By Hugo Lagergren
February
Football
Manchester City has been charged with 115 breaches of financial regulations by the Premier League. The charges mark the end of a four-year investigation conducted by Premier League officials into the club’s financial dealings from 2008 to 2020.
The breaches can be split into three categories. The main issue raised by the Premier League relates to the financial irregularities of Man City’s business dealings. Secondly, the Premier League requires clubs to be transparent and honest about their financial activities, which they say has not been the case with City. And lastly, the Premier League has accused City of not cooperating fully with the investigation.
Two years ago, similar charges were brought forth by the Union of European Football Associations against Man City. However, after being reviewed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the charges were thrown out. According to the Times’ chief sports writer, Martyn Ziegler, City will not be able to appeal the charges this time. The Premier League has not issued sanctions at the time of writing. Possible sanctions include fines, possible points deduction or exclusion from the League.
Brazilian footballer Vinicius Jr. said that not enough is being done to combat racism in Spanish football and Spain more generally. Vinicius tweeted, “Let’s start to punish those people, or we’ll go back to how it was before,” following an incident that saw Brazilian basketball player Yago Dos Santos being subjected to racist abuse during a EuroCup game.
Borussia Dortmund player Sébastien Haller scored his first league goal since his return three weeks ago from chemotherapy. Haller was diagnosed with testicular cancer in August of last year. Since then, Haller has continued to raise awareness in the football community for the fight against cancer. The date of his goal coincidentally fell on International World Cancer Day – an occasion which Dortmund marked by slightly altering their center circle to represent a tumor.
L’Olympique de Marseille managed to knock out bitter rivals Paris St-Germain (PSG) in the last 16 of the Coupe de France. PSG’s poor form in the previous few matches has seen them drop points several times. This has put pressure on the manager, Christophe Galtier, to deliver silverware in an increasingly tricky season for the Parisian side.
Rugby
After a narrow victory against Italy, Six Nations favorites France continued their shaky start to the tournament by losing to a well-oiled Irish team, who looked organized and structured compared to their French opponent, which struggled to escape their own 22 at times. On the other hand, the number one ranked Irish team has moved to the top of the table with comfortable victories over France and Wales.
Scotland has continued their impressive run of form, with victories over England and Wales, to move to second in the Six Nations behind Ireland. A big test for Gatland’s men will be in two weeks when Scotland travels to the Stade de France to face a wounded French side.
Handball
Denmark beat France in an exhilarating final to claim a historic third successive International Handball Federation World Handball Championship. After the Danish victory, operators of the Oresund Bridge, which connects Sweden and Denmark, lit the bridge in red and white to honor Denmark’s achievement. For co-host Sweden, the tournament ended in disappointment as they lost 39-36 to Spain in the bronze medal game.
Basketball
Lebron James became the National Basketball Association’s all-time top points scorer with 38,387 points as the Lakers fell to the Oklahoma City Thunder. He surpasses Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s point total — a record he has held since 1984.
American Football
The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 to win their second Super Bowl in the last four years. For the second time, Patrick Mahomes, the quarterback for the Chiefs, was awarded the National Football League Most Valuable Player Award.
Olympics
Earlier this month, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) issued a statement saying that it would allow Russian and Belorussian athletes to compete at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, on the condition that no anthems or flags from the two countries are displayed. This has sparked outrage from politicians and fans alike. President Zelenskyy commented that the decision from the IOC highlighted that “terror is somewhat acceptable”.