Tag: Norway

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Erling Haaland: Striker surpasses 20 goals for season as Norway beat Israel in World Cup qualifier after protests

Erling Haaland reached 21 goals for the season for club and country as his hat-trick helped Norway to a 5-0 win over Israel in their World Cup qualifier after pro-Palestine protests in Oslo.

Haaland’s latest hat-trick means he has surpassed the 20-goal mark for the season in just 12 games. His second goal of the match – a header from Antonio Nusa’s cross – made it 50 goals for Norway in just 46 matches.

Haaland could have had more had he converted a first-half penalty, but he saw see two attempts from 12 yards saved after referee Szymon Marciniak ordered the first kick to be retaken because Israel goalkeeper Daniel Peretz had moved off his line too soon, before saving his second attempt.

Norway’s other two goals came from Israel own goals – conceded by Anan Khalaili and Idan Nachmias.

Before the game, pro-Palestinian protesters lit flares and waved flags as they marched to the stadium.

Public broadcaster NRK said around 1,000 protesters marched from Oslo’s city centre to Ullevaal Stadion, where they were reportedly planning to stay until the start of the game at 6pm local time.

A banner about the war in Gaza was carried by the protesters in what appeared to be a peaceful march. A few dozen fans stayed to continue protesting outside the stadium once the match had started. Only 3,000 spectators were being allowed into the game amid tight security checks.

A Palestine flag was unfurled inside the stadium early in the game along with a banner which read “Let Children Live.” Some fans jeered the Israel national anthem and others held up red cards in the crowd.

On Friday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino appealed for calm ahead of Israel’s qualifying matches after Israel and Hamas agreed to a peace deal.

After Haaland’s winner for Man City vs Brentford in the Premier League, Jamie Carragher described the striker as English football’s “greatest goalscorer” after the game. The player himself said he is in the form of his life. “I’ve never felt better than I do now,” he told Sky Sports.

So, is Haaland getting even better? His numbers make a compelling case.

He has already made history in the Champions League. With his goal his in 49th appearance in the competition against Napoli, Haaland became the quickest player to reach 50 Champions League goals, smashing the record held by Ruud van Nistelrooy, who needed 62 games, with Lionel Messi next on 66.

For further context, Cristiano Ronaldo, the Champions League’s leading scorer with 140 goals, took 91 games to reach a half-century.

Haaland has of course been similarly prolific in the Premier League. His goal against Brentford took him to 94 in 104 appearances, giving him an unprecedented strike rate which puts him close to becoming the quickest player in the competition’s history to join the 100-club ahead of Alan Shearer, who needed 125 games.

Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero, Thierry Henry and Mohamed Salah are the next-fastest players behind Shearer to reach the milestone, all of them trailing in Haaland’s wake.

Haaland’s astonishing scoring rate makes him an outlier and, with nine years still to run on the extraordinary contract he signed in January, and having only turned 25 in July, he is on course to break just about every Premier League scoring record.

If he continues scoring at the same rate, and factoring his average playing time, Haaland is projected to beat Shearer’s record of 260 Premier League goals in September 2030.

Should he stay at the Etihad Stadium for the duration of his contract, until 2034, the same projection suggests he will reach a staggering total of 389 Premier League goals. (SkySports)

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European soccer body UEFA moves toward vote to suspend Israel

European soccer body UEFA is moving toward a vote to suspend its member federation Israel over the war in Gaza, people familiar with the proposal told The Associated Press on Thursday.

A majority of UEFA’s 20-member executive committee is expected to support any vote in favor of suspending Israeli teams from international play, two sources told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Such a step would prevent Israeli national and club teams from playing in international competitions including next year’s World Cup. Israel’s men’s team is set to resume its World Cup qualifying campaign in two weeks with away games against Norway and Italy.

It is unclear whether world soccer body FIFA will support excluding Israel given the close relations between FIFA’s leader, Gianni Infantino, and President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration’s support to secure the World Cup, and process visas for players, officials and potentially hundreds of thousands of visiting fans, is seen as key to FIFA delivering a successful tournament in the U.S., Canada and Mexico next year.

A State Department spokesperson said it will work to stop any efforts that tried to ban Israel’s team from the World Cup.

FIFA’s ruling council is scheduled to meet in Zurich next week. The 37-member council includes eight from UEFA.

FIFA declined to comment on Thursday. Infantino is based this week at FIFA’s satellite office in Trump Tower in Manhattan while attending events on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly.

Calls to exclude Israel from soccer and other sports have increased in recent weeks amid an outcry over the humanitarian toll of its military campaign in Gaza. Last week Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Israel should be banned from international sports events just like Russia, which was sidelined after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Earlier this week seven independent experts working with the U.N. Human Rights Council urged FIFA and UEFA to suspend Israel from international competitions.

UEFA and its president Aleksander Ceferin signaled a tougher view on Israel last month when banners saying “Stop Killing Children. Stop Killing Civilians” were placed on the field in front of the Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham teams ahead of the Super Cup game in Udine, Italy.

