Sports

The MCC won the last edition, held in Belize in 2017, while Mexico have triumphed on the two previous occasions they hosted the tournament. (Geography pedants spluttering with outrage at Mexico’s presence in a “Central American” tournament might also like to know that they also held off Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to win the South American Championships last year. And then go for a lie down.) For the first time the matches, other than those featuring the MCC, will be full Twenty20 internationals and, in another first, there is a women’s competition featuring Mexico and Costa Rica running alongside the men’s version. … [Read more...] about Mexico all set for CAC 2019: ‘Cricket is one of the oldest modern sports here’

The 2011 grand prix was moved from Bahrain after the government’s notoriously brutal response then to the mass demonstrations at the Pearl roundabout in Manama, but returned in 2012 and has continued to lend prestige to the regime every year since. After that 2011 crackdown the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI), appointed by the government itself, found that the security services’ actions resulted in the deaths of 13 civilians, due mostly to the use of “excessive and unnecessary lethal force”, and that five more people in the custody of the Ministry of the Interior died having been tortured. Eight more civilians were found to have died due to tear gas, a ninth after being attacked by police officers, another woman had a fatal heart attack while witnessing security forces kicking and beating her neighbour’s son with batons. … [Read more...] about How Bahrain uses sport to whitewash a legacy of torture and human rights abuses

But only recently have administrators woken up to this. In the past decade, substantial sums have been poured into many public facilities – not just in London but also in Newcastle, Manchester and elsewhere – and many of these were thriving before the lockdown. “There is a real opportunity to take tennis to places it hasn’t been before,” Billen says. “Let’s hope it isn’t wasted.” … [Read more...] about Everyone for tennis: sport breaks out of middle-class bubble

FFP rules are aimed at encouraging clubs to break even and spend only money they make in revenues, not pay excessively for players in wages and transfer fees subsidised by outside funding from owners. The system means that sponsorships are an important element of clubs’ financial reporting and ability to sign players, and must truly be commercial revenues from outside companies, not disguised owner funding. … [Read more...] about Manchester City’s Champions League ban lifted by court of arbitration for sport

Journalists were instead ferried to the venue (which turned out to be a pub in the village of Linton in Craven) for a union which Friends of the Earth described as “a shameless hijacking of cycling to greenwash the terrible impact Ineos has on our planet”. … [Read more...] about Forget claims of ‘greenwashing’, Ineos’ billionaire owner is just a sports junkie enjoying the ride