Category Archives: Sport

‘The whole country is proud’: Chinese snooker fans hail Zhao Xintong triumph

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Crowning of country’s first world champion set to give fresh boost to sport that has boomed in popularity in China

Chain smoking under the fluorescent lights of a cavernous billiards hall in Beijing, Brother Yuan can’t stop smiling. The previous day, along with 150 million other people across China, he had been at home watching the snooker world championships final. Now he’s with his fellow cue-heads, celebrating the win of China’s first snooker world champion, Zhao Xintong.

“He’s a great role model for young people in China,” Yuan, 55, says of the generation Z upstart who on Monday claimed snooker’s top prize. “He’s bringing the excitement back.”

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IPL cricket suspended amid growing India-Pakistan tensions

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  • ‘It does not look nice playing cricket while country at war’
  • Thursday’s IPL match was abandoned in Dharamsala

The Indian Premier League has been suspended, initially for a week, because of concerns about the security situation in the country amid rising tensions along its border with Pakistan. The news came hours after the decision was taken to relocate the final fixtures in the Pakistan Super League to United Arab Emirates because of safety concerns. Foreign-based players in India and all teams in Pakistan are expected to leave the countries over the next 24 hours.

“Further updates regarding the new schedule and venues of the tournament will be announced in due course after a comprehensive assessment of the situation in consultation with relevant authorities and stakeholders,” Devajit Saikia, the secretary of the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI), said in a statement. “The decision was taken by the IPL governing council after due consultation with all key stakeholders following the representations from most of the franchisees, who conveyed the concern and sentiments of their players, and also the views of the broadcaster, sponsors and fans; while the BCCI reposes full faith in the strength and preparedness of our armed forces, the board considered it prudent to act in the collective interest of all stakeholders.”

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Norwegian fan trades five kilos of fish for ticket to Bodø/Glimt v Tottenham

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  • Supporter with spare ticket took the bait over offer
  • Around 50,000 supporters vying for just 480 seats

A Norwegian bartered five kilos of semi-dried fish for a ticket to Thursday’s semi-final clash between Bodø/Glimt and Tottenham in the Arctic Circle, as the hosts aim to become the first Norwegian club to reach a European final.

Some 50,000 fans were vying for just 480 remaining tickets to the second leg of Bodø/Glimt’s Europa League semi-final.

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Ex-French interior minister apologises to Liverpool fans for making them a ‘scapegoat’

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Gérald Darmanin, now justice minister, called night of 2022 Champions League final ‘biggest failure’ of his career

The former French interior minister has apologised to Liverpool fans for using them as a “scapegoat” for the chaos surrounding the 2022 Champions League final in Paris, where supporters of the club, including children, were teargassed by police amid false claims they had caused a riot.

Gérald Darmanin, who is now France’s justice minister, called the night “the biggest failure” of his career. On 28 May 2022, Liverpool supporters said they feared for their lives as they were forced to enter Stade de France via a narrow subway and boxed-in lanes that could not accommodate the thousands of people that had arrived.

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Irish camogie players don shorts in protest against skorts diktat

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Players have had enough of rule 6(b) of the sport’s code, which requres a ‘skirt/skort/divided skirt’

They are called skorts – a portmanteau of shorts and skirts – and the Irish camogie players who are obliged to wear them have had enough.

Players from Dublin and Kilkenny instead wore forbidden shorts before a provincial game on Saturday, in a coordinated protest that has won support from politicians and commentators who say the dress rules for the female-only sport are archaic.

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Atalanta fan stabbed to death in clashes with Inter supporters, police confirm

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  • Male in his late teens arrested over incident, say police
  • Violence ‘must never happen again’, says Gasperini

A 26-year-old fan of Serie A side Atalanta was stabbed to death during clashes between Atalanta and Inter supporters in the northern city of Bergamo, Italy’s police said.

The groups of supporters clashed in a pub in Bergamo on Saturday night after one of the Inter supporters chanted provocatively, the head of the carabinieri office in Bergamo, Carmelo Beringheli, said.

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