Category Sports News

The Scottish Premiership fixture card may be reduced this weekend, but there’s plenty to look forward to as we approach round three.

Celtic and Hearts are the only teams on maximum points and Aberdeen are the sole side yet to get off the mark.

The Dons will have to wait to change that since they and Hibernian have chosen to postpone visits to Dundee United and Falkirk respectively to focus on their European play-offs.

Rangers have made a sticky start, drawing both Premiership games so far.

The boos that followed the recent 1-1 with Dundee at Ibrox were nothing compared to the loud disgruntlement expressed 20 minutes into their Champions League qualifier with Club Brugge on Tuesday as the Belgians raced into a 3-0 lead, eventually leaving Glasgow 3-1 winners.

Not since 1989 have Rangers gone without a victory in their first three league outings and head coach Russell Martin really needs to avoid another domestic slip with a visit from Celtic following the return leg in West Flanders.

Meanwhile, Sunday’s hosts St Mirren are looking to extend their unbeaten run against Rangers to four matches.

It was 2-2 when Rangers were last in Paisley in April and Stephen Robinson’s men struck late on Boxing Day for a 2-1 success.

In between, the Buddies celebrated their first win at Ibrox since 1991 to make it back-to-back victories over the Govan side for the first time since the 1979-80 season.

St Mirren are still waiting for a league goal this term, but spirits will be high after knocking Hearts out of the Premier Sports Cup on penalties. And they may fancy adding to their tally of six goals in three games against Rangers after League 1 Alloa Athletic struck twice at Ibrox in the same cup competition.

Martin is busy rebuilding a squad that picked up just eight Premiership wins on the road last season.

Stuart Findlay sits joint-top of the Premiership scoring charts, with three goals.

The central defender is just one away from his best return in the competition and could become the first player to net in each of his first three top-flight appearances for Hearts since Rudi Skacel in 2005-06.

He also nodded home six minutes into his Jambos debut in the League Cup against Hamilton Accies.

That cup run is now over, with St Mirren interrupting a run of six successive victories.

Derek McInnes will be anxious to get back on track at home to Motherwell, who have lost six of their past seven league visits to Tynecastle.

It’s fair to say more than a few Kilmarnock fans were unimpressed when Stuart Kettlewell was chosen to replace McInnes, but an unbeaten start may well have won over some doubters.

There’s a home tie against St Mirren to look forward to in the last eight of the Premier Sports Cup and Saturday’s game against Dundee at Rugby Park is an opportunity to keep up the feelgood factor.

Killie are unbeaten in their most recent six home league games against the Dark Blues (W3 D3).

New strikers Marcus Dackers and Djenairo Daniels are both off the mark, Ben Brannan is the breakthrough story of the campaign so far and David Watson is brimming with confidence as a first pick in midfield.

Both of Killie’s league matches have finished 2-2. A two-goal lead at home to Livingston evaporated after a red card, but any questions about the team’s resilience were answered at Easter Road when they hit back from 2-0 down.

Champions Celtic are at home to Livingston on Saturday and the West Lothian side have never won on any of their 21 visits in all competitions (D3 L18).

Sir Nick Faldo says it is “really disappointing” that top men’s professional golf has not adopted a global schedule and remains dominated by the United States.

Britain’s greatest player of the modern era was speaking in the week that new PGA Tour boss Brian Rolapp promised “significant change” for the most lucrative and prestigious circuit.

The recently appointed chief executive unveiled a new competition committee, chaired by Tiger Woods, which has been charged with altering current formats in future years.

“The goal is not incremental change. The goal is significant change,” Rolapp promised.

This nine-man panel does not include anyone from Europe, despite the PGA Tour’s strategic alliance with the Wentworth-based DP World Tour. “It’s an important partnership that we want to figure out how to grow,” Rolapp said.

“I think conversations with them and how they might fit in a new competitive model will certainly be part of this committee’s work.”

But Faldo sees little evidence that the PGA Tour is prepared to embrace a truly global calendar. “That’s really disappointing,” the six-times major champion told BBC Sport.

Faldo shares Rory McIlroy’s vision for a circuit that would take the best players around the world rather than staying predominantly in the US, which stages three of the game’s four majors.

This week the PGA Tour announced that a new Signature Event will be staged at Donald Trump’s Doral course in Miami. It means there will now be nine of these big-money elevated tournaments, all staged in the US.

“America would never give up being number one and, yeah, I think it’s a shame,” Faldo said.

McIlroy called for a world tour to reunite the men’s game after the split that followed the arrival of the Saudi Arabian-backed LIV circuit in 2022.

“I thought after the ruckus, the disturbance with LIV coming on board, when they were talking about all that they’d create a real global tour,” Faldo added. “We should be doing something like that.

“I’d love them to be actually playing as a top, whatever, 100, 120 players, going around the world, no appearance fees. You’re playing for massive prize money, but that is the world tour.

