Olympic bronze medal-winning former wrestler Sakshi Malik has revealed in her autobiography, Witness, that ex-Wrestling Federation of India chief and former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh tried to molest her.
The incident took place during the 2012 Asian Junior Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where Malik, then 19, won her first gold medal in the 63kg category, she wrote in the book, excerpts of which were carried in a Times of India report.
Post her win, she was taken to Singh’s room to speak to her parents on the phone.
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“[Brij Bhushan Sharan] Singh connected me to my parents. It seemed harmless. When I spoke to them telling them about my match and my medal, I remember thinking that perhaps nothing unsavoury might happen after all,” Malik wrote in her autobiography.
“But right after I ended the call, he tried to molest me while I was seated on his bed. I pushed him off and started to cry.”
Malik further wrote that Singh stepped back after that, probably after he realised that she would not give in. “He started saying that he had put his arms around me ‘papa jaise’ (as a father would).
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“But I knew that was not what it was. I ran out of his room all the way back to mine, weeping.”
Malik, along with Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, were at the forefront of the protest against Singh, alleging he had sexually harassed women wrestlers during his tenure as the WFI chief. The case is being heard in a Delhi court.
Malik also revealed that she was molested in her childhood by a tuition teacher but she could not tell her family. “… I thought it was my fault. My tuition teacher from my school days used to harass me. He would call me over to his place for classes at odd times and sometimes tried to touch me. I was scared to go for my tuition classes but I could never tell my mom.”
BURTON have SACKED manager Mark Robinson with the club rock bottom of League One.
Robinson, 58, left his previous job as Chelsea’s development squad boss to become Burton head coach in June.
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Mark Robinson has been sacked by League One outfit Burton
But Robinson has been dismissed just five months after joining, with the Brewers already 11 points from safety.
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Burton are winless in League One this season, having lost seven and drawn four of their opening 11 games.
Robinson has only won only ONE of his 14 games in charge – in the EFL Trophy.
And the club’s Scandinavian owners decided enough was enough following Tuesday’s 3-2 home loss to Wycombe Wanderers.
He was the first appointment made by Burton’s new owners – the Nordic Football Group – when the Sweden-based consortium took control of the east Staffordshire club in the summer.
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Sporting director Bendik Hareide said: “During our time working together, we’ve all got to know and appreciate ‘Robbo’, which is why we have great regret over the fact that this has not worked out in the way any of us would have wanted.
He told the club website: “We have to be objective with our decision-making, and we feel we have reached a point where a change is necessary to improve the team’s results.
“We believe we have a talented squad, and we remain committed to our football strategy. Now is the time to re-group and look to deliver a positive season for our fantastic supporters.”
Assistant manager Tom Hounsell will step up as interim head coach until a permanent successor.
But coaches John Brayford, Jake Kean and Elliott Axtell will continue in their first team roles.
Burton have conceded 24 goals this season, second behind Peterborough have sunk 25 – but also scored that many as well.
THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY..
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Fifa has been accused of not paying the final part of agreed sums to players across Europe whose contracts have not been honoured by their clubs.
A number of sources from different countries with knowledge of the situation say while some payments were made by football’s world governing body, the final one has not been.
Many of the affected players are either unemployed or now retired and the sums are said to be vital.
The money was due to come out of Fifa’s Fund for Players, external, which was set up in 2020. The outstanding payments were due in September 2023.
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BBC Sport has seen an email sent to Fifa from one national union, highlighting more than 30 named players and stressing the financial difficulties being faced, with a plea to release the outstanding sums.
Four hundred and twenty players are owed a total of £3.09m.
Fifa is currently in dispute with global players’ union Fifpro over changes to the international match calendar.
Fifpro, which is being backed by the Professional Footballers’ Association, believes too much is being demanded of players at the elite end of the game, potentially putting them at risk of greater injury.
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Their biggest area of contention is the expanded 32-team Club World Cup, scheduled to take place in the USA next summer.
So far, Fifa has neither negotiated television contracts for the event nor confirmed the prize money involved.
