European sanctions on Guendouzi, Infantino crises, and the results of the US Open tennis tournament

The European Football Association (UEFA) decided to ban Matteo Guendouzi, the Turkish player from Fenerbahce, for two matches in the Champions League due to his provocations and insults during and after the exciting match at the French Olympique Lyon stadium in the preliminary round of the continental championship.

Guendouzi, a former Arsenal and Marseille player, was at the heart of the events that took place in the match in which Fenerbahce won 2-1 on August 26, a result that led the Turkish team to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in 18 years, before events escalated into mass clashes after the match.

Guendouzi, 27 years old, will miss Fenerbahce's first two matches in the Champions League, against its Italian guest, Roma, next Thursday, and then against its English host, Aston Villa, on October 14.

UEFA also imposed a fine of 50,000 euros ($58,000) on Guendouzi, after convicting him of violating the rules of appropriate behavior, insulting players or people attending the match, and provoking the fans.

Guendouzi raised his middle finger in the face of Lyon fans during the warm-up and after the match, before he entered into other controversial scenes after the end of the match. The player later said that Lyon fans insulted members of his family before and during the match.

UEFA also imposed a one-match suspension on Mason Greenwood, the Fenerbahce striker, due to his participation in the events, and fined him 30,000 euros ($35,000) after convicting him of violating the rules of appropriate conduct.

On the other hand, UEFA suspended Antonio Ferreira, Lyon’s goalkeeper coach, for 3 matches in the European League, with two additional penalties suspended, due to “serious assault.” Ferreira sent a kick while jumping towards Guendouzi during a clash that took place after the match near the tunnel leading to the players’ rooms.

UEFA also imposed a fine of 50,000 euros on Fenerbahce for violating the rules of appropriate behavior, in addition to another fine of 45,000 euros due to the misbehavior of its fans. Lyon, in turn, received a total fine of 108,500 euros due to a series of violations.

The French team begins its European League campaign against its Belgian host Anderlecht next Thursday.

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.

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.”