News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
Thailand will free by the end of Monday a refugee Bahraini footballer with residency status in Australia who was arrested more than two months ago, a prosecutor in the case said, after Bahrain abandoned its bid to seek his extradition.
Hakeem Al Araibi, 25, who fled Bahrain in 2014 and received refugee status in Australia, was arrested in November at a Bangkok airport while on a honeymoon trip following an Interpol notice issued at Bahrain's request.
However, the Middle East nation has withdrawn the request, leading a Thai court to approve a motion by prosecutors to drop the case against the footballer, said Chatchom Akapin, an official in the Thai Attorney-General's office.
"The court will now issue an order to release Mr Hakeem from jail today," said Chatchom, the director-general of the office's international affairs department.
"There are no grounds to hold him anymore. It is his right to decide where he will go next. He is a free man."
It was not immediately clear when Bahrain withdrew its extradition request. Bahrain authorities did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters seeking comment.
Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had no comment on the case.
The detention of Araibi, who appeared at a court hearing in shackles last week, drew international criticism, with Australian authorities and fellow footballers urging Thailand to release him. He says he faces torture if returned to Bahrain.
"My thanks go to the wonderful people of Thailand for your support and to the Thai government for upholding international law," former Australia soccer captain Craig Foster, who helped lobby officials at world governing body FIFA to intervene on Araibi's behalf, said on social network Twitter after the news.
Monday's development follows an appeal, reported by media on Saturday, to the Thai prime minister from two Australian divers who helped save 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave.
Araibi has said he wants to return to Australia, where he has lived since 2014 and plays for a Melbourne football club.
He was convicted of vandalising a police station during 2011 anti-government protests in Bahrain and sentenced in absentia after he fled. Araibi denies the charges, saying he was playing in a televised soccer match at the time of the attack.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has said Araibi was tortured by Bahraini authorities because of his brother's political activities during the 2011 protests.
Bahraini authorities deny allegations of torture.
Why Bale has been a disappointment in Spain...
Gareth Bale struck his landmark 100th Real Madrid goal in Saturday's 3-1 win at Atletico Madrid but there is a sense that the club's record signing has been a disappointment in Spain despite a considerable haul of goals and trophies.
Bale's strike, coming in his 217th appearance for Real, took him into the club's all-time top 20 scorers, with an impressive ratio of 0.46 goals per game, more prolific than Santiago Bernabeu greats such as Raul Gonzalez and Emilio Butragueno.
He has also lifted 13 trophies since joining from Tottenham Hotspur in 2013 for a then world record fee of 101 million euros ($114.36 million), among them a staggering four Champions League crowns, one La Liga title and a Copa del Rey.
But his stock among Real fans and in the public eye is not as high as peers such as Sergio Ramos or Luka Modric due to a constant struggle with injuries and his failure to step into the void vacated by Cristiano Ronaldo's departure to Juventus.
Bale's apparent lack of influence in the dressing room, hindered by an inability to speak Spanish despite 5-1/2 years in the nation's capital, does not help his cause.
Not even decisive displays and goals in the 2014 and 2018 Champions League final triumphs over Atletico Madrid and Liverpool have cemented his place in the hearts of fans.
In an October survey in newspaper Marca, Bale was the player supporters blamed most for their poor start to the season.
Over 70 per cent of respondents to a poll in daily AS, meanwhile, said they would like to see the club sell him.
There is still admiration for the forward's immense physical qualities and his ability to produce magical moments like his overhead kick against Liverpool in Kiev or his breathtaking solo goal to win the 2014 Copa del Rey against Barcelona.
But there is a widespread feeling that, given his transfer fee and the expectation that he would take the baton from Ronaldo as the team's galvanising figure, Bale has fallen short.
"We are always measuring Bale for his price, which gave us the fantasy that he was a world star," said Real and Argentina great Jorge Valdano last year.
"But the last five years do not match up to what Madrid paid for him. Still, every season he seems to score a contender for goal of the year, and we have to applaud him for that."
Real have made a remarkable recovery from their slump earlier in the season, barging their way into the title race after Saturday's win over Atletico, their fifth consecutive La Liga victory.
But Bale has had only a peripheral role in their revival, missing most of January with injury and not making the starting lineup against Atletico or in the Copa del Rey semi-final, first-leg clash with Barcelona, losing his place to thrilling Brazilian teenager Vinicius Jr.
