Soccer: Police launch probe after Bodo coach attacks Roma staff

AS Roma captain Lorenzo Pellegrini said that Bodo/Glimt coach Kjetil Knutsen attacked a member of his club’s staff after the Italian side’s 2-1 Europa Conference League defeat in Norway on Thursday.

After the quarter-final first-leg defeat, on the ground where Roma suffered an humiliating 6-1 loss in the group stages back in October, the teams clashed on the touchline following the final whistle.

“We came here with the utmost respect, respecting fair play,” Pellegrini told Sky Sport Italia.

“They behaved badly with us.

“Even their coach attacked our goalkeeper coach Nuno Santos. I think this is an insult to the competition. I think it is an insult also to Rome and to the Romans.

“I am honestly still shaken by what I just saw, it’s absolutely shameful. Now we want to send Bodo home, also because of what happened off the field.”

Local police operations leader Kai Eriksen told Norwegian newspaper VG that “there were allegations of first a verbal, then a physical incident between the two coaching teams in the player tunnel.”

He added that none of the parties wanted to press charges. Bodo declined to comment when approached by Reuters, while European soccer’s governing body UEFA said that it will wait on reports from the game and then the disciplinary body will assess if any action is to be taken.

Roma coach Jose Mourinho was also unhappy with the artificial pitch in Norway, blaming the synthetic surface for defender Gianluca Mancini’s injury that forced him to be withdrawn on Thursday.

“It’s a pity that we had an important injury, which I call the injuries of the plastic pitches,” Mourinho told BT Sport.

“It’s out of our control. People decided that European competitions can be played on plastic pitches, so we have to play.”

The teams meet again next week in the second leg in the Italian capital.

German FA rejects Freiburg appeal over Bayern substitution mix-up

The German Football Association (DFB) on Friday rejected Freiburg’s appeal following a substitution mix-up by Bayern Munich in their Bundesliga match last week, protecting the Bavarians’ nine-point lead going into the final six matches.

The Court ruled it was not Bayern’s fault that they played with 12 players for several seconds late in the game, but that of the match officials.

Bayern won the game 4-1 but in the 86th minute due to a mixup between club officials and the fourth official during a double substitution, the wrong number for Kingsley Coman was shown on the substitution board.

The winger did not leave the pitch until about 16 seconds later.

Under German FA rules if a team is found to have introduced a non-eligible player then the opponents are awarded the game by a 2-0 scoreline.

“The DFB sports court has decided that Bayern Munich cannot be blamed for the introduction of a non-eligible player,” the DFB said in a statement.

“It is more down to the mistaken behaviour of the officials that a 12th man was introduced and the game continued.”

Freiburg can appeal the decision within one working day of its publication.

The decision is a big boost for Bayern, who followed up last week’s substitution blunder with their first Champions League loss of the season at Villarreal in midweek.

“I am obviously happy that we get to keep the points (from the Freiburg game),” Bayern coach Julian Nagelsmann told a news conference. “I would also like to make it clear that I am not disappointed at all by Freiburg or coach Christian Streich for (appealing) it.”

Nagelsmann had said he would not have appealed the result given that there was no impact on the game itself.

The Bavarians, on course for a record 10th straight league crown, are on 66 points with Borussia Dortmund in second place on 57. Dortmund are in action at VfB Stuttgart on Friday before Bayern take on Augsburg a day later.

Freiburg, battling for a Champions League spot, remain in fifth place on 45.

Liga MX, MLS and NWSL teams unite in bid to eliminate homophobia

Teams from Liga MX, Major League Soccer (MLS) and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and others have formed a coalition to eliminate homophobia from soccer, the group said on Friday.

Play Proud United will bring together Angel City FC, Chicago Fire, Philadelphia Union, San Diego Wave FC and Tigres to a five-day residential training program in Los Angeles on April 11, under the auspices of the “Common Goal” soccer movement.

A second training is expected in December with Tigres hosting, with the goal to make stadiums and the soccer community a safer place for the LGBTQ+ community.

Homophobic abuse has persisted in the sport and FIFA sanctioned the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) 12 times for homophobic chanting during their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Liga MX in July last year said it would remove fans from stadiums for making homophobic chants.

A month later, a joint All-Star game between MLS and Liga MX was put on hold because of anti-gay chants.

In the Premier League, Everton condemned supporters for anti-gay chants against a Chelsea player in December and in January Adelaide United’s Josh Cavallo called out homophobic abuse he faced in a game against Melbourne Victory.

“We’re focused on what the soccer industry has the potential to become, and we are creating tangible ways to facilitate this positive transformation,” Play Proud founder Lilli Barrett-O’Keefe said in a statement.

Clubs will send travel delegations that include one team representative and a leader of their supporters’ group, as well as a “community-based” soccer coach from their home city.

“We have seen the evolution of LGBTQ+ visibility on the global and national stage and we are excited to implement this groundbreaking curriculum in our community,” said Wave FC President Jill Ellis, who coached the United States to two World Cup titles.

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