Former English Premier League referee Martin Atkinson is to take over as VAR manager at the Scottish FA.

The 53-year-old will take up the post in early December and is replacing Jon Moss, who left after 52 days to become head of referees at Football Australia.

Atkinson was an official in England’s top flight for 20 years and refereed the 2015 Europa League final.

He will leave his role as select group manager at Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) to begin work alongside SFA head of refereeing Willie Collum.

“I am delighted to appoint someone of Martin’s calibre,” said Collum. “I did not expect to be recruiting for that position again so quickly, but Jon received a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and went with our best wishes.

“I am pleased Martin has agreed to continue the considerable work undertaken to date in optimising our VAR operation and I’m sure our VAR officials and match officials generally will look forward to working with someone of Martin’s experience.”

The Dodgers’ 8-7 victory over the Yankees in Game 5 for their eighth World Series title and second in five years averaged 18.6 million viewers on FOX, FOX Deportes and streaming, according to Nielsen.

That is the most-watched game in the Fall Classic since Game 7 in 2019 when the Washington Nationals’ victory over the Houston Astros averaged 23.22 million.

The series averaged 15.81 million, its best performance since 2017 when Houston’s victory over the Dodgers in seven games averaged 18.93 million.

Its also quite a turnaround from last year, when the Texas Rangers’ title over the Arizona Diamondbacks in five games averaged a record-low 9.11 million. The Dodgers-Yankees series was a 67% increase over that mark. 

Additionally, the complete 2024 MLB Postseason on FOX and FS1 averaged 7,485,000 viewers, up +42% over last year’s average (5,265,000) and FOX Sports’ best Postseason through Game 5 of the World Series since 2017, per FOX Sports PR. There was also a 101% increase in viewership among adults 18-34. 

The audience Wednesday peaked at 21.27 million from 11:15-11:30 p.m. EDT.

Dodgers vs. Yankees: MINI-MOVIE of 2024 World Series | MLB on FOX 🎥

The game had a 21.1 rating and 55 share in Los Angeles and 14.8 rating and 39 share in New York.

The rating is the percentage of television households tuned in. The share refers to a percentage of the audience viewing it at the time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Joaquin Buckley has never been one to hold his tongue, and he’s making sure his name is in the mix as a potential opponent for Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 310.

Originally, UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad was to face the undefeated Rakhmonov (18-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) in the main event on Dec. 7 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. However, a toe injury has forced Muhammad out of the pay-per-view date.

While the promotion has not yet announced a plan to replace the fight, rumors have begun flying, including the thought that an interim title could be created.

Ian Machado Garry has been a popular name in discussion, but Buckley (20-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) believes he has a solid case to be inserted into the potential fight at UFC 310.

“Hey look, I’ma let you finish, but I got something to say,” Buckley started on an Instagram video, cutting in on a post-fight news conference video of Machado Garry talking about facing Rakhmonov. “Nobody want to see that fight. People want to see knockouts. People want to see finishes, and that’s exactly what we finna bring.

“Me vs. Shavkat. He got 18 finishes, 10 subs, eight knockouts. And your boy, I got 14 knockouts, and I just knocked out my last two ranked opponents. So what you think I’m finna to do to this dude?”

Buckley is currently running hot on a five-fight winning streak, undefeated since moving to welterweight last May. Machado Garry (15-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) is undefeated in his entire pro career, although he has fewer knockout victories than Buckley.

“Hey UFC, this is the fight that y’all got to make,” Buckley said. “Like I told y’all, I’m coming to take the throne, and I ain’t playing.”

In his last outing at UFC 307, “New Mansa” knocked out former title challenger Stephen Thompson in the third round. During his post-fight interview, he called out former champion Kamaru Usman.

While everyone in the MMA space has had their say about the upcoming UFC heavyweight title fight at UFC 309, Stipe Miocic has laid low, preparing for the biggest fight of his career.

On Nov. 16, Miocic (20-4 MMA, 14-4 UFC) will return to the octagon for the first time in 1,330 days. It’s not just any return. It’s the return. The man who many consider to be the greatest MMA fighter ever, Jon Jones, will stand across from Miocic, who is regarded as the greatest heavyweight, inside the cage at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The UFC heavyweight title will be on the line in what could be the last fight for both Miocic and Jones (27-1 MMA, 21-1 UFC).

“I’m excited, honestly,” Miocic said on “BS w/ Jake Paul.” “It’s finally here. It was supposed to happen last year, unfortunately an injury took it away, but here we are. We’re three weeks away. I’m ready, man. I’ve been pumped. I keep quiet. I focus on task at hand, just worry about my fight. That’s all I worry about.”

Throughout the discourse about the heavyweight title picture, Miocic has largely kept his head down working. The fight was initially set to occur last November at UFC 295, but Jones tore his pectoral muscle, delaying the fight.

As a replacement for the lost fight, Tom Aspinall was crowned interim champion by knocking out Sergei Pavlovich. Aspinall, who has felt like the odd man out as he’s been denied an opportunity to unify the title, went on to record a rare interim title defense by stopping Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304.