TROY DEENEY has revealed he spent his £250,000 bonus in THREE DAYS in Las Vegas following Watford’s Premier League promotion.
The former Hornets striker, 36, led the club back to the top flight as Championship runners-up in 2015.
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Troy Deeney has revealed he spent £250,000 on a three-day trip to Las VegasCredit: Jamie McPhilimey – The Sun
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He has admitted the splashing of cash was driven by egoCredit: Under The Cosh
Prior to being promoted, Deeney had promised some of his team-mates a paid trip to Las Vegas if they went up.
And the SunSport columnist lived up to his pledge as he shelled out a remarkable quarter of a million pounds in a matter of days.
Speaking on the Undr the Cosh podcast, he said: “I did quarter of a mill in three and a half days.
“I would love to tell you it was on gambling, but we did 80k at a pool party, 80k at MGM in the morning, 60k in the night. In my head I wasn’t getting this money anyway because I made the deal with my pals.
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“There were five footballers at the time out on a stag do and they were on the table next to me, we’ve ordered the first set of drinks and they’ve come out and as we have done it they have ordered at the same time.
“I saw our drinks come out, like three or four, because we are getting started and they have got like 10, so I said to my pal ‘they think they can f***ing mug me off, I’ve just got to the Prem’, ‘come here I’ll have 20’.
“It was all ego, I was an a***hole of the highest order, I could do with that quarter of a mil now, I’ll tell you that.”
Deeney went on to explain how he avoided pictures while partying with Victoria’s Secret models – while he also kept quiet that he was a famous face.
Jayson Tatum continued Boston’s Banner 18 celebration by scoring 37 points and making eight of the Celtics‘ NBA record-tying 29 3-pointers on Tuesday as Boston ran away with a 132-109 victory over the New York Knicks on opening night.
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Derrick White scored 24 points, Jaylen Brown added 23 and Tatum had 10 assists for the defending champions, who raised their NBA-most 18th championship banner to the rafters before the game. Boston led by as many as 35 points before missing its last 13 3-point attempts while trying to break the record.
With the Celtics leading by more than 20 points early in the third quarter, the TD Garden crowd’s attention strayed from the basketball game and it began chanting “Yankees Suck!”
Takeaways
The new-look Knicks were supposed to be the biggest threat to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference, but even after adding Towns and Mikal Bridges over the summer, they were no match for the team that finished 14 games in front last season.
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Key moment
On July 28, U.S. Olympic basketball coach Steve Kerr benched Tatum for a game against Serbia, guaranteeing Tatum would be motivated for the Celtics’ title defense.
Key stat
The Celtics hit their 29th 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter, then fired up two long airballs and 13 misses in a row from beyond the arc as they went for the record set in 2020 by Milwaukee. The crowd chanted “One more 3!” in the final minutes, but on Boston’s last possession Payton Pritchard dribbled out the shot clock without making another attempt.
Up next
The Celtics visit Washington on Thursday and the Knicks play their home opener against Indiana on Friday.
Rodgers is brave, in a sense. He’s sticking to his guns, no matter the noise. He’s totally sold on the belief that things will turn around soon enough.
What he sees, few others see, but if he’s to be proven right then he needs some encouragement on nights like this. He needs some ammunition to fire at all the sceptics. A combative performance is required.
That type of display becomes all the harder when you note Celtic’s penchant for imploding under pressure, their ruinous habit of conceding goals in bunches.
They conceded the first two in Dortmund in four minutes and conceded two later on in three minutes. It was the continuation of a brutal trend.
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They conceded in the 82nd and 85th minute against Lazio in Rome last season.
They conceded in the 60th and 66th minute against Atletico in Madrid.
Postecoglou’s team had this weakness, too. Real Betis. Real Madrid and Leipzig all scored twice in rapid order in games on his watch.
It was also a feature of Rodgers’ first spell. Barcelona scored three times in 10 minutes. PSG scored in the 34th and 40th minute and in the 83rd and 85th minute in one game and in the 22nd and 28th minute and in the 75th and 79th minute in the other.
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Salzburg scored twice in six minutes in a Europa League game under Rodgers. Leipzig, again, scored two in four. What chance have you got when that happens?
