A FAN who died following a medical emergency while attending Bayern Munich’s Champions League match against Benfica has been named as a former international football manager.
Romain Jean was the former manager of Luxembourg women’s national football team.
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Former Luxembourg women’s coach Romain Jean died after a heart attackCredit: by Roland Miny
The German club announced he died on the way to hospital after suffering a heart attack.
He was initially resuscitated multiple times by first aiders before being transported to the hospital under intensive care.
However, one hour after the final whistle, the club were informed that Jean had passed away.
A club statement said: “In the Champions League league phase match against Benfica, FC Bayern’s 1-0 victory was overshadowed by a sad occasion.
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“A medical emergency in the stands of the Allianz Arena cast a shadow over the game right from the start.
“Out of consideration, the Südkurve (Bayern ultras) refrained from its usual vociferous support for their team, and the club also reduced its coverage of the match.
“Around an hour after the final whistle, the German record champions received the sad news that the fan had died on the way to hospital.
“FC Bayern is in mourning side by side with the fan’s relatives.”
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Manager Vincent Kompany also paid tribute when speaking after the game.
He said: “We didn’t celebrate much after the game,” while also revealing that players only learned of Jean’s death when returning to the dressing room.
Jean served as the Luxembourg women’s team coach from 2006 to 2012.
Bayern sporting director Max Eberl said: “There are definitely more important things in life than football.”
An angry John Higgins lost to Chris Wakelin in the quarter-finals of the International Championship in Nanjing after the deciding frame was pushed back by several hours.
With the best-of-11 frame contest level at 5-5 the referee ruled the afternoon session had concluded, to the evident disgust of four-time world champion Higgins, who gestured and appeared to swear before leaving the table.
When the players finally resumed, after the evening session had taken place, 32-year-old Wakelin’s break of 62 secured a 6-5 victory – his third straight win over a former world champion in Nanjing, eastern China.
The defeat for Higgins, 49, means the Scotsman fails to qualify for the Champion of Champions event in Bolton next week.
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Having defeated Shaun Murphy and Mark Williams in the previous two rounds, Wakelin will face China’s Xiao Guodong in the semi-finals after he beat Wales’ Jackson Page 6-4.
China’s Ding Junhui is also through to the last four, compiling breaks of 129 and 123 in a 6-4 win over Kyren Wilson.
Junhui will play compatriot Xu Si, after he beat Gary Wilson 6-5.
UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis has all the respect in the world for light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira, but if the UFC were to book a matchup between the two titleholders, du Plessis can see a real world where he stops Pereira with strikes.
“If I’m talking about just the standup exchanges—I’m not fighting a kickboxing fight, I’m fighting an MMA fight,” du Plessis told Submission Radio. “And in a kickboxing fight, You need to be able to land combos, you need to land massive punches the whole time, get a guy rocked, you get an eight count, you have all those variables. Where in MMA, I don’t care who you are. If I catch you clean with those small gloves, you’re going to go down and I am going to catch you eventually.”
Du Plessis captured the middleweight title with a decision win over Sean Strickland at UFC 297 this past January, and then stopped Israel Adesanya in his first title defense at UFC 305 the following August. At light heavyweight, Pereira has put together a Fighter of the Year campaign with knockout wins over Jamahal Hill, Jiri Prochazka, and Khalil Rountree.
The South African champion understands he has his work cut out for him, but after watching Pereira’s win over Rountree, du Plessis saw some things he could capitalize on.
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“Now, I said it with with Izzy—he said, I’m too slow, I wouldn’t be able to catch him. Well, yeah,” du Plessis said. “I made a post recently saying maybe it’s not pretty, but damn, it’s effective because I will catch you eventually. And then it’s then it’s a whole different story because I’m not engaging in a kickboxing fight. I’m punching and I’m kicking, but it’s not a kickboxing fight. It’s an MMA fight, and when I put those together, it’s a different fight.
“So I honestly believe that with a guy like Alex Pereira, he has power. I have a lot of power too. The man is… yeah [he has] crisp striking. His striking is incredible. That’s why he has the kickboxing résumé. … But we saw with [the] Khalil Rountree fight, we saw a lot of things that [Rountree had] a lot of success [with] in those first two rounds. He really did.”
Watch du Plessis’ interview with Submission Radio below.
MANCHESTER UNITED are finally up and running in the Europa League.
The Red Devils ran out 2-0 winners over Greek outfit PAOK to pick up their first win in Europe’s tertiary club competition.
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Manchester United welcome PAOK to Old Trafford for their fourth Europa League match of the seasonCredit: EPA
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The Greek outfit frustrated the Red Devils for the first halfCredit: EPA
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Amad Diallo broke the deadlock in the 51st minute with a brilliant headerCredit: GETTY
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Diallo bagged his and United’s second with a deflected strike in the 77th minuteCredit: GETTY
Ruud van Nistelrooy‘s troops huffed and puffed but couldn’t break the Greek outfit down in what proved to be a disappointing first half.
