Bayern Munich threatens Canadian soccer federation with legal action over Davies' injury

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Bayern Munich threatens Canadian soccer federation with legal action over Davies' injury

2025-03-28 22:15 Last Updated At：22:20

MUNICH (AP) — Bayern Munich is considering legal action against the Canadian soccer federation following Alphonso Davies’ serious knee injury in a match of little importance.

“We’re demanding a full investigation into the events from Canada Soccer and expressly reserve the right to take legal action,” Bayern chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen told the Bild tabloid on Friday.

Davies tore a ligament and sustained other damage in his right knee during Canada’s 2-1 win over the United States in the third-place decider for the CONCACAF Nations League tournament on Sunday.

Davies returned to Munich where the full extent of the injury was determined on Wednesday. The left-back underwent surgery and “will be out for several months,” Bayern said.

The club is alleging that Canadian officials did not provide appropriate care for the player.

“Sending a clearly injured player with a damaged knee on a 12-hour intercontinental flight without a thorough medical assessment is, in our view, grossly negligent and a clear breach of medical duty of care,” Dreesen said.

He said Davies should not have been playing at all.

“The participation of Davies, who already had muscular problems before the game, in a match of no sporting significance is incomprehensible from our point our view,” Dreesen said.

Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund agreed, saying the treatment of Davies after his injury was “incorrect.”

“Phonzy complained of fatigue. He’s the team captain, a young lad who wants to help his country. Then there’s this injury,” Freund said. “I think it’s negligent, unprofessional.”

Davies is out for the rest of the season and will miss Bayern’s final games as it bids to wrap up the Bundesliga title and reach the Champions League final at its home stadium in Munich. Bayern faces Inter Milan in the quarterfinals.

Bayern can claim some compensation for Davies’ salary from FIFA’s insurance policy covering national team players’ injury risk, up to $7.5 million per case.

That program began in 2012, a response to Dutch winger Arjen Robben’s injury at the 2010 World Cup. Robben missed six months after returning to Bayern.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who was Bayern and European Club Association chairman at the time, had lamented that Robben “came back in worse condition and now we have to pay the bill.”

Rummenigge urged FIFA to use some of its billion-dollar reserves from World Cup revenues to fund an insurance program.

Salaries have increased in the meantime, however. Davies recently signed a new deal at Bayern with a reported salary of 15 million euros ($16.2 million) not including bonuses.

Bayern's French defender Dayot Upamecano also returned from Nations League duty this week with a less serious knee injury.

Upamecano played the entire quarterfinal return leg against Croatia on Sunday, including extra time, and scored the winning goal in the penalty shootout. The French soccer federation said he played a total of 128 minutes.

The injuries to Davies and Upamecano deny coach Vincent Kompany options in defense with South Korea’s Kim Min-jae already out injured.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Stocks sway after Trump threatens to escalate trade war despite seeing how much Wall Street hates it

2025-04-08 02:46 Last Updated At：02:52

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are swinging in a manic Monday after President Donald Trump doubled down on his tariffs, despite seeing how much Wall Street wants him to do the opposite.

The S&P 500 was up 0.3% in afternoon trading, coming off its worst week since COVID began crashing the global economy in March 2020. The index, which sits at the heart of many investors’ 401(k) accounts, has been flirting with a drop of 20% from its record set less than two months ago.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 184 points, or 0.5%, as of 2:37 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.8% higher.

Earlier in a heart-racing morning, the Dow plunged as many as 1,700 points shortly after trading began, following even worse losses worldwide on worries that Trump's tariffs could torpedo the global economy. But it suddenly surged to a leap of nearly 900 points. The S&P 500 went from a loss of 4.7% to a gain of 3.4%, which would have been its biggest jump in years.

The sudden rise for stocks followed a false rumor that Trump was considering a 90-day pause on his tariffs, one that a White House account on X quickly labeled as “fake news.” Stocks then turned back down. That a rumor could move trillions of dollars' worth of investments shows how much investors are hoping to see signs that Trump may let up on his stiff tariffs, which have started a global trade war.

