Category Archives: Football

Diego Maradona, one of the greatest footballers of all time, dies aged 60

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Argentina, Naples, and the world of football were in mourning on Wednesday at the death of Diego Maradona, in many people’s eyes the greatest player of all time, following a heart attack. He was 60.

The Argentinian president Alberto Fernández, who declared three days of national mourning, said that Maradona had taken his country to the “highest of the world” with his virtuoso performances in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. “You made us immensely happy,” he wrote. “You were the greatest of all. Thanks for having existed, Diego. We will miss you all our lives.”

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Manchester United hit by ‘sophisticated’ cyber attack but say fan data is safe

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  • Club ‘shut down affected systems’ in response to hacking
  • United ‘not currently aware of any breach of personal data’

Manchester United have been hit by a cyber attack on their systems but say they are not “currently aware of any breach of personal data associated with our fans and customers”.

The club, who host West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford on Saturday, confirmed the hacking on Friday evening and said all systems needed for the match remained secure.

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Maradona laughing and responding very well to brain surgery, says doctor

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  • Argentina great in intensive care after operation
  • ‘He laughed, looked at me, grabbed my hand’

Diego Maradona is showing signs of improvement after undergoing an operation for possible bleeding on the brain.

Dr Leopoldo Luque, the 60-year-old Argentinian’s personal physician, has said that Maradona “laughed” and “grabbed my hand” a day after the procedure.

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Diego Maradona to undergo brain surgery in Argentina

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  • Argentina legend has a subdural haematoma
  • His personal physician says procedure is ‘routine surgery’

The former Argentina captain and World Cup winner Diego Maradona will undergo surgery for a subdural haematoma, a blood clot on the brain, his personal physician said on Tuesday, after he was admitted to hospital in La Plata, about an hour from Buenos Aires. Maradona coaches the local club Gimnasia y Esgrima.

The operation was expected to begin on Tuesday to address the condition, which is a pool of blood, often caused by a head injury, that can put pressure on the brain.

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England legend Sir Bobby Charlton is diagnosed with dementia

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  • Manchester United great, 83, has disease
  • Charlton lost brother and fellow World Cup winner Jack in July

Sir Bobby Charlton, widely considered to be England’s greatest ever footballer, has been diagnosed with dementia.

The 83-year-old, who was England and Manchester United’s record goalscorer until recently, has the disease, the Telegraph said, with his wife, Lady Norma Charlton, content for his condition to be made public in order to help others with dementia.

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America’s superteam: Megan Rapinoe and WNBA star Sue Bird announce engagement

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  • Couple have been together after meeting at 2016 Olympics
  • Football and basketball stars are also prominent activists

Two of America’s best athletes are getting married after Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird announced their engagement.

The couple boast an impressive list of achievements. Rapinoe has won two World Cups and an Olympic gold medal with the US national team, and picked up the Ballon d’Or Féminin for the world’s best women’s player in 2019. Bird, meanwhile, is one of the greatest basketball players of all time. This month, the 40-year-old won her fourth WNBA title to go alongside her four Olympic gold medals with Team USA. She has also carved out a successful career in Russia, winning five EuroLeague titles with Spartak Moscow and UMMC Ekaterinburg.

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‘Lack of shame’: Robinho affair highlights Brazil’s rape crisis

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Top club Santos signed a contract – now suspended – with the former Brazil striker who was convicted of rape in Italy in 2017

A public debate over sexual violence and rape culture has erupted in Brazil after one of its leading football clubs tried to recruit a convicted rapist to lead its attack.

Santos Futebol Clube – which has produced sporting legends including Pelé and Neymar – announced the highly controversial signing of the former Manchester City striker Robinho on 10 October.

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Cristiano Ronaldo tests positive for coronavirus, Portugal confirm

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  • Juventus forward is ‘without symptoms, and in isolation’
  • Remaining Portugal players all tested negative on Tuesday

The Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo has tested positive for coronavirus, the Portuguese Football Federation has confirmed.

The 35-year-old is said to be “doing well, without symptoms, and in isolation”, with no further positive tests reported in the squad before Portugal’s Nations League match against Sweden on Wednesday.

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Transfer deadline day 2020: Telles signs for Man Utd, Guendouzi joins Hertha – live!

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How many properly good centre-backs are there in the entirety of the Premeer League? The current standard is remarkably low.

Chelsea/West Ham: Meanwhile West Ham are interested in Fikayo Tomori on loan. Chelsea really need to shift a centre-back now that Rudiger is staying.

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Lionel Messi confirms he will stay at Barcelona ‘to avoid legal dispute’

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  • Argentina forward reverses decision to leave Camp Nou
  • Messi far from happy: ‘I told the club I wanted to go’

Lionel Messi is staying at Barcelona. Ten days after he served official notice of his determination to walk out of the Camp Nou, he finally announced that he would not be going after all – not because he had changed his mind,but because he had been left with no choice.

Unwilling to go to court against the club who insisted he had missed the deadline allowing him to rescind his contract and threatened him with legal action if he departed unilaterally, he has been forced to continue.