But they eventually breached the vistors’ defence in the 51st minute thanks to a looping header from Amad Diallo.
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United were poor defensively throughout the match and should have been punished by Tarik Tissoudali in the 64th minute.
But the winger fired the tamest of shots straight at Andre Onana with acres of space around him in the 18-yard box.
And Diallo made them pay in the 78th minute with a deflected strike from just outside the penalty box.
Victory over PAOK has left United in 15th place in the Conference League table and on course to qualify for the playoffs.
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THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY..
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The Football Association has opened a safeguarding inquiry into a Premier League club boss, a year on from a BBC investigation.
The investigation found that despite three women reporting the man to the police for alleged sexual offences, he remained in position at the club.
One of the women told the BBC the FA had failed to protect women and girls by taking no action, despite her being under 16 at the time of the alleged incident.
Sports news publication The Athletic have reported and the BBC understands that following the police decision to take no further action, the FA have now opened an inquiry of its own.
A spokesperson for the national governing body said they do not comment on individual cases but they have “robust safeguarding measures in place”.
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In an email from the end of October, seen by the BBC, the FA invited one of the complainants, who we are calling Kate, to a meeting to discuss her experiences as part of their safeguarding investigation. They added that they will not be able to share with her any details of their investigations including any outcome reached once complete.
Kate first contacted the FA in July 2023, where she told them she had reported the man to the police for a historic rape that she says happened when she was 15. However, she believes nothing was done by the FA until now.
“Football authorities and [the] government seem to have turned a blind eye, deaf ear and chose to say and do nothing to protect females from the threats he poses to girls and women,” she told the BBC in reaction to the news of an FA inquiry.
While Kate is glad the investigation has been opened she says she has serious concerns about the lack of transparency about any action taken. “We need assurances that all females at the club are safe,” she adds.
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The boss was also investigated in 2021 after an allegation that he sexually abused a different 15-year-old in the 1990s. No further action was taken in that case because of legislation which stated that if an offence of “unlawful sexual intercourse” took place between 1956 and 2004, and the alleged victim was a girl aged 13 to 15, she had to make a complaint within a year.
The BBC spoke to a third woman, who says in the late 90s she was locked in a room by the boss as he attempted to coerce her into sexual activity. She says this took place during a job interview when she was in her early 20s.
All three investigations have now been dropped by the police.
In November of last year the BBC found that seven out of 20 Premier League clubs have had players or bosses investigated by the police for sexual offences since 2020.
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FA regulations only cover how to respond to allegations of this nature if they occur within a “football environment”, or if concerns relate to children or vulnerable adults.
Their policies allow the governing body to impose an interim suspension order blocking the individual from some or all activity within the game while it continues investigating.
Such an order can be imposed where the FA receives information that causes it “reasonably to believe that a person poses or may pose a risk of harm”.
The new inquiry will be led by the FA’s professional game safeguarding manager.
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A spokesperson for the national governing body said: “We investigate and assess all allegations and concerns about individuals who may pose a risk of harm to children and adults at risk in football and, where applicable, can impose proportionate safeguarding measures in accordance with FA safeguarding regulations.”
Unique fight shorts are the new wave in the UFC, and heavyweight champ Jon Jones will rock his first custom Venum fight kit shorts at UFC 309 when he puts his title on the line against Stipe Miocic.
Jones has only competed once thus far in the Venum era. He wore black shorts when he made his heavyweight debut against Ciryl Gane at UFC 285. Jones won the vacant UFC heavyweight title that night by submitting Gane in the first round.
Jones will wear his first custom Venum kit for his first title defense on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
The black shorts feature two red roaring lion heads with gold lettering for Jones’s name, the UFC and Venum logos, and Philippians 4:13, the Bible verse the champ tattooed on his chest.
Jones joins the recent wave of custom Venum kits, which have caught the attention of fans as the designs allow some star fighters to differentiate themselves in the cage.
UFC light heavyweight champ Alex Pereira wore a vibrant tribal design at UFC 300, while former bantamweight champ Sean O’Malley debuted neon pink shorts at UFC 306 as recent examples of popular custom offerings.
Last week at UFC Fight Night 246 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, former UFC flyweight champ Brandon Moreno rocked custom Mexico-themed shorts that turned many heads as well.
The Chiefs, as you may have heard, are the NFL’s last unbeaten team, now 8-0 and almost halfway to the elusive perfect regular season.
The 1972 Dolphins, the only team to pull off an undefeated full season, opened that year with a win against the Chiefs, having beaten them in the playoffs the previous season. So any Chiefs run at perfection is ultimately a slow-burn revenge mission, and a difficult one at that.
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Do the Chiefs even want to stay perfect? Kansas City has had two teams open 9-0, and both lost the 10th game. The 2003 Chiefs finished 13-3 and lost in their first playoff game; the 2013 Chiefs dropped five of seven to finish 11-5 and lost in the wild-card round.