Soon after that, Trump threatened to raise tariffs further against China after the world's second-largest economy retaliated last week with its own set of tariffs on U.S. products.

It’s a slap in the face to Wall Street, not just because of the sharp losses it’s taking, but because it suggests Trump may not be moved by its pain. Many professional investors had long thought that a president who used to crow about records reached under his watch would pull back on policies if they sent the Dow reeling.

On Sunday Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he does not want markets to fall. But he also said he wasn’t concerned about a sell-off, saying “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.”

Trump has given several reasons for his stiff tariffs, including to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, which is a process that could take years. Trump on Sunday said he wanted to bring down the numbers for how much more the United States imports from other countries versus how much it sends to them.

“The recent tariffs will likely increase inflation and are causing many to consider a greater probability of a recession,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, one of the most influential executives on Wall Street, wrote in his annual letter to shareholders Monday. “Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth.”

The financial pain once again hammered investments around the world on Monday, the third straight day of steep losses after Trump announced tariffs in his “Liberation Day.” Stocks in Hong Kong plunged 13.2% for their worst day since 1997. A barrel of benchmark U.S. crude oil dipped below $60 during the morning for the first time since 2021, hurt by worries that a global economy weakened by trade barriers will burn less fuel. Bitcoin sank below $79,000, down from its record above $100,000 set in January, after holding steadier than other markets last week.

On Wall Street, roughly 65% of the stocks fell within the S&P 500. The index is being lifted by gains from several big technology stocks, whose pricey values tend to give more heft to the market's direction, whether up or down. Nivida rose 4.6%.

Nike dropped 4% for one of the larger losses in the market. Not only does it sell a lot of shoes and apparel in China, it also makes much of it there. Last fiscal year, factories in China made 18% of its Nike brand footwear. Vietnam made 50%, and Indonesia made 27%.

Trump’s tariffs are an attack on the globalization that’s remade the world’s economy, which helped bring down prices for products on the shelves of U.S. stores but also caused production jobs to leave for other countries.

It also adds pressure on the Federal Reserve. Investors have become nearly conditioned to expect the central bank to swoop in as a hero during downturns. By slashing interest rates to make borrowing easier for U.S. households and companies, along with several untraditional moves to juice the economy, the Fed helped the U.S. economy recover from the 2008 financial crisis, the 2020 COVID crash and other bear markets.

But the Fed may have less freedom to act this time around because the conditions are so much different. For one, instead of a coronavirus or a system built up on too much belief that U.S. home prices would keep rising, this market downturn is mostly because of economic policy from the White House.

Perhaps more importantly, inflation is also higher at the moment than the Fed would like. And while lower interest rates can goose the economy, they can also put upward pressure on inflation. Expectations for inflation are already swinging higher because of Trump’s tariffs, which would likely raise prices for anything imported.

“The idea that there’s so much uncertainty going forward about how these tariffs are going to play out, that’s what’s really driving this plummet in the stock prices,” said Rintaro Nishimura, an associate at the Asia Group.

If the S&P 500 finishes the day 20% below its record, it would be a big enough drop that Wall Street has a name for it. A “bear market” signifies a downturn that’s moved beyond a run-of-the-mill 10% drop, which happens every year or so, and has graduated into something more vicious.

Nathan Thooft, a senior portfolio manager at Manulife Investment Management, said more countries are likely to respond to the U.S. with retaliatory tariffs. Given the large number of countries involved, “it will take a considerable amount of time in our view to work through the various negotiations that are likely to happen.”

“Ultimately, our take is market uncertainly and volatility are likely to persist for some time,” he said.

Kurtenbach reported from Bangkok. McHugh reported from Frankfurt, Germany. Associated Press writers Ayaka McGill, Paul Harloff, Matt Ott and Jiang Junzhe also contributed.