Former Malaysian captain Safiq Rahim became the third football player to be attacked in a week after two attackers broke his car’s window and threatened him with a hammer.
He had just finished practicing with Johor Darul Ta’zim, one of Asia’s best football teams and the home of the crown prince of the Johor royal family when he was attacked late in Johor. Fortunately, he was not hurt.
In a post, the athlete declared: “Didn’t expect to be attacked near the Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) training centre. We need to be vigilant.”
“Two men on a motorcycle suddenly approached my car armed with a hammer and smashed my rear car windscreen… I stopped the car and I was in fear,” he added.
Rahim and other attacks
Two more assaults on football players in the country of South-east Asia occurred within the same week. Faisal Halim, a right-winger from Malaysia, was doused with acid outside Kuala Lumpur’s capital, leaving him in the intensive care unit of a hospital with fourth-degree burns. Moreover, a robbery outside his home in the eastern state of Terengganu injured his teammate Akhyar Rashid.
According to Azli Mohamad Noor, the chief of police in Kuala Terengganu, the two occurrences were unconnected.
As added protection, Hamidin Mohamad Amin, the President of the Football Association of Malaysia, advised well-known football players to prioritize personal protection measures, such as hiring bodyguards.
The upcoming 2024 Los Angeles Grand Prix showcases athletes with talents set to compete against one another and claim victories in their athletic careers. In the women’s 200-meter dash event, a compelling match-up between two of the best athletes in the world awaits.
Gabrielle Thomas is undoubtedly one of the fastest athletes to ever run in the said division. Currently, she is ranked as the fourth fastest of all time in the women’s 200-meter category, with an exceptional record of 21.60 seconds.
However, Abby Steiner is set to compete with Thomas once again as she comes back to the athletics field.
Los Angeles Grand Prix: Steiner VS Thomas
Steiner and Thomas had competed against each other at three different events at the same given distance, wherein the former won once, and the latter twice.
Back in the 2022 US Nationals, Steiner won her first match-up against Thomas, with a record performance of 21.7 seconds. In 2023, Thomas bounced back by picking up her speed and taking the win in Paris with a time of 22.05. At the 2023 US Championships, Thomas ran and won her legendary race with a record of 21.60 seconds.
This year, both athletes have exhibited strength. Thomas successfully places her name in the top spots of the 2024 World Athletic Relays. She ran at the 4×100 and 4×400 relay division, and had a record of under 50 seconds in the latter event. It is important to note that Thomas is undefeated in any sprinting events this year.
On the other hand, Steiner has been showing great improvements, and she is becoming a threat to snatch Thomas’ wins. She is also undefeated in any individual race that she has competed in so far.
The 2024 Los Angeles Grand Prix will definitely be thrilling, with two amazing women vying for the number one spot.
SINGAPORE: Just when the Singapore men’s football team has been eliminated in this year’s Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, a video clip is circulating online where marathoner Soh Rui Yong says the national team needs Chinese players.
The clip, posted on the Yahoo Southeast Asia TikTok account on April 24, was shared on r/SingaporeRaw on Tuesday (May 9).
In it, the outspoken runner points out in a sports podcast that the Chinese, “the dominant race in Singapore,” is not well-represented in the football team.
“Oneof the players I follow in football is Gabriel Quak. I couldn’t name another Chinese footballer whose making waves in the football scene.
“And even Gabriel Quak has now come to the age where I think he’s doing real estate on the side or planning for his exit from football.
“It was always exciting watching Gabriel play. Exciting left-footed winger.”
Mr Soh’s main concern, he explained, is that the “talent pool is limited to a minority race.”
“I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that (it) cannot lead to success, but you’re just severely limiting your talent pool,” he added.
Local Reddit users had a lot of opinions on Mr Soh’s take.
“I think the ethnic Chinese in Singapore are just more interested in watching/betting on football than playing it.
“And it’s not as if we stop Chinese from playing football and encourage our Malays and Indians to swim right?” one wrote.
“Chinese are not encourage(d) enough to play sports unless can afford, parents in sports or really outstanding.
How many Chinese parents go crazy if their child missed training but if they missed tuition… God’s wrath,” answered another.
However, one pointed out: “No I think Chinese in Singapore love playing football too. They just don’t see it as a career.”
To this, another answered, “I’m sure many are. We just aren’t that good to want to turn pro.”
One pointed out, “No, turning pro means earning a miserable salary. That’s why the youth players, who are often Chinese, quit. They trained hard for football CCA, and then when they see the path ahead, they nope out. They can earn more using their poly diploma; and some of them qualified for uni.”
Another opined, “We do not have that cultural connection to football like football countries. I think we were pretty good in the 80-90s? When there isn’t so much rules or regulations. Friends just get together at the void deck and play football.”
It was reported that Ali Beiranvand, the goalkeeper for Iran had his nose injured whilst colliding into a teammate during their opener. To top it off, the Iran vs England ended badly for the Middle Eastern country, where Iran lost in the 6-2 match.
He deflected a cross but while deflecting it, he bumped into Majid Hosseini. There was an emergency stop to the match and Beiranvand was immediately treated in the pitch for a couple of minutes by the team’s medical staff.
Later on he was allowed to continue to represent Iran regardless of having a bloodied nose and clothing. He also appeared disoriented. He collapsed to the turf shortly after the game started and it was signalled to the bench that he needed to be replaced.
