Check out these photos from the PFL: Battle of the Giants ceremonial weigh-ins and fighter faceoffs ahead of the pay-per-view event (ESPN+, DAZN) taking place at The Mayadeen in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Photos courtesy of PFL)
Sport
Dates for Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth games confirmed by council
Glasgow’s scaled back Commonwealth Games will be held between 23 July and 2 August, it has been revealed.
Dates for the 11-day event were confirmed in a report to Glasgow City Council.
The Scottish government backed plans for the city to step in and host the games after the Australian state of Victoria pulled out due to rising costs.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games will begin exactly 12 years after those held in Glasgow in 2014.
The event, which will be much smaller than previous games, will see 10 sports take place across four venues in the city.
The report also confirms that the four venues used during the event will be the Emirates Arena, Tollcross International Swimming Centre, the Scottish Events Campus and Scotstoun stadium.
There will be no road-based events, such as a cycling road race or time trials, according to the report.
There will be no new athletes’ village built for the Games, with competitors and officials staying in “existing accommodation across the city”.
The report adds, while the model remains in development, it is expected “a 10-sport programme, fully integrating para competitions” will include “athletics and swimming as mandatory sports”.
Athletics and swimming were made compulsory sports by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) in 2021.
Commonwealth Games Scotland (CGS) and CGF are finalising the remaining sports to be announced.
Organisers can choose from a list of 22 other core sports such as cycling and boxing.
The last time the games were in Glasgow, 17 sports were contested.
The report states: “The concept is based on a significantly reduced budget, timeline and scale of event, therefore the approach and experience will be different to previous Commonwealth Games.”
It adds Victoria agreed to make a compensatory payment of around £190m to the CGF and Commonwealth Games Australia — and there is a “commitment from CGF to meet the entire cost of the Games”.
It was previously confirmed that Commonwealth Games Australia had contributed £2.3m to “enhance the event”.
A Glasgow 2026 programme board has been set up, chaired by the council’s chief executive, to oversee the city’s role in the Games.
It will monitor the “progress of delivery of the city’s operations and functions within the agreed budgets, ensuring a legacy for Glasgow”.
Councillors were asked on Thursday to grant permission for the chief executive and the council’s finance director to “negotiate and conclude all legal and financial agreements associated with the city’s role in hosting of the Games”.
Reporting by Drew Sandelands at the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
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Sport
GB's Truman wins bronze in men's 1km time trial
Watch as Great Britain’s Joe Truman wins bronze in the men’s 1km time trial at the Track Cycling World Championships in Ballerup, Denmark.
MMA
Battle of the Giants ceremonial weigh-ins, faceoffs photo gallery
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Football
Ex-Fulham Ladies captain Ronnie Gibbons ‘groped’ by Al Fayed
Former Fulham Ladies captain Ronnie Gibbons alleges she was “groped” on two occasions by the football club’s late owner Mohamed Al Fayed.
The former Harrods boss tried to “forcefully” kiss her at his department store in 2000, when she was 20, she told The Athletic website.
“Speaking my truth and finally telling my story will hopefully help me heal and be rid of the shame, embarrassment and pain I have carried for years,” she said.
Lawyers from the Justice for Harrods Survivors group said they were representing four former players of the club.
Fulham FC told the BBC it was trying to establish whether anyone at the club “had been impacted” by Al Fayed.
“The club is profoundly troubled to learn of the experiences told today by former Women’s Team captain, Ronnie Gibbons,” Fulham said.
“She has our deepest empathy and support.”
Al Fayed owned Fulham between 1997 and 2013.
In 2000, Fulham’s women’s team – known at the time as Fulham Ladies – became the first female football team in Europe to turn professional.
Gibbons, who was captain at the time, said she was driven to Harrods by club staff. Once at the luxury department store, she said she was left alone with Al Fayed, who was then in his 70s.
“He pulled me in close and tried to kiss me on the mouth,” she said of their first meeting.
“He had his arms holding my arms, like at my side, so I couldn’t push him away or anything like that. It was a real kind of control stance, like ‘I’m dominating you’.
“I was just like, ‘What do I do here?’ I just felt like a huge responsibility on my shoulders at that point because we’d just turned professional.”
Gibbons said that Al Fayed tried to forcefully kiss her again: “He even may have stuck his tongue on me or something. I just remember feeling sick, just really physically feeling sick, when I left there.”
Later that summer, she said a member of staff told her she had been summoned to Harrods again by Al Fayed.
In the interview with The Athletic, she recalled: “This time he groped me. As he was saying goodbye, he was sort of grabbing me, trying to sort of hold on to me and kiss me. He was like, ‘You’re not scared are you? You don’t need to be scared, I’m not going to do anything like that, you’re very precious, you’re a very special girl’.”
Fulham FC told the BBC: “We unequivocally condemn all forms of abuse. We remain in the process of establishing whether anyone at the Club is or would have been impacted by Mohamed Al Fayed in any manner as described in recent reports.”
Last week, the Metropolitan Police said it had received 40 new allegations from people that included sexual assault and rape against Al Fayed.
