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Police fired tear gas after violence broke out at an Indonesian soccer match in East Java province when Persebaya Surabaya beat Arema Malang 3-2. Panic and a rush for the exit left at least 125 dead, most of whom were trampled, police said Sunday. Here’s a look at some of the major crowd disasters in recent decades: Dec. 3, 1979 — Eleven people are killed as thousands of fans rush to get into a concert by The Who at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati. Jan. 20, 1980 — A temporary four-story wooden stadium collapses at a bullfight in Sincelejo, Colombia, killing some 200 spectators. Oct. 20, 1982 — Sixty-six people die in a crush of fans leaving a UEFA Cup match between Spartak Moscow and Haarlem, of the Netherlands, at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. May 28, 1985 — Thirty-nine people died in fan violence at the 1985 European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus at Heysel Stadium in Brussels. March 13, 1988 — Ninety-three people are killed when thousands of soccer fans surge into locked stadium exits to escape a sudden hailstorm in Kathmandu, Nepal. April 15, 1989 — Ninety-seven people die and hundreds are injured in a crush of fans at overcrowded Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England. One victim died in 2021 of aspiration pneumonia, to which he had been left vulnerable because of injuries from the disaster. July 2, 1990 — During the annual hajj in Saudi Arabia, 1,426 Muslim pilgrims, mainly from Asia, die in and around a long pedestrian tunnel leading from Mecca to Mina. January 13, 1991 — Forty-two people are killed when fans try to escape brawls at Oppenheimer Stadium in South Africa. May 23, 1994 — A crush of pilgrims at the hajj leaves 270 Muslim pilgrims dead. Nov. 23, 1994 — A panicked crush during a political protest in Nagpur, India, leaves 113 dead. Oct. 16, 1996 — Eighty-four people die and 147 are injured as panicked fans are crushed and smothered before a World Cup qualifier between Guatemala and Costa Rica in Guatemala City. April 9, 1998 — A crush of pilgrims on a bridge in Mecca leaves 118 hajj pilgrims dead. April 11, 2001 — At least 43 people are crushed to death during a soccer match at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, South Africa. May 9, 2001 — More than 120 people are killed when police fire tear gas into the rowdy crowd in a stadium in the Ghanaian capital Accra, leading to panic. Feb. 17, 2003 — Twenty-one are crushed to death in the stairway exit to E2, a nightclub in Chicago. Feb. 20, 2003 — Stage pyrotechnics during a Great White concert at the Station nightclub in Warwick, Rhode Island, spark a fire that kills 100 people and injures more than 200 others. Feb. 1, 2004 — A panic during a hajj ritual at the Jamarat Bridge near Mecca leaves 251 people dead. Jan. 25, 2005 — A panic among Hindu pilgrims near Mandhradevi temple in Maharashtra, India, leaves 265 people dead. Aug. 31, 2005 — At least 640 Shiite Muslim pilgrims in Baghdad are killed when a railing on a bridge collapses during a religious procession, sending scores into the Tigris River. Jan. 12, 2006 — A panic among Muslim pilgrims during a hajj ceremony near Mecca leaves 345 people dead. Feb. 4, 2006 — Seventy-eight people are killed in a panicked crush that happened at PhilSports Arena stampede in Manila, Philippines, as they were waiting for a TV variety show audition. Sept. 30, 2008 — At least 168 people are killed and 100 are injured when thousands of Hindu pilgrims are caught in a panic at a temple in Jodhpur, India. July 24, 2010 — Twenty-one people die and more than 650 are injured in a crush in a packed tunnel that was the sole access point to the Love Parade music festival in Duisburg, Germany. Nov. 22, 2010 — More than 340 people are killed and hundreds of others are injured during a panicked crush at a festival in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh. Jan. 27, 2013 — A fire kills more than 200 people at the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria, Brazil. Sept. 24, 2015 — At least 2,411 Muslim pilgrims die in a crush during the hajj in Saudi Arabia. April 30, 2021 — Forty-five people are killed and dozens more are wounded in a panicked crush at the annual Mount Meron pilgrimage in Israel. Nov. 5, 2021 — Fans at a Houston music festival surge toward the stage during a performance by rapper Travis Scott, triggering panic that leaves 10 people dead and many more injured. Oct. 1, 2022 — Police fire tear gas after violence breaks out following an Indonesian soccer match, setting off a rush for the exit that leaves at least 125 dead and more than 100 injured.  

