Category Archives: Sport

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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Kobe Bryant: NBA legend dies in helicopter crash aged 41

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The NBA, and much of America, was in shock on Sunday after Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest basketball players in history, died in a helicopter crash. He was 41.

Bryant was on board the helicopter with eight others, including his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, when it crashed at 10am local time near Calabasas, 30 miles north-west 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 survivors. Bryant, who lived in the area for most of his life often used helicopters to beat Los Angeles’ heavy traffic, and on Sunday he was taking Gianna to play in a basketball game at his academy outside the city.

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Former Osasuna official says club fixed La Liga matches in 2013 and 2014

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• Ángel Vizcay says Getafe and Real Betis were paid to lose games
• Former president Miguel Archanco denies any match-fixing

The Spanish first division club Osasuna fixed football matches in an attempt to avoid relegation over two seasons, a court heard on Tuesday.

A former club secretary said that the club had paid Getafe and Real Betis to lose against them in 2012-13 and 2013-14 respectively and had made a further payment to Espanyol in return for a draw as he gave testimony in the case led by the investigating judge Fermín Otamendi and brought against 11 men: six former Osasuna directors, three former Betis players and two estate agents also accused of being involved.

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Australian Open 2020: day two – live!

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Second set: Pliskova* 6-1 3-3 Mladenovic (*denotes server): Pliskova holds to love in the time it took me post a tweet and confirm who Sinner faces in the second round.

Shame to see Max Purcell bow out so early, but Jannik Sinner is a kid going places. The Next Gen Finals champ has Márton Fucsovics next.

Italian @janniksin wins his first ever #AusOpen match!

He def. Aussie qualifier Max Purcell 7-6(2) 6-2 6-4 #AO2020 pic.twitter.com/KOZj4JHAJq

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‘Whoopee cushion’ disrupts final before Stuart Bingham wins Masters snooker

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  • Perpetrator expelled after referee airs grievances
  • Stuart Bingham beats Ali Carter 10-8 in final

Stuart Bingham won the Masters 10-8 but one of the biggest days in the snooker calendar was briefly disrupted by an electronic “whoopee cushion” in the crowd.

“Play momentarily stopped at Alexandra Palace. Looks like someone has planted a whoopee cushion inside the arena and it keeps going off making a ‘poooooop’ sound. Crowd laugh, Bingham not happy,” tweeted BBC journalist Shamoon Hafez.

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‘Being brothers was a big help’: Atlantic rowers tell of record-breaking trip

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Lachlan trio from Edinburgh speak of their gruelling 3,000-mile challenge after arrival in Antigua

For Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan MacLean, it’s been a struggle to keep their feet on the ground after rowing in record-breaking time across the Atlantic. “When I went to sleep last night, I thought I’d wake up on the boat with the alarm going off, and someone screaming ‘to port, to port’,” said Jamie.

For their parents, Sheila and Charlie, the brothers’ arrival in Antigua on Thursday must have come as a relief. Their only children, aged 27, 26 and 21 respectively, have just spent 35 days, nine hours and nine minutes in a 28ft boat, travelling 2,720 nautical miles from the Canaries in the Talisker Atlantic Challenge.

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Silver Ferns face first big test of 2020 – without Langman, Rore, Folau or Korpua

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Netball team will look quite different from World Cup-winning outfit, as they take on understrength England

The new-look Silver Ferns will take on England in their first international of 2020 without some of their biggest hitters on the court.

Captain Laura Langman is on sabbatical, as is key defender Katrina Rore, and neither will play in the inaugural Netball Nations Cup in the UK that starts on Sunday night, UK time. The Ferns will take on England, Jamaica and South Africa in the tournament; Australia’s Diamonds are not playing.

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Conor McGregor visits 40-second destruction on Donald Cerrone in UFC return

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Conor McGregor came back with a big bang.

McGregor stopped Donald Cerrone with a head kick and punches 40 seconds into the first round at UFC 246 on Saturday night, announcing his return to mixed martial arts with his first victory since 2016.

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Roger Federer responds to climate change criticism from Greta Thunberg

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  • Credit Suisse closely linked with fossil fuel industry
  • #RogerWakeUpNow has been trending on Twitter

Roger Federer has issued a cautiously worded response to mounting criticism, including from climate activist Greta Thunberg, over his sponsorship deal with Credit Suisse.

A dozen Swiss activists appeared in court on Tuesday after refusing to pay a fine for playing tennis inside branches of Credit Suisse bank in November 2018, in a stunt intended to underscore Federer’s relationship with the Swiss financial giant, which is closely linked with the fossil fuel industry.

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Field of broken dreams: football’s slave trade – photo essay

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All they want is to do is play professionally, but for many young hopefuls from Africa their expensive journey to Turkey ends in exploitation

• Photographs by Italo Rondinella

For months, Yves Kibendo woke up every morning at 6am. He would leave his house in an ancient area of Istanbul, returning late in the evening, after working for 12 hours in a textile factory.

He was paid under the table, or sometimes not at all.

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Forest Green Rovers granted planning permission for all-wooden stadium

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  • Club say it will be ‘greenest football stadium in the world’
  • League Two side are world’s first 100% vegan club

The world’s first football stadium made almost entirely out of wood, which will be home to League Two side Forest Green Rovers, has been granted planning permission.

Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, the 5,000-capacity ‘Eco Park’ is set to be “the greenest football stadium in the world,” according to the club’s website.

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