The allegations follow a BBC documentary and podcast, containing testimony from former Harrods employees who said the billionaire sexually assaulted or raped them.
Since the documentary first aired in September, a further 65 women have contacted the BBC saying they were abused by Al Fayed, with allegations stretching beyond Harrods and as far back as 1977.
‘Extra precautions’
Last month, the former manager of Fulham’s women’s team Gaute Haugenes told the BBC that extra precautions had been put in place to protect female players from Al Fayed.
Haugenes, who managed the team from 2001 to 2003, said members of staff became aware that the late billionaire “liked young, blonde girls”.
Gibbons was reported to be angered by these comments.
Speaking to the BBC on Friday, Haugenes, who is Norwegian, said he could completely understand her frustration.
“All I can say is I am really sorry for saying something that could have put more wood on the fire. I honestly thought we protected the players,” he said.
“I knew that he liked Ronnie because all the girls, they joked about it. But I thought he was an old man, she was a young woman. I was 30 at the time, I didn’t think people his age were thinking about sex.
“I might have been naive, it might have been some of the language barriers that I didn’t pick up details in their joking.”
He added that he had not been aware she had been told to go to Harrods.
Asked whether club staff could have done more, he said it was difficult to know what could have been done differently.
“But you should have had a system that picked up things like that,” he said. “It was before I was a manager that she went there.”
He added: “It is sad to hear she had those kind of experiences as a professional player.”
The CEO of Women in Football (WIF) told the BBC there are “significant challenges” in the female football environment.
“It brings to the fore the prevalence of power in balances and the risk towards women in the industry working both on and off the pitch,” Yvonne Harrison said.
“For players it is really important that they are protected, they are safeguarded and that their voices are first and foremost listened to – and that is the same off the pitch as well.”
The Justice for Harrods Survivors group said the abuse Gibbons had endured from Al Fayed was “yet another horrible example of the monstrous abuse aided and abetted by the businesses he owned”.
They added: “We salute our client’s bravery and are proud to advocate for Ronnie and others at Fulham who are searching for justice. We will do whatever we can to lift the lid on abuse, no matter where it was perpetrated, or who it was perpetrated by, including any enablers of Al-Fayed’s abhorrent behaviour.”
A spokesperson for Harrods said it was “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by Al Fayed.
It said: “These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms.
“We also acknowledge that during this time his victims were failed and for this we sincerely apologise.”
Sport
Former Man Utd star, 26, out for months after almost losing thumb in kitchen accident, manager says
KIERAN McKENNA says Axel Tuanzebe faces a “few months” out after nearly losing his thumb in a kitchen accident.
It was revealed earlier this month that Ipswich’s Congolese defender required an emergency op when a glass shattered while he was washing up.
Speaking for the first time about the horror incident, boss McKenna said: “Some of the details came out of how he did it.
“It was a household accident — very unfortunate but very serious, very close to losing his thumb.
“He has had surgery to repair the tendons and everything in the thumb that was damaged.
“Now, he’s just recovering from that. I think the recovery’s going pretty well but it’s a long-term injury.
“As much as it seems like a pretty innocuous body part in the game of football, it’s a pretty important body part in human anatomy and he needs to let it recover.
“Of course, he’s a loss and a miss. It just shows how quickly things can change in football and in life. Thankfully, he’s recovering well and we now have to adapt and improve as a team.
“But we look forward to having him back when he’s ready again.
“It could be anything from a few months, maybe a little bit less if the recovery goes well.
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“That’s something we’re in dialogue with different specialists on.”
Tractor Boys centre-back Dara O’Shea is a doubt for Everton’s visit today after getting injured while on Republic of Ireland duty.
And McKenna added: “He had an issue in his back that’s being assessed, so we’ll see how it goes.”
McKenna plans to stick with £22.5million club-record buy Omari Hutchinson at No 10 — despite his stunning display for England Under-21s on the right wing.
Hutchinson, 20, had a hand in four goals in a 7-0 win over Azerbaijan.
McKenna said: “We’ve got a pretty clear belief in how we can make him most effective in different games and scenarios.”
MMA
Watch Francis Ngannou, Renan Ferreira go forehead-to-forehead during heated final staredown
Francis Ngannou and Renan Ferreira are ready to throw down in Saudi Arabia.
The former UFC heavyweight champion makes his MMA return in the main event of the PFL’s Battle of the Giants pay-per-view card this Saturday, facing the fellow knockout artist Ferreira.
After both made weight early Friday morning, Ngannou and Ferreira took part in the ceremonial weigh-ins, where things heated up quickly with an intense forehead-to-forehead staredown that needed to be separated. Check out the video below.
The intensity continued on as Dan Hardy spoke to both competitors. Ngannou looked Ferreira in the eyes and planned out his prediction.
“I’ll let him know who is the king,” Ngannou said.
Ngannou then asked Ferreira who the king was as he continued to stare down his opponent. Ferreira responded with “Problema,”
It will be the first mixed martial arts bout in nearly three years for Ngannou, who made the choice to leave the UFC and vacate the heavyweight title after becoming a free agent following his UFC 270 title defense against Ciryl Gane in January 2022.
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