Soccer – Winnipeg Free Press

Fan outcry needed to curb leagues banking blood money

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Friday, Nov. 7, 2025

What do the FA Cup, the NBA, the Tour de France and Sudan’s civil war have in common? They’re all being funded by the United Arab Emirates.

Unsurprisingly, the UAE acknowledges only three of these sponsorships. But its financing of the fourth is a widely-held matter of fact and, increasingly, a major problem for the sporting properties receiving its cash.

Last week, the humanitarian agency Refugees International renewed its call for the NBA to sever its relationship with Emirates — the airline owned by the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund. Emirates is the title sponsor of the annual NBA Cup.

It also holds the naming rights for a Tour cycling team and English football’s FA Cup, and its wordmark can be seen on the shirts of prominent clubs like Arsenal, AC Milan and Real Madrid.

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Aston Villa beats Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 in Europa League amid protests and arrests

Karel Janicek, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Aston Villa beats Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 in Europa League amid protests and arrests

Karel Janicek, The Associated Press 5 minute read Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025

Aston Villa beat Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv 2-0 Thursday in a Europa League game played amid heightened security measures, with more than 700 police officers deployed to deal with possible protests.

Morgan Rogers put through Ian Maatsen in first-half stoppage time for the defender to score from a tight angle and Villa doubled the lead on the hour with Donyell Malen hitting the bottom corner from the penalty spot. It was Villa's third win from games in the competition.

The game at Villa Park had become the center of a political debate after Maccabi fans were banned from attending as West Midlands Police deemed the match to be high risk and cited violence and hate crimes that took place when Maccabi Tel Aviv played at Ajax in Amsterdam last season.

The ban attracted widespread criticism including from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who said it was the wrong decision.

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Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025

Aston Villa's Ian Maatsen, right, scores his side's opening goal during the Europa League soccer match between Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Birmingham, England, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darren Staples)

David latest casualty of Juventus-level scrutiny

Jerrad Peters 6 minute read Preview

David latest casualty of Juventus-level scrutiny

Jerrad Peters 6 minute read Friday, Oct. 31, 2025

You can count on one hand the number of European clubs that face as much scrutiny as Juventus. Take Thursday’s hiring of new manager Luciano Spalletti, for example.

First, there are the rumours that he’ll soon arrive at the Continassa training ground. Then the details of his contract are leaked. A crowd of supporters gathers outside Continassa. Spalletti is expected to lead the day’s training. He arrives at Continassa.

Next he is shuttled to the J Medical facility — about 1.5 kilometres across the complex. He leaves J Medical after slightly more than an hour. He greets the fans. Damien Comolli, the club’s GM, is now in his car. Spalletti is shuttled back to Continassa. Turns out he will not lead training. His contract is confirmed. The assistants are named. A press conference is scheduled for Friday.

This has all taken place in a single afternoon, and not a gesture, chin stroke or smoothing of a suit has gone unanalyzed by numerous TV and radio stations, at least three sports dailies, the mainstream press, fan bloggers and minute-by-minute logs on social media.

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Friday, Oct. 31, 2025

Alberto Saiz / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES
Juventus forward Jonathan David reacts after missing a scoring chance during the Champions League opening phase match on Oct. 1 against Villarreal.

Valour playing for pride with club set to miss playoffs for seventh straight year

Joshua Frey-Sam 6 minute read Preview

Valour playing for pride with club set to miss playoffs for seventh straight year

Joshua Frey-Sam 6 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025

One year ago, Valour FC had everything to play for as it concluded its regular-season schedule at home, still mathematically in the hunt for a playoff berth.

On Saturday, when the club hosts the last home game of the regular season against the Halifax Wanderers at Princess Auto Stadium (2 p.m.), the stakes will be the polar opposite.

The penultimate match of the 2025 campaign will be inconsequential for Winnipeg’s pro soccer side, which, with six wins, 15 losses and five draws, finds itself in sixth place and 13 points back of the Wanderers (10-10-6) for the fifth and final playoff spot in the Canadian Premier League.