The beginning of October means Nobel Prize season. Six days, six prizes, new faces from around the globe added to the world’s most elite roster of scientists, writers, economists and human rights leaders. This year’s Nobel season kicks off Monday with the medicine award, followed by daily announcements: physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the economics award on Oct. 10. Here are five other things to know about the coveted prizes: WHO CREATED THE NOBEL PRIZES? The prizes in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace were established by the will of Alfred Nobel, a wealthy Swedish industrialist and the inventor of dynamite. The first awards were handed out in 1901, five years after Nobel’s death. Each prize is worth 10 million kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be handed out with a diploma and gold medal on Dec. 10 -- the date of Nobel’s death in 1896. The economics award — officially known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel — wasn’t created by Nobel, but by Sweden’s central bank in 1968. Between 1901 and 2021, the Nobel Prizes and the prize in economic sciences have been awarded 609 times. WHO KNOWS WHO WILL WIN AND WHY? The Nobel statutes prohibit the judges from discussing their deliberations for 50 years. So it’s probably going to be a while before we know for sure how judges made their picks for 2022 and who was on their short lists. The judges try hard to avoid dropping hints about the winners before the announcements, but sometimes word gets out. Bookies in Europe sometimes offer odds on possible peace prize and literature Nobel winners. WHO CAN NOMINATE A CANDIDATE? Thousands of people around the world are eligible to submit nominations for the Nobel Prizes. They include university professors, lawmakers, previous Nobel laureates and the committee members themselves. Although the nominations are kept secret for 50 years, those who submit them sometimes announce their suggestions publicly, particularly for the Nobel Peace Prize. WHAT ABOUT THE NORWEGIAN CONNECTION? The Nobel Peace Prize is presented in Norway while the other awards are handed out in Sweden. That’s how Alfred Nobel wanted it. His exact reasons are unclear but during his lifetime Sweden and Norway were joined in a union, which was dissolved in 1905. Sometimes relations have been tense between the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, which manages the prize money, and the fiercely independent peace prize committee in Oslo. WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO WIN A NOBEL? Patience, for one. Scientists often have to wait decades to have their work recognized by the Nobel judges, who want to make sure that any breakthrough withstands the test of time. That’s a departure from Nobel’s will, which states that the awards should endow “those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind.” The peace prize committee is the only one that regularly rewards achievements made in the previous year. According to Nobel’s wishes, that prize should go to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution Friday that would have condemned its referendums in four Ukrainian regions as illegal, declared them invalid and urged all countries not to recognize any annexation of the territory claimed by Moscow. The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 10-1 with China, India, Brazil and Gabon abstaining. The resolution would also have demanded an immediate halt to Russia’s “full-scale unlawful invasion of Ukraine” and the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all its military forces from Ukraine. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said before the vote that in the event of a Russian veto, the U.S. and Albania who sponsored the resolution will take it to the 193-member General Assembly where there are no vetoes, “and show that the world is still on the side of sovereignty and protecting territorial integrity.” That is likely to happen next week. Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, echoed Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ statement that Russia’s actions violate the U.N. Charter and must be condemned. “The area Russia is claiming to annex is more than 90,000 square kilometers,” she said. “This is the largest forcible annexation of territory since the Second World War. There is no middle ground on this.” The council vote came hours after a lavish Kremlin ceremony where President Vladimir Putin signed treaties to annex the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, saying they were now part of Russia and would be defended by Moscow. Thomas-Greenfield said the results of the “sham” referendums on whether the regions wanted to join Russia were “pre-determined in Moscow, and everybody knows it.” “They were held behind the barrel of Russian guns,” she said. Adding that “the sacred principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity” at the heart of the U.N. Charter must be defended, she said, “All of us understand the implications for our own borders, our own economies, and our own countries if these principles are tossed aside.” “Putin miscalculated the resolve of the Ukrainians,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “The Ukrainian people have demonstrated loud and clear: They will never accept being subjugated to Russian rule.” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia defended the referendums, claiming that more than 100 international observers from Italy, Germany, Venezuela and Latvia who observed the voting recognized the outcomes as legitimate. “The results of the referendums speak for themselves. The residents of these regions do not want to return to Ukraine. They have made a an informed and free choice in favor of our country,” he said. Nebenzia added: “There will be no turning back as today’s draft resolution would try to impose.” He accused Western nations on the council of “openly hostile actions,” saying they reached “a new low” by putting forward a resolution condemning a council member and forcing a Russian veto so they can “wax lyrical.” Under a resolution adopted earlier this year, Russia must defend its veto before the General Assembly in the coming weeks. Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun said that “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be safeguarded.” But China abstained, he said, because it believes the Security Council should be using trying to calm the crisis “rather than intensifying conflicts and exacerbating confrontation.” Brazil’s ambassador, Ronaldo Costa Filho, said the referendums “cannot be perceived as legitimate” and his country stands by the principle of territorial integrity of sovereign states. But it abstained because the resolution didn’t contribute to de-escalating tensions and finding “a solution for the conflict in Ukraine,” he said.

