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The Lyon head coach, Paulo Fonseca, has been suspended for nine months after his heated confrontation with referee Benoît Millot. Ligue de Football Professional (LFP), the governing body which oversees Ligue 1, announced the ban on Wednesday. Fonseca angrily confronted Millot during his team’s 2-1 league victory over Brest on Sunday. The LFP said in … Read more

Robin van Persie may have found that, for this year at least, fairytales have their limits. Only 10 days have passed since he was tasked with leading the club that forged him and it was a delicious twist of fate that Inter, contributors to a formative moment in his playing career, posed his first Champions … Read more

The home nations are to join together in a bid to host the Women’s World Cup in 2035, a move which, if successful, would mark a “monumental moment in our nation’s sporting history”, according to Keir Starmer, the prime minister. A formal expression of interest in staging the tournament, which could be comprised of as … Read more

Something seemed to break here, and it was not just Xabi Alonso’s proud unbeaten record over Bayern Munich. For Vincent Kompany are cruising to the Bundesliga title and now they are cruising to the Champions League quarter-finals too. They may well sign Leverkusen’s best player Florian Wirtz in the summer, but here they played him … Read more

Liverpool are alive and well in the Champions League when they should have been buried in Paris. Arne Slot’s team did not simply secure a precious first-leg lead against Paris Saint-Germain, they committed grand larceny on a night that belonged to Alisson. Harvey Elliott grabbed a late winner entirely against the run of play and … Read more

José Mourinho has not ruled out managing Rangers or Celtic. The Fenerbahce head coach is preparing for Thursday’s Europa League last-16 first leg in Istanbul against Rangers, who have Barry Ferguson in interim charge after the sacking of Philippe Clement. Mourinho, whose Porto side beat Celtic after extra time in the 2003 Uefa Cup final … Read more

Marc Cucurella has said that Chelsea must prove that they are a big club by competing for major honours and embracing their status as favourites to win the Uefa Conference League. With Enzo Maresca ready to unleash Cole Palmer on the Conference League after bringing his star attacker into the squad for the knockout stages, … Read more

Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern won silver in the team sprint classic at the Nordic world ski championships on Wednesday, securing the US their second-ever world medal in the event’s classic style. The American duo finished 2.9sec behind Sweden’s Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist, while Switzerland took bronze. It was a step up from the … Read more

Philanthropist Ross Stevens made a $100m donation to support United States Olympic and Paralympic athletes with a post-retirement plan worth up to $200,000 per participant. The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee said Wednesday the gift was the largest single monetary donation in the history of the organization. Stevens launched the fund to reward American athletes … Read more

It was a beautiful day in Bagshot. The kind of afternoon made for chucking a ball around and contemplating a calculated risk or two. Slightly firmer pitches, the sun shining, a licence to thrill … if ever there was a week made for a player like Marcus Smith to go out and express himself from … Read more