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Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Footballers and their extravagant parties: Dwarf-tossing, dressing up as a Klansman and FIVE-DAY benders… how Lamine Yamal isn't the first star to land himself in trouble for wild celebrations
We all love a party. Whether it's your birthday, Christmas, anniversary, or even if you have just bought a new house and want all your neighbours to come around for a bash, it's not hard to find an excuse to paint the town red. Footballers are no different; they spend the majority of the season monitoring their nutrition, avoiding alcohol, and putting their feet up, in a bid to stay in the best possible shape for when they take to the pitch. However, even the biggest names in the game let their hair down on occasion, predominantly in the festive season, or during the measly three weeks of holiday they are given during the summer. The problem is, many footballers tend to take things too far. Lamine Yamal is the latest star to throw a bash that has landed him in trouble. The Barcelona and Spain star has been widely criticised for an 18th birthday celebratory bash which allegedly 'exploited dwarves' and featured women with 'specific breast measurements' who were claimed to have been 'paid to attend'. On Tuesday, new images of the individuals arriving at the private event were obtained and showed a group of five men with Achondroplasia as they appeared to be getting registered for the party. Another image shows a few women after passing through that checkpoint, as they appear to be headed to the main venue. Yamal's lavish 'mafia-themed' event, held on a private estate, was reportedly attended by around 200 people, with notable attendees including his Barcelona team-mates Robert Lewandowski, Alejandro Balde, and Gavi. The youngster is not the first, and will not be the last, footballer to hit the headlines for the wrong reasons when it comes to partying. Mail Sport takes a look at some of the wildest parties that players have thrown in years gone by. Neymar's 'five-day bender' Most football supporters would guess that Yamal's footballing idol would be Lionel Messi, for obvious reasons. But that's not the case, the now 18-year-old has always had a love for Neymar Jr. Based on the way he dances across the pitch, it makes a lot of sense. Yamal is a perfect blend of both Messi and Neymar. However, it seems that he has not only based his skills on the Brazilian, but also his love of partying. The pair met up in Neymar's homeland for what can only be described as the quietest part of Yamal's summer. A number of videos shared on social media showcased the Barcelona star enjoying life by a swimming pool at his hero's home in Mangaratiba, Rio de Janeiro. The duo can be seen playing volleyball in the clips, as well as swimming in the sunshine, but that is nothing compared to the shenanigans that Neymar has gotten up to in the past. Neymar will know exactly how Yamal feels after a wave of criticism, as in the winter of 2020, the Brazilian was subject to a probe after allegedly organising a five-day party in a resort near Rio de Janeiro for 500 revellers, while Covid-19 continued to rip through Brazil. Prosecutors contacted Neymar amid multiple reports in the Brazilian media that he had a disco built with acoustic protection for a bash that would start on Christmas Day and continue until the New Year. Eyewitnesses had claimed to have seen floods of guests making their way to the event, and many others leaving, with their host aiming to keep the party a secret, which clearly didn't work, by imposing a ban on all mobile phones for attending partygoers. Models, who had flown in for the event, had, however, shared photos minutes away from the mansion Neymar had allegedly rented for the party, with wristbands guaranteeing access over five days. Despite reports that Neymar had spent around £568,000 on the event, the forward denied any involvement. The eventual cancellation followed the party gaining national and international attention during the pandemic. The Brazilian was blasted by a human rights lawyer, who had tweeted at the time, 'The idiot trophy for the day goes to Neymar for his five-day party.' Liverpool's fancy dress controversy It's time to head back to the 1990s, which seemed to be the era where footballers really did some wacky things. Well, going by the story I am about to share, and many more. The Reds had many a reason to host a celebratory bash in the late 1980s and early 90s as they dominated English football, before their rivals, Manchester United, took over the mantle, and regularly threw extravagant parties. However, on one particular occasion, Reds legend John Barnes caused controversy with a fancy dress outfit. The once rapid and skillful winger, who notched up 199 goal contributions during 10 successful years at Anfield, was pictured at a party dressed up as a member of the Ku Klux Klan - an extremist white supremacist group. 