and nothing else.”
Faisal has full faith in the team and says all their preseason performance testing showed significant improvement in the players’ physicality and agility after eight weeks of intense training.
“Everyone has improved drastically, which is incredible. So we’re after the trophy, we want to win, we want to go play in the Asian Women’s Champions League. So performance-wise we want it all and we’re ready,” said Faisal.
Copa del Rey games and other sporting events postponed after deadly floods devastate southern Spain
- The Spanish league planned to postpone all weekend matches in the Valencia region, including those of Valencia against Real Madrid and Villarreal against Rayo Vallecano
- Clubs, soccer stars and other athletes — including Vinicius Junior, Luka Modric, Sergio Ramos, Diego Simeone and Thibaut Courtois — posted messages of support on social media
- Both Madrid and Barcelona held a moment of silence before their training sessions on Wednesday
VALENCIA, Spain: The Copa del Rey matches involving Valencia and Levante have been postponed following floods that have killed at least 95 people and caused havoc in southern Spain.
Other sporting events were also affected by Tuesday’s flash floods that swept away cars, turned village streets into rivers and disrupted rail lines and highways in the worst natural disaster to hit the European nation in recent memory.
The Spanish league planned to postpone all weekend matches in the Valencia region, including those of Valencia against Real Madrid and Villarreal against Rayo Vallecano. Three second-division games also were expected to be postponed.
Clubs, soccer stars and other athletes — including Vinicius Junior, Luka Modric, Sergio Ramos, Diego Simeone and Thibaut Courtois — posted messages of support on social media.
“Real Madrid is deeply saddened and expresses its solidarity with all the people affected by this catastrophe, to whom it conveys all its full support and sympathy,” the club said.
Both Madrid and Barcelona held a moment of silence before their training sessions on Wednesday.
Spanish tennis players Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz both joined in the messages of support, as did Formula One driver Carlos Sainz.
“Today was a sad day with the suffering and pain caused by the (floods),” Nadal said on X. “Everyone’s hearts are hurting seeing those images.”
Valencia was set to play Parla Escuela in the first round of the Copa del Rey on Wednesday, while Levante was scheduled to visit Pontevedra.
Other midweek Copa games in the southern region were canceled as well.
The season-ending MotoGP race in Valencia in two weeks was also in doubt after reports of heavy damage caused by the floods at the Circuito Ricardo Tormo.
Some basketball games also had to be rescheduled as travel was affected throughout Spain.
Rainstorms that started Tuesday and continued Wednesday caused flooding across southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy torrents tumbled vehicles down streets at high speeds while debris and household items swirled in the water. Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers stranded atop cars.
Musiala scores a hat trick as Bayern Munich beat Mainz 4-0 in German Cup
- After scoring his first on a slick team move assisted by Harry Kane, Musiala made sure he was in the right place at the right time for his other goals
- The ease of the win underlined Bayern’s return to the sort of domestic dominance it is used to in Germany after a trophyless 2023-24 season
- Eintracht Frankfurt played almost all of the game with 10 men but still beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-1
MAINZ, Germany: Jamal Musiala scored a first-half hat trick as Bayern Munich reached the third round of the German Cup in a 4-0 win over Mainz on Wednesday.
Bayern were never seriously tested after Musiala opened the scoring less than 90 seconds into the game.
The ease of the win underlined Bayern’s return to the sort of domestic dominance it is used to in Germany after a trophyless 2023-24 season, even if their Champions League campaign has been less impressive.
After scoring his first on a slick team move assisted by Harry Kane, Musiala made sure he was in the right place at the right time for his other goals.
The second came on the rebound when a Kane shot was saved and Musiala completed his hat trick with Bayern’s fourth goal of the game, a tap-in when Konrad Laimer’s cross deflected off two Mainz players. Shortly before that, Leroy Sané had scored Bayern’s third goal on a flowing counterattack that began in his team’s own penalty area.
In Wednesday’s other games, Union Berlin have been on the rise again in the Bundesliga but had an early cup exit with a 2-0 loss to third-division Arminia Bielefeld.
