Category sport-news

Even if Manchester City salvaged a disappointing season by winning the Club World Cup, manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that he and his players do not deserve a bonus.

Guardiola’s team are currently fifth in the Premier League and has lost both the Champions League and League Cup.

City, who have won the English title for the previous four years, could finish the year without a major trophy for the first time since Guardiola’s inaugural season in charge in 2016/17.

With a quarter-final match against Bournemouth looming on Sunday, their only chance of capturing domestic silverware is in the FA Cup.

Guardiola believes City are performing so poorly that they will not deserve a bonus from the large prize pool at the post-season tournament in the United States, even if they win the FA Cup or the Club World Cup in June and July.

The Club World Cup winners will receive up to $125 million in prize money, with a total prize pot of $1 billion going to the 32 participating clubs, according to FIFA, the world’s governing body.

This season, we don’t deserve it. This season, we don’t deserve a bonus. Guardiola stated to reporters on Friday, “I don’t know how much if we win,” but the club benefits.

A Spanish appeals court overturned former Brazilian football player Dani Alves’ conviction for rape on Friday, arguing that his trial had “shortcomings” and “inaccuracies” and was biased.

A young woman raped in a Barcelona nightclub’s VIP bathroom on December 31, 2022, and Alves was given a four-and-a-half year jail sentence in February of that year.

After posting the one million euros ($1.1 million) bail set by the court, the 41-year-old, who won the Champions League three times with Barcelona, was released from jail in March. He is currently appealing his release.

The player’s conviction was “annulled” by the appeals court, which according to the appeals court’s four judges “unanimously” accepted.

The court also rejected the public prosecutors’ appeal for a nine-year, more severe jail term.

In its decision, the court said that Alves’ trial contained “a number of gaps, inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and contradictions regarding the facts, the legal assessment, and its consequences.”

According to the prosecution’s witness statements, the victim claimed that Alves had violently forced her to have sex despite begging him to let her go, causing her “anguish and terror” while she testified behind a screen to protect her identity during the trial.

Alves first claimed he had never met the woman, but later later claimed they had sex over a sexual encounter.

The victim’s attorneys claimed during the trial that she had been “glued” to the player while dancing in a nightclub.

Alves was a key member of a formidable Barcelona team that won 126 caps for Brazil and the Copa America twice, winning the title six times.

Along with Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus, he also won European league titles.

The Madrid court hearing on Friday announced that legendary coach Carlo Ancelotti will go on trial next week for allegedly failing to report income to the country’s tax office.

The 65-year-old Italian is accused of having allegedly cost Spain’s Treasury more than one million euros ($1.1 million) in unreported earnings from image rights in 2014 and 2015 and is being sentenced to four years and nine months in prison.

According to a court spokesman, the trial will begin on Wednesday and will likely last two days.

Read more about the Premier League’s Alternate Transfer Window to accommodate the Club World Cup.

Ancelotti, who has won a total of five Champions League titles, including three with Real, must be present, he added.

Even though he himself claimed to be a tax resident in Spain and indicated that his residence was in Madrid, the prosecution accuses him of only declaring the personal remuneration received from Real Madrid in his tax returns for those two years.

They accuse Ancelotti of allegedly starting a “confusing” and “complex” system of shell companies to stifle his extra income from both his image rights and those of others, including real estate.

Ancelotti&nbsp was ordered to go on trial for the affair in a Spanish court in 2023, but there was no fix date.

When asked about the case, Angelotti claimed last year that the affair was “an old story that I hope will be resolved soon.”

He joined Real Madrid in 2013, leaving in May 2015, and then became a Bayern Munich employee the following year.

The former international midfielder from Italy, who won the European Cup twice with AC Milan before making his Real Madrid debut in 2021.

Along with his success in the Champions League, he has also won domestic titles with Real Madrid and Milan, Chelsea in England, Bayern Munich in Germany, and Paris Saint-Germain in France.

This summer, Manchester City and Chelsea will have two transfer windows in the Premier League to allow them to sign players for the Club World Cup.

In a special window between June 1 and June 10, clubs in the English top flight will now be able to hire and retain players.

Any national association with teams competing in the new expanded Club World Cup, which kicks off in the United States on June 14, is eligible to register for the exceptional registration period that was approved by FIFA in October.

With a $1 billion prize pot on offer to the 32 teams competing, the winners of the competition could win up to $125 million in prize money.

Due to winning the Champions League in 2021 and 2023, respectively, Chelsea and City are England’s two representatives.

READ MORE: Alexander-Arnold’s Choice Between Dream Madrid Move and Lasting Liverpool Legacy

Trent Alexander-Arnold from Liverpool could be signed from Real Madrid sooner than expected, with the England international reportedly close to joining the European champions on a free transfer when his deal expires on June 30.

The Premier League window will be closed again from June 11 to June 15 and reopen on June 16 through Monday, September 1. Due to FIFA regulations, the window can only be closed for a maximum of 12 weeks.

Following allegations that a national team goalkeeper had assisted in the rigging of an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier, Kenya on Thursday began a match-fixing investigation.

The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) acknowledged that it was aware of online videos that featured goalkeeper Patrick Matasi, which raised concerns about match-related potential manipulation.

The Kenya football board stated in a statement that FIFA upholds the integrity of football and has launched an official investigation in collaboration with FIFA, CAF, and other relevant authorities.

READ MORE: &nbsp, Mbappe, and Vinicius Among Real Madrid Stars Under Investigation by the UEFA Conduct Commission.

We reaffirm our zero tolerance for match-tasting and are committed to keeping our competition’s credibility afloat.

An unnamed man is reportedly speaking with Matasi about a plan to fix a match in exchange for money in the secretly filmed online amateur video that was seen by AFP.

In a 2025 AFCON qualifier in Yaounde in October, the former AFC Leopards and Tusker goalkeeper, who also played for Ethiopian side Coffee Sports Club, participated in Kenya’s 4-1 defeat to former African champions Cameroon.

Kenya’s chances of making it to the Moroccan finals were thwarted by the defeat, which also resulted in Engin Firat resigning as coach.

Matasi did not play in the recent World Cup qualifiers against Gabon and Gambia because of the new coach’s suspension, Benni McCarthy.

In recent years, Kenyan football has experienced the dark side of match-fixing errors, with 14 players and two coaches being suspended by the FKF in January 2023 as a result of a tip-off about cheating in the national league.

FIFA banned four Kenyan-based players from playing in league games in February 2020, one of whom was permanently banned for life.

Following the same scandal, five Kenyan referees received additional suspensions.

Independent think tank the Kenya Institute of Public Policy Research and Analysis warned that match-fixing had spread to all levels of Kenyan football, from grassroots competitions to professional leagues.

In a report from January 2024, the organization stated that “This has left a trail of disillusionment among fans and undermined the integrity of football.”