Sport
Larne v Shamrock Rovers: Tiernan Lynch says Larne cannot show Rovers ‘too much respect’
Larne qualified for the league phase of this competition thanks to a dramatic run through the qualifiers that saw them beat Ballkani on penalties before Andy Ryan’s hat-trick edged Lincoln Red Imps in a thrilling second leg.
The County Antrim side, who lost 3-0 to Molde in their opener last month, had league fixtures postponed during the period and are now working through the fixture backlog.
Saturday’s draw with Crusaders meant the side have won just four of nine domestic fixtures this season.
Meanwhile, thanks to the League of Ireland’s status as a summer league, Shamrock Rovers are embroiled in a tense conclusion to another title race, sat third with a pair of games to play but just two points behind leaders Shelbourne.
“It’s an experience we have to enjoy, have to embrace,” added Lynch.
“But also we have to make sure that the domestic league is our bread and butter. We know that from the 22 December, the Europa stuff is over and we can concentrate fully on our domestic league.
“There’s lots of things going on that we have to keep an eye on but we know what we want to do, we have a gameplan. Whether that works over the course of seven or eight months, I don’t know, but it’s something we’ve been working towards.”
Sport
Sir Alex Ferguson phoned and tried to convince me to join Man Utd – but their transfer plan made me say no
AARON RAMSEY has revealed how Sir Alex Ferguson phoned him to try and convince him to join Manchester United.
Cardiff star Ramsey, 33, appeared as a guest on Sky Sport’s Monday Night Football show to analyse Nottingham Forest‘s game against Crystal Palace – won 1-0 by the hosts.
But during his appearance Ramsey was asked to clear up a rumour about a run-in with Sky pundit Gary Neville near the start of his career.
The midfielder then went on to explain how interest had been shown in him by both Man Utd and Liverpool, along with phone calls to Ferguson and Rafael Benitez.
Ramsey said: “No it wasn’t Gary [that showed me around Man Utd’s training ground], I think he was busy that day. It was the assistant manager at the time.”
Presenter David Jones joked that Jamie Carragher was hoping to blame Neville for the reason he ended up not joining the Red Devils, before Ramsey explained his decision.
He continued: “No it wasn’t main man (Ferguson). He was away but we spoke on the phone a few times with him trying to convince me to go there.
“But the initial thought was for them to loan me back [to Cardiff] but I wanted to go on [fully] then.
“What about Liverpool? Yeah there were some discussions with Rafa but at the time they couldn’t really get to that fee.
“I think they could do something around the million or two mark but then I think it went above that toward the five.”
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Ramsey went on to join Arsenal in 2008, where he would ultimately stay up until 2019 having made 369 appearances for them and winning three FA Cups.
The Welshman explained how “he felt wanted” by the north London club after grabbing lunch with Arsene Wenger.
He added: “I felt like he really wanted me. He was doing the European Championships at the time so they flew me over there and I met him when he had a few hours off and had lunch with him.
“Everything about him and his vision and plans for me.
“I can’t remember the ins and outs but he had a really detailed plan obviously with the amount of young players that he brought through and had given great opportunities to go on and be successful.
“That was really appealing to me as well. For example like what he did with [Cesc] Fabregas, brought him in at a very young age and giving him that opportunity really young as well.
“So I felt really wanted by Arsenal.”
Despite his vast talent, Ramsey’s Arsenal career would be stunted early on by a horrific double leg break that kept him out of action for nine months.
And after that he would continue to be dogged by injuries.
After leaving Arsenal, Ramsey joined Juventus, winning the Serie A and Italian Cup before he returned to Britain with Rangers on loan, adding the Scottish Cup to his trophy haul.
Ramsey then joined Nice in 2022 before rejoining boyhood club Cardiff in 2023.
He played 13 games in the Championship for them last season and scoring three goals, but suffered a major knee injury that kept him out for months.
Sport
Champions League: Predict the UCL final league phase table
Reckon you’ve mastered the new Champions League format?
In this year’s edition, 36 teams play eight league phase matches and are all competing on one big table.
The top eight go straight through to the round of 16, ninth to 24th enter a play-off round, and 25th to 36th are dumped out of the tournament.
So who do you think will go through as leaders? And who steals that last knockout spot? Predict your final table below.
Sport
Jane Banks tells tour tales as 1996 Lionesses get Hall of Fame recognition
JANE Banks heard it all. Why are women playing rugby league? You should be in the kitchen. What is the point?
Being inducted into the sport’s Hall of Fame, along with the history-making Great Britain Lionesses side she was part of in 1996, is a pretty good reason.
She can also say something many male players can only dream of saying. I beat the Aussies in Australia.
Aged 17, the Royal Mail worker Jane was the youngest member of the trailblazing side that funded itself to make the trip 28 years ago. She had to wait 26 to get the cap for it.