Some believe Miocic, who returns from a knockout loss to Francis Ngannou, doesn’t deserve to fight for the title while Aspinall is on such a roll. The UFC decided that a “greatest vs. greatest” fight was the way to go and has stuck with it despite heavy criticism.

Meanwhile, Miocic has remained relatively quiet while preparing to defeat Jones, who became heavyweight champ by submitting Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 last March.

With the fight now just around the corner, Miocic is confident he will be able to take control of the fight, and won’t wait around to find out what type of gameplan Jones will bring.

“Jon Jones does a lot of things good, but I have great coaches, great teammates, and they make me prepared for whatever happens,” Miocic said. “I’m not going to wait for what he’s going to do, I’m going to do what I want to do.”

At 42, Miocic knows he doesn’t have many days left in the sport. However, he’s not ready to say UFC 309 will be his last walk to the octagon.

“I don’t know,” Miocic said when asked about retirement. “I say it after every fight, I think about retiring. So, we’ll see. Right now, I’m just worried about the fight, and I can worry about that after it until it happens.”

Kella was the winner of the second series of Channel Four’s talent show, The Piano. His debut single, Eve & Frank, is out now.

The 23-year-old self-taught classical pianist only started playing the instrument aged 13 and, before he turned to music, he was football-mad.

Kella grew up in Bootle on Merseyside and says there was never any question over who he would support.

“My whole family were Liverpool fans,” he told BBC Sport. “So, I was brought up a Red too.

“My favourite players when I was growing up were Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard – that was my era.

“I was too young to remember Istanbul [Liverpool’s legendary Champions League triumph] properly. I can remember all the fireworks going off afterwards, but it is only a vague memory.

“The highlight for me is more recent – the Barcelona game where we got beat 3-0 at the Nou Camp but then they came to Anfield in the second leg and we thrashed them 4-0. It was an incredible night.

“From that team I loved Jordan Henderson and Virgil van Dijk – he was a massive standout at the back and is arguably the best defender in the world – but that whole team under Jurgen Klopp was just ridiculously good.”

Kella was invited to play at Anfield’s Legends Lounge before Liverpool’s first game of the season against Brentford, when he opened the club’s new trophy room and was given a signed shirt by legendary striker Ian Rush.

“That was just unbelievable,” Kella added. “But when I was there, I was speaking to a few people in there about Arne Slot, and how he had such big shoes to fill.

“I could not imagine anything more daunting than taking Klopp’s job straight after he left, but Slot has absolutely smashed it out of the park.

“We are not just winning games, either. The results have been great but we are playing good football too.”

Kella plays a lot less football himself these days but he was in action this week in a charity game at Bootle FC to raise money for Zoe’s Place, a baby hospice in West Derby which is at risk of closure because of a lack of funding.

“It’s massive for Liverpool that this facility stays open so the whole city is doing as much as possible to raise the funds,” he explained.

“I even wore blue on the day – never again, though!”

Chris Sutton and Brad Kella were speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.

Kella was the winner of the second series of Channel Four’s talent show, The Piano. His debut single, Eve & Frank, is out now.

The 23-year-old self-taught classical pianist only started playing the instrument aged 13 and, before he turned to music, he was football-mad.

Kella grew up in Bootle on Merseyside and says there was never any question over who he would support.

“My whole family were Liverpool fans,” he told BBC Sport. “So, I was brought up a Red too.

“My favourite players when I was growing up were Fernando Torres, Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard – that was my era.

“I was too young to remember Istanbul [Liverpool’s legendary Champions League triumph] properly. I can remember all the fireworks going off afterwards, but it is only a vague memory.

“The highlight for me is more recent – the Barcelona game where we got beat 3-0 at the Nou Camp but then they came to Anfield in the second leg and we thrashed them 4-0. It was an incredible night.

“From that team I loved Jordan Henderson and Virgil van Dijk – he was a massive standout at the back and is arguably the best defender in the world – but that whole team under Jurgen Klopp was just ridiculously good.”

Kella was invited to play at Anfield’s Legends Lounge before Liverpool’s first game of the season against Brentford, when he opened the club’s new trophy room and was given a signed shirt by legendary striker Ian Rush.

“That was just unbelievable,” Kella added. “But when I was there, I was speaking to a few people in there about Arne Slot, and how he had such big shoes to fill.

“I could not imagine anything more daunting than taking Klopp’s job straight after he left, but Slot has absolutely smashed it out of the park.

“We are not just winning games, either. The results have been great but we are playing good football too.”

Kella plays a lot less football himself these days but he was in action this week in a charity game at Bootle FC to raise money for Zoe’s Place, a baby hospice in West Derby which is at risk of closure because of a lack of funding.

“It’s massive for Liverpool that this facility stays open so the whole city is doing as much as possible to raise the funds,” he explained.

“I even wore blue on the day – never again, though!”

Chris Sutton and Brad Kella were speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.