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RIYADH: Manchester City and FC Barcelona legend and current assistant manager of the Saudi national team Yaya Toure believes football fans from around the world will be blown away by the stadiums included in Saudi Arabia’s FIFA World Cup 2034 bid.
And the former Ivorian international even admitted he hopes the atmosphere across the grounds will rival that of Anfield, which in his book is home to the best atmosphere in world football.
Speaking following his tour of the dedicated Saudi Arabia FIFA World Cup 2034 bid exhibition in Riyadh, the UEFA Champions League and African Cup of Nations winner spoke of his admiration for Saudi Arabia’s grand plans to host the biggest event in world sport.
As he toured the exhibition floor — home to scale models of some of the 15 stadiums proposed to host the FIFA World Cup in 10 years’ time, plus a wider exploration of the bid’s five proposed host cities (Riyadh, Jeddah, Alkhobar, Abha and NEOM) — the three-time Premier League champion admitted that he had been initially surprised by the depth of football passion that exists across Saudi Arabia, having now spent a year living in the Kingdom since taking on his role at the national team.
And having examined in detail the plans on display at the exhibition, Toure now firmly believes the prospect of Saudi Arabia hosting the first 48-team FIFA World Cup held in a single nation would attract football fans from around the world due to the “incredible” nature of its stadium plans, especially.
Toure said: “I feel very enthusiastic and positive about the Saudi bid.
“You can sometimes see stadiums that are simple, modern, and artificial. But these stadiums here, the design, the location and how they are going to be built with links to the origins of each city and mean specific things to the country — that is incredible.”
Among the proposed stadiums for the Saudi 2034 bid are the brand new 92,000-seater King Salman International Stadium in the capital city of Riyadh, set to be home to the national team and the tournament’s opening and final fixtures. There are also plans to refurbish four existing stadiums across Riyadh, Jeddah and Abha.
“Saudi Arabia is a special country,” Toure said. “People are very positive and very welcoming, and I think people from around the world who come to experience a World Cup in Saudi Arabia will come and say: ‘Wow.’ Football is not just about Europe or South America. It is about the rest of the world. People are mad about football and the world has to know that.”
In his role in helping develop Saudi Arabia’s leading football talent, Toure has witnessed first-hand the investment that has gone into the game in Saudi Arabia in recent years, as the country continues on its trajectory as one of the fastest and most exciting growth stories in world football.
In the last three years, the number of youth regional training centers across the country climbed from nine to 23; more than 200,000 boys and girls now play in the schools league; there are 64 annual youth competitions across; and registered football coaches have jumped from 700 in 2019 to over 4,000. Saudi Arabia has also hosted more than 100 international sporting events since 2018 as its young population — 63 percent of whom are aged 30 or younger — embraces a sporting transformation under the guiding ambitions of Saudi Vision 2030.
Toure, who is hoping to help co-guide Saudi Arabia to its seventh FIFA World Cup in 2026, praised the Saudi approach as one that many other countries should be looking to mirror.
“I’ve been surprised by youth football here,” he said. “The way the education and development has been taken seriously, that’s the main point. For me, it’s not only about the adults, the first teams, the elite; it’s about the young ones, the future. What’s being done here is very important as they are thinking about the future and that’s the kids. That is brilliant and is something that I want to be a part of.
“I’m from Africa and we want to reach a certain level. Here, they are bringing everything together, the players, the coaches, and trying to interact with superpower countries who are well-developed in sport to bring ideas back here to progress things at a huge speed. It is very encouraging.”
Toure represented the Ivory Coast in the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa, as The Elephants came up against Brazil, Portugal and North Korea, scoring the opening goal in their final group match against North Korea.
And while that tournament was loved for many of the incredible stadiums it brought to the game, it is former club FC Barcelona’s Camp Nou that holds the best memories for Toure — where he won no fewer than seven trophies in just two years.
However, the 41-year-old admits the best atmosphere in football lies elsewhere: at Anfield, home of Liverpool FC.
Asked about the best stadium atmosphere he ever played in during his 18-year career, Toure said: “Liverpool. The stadium atmosphere is incredible. If you’re there, you cannot hear anything, you can’t listen to anything when you play in there.”
The official Saudi Arabia FIFA World Cup™ 2034 bid — founded on the slogan “Growing. Together.” — was submitted to FIFA at the end of July. The deciding vote on who will host the 2034 tournament will be made at the FIFA Congress on Dec. 11 of this year.
MANCHESTER: Pep Guardiola has praised the spirit and desire of his Manchester City players after their last-gasp win against Wolves as he prepares for Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Sparta Prague.
