Sports
Messi cleared by MLS after tunnel video sparks ref controversy
Lionel Messi will face no punishment after Major League Soccer concluded he did not breach any policy in a post-match incident following Inter Miami’s season-opening defeat to Los Angeles FC.
The league moved swiftly after a video circulated online Saturday night appeared to show Messi heading toward the referees’ area inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
The footage, first shared by Sintesis Deportes, showed Inter Miami teammate Luis Suarez briefly grabbing Messi’s arm as the Argentine approached a doorway in the tunnel.
Messi slipped free, disappeared from view for several seconds, then re-emerged and walked back toward the dressing room with his teammates.
Speculation spread quickly.
MLS shut it down just as fast.
An MLS spokesperson confirmed that the door in question was not the referees’ locker room and that Messi did not enter a restricted area.
The Professional Referee Organization, which oversees officials in MLS, independently reviewed the sequence and spoke directly with the match crew.
Its conclusion matched the league’s: Messi never accessed the officials’ locker room and did not violate any policy.
No complaint was filed by the match officials. The matter was not referred to the MLS Disciplinary Committee. The case was closed.
The clarity of the ruling stands in contrast to a 2023 episode involving FC Cincinnati defender Matt Miazga, who entered a referees’ locker room after a playoff match and was suspended three games for misconduct.
That incident involved a clearly restricted space and resulted in disciplinary action. Messi’s situation did not.
Messi’s record with MLS discipline remains limited and unrelated to officiating.
He served a one-match suspension last summer for missing the MLS All-Star Game without approval and was fined during the 2025 season for violating the league’s hands-to-the-face policy. He has never been sanctioned for conduct involving referees.
The controversy unfolded after Inter Miami’s 3-0 loss to Los Angeles FC in front of a packed house at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Goals from David Martinez, Denis Bouanga and Nathan Ordaz spoiled the Herons’ opener and left Messi visibly frustrated at times during the match. He played the full 90 minutes but did not register a goal or assist.
Inter Miami, the defending MLS Cup champions, now turn the page. They return home next Sunday to host Orlando City, with Messi fully available and no disciplinary cloud hanging over the club.
Three-time world champion Toprak Razgatlıoğlu is ready for the biggest leap of his career, saying the thrill of becoming the first Turkish rider in MotoGP fuels his belief that strong results will follow once he adapts to the sport’s most demanding stage.
The 29-year-old from Alanya, born on Oct. 16, 1996, will launch his MotoGP debut on Feb. 27 at the Thailand Grand Prix at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, opening a new chapter after conquering the Superbike world three times.
Razgatlıoğlu arrives with a resume few can match.
He clinched World Superbike titles in 2021, 2024 and 2025, becoming the first Turkish rider to stand atop that championship. In 2021, riding for Pata Yamaha, he ended Jonathan Rea’s six-year reign and carved his name into the sport’s elite.
He later delivered BMW its first Superbike crown in 2024 with ROKiT BMW Motorrad and added a second riders’ title for the German manufacturer in 2025.
Across eight seasons in WorldSBK, Razgatlıoğlu built a record defined by both speed and consistency.
He started 258 races and reached the podium 173 times, winning 78 of them while playing the Turkish national anthem around the globe.
He finished second 61 times and third 34 times. In 2024, he set a single-season benchmark with 13 consecutive victories, underlining a dominance that earned him the nickname “El Turco” among international fans.
He also closed the 2022 and 2023 campaigns as world runner-up, proving his staying power at the front.
His path began early. Known as the son of former rider Arif Razgatlıoğlu, nicknamed “Tek teker Arif,” Toprak first rode a motorcycle at age seven.
Under the guidance of Kenan Sofuoğlu, he developed into a prodigy.
Sofuoğlu recalls taking him fully under his wing at 14 after years of support, steering his race calendar and shaping his progression.
At 16, Razgatlıoğlu broke the Istanbul Park lap record and became Turkish champion, then announced himself internationally by winning the 2015 European Superstock 600 Championship.
Now comes MotoGP, the summit. Razgatlıoğlu has signed with Prima Pramac Racing for the 2026 season and will ride the Yamaha YZR-M1, carrying Antalya’s license plate number 07.
When he lines up in Thailand, he will officially become the first Turkish rider to compete in MotoGP.
He admits the transition is steep. Superbike and MotoGP machinery differ sharply in electronics, aerodynamics and riding style. Winter testing, he said, was demanding but necessary.
“Everything changes after Superbike,” he said. “Right now the goal is to adapt to the bike and the style. We need time. Maybe after four or five races we will understand much more and see who we can fight with.”
He believes quick adaptation is the key to unlocking competitive performances and sees the Thailand round as another crucial learning step, especially with valuable track time before the race.