Celtic do not need to get anything from this game in terms of points – easier matches lie in wait later on – but the restoration of pride after the debacle in Dortmund is a must. For the team and for Rodgers himself.
Rodgers has been a brilliant domestic manager, but in European terms he’s been decidedly second-rate at Celtic, the owner of some of the most excruciating losses in the club’s history.
The last marquee European victories were the home and away triumphs against Lazio in 2019. Lennon was in charge.
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Celtic need more performances of that ilk and resilience under pressure is part of it. Too often in this type of game they have made it easy for opponents to play against them in critical moments rather than being the nightmare rival that Rodgers wants them to be.
McGregor will be at the heart of it for Celtic. For his sake, onlookers would want him to be the spearhead of a resounding display rather than being the one chasing shadows again. Rodgers says he’s excited. That’s one word for it. There are others.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has insisted he was not prepared to ‘destroy’ the balance within the squad by employing team orders for Oscar Piastri to help Lando Norris in his quest for Formula 1’s drivers’ title.
Norris is hunting down three-time reigning champion Max Verstappen and remains within touching distance of the Red Bull driver, though he lost ground at the United States Grand Prix in controversial circumstances, having been penalised for overtaking off the track.
But outside the team, it has been felt by many that points have been left on the table for Norris by not enforcing orders onto Piastri earlier in the season, the most notable situation at the Hungarian Grand Prix where the Briton was instead asked to give the lead to his team-mate following a change in positions at the final pitstop window.
It has been a scenario the Woking-based team has had to adapt to with a fresh management structure still learning the ropes at an outfit that has been away from the limelight for over a decade.
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Discussing the dynamics of number one and two drivers in an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, Stella explained: “Driver management must be seen in the context of the competitiveness of the car.
Andrea Stella, Team Principal, McLaren F1 Team
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“You always need to have a management line, but if you compete for tenth and eleventh place, all your efforts are directed towards achieving competitiveness. It is when you get to fighting for the top positions that the scenario changes.
“Our focus has always been on maximum collaboration. This is because there is a main objective, something bigger than the team principal, something bigger than Lando and something bigger than Oscar, and that is the interest of the team, of McLaren. This aspect is non-negotiable, in any situation.
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“We have always approached driver management, and in general, the rules by which we go on the track according to some principles: the first, as I said, is the interest of the team, the second is sportsmanship, or if you prefer, integrity.
“These are very important values, we want to act fairly and correctly towards both our drivers, and this aspect becomes even more important when you have two talents who have the skills and the whole package needed to win races.
“We have worked hard to be where we are today, we have worked hard to have and develop Oscar, as well as Lando. When you have two drivers who work together, the growth of the team benefits, and since we were able to provide Lando and Oscar with a competitive car, that is from the Miami Grand Prix, McLaren has become the team that has scored the most points in the constructors’ championship.
Lando Norris, McLaren F1 Team, 1st position, and Oscar Piastri, McLaren F1 Team, 3rd position, congratulate each other in Parc Ferme
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
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“When you get to be in this situation, you have to define a situation that, I think, many would like to have: how do you manage the drivers? We always start from our principles, we don’t negotiate them.”
On whether the team could really be successful without a designated number one driver, Stella pointed to the dangers of such tactics, replying: “We don’t have a number one driver or a number two. This is a scenario that works well for the media and in pub chatter, but it’s not good when you manage a Formula 1 team because you also have to consider the future.
“I can’t know if we will win this season, but I am aware that we want to be in a position to win in ’25, ’26 and ’27, and if in managing the 2024 season I end up destroying the balance, I will end up not having a solid base in the following years.
“This is the way I believe we should work in Formula 1, then I am aware that complex situations can always arise. When I hear people talking about the mathematical approach of the type ‘Oscar from now on must put Lando behind’, I reply that Lando himself doesn’t want Oscar to make himself available.
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“My challenge is to be able to count on a united and compact group, I can’t be sure that we will always do a good job, but we must always be clear that we are here to continue working and building, not with the aim of having a glorious weekend, but to do well in the years to come.”
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