Category Archives: Sport

Newcastle takeover in serious doubt as WTO rules pirate TV channel is Saudi

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  • Saudi Arabia is behind satellite TV service beoutQ, WTO rules
  • ‘Breach of international law’ threatens £300m deal for club

The controversial £300m Saudi Arabia-funded takeover of Newcastle United appears to be in serious doubt after the World Trade Organisation ruled that the country is behind a pirate satellite TV and streaming service that offers illegal access to sporting events, the Guardian can reveal.

While the WTO’s 130-page final report will not be published until mid-June, it is understood that the independent ruling firmly establishes that the Saudi government is behind beoutQ. It can also be revealed that the Premier League, which received the WTO report this month, made submissions against Saudi Arabia as part of the legal process.

Previously Fifa, Uefa, the Premier League, La Liga and others have tried to take legal action against beoutQ in Saudi Arabia for illegally streaming matches, but nine local legal firms declined to take on the copyright case. Subsequently a case against Saudi Arabia was taken to the WTO, the highest judicial body that could rule on the matter. It has now issued its ruling – finding that Saudi Arabia is in breach of international law as a result of beoutQ.

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‘Our defenders have been socially distancing all season’ – keeping Tranmere Rovers alive

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When league football was paused in March 2020 due to coronavirus, the Tranmere Rovers chairman, Mark Palios, devised Project Malthus, his plan to keep the League One club alive. As he waits for fellow clubs to vote on the outcome of the season, which could mean their relegation, he explains why football needs to get serious about its messy economic situation, and why a club like Tranmere needs to look after its community in difficult times.

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South Korea football league imposes record fine on FC Seoul over sex dolls outrage

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K-League says club ‘deeply humiliated’ female football fans and damaged the league’s reputation

South Korea’s professional football league has imposed a record fine on one of its clubs for placing sex dolls in empty seats during a recent match played without spectators due to the coronavirus pandemic.

FC Seoul was forced to apologise this week after TV and online viewers spotted about two dozen sex dolls dotted around the stadium during the club’s 1-0 win over Gwangju FC on Sunday.

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‘Lie, lie, lie’: Former Jordan teammate gives withering assessment of The Last Dance

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  • Horace Grant says labels show ‘a so-called documentary’
  • Former NBA champion says Jordan often crossed the line

It appears that The Last Dance backlash has arrived. ESPN aired the final episode of the wildly popular Michael Jordan documentary on Sunday but one of the NBA superstar’s former teammates has already taken issue with the show.

Horace Grant, who won three titles alongside Jordan with the Chicago Bulls, said the documentary was edited to make Jordan look better. Some critics have pointed out that the fact that The Last Dance was co-produced by one of Jordan’s companies was glossed over.

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Michael Jordan’s first-ever Air Jordan sneakers sell for $560,000 at auction

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US basketball legend wore the Nike trainers in his rookie season in the NBA and are featured in hit documentary The Last Dance

A pair of sneakers worn by basketball legend Michael Jordan in his rookie season in the NBA have fetched a record $560,000 in an online auction, Sotheby’s said.

The autographed Air Jordan 1s, designed for Jordan in 1985 and the first-ever signature sneakers, were expected to fetch between $100,000 to $150,000 in the auction that closed on Sunday.

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Ibrahimovic statue set to move from Malmö’s stadium after vandalism

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  • Local council is looking for a new site in Swedish city
  • Statue targeted after Ibrahimovic bought stake in Hammarby

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s statue is likely to be relocated from outside Malmö’s stadium to another site in the city after repeated acts of vandalism.

The statue was unveiled outside the Swedbank Stadium last October but has come under attack since Ibrahimovic, who began his career with Malmö FF, became a part-owner of Hammarby, a rival top-flight club based in Stockholm.

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Autopsy finds pilot in Kobe Bryant crash had no drugs or alcohol in system

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  • Coroner: all nine on board sustained immediate fatal injuries
  • Bryant crashed in thick fog north of Los Angeles in January

The pilot flying NBA legend Kobe Bryant and seven others, including his daughter, to a youth basketball tournament did not have alcohol or drugs in his system, and all nine sustained immediately fatal injuries when their helicopter crashed into a hillside outside Los Angeles in January, according to autopsy reports released late on Friday.