City, unbeaten this season, go into the game buoyed by John Stones’ 95th-minute winner at Molineux on Sunday, which kept them on the shoulders of Premier League leaders Liverpool.
The 2023 European champions have four points from their first two games in the group stage of the revamped Champions League after a 0-0 draw with Inter Milan and a 4-0 win against Slovan Bratislava.
City, who have won four consecutive Premier League titles, are playing in European football’s elite club competition for the 14th straight season.
Guardiola, speaking Tuesday at his pre-match press conference, said the manner of the win at Wolves and the way his men celebrated showed their enduring hunger.
“How we celebrate when a team now is in the position in the bottom (Wolves), how we celebrate in October, not in May or April like it’s happened, I feel the team still have the passion,” he said.
“How we celebrate in the locker room, I still feel ‘OK, they still want it, still we are there’ and that means a lot to me, a lot.
“They know, the team, how difficult it is to be consistent for six, seven years. You can be consistent for a month, for a season, but six, seven years and still now we are there. All the teams go down, still we are in that position.”
Guardiola said he was “more than happy” with how his team were coping in the absence of key midfielder Rodri, who has been ruled out of the rest of the season with a knee injury.
The City boss said it was important to make home advantage count against their Czech opponents, with tough away trips to come to Sporting Lisbon, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.
The new-look league format for this season’s competition means only the top eight teams out of 36 automatically qualify for the knockout stages after the initial eight-match schedule.
“It is not easy,” said Guardiola. “The games we have at home we have to close it, otherwise it’ll be difficult to finish in the first eight and that’s the target we want to achieve.”
MADRID: Atletico Madrid want to attract a record number of spectators with disabilities to a Champions League match to raise awareness about inclusion and the need to promote better access to sport for disabled fans in venues across Europe.
Thousands of supporters with disabilities are expected at Atletico’s game against Lille at Metropolitano Stadium on Wednesday, when the club could break the record of 1,740 disabled fans set by Real Betis in a Spanish league game against Valladolid last year.
Atletico and their partners in the initiative, including the groups AccessibAll, Integrated Dreams and World Football Summit hope the feat will help launch a movement to improve access for disabled fans in sports venues.
“They proposed to us to do this type of match and automatically we said, ‘Yes,’” Atletico chief operating officer Óscar Mayo told The Associated Press. “We are not worried about the record, it’s more about the awareness, the importance about thinking about these groups, to sensibilize all of society, and to create the awareness that, no matter what, you can enjoy these types of events.”
The match comes a few days after a report by Level Playing Field, a body representing disabled sports fans, mentioned difficulties for disabled fans in away stadiums across Europe, including complaints of wheelchair users having to sit alongside supporters of the home team.
One of the first initiatives similar to Atletico’s came in 2015, when more than 1,000 disabled fans attended a local match in Poland, according to UEFA. Little else has been done since then, with Betis’ initiative coming nearly a decade later.
“We found that it’s time to launch more than a record, it’s time to launch a movement,” AccessibAll CEO Olivier Jarosz told the AP. “When we think about disability, we tend to think that it’s people on wheelchair. And actually wheelchair users are 7 percent, so it’s a true minority. The majority of disabilities are non-visible. It could be visual, it could be mental, it could be cognitive. And there are many, many different challenges.”
According to data from the European Union, 27 percent of the EU population over the age of 16 had some form of disability in 2023.
Mayo said Atletico was already contacted by other European clubs, without specifying them, to get more information about the initiative.
“We decided to do it in a UEFA match because the visibility is bigger,” Mayo said. “And I think that if this helps to invite the rest of the teams to join in similar initiatives, it would be great.”
Many times clubs don’t take action because they think there are not enough fans with disabilities interested in attending their matches, so initiatives like the ones by Atletico should help show them that there is a demand for better services.
Germany is likely the country better prepared for fans with disabilities, Jarosz said, in part because it has “the best stadiums” that were used recently in the European Championship. He said the fact that clubs are traditionally owned by fans also helps, and society in general in the country is more used to servicing people with disabilities.
He said France also has improved recently, thanks to Paris having hosted the Olympics and the Paralympics.
“Certainly things are changing, but they are not moving enough,” Jarosz said. “It’s very difficult to tell you on the global scale the situation, but certainly the governing bodies like FIFA and UEFA realized that this is important because it’s part of the population.”
Atletico attracted fans with disabilities for Wednesday’s match by selling tickets to them at reduced prices and working with their fan groups to spread the word about the campaign.
Mayo said Atletico prepared an “intensive operation” to host the match. There will be specific parking places reserved for supporters with disabilities, and employees dedicated exclusively to help them.
Atletico’s 70,000-capacity stadium is one of the newest and most modern ones in Europe, and is considered to be fully equipped to welcome fans with disabilities. Access to and from the stadium in the Spanish capital is also considered to be adequate.