A remark was made by the Professional Footballers’ Association which was, “We have seen a clear example, on the world’s biggest stage, of the current concussion protocols not being applied under match pressure.”
Fans reaction towards Ali Beiranvand’s broken nose
These are the images after Beiranvand’s collision with Majid Hosseini. He had tissue paper clogging up his nose in order for it to stop bleeding. It is unclear why he was still allowed to go on field after such a horrible injury, but we might never know.
FIFA’s World Cup concussion protocol has been called “an utter disgrace” by a leading head injury charity after Iran goalkeeper Ali Beiranvand was allowed to continue playing against England after clashing heads with a teammate.https://t.co/Hq9nv0WiLW
FIFA has been called an “utter disgrace” by a leading head injury charity organisation. Fans’ response was sarcastic, they claimed that the two players “hardly touched” each other, when in reality, the photos showed otherwise.
The criticism against FIFA has increased after this incident. However, fans are no longer surprised at their actions and behaviours as they have done a lot of damage as it is for this year’s World Cup.
If the situation with Beiranvand was not bad enough, Iranian fans protested against the brutality of the country’s regime. Iranians who attended the match demanded human rights for women in the country.
Image of Ali Reza Beiranvand (right), from Wikipedia.
Other football fans criticised Kane and their stance for the LGBT community and mentioned that he should have fought for a cause like this. Another fan asked a question which was regarding all the protests in the Qatar World Cup, as it is filled with the LGBT protests, womens rights protest and labour rights.
The question after that was why was Qatar even selected. FIFA would have most definitely known that this might be an issue for the westerners. Fans were hoping that England would lose the match, but unfortunately, they won.
SINGAPORE: “There are f***ing kids here. Stop it now,” said Liverpool left-back Andrew Robertson to fans at the recently-concluded Festival of Football (July 25 to Aug 2) at the National Stadium.
A video of one encounter has gone viral after fans got a little over-eager to meet the star. Robertson, widely perceived as one of the best full-backs in the world, can be heard saying, “Guys, stop f***ing pushing.”
The athlete telling people to chill was caught on video by TikTok user @fyqaaharsh, who then posted it on the platform on Aug 2. The video has got three million views.
Robertson might have been more alarmed than usual because there were children around who could have got hurt if things got a little too rowdy. The Scottish footballer and his wife have two young children.
The incident occurred on Sunday, July 30, after Liverpool won the game against Leicester City, and the players walked around for a bit of a meet-and- greet, reported Mothership.
The TikTok user appears to be somewhat of a super fan, captioning her video, “Alexa, replay this 1000 times #robertson”
And she seemed especially happy because, as she showed in her next video, Robertson signed her jersey even as he was telling fans to calm down “amidst the chaos.”
Football is a beautiful game but when it involves huge crowds, there can be disasters and lives could be lost in the mismanagement of the situation.
The history of football is littered with dangerous moments when people lost their lives either through mobs attacking each other inside stadiums or an infrastructure disaster that could have been avoided.
And Indonesia has now joined the list of terrible disasters that have tainted not only the name of football, but also the country’s organisation of large-scale events.
Delays in unlocking the Kanjuruhan Stadium gates after violence erupted at the end of a football match, according to Indonesia’s national football association, contributed to a crowd crush in which at least 131 people died.
The Football Association of Indonesia announced a permanent ban on the host team’s chief executive and security coordinator for failing to secure the field or promptly issue a command to unlock the gates.
Now, mothers and fathers are up in arms against the country’s soccer association and the authorities, claiming justice for their dead children.
Arema FC fans stormed the pitch after their team lost 2-3.
There are videos showing them throwing bottles and blunt objects at each other.
The first round of tear gas was fired by police, causing mass panic as people fled for the exits. Many people were killed or suffocated in the ensuing stampede.
The parents and the public in general are asking how this could have happened and why did their children die so abruptly.
While answers will come soon, this disaster adds to other such incidents that took place in or around a soccer stadium.
The list of other stadium disasters
The Heysel Disaster
On May 1985, in Belgium, thirty-nine fans died and more than 600 were injured in fan violence before the European Cup final between Juventus and Liverpool at the Heysel Stadium. Link to the video.
It is one of the most talked about stadium disasters in the history of soccer. It is always used as a reference when people speak about fan wars during cup finals.
Hillsborough, Sheffield
The Hillsborough disaster is another of the most well-known stadium disasters. Link to the Video.
On April 15, 1989, 96 Liverpool football fans were killed when they went to watch their team play against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup Semi Final in the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield.
The stadium was packed with 50,000 people. Over 3,000 fans were crammed into a standing-room-only area with a safe capacity of only 1,600 people.
Police opened an exit gate and people rushed inside to relieve a bottleneck of Liverpool fans trying to enter the venue before kickoff.
Nepal, March 1988
In a hailstorm, a stampede towards locked exits at Nepal’s national soccer stadium in Kathmandu killed more than 90 fans.
Guatemala, October 1996
An avalanche of fans fell down seats and a flight of stairs at a World Cup qualifying match between Guatemala and Costa Rica in Guatemala City, killing up to 82 people and injuring at least 147.
Egypt, February 2012
Fans rioted at the conclusion of a match between rivals Al-Masry and Al-Ahly in Port Said. The Egyptian league was suspended for two years after at least 73 people were killed and over 1,000 were injured.