The reports by the Los Angeles county coroner’s office provide a clinical but unvarnished look at the brutality of the crash.

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Dele Alli injured during ‘horrible’ knifepoint robbery at his home

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  • Tottenham midfielder hit in face by jewellery raiders
  • ‘Thank you for all the messages … we’re all okay now’

Dele Alli has been injured during a robbery at his home in north London. The Tottenham midfielder was held at knifepoint and punched after burglars broke in during the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Related: Jan Vertonghen's family robbed at knifepoint while Spurs were in Leipzig

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Professional sumo wrestler Shobushi dies at 28 after contracting Covid-19

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  • Wrestler one of youngest to die from virus in Japan
  • Shobushi had been in intensive care for three weeks

A 28-year-old sumo wrestler died on Wednesday from the coronavirus.

The Japan Sumo Association (JSA) confirmed the death and identified the wrestler as Shobushi, whose real name was Kiyotaka Suetake. The association said he died of multiple-organ failure. He is reported to have been the first sumo wrestler to die from the virus, and the first person in his 20s to die in Japan from Covid-19.

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BBC’s Andrew Cotter commentates penguin parade on Australia’s Phillip Island

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Voiceover narrates fairy penguin’s high-stakes waddle from shoreline to burrows in parade that used to attract thousands of visitors nightly

With live sport now a scarce resource, BBC commentator Andrew Cotter has lent his distinctive voice to the fairy penguins of Phillip Island.

He has narrated the birds’ nightly waddle back to their burrows, turning Victoria’s famous penguin parade into a high-stakes, long-distance race.

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Lockdown spurs 11-year-old skateboarder to make history with first 1080-degree turn

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  • Gui Khury lands holy grail of skating while in lockdown
  • Brazilian surpasses previous record first set by Tony Hawk

The closure of schools in Brazil due to the coronavirus pandemic gave 11-year-old prodigy Gui Khury plenty of time to perfect his skateboarding skills as he became the first person to land a 1080-degree turn on a vertical ramp.

More than two decades after Tony Hawk completed the first 900-degree turn, Khury shattered a long-standing record by flying off the top of a ramp and completing three full spins in the air before landing cleanly and skating off. The manoeuvre has long been one of the holy grails of skateboarding.

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No guarantee Tour de France will go ahead, says French sports minister

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  • Roxana Mărăcineanu made the comments to France Television
  • Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España will overlap in October

The French sports minister Roxana Maracineanu has delivered a stark warning to cycling, declaring that there is “no guarantee” that the Tour de France will go ahead this year.

The Tour has already been rescheduled from June to a 29 August start because of the Covid-19 crisis, but the minister could offer little assurance that the race would be given the green light. With crowd-drawing events banned in France until the end of August, special arrangements might have to be made for the start of the Tour in Nice, the sports ministry said last month.

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Hafthor Bjornsson, Game of Thrones’ ‘Mountain’, breaks world deadlift record

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  • Icelandic strongman lifts 1,104 lb at Thor’s Power Gym
  • 31-year-old starred as Ser Gregor Clegane in HBO series

Icelandic actor and strongman Hafthor Bjornsson set a world record for the deadlift on Saturday when he lifted 1,104 lb (501 kg) at Thor’s Power Gym in Iceland.

Bjornsson, best known for his portrayal of Ser Gregor “The Mountain” Clegane on Game of Thrones, broke the record previously held by Briton Eddie Hall who in 2016 became the first man to lift 500kg.

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Jair Bolsonaro wants football to start up again despite Covid-19 deaths in Brazil

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  • President calls for resumption of football despite crisis
  • Brazil has more than 5,900 deaths due to the coronavirus

Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro wants to see football competitions restart soon despite the country’s high number of coronavirus cases, arguing that players are less likely to die from Covid-19 because of their physical fitness.

