Key events
The Leeds manager Daniel Farke has been given a one-match touchline ban after confronting a referee following his side’s defeat by Manchester City last weekend.
Farke was shown a red card after jogging on to the pitch to remonstrate with Peter Bankes after the 1-0 loss. The German insists he did not swear or act aggressively but decided to accept the suspension, which came with an £8,000 fine, rather than contest it and risk a two-game ban.
He will sit out Sunday’s FA Cup fifth-round tie against Norwich and be back in the dugout for the Premier League meeting with Crystal Palace on March 15. Farke had earlier placed his red card down to the manner that he took the field, saying: “I’m not like a butterfly or unbelievably cute when I jog. I have learned my lesson – I will never jog again.”
A statement from the Football Association read: “Daniel Farke has been sanctioned for misconduct following the Premier League fixture between Leeds and Manchester City on Saturday February 28.
“It was alleged that the manager entered the field of play at full-time to confront the match official/s, contrary to Law 12 of the Laws of the Game. Daniel Farke subsequently admitted the charge against him and accepted the standard one-match suspension and £8,000 fine.” PA Media
Emma John
The Crucible Theatre is best known for hosting snooker, but it claims a place in football history too. On its outer wall, a blue plaque marks the site where the Sheffield Rules of the game were agreed in 1858, back when it was the Adelphi hotel. So it is a fitting spot to be premiering a new play this month about the establishment – and subsequent dismantling – of women’s football in the early 20th century.
Football fans and theatregoers may not have always felt like the obvious overlap in a Venn diagram, but the past decade has been a banner one for the beautiful game on stage. We have had a farce about the 2018 World Cup bid (Three Lions), a Royal Court drama about homophobia (The Pass), a Pulitzer Prize-nominated exploration of teenage girlhood (The Wolves) and even a 16th-century folk horror (The Bounds). Plus Dear England, the still-touring smash hit that tells the story of Gareth Southgate’s tenure as manager of the national men’s team.
An Iranian state television presenter has labelled the women’s national soccer team as “wartime traitors” after the players did not sing their national anthem before their Asian Cup opener against South Korea in Australia earlier this week.
Iran are playing in the continental tournament as a military conflict escalates at home after the US and Israel launched air strikes over the weekend, killing the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Their players stood in silence when Iran’s anthem was played at the Gold Coast ahead of their 3-0 opening loss to South Korea on Monday, though they sang and saluted before a 4-0 defeat by hosts Australia three days later.
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting presenter Mohammad Reza Shahbazi said in a video that the players showed a lack of patriotism and their actions amounted to the “pinnacle of dishonour” in footage circulating widely on social media.
“Let me just say one thing: traitors during wartime must be dealt with more severely,” Shahbazi said.
“Anyone who takes a step against the country under war conditions must be dealt with more severely. Like this matter of our women’s football team not singing the national anthem … these people must be dealt with more severely.”
Reuters has contacted the Asian Football Confederation for comment. Reuters has also contacted the Iran football federation and the team at the Asian Cup for comment.
Ahead of their game against Australia, Iran forward Sara Didar fought back tears and spoke about the war while coach Marziyeh Jafari said her players were doing their best to focus on the tournament despite concern for their families back home.
Iran face the Philippines on Sunday in their final group match. Reuters
The birds are singing and the rain has abated. Nigel Clough and his wife, Margaret, are taking their dog, Bobbie, for a long peaceful walk around the beautiful Derbyshire reservoir of Carsington Water. Looming on the horizon for the Mansfield manager is an FA Cup fifth-round tie at home to Arsenal but Clough knows the importance of staying, as he puts it, in the “real world”.
Igor Tudor insisted that the “boat is going in the direction I want to go” despite a shambolic 3-1 defeat to Crystal Palace, deepening Tottenham’s relegation fears.
Although the atmosphere was toxic on another grim night at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Tudor is confident that he can steer his new side to safety. Tottenham have lost each of their three games under their interim manager and are a point above the bottom three after Micky van de Ven’s red card kickstarted an implosion against Palace.
Spurs have four Premier League games in May: Aston Villa (away), Leeds (home), Chelsea (away) and Everton at home on the final day, Sunday 24 May.
You’d normally say Leeds and Everton at home look winnable but the atmosphere at Tottenham Stadium is hardly positive. What sort of league position will they be in come May?
Jacob Steinberg
Tottenham are sinking in a sea of venom. Relegation is no longer a distant prospect for the owners of the country’s best and costliest stadium. On the contrary, it is all getting all too real. Tottenham have rolled the dice, replacing a bedraggled Thomas Frank with a bewildered Igor Tudor, but they are only a point above the bottom three and offered absolutely no evidence that they are capable of arresting the slide during this shambolic defeat to Crystal Palace.
Preamble
Tottenham are in crisis. Tottenham are almost always in crisis, but last night’s 3-1 home Premier League defeat by Crystal Palace means things got a lot more crisis-y. They are now just a point above 18th-placed Wolves and 17th-placed Nottingham Forest, 29 points to their 28. As Tottenham’s executives survey the wreckage of another season –and weigh up whether or not Igor Tudor is the right man to lead them through this full-blooded relegation fight – we’ll bring you the latest.
There is also FA Cup to look forward to this weekend, among other things, with Wolves v Liverpool kicking off the fifth-round action at Molineux at 8pm tonight. Then there’s Mansfield Town v Arsenal, Wrexham v Chelsea and Newcastle v Manchester City tomorrow, to name but three.
First things first, don’t miss Barney Ronay on (ever-deeper) crisis club Tottenham:
