Saudi Arabia to Allow Sports Fans to Attend Full-capacity Events

Soccer Football - World Cup Qualifiers Asia - Round 2 - Group D - Saudi Arabia v Palestine - King Saud University Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - March 30, 2021 Fans inside the stadium before the match REUTERS/Ahmed Yosri
Soccer Football - World Cup Qualifiers Asia - Round 2 - Group D - Saudi Arabia v Palestine - King Saud University Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - March 30, 2021 Fans inside the stadium before the match REUTERS/Ahmed Yosri
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Saudi Arabia to Allow Sports Fans to Attend Full-capacity Events

Soccer Football - World Cup Qualifiers Asia - Round 2 - Group D - Saudi Arabia v Palestine - King Saud University Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - March 30, 2021 Fans inside the stadium before the match REUTERS/Ahmed Yosri
Soccer Football - World Cup Qualifiers Asia - Round 2 - Group D - Saudi Arabia v Palestine - King Saud University Stadium, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - March 30, 2021 Fans inside the stadium before the match REUTERS/Ahmed Yosri

Saudi Arabia's sports fans will be allowed to attend full-capacity events at all stadiums and other sports facilities starting on Sunday, the country's ministry of sports announced in a statement on Saturday.

Stadiums and other sports facilities will limit entry to fans who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine approved by the kingdom, the ministry said, Reuters reported.

On Friday, the interior ministry said Saudi Arabia would ease COVID-19 curbs beginning on Sunday, the interior ministry said on Friday, in response to a sharp drop in the daily number of infections and what it characterized as a considerable development in vaccinations.



Amorim is 'Very Excited' about where 14th-place Man United Can Go in 2025

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim reacts at the end of the English Premier League match between Manchester United and Newcastle United in Manchester, Britain, 30 December 2024. EPA/ADAM VAUGHAN
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim reacts at the end of the English Premier League match between Manchester United and Newcastle United in Manchester, Britain, 30 December 2024. EPA/ADAM VAUGHAN
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Amorim is 'Very Excited' about where 14th-place Man United Can Go in 2025

Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim reacts at the end of the English Premier League match between Manchester United and Newcastle United in Manchester, Britain, 30 December 2024. EPA/ADAM VAUGHAN
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim reacts at the end of the English Premier League match between Manchester United and Newcastle United in Manchester, Britain, 30 December 2024. EPA/ADAM VAUGHAN

Despite his team entering 2025 in 14th place in the Premier League, Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim is “very excited” about the year ahead.
United’s 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle on Monday saw it suffer five league losses in the same calendar month for the first time since September 1962, and a fourth straight reverse in all competitions means the Red Devils have lost six of their last eight.
But in a message posted on his club's official X account on New Year’s Eve, Amorim wrote: “I know it will take a lot of hard work from everyone to get there, but I am very excited about where we can go together in 2025.”
Amorim is yet to halt the alarming slide which led to Erik ten Hag’s dismissal in October, and his team is seven points above the drop zone with increasing talk of a relegation fight, including by Amorim himself who has called it “a possibility.”
But the Portuguese says he's determined to press on with the 3-4-3 system despite the difficulties United’s squad has had in adapting, The Associated Press reported.
“Of course I didn’t choose the players specifically for these positions but that I already knew,” he said. “But I understand they have a lot of difficulties because they spend two years playing one way and then they are playing another."
Amorim did not have the benefit of a pre-season to implement such a major change to United’s tactical model, and admitted that is having a significant impact.
“I think the players are losing everything, the small things that we try to work on in training," Amorim said. "After one goal they lose everything because we don’t have the base, we don’t have time to build the base to cope with the difficult moments so it’s really hard in this moment.”
United has the toughest of starts to 2025 when it travels to play league leader Liverpool on Sunday in what is widely considered English soccer’s fiercest rivalry.