The spokesperson of Mesut Özil has come out to refute reports claiming Arsenal midfielder donated his World Cup bonuses, amounting to about €300,000 to victims of the Gaza crisis.

The winning bonus, given to Özil and each of his Germany teammates for winning the FIFA World Cup on Sunday in Brazil, was instead donated to ‘projects in Brazil’ according to Özil’s spokesperson.

Stories of Özil, who is of Turkish descent, donating his bonus to Gaza stemmed from the Algerian national team donating their entire World Cup bonuses – amounting to £5.25m to victims of the unrest in Gaza.

Meanwhile a spokesperson of Hamas revealed that the militant group has formally rejected a proposal from Egypt for a cease-fire aimed at bringing an end to the long-running conflict between the group and Israel.