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Ref sells 'Hand of God' ball for $2.4 million

The ball punched in by Diego Maradona for his "Hand of God "goal at the 1986 World Cup has been sold at auction for nearly $2.4 million by the referee who missed soccer's most famous handball.

Ali Bin Nasser, the Tunisian former match official who refereed the quarterfinal game between Argentina and England in Mexico, owned the 36-year-old Adidas ball that was sold at Graham Budd Auctions in London for 2 million pounds ($2.37 million) on Wednesday.

Bin Nasser said before the auction he felt it was the right time to share the item with the world and expressed hope the buyer would put it on public display.

The Maradona goal that gave Argentina a 1-0 lead in that match against England — but should not have been allowed — has become part of soccer legend.

Maradona jumped as if to head the ball but instead punched it past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton. Maradona quipped afterward that it was scored "a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God", leading to its iconic name.

The jersey worn by Maradona against England was sold in May for $9.3 million, at the time the highest price paid at auction for a piece of sports memorabilia. That was beaten by a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle baseball card, which went for $12.6 million in New York in August.

Players get protection from social media abuse

FIFA and the global soccer players' union have launched a moderation service aimed at protecting World Cup players from abuse on social media during the tournament.

FIFA said Wednesday that the more than 830 players in Qatar can access a "dedicated monitoring, reporting and moderation service "that aims to filter hate speech targeted at them.

The World Cup starts Sunday, just days after Twitter fired a swath of contractors working on content moderation teams that were tracking hate and trying to enforce rules against harmful posts.

Twitter was not mentioned in the FIFA news release providing details of the project, which was first announced in June and is conducted together with players union FIFPRO.

"Teams, players and other individual participants will also be able to opt in to a moderation service that will instantly hide abusive and offensive comments on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, preventing them from being seen by the recipient and their followers," soccer's world governing body said.

The project will monitor social media accounts of all World Cup participants and report discrimination and threats "to social networks and law authorities for real-world action against those who break rules", FIFA said.

Betting projected to hit record $1.8b in US

The upcoming World Cup is expected to spur $1.8 billion in bets in the United States, a figure that would set a record for the most bet-upon soccer event in the country.

The American Gaming Association (AGA) released a report saying it expects 20.5 million American adults to place a bet on the World Cup, which kicks off Sunday in Qatar.

"With more than half of all American adults having access to legal betting options in their home market, legal sports betting will deepen American fan engagement in the most-watched sporting event in the world," AGA senior vice-president Casey Clark said.

An AGA survey conducted earlier this month found, among other things, that most Americans would put $50 on the US to win the World Cup. The USMNT came in at 24 percent of those surveyed, followed by Brazil (19 percent), Argentina (17) and Germany (10).

Organizers apologize to Danish TV crew

Qatari World Cup organizers have apologized to a Danish television station whose live broadcast from a street in Doha was interrupted by security staff who threatened to break camera equipment.

Journalists from the TV2 channel "were mistakenly interrupted" late on Tuesday evening, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy acknowledged in a statement.

"Upon inspection of the crew's valid tournament accreditation and filming permit, an apology was made to the broadcaster by on-site security before the crew resumed their activity," organizers said.

Reporter Rasmus Tantholdt was speaking live to a news anchor in Denmark when three men drove up behind him on an electric cart and tried to block the camera lens.

"You invited the whole world to come here, why can't we film? It's a public place," Tantholdt was heard saying in English. "You can break the camera, you want to break it? You are threatening us by smashing the camera?"

Agencies