Category Archives: Sport

Former Fox executives indicted in Fifa bribery scheme

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Multimillion dollar scheme involved kickbacks to Fifa officials for broadcast rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cup

Two former senior executives at Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox corporation have been indicted over their alleged role in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving kickbacks to Fifa officials in exchange for broadcast and marketing rights to some of the world’s biggest football tournaments.

The US Department of Justice announced on Monday that Hernan Lopez, the former chief executive of Fox International Channels and Carlos Martinez, the former president of Fox Latin America, have been charged with wire fraud and money laundering offenses, marking another series of indictments in the US government’s sprawling investigation of corruption in world football.

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Spring-heeled: concept that could see Usain Bolt rocket to 50mph

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Prototype of revolutionary running device being worked on by scientists at US university

A wearable spring-based contraption that attaches to the legs has the potential to boost human running speeds by 50%, according to researchers who hope to build the first prototype over the next year.

Scientists came up with the concept after computer models showed that it was possible to dramatically increase the amount of energy people put into each running step by enabling them to do work when their feet are in the air.

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Lockdown ‘leads gamblers from sports bets to riskier choices’

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Gambling website 888 Holdings sees increased online casino activity amid coronavirus crisis

Gamblers are switching from wagers on sport to far riskier online casino and slot games amid lockdown restrictions to curb the spread of Covid-19, according to one of the UK’s biggest gambling websites.

In an update to the stock market, 888 Holdings said it had been affected by the postponement or cancellation of events such as the Premier League and Grand National, cutting income from sports betting, which accounts for about 16% of its revenues.

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Tokyo Olympics organisers considering options to delay – reports

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As thousands flock to the Olympic flame in Japan, the organising committee is reportedly drafting plans to postpone the Games

As huge crowds defied coronavirus fears to queue for hours to see the Olympic flame in northern Japan, a report emerged that organisers of Tokyo 2020 have begun drafting alternatives to holding the Games this summer.

In contrast to the official line from the Japanese government and the IOC, two sources familiar with the talks have told news agency Reuters that options for postponing the Games are now being drawn up.

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Swimming under the ice: ‘There’s nothing. You are completely alone’

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Freediver Johanna Nordblad first took to cold water as a cure for pain after a severe injury. This month she attempts to break the world record for swimming beneath ice

Evening is falling and the cold winter light is bleeding out of a steel-coloured sky. Soon the short Scandinavian afternoon will give way to night here on the edge of Lake Sonnanen in the south of Finland. Not a single gust of wind moves the pine branches; not a single ripple disturbs the water’s surface. Nothing disturbs this infinite expanse of trees, ice and snow enveloped by absolute silence.

It’s here, in a simple hunter’s lodge 170km northeast of Helsinki, that freediver Johanna Nordblad and her sister and personal photographer, Elina, spend most of their free time. With urban rhythms left far behind, their days are occupied by shovelling snow, gathering firewood and spending long hours after dinner chatting by candlelight.

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Abe insists Olympics to go ahead as planned despite Covid-19

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Japan’s prime minister say country will host the Games ‘without problem, as planned’

Japan is still preparing to host the Olympics, Shinzo Abe has said, despite growing concern about the viability of the summer Games because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Japan’s prime minister and his government have been adamant that the Olympics will go ahead, even as other global sporting events have been put on hold. Speculation about a delay of the July start date has grown since the Donald Trump said organisers should consider a one-year postponement.

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England rugby players’ ex-soldier father stuck in Fiji because of immigration rules

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Ilaitia Cokanasiga, who was prevented from watching his son Joe play in the World Cup last year, says he feels betrayed

A former British army sergeant whose two sons are English rugby internationals is stuck in Fiji, prevented by immigration rules from returning to the UK to rejoin his wife as she undergoes cancer treatment.