A revived Hurricane Ian pounded coastal South Carolina on Friday, ripping apart piers and flooding streets after the ferocious storm caused catastrophic damage in Florida, trapping thousands in their homes and leaving at least 27 people dead. The powerful storm, estimated to be one of the costliest hurricanes ever to hit the U.S., has terrorized people for much of the week — pummeling western Cuba and raking across Florida before gathering strength in the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean to curve back and strike South Carolina. While Ian’s center came ashore near Georgetown, South Carolina, on Friday with much weaker winds than when it crossed Florida’s Gulf Coast earlier in the week, the storm left many areas of Charleston’s downtown peninsula under water. It also washed away parts of four piers along the coast, including two at Myrtle Beach. Online cameras showed seawater filling neighborhoods in Garden City to calf level. As Ian moved across South Carolina on its way to North Carolina Friday evening, it dropped from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone. Ian left a broad swath of destruction in Florida, flooding areas on both of its coasts, tearing homes from their slabs, demolishing beachfront businesses and leaving more than 2 million people without power. Many of the deaths were drownings, including that of a 68-year-old woman swept away into the ocean by a wave. A 67-year-old man who was waiting to be rescued died after falling into rising water inside his home, authorities said. Other storm-related fatalities included a 22-year-old woman who died after an ATV rollover from a road washout and a 71-year-old man who fell off a roof while putting up rain shutters. An 80-year-old woman and a 94-year-old man who relied on oxygen machines also died after the equipment stopped working during power outages. Another three people died in Cuba earlier in the week as the storm churned northward. The death toll was expected to increase substantially once emergency officials have an opportunity to search many of the hardest-hit areas. Rescue crews piloted boats and waded through riverine streets in Florida after the storm to save thousands of people trapped amid flooded homes and shattered buildings . Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that crews had gone door-to-door to over 3,000 homes in the hardest-hit areas. “There’s really been a Herculean effort,” he said during a news conference in Tallahassee. Also read: Ian floods southwest Florida, engulfing residents in houses Hurricane Ian has likely caused “well over $100 billion” in damage, including $63 billion in privately insured losses, according to the disaster modeling firm Karen Clark & Company, which regularly issues flash catastrophe estimates. If those numbers are borne out, that would make Ian at least the fourth costliest hurricane in U.S. history. Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said first responders have focused so far on “hasty” searches, aimed at emergency rescues and initial assessments, which will be followed by two additional waves of searches. Initial responders who come across possible remains are leaving them without confirming, he said Friday, describing as an example the case of a submerged home. “The water was up over the rooftop, right, but we had a Coast Guard rescue swimmer swim down into it and he could identify that it appeared to be human remains. We do not know exactly how many,” Guthrie said. Desperate to locate and rescue their loved ones, social media users shared phone numbers, addresses and photos of their family members and friends online for anyone who can check on them. Orlando residents returned to flooded homes Friday, rolling up their pants to wade through muddy, knee-high water in their streets. Friends of Ramon Rodriguez dropped off ice, bottled water and hot coffee at the entrance to his subdivision, where 10 of the 50 homes were flooded and the road looked like a lake. He had no power or food at his house, and his car was trapped by the water. “There’s water everywhere,” Rodriguez said. “The situation here is pretty bad.” The devastating storm surge destroyed many older homes on the barrier island of Sanibel, Florida, and gouged crevices into its sand dunes. Taller condominium buildings were intact but with the bottom floor blown out. Trees and utility poles were strewn everywhere. Municipal rescuers, private teams and the Coast Guard used boats and helicopters Friday to evacuate residents who stayed for the storm and then were cut off from the mainland when a causeway collapsed. Volunteers