'There was a fellow in a white outfit with a pointy hat who was John Barnes, (he was) the Ku Klux Klan,' Bruce Grobbelar once revealed to BT Sport, now known as TNT Sports. Is this not you on the left 🥱 @officialbarnesy — Blanco Freecss (@blanc0b0urne) January 23, 2020 After donning a Ku Klux Klan costume in the 90s, Barnes said he would 'do it again' back in 2020 Barnes has been criticised in years gone by for his outfit choice, but as recently as five years ago, he said he would don the outfit again. 'Absolutely and I'd do it again,' Barnes wrote on X in 2020. 'And go as Hitler to a fancy dress party. 'Fancy dress parties are there for you to make fun of people you go as and the kkk and Hitler are figures to be ridiculed so I see no problem in that... I wouldn't go as Kunta Kinte with chains on...' It has previously been suggested that Barnes' team-mate was on door duty for the party when a man in a white sheet approached, trying to get in. McMahon is believed to have uttered: 'You can't come in like that. John Barnes is in there,' before Barnes is said to have pulled off his hood and replied, 'No, he's in here.' Vinnie Jones' 'dwarf-tossing' In 1994, Vinnie Jones was put in charge of organising Chelsea's Christmas party. The footballer turned Hollywood actor has a reputation for being one of the sports tough guys, so you can imagine the parties he threw were rather wild. However, during a lock-in at a London pub with his ex-Chelsea team-mates, with Jones back playing for Wimbledon at the time, the Welshman opted to play a game that many would look down upon in the current era. 'The idea was to pick up a dwarf and hurl him as far as you could,' said striker Tony Cascarino. 'I had a go, but I can't remember how I did. They were heavier than I expected.' Celtic's trio of arrests We all know that staff Christmas parties end up in carnage. It's not only footballers that have stories which are hard to comprehend; I'm sure many of you reading this have some of your own, am I right? However, have you ever seen anybody get arrested at your work do? I'd like to guess that many of you have just thought of the word 'no', but knowing what they are like, I'm almost certain a handful of readers may have uttered 'yes'. If you happen to have been a member of the Celtic squad in the winter of 2002, and you have for some reason decided to click on this article and carry on reading in anticipation of what's about to come, you will have definitely done the latter. The Bhoys in Green partied hard 23 years ago, with their bash involving bikini-clad waitresses, mechanical bulls, nightclub bouncers, and three sets of handcuffs. The party took place south of the Scottish border in Newcastle, as the players hoped for some anonymity. However, they didn't get it, and when Joos Valgaeren, Johan Mjallby, and Bobby Petta spotted photographers trying to snap pictures of them, they saw red. The trio allegedly damaged cameras worth £12,000, which led to a night in the cells. Neil Lennon was also pictured being led away from the incident by police; however, he was later released without charge. Barton's cigar scandal Joey Barton was notorious for violence during a 15-year professional career, which started at Manchester City, the club he joined at just 15 years of age. On many occasions during his time at the club and beyond, incidents have boiled over, and on one night in 2004, that's exactly what happened. The City squad were all at a fancy dress party, where Barton was believed to be dressed as Jimmy Saville, and the players thought it would be fun to start setting each other's outfits on fire. 'We were on the booze all day Sunday morning, and I think Paul Bosvelt or [Robbie] Fowler started it. They were all in fancy dress in this bar and started setting each other's costumes alight,' Barton told the Anything Goes With James English podcast in 2023. 'So it was the seniors who started it, just burning the edge of it. In five or ten minutes, it went round the whole group, and then it stopped. 'I'd burned [Jamie] Tandy's costume. Someone had got me, and then I'd burned Tandy back - no malice in it. He didn't have the opportunity to get me back, everything gets calmed down, lighters are confiscated from everybody by the security.' However, things got out of hand between Barton and academy star Tandy, with the former stubbing a cigar in the eye of the then-teenager. 'So for some bizarre reason unknown to me this day, I thought it would be a fantastic idea as a payback to him to stump the cigar out on the back of his head,' Barton continued. 'That was the logic, makes no sense now, but at the time, a burn for a burn, he's getting this on the back of his head. 