Soccer Extras: Guardiola defends Silva over tweet to Mendy

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola believes it would be a mistake for the Football Association (FA) to punish Bernardo Silva over a deleted tweet in which the midfielder compared team mate Benjamin Mendy to a cartoon character.

Silva posted a tweet on Sunday likening Mendy to a character in the logo for Conguitos, a brand of confectionary popular in Spain and Portugal but deleted it an hour later.

The 25-year-old Portuguese posted a second tweet that said “can’t even joke with a friend these days... you guys” but anti-racism body Kick It Out condemned his actions saying racist stereotypes are never acceptable as ‘banter’.

British media reported the FA had written to the Premier League champions seeking an explanation.

“If they want to do that and ask for Bernardo, he’ll be open to talk,” Guardiola told reporters after City beat second-tier Preston North End 3-0 in the League Cup on Tuesday.

“But first, you have to know exactly which person you are talking about. If something happens it will be a mistake because Bernardo is an exceptional person.

“It’s nothing to do with colour of skin or nationality.”

Guardiola looked to further play down the incident, saying that Mendy had not taken offence to the tweet.

“There are many situations with white people where a cartoon will look similar. The response from Mendy was clear. They are joking all the time,” Guardiola added.

“Bernardo is one of the most lovely people I’ve met in my life. He speaks four or five languages — that’s the best way to understand how open-minded he is.

“One of his best friends is Mendy. He’s like a brother. He took a picture of Benjamin when he was young and related it with this cartoon, quite similar for the image.”

UEFA tells teams not to play where women can't watch

European football’s governing body (UEFA) said on Tuesday it would tell member clubs and national teams not to play games in countries where women do not have full access to stadiums.

UEFA’s ruling executive committee agreed that it would “recommend to its 55 national associations and all European clubs not to play matches in countries where women have restricted access to stadiums”.

UEFA did not specify which countries the action would affect.

Iran, however, has been the focus of attention since a female fan died earlier this month, after setting herself on fire to protest against her arrest for attending a match.

Soccer’s world governing body FIFA says it has been given assurances by Iranian authorities that their World Cup qualifier against Cambodia in Tehran on Oct. 10 will be open to women.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said his body did not have the power to punish European teams who might play in countries that do not allow unrestricted access to women, but stressed that there was wide support in his organization for the approach and for not playing teams from those countries.

“We cannot punish anyone if they play (in these countries) because it is out of our jurisdiction but that doesn’t mean we should be quiet and say we can’t do anything and we (just) develop European football,” said the Slovene.

“Our advice to 55 associations and all the clubs... will be not to play there or with the teams from those countries where the basic rights of women are not respected.

“The representatives of the clubs and the leagues agreed with us”.

UEFA to plant 600,000 trees to offset carbon emissions from Euro 2020

European football’s governing body UEFA said it will plant 600,000 trees across 12 countries as part of its commitment to offset carbon emissions from travel to next year’s expanded European Championships but conceded it may have to do more.

The environmental impact of Euro 2020 will be much greater due to the unique pan-European staging of the event with UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin saying it will “pollute a lot”.

Instead of hosting matches in one or two countries, as is normal for major tournaments, UEFA is staging the 60th anniversary tournament in 12 countries across the European continent from Dublin, Ireland to Baku in Azerbaijan.

That format will mean much more travel for fans, officials and players and Ceferin said that while the one-off format meant there was no need for major stadium construction, there was clearly an environmental price to pay.

The Slovenian said UEFA had teamed up with carbon offset specialists South Pole to offset the estimated 405,000 tonnes of carbon produced by supporters and UEFA staff traveling to games in the tournament.

But he added that the soccer body now needed to focus on making a bigger contribution on green issues.