Hans-Dieter Flick has become the new helmsman of the Catalan “Barcelona”, the club's press service reports. The 59 years old German specialist signed a contract with the “Blaugrana” until June 30, 2026.

Let us remind that on May 24, “Barcelona” announced their separation from Xavi, who had led the team since the beginning of this year.

Flick is best known for his work with “Bayern” Munich, whom he coached from 2019 to 2021. During this time, under his leadership, the Bavarians won two league titles, two German Cups, two German Super Cups, the Champions League, the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup.

In 2021, Flick led the German national team, but failed to take them out of the group at the 2022 World Cup. This was followed by a series of unsuccessful friendly matches, which ultimately led to the specialist’s resignation.

The rival of the national team of Turkmenistan in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup, the Hong Kong team, has changed its head coach. 44 years old Austrian specialist Wolfgang Luisser has been appointed as the new mentor, replacing Jorn Anderson, who worked in the position for 3,5 years. In June 2022, Anderson successfully led Hong Kong to the finals of the 2023 Asian Cup, the first time this has happened in 54 years.

Luisser will assume the duties of acting head coach, leading the team into the upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Iran and Turkmenistan.

Meanwhile, the football players of the Turkmenistan national team arrived for a training camp in Antalya, Türkiye, where until June 4 they will prepare for the upcoming qualifying matches for the 2026 World Cup with the teams of Uzbekistan and Hong Kong.

Let us remind that 24 football players have been invited to the national team to prepare for the final qualifying games of the 2026 World Cup.

In the 5th round of the qualifying stage of the 2026 World Cup, Turkmen football players will meet on June 6 in Tashkent with Uzbekistan, and in the final qualifying match they will play on June 11 at home with Hong Kong.

After four rounds, the Turkmenistan team takes third place in group E with 1 point.

In honor of the International Children's Day, Ashgabat will host a concert with the participation of the Youth Symphony Orchestra and the United Children's Choir. The event will begin at 15:00 on June 1 at the Mukam Palace of the State Cultural Center of Turkmenistan.

The concert was organized by a specially created Organizing Committee, which carefully selected talented children from art, music and specialized educational institutions of the country. Children from all regions of Turkmenistan, including the cities of Ashgabat and Arkadag, participated in the selection.

110 talented young musicians from the Youth Symphony Orchestra and about 120 members of the united Children's Choir will perform on stage. Young singers and musicians will also perform with them, who will perform famous works by Turkmen and foreign composers.

Football players of the Turkmenistan national team will play a friendly match with the Greenland team on June 1 in Antalya (UAE). 

The upcoming game Is planned as part of the training camp of the national team of Turkmenistan, which is preparing for the qualifying matches for the 2026 World Cup against Uzbekistan (June 6) and Hong Kong (June 11).

This will be the first match between the national teams of Turkmenistan and Greenland in history.

The head coach of the Turkmenistan national team is Mergen Orazov. His assistants are Mekan Muhammetmyradov, Velsahet Ovezov, Pavel Matus, Ildar Tashliev and Batyr Rozyev.

The training camp of the Turkmen team will last until June 4, after which the players will go to Tashkent for a match with the Uzbekistan national team. After the game in Uzbekistan, the Turkmenistan team will return to Ashgabat, where they will host Hong Kong on June 11 in the final match of the second round of the 2026 World Cup qualifying tournament.

At the moment, Iran and Uzbekistan are in the lead in Group E, with 10 points each. Turkmenistan and Hong Kong occupy 3-4 places respectively, having one point each.

President Serdar Berdimuhamedov sent sincere congratulations to Mr. Gitanas Nauseda on his re-election as President of the Republic of Lithuania.

Taking advantage of this pleasant opportunity, the Head of State expressed to President Gitanas Nauseda wishes for good health, happiness and new successes in responsible government activities, and peace, progress and prosperity to the people of the Republic of Lithuania.

At the meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS countries on May 24, it was decided to expand cooperation in the field of sports. As a result, Ashgabat was declared the City of new sports opportunities of the Commonwealth. The Heads of Government instructed the Council for Physical Culture and Sports to develop a draft Action Plan for 2024-2025 aimed at implementing this initiative.

This decision confirms the increased interest of the Commonwealth partners in the sports potential of Turkmenistan in recent years. Our country is an initiator and organizer of major sporting events on a regular basis. In 2017, the V Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games were held in Ashgabat with great success. In 2018, at the initiative of Turkmenistan, the UN General Assembly established World Bicycle Day, which is celebrated annually on June 3.

The announcement of Ashgabat as a City of new sports opportunities in the CIS is a confirmation of Turkmenistan's efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle and develop sports culture. The action plan for 2024-2025, which will be developed by the Council for Physical Culture and Sports, is aimed at further strengthening and expanding these achievements.

This initiative opens up new prospects for sports cooperation between the CIS countries and contributes to enhancing the international prestige of Ashgabat as a center of sports innovation and opportunities.

The draw for the tenth Futsal World Championship was held in Samarkand, which will be held from September 14 to October 6, 2024 in three cities of Uzbekistan - Tashkent, Andijan and Bukhara.

Based on the results of the draw, the teams of the Central Asian republics determined their opponents in the group stage. The hosts of the tournament, the national team of Uzbekistan, will play with teams from the Netherlands,

Paraguay and Costa Rica. Tajikistan will face Portugal, Morocco and Panama. Kazakhstan was in a group with the teams of Spain, New Zealand and Libya.