'As I've gone like that to stick it on the back of his head, he's naturally felt me coming and turned towards me, and it's managed to graze his eyelid. He's gone down.' Barton was fined six weeks' wages for the incident, and Tandy was left with permanent scarring to his eyelid. Spurs' sneaky Dublin trip Harry Redknapp is a man of principle, and while manager at Tottenham Hotspur, he trusted his players to be transparent with him. In 2009, the English coach once claimed that his players would 'never take the liberty' of going behind his back to organise a party. If they decided to go under his nose, there would be trouble. Well, sorry, Harry, it appears that you didn't know your players all that well, because that's exactly what they did; they went behind his back. Captain Robbie Keane informed Redknapp that he was planning on taking his team-mates to Dublin, so that they could all play some rounds of golf. However, that was not really his intention. What Keane actually did was lead 16 players on a pub crawl around the Irish capital, which is certainly not short of top-tier drinking holes. Robbie Keane went behind Redknapp's back and took his team-mates to Dublin, which led to an unhappy boss Once Redknapp had found out, he said: 'Wednesday was their day off and Robbie told me they were going to Dublin to play golf. I had no problem with that. I am not happy, and it will be dealt with, and dealt with severely. I was shocked when I heard about it. 'I don't see why parties should happen in today's football - they're more trouble than they're worth.' Every player involved in the night out was fined £20,000, and Spurs went on to lose their next home match to Wolves; the first time the West Midlands team had won in London in 33 years.
RNZ News
15-07-2025
- Sport
- RNZ News
Boxing: Paul Gallen and Sonny Bill Williams meet in the ring, but does it matter if it doesn't mean anything?
By Simon Smale , ABC News Paul Gallen and Sonny Bill Williams. Photo: Photosport Opinion: Instances of two former footy players in their 40s punching on is rarely cause for celebration. Even if the fight in question is covered by the thin veneer of respectability provided by a boxing ring and gloves, there is still little to be pleased about. Footballers-turned-boxers Paul Gallen and Sonny Bill Williams will lace up the gloves and meet in a heavyweight bout in Sydney's Olympic Park on Wednesday. The two ex-NRL forwards will fight over eight two-minute rounds and - hopefully - put an end to one of the least dignified feuds in Australian sport. Aside from settling their post-football career rivalry, it's hard to know what is at stake in this bout. Perhaps pride? Most certainly ego. Financial incentives? That goes without saying. Perhaps it doesn't need to be anything more than that. As boxing continues to evolve and find its way in an era where the long-term impacts of repeated head knocks are becoming all the more apparent and audience tastes are changing from the sport's mid-century heyday, non-title fights are becoming more and more prevalent. Whether it's Jake Paul selling out massive arenas stateside, or Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr meeting at a catchweight despite their vast size differential to satisfy Britain's lust for another instalment of the legendary battles between their respective fathers, boxing is changing. And to those publicising the fights, that doesn't matter. If you've watched any sporting event covered by Channel Nine over the last couple of weeks, you'd know this fight is taking place. Particularly jarring was the interview that took place in the aftermath of Queensland's State of Origin Game III victory over New South Wales a week ago , when viewers were subject to the insalubrious exhibition of a pitch-side Gallen and Williams via video link bellowing insults over each other. Of course, Nine has to promote its own content and doing so to its target audience of football fans is entirely sensible. It's not the act of promotion that's the issue here. It's what's being sold. The juxtaposition between analysis of a genuine sporting triumph and promoting this contest between two aged warriors felt very off. But this fight is grabbing attention across the networks - Fox Sport mentions it when publicising Sunday's rematch between Sebastian Fundora and Tim Tszyu. "Forget the sideshow," Matt Nable, another footy player who has embraced a new performative career now his playing days are done, drawls. "This ain't two old footy players cashing cheques long after their careers ended," he continues - a puzzling and somewhat hypocritical dig given the success the network enjoyed when Gallen was beating up his fellow NRL retirees on its own pay-per-view channel over the years. This is not to criticise the two men for their willingness to get into the ring. Anyone with the courage to step inside the squared circle, arguably the least forgiving arena in all of sport, deserves admiration and respect - to a point. Neither Gallen nor Williams come into this as desperate