So we’re here to remind you how remarkably unlikely a perfect season will be, no matter how good the Chiefs might be. They can be the best team in the NFL and win an unprecedented third straight Super Bowl and still fall well short of perfection. There’s no shame in that. Here are a few vulnerabilities to watch, relative weak spots that could be exposed in an eventual loss to spoil that bid at 20-0.
Turnover margin
The Chiefs are not a good turnover team. They have forced exactly eight takeaways in eight games, and on turnover margin, they’re tied for 24th this season at minus-4. This is not a new development: Kansas City won a Super Bowl last year despite finishing 28th in turnover margin, and did the same in 2022 while ranking 22nd in turnover margin. Last year’s champs forced 17 takeaways in 17 regular-season games.
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They’re good enough that they don’t need to win on turnovers. Since Patrick Mahomes took over as starter in 2018, they’re 37-2 when they simply force more turnovers than they commit. Dead even on turnovers? They’re 24-6, winning 80 percent of the time. Even when they’re minus-1, as they were in Monday’s overtime win over the Bucs, they’re 17-9, winning almost two out of three times.
But get them to minus-2, and it’s a conversation you can have. When the Chiefs are minus-2 or worse under Mahomes, they’re 5-7. That’s actually really good under the circumstances, as NFL teams that are minus-2 or worse are 9-41 this year, winning just 18 percent of the time.
Why we bring this up: The Chiefs’ remaining schedule includes three of the NFL’s best teams in turnover margin. In two weeks, they face the Bills, tied for the league’s best at plus-11 in turnovers, and later they’ll face the Chargers (plus-9) and Steelers (plus-10). All three are leading their divisions right now, and the net turnover differential between the Chiefs and those teams is enough to bring those rare minus-2 scenarios into play.
Mahomes’ interceptions are up this year, enough that he was tied for the league lead with nine before this past weekend. It’s rare he has more than one in a game — it’s happened only 14 times in his seven-year career, but the Chiefs are just 8-6 in those games. So if a team can pick him off a couple times, there’s a chance.
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Keep them under 20 points
Much has been written about how the Chiefs have won as much with their defense this year. Before Monday night, they’d won 13 games in a row and had scored 28 points or fewer in all 13 games, the only such streak in NFL history. They scored 30 points on Monday, but needed overtime to do it.
All this is to say that these Chiefs have not been a dominant team offensively over the past two years. At their scoring peak, from the start of 2020 to their Week 8 bye in 2022, Kansas City scored 40 or more points 11 times in 46 games, but since then, they’ve scored 40 or more just once in their past 42 games.
“Hey, get them to score less” is not an innovative strategy, but the key number to aim for is 20 points or fewer. When the Chiefs scored 20 or fewer last year, they were just 4-6. Only one team has held them under 20 this year, and it’s the Chargers, who have the NFL’s No. 1 scoring defense and lost 17-10 in their first meeting.
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The Chiefs’ remaining schedule includes four games against the NFL’s top three scoring defenses — a rematch with the Chargers, a Week 17 showdown with the Steelers and two against the Broncos, this week and the season finale. That game at Buffalo next weekend — a rematch of last year’s playoff showdown — would also put Kansas City against the league’s No. 8 scoring defense.
Kickoff return concerns
The Bucs’ Bucky Irving had a 46-yard kickoff return Monday night, the second-longest the Chiefs have allowed over the past three seasons. Special teams coordinator Dave Toub is one of the best in the league, and Kansas City has an 80 percent touchback rate with Harrison Butker, so the team’s opponents have only returned nine kickoffs all season.
But on those returns, they’re averaging 30 yards per return, the eighth-highest average in the league. The Saints’ Rashid Shaheed had a 38-yard return against the Chiefs and the 49ers‘ Isaac Guerendo had a 35-yarder. The entire league has given up only three kickoff return touchdowns all season, and Kansas City hasn’t allowed one since 2020, but it’s something to watch. Keep an eye out for Bills rookie Brandon Codrington in two weeks.
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The threat of a Mahomes injury
It’s almost cheating to have an undefeated season end because of a quarterback injury, but Mahomes had a scare early in the fourth quarter Monday night when he scrambled to his right, then pulled up and tossed a touchdown to Samaje Perine. He was down on the field with an ankle injury and initially had to be helped to the sideline before finishing the walk on his own. He ended up not missing a snap, but the concern was enough to have TV showing backup Carson Wentz throwing on the sideline.
Mahomes has been remarkably healthy in his NFL career, missing only two starts in seven seasons due to injury — in 2019 with a dislocated kneecap. He sat out the regular-season finales in 2020 and 2023 because the Chiefs had clinched everything they could, but otherwise, he’s been able to play every game.
Could the Chiefs win with Wentz? He’s 3-5 as a starter since the start of 2022 in stints with the Commanders and Rams. The Chiefs split the two games Mahomes missed in 2019, and that was with Matt Moore filling in at quarterback. Mahomes’ current ankle injury won’t sideline him, but it might limit his scrambling ability and the elusiveness that allows him to extend plays and improvise as few quarterbacks can.
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Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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