Now as she joins greats like Jim Sullivan, Billy Boston, Brian Bevan, Ellery Hanley, Martin Offiah and Andy Farrell – both individually and with her team-mates – it all seems worth it.
Jane, who was working part-time in a Pizza Hut when she was selected at 16, said: “It was all self-funded, we had no backing from anybody.
“We had to raise just over £50,000 to get there. It was things like bucket collections and bag packing. We did loads of bucket collections, we were at every match shaking a bucket!
“And we got people coming up going, ‘Women can’t play rugby league,’ as we were shaking a bucket trying to raise money to go on tour to Australia.
“Attitudes then were very different. We had, ‘Women can’t play rugby,’ a lot. Now we’re the only team to have won a series against Australia on their turf to this day.”
Even though it was the mid-1990s, bank transfers were unknown. So, the Lionesses’ tour manager flew Down Under with a suitcase full of money to pay for accommodation and travel!
And recognition of their 2-1 series victory was not exactly forthcoming.
“We were invited to Wembley for the Challenge Cup final,” Jane added. “We were thinking, ‘We’re Ashes winners, they’re going to parade us around.’
“We got there and it was like, ‘Here’s white tracksuits, white caps. You’re ging to shake that flag while the players come out.’
“It was crazy. At the time, we were like, ‘Are we dancing? A flag?’ It’s an ongoing joke now. It was bloody heavy, I’ll tell you!”
It may be more than 25 years late, but deserving recognition will come tonight when Jane, along with Michelle Land, is inducted individually into the Hall of Fame, along with the Lionesses – the first team to receive the honour.
Now working as a smoking cessation officer for Warrington Borough Council, the former player for her hometown team is ready for another ‘special’ moment.
She went on to be named player of the tour on the 1998 series in New Zealand and secured the player of the series award in the 2000 World Series, while playing in club matches her home town’s Victoria Park.
But Jane told SunSport: “It’s huge recognition for what we did. I was shocked when I found out I was being inducted as an individual but to be as a team as well makes it more special.
“I’ve not seen a lot of them for a while. We all got back in touch about two years ago when we got Great Britain caps, which we never received at the time.
“A lot of that was because it was all fairly hidden. No-one really knew what we’d achieved, then the heritage programme went through everything and sought us all out.
“At that point, we hadn’t seen each other for pretty much 20 years. Now we’re all on a group chat and talking all the time.”
Football
Scottish gossip: Clement, Martin, Moyes, Robinson, McCoist, Palma
Out-of-favour 24-year-old winger Luis Palma has taken to social media to hint that he is ready to wait for his chance at Celtic after again being left on the bench at the weekend. (Daily Record), external
Ghana international Dennis Khorsa, a 28-year-old who can operate at left-back, left centre-half or as a holding midfielder, has begun a trial with St Johnstone set up by previous manager Craig Levein. (The Courier), external
Former Scotland striker Ally McCoist has confirmed that he will not be appearing on the 2024 series of “I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!” after being heavily linked with an appearance on the ITV programme. (TalkSport), external
Manchester United are taking early measures to prevent Rangers supporters from accessing the home sections of Old Trafford, despite their Europa League meeting being over three months away. (The Herald), external
FCSB head coach Elias Charalambous says he knows nothing of Philippe Clement’s problems as Rangers manager and predicts a tough test for his side in Thursday’s Europa League game at Ibrox. (The National), external
Omonia Nicosia head coach Valdas Dambrauskas has apologised to the club’s fans following their 1-0 home defeat by Enosis left them in sixth place, seven points behind leaders Paphos in the Cypriot top flight, and in need of improvement against Hearts in the Conference League on Thursday. (Edinburgh Evening News), external
Sport
Sports announced for Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games
Track cycling and boxing are among the events that will be included in the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, it has been revealed.
A stripped-back programme of 10 sports, announced on Tuesday, also includes athletics and swimming as mandatory – but badminton and hockey have been dropped.
The Games, last held in Glasgow in 2014 at a cost of over £540m, will be held across across four venues between 23 July and 2 August 2026.
Glasgow stepped in to host after the Australian state of Victoria pulled out because of rising costs.
A total of 3,000 of athletes from up to 74 Commonwealth nations and territories are expected to compete at the 2026 Games.
The event will also feature “fully integrated para-competitions” across six of the selected sports.
Katie Sadleir, chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), said: “The Games promise to be a truly immersive festival of sport and celebration of culture and diversity that inspires athletes and sports – with a fan experience more accessible than ever before.”
First Minister John Swinney said the event is an exciting opportunity for the people of Scotland.
He said: “While Glasgow 2026 will look quite different to previous Games, we can, and we must, use this as an opportunity to work collaboratively to ensure that this new concept brings a strong and sustainable future for the games.”
