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A referee that England manager Thomas Tuchel labelled “terrible” will officiate the Three Lions’ World Cup opener against Croatia.
FIFA has confirmed French referee Clément Turpin will officiate England’s Group L game against Croatia in Dallas on Wednesday.
However, Tuchel may not be happy with the decision.
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Three years ago, Tuchel graded Turpin “1/10” following Bayern Munich’s Champions League quarter-final loss to Manchester City, during which he was sent off by the referee for protesting, shown two yellow cards.
“He was absolutely terrible,” Bayern manager Tuchel said after the game in April 2023.
“It’s unbelievable at this level. He was whistling for everything and anything. Everything was against us. In the end, we were never in a position to turn things around with three men against us. That’s a fact.”
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HOTTEST WORLD CUP IN 96 YEARS
Southern cities in the United States are about to be hit with high temperatures, putting the World Cup workers at risk.
Temperatures in Miami, Houston, Dallas and Atlanta are expected to climb to 32 degrees over the coming weeks, making this the hottest edition of the FIFA World Cup since 1930.
Subsequently, labour advocates and scholars have warned that thousands of World Cup workers could face serious risks during the tournament, including heat exhaustion, if conditions exceed recommended heat-exposure limits.
“It’s going to be extremely hot, and you just cannot leave people unprotected or you’re going to deal with a lot of injuries,” said Jonathan Alingu, co-executive director of Central Florida Jobs With Justice.
“Or, God forbid, something even worse.”
University of Georgia climatologist Andrew Grundstein added: “If you think about the delivery people, the law enforcement, firefighters, EMTs, people selling concessions or collecting tickets, a whole network of people are going to face heat-related hazards.”
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WORLD CUP TEAMS BLAST UEFA CHIEF
A group of 13 World Cup teams on Sunday hit out at UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin over reported remarks in which he said this year’s expanded tournament would lead to many “completely uninteresting” matches.
In a joint statement, the 13 football associations including World Cup debutants Cape Verde, Curacao and Uzbekistan, said they “respectfully but firmly reject” Ceferin’s comments quoted in Slovenian newspaper Delo.
“For our countries, there is no such thing as an unimportant World Cup match,” the joint statement read.
“To suggest that these matches are somehow less important is deeply disappointing and fails to recognise the efforts, sacrifices and aspirations of players, coaches, clubs, football leaders and supporters across the world.”
In remarks by Ceferin reportedly made before the tournament, the UEFA chief said the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams this year – up from 32 in 2022 – would dilute the quality of the tournament.
“We have a lot of matches that are completely uninteresting,” Ceferin was quoted as saying by the paper.
However, Ceferin was also reported by another Slovenian outlet as saying: “On the other hand even small countries can participate and feel the pulse of the World Cup, which is a big thing.” The joint statement by the 13 teams said all nations participating at the World Cup “deserve respect.”
“Every team has earned its place on merit. Every supporter has the right to dream. Every match carries meaning for millions of people around the world,” the statement said.
“We therefore reject the UEFA President’s comments,” it added.
Other signatories to the statement included the football federations of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast and South Africa.
When contacted by AFP for comment, a UEFA spokesperson did not explicitly issue a denial of Ceferin’s comments but referred reporters to an interview the European football chief gave last week, where he made no mention of the expansion of the World Cup.