It’s a grim scenario that fans have become all too familiar with over the last seven years. Valour is the CPL’s only original franchise that has never qualified for the post-season, and Vancouver FC — which joined in 2023 — is the only other club in that boat.

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Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025

JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES
Valour FC’s captain Raphael Ohin (left) defends against Pacific FC’s Yann Toualy the last time the two clubs met. Valour hosts its final home game of the regular season Saturday against the Halifax Wanderers before concluding the season on the road against Pacific on Oct. 18.

Froese heats up as Valour pushes for playoff berth

Joshua Frey-Sam 6 minute read Preview

Froese heats up as Valour pushes for playoff berth

Joshua Frey-Sam 6 minute read Friday, Sep. 19, 2025

Teams tend to go as their best players do, and that is proving to be the case for Valour FC.

Winnipeg’s pro soccer club is making a late push up the Canadian Premier League table, and much of their positive results as of late can be attributed to the emergence of homegrown talent Kianz Froese, who has accounted for three assists and a pair of goals in the club’s last two contests, respectively.

Froese, a Cuban-born and Winnipeg-raised attacking midfielder who joined Valour halfway through the season after a year away from pro soccer, suffered a hamstring injury shortly after returning to game action.

The ailment sidelined him for three weeks, but he’s looked like a different player since returning to the field.

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Friday, Sep. 19, 2025

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Winnipeg product Kianz Froese has racked up two goals and three assists in Valour FC’s last two games as the club pushes for a franchise first post-season berth starting with a road clash against Cavalry on Saturday.

Rashford and Bellingham face off in El Classico

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Preview

Rashford and Bellingham face off in El Classico

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Friday, Oct. 24, 2025

It isn’t often you get a “first” in El Clasico. Not when Real Madrid and Barcelona have been battling for more than a century, and not after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi completely reconfigured the rivalry’s statistical categories.

There will be one during Sunday’s match at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu (10:15 a.m., TSN3).

For the very first time, a pair of Englishmen will go head-to-head in club football’s most famous contest. On the home side: Madrid’s Jude Bellingham, born in Stourbridge in the West Midlands. On the guests’: Barca’s Marcus Rashford, born in Manchester.

Both are England internationals. Both are coming off disappointing seasons. Both scored midweek in the Champions League. Both have well-known attitude problems.

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Friday, Oct. 24, 2025

MATT SLOCUM / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES
Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham.

Lens one win away from first place in Ligue 1

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Preview

Lens one win away from first place in Ligue 1

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Friday, Dec. 12, 2025

Northern France is having a moment. In the context of top-flight French football, it’s not every day, or year, or decade, that they get one. So, we’ll let them have it, and we’ll even raise a festive glass of cidre chaud. After all, Racing Club de Lens, the country’s second-most northern club, is about to enter the winter break atop Ligue 1.

More on Lens in a moment. First, it’s important to explain what we mean when we say “northern France.”

Essentially, we’re looking at the administrative regions along the Channel coast — Brittany, Normandy and Hauts-de-France — as well as Grand Est, as it borders both Belgium and Luxembourg. Eight of Ligue 1’s 18 teams call it home (we’re excluding Nantes, historically of Brittany but officially of Pays de la Loire), and between them they’ve won 12 titles.

That’s 12 titles, for the record, over 112 seasons. Not great.

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Friday, Dec. 12, 2025

Jean-Francois Badias / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES
Lens’ head coach Pierre Sage understands his players and knows how to help them extract the best versions of themselves.

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Winnipeggers reunited on Vancouver FC

Taylor Allen 6 minute read Preview

Winnipeggers reunited on Vancouver FC

Taylor Allen 6 minute read Monday, Dec. 8, 2025

It was the week of the Canadian Premier League’s U Sports Draft and Joseph Green was imagining how cool it would be if he and fellow Winnipegger Nico Nadeau ended up on the same club.

There’s no need to imagine now.

Vancouver FC made it a reality Nov. 28 when they selected Green third overall before choosing Nadeau at the start of Round 2 with the No. 10 pick.

“I kid you not, I think I was more excited when he got drafted than when I got drafted,” said Green, an 18-year-old defender who plays at Mount Royal University.