Ilaitia Cokanasiga, who over almost 14 years in the armed forces served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, told the Guardian that his immigration difficulties had stopped him from travelling to see his 22-year-old son, Joe Cokanasiga, play for England in the World Cup in Japan last year. He is devastated at being stranded 10,000 miles away from his family, unable to support his wife as she waits for an operation on a brain tumour.

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England’s Manu Tuilagi a saint and sinner in narrow defeat of Wales

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• England 33-30 Wales
• Try-scorer Tuilagi sent off late in Twickenham match

Manu Tuilagi’s late red card for a dangerous tackle on George North was the one blemish for England on an afternoon when they won the triple crown after systematically destroying the defending champions, who went down to a third successive defeat in a Six Nations campaign for the first time since 2007. The scoreline suggested a close contest but two late tries by Wales when England were down to 13 players did not mask the deep divide between the sides.

Wales are in transition after 12 years under the relentless regime of Warren Gatland. If there is a sense of liberation in the way they are playing under Wayne Pivac, they have lost their pragmatism and become careless and disjointed. They were willing but wanting here, not just overpowered by opponents who base their game on forcing opponents into physical submission but outplayed.

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Anger as F1 teams get go-ahead to drive on Dutch nature reserve

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Teams allowed to take beach route to get to Netherlands’ first F1 grand prix in 35 years

The return of Formula One to the Netherlands after 35 years has become mired in controversy after two racing teams got the green light to drive across a beach nature reserve to ensure their staff avoid traffic on the way to the circuit.

The teams of Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri will be allowed to drive from their hotels along two miles of beach within the Noordvoort reserve, a popular resting spot for seals and breeding birds located between the Zandvoort racetrack and the North Sea.

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Iranian chess referee who fled to UK could face arrest if she returns

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Shohreh Bayat warned after images circulated appearing to show her without a headscarf at Shanghai tournament

A chess referee from Iran has fled to the UK after being warned that she could be arrested for being in breach of Iran’s strict dress codes during an international tournament in China.

Shohreh Bayat, 32, has sought asylum in Britain after a photograph of her at the women’s world chess championships in Shanghai last month was circulated on social media. It appeared to show her without a headscarf, although she has insisted the scarf was in place but loose over her hair.

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Tyson Fury knocks out Deontay Wilder to win WBC heavyweight crown

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Tyson Fury completed one of the greatest comebacks in modern sports history on Saturday night when he knocked out Deontay Wilder in the seventh round to add the WBC’s version of the world heavyweight championship to his own lineal claim to the title, delivering the definitive outcome their first encounter failed to produce.

The Gypsy King, whose career appeared finished when he left the sport for more than two years amid public battles with addiction and mental illness, made good on his promise to press for a knockout in the hotly anticipated rematch against a man regarded as boxing’s most dangerous puncher. As promised, he came forward from the opening bell, dropped the champion for the first time in a decade with a right hand to the temple in the third round, then again with a clubbing left to the body in the fifth.

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Manchester City banned from Champions League for two seasons

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  • Ban starts next season and City also fined €30m (£25m)
  • Club say they will appeal to CAS at ‘earliest opportunity’

Manchester City have been banned from the Champions League for the next two seasons by Uefa and fined €30m (£25m) after they were found to have seriously misled European football’s governing body and broken financial fair play rules.

The severity of the ban from both of Uefa’s elite club competitions and the scale of the fine reflect how seriously Uefa’s FFP compliance bodies consider the club to have breached the rules and code of conduct.

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Italian referee banned from football for one year after headbutting goalkeeper

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  • Antonio Martiniello and Matteo Ciccioli clashed after match
  • Referee had earlier sent Ciccioli off in regional league game

An Italian football referee has been banned from officiating or attending football matches for one year, after headbutting a goalkeeper following a regional league match.

Italy’s Ansa news agency reported that on 1 February, Antonio Martiniello sent off Borgo Mogliano keeper Matteo Ciccioli during their home game against Montottone, in the eastern Macerata district. The hosts held on to win 3-1.