wannabes, misguidedly believing themselves capable of dancing on the canvas having shadow-boxed in front of the bathroom mirror and watched the Rocky movies a couple of times. Gallen has fought 18 times in his ring career for a record of 15-2-1 (8KOs). Admittedly, there has been a heady whiff of farce about some of those opponents, but Gallen has never once taken anyone lightly, bringing the same determination and professionalism to the ring that characterised his professional football career. Paul Gallen in his rugby league days. Photo: PHOTOSPORT And in amongst the Darcy Lussicks, Ben Hannants and Justin Hodges - who he inexplicably fought twice - on his resume, he has also stood up against some of Australia's best. Justis Huni and Kris Terzievski both may have beaten Gallen in their Australian heavyweight title bouts, but Gallen did better than most have against genuine prospects. And even while Gallen was fighting other ex-footballers, he used the interest generated by him fighting to help promote other Australian fighters and give them sizeable paydays. Boxers like Tim and Nikita Tszyu, Harry Garside and Huni all benefited from Gallen's profile with inflated purses and prize money on pay-per-views across the country. This fight card sees recognised fighters David Nyika and Terzievski fight, as well as young prospects Alex Leapai Jnr and Rahim Mundine, who will all doubtless benefit from the exposure a Gallen fight will bring. For that alone, Gallen deserves an awful lot of credit - although his ring career has earned him AU$25 million to date, according to the man himself, so he has been well rewarded. Sonny Bill Williams. Photo: RNZ/Marika Khabazi Williams too has pedigree of sorts in the ring. His grandfather, Bill Woolsey, was a New Zealand heavyweight champion and Williams emulated him by claiming that same title in a knockout victory over Clarence Tillman in 2012. That was Williams's fifth pro fight and he followed that up with wins against veterans Frans Botha and Chauncy Welliver before stepping away from the ring between 2015 and 2021. When Williams returned to boxing, he fought Waikato Falefehi and Barry Hall for wins, before a knockout defeat against Mark Hunt, his first in the ring, to leave the New Zealand dual-code international with a pro record of 9-1 (4KOs). So, if these are two professional boxers getting in the ring, having talked about the fight taking place desperately for years, what's the problem? Their age doesn't help. Paul Gallen will be 44 years old in under a month. Sonny Bill Williams is 40. Both men have been out of the ring for two-and-a-half-years. Is that even an obstacle? Co-headliner in Tszyu's fight on the weekend, Manny Pacquiao, is 46, hasn't fought anyone since 2021 and hasn't won a fight since 2019 - he is meeting Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight title on Sunday in Las Vegas. If that makes you feel uneasy, it probably should. Studies show that the impacts of concussions linger for longer and are more severe as people age. Other impacts of aging - reduced reaction time, increasing fatigue and muscle weakness - all combine to make the ring even more dangerous as you get older than it is for younger fighters. Mike Tyson's hideous parody of a return to the ring aged 58 against Jake Paul should be a lesson to us all of the dangers of going on too long. OK, so if the age thing isn't an issue, is it because these two are not "the best" boxers in the traditional sense - Williams admitted as much at the press conference on Monday - but celebrities risking their health for a suggested AU$1 million payday? That might be it, just as people have issues with YouTuber Paul and his improbable quest for a world title shot . Boxing fans can hardly clutch at their pearls if that is the issue. Both Gallen and Paul, love or loathe them, have contributed and continue to contribute to the development of the sport by adding casual eyeballs to their events - Paul promotes Amanda Serrano through his promotion company and allows the seven-weight world champion from Puerto Rico to actually earn something approaching a decent wage from the sport. Perhaps it is the nauseating back and forth that has been seemingly going on for years - all around them maybe or maybe not meeting in a ring. Maybe, with no clear villain or outright good guy to root for or against, fans are simply conflicted. Let's not forget that, despite being rival players on the pitch several times over the years in the NRL and in international rugby league, there was never any genuine beef between them as players. Perhaps if there had been, we'd have been spared this unedifying spectacle. Sonny Bill Williams and Clarence Tillman III in action during their fight for the New Zealand Heavyweight Belt title in Hamilton, 2012. Photo: Dion Mellow So, why are they fighting in the first place? Tickets at the Arena in Homebush range from AU$1495 to AU$49. The