List of All Articles with Tag 'sports'

Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon has denied that former Aces player Dearica Hamby was bullied on her team for being pregnant, saying any ill feelings between the two came from Hamby being traded

Officials say eight people are now confirmed dead in northern Italy following floods from rain-swollen rivers

Brentford striker Ivan Toney has been suspended from all football-related activity with immediate effect for eight months and fined £50,000, the FA has announced. The England international was charged with 262 breaches of the Football Association’s betting rules between 25 February 2017 and 23 January 2021. The FA withdrew 30 of the breaches, and he admitted to the remaining 232. His sanctions were imposed by an independent Regulatory Commission following a hearing. Toney can return to training only with his club for the final four months of his suspension, starting from 17 September 2023. Brentford issued a statement, saying: “Brentford FC notes the decision of an independent Regulatory Commission to issue an eight-month ban from all football and football-related activity to Ivan Toney with immediate effect.” The 27-year-old, who has scored 20 goals for Brentford in the Premier League this season was charged with breaking FA rule E8, which refers to players being barred from betting on games or sharing information for betting purposes. Newcastle and England defender Kieran Trippier was handed a 10 week ban in December 2020 for giving information out for others to bet on his transfer to Atletico Madrid from Tottenham. More follows Read More Man City brush aside Everton to close in on title as Brighton stun Arsenal Brentford vs West Ham LIVE: Latest Premier League updates James Milner came to Liverpool and won the lot - an era ends with his departure

Twenty-year-old Danish player Holger Rune recorded his second victory over Novak Djokovic in little more than six months by beating the 22-time Grand Slam champion 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 to reach the Italian Open semifinals

New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán was ejected from his team's game against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night after officials deemed him to have an "extremely sticky" substance on his right hand.

It’s 22 years and counting since Coventry City last graced the Premier League, over two decades of ups and downs, necessary ups as a result of downs, a whole chapter and more of club history written outside of the game’s elite. Once, the Sky Blues were synonymous with top-flight football, iconic Nineties names – if not always quite among the elite – throughout the team. They lined up for the first Premier League campaign, in 1992/93, and stayed a part of that fledgling top flight for the first nine years, finishing in the bottom half each term but always there, always a tough opponent, always carrying players with a backstory, a big future, or both. But an entire generation of football fans have never seen Coventry among the top clubs. A sea change has happened at England’s highest level since they were on the scene; they departed in 2001, two years before Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea and could now return one year after he sold it. While billions were moved around in the transfer market and in broadcast deals in Coventry’s absence, they embarked on an altogether more painful journey; should they complete the comeback on 27 May and win the EFL Championship play-off final they will become the first team to go from the Premier League all the way down to the fourth tier... and come all the way back up again. Before they can dream of all that, though, they must overcome Middlesbrough in the second leg of a two-legged semi final. The first leg, on home soil, was a goalless draw. A generation back, that would have been Highfield Road. For those who haven’t followed the fortunes and failings of Coventry’s ownership since then, that memorable old ground – where they played for over a century – was demolished in 2005. They moved to the Ricoh Arena, but less than 10 years later there were leasing issues and disagreements, resulting in the team spending a season at Sixfields in Northampton, 33 miles away. A return to within the city limits lasted only another few years, with the 2019/20 and 20/21 campaigns spent playing home games at Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s stadium – this time 23 miles away, and in the opposite direction to Sixfields. Two seasons back at the renamed Ricoh (now the Coventry Building Society Arena) have followed, with a 10-year deal to play there seemingly securing the club’s future at the ground – but the stadium owners have since been bought out and Coventry now only have an agreement to stay at the stadium until the end of this campaign. Investment group Sisu Capital bought the Sky Blues in 2007 to stop them going out of business, but under Ray Ranson’s chairmanship the club floundered on and off the pitch. Liquidation and relegation to League Two painted a bleak picture; the EFL Trophy in 2017 and promotion back to League One in 2018 offered a glimpse of hope. Doug King, a local businessman, finally completed a full takeover just a few months ago and immediately insisted on a future of “transparency and clarity”, noting there was no debt on the club and no interest would be payable on loans provided to it. However, he was unable to secure the purchase of the stadium, leaving work to do there for next season. Yet even that question mark only becomes cause for excitement if Coventry can pull off the most improbable of finishes to this campaign. When King took sole ownership on 27 January – just four months to the day before the play-off final – Coventry sat 15th in the Championship. They had won nine games all season, and lost 10. They had a negative goal difference. Their first game of the new era took place the next day and they won – and they have done so, again and again, in nine of their last 19, losing only twice. Mark Robins has managed a minor miracle in that most mad-cap of leagues, while it’s worth noting that the final day of the regular season saw them play away at the team they now face twice more in the play-offs. A 1-1 draw at Boro didn’t give much away for either side, while Coventry won the early-season meeting on home soil. Robins, of course, is the former striker who – as myth, legend or partial truth tells it – saved Sir Alex Ferguson’s career at Manchester United in those pre-trophy early seasons, scoring a goal in a must-win FA Cup clash which might otherwise have seen the Scot sacked. Robins went on to play for Norwich and Leicester, before a nomadic final decade or so in the game. This spell with Coventry, his second with the club, is his sixth coaching job. He is just three games away from giving the fans their best occasion in decades. And they have had plenty of those memorable occasions before. This is the club of Dion Dublin, Noel Whelan, Darren Huckerby, Robbie Keane. And before that, of Steve Ogrizovic, Roland Nilsson, Roy Wegerle, Gary McAllister and Peter Ndlovu. They were genuinely exciting, talented, committed players who could certainly have played for the biggest sides – some indeed went on to do so – had that era been like this one, where top clubs swoop continuously on any of those below them who fare well. Now it is instead to Viktor Gyokeres, Gustavo Hamer and Callum Doyle the fans will look, in hope and in anguish, that a long and difficult road might be just weeks from the final corner. What lays around it is almost entirely unknown, yet it could also in many ways mark the most incredible full-circle journey the Premier League era has seen. Read More Michael Carrick on the brink of managerial success with Middlesbrough, unlike old England teammates Coventry’s Mark Robins feels pressure is on Middlesbrough in play-off second leg How to watch Championship play-offs Coventry and Middlesbrough fail to land early blow in Championship play-off semi-final Coventry and Middlesbrough fail to land blow in Championship play-off semi-final Kitman Chris Marsh overcomes illness to help support Coventry’s promotion push How to watch Championship play-offs

