Argentina captain Lionel Messi says his side’s World Cup qualifier against Brazil “could have ended in tragedy” after crowd trouble at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil captain Marquinhos added that it was a “very scary situation”, with photographs of the match and video on social media appearing to show police with batons clashing with supporters in the stands.

Ahead of kick-off, which had been scheduled for 9.30pm local time on Tuesday, Messi and other Argentina players went to the stands and spoke to fans, before going back to their dressing room. The Argentina players then re-emerged with the match starting almost half an hour late.

“We saw how they were hitting the people, again repressing the people,” Messi said, via Reuters.

“It already happened in the (Copa) Libertadores final (where there were clashes between Boca Juniors and Fluminense supporters and the police at the Maracana). We went to the locker room because it was the best way to calm everything down, it could have ended in tragedy.”

Several fans appeared to sustain injuries during the crowd disturbances.

“We were worried about the families, women and children, that we were seeing in panic up there in the stands,” Marquinhos said.

“Down on the pitch, it was hard for us to…

Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi and CF Pachuca’s Jenni Hermoso are among those nominated for The Best FIFA men’s and women’s awards 2023.

Messi, 36, won the 2022-23 Ligue 1 title with former club Paris Saint-Germain and also became the all-time goalscorer in Europe’s top five leagues. The qualification period for the award, however, does not include the men’s World Cup in 2022.

Hermoso, 33, won the women’s World Cup with Spain in August and was awarded with the World Cup silver ball following her impressive form at the tournament.

Five Manchester City players have been nominated for the men’s award after the English side won an historic treble in 2022-23. Julian Alvarez, Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland, Rodri and Bernardo Silva are all on the shortlist. Former City captain Ilkay Gundogan, who moved to Barcelona in the summer, was also named.

Four England players occupy the women’s list, including last season’s Women’s Super League top scorer Rachel Daly, Manchester City defender Alex Greenwood, Barcelona midfielder Keira Walsh and Chelsea forward Lauren James. USWNT captain Lindsey Horan and Australia striker Sam Kerr are also among the nominees.

City manager Pep Guardiola and Tottenham Hotspur coach Ange Postecoglou have been nominated for The Best FIFA men’s…

The first time Yamila Rodriguez’s head popped out of the dugout during Argentina’s game against South Africa and her light-blue-tinted hair was visible in the stands, an Argentinian fan sitting near my seat in the media tribune exclaimed: “Look at her, that one is the anti-Messi.”

Rodriguez arrived at the Women’s World Cup after being the top scorer in the Copa America 2022, with six goals. In the third-place play-off match — a game which afforded the winners a place at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand — the Albiceleste were trailing with 12 minutes to go.

Rodriguez levelled the match and, in stoppage time, made sure of her side’s qualification with a third goal, after Florencia Bonsegundo had made it 2-1 in the final minute. Rodriguez became the heroine and she began to grow in popularity with Argentina fans.

She is a fast player who likes to sprint down the flank and has an eye for goal. ‘Gambetear’, as they say in Argentina. She has a lot of cheek on the pitch and thrives in the face of adversity.

Many children want to be like her and she was the most acclaimed at the national team’s farewell when they started their World Cup adventure.

She is one of the three players who come to mind if you ask fans about Argentine players. She is one of the…

Argentina forward Yamila Rodriguez has defended herself for having a tattoo of Cristiano Ronaldo, insisting that she has nothing against Lionel Messi. 

The 25-year-old has been accused of being “anti-Messi” after photos revealed a tattoo of Ronaldo underneath former Argentine footballer Diego Maradona on her left leg. 

Messi, 36, won the men’s World Cup with Argentina in Qatar last year, and has shared a rivalry with Ronaldo for more than a decade.

Rodriguez, who is currently competing at the Women’s World Cup, defended the tattoo by claiming that Ronaldo has been more of an inspiration to her.

In an Instagram post, she said: “Please, enough. I’m not doing well. In what moment did I say I was anti-Messi? Stop saying things that I didn’t say, because the truth is I’m not doing well (in the middle of a World Cup where I’m representing my country.) I’m not doing poorly because of you guys, but because of the awful things you’re saying, without respect. One can’t have an idol, or a player that they like? Please.

“I never said I’m anti-Messi and never would be. He is our captain of our national team – me saying that my inspiration…

The 2023 Women’s World Cup gets under way in Australia and New Zealand on July 20, with the U.S. hoping to navigate an expanded 32-team tournament to become the first country to win football’s biggest prize three times in a row.

They are the favourites, but will the four-time winners actually pull off the ‘three-peat’? What of England, European champions but decimated by injuries to key players as they attempt to win the tournament for the first time? Will Germany bounce back from losing the final of the Euros to lift the game’s biggest prize?

How will the likes of France, Spain and Canada perform after their preparations have been disrupted by disputes with their federations over the past few months?

