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Hello. Today, we have the story of Celine Haidar — the teenage Lebanese footballer who was hit by shrapnel.
Plus: Inside Liverpool’s crackdown on ticket touts.
Struck by shrapnel: Celine Haidar, the ‘Little Captain’ who became a symbol of war’s destruction
At just 19 years old, Celine Haidar had already been called up to the Lebanese national team. In August, the midfielder’s club, Beirut Football Academy, won the league title after an unbeaten season. They paraded through the city on an open-top bus.
Samer Barbary, BFA’s head coach, says Haidar was a “prodigy”, captaining the club on multiple occasions despite her teenage years.
“They called her ‘Little Captain’ because she was smaller than all of them (about 5ft 5ins, 165cm) but she could lead,” Barbary adds.
In Haidar’s dreams, she considered moving to the United States to play and had resolved to open an academy.
Last autumn, amid wider conflict in the Middle East, Israel escalated its pursuit of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shiite militia based across southern Lebanon who are allied with Hamas. More than 3,700 have been killed and 16,000 injured in Lebanon since 2023, according to the country’s health ministry.
Haidar’s family left Beirut for the relative safety of Baakline, a village in the Chouf Mountains, but two months after the end of the season in November, Haidar returned to the city to work and train.
It was there, as she sat on her motorbike, preparing to flee once more, that Haidar was struck on the right side of her head by a piece of shrapnel.
Critically injured, she was in a coma for over a month. She cannot move or speak and rarely registers sounds around her. Her condition has ignited outrage and sorrow.
‘I pray for the pain to return to me instead’
In the Beirut suburb of Achrafieh, Haidar requires round-the-clock care. Her father, Abbas, has given up work to look after her.
“I prayed I was the one injured,” Abbas told The Athletic’s Megan Feringa. “I pray for the pain to return to me instead.”
A full recovery will require medical procedures unavailable in Lebanon’s limited healthcare system, leaving her family at the mercy of charity. “We are hoping someone can read this and help us,” her mother, Saana, says. “Because we need, God willing, help.”
The effect on the young footballer’s life has been catastrophic. No one is immune from the impact of the conflict.
“We’ve spent all our lives holding our children, hiding them from war, protecting them,” says Abbas. “We only live to raise our children, to make their dreams come true. Celine was beginning her life building step by step with football.
“Celine had big ambitions. This ambition was killed. But let’s use this moment to give the message that it doesn’t matter your religion, your ethnicity. We’re all human beings. We deserve to have our dreams.”
News round-up
(James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
Ticket tussle: Liverpool take on organised crime and cyber attacks in tout fight
Anfield’s capacity of over 60,000 creates one of European football’s most famous atmospheres — but according to club officials, thousands of those seats are touted at every home match.
James Pearce went inside Liverpool’s bid to beat the trade — speaking to families who spent hundreds of pounds as they were ripped off by illegal resellers.
The shift to digital tickets in recent seasons has made it easier for touts — this is now an increasingly sophisticated, multi-million-pound operation, involving organised crime gangs both on Merseyside and further afield.
Club officials say gangs have subjected the club website to sustained cyber attacks, attempted to intimidate club employees, and even tried to infiltrate their ticket office by applying for jobs at Anfield.
The scale is astronomical — last season, the club shut down close to 100,000 fake ticketing accounts following suspicious online activity and issued 136 indefinite suspensions and 47 lifetime bans.
“We won’t eliminate touting but I believe we can get to a position where it’s marginal,” a Liverpool staff member explains. “We have a duty to protect the wider fanbase.”
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Quiz question
Our Friday teaser is back for 2025, with a corker based on the bitter Manchester United vs Liverpool match coming up on Sunday:
Can you name the eight players to have scored four or more goals in Premier League fixtures between Liverpool and Manchester United?
As ever, the answer will be here later — and also in Monday’s TAFC.
Catch a Match (Times ET/UK)
(Selected games)
Today — La Liga: Valencia vs Real Madrid, 3pm/8pm — ESPN+, Fubo/Premier Sports; Italian Super Cup semi-final: Juventus vs Milan, 2pm/7pm — CBS, Paramount+, Amazon Prime/Premier Sports.
Saturday — Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur vs Newcastle United, 7.30am/12.30pm — USA Network, Fubo/TNT Sports; Brighton vs Arsenal, 12.30pm/5.30pm — NBC, Fubo/Sky Sports; Copa Del Rey: Barbastro vs Barcelona, 1pm/6pm — ESPN+ (U.S. only); Serie A: Fiorentina vs Napoli, 12pm/5pm — CBS, Paramount+, Fubo, Amazon Prime/TNT Sports, OneFootball.
Sunday — Premier League: Fulham vs Ipswich Town, 9am/2pm — USA Network, Fubo/Sky Sports; Liverpool vs Manchester United, 11.30am/4.30pm — NBC, Fubo, Peacock Premium/Sky Sports; Serie A: Roma vs Lazio, 2.45pm/7.45pm — CBS, Paramount+, Fubo/Amazon Prime/TNT Sports, OneFootball.
And finally… how perfect is a ‘perfect’ hat-trick?
Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton
What is the most perfect achievement in sport? There will be carnage if a nine-darter is recorded at the World Darts Championship final tonight — but is there better?
A 147 break in snooker requires 36 consecutive perfect shots — four times as many as darts. Does it matter that a hole-in-one can be fluked? Or what about the fact that there have been just 24 perfect games across 162 years of Major League Baseball?
Nick Miller suggests a perfect hat-trick — scoring with your left foot, right foot, and head — in football. But I disagree. My suggestion of a free solo in climbing received short shrift from the editors — but they included it anyway…and it’s started quite a debate.
(Top photo: Samer Barbary/Beirut Football Academy)