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Monday, Dec. 8, 2025

Vancouver FC photo
Joseph Green says ‘it feels great’ to have all his hard work pay off.

World Cup draw cartoonish, loathsome and repugnant

Jerrad Peters 4 minute read Preview

World Cup draw cartoonish, loathsome and repugnant

Jerrad Peters 4 minute read Friday, Dec. 5, 2025

Believe it or not, a men’s World Cup will begin in just a few months. For the 42 national teams already qualified for the five-week, three-country, sixteen-city competition, a schedule has even begun to emerge. The full 48-team field will not be known until the last day of March, however, as FIFA has bloated the thing beyond recognition.

Anyway, if you’ve already forgotten that the Group Stage Draw was conducted on Friday, don’t worry. You’re not alone. The event that took place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., had little to do with the soccer set to kick off 187 days from now.

Instead, what we saw, what we’ll remember, was a clumsy pageant that put into speeches and songs what we’ve known for some time: that FIFA has completed its metamorphosis from sports organization to the promotional vehicle of a depraved American administration.

The actual draw took place the same day the United States, which will co-host the World Cup with Canada and Mexico, announced it would expand its travel ban to more than 30 nations — presumably including, as U.S. President Donald Trump described them in a tantrum earlier this week, “shithole countries” like Haiti and “garbage” like Somalia. Haiti, incidentally, will be a World Cup participant.

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Friday, Dec. 5, 2025

Alex Brandon / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
U.S. President Donald Trump (centre) placed the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize medal on himself in Napoleonesque fashion Friday that FIFA President Gianni Infantino (right) had awarded him at the 2026 World Cup Group Stage Draw alongside the macabre inaugural trophy.

Here’s to hoping footy only talking point after Derby del Sole

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Preview

Here’s to hoping footy only talking point after Derby del Sole

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Friday, Nov. 28, 2025

Officially, Neapolitans are banned from buying tickets for il Derby del Sole at Stadio Olimpico. In actuality, at least 15,000 Partenopei will attend the match between their SSC Napoli and archrival AS Roma on Sunday (1:45 p.m., FuboTV).

An even greater number will be present in the Italian capital. They tend not to arrive quietly (trust me), and on Friday afternoon the local authorities convened to discuss security protocols. A 24-hour general strike halted train traffic from Thursday night, so they had a bit longer than usual to lay out their plans.

They’ll have needed it. Inexplicably, the match will kick off at 8:45 p.m. in Rome — an entire day requiring heightened police presence and public safety measures in the city centre. And, because the stadium will only empty sometime around 11:30 p.m., an already tense situation will inevitably extend into Monday.

Oh, and the game will involve two of the top sides in Serie A.

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Friday, Nov. 28, 2025

Antonio Calanni / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES
Gian Piero Gasperini will be watching the Derby del Sole from the press box Sunday. Roma’s new manager will be serving a suspension for lashing out at the referee during last weekend’s win at Cremonese.

‘It felt like a piece of me was ripped away’

Taylor Allen 5 minute read Preview

‘It felt like a piece of me was ripped away’

Taylor Allen 5 minute read Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025

Driving past the former home of Valour FC on the weekend was enough to bring Raphael Ohin to tears.

The 30-year-old defensive midfielder — the only player to suit up in all seven of the club’s seasons, a captain since 2024, and a fan favourite for his energy and effort on the pitch — suddenly has no reason to pull into that parking lot anymore.

The Winnipeg Football Club announced Friday that Valour is folding.

“When I saw the stadium, it broke my heart,” said an emotional Ohin in a phone interview with the Free Press on Tuesday.

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Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025

JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS FILES
Valour FC’s Raphael Ohin defends against York United’s Julian Altobelli in a game back in August. Ohin is more upset that the up-and-coming players he works with won’t have the opportunity to play professionally in their own backyard.

An early Christmas wish list for footy fans

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Preview

An early Christmas wish list for footy fans

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Friday, Nov. 21, 2025

It is a month before Christmas, and from shopping malls to holiday markets to winter wonderlands, untold Santa Clauses in umpteen countries have been hearing the whispered wishes of football clubs, players and fans.

