The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday recommended banning Russia from global sports for four years, including a ban on hosting major events. Oddly, any such ban will not affect the Russia Euro 2020 team, because it does not fall under WADA’s “major event” classification. But questions remain about the 2022 World Cup.
Racism in the Eredivisie — and indeed across Europe — is becoming too much to bear. The Dutch first and second divisions have a plan to try to curb racial abuse in football stadiums in the Netherlands.
This weekend, every Eredivisie and KKD (second division) match will kick off with an entire minute of players standing still, a nationwide protest to racism in the country.
After a disastrous 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign that ended with a playoff defeat to Sweden and the firing of manager Gian Piero Ventura, Italy’s just finished its UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying cycle in emphatic fashion: A 9-1 victory over Armenia gives the Azzurri a final record of 10 played, 10 won, 37 scored and only four conceded.
Following hot on the heels of the latest releases from adidas ahead of Euro 2020, Puma is now unleashing the latest threads for its stable of competitors at next summer’s competition. Italy, Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic have all already guaranteed their places at the European Championship, and these are the away shirts they’ll be wearing.
After hitting a hat-trick against Lithuania last Thursday to bring his international tally up to 98, Cristiano Ronaldo entered today’s match between Portugal and 96th-ranked Luxembourg with his eyes firmly set on becoming the second-ever footballer to reach the century mark for his country. Portugal won 2-0, but it was Bruno Fernandes who opened the scoring for the away side before Ronaldo registered number 99 following a tap-in from millimeters out.
Belgium and Russia had already qualified for the 2020 Euros, both ensured of finishing in the top two in qualifying Group I. The Russians had a chance to overtake the Belgians for first place in the group with a win on Saturday, but the Hazard Brothers weren’t having it.
Eden and Thorgan Hazard combined for three first-half goals as Belgium cruised to a 4-1 win over Russia on Saturday in Saint Petersburg, clinching first place in Group I.
Cristiano Ronaldo entered today’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Lithuania needing five goals to reach a century for Portugal. It was always going to be close as the Juventus striker has historically feasted on the world’s 132nd-ranked side, including the four he hit when the two nations met in Vilnius back in September.
Well, we did not expect this. The U.S. Champions League TV rights went up for bidding recently and, according to Sports Business Journal, CBS has pulled off a surprising coup.
As first scooped by John Ourand, CBS won the English-language U.S. Champions League TV rights for the 2021-22 season through the 2023-24 season. Univision, meanwhile, held on to the Spanish-language rights for a second cycle.
Scoring a hat-trick in Europe’s premier club competition is no mean feat, especially so as an adolescent teenager between the ages of 13 and 19. The list of players to have accomplished the goalscoring achievement reads like a who’s who of the world’s greatest talent since the tournament’s adoption in 1992.
In fact, only 19 players have multiple Champions League hat-tricks to their name, with both Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo having accomplished the task a staggering eight times. Nobody else has recorded more than three.
UEFA has, once again, failed to punish racism.
After a slew of racially charged incidents took the spotlight this season, UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin promised tougher punishments for despicable, racist fan behavior. Bulgaria was already serving a partial stadium ban for previous racist incidents and still managed to hurl monkey chants at the England team during Euro qualifiers just a few weeks ago.