Saudi Arabia to host Youth National Teams Championship during summer
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia will host the first Youth National Teams Championship between Aug. 28 and Sept.
County Gulf Sport News
UAE appoint Romanian Olaroiu to replace Bento as head coach
DUBAI: Cosmin Olaroiu has been appointed United Arab Emirates head coach, the country’s FA announced on Saturday. The 55-year-old Romanian takes over from Portuguese Paulo Bento, who was fired last month despite a last-gasp win over North Korea in Asia’s World Cup qualifiers. The UAE are third in Group A of the preliminaries for the 2026 finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The first two finishers in each of Asia’s three groups progress automatically to the World Cup while the third- and fourth-placed teams advance to another round. Iran have already claimed one of the two berths available from Group A while second-placed Uzbekistan are four points clear of the UAE with two matches remaining. Olaroiu has spent the last three-and-a-half seasons with UAE club Sharjah, and last week guided the team into the final of the AFC Champions League Two. He has worked extensively in the Gulf region, coaching Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, Qatar’s Al-Sadd and Emirati side Al-Ain before moving to China, where he won the Chinese Super League title with Jiangsu Suning in 2020. Olaroiu’s first game in charge of the UAE will be their World Cup qualifier at home to Uzbekistan on June 5.
Flawless Oscar Piastri Converts Pole To Win In Bahrain Grand Prix, Lando Norris Third
Oscar Piastri powered to victory at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday from George Russell's Mercedes with the Australian's McLaren teammate Lando Norris in third. Pole-sitter Piastri kept his calm in an incident-packed race to give McLaren their first ever win in Sakhir at their 21st attempt. Max Verstappen's trying weekend at the desert track ended with the four-time world champion only managing sixth place. Norris leads the drivers' standings on 77 points, with Piastri overtaking Verstappen and into second ahead of next weekend's race in Jeddah.
Norris turns on the heat at sweltering Bahrain practice
SAKHIR: World championship leader Lando Norris topped the timesheets in a baking hot opening practice ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly at the Bahrain Grand Prix on Friday. It was hunt-some-shade time on a sweltering afternoon in the Gulf kingdom — 35 degrees celsius and track temperature nudging 50 degrees. As a consequence the relevance of the opening session on the rest of the weekend will be minimal, with second practice later Friday, Saturday’s qualifying and the race itself all staged at sunset and in cooler temperatures. That was one main factor in teams using ‘FP1’ to give a half dozen rookies a shot as a ‘Friday driver’ as per the governing body’s guidelines. As a result, four-time world champion Max Verstappen, one point adrift of Norris in the driver’s standings after his win in Japan last weekend, had some down time with Ayumua Iwasa taking the wheel of his Red Bull. Dino Beganovic was handed the keys to Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari. Other new faces were Fred Vesti (in for Mercedes’ George Russell), Luke Browning (Williams/Carlos Sainz), Felipe Drugovich (Aston Martin/Fernando Alonso) and Ryo Hirakawa, in for Ollie Bearman at Haas. Williams team principal James Vowles explained the reasoning behind running Browning rather than Sainz, third to Verstappen in last year’s race for Ferrari. “It’s much, much warmer than it will be so it is unrepresentative, and (Sainz) has done many hundreds of kilometers around here.
U.S. billionaire Friedkin emerges as potential NHL ownership option in Houston - ESPN
American billionaire Dan Friedkin has emerged as a strong ownership option to bring the NHL to Houston, sources told ESPN.
Pique denies Rubiales kickbacks in Spanish Super Cup move to Saudi
Gerard Pique on Friday denied paying kickbacks to Spain’s disgraced former football federation chief Luis Rubiales in the Spanish Super Cup’s transfer to Saudi Arabia, legal sources said.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino Defends Saudi World Cup, Donald Trump Relationship
FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Friday stood by his governing body's decision to award the 2034 World Cup to Saudi Arabia, while also defending his relationship with Donald Trump. The Gulf kingdom was controversially handed the right to host the World Cup at a FIFA Congress in December despite concerns about its human rights record, the risks to migrant labourers and criminalisation of same-sex relationships. The process followed by FIFA was also criticised by the Norwegian football federation but, speaking in Belfast on Friday, Infantino said: "There was a Congress decision, uniting the entire world.
Bebeto’s baby Mattheus Oliveira now chasing success at UAE’s Al-Nasr
LONDON: There is nothing atypical about a father going to watch his son play football, even when it is thousands of kilometers from home. What is a little more unusual, however, is when the team is Khor Fakkan and the father is one of the greatest Brazilian players of all time.