Based on the results of the group stage, the 16 teams that finished first and second, as well as the top four teams that finished third, will advance to the playoffs and continue to compete for the championship title.

Results of the 2024 Futsal World Cup draw:

Group “A” (Tashkent)

• Uzbekistan
• Netherlands
• Paraguay
• Costa Rica

Group “B” (Bukhara)

• Brazil
• Cuba
• Croatia
• Thailand

Group “C” (Tashkent)

• Argentina

• Ukraine

• Afghanistan

• Angola

Group “D” (Andijan)

• Spain

• Kazakhstan

• New Zealand

• Libya

Group “E” (Tashkent)

• Portugal

• Panama

• Tajikistan

• Morocco

Group “F” (Bukhara)

• Iran

• Venezuela

• Guatemala

• France

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has published an updated club rating based on the results of the completed 2023/2024 season. In this ranking, out of 47 AFC member countries, Turkmenistan is in 19th place, gaining 20,2 points.

Among the countries of Central Asia, Turkmenistan was ahead of Kyrgyzstan (27th place, 15,5 points), but was behind Tajikistan (18th place, 22,5 points) and Uzbekistan (9th place, 47,3 points). The leaders in the ranking were

Saudi Arabia (103,1 points), Japan (97 points) and the Republic of Korea (93,6 points).

Starting from the 2024/2025 season, AFC club competitions will be divided into three levels: Elite Champions League, Champions League 2 and Challenge League. Thanks to 19th place in the ranking, Turkmenistan received the right to field two teams in Asian competitions.

As journalist Alisher Nikimbayev reports on the Telegram channel “Futbolium”, the current champion of Turkmenistan “Arkadag”, together with teams from India, Bahrain and Kuwait, will compete for two tickets to the group stage of the Champions League 2. And the finalist of the 2023 Turkmenistan Cup “Ahal” will directly get into group stage of the Challenge League.

Defender of the Belarusian club Vitebsk and the national team of Turkmenistan Vepa Dzhumaev is forced to miss the June training camp of the Turkmen team due to injury.

As the footballer himself told the press service of the national team, during one of the matches in the Belarusian championship, he suffered damage to the front surface of his thigh. Dzhumaev hoped to recover in time for the 2026 World Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan, but the injury turned out to be more serious, and it was not possible to fully recover in time.

Representatives of the Turkmenistan national team wished Dzhumaev a speedy recovery on social networks.

Thus, the defender will miss not only the game with Uzbekistan, but also the meeting with Hong Kong in the 2026 World Cup qualifying round.

Al Ain from the United Arab Emirates won the AFC Champions League final, beating the Japanese club Yokohama F. Marinos with a total score of 6:3 on aggregate.

In the return final match, held in the UAE, Al Ain defeated the opponent with a score of 5:1. Doubles as part of the winners were scored by Sofyan Rahimi (8th and 67th minutes) and Kojo Laba (90 +1 and 90+5), another goal was scored by Alejandro Romero (33). Jan Mateus scored for Yokohama F. Marinos (40th minute). It is worth noting that from the 45th minute the Japanese club played in the minority due to the removal of William Popp.

For Al Ain, which is managed by former Argentine national team player Hernan Crespo, this is the second victory in the AFC Champions League and the first since 2003. Having won the main Asian club trophy, the team from the UAE has guaranteed itself a ticket to the 2025 Club World Cup.

The Turkmen club "Akhal", representing the Main Directorate of "Turkmennebitonumleri", also participated in the current draw of the tournament. The team won the AFC Champions League for the second time in its history, beating Saudi Al-Fahey with a score of 1-0, and also drew 1-1 with the multiple champion of Uzbekistan Pakhtakor. At the end of the group stage, Ahal took 4th place in Group A with 4 points, passing ahead of Al Ain (15 points), Al Fahoo (9) and Pakhtakor (7).

Uzbekistan national team midfielder Abbosbek Fayzullaev, who plays for CSKA Moscow, won the award in the "Opening of the Season" nomination following the results of the Russian Premier League (RPL) championship.

20-year-old Fayzullaev had an excellent debut season for the Army. In 22 matches, he scored 4 goals and made 7 assists.

– Thanks to everyone who voted for me, it is very nice to receive such an award. I want to thank my teammates, coaches, the CSKA leadership, as well as the Army fans for their support. Special thanks to my parents and close friends," Fayzullayev said.

It is worth noting that the Uzbek national team, for which Fayzullayev stands, is Turkmenistan's opponent in the qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup. In the first round, the Uzbeks beat the Turkmen team 3-1 in Ashgabat. The return match is scheduled for June 6.

A number of sports events are organized in Turkmenistan on the occasion of the World Bicycle Day celebrated on June 3, the Turkmenistan newspaper writes: The Golden Age."

As Deputy Prime Minister N.Amannepesov said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, from May 27 to June 3, the Turkmen Track cycling Championship will be held in the Olympic town of Ashgabat. In the period from May 31 to June 3, a 335 km bicycle marathon with the participation of the national team of the country along a special route on the section of the Mary-Tejen-Ashgabat high-speed highway is also scheduled. And on June 3, it is planned to organize a mass bike ride in the capital.

Summarizing the report, President Serdar Berdimuhamedov instructed to properly prepare for the wide and solemn celebration of World Bicycle Day, as well as to hold physical culture and sports events on the occasion of this holiday at the appropriate level in the capital and velayats.