LNP | LancasterOnline

Please enable JavaScript to properly view our site.

Skip to main content

Tennis

  • Updated

Indonesia has been stripped of hosting the men's Under-20 World Cup amid political turmoil regarding Israel’s participation. FIFA says Indonesia was removed from staging the 24-team tournament scheduled to start on May 20 “due to the current circumstances." The decision comes after a meeting in Doha between FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Indonesian soccer federation president Erick Thohir. Israel qualified for its first Under-20 World Cup in June. The country’s participation in Friday’s scheduled draw in Bali provoked political opposition this month. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation and does not have formal diplomatic relations with Israel.

The NCAA has gotten mostly positive reviews for its new women's Sweet 16 format during March Madness. Hosting games it two cities instead of the traditional four set attendance records higher TV ratings. The two regionals combined to set an all-time attendance mark for the Sweet 16, following up the record mark set the first weekend. The switch in format was done for a few reasons including helping get a separate TV deal for the women’s tournament. The current NCAA TV deal ends next summer.. The current NCAA TV deal ends next summer. The NCAA also hopes the success leads to more cities bidding to host the regional games and eventually the Final Four. The current NCAA TV deal ends next summer. The next bid cycle starts in July where regional hosting will be decided from 2027-31.

  • Updated

Major League Baseball’s new rules package is set for its regular-season debut Thursday when all 30 teams play their first game. It’ll be the first time many fans see the sport’s sizable list of rules changes, including a pitch clock, limits on infield shifts and bigger bases. The good news for the sport is that the rules changes have been widely praised during spring training. The games move at a noticeably crisper pace. MLB says spring games have averaged about 2 hours, 35 minutes through the first three weeks of games. That is 26 minutes shorter than spring games last season.

  • Updated

The stakes are high for Anthony Joshua in a fight that comes at a crossroads in his career. The former two-time world champion takes on American boxer Jermaine Franklin at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday. Joshua is coming off consecutive losses to Oleksandr Usyk that have damaged his status. His career would be pretty much in ruins if he also loses to Franklin. Joshua has been repeatedly asked if a loss would send him into retirement and he says that would at least free him from the pressure of an expectant public. Yet he is also talking about a possible blockbuster all-British heavyweight fight with Tyson Fury.

  • Updated

Tottenham managing director of football Fabio Paratici will serve a worldwide ban for his part in a false accounting scandal involving Juventus. Italy’s most famous soccer team was hit with a 15-point penalty in January and bans were also handed out to a number of its officials. Paratici was the club's sporting director and was handed the longest ban of 2½ years by the Italian soccer federation. FIFA says that has now been extended worldwide. Paratici would have been expected to play a key role in identifying and hiring a successor to Antonio Conte at Tottenham.

Leeds midfielder Tyler Adams is set for an extended spell out of the team after undergoing a hamstring operation. Adams missed the Premier League match at Wolverhampton on March 18 and didn’t play for the United States in its games against Grenada and El Salvador over the past week. The 24-year-old Adams has undergone what was described by Britain’s Press Association as a “non-invasive” procedure after consulting a specialist. Leeds is waiting to discover how much of the remainder of the season he is likely to miss. The club hasn’t commented officially on the length of Adams’ likely absence.

  • Updated

WWE’s WrestleMania arrives this weekend to a massive audience and vastly larger sponsorship revenue as it seeks to establish itself as a serious contender for major dollars from such partnerships. Craig Stimmel, WWE’s senior vice president and head of global sales and partnerships, exclusively tells The Associated Press in an interview that sponsorship revenue for this year’s event has doubled to more than $20 million, a record for any WrestleMania ever. Those numbers are critical in light of the return in January of Vince McMahon, the founder and majority shareholder of WWE, who said WWE could be up for sale.

Defending champion Lyon travels to Stamford Bridge to take on Chelsea for the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal, trying to overcome a 1-0 deficit. The London club says more than 13,000 tickets have been sold, surpassing Chelsea women’s previous record for a Champions League home match. Chelsea is trying to become only the second team to defeat the holders over two legs in the competition since 2015. Wolfsburg has a 1-0 lead over Paris Saint-Germain in Thursday’s other game. PSG will be without the suspended Élisa de Almeida and defenders Paulina Dudek and Amanda Ilestedt, who are out injured.

Angers president Said Chabane has stepped down to make way for his son at the helm of the struggling French league club. Angers says Chabane resigned on March 21 to offer his position to Romain Chabane. Said Chabane is facing sexual assault accusations. Angers is in last place in the league standings with 10 matches left to play this season and looks set to be relegated to the second division. It has been a rocky month for Angers after coach Abdel Bouhazama also resigned after he appeared to downplay sexual harassment.

People Are Reading