NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Georgian coach Temur Ketsbaia lost his job with the Cyprus national team, the national federation said Friday, days after a 4-0 home loss against Kosovo in the UEFA Nations League.
The former Newcastle, Wolverhampton and AEK Athens player was in his third year with the Cyprus team now ranked No. 127 by FIFA, a drop of 20 places while he was in charge.
The president of the Cypriot football association, George Koumas, lauded Ketsbaia for his “professionalism, seriousness and proven love" for the national team after accepting in a meeting Friday that his departure is the “drastic change” that's likely needed.
“His stance honors him and comes as no suprise to those who know him,” Koumas said in a written statement. “Unfortunately, neither Mr. Ketsbaia nor the Federation managed to achieve the wished-for results through this collaboration.”
Cyprus lost all eight games and finished last in its European Championship qualifying group last year, which included eventual title winner Spain, Scotland, Norway and his home country Georgia. Through his 20-game coaching term, Ketsbaia logged six wins, two draws and 13 losses with 19 goals for and 49 against.
Ketsbaia coached Georgia for five years though 2014, and later worked for AEK and Cypriot clubs APOEL and Anorthosis where he led the team to the Champions League group stage for the 2008-09 season — a first for any Cypriot side.
The Cyprus federation did not announce an interim coach to take over for Nations League games next month hosting Romania and the return game in Kosovo.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
FILE - Georgia's coach Temur Ketsbaia, who lost his job with the Cyprus national team. gestures during a World Cup 2014 group I qualifying soccer match France against Georgia at the Stade de France stadium in Saint Denis, north of Paris, on March 22. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
NEW YORK (AP) — Fortnite says it's now unavailable on Apple's iOS globally because the tech giant blocked a bid to rerelease the popular video game for iPhone users in the U.S. and Europe.
“Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission so we cannot release to the U.S. App Store or to the Epic Games Store for iOS in the European Union," Epic Games-owned Fortnite wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, early Friday — claiming that Apple's move would now prevent the game's iOS availability around the world.
“Sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it,” Fortnite said.
In a statement sent to The Associated Press, Apple said it had specifically asked Epic Sweden to resubmit the app update “without including the U.S. storefront of the App Store so as not to impact Fortnite in other geographies.” But, the company added, it "did not take any action to remove the live version of Fortnite from alternative distribution marketplaces.”
Fortnite's exile from the iPhone app store is the latest twist in a yearslong feud between Apple and Epic. Back in 2020, Apple pulled Fortnite from its app store and Epic filed an antitrust lawsuit against the company in the U.S., alleging the technology trendsetter was illegally using its power to gouge game makers.
After a monthlong trial in 2021, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled against most of Epic’s claims, but ordered Apple to loosen its previously-exclusive control over the payments made for in-app commerce and allow links to alternative options in the U.S. for the first time — threatening to undercut sizable commissions that Apple had been collecting from in-app transactions for over a decade.
After exhausting an appeal that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Apple last year introduced a new system that opened the door for links to alternative payment options while still imposing a 27% commission on in-app transactions executed outside its own system.
Epic fired back by alleging Apple was thumbing its nose at the legal system, reviving another round of court hearings that lasted nearly a year before Gonzalez Rogers delivered a stinging rebuke last month — which held Apple in civil contempt and banned the company from collecting any commission on alternative payment systems.
That ruling cleared the way for Epic to finally return to the iPhone app store in the U.S., a reinstatement the video game maker was anticipating before Apple’s latest move.
Fortnite's availability in the EU, meanwhile, is under an alternative store for iPhone users — now called the Epic Games Store. Apple last year cleared the way for this last year under new regulatory pressures. As a result, Fornite and other Epic games had been available for download on iPhones using this store in the EU since August 2024.
Liedtke reported from San Francisco.
FILE - Shoppers look at Apple products in the Apple Store at the Walden Galleria in Buffalo, NY, on Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
