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

The 53-year-old will say goodbye to the English game after 24 years.

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The SFA moved quickly to steal Atkinson after Jon Moss left his VAR manager role after just 52 days of being placed in it.

SunSport understands Moss will be taking up a top job with the Australian FA.

Now, Atkinson will begin work as Scottish head ref Willie Collum’s No 2 in early December.

Collum, 45, said: “I am delighted to appoint someone of Martin’s calibre.

“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.”

Atkinson was a Prem official for 20 years and refereed the 2015 Europa League final, won by Aston Villa manager Unai Emery during his time with LaLiga outfit Sevilla.

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Atkinson oversaw 463 games in the English top-flight before turning to manage PGMOL’s Select Group.

The Select Group meet twice per month for training sessions and analysis of match videos and data to help improve refereeing performances.

He leaves the Select Group after joining in 2022 following his last Prem match – where Crystal Palace beat Manchester United 1-0 at Selhurst Park.

Incidentally, that was the ground where he made his debut 17 years prior.

Atkinson is only behind Mike Dean (521) for most Prem games refereed.

PGMOL said: “Everyone would like to thank Martin and wish him every success for the future.”

Atkinson refereed games at Euro 2016 and became a regular Champions League official.

He also took charge of the FA Cup Final in 2011 and the 2014 League Cup final.

EDMONTON, Alberta, Canada – Pedro Munhoz will look to halt the momentum of rising bantamweight Aiemann Zahabi.

Munhoz (20-9 MMA, 10-9 UFC) meets Zahabi (11-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 246 (ESPN+) featured prelim at Rogers Place. Munhoz has only one win in his past six outings, but the perennial contender is not discouraged by his recent results.

“It is not good and not bad,” Munhoz told MMA Junkie at Wednesday’s UFC Fight Night 246 media day. “It is what it is. Every time that I step in the octagon, I’m always on the night my best version. Saturday night is going to be my better version than all the other fights that you guys have seen before.

“I get to train at the best gym in the world, American Top Team, and train with the best fighters. So, that’s a tool that helped me always to see what I’ve done wrong in the past and always to be a better fighter.”

Munhoz is on a two-fight losing skid. Zahabi has won his past four in a row.

Although there’s a big difference in their level of competition, with Munhoz having fought the likes of former champions Sean O’Malley, Aljamain Sterling, Dominick Cruz, Jose Aldo, Cody Garbrandt, and Frankie Edgar, he won’t take the Tristar Gym prospect lightly.

“He’s well rounded, training with a good team, they have a good coach,” Munhoz said on Zahabi. “I know he’s going to be ready to face me Saturday. Watching some of his previous fights, my coaches also, we got to be aware of everything he can present.

“He’s a dangerous fighter, he fights calm, he’s been around a lot of fighters that have fought in these type of caliber events and fights so, not underestimating him, and I know it’s going to be a tough fight.”

As for his game plan? Munhoz points to specific attributes that will help him prevail.

“Pressure, skills, and my desire to get the victory Saturday night,” Munhoz responded.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 246.

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Craig Whymark

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Lando Norris believes that Max Verstappen knows “deep down” that he was in the wrong during the Mexican Grand Prix, and that the three-time Formula 1 champion should know what to change in future.

Verstappen collected two 10-second penalties for a pair of 10th-lap incidents with Norris in Mexico, one for running Norris out of road at Turn 4 and another for leaving the track at Turn 7 and gaining an advantage by passing the McLaren driver.

In the aftermath, Norris reiterated his respect for Verstappen but was dismayed by the championship leader’s approach during the race – having noted that his only job was to stop his rival from outscoring him in races.

Norris said that he still hadn’t spoken to Verstappen about the race, and that it was not up to him to encourage the Dutchman to change his ways.

“We’ve not spoken and I don’t think we need to,” Norris said. “I’ve got nothing to say. 

“I still have a lot of respect for Max and everything he does – not respect for what he did last weekend, but respect for him as a person, and also what he’s achieved. 

“But it’s not for me to speak to him. I’m not his teacher, I’m not his mentor or anything like that.

“Max knows what he has to do. He knows that he did wrong, deep down he does. And it’s for him to change, not for me.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

He added: “Max is probably one of the most capable drivers on the grid, if not the most. He knows what he can and can’t do and where the limits are. So, he knows the changes he has to make.”

Norris explained that he was not going to change his approach when it came to racing Verstappen, and felt that he was good at keeping his nose clean during contentious moments on track.

He admitted that he might have “paid the price” for lacking aggression in certain scenarios, but that the points from keeping it clean in races have nonetheless added up.

