Players from Argentine club Arsenal returned home on Thursday after spending part of the night in cells following a bizarre confrontation with Brazilian police at the end of a Libertadores Cup match.
Arsenal, a modest club from the Buenos Aires suburb Sarandi, were in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte for a Libertadores Cup Group 3 match against Atletico Mineiro.
At the end of Wednesday’s match, which Arsenal lost 5-2, various Argentine players confronted military police on the pitch, before throwing seats and other pieces of furniture in the dressing room, according to reports in the Brazilian sporting press.
Seven players were accused of causing the trouble, but the whole team were taken to police cells inside the Estadio Independencia, the Argentine consul in Belo Horizonte said.
“The whole team was there,” said the consul, who insisted that no damage was caused in the dressing room. “The players explained that all they wanted was to speak to the referee, but that their words were misinterpreted and then the reaction by the police was unjustified.”
Arsenal chairman Julio Grondona, son of the Argentine Football Association chairman and FIFA vice president of the same name, was incredulous.
“At one stage, I thought we were in the jungle and they wanted to eat us,” he told Radio 9. “I had to apologize to a guy who was pointing a weapon at me.”
Arsenal were ordered to pay a fine and the team returned to Argentina on the same charter flight that took them to the game, the consul confirmed.
Press reports claimed the fine amounted to about 38,000 reais (US$19,000).
In an interview with Fox Sport, Atletico Mineiro director Eduardo Maluf accused the Arsenal players of assaulting a woman.
“They showed not an ounce of respect and attacked a woman,” Maluf said.
Military police colonel Claudia Romualdo said that she was hit in the chest by one player.
The incident is bad publicity for Brazil ahead of this year’s Confederations Cup and next year’s World Cup, with Belo Horizonte, one of the country’s largest cities, a host venue in both competitions.
The Philadelphia 76ers, fueled by 36 points from Tyrese Maxey and a triple-double from Joel Embiid, on Thursday beat the Houston Rockets 128-122 in an NBA overtime thriller. Cameroonian big man Embiid scored 32 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and handed out 10 assists, posting the ninth triple-double of his career to help the Sixers end the Rockets’ three-game winning streak. Rockets star Kevin Durant scored 36 points and Amen Thompson added 17, but Thompson was scoreless in the fourth quarter. Even so, the Rockets led by nine midway through the final frame, Maxey tying it at 115-115 with 40.1 seconds left. Durant missed a
The Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo on Friday said that he will probably be out for an extended period after hurting his right calf again after a similar injury caused him to miss eight games earlier this season. Antetokounmpo had his right calf wrapped in the first half of their 102-100 loss to the Denver Nuggets. He did not appear comfortable the rest of the night and left for good with 34 seconds remaining. “At the end, I could not move no more, so I had to stop playing,” Antetokounmpo said. The two-time NBA Most Valuable Player said he expected to undergo an MRI
Taiwanese FORTUNES: Wu Fang-hsien and Hsieh Su-wei both advanced to the last 16 of the women’s doubles, but Ray Ho was ousted in the men’s doubles Carlos Alcaraz yesterday stepped up his quest to win a maiden Australian Open as he overwhelmed showman Corentin Moutet to reach the last 16, while Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Hsieh Su-wei both advanced to the last 16 of the women’s doubles. Three-time finalist Daniil Medvedev battled through on day six at a warm and sunny Melbourne Park, as did Coco Gauff. Top seed Alcaraz was never in danger against French 32nd seed Moutet, easing through 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 at Rod Laver Arena in 2 hours, 5 minutes. It was the Spaniard’s 100th Grand Slam match and he boasts a remarkable 87-13 win-loss record,
LICENSE TO THRILL: Fans of Learner Tien, the youngest man to reach the quarter-finals in 11 years, wore ‘L Plates,’ signs for learning drivers, in support of the 20-year-old Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Japanese partner Eri Hozumi yesterday dominated eighth seeds Ellen Perez of Australia and the Netherlands’ Demi Schuurs to advance to the Australian Open quarter-finals, the furthest the Taiwanese has made it since her first appearance in Melbourne in 2020. Wu and Hozumi overpowered world No. 21 Perez and world No. 20 Schuurs 6-2, 6-2 in 1 hour, 11 minutes at 1573 Arena in much cooled temperatures since Saturday’s blazing 40°C disrupted play. World No. 34 Wu has now made it further in the Australian Open since she was knocked out in the third round in 2024. The Taiwanese-Japanese duo
RSS