Argentina have been boosted by the return of captain Lionel Messi for their CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifiers against Venezuela and Bolivia, the country’s football association said on Wednesday, after the 37-year-old recovered from an ankle injury.

Messi, who plays for Major League Soccer club Inter Miami, was left out of Argentina’s squad for their World Cup Qualifiers against Chile and Colombia in August due to the injury which he sustained during the Copa America final.

Argentina beat Colombia 1-0 to win a record 16th Copa America title.

ARGENTINA SQUAD:

Goalkeepers – Geronimo Rulli, Walter Benitez, Juan Musso.

Defenders – Gonzalo Montiel, Nahuel Molina, Cristian Romero, Lisandro Martinez, Nicolas Otamendi, German Pezzella, Leonardo Balerdi, Marcos Acuna, Nicolas Tagliafico.

Midfielders – Rodrigo De Paul, Alexis Mac Allister, Leandro Paredes, Enzo Fernandez, Giovani Lo Celso, Thiago Almada, Guido Rodriguez, Nico Paz.

Forwards – Nicolas Gonzalez, Lautaro Martinez, Alejandro Garnacho, Julian Alvarez, Valentin Carboni, Valentin Carboni, Paulo Dybala and Lionel Messi.

Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano “Dibu” Martinez has been suspended for two matches by FIFA for “offensive behaviour”, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) said in a statement on Friday.

Martinez will miss Argentina’s next South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup against Venezuela and Bolivia in October.

The Aston Villa goalkeeper has been suspended over incidents in matches against Chile and Colombia earlier this month.

In the Chile game, his first since winning the Copa America in the United States, Martinez celebrated by making a lewd gesture with the trophy, as he did after winning the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

After the loss to Colombia, the 32-year-old hit a local television camera.

“Damian Emiliano Martinez is being held responsible for his offensive behaviour and violation of the principles of fair play,” the AFA said in a statement, adding that it disagreed with the FIFA Disciplinary Committee’s decision

-Reuters

Hammad Albalawi, head of Saudi Arabia’s 2034 World Cup bid unit, said his country welcomes all visitors, including LGBTQ people and their bid to host the 48-team showpiece event has nothing to do with ‘sportswashing’ their human rights record.

Global governing body FIFA limited the 2034 contest to bidders from the Asian and Oceania confederations as Morocco, Portugal and Spain will share the hosting of the 2030 tournament.

The hosts are set to be officially appointed at the FIFA Congress on Dec. 11 and Saudi Arabia’s bid is almost certain to succeed due to the absence of any other expressions of interest before FIFA’s deadline late last year.

In August, Amnesty International said Saudi Arabia failed to meet FIFA’s own human rights requirements in their bid for the 2034 men’s World Cup and called for urgent action to improve the nation’s human rights protections.

There are no public advocacy groups for LGBTQ people in the Kingdom and while Saudi’s state law is uncodified, it is understood by Amnesty, opens new tab  that people can be sentenced to death if it is proven they have engaged in same-sex sexual acts.

“You will be respected,” Albalawi told Sky Sports when asked about LGBTQ fans visiting his country. “You will be welcome in Saudi Arabia as that respect and welcome is to everyone from all around the world.

“We respect the privacy of all of our guests. We have seen millions of guests come to Saudi Arabia in the last few years. We’ve hosted over a hundred sporting events attended by more than three million fans who have enjoyed their experience.

“People need to educate themselves about the Kingdom and the best way to do that is to come and visit. They will find hospitable Saudis. We would love to receive all of our guests.”

In May 2023, Saudi’s government-run tourism website said in a statement under general information for LGBT visitors, “We ask that visitors respect our culture and traditions and follow our laws as they would when visiting any other country in the world.”

“Like other governments around the world, visitors are not required to disclose their personal information and we will respect visitors right to privacy.”

The Saudis have invested heavily in high-profile sports such as soccer, Formula One, boxing and golf over the last few years, leading critics, including Amnesty International, to accuse the oil-rich kingdom of “sportswashing” its human rights record.

Albalawi denied accusations of sportswashing and reaffirmed the Kingdom’s commitment to Vision 2030 while speaking with both local and international media.

HAPPIER LIVES

“We’re not doing this to make a headline, we’re doing this for our people,” Albalawi said. “We are investing to make sure that Saudis live longer and happier lives and that’s something that we’re very proud of.”

Vision 2030, launched in 2016, led by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the driving force behind recent reforms, aims to diversify the country’s oil-reliant economy by boosting tourism and enhancing urban life through cultural and heritage events and sports.

“If sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by 1%, then we’ll continue sportswashing,” Mohammed bin Salman said in an interview with Fox News last year.

An independent human rights context analysis, prepared in collaboration with Saudi and British law firms, Abuhimed Alsheikh Alhagbani (AS&H) Clifford Chance for the bid, failed to address several human rights issues, Amnesty said.

The document, which only involved input from governmental bodies, did not consult any civil society organisations or rights-holders in its preparation, Amnesty added.

Dana Ahmed, a researcher at Amnesty, told Reuters in June that while the organisation was able to conduct research on migrant workers in Qatar during the 2022 World Cup, which resulted in reforms, they have been denied similar access in Saudi Arabia.

Another Amnesty report from June said a number of key human rights risks tied to hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup also remain unaddressed.

-Reuters