“That’s the one to be on, and you travel around, you could organise the schedule.

“Like, we’re going this direction in the world for three weeks, guys, and then you’re going to have two weeks off, and then we all go another direction for three weeks.

“It could have been done. And if you made that the pinnacle, everybody would strive to be on that tour, and you could make it very volatile.

“It doesn’t matter what your name is. If you’re playing badly for those three weeks, well, maybe you get booted off and you can go to another tour and you can qualify to come back.

“It needs a bit more competitiveness, rather than the guarantees now of not having to perform for massive amounts.”

The 68-year-old Englishman is hosting this week’s Betfred British Masters at the Belfry, the last qualifying event for Europe’s Ryder Cup team. He says he’s involved in talks with new backers to secure the tournament’s future.

It is an important event on the DP World Tour, where the leading 10 players for the season secure cards to play in the US the following year. Critics suggest this is a talent drain that renders the European circuit as a “feeder” tour.

Faldo believes leading venues in the UK and on the continent should be used for the biggest tournaments outside the majors, as well as courses in America, Australia, Asia and Africa.

“If the public knew and television knew you had the best 100 players coming to your town or your country, my goodness, how good would that be,” he said.

“Rather that than saying, ‘well, I’m going to have a tournament and I don’t really know what I’m going to get’. It’s harsh on the sponsors. It really is.

“The sponsors want to know ‘I’m going to get X number of good players and I’m going to have a great event’.

“In America, they’re forking out 20, 25 million [dollars] to create a tournament. It’s a heck of a lot, isn’t it? We’ve got to find a formula to give to the sponsors.

The incident occurred after the French club lost to Rennes for the first Ligue 1 game, scoring in stoppage time despite being reduced to 10 men in the 31st minute.

I have this question for you. What happens if two people, two employees, two workers, two attorneys get into a fight at your place of employment? De Zerbi remarked.

A team-mate (Darryl Bakola, who was having a medical emergency), was in the middle of a bar fight in front of the sporting director and the coach.

De Zerbi claimed that no teeth were broken during the fight, but it was a one-of-a-kind encounter in all of my professional football career.

“For the first time in my career, I had no idea what to say or do,” said the former. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I’m from the street and have seen fights before, but this is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

The club’s bodyguards tried to break them apart, they said. They are typically supposed to keep us safe from others, not ourselves.

While Raymond’s mother Veronique called the club’s decision to put the midfielder on the transfer list a “betrayal,” according to Marseille president Pablo Longoria, who described the incident as being “extremely violent.”

De Zerbi then responded, “The mother has forgotten two things. I made the decision to make him the captain, and in a year, I showed her son more love and respect than I did my own son.

“I find it crazy that Rabiot’s mother claims that we gave Greenwood another chance.” Here, we’re referring to one’s private life. Talking about other people is inappropriate. We’re bringing up a workplace fight.

Rowe, an England Under-21 international, initially signed for Marseille from Norwich in August 2024 before making the move permanent this summer. Bologna has been linked to the 22-year-old forward, who has scored three goals in 31 appearances for the club.

Rabiot, a former Paris St-Germain player, signed for Marseille in September on a free transfer after five years at Juventus, where he has scored ten goals in 32 games.

Manager Brendan Rodgers has refuted suggestions that his relationship with the Celtic board may be in trouble, saying that he will stay in the position until the end of his contract.

The Northern Irishman expressed his frustration with the inability to strengthen his squad enough to advance to Champions League qualification and maintain their domestic dominance.

Rodgers, who left the club in the middle of his third season during his first spell there, says history won’t repeat itself. His deal expires next summer.

He responded, “Absolutely no chance.” We’ve already done it before, but it wasn’t successful.

We discussed contract options over the summer, but I said, “I only want to think about football now that the season is starting.”

“I don’t want to think about the contract; I just want to think about the football,” he said.

“I promised I would stay here for three years, and I’ve done so.”

After Wednesday’s disappointing draw in the Champions League qualifying match against Kairat Almaty, Rodgers had previously stated that it was “not my decision” to have no new additions added prior to the tie.

There is certainly no conflict, he said during the media conference on Friday. Everyone at this club, from the board to me, wants Celtic to achieve the most outstanding results.

“I’m still in the same position,” I said. I must reclaim my seat in this place. I do, of course, want Celtic to achieve the best results in the short to medium term.

However, Celtic supporters received bad news when their manager revealed right-back Alistair Johnston would be sidelined for “some 12 weeks” due to a hamstring injury sustained in Wednesday’s 0-0 draw with Kairat.

After 35 minutes of the Champions League play-off first leg, the 26-year-old Canada defender was pulled.

Since joining Celtic from CF Montreal in the first half of 2023, Johnston has made 115 appearances.