What sports are included?
The CGF said the a number of factors, including “universality of participation and quality of competition” as well as local appeal were considered when deciding what sports to include.
The last time the Games were in Glasgow, 17 sports were contested – this time they will feature 10 sports:
- Athletics and para-athletics (track and field only)
- Swimming and para-swimming
- Artistic gymnastics
- Track cycling and para-track cycling
- Netball
- Weightlifting and para-powerlifting
- Boxing
- Judo
- Bowls and para-bowls
- 3×3 basketball and 3×3 wheelchair basketball
Organisers said they understand that fans and athletes of sports not included will be “incredibly disappointed” but that these games will not influence future inclusion.
Some sports such as cycling and gymnastics have had their disciplines slimmed down.
The cycling programme for Glasgow 2014 included mountain biking and road races but this time athletes will only compete on the track.
In gymnastics, there is no room for any rhythmic events, with only artistic gymnastics being included.
There will also be no diving competitions.
Hockey has been dropped from the programme despite a national hockey centre being built for the last Glasgow Games.
There will be no road-based events such as the triathlon or marathon on the programme – these were previously free for spectators to attend in 2014.
Rugby sevens, which was previously hosted at Ibrox Stadium is also out and there will be no racquet sports at all.
The event will feature an opening and closing ceremony and there will be some form of King’s baton relay before the Games.
An estimated 500,000 tickets will go on sale for the various events, with the Games expected to be worth £150m to Glasgow.
The CGF confirmed putting on the Games is expected to cost approximately £114m.
It will pay £100m towards the bill, with £2.3m coming from Commonwealth Games Australia – who pulled out of hosting the event – as well as £2.3m from the UK government.
The balance will come from commercial revenue such as ticket sales, broadcast rights, commercial sponsorship and merchandise.
The four venues which will be used during the event will be the Emirates Arena, Tollcross International Swimming Centre, the Scottish Events Campus and Scotstoun stadium.
Organisers said these venues were “operationally viable and economically valuable”.
They confirmed that Scotstoun will only host the athletics, while the Scottish Event Campus and Emirates Arena will host multiple sports.
It has not been decided exactly which sports will take place in which venues.
No additional venues will be built to keep costs low, but some upgrades such as temporary seating will be made at the four venues.
Athletes and officials will stay in “existing accommodation across the city”.
The future of the games at stake
Analysis by Chris McLaughlin, BBC Scotland sports news correspondent
Organisers have spent the past few weeks in talks with sporting bodies and delivering the news to some that they must sit this one out.
It’ll be a bitter blow to some and a surprise to others.
Badminton and hockey could feel particularly aggrieved, given the profile of both sports on the Commonwealth stage, but it’s an indication of the hard decisions that have been taken, and those to come.
The biggest crowd pleasers remain and, in general, there is a plan but by usual standards, it is still a very rough one.
The big pitch that eventually convinced a sceptical Scottish government, and an even more sceptical Glasgow City Council to get on board, now has to be made to fill the key posts that will drive Glasgow 2026 over the line.
Only those used to working to very tight deadlines and even tighter budgets, need apply.
The official rubber stamping and announcement of the sport programme is a big milestone and the first look at what people can expect from this new look event.
Can it really be a blueprint for the future of this troubled event?
The reputation of the city as a host city for elite sporting spectacles and the very future of the Commonwealth Games is at stake.
Sport
Novak Djokovic admits he’s still haunted by ‘worst thing anyone can experience’ that gives him ‘chills’ 25 years on
NOVAK DJOKOVIC has revealed he is still haunted by growing up in war-torn Serbia.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion has enjoyed an illustrious career over the last 21 years.
He grew up in Serbia during the Yugoslav wars, with his homeland bombed by NATO – an experience Djokovic can never forget.
In an interview with La Nacion, he said: “It’s the fear of the unknown. Not knowing if the next bomb is going to hit your head.
“And so it was every day, the alarms, the sirens that woke us up every night when the planes were approaching.
“When I see these wars and everything that is happening… I lived through the war, my city was bombed day and night for two and a half months.
“It’s a horror. The worst thing anyone can experience. It’s the fear of the unknown.
“I saw dead people and now that I see wars in other parts of the world, I don’t understand.”
Djokovic, 37, also spoke about how the war helped him grow up fast, as his dad gave him responsibilities which included looking out for his brothers.
He continued: “I want to make it very clear – I don’t think anyone should suffer through war to develop mental strength, there are other ways to do it.
“For me, it was a very important part of my development and as a small child, I was forced to grow up. I had to take responsibility and share my father’s role because I was the eldest son and there was no time.
“My father spoke to me as an adult: ‘You have to do this, take your brothers there, go here.’ It was war.”
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