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Greek lawyer in Harry Maguire case reveals details of hate mail he received

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Ioannis Paradissis says messages from supporters of Manchester United footballer have shocked him

The fallout from Harry’s Maguire’s calamitous holiday in Mykonos has been swift, brutal and revelatory, not least for the Manchester United captain.

Yet for Ioannis Paradissis, the Greek prosecution lawyer at the centre of the case following the footballer’s arrest after a late-night brawl on the isle, the drama is far from over.

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Lionel Messi tells Barcelona he wants to leave but faces legal battle over clause

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  • Argentina forward sent fax to Barça informing them of decision
  • Club insist free transfer clause in Messi’s contract has expired

Lionel Messi has told Barcelona that he wants to leave the club immediately – and on a free transfer. The Argentinian, who according to RAC1 radio had told the new manager, Ronald Koeman, that he felt “more out than in”, has sent a fax to Barcelona informing them of his desire to go.

Messi’s camp believes that a clause in his contract means he can walk away for no fee. Barcelona, by contrast, insist that he is still bound by a €700m (£629m) buy-out clause. The bombshell dropped on Tuesday evening with the news that Messi had told the club on Tuesday afternoon.

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Harry Maguire given suspended prison sentence after guilty verdict in Greece

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  • Maguire found guilty of aggravated assault, attempted bribery
  • England defender will appeal 21-month suspended sentence

Harry Maguire has been found guilty of aggravated assault, resisting arrest and attempted bribery by a three-member misdemeanours court convening on the Greek island of Syros.

The £190,000-a-week Manchester United and England defender had denied all charges and said he would appeal. Maguire was given a prison sentence of 21 months and 10 days that was suspended on account of the charges being misdemeanours and and the court’s acknowledgement of his clear criminal record. His two co-defendants, who included his footballer brother Joe, were handed suspended 13-month sentences.

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Fantasy Premier League winner disqualified over ‘player comments’

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Aleksandar Antonov made remarks about footballer believed to be Raheem Sterling in private group chat

With millions of players around the world, the Fantasy Premier League is meant to recreate the competitive excitement and experience of managing a football team in England’s top division.

Instead, it has triggered an off-pitch row after this year’s champion was disqualified for allegedly offensive comments made “in a moment of frustration” about a Premier League player, understood to be the Manchester City striker Raheem Sterling.

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Home advantage prevails despite absence of fans, study finds

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  • Academics review matches in England, Spain and Italy
  • Referees found to be more lenient to away teams

The absence of fans did not cause footballers to doubt themselves but did make referees think twice, a study of behind-closed-doors football has found.

According to researchers from Reading University, playing matches without supporters had a minimal effect on the phenomenon of home advantage but it did correspond with officials showing fewer yellow cards to away teams.

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‘How did none of us think of this before?’: sports bra scheme breaks down entry barriers | Samantha Lewis

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By providing access to basic equipment, a not-for-profit is helping normalise women’s involvement in sports at every level

Five years ago, Sarah Dwyer-Shick – a youth football coach from the United States – spent time visiting friends and colleagues scattered across Africa. Along with mosquito repellent and sunscreen, she carried with her a small bundle of sports bras as gifts for young players in rural Namibia.

When she arrived, Dwyer-Shick found that her gifts were coveted by older players, too – including those on the Namibian women’s national team. Many of them, she realised, had never owned a sports bra before.

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Marcus Rashford scores cover of British Vogue’s September issue

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The footballer is recognised for his activism in the magazine among 40 ‘faces of hope’

Marcus Rashford’s inspirational, policy-changing campaign against child poverty has garnered him accolades aplenty. Now it has also propelled the footballer on to the front cover of British Vogue’s September issue.

The Manchester United striker, who forced a government U-turn on the granting of free food vouchers for the poorest families over the summer, headlines a special edition dedicated to activism.

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Migrant workers in Qatar face ‘structural racism’ says UN report

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World Cup host heavily criticised over discrimination and ‘coercive conditions’ experienced by labourers from south Asia and Africa

The United Nations has raised “serious concerns of structural racial discrimination against non-nationals” in World Cup host nation Qatar, in a highly critical report to be presented to the UN human rights council this week.

The report, by the UN’s special rapporteur for racism, Tendayi Achiume, is notable for its uncompromising language, saying a “de facto caste system based on national origin” exists in Qatar, “according to which European, North American, Australian and Arab nationalities systematically enjoy greater human rights protections than South Asian and sub-Saharan African nationalities”.

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Jack Charlton, England World Cup winner, dies aged 85

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  • Centre-half was part of 1966 World Cup-winning team
  • Charlton also a successful Republic of Ireland manager

Jack Charlton, a World Cup winner with England and a former Republic of Ireland manager, has died aged 85. Charlton, the elder brother of Bobby, played 35 times for England as a central defender, including all six matches at the 1966 World Cup.

Related: 'He was larger than life': football world pays tribute to Jack Charlton

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