Nikola Jokić made even more history and recorded yet another triple-double to inspire the Denver Nuggets to a 132-126 victory against the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals Tuesday.

Katie Taylor had Olympic dreams long before she became one of the faces of women’s professional boxing

By James Davey LONDON (Reuters) -JD Sports Fashion said on Wednesday it expected profit to exceed 1 billion pounds ($1.3

Bou Samnang’s determined but distant finish in driving rain and a wild ending to the football final will remain two of the defining images of Cambodia’s first staging of the Southeast Asian Games

Before every home game, Luton Town’s club shop is teeming. The little building perched outside Kenilworth Road is like a temporary prefab classroom and inside it’s cosy: once you’ve bought a shirt or a mug or a woolly hat then you best be on your way to make room for someone else. It is a different world to the extravagance of the Premier League. Tottenham, for example, boast the largest club shop in Europe: half an acre of sheer Spursy-ness, selling everything from Spurs-encrusted party bowls to the Spurs Monopoly board game, complete with a 100-seat auditorium to consume even more Spurs from the comfort of a soft chair. These two clubs seem to exist on different planets, and yet they could well be rivals in the same league next season. Luton have climbed here by consistently punching above their weight. The club’s entire wage budget, around £6m, would buy one Manchester City sub. They are always swimming against the tide and the small but mighty Kenilworth Road is a monument to that – intimate and intense, like a particularly atmospheric cow shed, with 10,000 seats that sound like 50,000 when the linesman fails to spot a foul throw. Luton’s long-awaited move to a new venue at Power Court is still a couple of years away. So should they win promotion – having advanced to the play-off final after victory over Sunderland, this is a distinct possibility – what on earth will the Premier League giants make of a ground where away fans file through an alleyway and up a metal staircase that hangs over neighbouring gardens? “They will think it’s a tip,” smiles Alex, a Luton season-ticket holder in the club shop. He has been coming here since 2005, sitting in the same seat since he was three years old. “But it’s our tip.” *** Despite his reputation as one of the brightest managers in the Football League, Rob Edwards was expecting some hate from Luton fans when he took charge in November. He had only recently left Watford, their bitter rivals, and so when he sat down for his first press conference as the new man in charge of Luton Town, all he could do was try to defuse a potentially volatile situation. “It’s not as if I left Watford a club legend,” he joked. Edwards was referring to the way he was spat back out by Watford after only 11 games, a familiar story for managers who dare work for the trigger-happy Pozzo family. But far from holding a grudge, Luton fans seemed to get a kick out of sticking one to their rivals. “Welcome Rob,” read a banner at his first game away at Middlesbrough, which soothed some anxiety. His first home game at Kenilworth Road, a Boxing Day win over Norwich City, finished with the entire ground singing his name. It would prove to be the first win of many, with only two league defeats for the rest of the campaign meaning Luton finished third in the Championship and got themselves into the play-offs for the second successive season. A club with a tight-knit staff and limited funds have improved their league position every year for eight in a row, climbing from the Conference in 2014 to the upper echelons of the Championship, and now they are within touching distance of the top tier for the first time in 30 years. At the heart of their rise is continuity – midfielder Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu has been with the club from non-league – and careful planning. Losing manager Nathan Jones to Southampton was a sudden bruise, but Edwards was already on the radar. Luton had analysed his League Two-winning year in charge of Forest Green Rovers and found it was no fluke – the underlying numbers showed a manager