While 2026 is about learning, Razgatlıoğlu has a longer horizon in mind. MotoGP regulations will undergo sweeping changes in 2027, and he views that reset as a real opportunity.
“Our biggest target is 2027 because all the rules change,” he said. “If we learn everything in the first year, 2027 can be very different for us.”
Italy closed the curtain on its Winter Olympics on Sunday with style, pride and a clear nod to the future, delivering its final bow beneath the ancient stones of the Verona Arena, where an open-air ceremony fused opera, ballet and sporting triumph in a setting nearly 2,000 years old.
The Milan-Cortina Winter Games, co-hosted by Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, stretched across 22,000 square kilometers of northern Italy, linking city ice rinks with Alpine slopes near the Austrian and Swiss borders, cross-country trails in Val di Fiemme and sliding tracks carved into the Dolomites.
Over 17 days and 116 medal events, the blueprint held firm as organizers relied largely on existing venues, limited environmental strain, filled grandstands and avoided the logistical chaos that often dogs sprawling Olympics.
“You delivered a new kind of Winter Games and set a very high standard for the future,” International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry told organizers while declaring the Games closed in her first Olympics at the helm.
Soon after, the twin cauldrons in Milan and Cortina were extinguished, their flames fading by video link inside the Arena as the Olympic flag was handed to representatives of the French Alps, hosts of the 2030 Winter Games.
Italy’s golden winter
Competing on home snow and ice, Italy produced its finest Winter Olympic performance, collecting 30 medals, including 10 gold to surpass the previous mark of 20 set at Lillehammer in 1994.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, seated among dignitaries in Verona, praised the Games as a source of lasting national pride, while foundation president Giovanni Malagò told athletes their performances had united the country.
Norway finished atop the medals table with 18 gold and 41 overall, the United States placed second with 12 gold and the Netherlands secured 10, matching Italy’s gold total but trailing in overall count.
Beauty in action
The closing ceremony, titled “Beauty in Action,” leaned deeply into Italian culture as opera figures emerged from mirrored crates in tribute to the Arena’s famed summer festival and arias drifted into the cool night air.
DJ Gabry Ponte transformed the amphitheater into a dance floor, lifting 1,500 athletes to their feet amid bursts of confetti, while ballet star Roberto Bolle delivered an aerial performance inside a blazing ring of light before descending onto a stage styled like the Venetian lagoon.
Singer Achille Lauro closed the night with “Incoscienti Giovani,” saluting the youthful daring that defined the Games.
Security around the Arena was tight, with helicopters overhead and restricted access to Piazza Bra, and earlier in the day hundreds marched through Verona to protest housing costs and environmental concerns tied to the Olympics.
Inside the amphitheater, however, the mood was relaxed as athletes filmed the spectacle on their phones and mingled freely, even if some seats remained empty despite ticket prices ranging from 950 to 2,900 euros.
Verona Mayor Damiano Tommasi, a former professional footballer, described the historic setting as unprecedented in Olympic history and suggested Italy could again pursue a Summer Games, with Rome last having hosted in 1960.
Records, redemption and a miracle echo
The final day delivered both history and high drama.
Norway’s Johannes Klaebo collected one of his six gold medals during the ceremony, completing a perfect sweep of his events and lifting his career tally to 11 gold, a Winter Olympic record.
In freestyle skiing, Eileen Gu captured halfpipe gold after earlier silvers, executing a precise and soaring run to edge teammate Li Fanghui and Britain’s Zoe Atkin and become the most decorated freestyle skier in Winter Olympic history.
The men’s ice hockey final supplied a classic North American duel as the United States edged Canada 2 to 1 in overtime to secure their first Olympic gold since 1980, with Jack Hughes scoring 1 minute 41 seconds into the extra period after Matt Boldy had opened the scoring and Cale Makar equalized.
The victory revived memories of Lake Placid’s “Miracle on Ice,” and coach Mike Sullivan praised a roster built on character and resilience amid heightened political tension between Washington and Ottawa.
Attention now turns to Los Angeles, which will host the next Summer Olympics in two years as the IOC seeks to refine its commercial model and navigate the persistent tension between sport and politics, before the Winter Games move to France in 2030 with another multi-venue approach.
Norway’s cross-country skier Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo completed his historic gold medal sweep on Saturday by winning his sixth race and set the record for the most golds by one athlete in a single Winter Olympics.
Klaebo’s victory in the 50-kilometer mass start race shattered the nearly 50-year record set by American speed skater Eric Heiden, who won five golds in the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.
All of Heiden’s wins were in individual races and two of Klaebo’s have come in team events, so Heiden’s record for individual wins still stands.
Klaebo’s teammates, Martin Loewstroem Nyenget, took silver, and Emil Iversen, won bronze in a Norwegian sweep.