There will be activities before the match at Metropolitano, with exhibitions of wheelchair soccer and stands with information about different types of disabilities. Actors from the Spanish movie “Campeones,” a highly successful comedy about the importance of inclusion, were set to be on hand, as were members of the Spain blind soccer team.
“These types of action help make the people aware of the importance to think of them,” Mayo said.
The Spanish government, through its inclusion ministry, was also involved in the initiative.
England have included three spinners in their team for their third and final test match against Pakistan in Rawalpindi, with Rehan Ahmed being recalled, the England and Wales cricket board (ECB) said on Tuesday.
England won the first test by an innings and 47 runs, before Pakistan levelled the series with a 152-run victory in Multan on a surface that offered plenty of turn — with spin duo Noman Ali and Sajid Khan taking all 20 wickets.
Pakistan are expected to create a similar pitch for the final test match and Ahmed will feature alongside fellow spinners Shoaib Bashir and Jack Leach, while fast bowler Gus Atkinson was also brought in.
“We know it’s probably not going to swing and seam and do all sorts in the first session, so we look at the pitch and work out what the best team is going to be,” England batter Harry Brook told the BBC.
Ahmed, 20, played his first test match in 2022 during England’s tour of Pakistan, taking a five-wicket haul on his debut as the visitors completed a 3-0 sweep of the series.
“He’s an outstanding cricketer. It’s not just his bowling, but his batting and fielding. He’s a young lad so he has a lot of time to come,” Brook said.
“He got five-for in the last test here, so hopefully he can do that again.”
England quicks Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts miss out.
England team: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes (captain), Jamie Smith, Gus Atkinson, Rehan Ahmed, Jack Leach, Shoaib Bashir. 
JEDDAH: Following her first place in the T4 category of the 2023 Qassim Toyota Rally, Saudi Arabia’s Maha Al-Hamali says she is ready for this year’s contest in the region.
Round three of the 2024 Saudi Toyota Championship is taking place in Buraydah from Oct. 23 to 26, with 39 cars, 18 motorcycles and six quad vehicles.
Al-Hamali is confident she can put up a good show with experienced co-driver Oriol Mena of Spain in the T3 category.
“During two years of experiences in the Qassim region and its terrain, I learned a lot about desert rallies, which helped me qualify regionally and later globally in the Dakar.”
She added: “The rally this year is definitely challenging with big names in action but I am well prepared to take on the tough challenge this week.”
In 2023, Al-Hamali’s accomplishments included first place in the Jameel Rally, Neom Rally and Qassim Rally, as well as second place in the Middle East Rally Championship.
She also participated in last year’s Saudi-Dakar Rally but withdrew after an accident in the Empty Quarter.
DUBAI: As the DP World International League T20 gears up for its third edition, starting Jan. 11, 2025, cricket icons Virender Sehwag and Shoaib Akhtar praised the competition for developing the region’s talent and providing players with invaluable experience.
Sehwag, the explosive Indian batter, said the league has had a positive impact since its inception.
“When we look back at the past two seasons of the DP World ILT20, we can see that many players, whether they are from the UAE or other countries like Afghanistan, have significantly improved their performances in ICC (International Cricket Council) tournaments.”
He added: “For the UAE team, when players play alongside nine international stars, they get the chance to learn from these experienced players.
“Not only during matches but also in how the international players practice, prepare, and handle pressure situations. They won’t find this kind of exposure anywhere else.”
Sehwag also spoke about how his own experiences with global stars shaped his career.
“When I had the opportunity to play with stars like Glenn McGrath, AB de Villiers, and Tillakaratne Dilshan, it helped me tremendously as they shared their experiences with me,” he said.
“I went on to have very good seasons after that exposure. The DP World ILT20 is providing similar opportunities for cricketers from the UAE.”
Akhtar, known as “The Rawalpindi Express,” and who has been associated with the competition from season two, echoed Sehwag’s sentiments.
“As I’ve always said, it’s a breeding ground of talent for GCC countries, not just the UAE. It is only going to help cricket, and it is a great initiative. I am blessed to be part of it and help the game grow.”
“The effort being put in by DP World, the organizers, the broadcasters, and the Emirates Cricket Board is tremendous. They have made it easy to collaborate with them,” he said.
Akhtar added: “The DP ILT20 has created the magic of bringing together entertainment and cricket. In particular, they have brought a high quality of cricket to the region, which we have not seen since the India-Pakistan days in Sharjah.”
Season three of the DP ILT20 begins on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2025. The 34-match tournament will run for a month, with the final on Sunday, Feb. 9.  

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