who went to the island on personal watercraft helped escort an elderly couple to an area where Coast Guard rescuers took them aboard a helicopter. Hours after weakening to a tropical storm while crossing the Florida peninsula, Ian regained strength Thursday evening over the Atlantic. Ian made landfall in South Carolina with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph). When it hit Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday, it was a powerful Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph (240 kph). After the heaviest of the rainfall blew through Charleston, Will Shalosky examined a large elm tree in front of his house that had fallen across his downtown street. He noted the damage could have been much worse. “If this tree has fallen a different way, it would be in our house,” Shalosky said. “It’s pretty scary, pretty jarring.” Ian’s heavy rains and winds crossed into North Carolina on Friday evening. Gov. Roy Cooper warned residents to be vigilant, given that up to 8 inches (20.3 centimeters) of rain could fall in some areas. “Hurricane Ian is at our door. Expect drenching rain and sustained heavy winds over most of our state,” Cooper said. “Our message today is simple: Be smart and be safe.” In Washington, President Joe Biden said he was directing “every possible action be taken to save lives and get help to survivors.” “It’s going to take months, years to rebuild,” Biden said. “I just want the people of Florida to know, we see what you’re going through and we’re with you.”  

Some 200 environmental and land defense activists were killed around the world in 2021, including some 54 in Mexico, which assumed the position of the deadliest country in the annual report by nongovernmental organization Global Witness. More than three-quarters of the killings took place in Latin America, where Colombia, Brazil and Nicaragua also logged double-digit death tolls. It was the third consecutive year of increases for Mexico and a jump from 30 such activists killed in 2020. “Most of these crimes happen in places that are far away from power and are inflicted on those with, in many ways, the least amount of power,” the report said. Global Witness considers its report a baseline, noting “Our data on killings is likely to be an underestimate, given that many murders go unreported, particularly in rural areas and in particular countries.” The victims died fighting resource exploitation and in land disputes. Conflicts over mining were tied to 27 deaths worldwide, the most for any sector. Fifteen of those mining-related killings were in Mexico. In the western Mexico state of Jalisco, José Santos Isaac Chávez was killed in April 2021. He was running for local office and had made opposition to a long-running mine a central part of his campaign. Days before the election, he was found dead in his car, which had been driven off a cliff and his body showed evidence of torture. Armed men had dragged him out of his home and driven him away in his own vehicle. In April 2021, Sandra Liliana Peña Chocué, an Indigenous governor in southwest Colombia, who had fought for the eradication of coca crops in Caldono, Cauca was killed near her home by armed men. Her murder was condemned by the United Nations, nongovernmental organizations and foreign governments. Overall, killings of environmental activists in Colombia dropped in 2021 to 33 from 65 the year before. The Philippines saw fewer such killings in 2021 too, 19 compared to 30 in 2020. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, all eight recorded victims were killed inside Virunga National Park. In November, conservation park ranger Chief Brigadier Etienne Mutazimiza Kanyaruchinya, 48, was killed when 100 heavily armed men, presumed to be former members of the M23 rebel group, attacked a patrol post near the village of Bukima in Congo’s North Kivu Province. Virunga Park is home to some of the world’s last mountain gorillas, but armed groups such as the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, known by its French acronym FDLR, the Mai-Mai and the M23 regularly vie for control of eastern Congo’s natural resources. Global Witness called on governments to enforce laws that protect activists and require informed consent from Indigenous groups, while also requiring companies to be accountable throughout their global operations and have zero tolerance for attacks on land defenders. “Activists and communities play a crucial role as a first line of defense against ecological collapse, as well as being frontrunners in the campaign to prevent it,” Global Witness CEO Mike Davis said in the report.