Klaebo also extended his record for most career Winter Olympic gold medals to 11 over three Games. The previous record had been eight, which Klaebo broke Feb. 15.
Klaebo has the second-most Olympic golds overall. U.S. swimming great Michael Phelps has 23.
The win gave Norway a record 18th gold medal and further increased their lead in the total medal count in these games to 40 overall.
The country set the record Friday for the most gold medals won by a nation at a single Winter Olympics when biathlete Johannes Dale-Skjevdal won the 15-kilometer mass start race.
The Gaza Strip lies shattered. Entire neighborhoods have been flattened, and the most basic systems that sustain daily life, including water and sewage networks, roads, power grids and food production, are either crippled or gone. Aid groups warn that without urgent rebuilding, the risk of hunger and disease will deepen.
Yet amid the wreckage came an unexpected promise: a new national football stadium. The pledge, attributed to the sport’s global governing body, stood in stark contrast to the scale of destruction and the daunting task of restoring essential services.
The announcement surfaced during the inaugural meeting of President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace in Washington on Thursday. The event unfolded with a heavy dose of political pageantry. Nine governments committed a combined $7 billion toward a Gaza relief package, while five others signaled their readiness to send troops as part of a proposed international stabilization force.
“We don’t have to just rebuild houses or schools or hospitals or roads,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said. “We also have to rebuild and build people, emotion, hope and trust. And this is what football, my sport, is about.”
FIFA pledged $50 million for a new stadium holding between 20,000 and 25,000 spectators and said it would build a $15 million FIFA academy. The organization also promised to spend an additional $2.5 million for 50 “mini pitches,” or football fields, and five full-sized fields costing $1 million each.
Gaza does not have a national football team. A unified Palestinian squad represents Gaza and the West Bank and has been recognized by FIFA since 1998 but has never qualified for the World Cup.
“Football, or football as it is called here, is the world’s universal language,” Infantino said. “It’s about hope. It’s about joy. It’s about happiness. It’s about coming together. It’s about uniting the world.”
He showed a video that proclaimed, “A simple ball. A shared field. A reason to believe again,” while noting that FIFA and the Board of Peace were joining forces to “turn football into a bridge toward peace, dignity and hope.”
The video mentioned FIFA creating Gaza football leagues at youth, amateur and regional levels and promised a “complete football ecosystem designed to support communities and future generations.”
Infantino has become a regular presence at the White House ahead of this year’s World Cup, jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada. He also frequently appears at Trump events while the president is traveling. He showed up in Davos, Switzerland, last month when the Board of Peace, part of a larger White House-brokered ceasefire aimed at ending the fighting in Gaza, was formally launched.
Trump repeatedly singled out Infantino during his remarks Thursday at the Board of Peace event while attempting to gloss over the fact that many top U.S. allies, including Britain and Canada, have not joined.
“Virtually everyone is the head of a country,” Trump said of the board’s members, while noting that Infantino is “head of football, so that’s not so bad.”
“I like your job the best, I think,” Trump said.
Thursday’s attendees were given red hats styled after Trump’s “Make America Great Again” caps, with “USA” in white letters and “45-47” signifying Trump’s two presidential terms. Infantino briefly wore one, as did others in attendance.
The president gave shoutouts to Infantino during several stories on divergent topics, including when Trump suggested he had been a more successful real estate developer than his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and as he recounted how an escalator stopped while he was on it during last fall’s U.N. General Assembly meeting, an incident Trump suggested should have triggered arrests but did not.
Trump even explained to Infantino that B-2 bombers carry “very big bombs.”
But the president’s most effusive praise for Infantino was related to his organization awarding Trump a new FIFA peace prize last year, after the president lobbied for a Nobel Peace Prize but was not selected by the Norwegian committee that awards it.
“I think they saw that I got screwed by Norway,” Trump said.
Pakistan and New Zealand face off in Colombo on Saturday as the second “Super Eights” stage of the T20 World Cup gets underway, with former champions Australia shockingly absent after failing to advance from their group.
In a twist, surprise package Zimbabwe, who did not even qualify in 2024, dominated Group B with an unbeaten run that included wins over Australia and co-hosts Sri Lanka.
Australia, plagued by injuries, endured a turbulent campaign and missed the Super Eights for the first time since 2009.
Australia’s media did not hold back, citing selection “stuff-ups” and “shambolic” preparations, including a 3-0 pre-tournament series loss in Pakistan, as the source of embarrassment.
Australia coach Andrew McDonald said his players were “devastated” but any inquest into the failure would begin “when we exit the shores here.”
India, the world’s No. 1-ranked T20 side, are hot favorites to retain their crown on home soil.