pay-per-view on Stan Sport is AU$70. As of Tuesday, the tickets are not sold out but they have been selling. For contrast, the Tszyu vs Fundora world title rematch on Sunday (AEDT) will set fight fans back AU$69.95 on Main Event - a fight that, from a sporting context, means something. By that, fight fans will tell you it means a world title, a career-defining moment for Tszyu and Fundora both. A chance for them to add their names to the list of legends in their sport. What, then, does the Gallen-Williams fight mean? Perhaps a bigger question is, does it need to mean anything? "I've never been concerned about legacy," Gallen said. "I'm trained to fight. I've been here for one reason. To have a go." The proof will be in how many people tune in to watch it. But whether people do or don't, perhaps the only error is trying to read anything more into this bout than it being a chance for two middle-aged men to publicly air their grievances and make a sack full of cash at the same time. -ABC
ABC News
15-07-2025
- Sport
- ABC News
Paul Gallen and Sonny Bill Williams meet in the boxing ring, but does it matter if it doesn't mean anything?
Instances of two former footy players in their 40s punching on is rarely cause for celebration. Even if the fight in question is covered by the thin veneer of respectability provided by a boxing ring and gloves, there is still little to be pleased about. Footballers-turned-boxers Paul Gallen and Sonny Bill Williams will lace up the gloves and meet in a heavyweight bout in Sydney's Olympic Park on Wednesday. The two ex-NRL forwards will fight over eight, 2-minute rounds and — hopefully — put an end to one of the least dignified feuds in Australian sport. Aside from settling their post-football career rivalry, it's hard to know what is at stake in this bout. Perhaps pride? Most certainly ego. Financial incentives? That goes without saying. Perhaps it doesn't need to be anything more than that. As boxing continues to evolve and find its way in an era where the long-term impacts of repeated head knocks are becoming all the more apparent and audience tastes are changing from the sport's mid-century heyday, non-title fights are becoming more and more prevalent. Whether it's Jake Paul selling out massive arenas stateside, or Conor Benn and Chris Eubank Jr meeting at a catchweight despite their vast size differential to satisfy Britain's lust for another instalment of the legendary battles between their respective fathers, boxing is changing. And to those publicising the fights, that doesn't matter. If you've watched any sporting event covered by Channel Nine over the last couple of weeks, you'd know this fight is taking place. Particularly jarring was the interview that took place in the aftermath of Queensland's State of Origin Game III victory over New South Wales a week ago, when viewers were subject to the insalubrious exhibition of a pitch-side Gallen and Williams via video link bellowing insults over each other. Of course, Nine has to promote its own content and doing so to its target audience of football fans is entirely sensible. It's not the act of promotion that's the issue here. It's what's being sold. The juxtaposition between analysis of a genuine sporting triumph and promoting this contest between two aged warriors felt very off. But this fight is grabbing attention across the networks — Fox Sport mentions it when publicising Sunday's rematch between Sebastian Fundora and Tim Tszyu. "Forget the sideshow," Matt Nable, another footy player who has embraced a new performative career now his playing days are done, drawls. "This ain't two old footy players cashing cheques long after their careers ended," he continues — a puzzling and somewhat hypocritical dig given the success the network enjoyed when Gallen was beating up his fellow NRL retirees on its own pay-per-view channel over the years. This is not to criticise the two men for their willingness to get into the ring. Anyone with the courage to step inside the squared circle, arguably the least forgiving arena in all ot sport, deserves admiration and respect — to a point. Neither Gallen nor Williams comes into this as desperate wannabes, misguidedly believing themselves capable of dancing on the canvas having shadow-boxed in front of the bathroom mirror and watched the Rocky movies a couple of times. Gallen has fought 18 times in his ring career for a record of 15-2-1 (8KOs). Admittedly, there has been a heady whiff of farce about some of those opponents, but Gallen has never once taken anyone lightly, bringing the same determination and professionalism to the ring that characterised his professional football career. And in amongst the Darcy Lussick's, Ben Hannant's and Justin Hodges's — who he inexplicably fought twice — on his resume, he has also stood up against some of Australia's best. Justis Huni and Kris Terzievski both may have beaten Gallen in their