The discussion about whether to ban Israel from international sports comes as Israel faces increasing criticism and isolation over its military campaign, launched in response to the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

Last week, Israel was accused of committing genocide in Gaza by an inquiry commission commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Israel’s sports and culture minister, Miki Zohar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Israel’s soccer federation, Moshe Zuares, have been working “intensively behind the scenes” to block efforts to oust Israel from UEFA, Zohar’s office said Thursday. “The right step now is to act responsibly with the professionals and not to make statements, and this is how all the parties involved in the efforts are acting. We will address this later.”

The decision to ban Russia in 2022 was partly driven by a swath of UEFA member federations refusing to play scheduled games against Russian opponents. No national or club team in Europe has so far refused to play an Israeli opponent, though soccer leaders in Norway and Italy have publicly expressed their unease in recent weeks.

The Norwegian soccer federation also pledged to give its profits from ticket sales for the Oct. 11 game in Oslo to humanitarian work in Gaza by Doctors Without Borders.

Both Italy’s Gabriele Gravina and Lise Klaveness of Norway are elected members of the UEFA executive committee which could vote on suspending Israel. Zuares, the Israeli soccer federation president, is also on the panel as is Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, a member of the Qatari government who is president of European champion Paris Saint-Germain.

Israel enraged Qatar, an influential U.S. ally that has been a key mediator throughout the war, with a Sept. 9 airstrike targeting Hamas leaders in Doha, the Qatari capital.

At the Champions League final in May, PSG fans displayed a banner saying “Stop Genocide in Gaza” in French. UEFA did not open a disciplinary case despite having rules against political messaging inside stadiums.

On Wednesday evening in Greece, Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv played PAOK in the UEFA-organized Europa League. There were pro-Palestinian protests outside the stadium in Thessaloniki and a “Stop Genocide” banner displayed inside. (JapanToday)

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France among six more countries to formally recognise Palestinian statehood

The leaders of six countries, including France, have moved to recognise Palestinian statehood at a high-level summit ahead of the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting in New York.

Alongside France, which co-convened the meeting with Saudi Arabia on Monday in New York, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco said they were recognising a Palestinian state.

Leaders from Australia, Canada, Portugal and the United Kingdom, which formally made the move to recognise Palestine a day earlier, also spoke at the meeting.

“We have gathered here because the time has come,” Emmanuel Macron said at the summit convened to revive the long-delayed two-state solution to end the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“It falls on us, this responsibility, to do everything in our power to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution,” Macron said.

“Today, I declare that France recognises the state of Palestine,” he said.

The additional countries recognising Palestine now join some 147 of the 193 UN member states that had already formally recognised Palestinian statehood as of April this year.

With more than 80 percent of the international community now recognising the state of Palestine, diplomatic pressure has ramped up on Israel as it continues its genocidal war on Gaza, where more than 65,300 Palestinians have been killed and the has been enclave turned into rubble.

Spain, Norway and Ireland recognised Palestinian statehood last year, with Madrid also imposing sanctions on Israel for its war on Gaza.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told the summit on Monday that a two-state solution was not possible “when the population of one of those two states is the victim of a genocide”.

“The Palestinian people are being annihilated, [so] in the name of reason, in the name of international law and in the name of human dignity, we have to stop this slaughter,” Sanchez said.

Macron, in his speech to the summit, also outlined a framework for the creation of a “renewed Palestinian Authority”. The post-war framework envisages an International Stabilisation Force (ISF) that would assist in preparing the Palestinian Authority (PA) to take over governance in Gaza.

PA President Mahmoud Abbas commended the countries that had recognised Palestine. He made his statement to the conference by video because he was denied a visa by the administration of US President Donald Trump to attend the UNGA this week.

“We call on those that have not yet done so to do so to follow suit”, Abbas said, adding that the PA also demanded “support for Palestine’s full membership in the United Nations”.

Israel and the US, which are becoming increasingly isolated internationally on the issue, boycotted the summit, with Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, describing the event as a “circus”.

Although the vast majority of UN member states now recognise Palestinian statehood, new UN member states must have the support of the UN Security Council, where the US has used its veto to block Palestine from becoming a full UN member state.

Speaking at the summit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his support for the two-state solution, framing it as the only viable path towards peace after years of failed negotiations and ongoing violence.

Guterres said that statehood for Palestinians “is a right, not a reward”, rejecting US and Israeli claims that it was a reward for Hamas.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, thanked Macron and the UN chief for their efforts towards a two-state solution, which he said is “the only way to achieve just and lasting peace”.

He said the conference comes at a time when “the Israeli occupation authorities continue their aggression and their brutal crimes” against Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel also continues its “violations in the West Bank, and its repeated attacks on Arab and Muslim countries, with the most recent attack on Qatar”, he said.

“These actions underline Israel’s insistence on continuing aggressive practices that threaten regional and international peace and stability and undermine efforts of peace in the region,” he added. (AlJazeera)