Eintracht Frankfurt played almost all of the game with 10 men but still beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-1 on goals from forward Hugo Ekitike and Omar Marmoush.
Frankfurt were without defender Arthur Theate from the 15th minute after his handball saw him red-carded for the second game in a row. Theate was sent off in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Union Berlin but the suspension didn’t carry over to the cup.
Heidenheim was upset 2-1 by second-division Hertha Berlin. Heidenheim thought it had done enough to go to extra time when Paul Wanner headed in a last-second equalizer, but it was ruled out for an apparent foul in the buildup.
Other Bundesliga teams progressed as Werder Bremen knocked out Paderborn 1-0, Freiburg saw off Hamburger SV 2-1 and Hoffenheim knocked out Nuremberg 2-1.
England’s FA apologizes after Muslim footballer barred from match over clothing
- Iqra Ismail, 24, captained the Somali women’s team in 2019
- She was told by a referee during a league game that shorts were mandatory
LONDON: England’s Football Association has apologized to a Muslim footballer who was barred from a league match over her clothing.
Iqra Ismail, 24, who captained the Somali women’s team in 2019, was prevented from taking the field after refusing to wear shorts due to her religious beliefs.
On Sunday, Ismail was due to come on as a halftime substitute for United Dragons FC from London, but was prevented by the referee, who said club shorts were mandatory.
The Dragons were playing Tower Hamlets within the Greater London Women’s Football League, which has since updated its guidance to match officials and members.
The league said in a statement that it has been working with the FA to “better understand” its guidance on women’s playing attire to “ensure their faith or religious beliefs are not compromised.”
The statement added: “It was our understanding that players were permitted to wear tights or tracksuit bottoms to cover their legs but that they would also have to wear shorts on top, to adhere to club colour regulations. It was this requirement that our referee was seeking to adhere to this weekend.”
Ismail told the BBC that she “was warmed up and ready to go” before the referee’s decision, and that she had worn tracksuits in matches for almost five years.
“I’ve never worn shorts playing competitively,” she added. “I told him that I wasn’t comfortable wearing shorts in any capacity. It was a shock to me that the referee took such a strong stance of it.
“I was very visibly upset as the game was going on, my teammates and the manager were very supportive. Everyone has been devastated.”
Ismail has played the sport since she was 8 and has always worn a sports hijab, a long-sleeve top and tracksuit while on the field.
She was appointed to the Football Black List in 2019 and was a speaker at the FA’s Your Game Your Way event at Brentford Football Club earlier this year, Sky News reported.
Since the incident on Sunday, which Ismail detailed in an online video, the FA has pledged to ensure that the issue is “quickly resolved.”
An FA spokesperson told Sky: “We are aware of this matter and we are in contact with Middlesex FA to ensure that it is quickly resolved.
“We proactively wrote to all county FAs and match officials across the women’s grassroots game earlier this year to confirm that women and girls should be allowed to wear clothing that ensures their faith or religious beliefs are not compromised.
“We remain deeply committed to ensuring that English football is an inclusive and welcoming environment for everybody.”
Brazil’s Atletico Mineiro draws at Argentina’s River Plate and reaches Copa Libertadores final
- Atletico’s rival in the decider will be decided on Wednesday, and it is very likely to be fellow Brazilian side Botafogo
BUENOS AIRES: Brazil’s Atletico Mineiro drew 0-0 at Argentina’s River Plate on Tuesday and reached the final of the Copa Libertadores for the second time.
The team of veteran striker Hulk had beaten its rivals 3-0 in the first leg of the semifinal.
The festive atmosphere at the full Monumental de Nunez Stadium with more than 80,000 fans did not affect the Brazilian side, which had some of the clearest chances to score.
Atletico’s rival in the decider will be decided on Wednesday, and it is very likely to be fellow Brazilian side Botafogo. The Rio de Janeiro-based team will play at Uruguay’s Penarol after winning the first leg 5-0.
Brazilian teams have won the tournament for the past five years.
The final will be played on Nov. 30 at the same Monumental de Nunez Stadium in Buenos Aires.
