Category: Sports

PARIS In an about-turn, the French government said it was “sad and sorry” that 2,700 mostly Liverpool fans missed out on the final. France had initially blamed fans and counterfeiters for chaos at the stadium. Gerald Darmanin, France’s minister of the interior, offered an apology on Tuesday to the many fans who were denied entry to the Stade de France during the Champions League final match held on May 28. “I apologize very willingly for all those who have suffered this mismanagement,” said the minister in a live interview with…

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Eight months after winning the European Championship and being feted as national heroes, Italy’s football team crashed back to earth, missing out on the World Cup for the second time running. Italy lost 1-0 at home to little-fancied North Macedonia who scored the winner in injury time on Thursday. North Macedonia stunned European Champions Italy in the dying minutes to set up a clash against Portugal in the World Cup qualifying finals. The four-time World Champions failed to qualify for the tournament in Russia after being knocked out by Sweden in…

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The 2022 Winter Olympics have ended in Beijing, and one country enjoyed a clear advantage in the final medal count. Medal history has been made in more ways than one during the Winter Games. Norway broke the record for the most gold medals at a single Olympic Winter Games and, most recently, Elana Meyers Taylor earned her fifth Olympic medal, making her the most decorated African American Winter Olympian. At the 2022 Games there were 109 gold medals in total, up from 102 in Pyeongchang four years ago and a far…

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Australian Open champion Rafa Nadal captured his fourth title in Acapulco on Saturday, continuing his good run with a 6-4 6-4 triumph over Cameron Norrie in the final of the ATP 500 event. Nadal, who first won the title in 2005 and took it again in 2013 and 2020, stormed through the Acapulco draw without dropping a set, to claim his third straight title of 2022. The Spanish world number five has won 15 straight matches since returning from a foot issue that sidelined him for nearly six months last…

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The United States Monday announced a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, a calibrated rebuke of China’s human rights record that stops short of preventing US athletes from competing. The decision comes after Washington spent months wrangling with what position to take on the Games, hosted in February next year by a country it accuses of perpetrating “genocide” against Uyghur Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang region. There was no immediate reaction from Beijing, but the Chinese foreign ministry had earlier threatened “resolute countermeasures” to any such boycott. The…

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European lawmakers voted their opposition to breakaway competitions on Tuesday following the aborted Super League project that Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus are still backing. Some of Europe’s biggest football clubs wanted to break away from the Champions League and run their own competition called the Super League, but it quickly collapsed within 48 hours of launch in April following protests by fans and governments. With 597 votes to 36 and 55 abstentions, members of the European Parliament said they want European sporting culture “to be aligned with EU values…

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Kane Williamson’s innings deserved the Cup. But a Mitchell Marsh-led Australian assault ensured that the New Zealand bowlers blew it up. Imperiously, the men in Green and Gold chased down the victory target of 173 at the cost of just two wickets with seven balls to spare. The Blackcaps suffered another final heartbreak, this time to a better team. New Zealand actually lost the T20 World Cup final in the first 10 overs, when they scored 57/1, batting first. A fifth-gear switch in the next 10 overs made their total…

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The European Qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup resumed on 11 November. Seven teams have now won their groups to secure World Cup qualification: Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Serbia and Spain. How qualifying works The ten group winners qualify for the 2022 World Cup which runs from 21 November to 18 December in Qatar. For the play-offs from 24 to 29 March 2022, the ten group runners-up will be joined by the two best group winners from the 2020/21 UEFA Nations League overall ranking that have neither qualified…

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The International Handball Federation has responded to widespread accusations of sexism by changing its rules around women’s uniforms to allow bike shorts and tank tops instead of bikini bottoms and crop tops. The sport’s global governing body has been the subject of international pressure since July, when the European Handball Federation made headlines for imposing a €1,500 fine on the Norwegian women’s beach handball team for wearing shorts like their male counterparts during the Euro 21 tournament in Bulgaria. At the time, the EHF described the shorts as “improper clothing”….

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