Spain kept Scotland from becoming the first team to secure a place at the 2024 European Championship by beating the visitors 2-0 Thursday for its 25th consecutive home win in qualifiers

Moscow claims to have killed 250 Ukrainian troops, but this has not been independently verified.

A video review official has been removed from his Champions League game on Wednesday, one day after having a key role in a disputed decision to award Paris Saint-Germain a stoppage-time penalty for handball against Newcastle which contradicted Uefa’s own advice to referees. The VAR specialist from Poland, Tomasz Kwiatkowski, is no longer listed to work at the Real Sociedad-Salzburg game and has been replaced by a German match official. In Paris on Tuesday, Kylian Mbappe scored in the eighth minute of stoppage time to salvage a 1-1 draw after a ball struck Newcastle defender Tino Livramento in the chest and then deflected off his arm, and a penalty was awarded by Polish referee Szymon Marciniak following a VAR review. Marciniak refereed the Champions League final last season and the 2022 World Cup final with Kwiatkowski in his team. Marciniak initially allowed play to continue Tuesday but awarded the penalty after he was advised by his video assistant to review the incident on the pitchside monitor. However, a Uefa panel of storied coaches and former players said in April that “no handball offense should be called on a player if the ball is previously deflected from his own body, and, in particular, when the ball does not go towards the goal.” The advice to be given to match officials this season was detailed by the panel, chaired by Uefa Chief of Football Zvonimir Boban, in an April 25 statement headlined “Uefa Football Board urges more clarity on handball rule.” “The handball rule, for example, will always be disputed, but we can make it more consistent and aligned with the game’s true nature,” Boban, the former Croatia and AC Milan great, said in April. Uefa declined to comment, in line with a policy not to discuss field of play decisions. The current laws of the game allow for handballs to be penalized even if the contact was not intentional and after a deflection if a defender’s arm is judged to be in an unnatural position. “But his hand is not in an unnatural position,” Newcastle manager Eddie Howe said after the game, “(his hands) are down by his side, but he is in a running motion.” The cross from Ousmane Dembele that struck Livramento was also going backward — and not towards goal. The penalty decision in the PSG game directly affected the standings in the tightly fought Group F, as it kept PSG two points clear of Newcastle in the second qualifying place for the round of 16 behind group leader Borussia Dortmund. “I feel it is a poor decision and it’s hugely frustrating for us as you know how little time there is left in the game,” Howe said. “There is nothing we can do about it now.” Newcastle must now win its home game against last-place AC Milan on Dec. 13 and hope PSG fails to win at Dortmund. The second-place team advances to the Champions League round of 16 and the third-place team goes to the Europa League knockout playoffs. Read More ‘He is the future’: Newcastle and Lewis Miley robbed of night to remember VAR the villain as late penalty call denies Newcastle rearguard win in Paris Newcastle fans attacked in Paris before Champions League match On this day in 2015: Jamie Vardy scores in 11th game in a row Football rumours: Victor Osimhen keen on making Chelsea move The sporting weekend in pictures

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 20, 2023--

China will just about meet its economic growth target of around 5% for this year, the latest Bloomberg

The Cincinnati Bearcats had to rebuild almost from the ground up

The Los Angeles Country Club is opening itself to the world's largest golf audiences with the arrival of the 123rd U.S. Open next week

After trading Carlos Santana to the Milwaukee Brewers, the Pittsburgh Pirates are nowhere to be done making trades.The Pittsburgh Pirates cemented themselves as sellers when they traded veteran infielder Carlos Santana to the Milwaukee Brewers. This was expected, as Santana is a free agent at seas...

The Kansas City Chiefs closed as 8-point favorites over the New York Jets and bettors were more than happy to throw their money behind them for obvious reasons.

Mariska Hargitay shared a stunning photo of herself and tagged her stylist Chris McMillan in the post

PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 26, 2023--

Elon Musk sat down in April for an on-stage interview with Linda Yaccarino, the advertising executive he named as Twitter's new chief executive on Friday