Due to Santa-wisher privilege, we can never know for sure just what the Jolly Old St. Nicks have been hearing. But that won’t stop us from guessing. After all, who isn’t curious what the other kid has wrapped under the tree?

Barcelona: a wish for Harry Kane

We don’t even have to listen closely to learn what Barcelona wants for Christmas, as they don’t have an indoor voice. “HARRY KANE, PLEASE!” And they’ll likely get him, although they’ll have to be patient. The 32-year-old will see out the season at Bayern Munich, where he has twice as many Bundesliga goals this season as the next highest scorer. But he also has a release clause of 65 million euros that Barca will be happy to pay in the spring, especially as Robert Lewandowski’s contract expires in June. Santa might even be on commission for this one.

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Friday, Nov. 21, 2025

Dave Thompson / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES
Manchester City striker Erling Haaland (centre) needs one more goal to take Alan Shearer’s title of fastest player to 100 goals in Premier League history.

Canadian men’s team consistently full of surprises

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Preview

Canadian men’s team consistently full of surprises

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Friday, Nov. 14, 2025

Every game tells us something. It’s the case whether a team has run up the score in a trouncing or come up just short after 90 minutes.

And yes, while it can be tricky, we can even find insights in those contests disrupted by an early red card and contorted by extended numerical advantage, or disadvantage.

No match is a throw-away. Not even Thursday’s scoreless draw between Canada and Ecuador in which Ali Ahmed was ejected — rightfully — in the sixth minute.

Let’s start there.

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Friday, Nov. 14, 2025

Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Canada’s Richie Laryea (right) has been a physical presence who plays on the edge every time he sports the Maple Leaf.

Atlanta United hires coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino a year after he left Inter Miami and Lionel Messi

The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

Atlanta United hires coach Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino a year after he left Inter Miami and Lionel Messi

The Associated Press 2 minute read Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025

ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta United is bringing back Gerardo “Tata” Martino as coach, signing him through the 2027 season.

Atlanta made the announcement on Thursday, re-hiring the man who led the team to the Major League Soccer title in 2018 and was named coach of the year.

“This moment is not about revisiting the past but about looking ahead and building a new foundation while embracing the continuing evolution of what it takes to contend in MLS on a regular basis,” team owner Arthur M. Blank said.

Martino left Inter Miami nearly a year ago, citing personal reasons after one season with the club. He has won 11 trophies on the club and international level in North America, South America and Europe.

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Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025

Relentless international window expansions detrimental

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Preview

Relentless international window expansions detrimental

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

Anyone seen Cole Palmer lately? How about Exequiel Palacios? At least Ousmane Dembélé, surely?

If not, it’s likely because the Chelsea, Bayer Leverkusen and Paris Saint-Germain players, who represent England, Argentina and France, respectively, are currently out injured.

Now, they’ve not suffered broken bones, major ligament damage or concussions. Their injuries were not sustained in tackles, knee-on-knees or any other sort of on-field clashes. No, they picked up their knocks over time — time they spent playing too much football without adequate rest and recovery.

They have stress injuries, and they’re not alone.

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Friday, Oct. 10, 2025

Emilio Morenatti / The Associated Press files
The 18-year-old Barcelona and Spain megastar, Lamine Yamal, has barely had a break in two years and has been taking painkillers to keep him going.

Eagles winning against big teams on big stages

Jerrad Peters 6 minute read Preview

Eagles winning against big teams on big stages

Jerrad Peters 6 minute read Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025

Last April, just four days after a 5-2 dusting by Manchester City, Crystal Palace was whipped 5-0 away to Newcastle.

It was a “demolition,” The Guardian declared at the time — a beatdown so thorough that “the description ‘shock and awe’ (did) not really do it justice.”

Speaking to reporters post-match, Eagles manager Oliver Glasner conceded his side hadn’t been good enough to offer “competitive opposition” at St. James’ Park. “It was a game where nothing worked,” he said. “Sometimes you have games and it’s better to throw them into the bin, and this is what we will do.”

It’s exactly what they did.

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Saturday, Oct. 4, 2025

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