Bolsonaro is one of the few world leaders that still downplays the risks brought by the coronavirus, which he has likened to “a little flu”.

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Haiti FA president accused of sexually abusing young female players

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  • Claims of abuse by Yves Jean-Bart at national centre
  • Jean-Bart denies all allegations made against him

The president of the Haitian football federation has been accused of sexually abusing young female footballers at the country’s national training centre.

Yves Jean-Bart, known as “Dadou”, the president of the Fédération Haïtienne De Football (FHF) since 2000, denies accusations that he coerced several players at the Centre Technique National in Croix-des-Bouquets into having sex. The alleged incidents are understood to have taken place within the last five years.

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Holding Tokyo Olympics in 2021 ‘difficult’, Japan medical association chief warns

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Yoshitake Yokokura is the latest expert to cast doubt on plans to hold the Games in Tokyo next year

The head of the Japan Medical Association (JMA) has added his voice to speculation that the Tokyo Olympics, now due to be held next summer, could again be delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Unless an effective vaccine is developed I think it will be difficult to hold the Olympics next year,” JMA president Yoshitake Yokokura told reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday. “I’m not saying at this point that they shouldn’t be held. The outbreak is not only confined to Japan ... it’s a worldwide issue.”

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F1 set to bankroll British Grand Prix to follow season opener in Austria

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  • July start may include two Silverstone races without fans
  • French GP cancelled but F1 aims to stage up to 18 races

Formula One Group is likely to provide the financial backing to enable the British Grand Prix to go ahead behind closed doors this year. F1 announced on Monday that the French GP had been cancelled and it would reschedule the start of the 2020 season for Austria on 5 July with the first few races, including Silverstone, not taking place in front of fans.

The Northamptonshire track relies upon the income from racegoers in order to pay for the race. Without it the track would be unable to meet either hosting fees or the expense of putting on the race if it is allowed to take place by the government.

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Stirling Moss took high place among the greats with dash and elan | Giles Richards

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Recognised as the best driver never to win an F1 world championship, Moss was revered and feted by his peers

That Sir Stirling Moss, who died on Sunday, remained one of the most well-known British racing drivers of any generation was in no little part down to the affection and admiration he engendered, which extended beyond motor racing and across the public consciousness. This was partly, of course, because he was the inspiration for the 1960s policemen’s inquiry to speeding drivers: “Who do you think you are? Stirling Moss?”

Related: Sir Stirling Moss, F1 great, dies aged 90

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Sir Stirling Moss, F1 great, dies aged 90

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  • Legendary driver and broadcaster dies after long illness
  • Lewis Hamilton: ‘I am grateful for special moments with him’

Lewis Hamilton led the tributes to Sir Stirling Moss after the much-loved and respected former racing driver’s death at the age of 90 was confirmed by his wife.

Moss, who was widely acknowledged as one of the greatest drivers never to have won the Formula One world title, died at his London home in the early hours of Sunday morning following a long illness. “It was one lap too many,” said Lady Moss. “He just closed his eyes.”

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World Cup likely to stay in Qatar despite new bribery accusations in US

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  • US prosecutors say three Fifa officials took bribes during voting
  • Qatar supreme committee denies any allegations of wrongdoing

The 2022 World Cup is highly unlikely to be moved from Qatar despite the latest criminal indictment by the US Department of Justice accusing three senior Fifa officials of receiving bribes for voting in favour of the Gulf state hosting the tournament.

The indictment, the latest in the long-running US prosecution of football officials for alleged corruption, accuses Nicolás Leoz, the Paraguayan then president of Conmebol, South American football’s governing body, and the former Brazil federation president Ricardo Teixeira of being paid bribes to vote for Qatar at the decisive Fifa executive committee (exco) meeting in December 2010. A third then very senior member of the exco under the former president Sepp Blatter, who is not named but is identifiable as Julio Grondona, the then president of Argentina’s FA, is also accused of being paid to vote for Qatar, but Grondona, who died in 2014, was never criminally charged.

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