And can we expect any surprises from any of the eight countries — Haiti, Morocco, Panama, Philippines, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Vietnam and Zambia — making their World Cup debuts?

Our expert writers give their verdicts on what they think will happen over the next five weeks.

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Flo Lloyd-Hughes, women’s football reporter

Winner: Germany. This is a very open tournament and there are four or five teams that have a good chance of winning the title. Germany are often the masters of their own downfall, but given their disappointment at the Euros last summer and their…

It took less than three days in Miami for Lionel Messi to take his first steps toward becoming a true Floridian.

On Thursday night, the Argentine great was pictured at Publix, a regional supermarket chain adored by Floridians past and present. A few fans and curiosity-seekers grabbed selfies with Messi as he cruised the aisles of the store with his wife Antonella and his two young sons. His haul, the photos show, included a box of Froot Loops (that’s a cereal, for any non-Americans reading).

Casual sighting at Publix.

Lionel Messi is a Florida Man, confirmed.

(via @Rosariotres, @FCBAlbiceleste) pic.twitter.com/3MubCH9RDM

— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) July 14, 2023

It should be noted that Publix is a corporate sponsor of Inter Miami, the MLS club for which Messi is expected to sign officially soon. But that’s done little to dampen the impression that this was a rare and endearing “everyman” moment from one of the greatest players of all time.

In nearly every photo taken on Thursday, Messi looks at peace and unbothered; a far cry from his life in Paris, Barcelona or elsewhere, where every venture into the public eye brought a throng of press photographers and hundreds of adoring fans. Clips of Messi leaving restaurants in Argentina look borderline scary, replete with…

The 2023 Women’s World Cup is almost here. It is the ninth iteration of the tournament and the biggest yet as, for the first time, 32 teams will compete for the trophy.

That means a new format with more matches and more players, as well as some new rules that have not been in operation before.

Here’s a primer ahead of the biggest women’s football tournament in history.

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The basics

What is the Women’s World Cup?

The FIFA Women’s World Cup is an international tournament that pits the best national sides against one another every four years.

Where is it being held?

The tournament is being played in Australia and New Zealand.

It is the first Women’s World Cup to be hosted across two countries and the first World Cup (regardless of gender) to be hosted across two confederations — Australia are part of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and New Zealand are part of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC).

When is it?

The first two games of the tournament — New Zealand vs Norway and Australia vs Republic of Ireland — will be played on July 20.

The group stage will conclude with the final two games in Group H a fortnight later on August 3.

The knockout stage will begin on…

Lionel Scaloni and Sarina Wiegman have been named the best men’s and women’s coaches of 2022 at The Best FIFA Football Awards.

Scaloni coached Argentina to a remarkable World Cup win, while Wiegman was the driving force behind England’s European Championship triumph on home soil.

Marcin Oleksy, meanwhile, won the Puskas Award, which is for the best goal scored during the year.

Oleksy scored a sensational bicycle kick for Warta Poznan in November to claim the award, becoming the first amputee to do so.

The Pole beat out efforts from Dmitri Payet and Richarlison.

Three amazing goals, but which one will win the FIFA Puskás Award? #TheBest

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) February 27, 2023

Mary Earps and Emi Martinez were named the best women’s and men’s goalkeepers of the year respectively. Earps conceded just two goals during England’s successful Euro 2022 campaign, and Martinez also helped his country, Argentina, win the men’s World Cup.

The 2022 FIFPro World XIs were also named.

Men’s XI

Women’s XI

• GK: Christiane Endler
• DEF: Lucy Bronze, Leah Williamson, Wendie Renard, Mapi Leon
• MID: Keira Walsh, Alexia Putellas, Lena Oberdorf
• FOR: Alex Morgan, Beth Mead and Sam Kerr

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Previous winners of men’s coach award

• 2016 — Claudio Ranieri
• 2017 — Zinedine…

CONCACAF and CONMEBOL on Friday unveiled a wide-ranging partnership on Friday that will have significant ramifications for both men’s and women’s soccer in the western hemisphere, with the 2024 Copa America set to be hosted in the United States, the 2024 CONCACAF W Gold Cup to include four teams from South America and a new tournament featuring two men’s clubs from each federation set to come online in 2024.

We’re still waiting on many of the official details of the various competitions to be announced, but here’s what we’re hearing on how the partnership was formed and what it will end up looking like: 

How did this partnership come together? 

Ever since the centennial edition of the Copa America was held in the U.S. in 2016, bringing the tournament back to the United States has been an interesting possibility for all parties. 

Though that tournament was jeopardized when the U.S. Justice Department found that more than a dozen individuals involved with the initial organization of the event took more than $110 million in kickbacks, it still ended up setting Copa America records for attendance, television viewership and revenue. 

It was also a massive commercial success for U.S. Soccer, which led the organization of the tournament. According to USSF tax filings, the…