11/06/2026

SPORTS THURSDAY | JUNE 11, 2026

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Bae blow for South Korea Stoke City playmaker doubtful for opener against Czech Republic S OUTH KOREA’S Bae Jun-ho is unlikely to feature in his nation’s World Cup opener against the Czech Republic in Guadalajara tomorrow (10am Malaysian time) as the Thursday and has trained on his own in an increasingly unlikely bid to be ready for South Korea’s opening Group A clash against Miroslav Koubek’s side. confidence after six wins in qualification and friendly matches following a crisis late last year when they lost to the Faroe Islands.

tournaments. Some defensive solutions were not entirely decisive,” Koubek told reporters after the match. “We should have been more assertive in the duels. There were some slip-ups.” The Czechs will hope Patrik Schick’s goal against Guatemala means the Bayer Leverkusen striker and Euro 2020 joint top scorer has found form while Hoffenheim striker Adam Hlozek offers another experienced option up front. Koubek will also lean on West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek and 35-year-old Vladimir Darida – who earned a recall to the national team after impressing for Hradec Kralove in the Czech top tier this season – to provide experience and stability. – Reuters

That result marked the low point of a then-stuttering qualifying campaign and led to the appointment of 74-year-old Koubek, who guided the Czechs through the playoffs to their first World Cup appearance since 2006. The Czechs will seek to impose their physicality on the South Koreans, potentially looking to 2m Slavia Prague striker Tomas Chory who headed in a goal in the 3-1 tournament tune-up match against Guatemala on June 6. Organisational discipline will feature heavily and is something Koubek believes will need to improve following some miscommunication during their 3-1 win over Guatemala. “In the history of the World Cup, I’m not aware of anything like this happening. Certainly not in recent

Bae is one of the youngest players in coach Hong Myung-bo’s squad and is expected to add a dash of youthful vigour to a line-up that laboured throughout Asia’s preliminaries before securing their berth at an 11th consecutive World Cup. The Koreans reached the last 16 in 2022, with Hwang Hee-chan scoring a stoppage time winner against Portugal to take his team into the knockout rounds and the Wolverhampton Wanderers forward is keen for a repeat performance at the upcoming tournament. “If I can have another play like that, it will be great for myself and for our team,” said Hwang, who will be appearing at his third World Cup. “I am working hard for a moment like that. Every

midfielder continues to recover from an injury to his ankle sustained in a 5-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago 11 days ago. The 22-year-old Stoke City playmaker missed his nation’s 1-0 victory over El Salvador last

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Draw Date: 10/06/26 (Wed)

Draw No: 6089/26

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match is important, but the first match is especially so.” The Czechs enter the World Cup riding a wave of

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Somali referee Omar Artan. – REUTERSPIC

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Somali ref says ‘dream’ ruined SOMALI referee Omar Artan said the “biggest dream of my life”had been ripped away after he was denied entry to the

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of tournament co-hosts the United States. “In line with previous Fifa events, a host government ultimately determines who receives a visa and who is admitted into their country,”said a spokesperson for football’s governing body. A spokesperson for US Customs and Border Protection said Omar was denied entry following a routine inspection. “Following inspection, the traveler, a referee for the Fifa World Cup, was determined to be inadmissible due to vetting concerns,”the statement said. The Somali government expressed“deep regret”at Omar’s exclusion from the tournament. The head of the White House Task Force for the World Cup defended the decision not to grant visas to Omar and some support staff for the Iranian team. “To this point we’ve had 35 teams that have come into the United States,”Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the task force, said. “No players, no coaches have been denied… There have been some officials that have been denied, and for good reason.” “We’re striking that balance between making sure that any bad actors that… try to come into the country under the guise of the World Cup will not get access to the United States,”he added. – AFP

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United States to officiate at the World Cup. Omar, who was named referee of the year in 2025 by the Confederation of African Football, has been dropped from Fifa’s list of officials after he was refused entry to the United States on arriving in Miami on Saturday. Somalia is one of several countries on a travel ban list introduced by President Donald Trump’s administration as part of a broader immigration crackdown. A US State Department official told AFP yesterday that the referee was“associated with suspected members of terrorist organisations,” therefore “making the traveler ineligible for admission to the US.” After an 11-hour interview with border officials, Omar said he was taken to a separate holding cell where he was detained for several further hours before being put on a flight back to Istanbul. “I’m just simply a referee who’s trying to live his dream, the biggest dream of my life, to come to the World Cup,”Omar told the New York Times yesterday in a telephone interview from the Turkish city. “I had the right papers and everything. I had the right visa,”he added. Fifa said it was powerless to influence the decision, which it said was the sole preserve

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