Coolio, the rapper who was among hip-hop’s biggest names of the 1990s with hits including “Gangsta’s Paradise” and “Fantastic Voyage,” died Wednesday at age 59, his manager said. Coolio, whose legal name was Artis Leon Ivey Jr., died at the Los Angeles home of a friend, longtime manager Jarez Posey told The Associated Press. The cause was not immediately clear. Coolio won a Grammy for best solo rap performance for “Gangsta’s Paradise,” the 1995 hit from the soundtrack of the Michelle Pfeiffer film “Dangerous Minds” that sampled Stevie Wonder’s 1976 song “Pastime Paradise.” He was nominated for five other Grammys during a career that began in the late-1980s. Born in Monessen, Pennsylvania south of Pittsburgh, Coolio moved to Compton, California, where he went to community college. He worked as a volunteer firefighter and in airport security before devoting himself full-time to the hip-hop scene. His career took off with the 1994 release of his debut album on Tommy Boy Records, “It Takes a Thief.” It’s opening track, “Fantastic Voyage,” would reach No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. A year later, “Gangsta’s Paradise” would become a No. 1 single, with its dark opening lyrics:  “As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I take a look at my life and realize there’s not much left, ‘cause I’ve been blastin’ and laughin’ so long, that even my mama thinks that my mind is gone.” Social media lit up with reactions to the unexpected death. “This is sad news,” Ice Cube said on Twitter. “I witness first hand this man’s grind to the top of the industry. Rest In Peace, @Coolio.” “Peaceful journey brother,” Questlove tweeted.

Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the U.S., swamped southwest Florida on Wednesday, turning streets into rivers, knocking out power to 1.8 million people and threatening catastrophic damage further inland. A coastal sheriff’s office reported that it was getting many calls from people trapped in flooded homes. Desperate people posted to Facebook and other social sites, pleading for rescue for themselves or loved ones. Some video showed debris-covered water sloshing toward homes’ eaves. The hurricane’s center made landfall near Cayo Costa, a barrier island just west of heavily populated Fort Myers. As it approached, water drained from Tampa Bay. Mark Pritchett stepped outside his home in Venice around the time the hurricane churned ashore from the Gulf of Mexico, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) to the south. He called it “terrifying.” “I literally couldn’t stand against the wind,” Pritchett wrote in a text message. “Rain shooting like needles. My street is a river. Limbs and trees down. And the worst is yet to come.” The Category 4 storm slammed the coast with 150 mph (241 kph) winds and pushed a wall of storm surge accumulated during its slow march over the Gulf. More than 1.8 million Florida homes and businesses were without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us. Nearly every home and business in three counties was without power. The storm previously tore into Cuba, killing two people and bringing down the country’s electrical grid. About 2.5 million people were ordered to evacuate southwest Florida before Ian hit, but by law no one could be forced to flee. News anchors at Fort Myers television station WINK had to abandon their usual desk and continue storm coverage from another location in their newsroom because water was pushing into their building near the Caloosahatchee River. Though expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it marches inland at about 9 mph (14 kph), Ian’s hurricane force winds were likely to be felt well into central Florida. Hours after landfall, top sustained winds had dropped to 105 mph (170 kph), making it a Category 2 hurricane. Still, storm surges as high as 6 feet (2 meters) were expected on the opposite side of the state, in northeast Florida. Sheriff Bull Prummell of Charlotte County, just north of Fort Myers, announced a curfew between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. “for life-saving purposes,” saying violators may face second-degree misdemeanor charges. “I am enacting this curfew as a means of protecting the people and property of Charlotte County Prummell said. Jackson Boone left his home near the Gulf coast and hunkered down at his law office in Venice with employees and their pets. Boone at one point opened a door to howling wind and rain flying sideways. “We’re seeing tree damage, horizontal rain, very high wind,” Boone said by phone. “We have a 50-plus-year-old oak tree that has toppled over.” In Naples, the first floor of a fire station was inundated with about 3 feet (1 meter) of water and firefighters worked to salvage gear from a firetruck stuck outside the garage in even deeper water, a video posted by the Naples Fire Department showed. Naples is in Collier County, where the sheriff’s department reported on Facebook that it was getting “a significant number of calls of people trapped by water in their homes” and that it would prioritize reaching people “reporting life threatening medical emergencies in deep water.” Ian’s strength at landfall tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane when measured by wind speed to strike the U.S. Among the other storms was Hurricane Charley, which hit nearly the same spot on Florida’s coast in August 2004, killing 10 people and inflicting $14 billion in damage. Ian made landfall more than 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Tampa and St. Petersburg, sparing the densely populated Tampa Bay area from its first direct hit by a major hurricane since 1921. Flash floods were possible all across Florida. Hazards include the polluted leftovers of Florida’s phosphate fertilizer mining industry, more than 1 billion tons of slightly radioactive waste contained in enormous ponds that could overflow in heavy rains.  The federal government sent 300 ambulances with medical teams and was ready to truck in 3.7 million meals and 3.5 million liters of water once the storm passes. “We’ll be there to help you clean up and rebuild, to help Florida get moving again,” President Joe Biden said Wednesday. “And we’ll be there every step of the way. That’s my absolute commitment to the people of the state of Florida.” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has requested Biden grant a Major Disaster Declaration for all 67 of the state’s counties, which would open a range of federal assistance for residents and funding for public infrastructure repairs. DeSantis has also asked Biden to allow FEMA to provide a 100% federal cost share for debris removal and emergency protective measures for 60 days. The governors of Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina all preemptively declared states of emergency. Forecasters predicted Ian will turn toward those states as a tropical storm, likely dumping more flooding rains into the weekend, after crossing Florida.