deploying the kind of fast, aggressive football that Luton themselves used to dominate Leagues One and Two. They analysed his 11 games at Watford too, and discovered some good things in the team Edwards was building, despite the quick sacking. Preparation has been key in the transfer market too. Led by club legend Mick Harford, chief scout Phil Chapple and analyst Jay Socik, Luton have made a habit of identifying smart signings from across the Football League and some inspired loans from the Premier League too. Right-back James Bree left the club in January but Luton seamlessly replaced him with Cody Drameh on loan from Leeds, and the addition of Aston Villa’s Marvelous Nakamba has brought solidity in midfield. Buying Carlton Morris from Barnsley last summer was crucial, and he has racked up a career-best 20 league goals. They recruit a specific Luton type: as well as being technically sound and a good character, they have to be athletic, able to withstand a high tempo for 90 minutes and out-run their opposition. After all, this is what Luton are: a club who extract every last drop from whatever they have. No Championship side have won more tackles in the final third than Luton this season, and the result is a team that are often hard and horrible to play against. Edwards has found a balance between a pragmatic approach and a team who can play football too. A direct route to goal is always an option with the power and strength of Morris and the imposing Elijah Adebayo up front, and Luton have found they don’t need to dominate possession to win games. That might be a useful trait in the Premier League. But what really stands out is how Luton are run off the pitch. There is no billionaire benefactor here: the club were saved by their own fans and now they are supporter-owned, and the people in charge – chief executive Gary Sweet, chairman David Wilkinson and majority stakeholder Paul Ballantyne – are deeply invested in its future. As one member of staff told The Independent: “Our owners give a s**t, and that isn’t always the case in football.” *** One staff member, Bill Cole, has worked for Luton for five years and has been visiting Kenilworth Road for 76. He will miss it, but he won’t shed a tear when it’s gone. He reels off more than half a century’s worth of new stadium plans that ended in disappointment, and says Power Court is exactly what the club has been crying out for, for far too long. “I hope they build a metal pillar in front of the press box to remind us of The Kenny,” he smiles. At full-time of a late-April clash against fellow high-flyers Middlesbrough, buoyant Luton fans poured out into the narrow streets that run down the hill to town following a 2-1 victory. It was a crucial moment in ensuring Luton finished third, and Boro fourth to face Coventry. If these two sides are to contest the play-off final – the so-called richest game in football – then perhaps this win has set the tone. Cole has seen it all before, though, and has a warning. “In 1959 we played Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup final,” he remembers. “Two weeks earlier we’d played them here at Kenilworth Road and we stuffed them 4-0. But at Wembley, we never showed up.” But win or lose the play-offs, Luton are unlikely to change too much. They are going in the right direction and their progress is a result not of vast investment but of sound stewardship. Amid the game’s financial bonanza benefitting a few elite clubs, Luton are showing that there is still a place for a little meritocracy in football. Read More Luton Town one game from Premier League after comeback win over Sunderland How to watch Championship play-offs Dimitar Berbatov warns Harry Kane not to ‘tarnish’ Tottenham legacy by leaving Dimitar Berbatov warns Harry Kane not to ‘tarnish’ Tottenham legacy by leaving I don’t blame English fans for cynicism over US investment – Burnley’s JJ Watt Arsenal and Leverkusen in ‘advanced talks’ over Granit Xhaka deal

The video looks like a gun advertisement -- on steroids. Shot in the style of a music video, with quick edits and a pulsating beat, three athletic looking men test fire a variety of machine guns, rocket launchers, assault rifles and handguns.