After hosting Livingston in Saturday’s Scottish Premiership game (15:00), Rodgers’ side will face Kairat once more in Kazakhstan on Tuesday (17:45 BST).

Rodgers said, “Not great, he’ll probably be around 12 weeks.”

We just want to make sure that when Ali returns, we’re in a really good position in every competition.

On Wednesday, Rodgers said his “first look” was to replace Johnston, citing teenager Coby Donovan as another option, and that the 26-year-old Scotland right-back Anthony Ralston, 26, was available as an alternative.

Rodgers also provided updates on other health-related issues.

The manager explained that Adam Idah was having knee problems.

With a plantar fascia issue he’s had, Auston Trusty might be a little bit out.

The organisers of a series of European cricket leagues and tournaments are facing a major financial obstacle that has cast serious doubt over its future.

Since 2019 the European Cricket Network (ECN) has arranged events across the continent, live streaming them on the internet.

To date, it has organised more than 7,200 matches, nearly all of which have been played using the T10 format, in 55 European cities, towns and villages in 26 different countries.

Clips from matches organised by ECN have showcased the best, and worst, of European cricket and a number of them have gone viral on social media.

Romania international Pavel Florin, who works as a bodyguard, shot to cricketing fame in an early tournament for his unorthodox bowling style.

However, a change in Indian law is set to have a major impact on ECN which is heavily reliant on financial backing from a partnership with Dream11, India’s biggest fantasy sports platform.

On Thursday, India’s parliament passed the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill 2025 which will ban online games played with money.

Dream11 is poised to pull the plug on its involvement with the ECN when the bill is signed off by India president Droupadi Murmu. This is expected to be within the next month.

Australian Daniel Weston, who founded the ECN, told BBC Sport it was a “devastating” blow and cricket in Europe “risks being pushed back 20 years” and “may never regain that momentum”.

“Fantasy sports have provided unmatched financial support to help grow cricket, especially in Associate nations, creating opportunities for both men and women,” he said.

“Our vision was to make cricket the number one bat-and-ball team sport in Europe. Now, those hopes feel shattered.

“It is a very sad moment for cricketers, cricket fans, and the children of cricketers all over the world, who will now likely not grow up in a world that is developing cricket outside of the big three.”

ECN remains optimistic it can pivot its business strategy and hopeful it will see out the events scheduled for the remainder of 2025 as planned.

But unless a major sponsorship partner is brought on board quickly it faces the reality of scaling back its operations drastically.

The various tournaments and leagues run by ECN are strongly associated with viral clips of comical run-outs, incredible catches, outrageous hitting and unusual bowling actions such as Florin’s.

But there has been a serious underlying development aspect to the cricket organised by the ECN which has stimulated interest in European cricket across the globe.

The ECN has also been a vital source of income for cricket boards – with a small hosting fee, believed to be around 10,000 euros (£8,500), paid to stage tournaments.

Similarly, events have brought national cricket boards in Europe closer together, given greater visibility and incentivised players at local level.

In addition to its main domestic club tournament – won earlier this year by a club side from Jersey – it has provided opportunities for national teams outside of ICC events.

Cricket Ireland and the Royal Dutch Cricket Association have sent representative teams to the main ECN international tournament.

An England XI, made up of players selected from the National Counties, has taken part with the blessing of the England and Wales Cricket Board, and won the 2023 tournament.

Weston, a former hedge fund manager who played international cricket for Germany, pulled in senior executives who previously worked for Uefa and Fifa to help make ECN financially viable from the outset,

Ireland co-captain Edel McMahon says the squad are behind Shannon Ikahihifo after the forward revealed she has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

New Zealand-born Ikahihifo, who has won three Ireland caps, was part of the training squad for the Women’s Rugby World Cup but was not selected in the final panel for the tournament.

In a post on Instagram on Friday, the 30-year-old Trailfinders player said: “Crazy to think that one day you can be running around on the rugby pitch feeling completely fine, then five days later you’re sitting in a hospital room being told you have cancer.

“Still a little in shock if I’m honest, but I’m so blessed to have the most amazing husband, family, and friends that always carry when things start to feel a bit heavy.

“Fair to say she’s been a pretty tough few weeks. But lucky we’re tougher.”

Speaking on Friday, after the Ireland team for Sunday’s Pool C opener against Japan was named, McMahon praised Ikahihifo for sharing her news.

“We found out as a group a little bit earlier than everyone else heard, but we respected Shannon’s space that she wanted to deal with this herself and even get to terms with what the news entirely is,” said McMahon.

“A credit to her to be so brave to come out. It would be very easy to fall into the background and not say anything and not raise awareness herself.”

McMahon added: “I know Breast Cancer Awareness is actually happening next month, but the full group are here to support her and we’re all thinking of her.

“But at the same time, she’s so selfless in that she didn’t want to distract from rugby itself and all of the good work that’s going on for World Rugby and this campaign.