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Vanessa Bryant wishes ‘nightmare’ of Kobe and Gianna’s deaths would end

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The former NBA star’s wife is struggling to deal with loss of both her husband and daughter

Vanessa Bryant has said in an Instagram post that she was both grieving and angry over the loss of her husband, NBA star Kobe Bryant, and 13-year-old Gianna in a helicopter crash last month.

Vanessa Bryant, 37, has made few public appearances since the crash that killed her husband, daughter and seven others and said in the social media post that she had been “reluctant” to put her feelings into words.

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France onslaught leaves England licking their wounds in Six Nations opener

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• France 24-17 England
• Hosts race into 17-0 half-time lead before May leads fightback

When Eddie Jones talked recently about England looking to become the greatest team the world has ever seen, this was not the start point he was envisaging. The World Cup finalists were about as irresistibly brutal as a damp paper bag for the first hour of a wet Sunday afternoon in Paris and were joyfully ripped apart by a French team not so much revitalised as reborn.

Related: France 24-17 England: Six Nations 2020 – as it happened

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World Athletics gives seal of approval for controversial Nike Vaporfly shoes

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• Governing body will set limits on future shoe technology
• World Athletics panel of experts orders new research

The hugely controversial Nike Vaporfly shoes that have revolutionised running – allowing elite athletes to shatter world marathon records and ordinary ones to smash their personal bests – have been given the seal of approval by World Athletics.

In a long-awaited ruling the sport’s governing body confirmed that Nike Vaporfly and Next%s, which cost £240 and can improve marathon times by one-to-two minutes in elite athletes, are legally allowable despite many in the sport accusing the shoes of being like “technological doping”.

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Australian cricketers face sanctions after ridiculing non-English speakers

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  • Under-19 team members use ‘inappropriate language’
  • Cricket Australia investigate players’ social media posts

Some members of Australia’s Under-19 World Cup squad face sanctions for comments on social media that have been branded as casual racism. Cricket Australia’s head of integrity and security Sean Carroll has spoken with those players who recently posted broken-English responses to an Instagram post.

“We are extremely disappointed that some of the Australian Under-19 squad members have used inappropriate language in posts on social media, which we reported to the ICC as soon as it came to our attention,” Carroll said in a statement. “Some of that language could be interpreted as ridiculing non-native English language speakers.”

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Japan in raptures as outsider wins sumo contest – and bursts into tears

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The 188kg wrestler Tokushoryu bulldozes his way into the hearts of a nation unaccustomed to displays of emotion

Sumo fans in Japan are celebrating after the lowest-ranked wrestler beat incredible odds to emerge victorious at the first main tournament of the year.

Tokushoryu, a relative unknown until his incredible winning streak at the new year tournament, shoved and threw his way through a succession of “superior” opponents in Tokyo, ending the 15-day contest on Sunday with an unassailable 14 wins and one defeat.

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Man behind football exposé revealed as source of Dos Santos leak

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Football Leaks founder passed on financial records of Africa’s richest woman, says lawyer

A Portuguese man behind one of the biggest exposés in the history of football has been identified as the source of a leaked cache of financial records about the business empire of Africa’s richest woman, Isabel dos Santos.

Lawyers for Rui Pinto, who is awaiting trial in Portugal on charges including alleged hacking and attempted extortion, said in 2018 he passed a non-profit whistleblowing organisation a hard drive containing data relating to Dos Santos’s business empire, which is estimated at $2.2bn.

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Kobe Bryant: NBA legend dies in helicopter crash at age of 41

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Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest basketball players of all time, has died in a helicopter crash. He was 41.

Bryant was on board the helicopter along with four others when it crashed at 10am local time near Calabasas, 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, in foggy weather. The crash ignited brushfires, making it hard for rescue crews to get close to the site. There were no reported survivors, and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna, is also believed to have died in the crash. Bryant had lived in the area for most of his life and often used helicopters to beat Los Angeles’ heavy traffic.

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