Australian heavyweight title bouts, but Gallen did better than most have against genuine prospects. And even while Gallen was fighting other ex-footballers, he used the interest generated by him fighting to help promote other Australian fighters and give them sizeable paydays. Boxers like Tim and Nikita Tszyu, Harry Garside and Huni all benefited from Gallen's profile with inflated purses and prize money on pay-per-views across the country. This fight card sees recognised fighters David Nyika and Terzievski fight, as well as young prospects Alex Leapai Jnr and Rahim Mundine, who will all doubtless benefit from the exposure a Gallen fight will bring. For that alone, Gallen deserves an awful lot of credit — although his ring career has earned him $25 million to date, according to the man himself, so he has been well rewarded. Williams too has pedigree of sorts in the ring. His grandfather, Bill Woolsey, was a New Zealand heavyweight champion and Williams emulated him by claiming that same title in a knockout victory over Clarence Tillman in 2012. That was Williams's fifth pro fight and he followed that up with wins against veterans Frans Botha and Chauncy Welliver before stepping away from the ring between 2015 and 2021. When Williams returned to boxing, he fought Waikato Falefehi and Barry Hall for wins, before a knockout defeat against Mark Hunt, his first in the ring, to leave the New Zealand dual-code international with a pro record of 9-1 (4KOs). So, if these are two professional boxers getting in the ring, having talked about the fight taking place desperately for years, what's the problem? Their age doesn't help. Paul Gallen will be 44 years old in under a month. Sonny Bill Williams is 40. Both men have been out of the ring for two-and-a-half years. Is that even an obstacle? Co-headliner in Tszyu's fight on the weekend, Manny Pacquiao, is 46, hasn't fought anyone since 2021 and hasn't won a fight since 2019 — he is meeting Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight title on Sunday in Las Vegas. If that makes you feel uneasy, it probably should. Studies show that the impacts of concussions linger for longer and are more severe as people age. Other impacts of aging — reduced reaction time, increasing fatigue and muscle weakness — all combine to make the ring even more dangerous as you get older than it is for younger fighters. Mike Tyson's hideous parody of a return to the ring aged 58 against Jake Paul should be a lesson to us all of the dangers of going on too long. OK, so if the age thing isn't an issue, is it because these two are not "the best" boxers in the traditional sense — Williams admitted as much at the press conference on Monday — but celebrities risking their health for a suggested $1 million payday? That might be it, just as people have issues with YouTuber Paul and his improbable quest for a world title shot. Boxing fans can hardly clutch at their pearls if that is the issue. Both Gallen and Paul, love or loathe them, have contributed and continue to contribute to the development of the sport by adding casual eyeballs to their events — Paul promotes Amanda Serrano through his promotion company and allows the seven-weight world champion from Puerto Rico to actually earn something approaching a decent wage from the sport. Perhaps it is the nauseating back and forth that has been seemingly going on for years — all around them maybe or maybe not meeting in a ring. Maybe, with no clear villain or outright good guy to root for or against, fans are simply conflicted. Let's not forget that, despite being rival players on the pitch several times over the years in the NRL and in international rugby league, there was never any genuine beef between them as players. Perhaps if there had been, we'd have been spared this unedifying spectacle. So, why are they fighting in the first place? Tickets at the Arena in Homebush range from $1,495 to $49. The pay-per-view on Stan Sport is $70. As of Tuesday, the tickets are not sold out but they have been selling. For contrast, the Tszyu vs Fundora world title rematch on Sunday (AEDT) will set fight fans back $69.95 on Main Event — a fight that, from a sporting context, means something. By that, fight fans will tell you it means a world title, a career-defining moment for Tszyu and Fundora both. A chance for them to add their names to the list of legends in their sport. What, then, does the Gallen-Williams fight mean? Perhaps a bigger question is, does it need to mean anything? "I've never been concerned about legacy," Gallen said. "I'm trained to fight. I've been here for one reason. To have a go." The proof will be in how many people tune in to watch it. But whether people do or don't, perhaps the only error is trying to read anything more into this bout than it being a chance for two middle-aged men to publicly air their grievances and make a sack full of cash at the same time.
