Summary: Genoa - Juventus 1:1/Sport1
The prosecutor's office in Iceland has decided not to press charges against the soccer player Albert Gudmundsson, and it is possible that he will be able to return to the national team and play against Israel in the decisive match in the playoff for promotion to Euro 2024. Israel will "host" Iceland in Budapest on March 21 and the winner of this meeting will play Bosnia five days later Or the final Ukraine.
From there, the group that will qualify for Euro 2024 will be placed in the fifth group together with Belgium, Slovakia and Romania.
Gudmundsson is one of the biggest stars of Icelandic football today, if not the biggest.
He scored 9 Serie A goals this season for Genoa and was recently mentioned as a candidate for Tottenham, West Ham, Milan, Juventus and Roma.
So much for the sporting matter, and hence for the matter of sexual offenses.
In Iceland, morality is preached because of the war in Gaza - the national coach said he would have preferred not to meet this Israel and people are calling for a boycott of the game - and all this in the years when local football "excels" mainly in apparently serious sexual affairs.
This is why, when a complaint was filed against him a few months ago, Gudmundsson was not invited to the national team.
And now that he is supposedly cleared of suspicion, he will probably be able to return, just in time for the playoffs - although it also depends on whether and when the complainant files an appeal.
Mentioned as a candidate for Juventus, Milan and Tottenham.
Gudmundsson/GettyImages, Alessandro Sabattini
In recent years, sex scandal has been chasing sex scandal in Icelandic football.
In 2021, the big star Gylfi Sigurdsson and the outstanding striker Kolbein Sigthorsson were arrested with a difference of only two months.
These are completely different cases, the first is suspected of rape of a minor in England and the second of sexual assault in Iceland in 2017.
At the same time, it was also revealed that Aaron Gunnarsson - the captain of the national team who has accumulated 97 international appearances - was accused together with national team player Eggert Jonsson, in a rape that allegedly took place in Denmark in 2010.
If that wasn't enough, Iceland reported 11 years late that the two footballers met their alleged victim several times after the attack and used to tease her.
The police did not find enough evidence to prosecute.
If these cases were not enough, the father of one of the complainants in the many cases, provided proof that the heads of the association knew about the complaints and the happenings and tried to cover them up.
The media celebrated and the entire management of the association resigned.
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100 percent anti-Israel: Iceland takes a side for the decisive game
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Both were prominent footballers, both were accused of sexual offenses, both returned to the national team.
Gunnarsson and Sigurdsson/GettyImages, VI-Images
Now in Iceland they are being careful, so Gudmundsson was suspended from the national team until the prosecutor's office decided not to press charges.
In case anyone was wondering, Gunnarsson and Sigurdsson have already returned to the national team since the allegations, despite very long investigations - Sigurdsson's took about two years.
In both cases, the prosecutor's offices had difficulty establishing indictments.
On paper he was cleared, but the complainant remains broken judging by the words of her lawyer: "It was very difficult for my client to file a complaint against a person she has known since they were children, and whose families are friends. She expected justice and will continue to pursue justice until the truth comes out."
Gudmundsson is a member of a privileged family.
His grandfather and his father were footballers in the Iceland national team and his grandfather - also named Albert Gudmundsson and who played for Arsenal and Milan among others - was Iceland's finance minister after retiring from football and pursuing a political career.
He resigned from his post in 1987, after a scandal involving tax misses.
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Iceland national team