The Ethics Committee of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has refused to provide the Norwegian Football Association with any updates regarding its complaint against Gianni Infantino, President of FIFA, against the backdrop of allegations that he violated the rules of political neutrality related to awarding the “FIFA Peace Prize” to US President Donald Trump.
According to “The Times”, the Norwegian Federation joined an ethics complaint filed by the “Fair Square” human rights group, and requested in a letter to the FIFA Ethics Committee to be informed of the progress of the case and any important procedural developments, in addition to asking it to publish any decisions issued regarding it.
Martin Nguga, a former Rwandan diplomat and politician who heads the investigation chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee, responded to the Norwegian Federation, refusing to fulfill its request, despite stressing that he “understands the importance of transparency.”
In his letter, Nguga explained that only persons subject to the proceedings are considered “parties” to them, and therefore, given the confidential nature of the Ethics Committee proceedings, updates on the existence or status of any proceedings cannot be provided.
The letter added that decisions related to publishing the results are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the applicable regulatory framework.
Ngoga stressed that the Ethics Committee investigators will “carefully and comprehensively study all the information presented to them.”
The Norwegian Federation is also preparing to file a separate complaint with the FIFA Ethics Committee regarding the case of Folarin Balogun, the American national team striker, whose World Cup suspension was lifted after a call made by Trump to Infantino. The FIFA president insists that the decision was made independently.
An analysis of social media platforms showed a complete collapse in the level of public support for Infantino after the cancellation of the project to sell part of the World Cup rights.
Data from the social media analytics company Ravenio, which tracked more than 6,500 posts on Instagram in 33 markets around the world, revealed that posts related to the FIFA president were few earlier this year, and the majority of them were positive.
The scene changed completely after the negative reactions to World Cup ticket prices, the Balogun case, and finally the “FIFA Forward Enterprise” project.
Since The Times revealed the project on July 28, negative posts about Infantino have outnumbered positive ones 55 to one.
According to Rafinio's research, the crisis has led to more than 418 million video views and 44 million interactions around the world.
Slovenian Tade Pogacar will not compete again this season in order to “focus fully on his recovery,” after undergoing surgery on his collarbone, following a fall during the Tour of Spain (Vuelta), his UAE team announced on Saturday.
The team explained on its account in “X”: “After his fall in the Tour of Spain, Tade will not compete again this season, in order to fully focus on his recovery and rehabilitation.”
The Slovenian will therefore miss the World Championship in Montreal in September, the European Championship in Slovenia in early October, and the Lombardy Tour, also in October, which are three races in which he holds titles.
Pogacar suffered a heavy fall during the eighth stage of the Tour of Spain, about 30 kilometers before the finish line, and was forced to withdraw from the race while he was leading the overall standings. Examinations revealed that he suffered a concussion, a displaced fracture of the left collarbone, and a stable fracture of the seventh cervical vertebra, in addition to multiple abrasions, without neurological complications. Pogacar underwent successful surgery to stabilize the clavicle fracture, and later left the hospital to complete recovery.
Ukrainian Yelena Svitolina, seeded ninth, bid farewell to the US Open Tennis Championship (Flushing Meadows), the last of the four Grand Slam tournaments of the current season, in the third round, after losing on Saturday morning to Russian Anna Kalinskaya, with a score of 3-6, 2-6, 3-6.
Svitolina was joined by Czech Karolina Muchova, ranked seventh in the world, who also bid farewell to the tournament at the hands of American Emma Navarro, ranked twenty-sixth.
Czech Linda Noskova, the 2026 Wimbledon champion, continued her successful journey in New York, after defeating American Anne Lee, seeded twenty-ninth, with a score of 6-2, 7-6, 6-2, to reach the fourth round of the US Open for the first time in her fifth participation in the tournament.
Noskova achieved 9 victories in her last 10 matches against players from the top 50 seeds, and her only loss during this series was against American Amanda Anisimova in Cincinnati. In the round of 16, she will face Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, seeded eleventh, who defeated Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, seeded 18th, with a score of 6-3, 6-2.
American Taylor Townsend also continued her successful journey, after she defeated Russian Diana Schneider, seeded fifteenth, 6-2, 7-6, 7-6, in a match that lasted two hours and 27 minutes, to reach the fourth round at the US Open for the second year in a row.
In the women's doubles competitions, sisters Venus and Serena Williams, during their return to doubles competition, lost to 14th seeds Taiwanese Chan Hao-ching and Australian Maya Joynt 3-6, 7-6 (6-8), 6-7 (10-7) on Friday in the first round, in a marathon confrontation that lasted 3 hours.
The two legends who lit up Arthur Ashe Stadium own 14 major women's doubles titles, including two titles in this tournament.
Venus (46 years old) and Serena (44 years old) played a major women's doubles tournament for the first time since 2022, and their recent victory together is due to one of the major titles of the 2018 edition of the Roland Garros tournament.
Serena, who has won 23 major singles titles, returned from a 4-year retirement to play in the last edition of Wimbledon, the third major tournament.
After losing the first set, they recovered in the second, which they won in a tie-break.
The two sisters were able to fight back the break in the third set, and led 5-0 in the 10-point tiebreak in the final set, before losing the match.
Hao-qing and Joint led 4-2 in the deciding set, before the Williams sisters equalized, then lost a tiebreaker.
The winner, Joynt, said after the match: “The atmosphere was surreal, because we were able to play against two legends in tennis, and this is very exceptional.”