Madrid coach Santiago Solari praised Bale for seeing off Atletico and said he was in "phenomenal shape," but the forward is far from certain to start away to Ajax Amsterdam in the Champions League last 16, first-leg tie on Wednesday.
"Vinicius has earned untouchable status for Solari, so now it is time for Bale, the 101 million euro man and the reason why (Paris St-Germain's) Kylian Mbappe did not come to Madrid, who must reinvent himself," said an article in AS.
Bale must consistently show he is capable of being more than a highlights player and a decisive substitute if he is not to be regarded as a player who just delivers spectacular moments.
Man United not a laughing stock any more, says Jones
Manchester United were a 'laughing stock' at the start of the season but deserve to be taken seriously now after Saturday’s win over Fulham lifted them into the Premier League’s top four, defender Phil Jones has said.
Caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had brought a 'positivity' to the club after Jose Mourinho’s departure and while United were not the finished article they were moving in the right direction, he added.
“It was tough for everyone involved, we might have been a bit of a laughing stock at the start of the season, but certainly not now,” Jones told reporters after United’s 3-0 win.
“We’ve proven that in the last 10 or 12 games. Everyone’s got to take us seriously now.”
United were 11 points off the top four when Solskjaer took charge in December and, having won eight of their last nine Premier League games, they moved back into the Champions League spots for the first time since the opening weekend.
The club are undefeated since Solskjaer’s appointment, winning 10 of 11 games in all competitions, and Jones attributed the run to the different approach under the Norwegian.
“(There’s) just a positivity about the place to grind results out when we’re not playing well, to play forward, to play with intent and purpose,” said Jones, who extended his contract until 2023 last week.
Families begin to bury Flamengo fire victims
The funerals of the teenagers who died in the fire that swept through Flamengo's training ground in Rio have started to take place on Sunday, while the club defended itself over the cause of the blaze in the unauthorised lodgings.
"How can a club as important as Flamengo allow for kids to sleep in containers," Johnny Vinicius, the uncle of 15-year Christian Esmerio, said during the goalkeeper's funeral service.
"It's absurd. Brazil has to do something to stop this so people stop dying with nobody being punished."
Esmerio was one of 10 boys aged between 14 and 16 who were killed on Friday morning when a fire that started in an air conditioning unit ripped through the makeshift dormitory at Flamengo's training ground on the edge of Rio de Janeiro.
Three others were injured, one of them seriously.
The city mayor said the club did not have permission to build lodgings but the club said the dormitories were comfortable and adequate.
The club issued a statement on Sunday saying the air conditioning units were checked by the operating company on Feb. 5. Flamengo did not respond to a request for comment about the observations made by Esmerio's uncle.
Friends and family, many of them wearing Flamengo shirts, cried and chanted as they laid Esmerio to rest.
Other fans laid flowers and messages at a makeshift memorial outside the training ground.
Sorry Brazil miss out on under-20 World Cup
Brazil beat Argentina 1-0 on the final day of the South American under-20 championship on Sunday but the result was no good for either side as Ecuador pipped Argentina to the title with Brazil ending outside the qualifying spots for this year's World Cup.
Uruguay and Colombia will join Ecuador, who won their maiden title, and Argentina in the finals of the biennial event that kicks off in Poland in May.
Brazil, who have won the South American championship more than any other nation, scored only six goals in nine games and finished fifth in the six-team final group.
They will miss the under-20 World Cup for the third time in the last four.
Though Brazil have been without some top players in the tournament with Real Madrid not releasing Vinicius Junior and Bayern Munich denying permission to winger Paulinho, they have also been hindered by disorganisation.
They played few warmup games before the tournament compared to some of their opponents while there has been continuous changes at the coach's office.
Current coach Carlos Amadeu took over only a year ago and the chopping and changing meant that Brazil, unlike rivals Uruguay or Argentina, have had no consistent game plan or style, with each new manager bringing his own ideas.
"We feel that in recent years the youth teams have had a lot of different leaders, with lots of changes," Ney Franco, a former under-20 coach, told O Estado web site.
A lack of interest in the tournament was also evident in coverage with Brazilian media devoting more space to Neymar's 27th birthday party than their youth team' defeat by Uruguay the same night.
The Brazilian Football Confederation has also provided no information on their website about the players who went to Chile other than their names.
The elimination might, however, not impact the players or the national team's future.
Barcelona's Malcom, Manchester United's Fred, Felipe Anderson of West Ham United and Everton striker Richarlison all played in disappointing campaigns in the past.