Premier League talking points: De Bruyne, Saka and the top four March 7, 2022 It was a Sunday afternoon of football which proved the worth of individual performances in high-pressure matches, and a Sunday which piled pressure on a Watford side down in the dreaded relegation places as the number of games remaining slowly dwindled. Here are the talking points from yesterday’s Premier League action. Manchester is blue For [...]
Jack Nowell desperate to be part of England World Cup run March 7, 2022 England winger Jack Nowell insists he is desperate to be part of next year’s World Cup squad as Eddie Jones’s players look to use the Six Nations to cement their place in his future plans. “I hope I can be part of that [the World Cup],” said Nowell. “I am desperate to be part of [...]
Football match-fixing on rise as ‘lone wolves’ take it to lower leagues and even youth level March 6, 2022 It is almost 30 years since Bernard Tapie’s Marseille were found to be match-fixing in French football and more than 15 since the Calciopoli scandal rocked Serie A. Yet far from being consigned to the past, the manipulation of results is on the rise across sport and becoming more prevalent outside of football’s top divisions, [...]
Explainer: Why have Championship rugby clubs been denied promotion? March 4, 2022 “Disappointed, dismayed and disheartened,” is how Championship rugby leaders Doncaster Knights reacted to news this week that they will not be promoted even if they win the league. The Knights were joined by Ealing Trailfinders in being denied entry to the Premiership, English rugby’s top division, for failing to meet a series of off-field criteria. [...]
Ollie Phillips: Corker of a weekend ahead of us in the Premiership March 4, 2022 While an absence of promotion and relegation in Premiership Rugby may be the talking point within the sport, it’s hard to deny that the lack of jeopardy has produced some cracking rugby this season. With Saracens in second on 54 points and Northampton in ninth on 42, it’s incredibly tight for the three play-off places [...]
Abramovich sale of Chelsea could take place next week, says Premier League March 3, 2022 The Premier League has welcomed Roman Abramovich’s decision to sell Chelsea and indicated that a takeover could be completed as soon as next week. Chief executive Richard Masters called it the “right solution because the position was unsustainable” given Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “It’s the right decision. The situation escalated incredibly quickly,” Masters told the [...]
Elden Ring is a wonderful, masochistic game from the Dark Souls team March 3, 2022 Few game developers run the gamut between the sublime and the ridiculous as gracefully as FromSoftware. One moment in Elden Ring I was scraping through an epic sword fight against a many-armed demi-god, each of us a sliver away from death as the fatal blow was finally delivered; the next I was battling the same [...]
F1 champion Verstappen signs new deal with Oracle Red Bull until 2028 March 3, 2022 Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen has signed a contract extension that commits him to Oracle Red Bull Racing for the next seven seasons. The deal, which is reported to be worth £40m a year, is a five-year extension to his current agreement and takes him to the end of the 2028 campaign. “I really [...]
Supporting your employees with their mental health in 2022 March 3, 2022 | Sponsored In the UK an estimated 91 million workdays are lost every year due to mental health problems and the ongoing pandemic has unfortunately been a catalyst in increasing stress and anxiety. Our pioneering mental initiative This is Me aims to change attitudes towards mental health in the workplace by reducing stigma, dispelling myths and raising [...]
Russian athletes banned from Winter Paralympics after rivals threaten boycott March 3, 2022 Athletes from Russia and Belarus have been banned from the Beijing Winter Paralympics after other nations, including Britain, threatened a boycott. The move represents a swift U-turn from International Olympic Committee, which had on Wednesday said they could compete as neutrals when the Games begin on Friday. It is the latest sporting sanction to hit [...]