Cristiano Ronaldo set to avoid ban at World Cup after FIFA red-card verdict offers probation
Geneva (AP): Cristiano Ronaldo will likely avoid missing any Portugal games at the World Cup despite his red card in a qualifying game for elbowing an Ireland opponent.
FIFA published a disciplinary verdict that imposed a three-game ban, which judged Ronaldo's action as “violent conduct” or “serious foul play,” but with two of those games deferred for a one-year probation period.
Ronaldo served a mandatory one-game ban when Portugal played its final qualifying game last week — a 9-1 win over Armenia that sealed its place at the World Cup in North America.
The superstar had been expected to be banned for at least one more game and start what will be his record sixth World Cup on the sidelines.
FIFA cited its disciplinary rules that allow for parts of a sanction to be probationary, though it is rare in cases of a three-game ban for two of them to be deferred.
In two cases judged by FIFA this month, players from Armenia and Burundi were banned for three games after getting red cards for acts of aggression in World Cup qualifying games and neither got a reduction on probation.
“If Cristiano Ronaldo commits another infringement of a similar nature and gravity during the probationary period,” FIFA said in a statement, then the remaining two games will be activated.
FIFA has disciplinary authority over national-team games and Portugal is scheduled to play two friendly matches in March, then likely one or two warmup games in late-May or June. The World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico starts June 11.
Ronaldo swung an arm and struck Ireland defender Dara O'Shea with an elbow during a 2-0 loss in Dublin two weeks ago.
VIP visit
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The FIFA verdict comes one week after Ronaldo met U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House for a formal dinner with Saudi Arabia's crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. FIFA president Gianni Infantino also attended the event and posed for a selfie photo with Ronaldo.
Ronaldo has played in the Saudi league for three years at one of the clubs majority owned by the kingdom's sovereign wealth Public Investment Fund that the prince chairs. Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup and has been a major financial backer of FIFA in the past two years.
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FIFA said its disciplinary verdict of “the three-match suspension is subject to appeal to the FIFA Appeal Committee.”
It was unclear who could have legal standing to challenge the verdict, and if that might be the soccer federation of Ireland or Portugal's opponents at the World Cup.
Trump is due to attend the draw ceremony Dec. 5 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where Portugal, one of the 48-team tournament's top seeds, will learn its three opponents in a round-robin group.
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Jai Bhim: Slogan that energised Dalits was first given at this central Maharashtra village
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (PTI): 'Jai Bhim': These two words have come to symbolise the awakening and empowerment of the Dalit community in independent India, but not many people know how it originated.
The slogan, which also encapsulates the immense reverence in which Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar is held, was first raised at the Makranpur Parishad, a conference organised at Makranpur village in Kannad teshil of today's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district in Maharashtra.
Ambedkar, the chief architect of India's Constitution, died on December 6, 1956.
Bhausaheb More, the first president of the Scheduled Castes Federation of Marathwada, organised the first Makranpur Parishad on December 30, 1938.
Dr Ambedkar spoke at the conference and asked the people not to support the princely state of Hyderabad under which much of central Maharashtra then fell, said Assistant Commissioner of Police Pravin More, Bhausaheb's son.
"When Bhausaheb stood up to speak, he said every community has its own deity and they greet each other using the name of that deity. Dr Ambedkar showed us the path of progress, and he is like God to us. So henceforth, we should say 'Jai Bhim' while meeting each other. The people responded enthusiastically. A resolution accepting 'Jai Bhim' as the community's slogan was also passed," More told PTI.
"My father came in contact with Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar in his early years. Bhausaheb was aware of the atrocities the Nizam state committed on Dalits. He told Ambedkar about these atrocities, including the pressure to convert. Dr Ambedkar was strongly against these atrocities, and he decided to attend the 1938 conference," he said.
As Ambedkar was against the princely states, he was banned from giving speeches in the Hyderabad state but was allowed to travel through its territories. The Shivna river formed the border between Hyderabad and British India. Makranpur was chosen as the venue for the first conference because it was on the banks of Shivna but lay in the British territory, ACP More said.
The stage made of bricks, from where Dr Ambedkar addressed the conference, still stands. The conference is organised on December 30 every year to carry forward Ambedkar's thought, and the tradition was not discontinued even in 1972 when Maharashtra experienced one of the worst droughts in it history.
"My grandmother pledged her jewellery for the conference expenses. People from Khandesh, Vidarbha and Marathwada attended it. Despite a ban imposed by the Nizam's police, Ambedkar's followers crossed the river to attend the event," said ACP More.
"This is the 87th year of Makranpur Parishad. We have deliberately retained the venue as it helps spread Ambedkar's thought in rural areas," he added.
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