At least eight people were killed and more than 25 others injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a truck in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh Wednesday. The accident occurred in Lakhimpur Kheri district, some 130 kms from state capital Lucknow, this morning. "The Lucknow-bound bus carrying some 40 people crashed into the truck coming from the opposite direction in the Isanagar area while trying to overtake another vehicle," a police officer told the local media. The impact of the crash left eight passengers dead on the spot. "The injured were rushed to a local government hospital. Those critically hurt have been referred to a better medical facility in Lucknow," he said. State Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took to social media to condole the deaths and ask officials to ensure proper treatment for the injured. "A probe has been ordered into the accident," the police officer said. Road accidents are common in India, with one taking place every four minutes. These accidents are often blamed on poor roads, rash driving and scant regard for traffic laws. The Indian government's implementation of stricter traffic laws in recent years has failed to rein in accidents, which claim over 100,000 lives every year.

The UN's labour agency Monday welcomed the first global agreement on working conditions and rights of professional football players in both the men's and women's game. "Free, independent, strong and representative employers' and workers' organisations, together with trust, commitment and respect by the governments for the autonomy of the social partners are key conditions for effective social dialogue in football," Guy Ryder, head of the International Labour Organization (ILO), said at the signing ceremony at the agency's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. The agreement creates a new international bargaining framework between the World Leagues Forum (WLF) – representing 44 national professional football leagues comprising some 1,100 clubs – and FIFPRO, the global footballers' union – representing more than 60,000 professional football players as employees in the international football industry, through 66 national player unions in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Employer and employee representatives signed the Global Labour Agreement (GLA) for professional footballers (the sport is referred to as soccer in the US), agreeing to take greater responsibility in finding collective solutions to the challenges facing the industry. The pact acknowledges that collectively agreed upon standards, will improve labour relations in the professional game, and improve the multi-billion dollar sport's viability and growth. The agreement will provide a platform for discussing rules for protecting players' health and safety along with a commitment to improving the representation and involvement of domestic leagues, their member clubs and players' unions. Moreover, it recognises the need for greater representation and consideration for women's football – including issues related to domestic competitions, clubs, and players. Negotiations may also include issues such as employment standards, concussion management, measures to tackle discrimination and racism – including on social media - and other forms of abuse. Under the GLA, ILO may be asked to provide expert advice in areas where it has the expertise, including implementation of the agreement. The GLA follows the fundamental principles and rights at work set out by ILO in the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which was amended in 2022. It is also in line with the Points of Consensus of the ILO Global Dialogue Forum on Decent Work in the World of Sport (2020).  

The European Union (EU) created more than 1.37 million jobs in sports, 0.7 percent of its total employment, in 2021. The number of people working in sports in the EU recovered after falling during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns (1.37 million in 2019; 1.31 million in 2020), according to the EU's statistical office Eurostat. Employment in sports includes sports-related occupations (professional athletes, professional coaches in fitness centres), non-sports occupations (receptionists in fitness centres), and sports-related jobs outside the sports sector (school sports instructors). In recent years, several European plans and programmes gave sports a significant profile. The EU countries with the highest share of people working in sports were Sweden (1.4 percent of total employment), Finland (1.3 percent), Spain and France (1.1 percent).