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FOOTBALL

Umeå’s women footballers to challenge American all-stars

The reigning champions of the Swedish women’s professional football league, Umeå IK, are heading to the United States to play a team of stars from the American Women's Professional Soccer (WPS).

Umeå's women footballers to challenge American all-stars

The squad from northern Sweden will head to St. Louis, Missouri for an August 30th showdown with the WPS top talent in the league’s first All-Star game, the US league announced on Tuesday.

The game will be staged eight days after the inaugural WPS championship game with the all-star starters selected by vote and reserves decided by the coach and WPS commissioner Tonya Antonucci.

“Our league is part of the bigger growth of the women’s game at the global level and we wanted to acknowledge that by bringing in a club from outside the league,” Antonucci said.

Three-time FIFA World Player of the Year Marta, a Los Angeles Sol forward who is joint leading scorer in the league, will likely be playing against her former teammates at Umeå, which has won seven of the past nine Swedish crowns.

“It is going to be very exciting to play against the best players of WPS,” Umeå striker Hanna Ljungberg said.

“Naturally we look forward to playing against Marta.”

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RACISM

VIDEO: Spain’s La Liga reviews video of boy racially abusing Vinicius

Spain's La Liga on Monday said it was reviewing a video of a child making racist insults towards Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior during the 2-2 draw with Valencia at the weekend.

VIDEO: Spain's La Liga reviews video of boy racially abusing Vinicius

“We’re in the process of studying and analysing the facts from a legal standpoint to see what we can and should do,” La Liga sources said.

In a video published by a journalist for ESPN Brasil, and picked up by Spanish media, a boy sitting in a woman’s lap can be heard calling Vinicius a “monkey”.

The Brazilian scored twice for Madrid as his team recovered from two goals down at Mestalla on Saturday.

Vinicius raised his fist in a “Black Power” salute after the first of his two goals at a ground where he was racially abused last season. Valencia subsequently banned three people from the stadium for life.

The 23-year-old has become a symbol of the fight against discrimination in Spanish football after suffering racist abuse on many occasions, and he was jeered repeatedly by home supporters on Saturday.

Jude Bellingham was sent off after the final whistle against Valencia for protesting after the referee blew the final whistle right before the England midfielder headed home what he thought was the winning goal.

READ ALSO: Football star Vinicius highlights racist behaviour from Spanish fans

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