SOCCER
VAR changes made: Webb
Referees chief Howard Webb said steps have been taken to ensure there is no repeat of the video assistant referee (VAR) error that saw a legitimate goal by Liverpool’s Luis Diaz against Tottenham Hotspur disallowed. The Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) said that VAR got the offside decision wrong. “Having seen what happened in Spurs vs Liverpool we analyzed the situation, we had a look at what we can do better to put some safeguards in place,” PGMOL chief refereeing officer Webb told Match Officials: Mic’d Up. “We worked hard over the subsequent days to look at what we needed to do to put in those safeguards around the communication to avoid that sort of thing happening.”
SOCCER
UK, Ireland to host Euro 2028
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak celebrated the UK being named as hosts of UEFA Euro 2028 with Ireland by visiting England’s soccer players at St George’s Park on Tuesday. Sandwiched between Three Lions captain Harry Kane and manager Gareth Southgate, Sunak posed for photographs holding a No. 28 England jersey. “I grew up with Euro 96 being one of the most amazing memories of my childhood,” Sunak said in a statement. “We have a chance to do that all over again.” Kane, who would be a month shy of 35 when the Euro 2028 starts, said it would be a “dream come true” to win the tournament having lost the 2020 final to Italy at Wembley. “The perception in sport or football is that you hit 30 and people start to think it’s the end, but the way I am looking at it is that I almost have the second half of my career now,” England’s top scorer said.
GOLF
No rankings for LIV players
LIV Golf is playing only for cash, not world ranking points, after the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) board determined it could not fairly measure the 48-man league with the other 24 tours around the world. The OWGR rejected the application from Saudi-backed LIV Golf, first submitted in July last year after the league already had played two of its 54-hole, no-cut events. “We are not at war with them,” said Peter Dawson, chairman of the OWGR board. “This decision not to make them eligible is not political. It is entirely technical. LIV players are self-evidently good enough to be ranked. They’re just not playing in a format where they can be ranked equitably with the other 24 tours and thousands of players trying to compete on them.”
GYMNASTICS
Mary Lou Retton in ICU
Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton has pneumonia and is in an intensive care unit (ICU) in a Texas hospital. Retton’s daughter, McKenna Kelley, shared Retton’s condition in an Instagram post on Tuesday. Kelley said 55-year-old Retton, who became the first US woman to win the Olympic all-around title, is “fighting for her life” and not able to breathe on her own. Kelley started a fundraising campaign on Retton’s behalf for medical expenses, as she said Retton does not have medical insurance. Retton was 16 years old when she became an icon of the US Olympic movement during her gold medal-winning performance at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. She also won two silver and two bronze medals at those Olympics to help bring gymnastics into the mainstream in the US.
‘SOURCE OF PRIDE’: Newspapers rushed out special editions and the government sent their congratulations as Shohei Ohtani became the first player to enter the 50-50 club Japan reacted with incredulity and pride yesterday after Shohei Ohtani became the first player in Major League Baseball to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. The Los Angeles Dodgers star from Japan made history with a seventh-inning homer in a 20-4 victory over the Marlins in Miami. “We would like to congratulate him from the bottom of our heart,” top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters in Tokyo. “We sincerely hope Mr Ohtani, who has already accomplished feat after feat and carved out a new era, will thrive further,” he added. The landmark achievement dominated Japanese morning news
When Wang Tao ran away from home aged 17 to become a professional wrestler, he knew it would be a hard slog to succeed in China’s passionate but underdeveloped scene. Years later, he has endured family disapproval, countless side gigs and thousands of hours of brutal training to become China’s “Belt and Road Champion” — but the struggle is far from over. Despite a promising potential domestic market, the Chinese pro wrestling community has been battling for recognition and financial stability for decades. “I have done all kinds of jobs [on the side]... Because in the end, it is very
No team in the CPBL can surpass the Taipei Dome attendance record set by the CTBC Brothers, except when the Brothers team up with Taiwanese rock band Mayday. A record-high 40,000 fans turned out at the indoor baseball venue on Saturday for Brothers veteran Chou Szu-chi’s first farewell game, which was followed by a mini post-game concert featuring Mayday. This broke the previous CPBL record of 34,506 set by the Brothers in early last month, when K-pop singer Hyuna performed after the game, and the dome’s overall record of 37,890 set in early March, which featured the Brothers and the
With a quivering finger, England Subbuteo veteran Rudi Peterschinigg conceded the free-kick that sent his country’s World Cup quarter-final into extra-time before smashing his plastic goalkeeper on the floor in frustration. In the genteel southern English town of Tunbridge Wells, 300 elite players have gathered to play the game they love. “I won’t say this is the best weekend I’ve ever had in my life, but it’s certainly in the top two,” said Hughie Best, 58, who flew in from Perth, Australia, to compete and commentate at the event. Tunbridge Wells is the “spiritual home” of Subbuteo, which was invented there in 1946