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
🎥 Ghana, anything but football: Belgian champion is the anti-Bale
Golf is a popular change of pace for many footballers. If you ask Gareth Bale, it probably goes far beyond that. However, for Ousseynou Niang from the Belgian champion Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, it might be better for everyone involved if a ban were issued. His game in the tee box is not entirely safe and not at all royal. For his colleagues, but also for his own well-being. Maybe chess or fishing would be a better choice. Advertisement This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here. 📸 SIMON WOHLFAHRT - AFP or licensors
BBC News
14-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Fifa hailing of Club World Cup 'a fiction' says player union
Fifa's hailing of its Club World Cup has been labelled "nothing more than a fiction" by the president of leading players' global union a scathing statement, Sergio Marchi appeared to compare the world governing body's president Gianni Infantino to the Roman emperor he also claimed Fifa "chose to continue increasing its revenue at the expense of the players' bodies and health".It comes after BBC Sport learned that Fifpro was not invited to a key meeting on player welfare that Infantino held on the eve of the Club World Cup final with representatives from other year, amid a backlash over the expansion of the Club World Cup, Fifpro filed a legal complaint against Fifa, claiming it had abused its role under European competition law by adding more pressure to the fixture has denied the claims, and at the weekend Infantino called the tournament "the most successful club competition in the world".But tensions have now intensified, with Fifpro president Marchi insisting that while the Club World Cup "generated enthusiasm among numerous fans and allowed some of the world's leading figures to be seen in a single tournament… this competition hides a dangerous disconnect with the true reality faced by the majority of footballers around the world".Marchi added: "What was presented as a global celebration of football was nothing more than a fiction created by Fifa, promoted by its president, without dialogue, sensitivity, and respect for those who sustain the game with their daily efforts."A grandiloquent staging inevitably reminiscent of the 'bread and circuses' of Nero's Rome, entertainment for the masses while behind the scenes inequality, precariousness, and the lack of protection for the true protagonists deepen."Fifth Roman emperor Nero threw spectacular games and events which made him popular with ordinary people, but is better remembered for his brutality and cruelty. At the weekend, Fifa said there was a "consensus" with player unions that there should be at least 72 hours of rest between matches, and players should have a rest period of at least 21 days at the end of each season. However, that is a week less than Fifpro had been asking - which represents 66,000 men's and women's players around the world - has previously expressed concern about the extreme heat faced by players in the US during the tournament, demanding more flexibility from Fifa on kick-off times and protocols. Infantino has admitted that the heat was "an issue".But Marchi said, "the tournament was held under unacceptable conditions… that put the players' physical integrity at risk". He added: "This situation must not only be denounced, but must be firmly warned against. What happened cannot be repeated under any circumstances at next year's Fifa World Cup."We have been warning about the overcrowded schedule, the lack of physical and mental rest for players, and the lack of dialogue on the part of Fifa. This way of organising tournaments, without listening to the federation that represents the world's professional footballers' associations, is unilateral, authoritarian, and based solely on a logic of economic profitability, not human sustainability."We cannot continue to play with the health of players to fuel a marketing machine. There is no spectacle possible if the voices of the protagonists are silenced."Fifa has been approached for comment.