“I think something I’ve done well in my whole career is staying out of trouble and keep the car in one piece. All those little things add up over a championship and over a season, especially in a cost cap season as well,” Norris contended.

“I’ve always had the mentality to want to race fair and clean. I think I probably said it last weekend, I’ve been maybe too kind, whether I was attacking or defending. But I think I’ve always made good decisions from that side. 

“Sometimes I’ve paid the price for not being aggressive enough, but the rest of it is not up to me. Even when you don’t realise it, there are times when you have to avoid a potential crash and maybe you don’t see it on the TV.

“There are more times that people realise that you go through those certain scenarios.  And I think those are some of the challenges we have every now and then. 

“But I’ll come into this weekend with a new expectation of hopefully having clean, fair racing. And I think that’s what we should expect.”

Josh Rock won his third PDC ranking title of the year as he edged Jonny Clayton to claim the Players Championship 30 in Leicester.

The Northern Irishman earned a hard-fought 8-7 win after a 118 checkout in the deciding leg.

The 23-year-old has had a fine terrific ProTour campaign, clinching his maiden European Tour title with victory over Clayton in May’s Dutch Darts Championship.

Rock followed that up with Players Championship 17 glory in August and now this title in Leicester, which was the final event of the season.

He raced into a 3-0 lead after a slow start from Clayton, only for the two-time World Cup winner to land a superb 132 combination.

After falling 6-2 behind, the Welshman again fought back to level after legs of 11, 13, 14 and 14 darts.

Clayton managed to force a decider, but he did not get the chance at a match-winning opportunity as Rock finished with 118 to claim success.

It meant Rock came seventh in the Players Championship, before the Players Championship Finals in England next month.

His attention will now turn to preparing for the Grand Slam of Darts which begins on 9 November.

Derrick Lewis and Daniel Cormier fought six years ago, but is there still bad blood to this day?

That appears to be the case at least on Lewis’ side as the veteran heavyweight cast Cormier in a negative light at Wednesday’s media day ahead of his fight with Jhonata Diniz at UFC Edmonton this Saturday. Lewis was asked what fight in his lengthy career he’d want to run back and “DC” was the name that came to mind.

“Probably DC,” Cormier said. “Because that’s still not sitting right with me, I don’t know. Do people really like DC like that?

“I told DC in his face, that guy a piece of shit. He’s a piece of shit, scumbag. F*ck DC.”

Lewis and Cormier met in the main event of UFC 230 in November 2018, with Cormier defending his heavyweight championship against “The Black Beast.” Cormier recorded his first and only successful heavyweight title defense, submitting Cormier in the second round.

When Lewis asked to elaborate on his issues with Cormier, he gave a cryptic response, joking about a past beef over a Popeyes chicken sponsorship, but then insulting Cormier again.

“DC know why,” Lewis said. “Everyone know why, too, he disrespect that Popeyes chicken, but other than that, he’s a piece of shit.”

Lewis’ comments made the rounds on social media, though it remains unclear how serious the often sardonic fighter intended to be.

During an episode of The Ariel Helwani Show on Wednesday, Helwani gave Cormier an impromptu call to sort out the situation, with the conversation arguably only raising more questions.

“I haven’t seen him for a while, but I was pretty hard on him about retiring because he had lost a couple of fights and I was kind of telling the truth and he seemed mad at me, but I haven’t seen him,” Cormier said. “I’m going to see him this weekend and I’m going to kind of ask him, ‘Yo, are you mad at me?’”

Lewis has seen mixed results in his past eight fights, with just three wins during that stretch, including a third-round knockout of Rodrigo Nascimento in his most recent outing this past May. In Cormier’s role as an on-air analyst and podcaster, he’s required to give his honest opinion on how fighters are performing and he believes he might have said something that rubbed Lewis the wrong way.

It’s important to note that Cormier was yet to see the clip of Lewis’ comments himself when discussing the matter with Helwani, so he was basing his response strictly on second-hand accounts. Still, real or not, Cormier sees no reason to reignite their former feud.

“It sounds like it may be a little underlying, he might be a little pissed at me because of the way I talked about him,” Cormier said. “I don’t know what fight it was where it he didn’t look great, but then he knocked the last guy out and I was like, ‘I’m glad he’s back.’ So I don’t know. My opinions go with their performances and I think maybe that’s what it is, but in terms of anything else, Derrick and I don’t really have many things that we do together outside of the Popeyes thing and then our fight.

“But we can’t be mad at each other, we already fought. It’s settled.”