In the second round, they face a tough rematch of the 2024 final against an in-form South Africa in Ahmedabad on Sunday at a packed 130,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium. Both teams came through the first-round phase with four wins from four.
India are on a 12-match unbeaten run at the T20 World Cup, stretching back to their semi-final loss to eventual winners England in 2022.
No team has won back-to-back T20 World Cups or lifted the trophy on home soil, and India carry the hopes of hundreds of millions of cricket-obsessed fans.
However, India’s form has been inconsistent, and they have a problem at the top of the order, with No. 1-ranked batter Abhishek Sharma recording three consecutive ducks. Their batting looked shaky against the United States, falling to 77-6 before rallying to win.
Also in Super Eights Group 1 are Zimbabwe and the West Indies, who meet in Mumbai on Monday. All of that group’s games are being hosted in India.
England yet to fire
The West Indies toppled England convincingly in the group phase. The two-time champions have all-round strength and depth. They won the last T20 World Cup hosted in India in 2016 and have started this tournament in clinical fashion, winning all four group games.
They will be wary of Zimbabwe, whose colorful traveling supporters have had plenty to cheer so far. Even a washout against Ireland could not dampen their spirits.
In Sri Lanka, Group 2 pits the co-hosts against England, Pakistan, and New Zealand. The top two from each group will advance to the semi-finals.
Pakistan were the last team to secure their berth, beating Namibia by 102 runs. Captain Salman Agha called it a “complete performance” as they bounced back from a group defeat to bitter rivals India.
England, another pre-tournament favorite, stumbled through their group matches in Mumbai and Kolkata, losing to the only Test-playing side they faced, the West Indies. Harry Brook’s side were unconvincing in wins against minnows Nepal, Scotland, and Italy, who were making their World Cup debut.
England return to a happy hunting ground in Kandy to face Sri Lanka on Sunday, a venue where they swept a T20 series 3-0 this month, with Sam Curran taking a hat-trick. Their top order needs form, with explosive openers Jos Buttler and Phil Salt yet to make a telling score, and Brook failing to fire.
Sri Lanka have been hot and cold. Pathum Nissanka scored a superb century on Monday to all but end Australia’s tournament. But they lost to Zimbabwe in their final group game, although Nissanka was in the runs again with 62.
Turkish prosecutors have widened their grip on football’s biggest integrity crisis in years, detaining 32 suspects, including senior club executives in a sweeping match-fixing and illegal betting probe that now stretches across the country’s professional pyramid.
Acting on orders from the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, police carried out coordinated raids in 10 provinces on Friday, targeting 33 individuals.
One suspect remains at large. Authorities say digital forensic work on betting accounts and financial transactions led them to executives who allegedly placed wagers on matches involving their own teams, including bets on rivals to win.
Under Türkiye’s Law No. 6222 on the Prevention of Violence and Disorder in Sports, betting on fixtures one can influence constitutes a criminal offense. Prosecutors argue the conduct goes beyond personal gambling, pointing to possible organized activity that could trigger heavier prison sentences if proven.
Names and club affiliations have not been released. Investigators seized phones, computers and financial documents as they attempt to map money flows and potential links to illegal betting networks.
Scandal years in the making
The latest detentions are the newest chapter in what has become known as the 2025 Turkish football betting scandal, an investigation that first erupted inside the referee corps.
An internal audit by the Turkish Football Federation in October 2025 examined 571 active professional referees.
It found that 371 held registered betting accounts and 152 had actively wagered on football matches, including domestic and international fixtures. Several elite officials were among those implicated.
Within days, the federation suspended 149 referees and assistants for periods of up to a year and pledged tighter monitoring and ethics reforms. The crackdown soon expanded beyond match officials.
By November, more than 1,000 players across the Süper Lig and lower divisions had been referred to the Professional Football Discipline Board.
Suspensions followed, though some cases were later reduced or dropped after claims of identity theft or historical betting unrelated to their clubs.
Criminal proceedings escalated through late 2025 and early 2026, with multiple waves of arrests involving referees, club presidents and senior administrators.
Financial intelligence from Türkiye’s anti-money laundering authorities helped trace alleged illegal betting proceeds through club-linked accounts.
In one February operation, assets tied to lower-division clubs were seized on suspicion of laundering gambling revenue.
Dressing rooms and boardrooms
Friday’s operation signals a shift in focus toward executive decision-makers.
Prosecutors say evidence suggests certain officials may have used illegal betting channels not only for personal gain but, in some cases, to ease mounting club debts.
Authorities are also examining suspicious betting patterns tied to specific match events such as halftime scores, penalties and red cards.
The fallout has been profound.
Lower-league fixtures were postponed, disciplinary dockets swelled and Türkiye’s request for an emergency transfer window was rejected by FIFA.
Sponsors and broadcasters are watching closely as the investigation deepens.
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