Colin Millar

Brighton & Hove Albion forward Joao Pedro has returned to first-team training and could feature in Saturday’s Premier League match at Liverpool, head coach Fabian Hurzeler said on Thursday. The 23-year-old Brazil international has missed Brighton’s last five matches in all competitions due to an ankle issue sustained in the 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest on September 22. “Joao Pedro will be back in training,” said Hurzeler. “Some players will be back on the pitch. We have to see now how Joao’s coming back after a long injury to see if he will be an option,...

Paris Saint-Germain will be forced to close a section of the Parc des Princes for their Ligue 1 match against Toulouse on November 22 after being found guilty of homophobic chanting. The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) opened an investigation on October 20 into the chants during the Ligue 1 match against Strasbourg, which were aimed at former PSG midfielder Adrien Rabiot, who now plays for rival club Marseille. The partial closure will apply to the Auteuil stand — the section of the Parc des Princes which houses a number of the club’s ultras. The sanction will not take effect...

Northern Ireland’s UEFA Nations League match against Belarus this month will go ahead as planned after the visiting side were granted visas by the British government. The Athletic reported last month that the League C Group 3 fixture on November 15 was set to be played as scheduled at Windsor Park, Belfast, despite the British government’s position that no representative Belarusian team should play in the nation. However, this informal position was not enforced for visa applications. The Irish Football Association (IFA) and UEFA, European football’s governing body, have both...

Ruben Amorim says Manchester United will not be able to play the same way as his Sporting Lisbon team following their victory over Manchester City. Speaking after Sporting’s 4-1 Champions League win against Pep Guardiola’s side on Tuesday, the 39-year-old head coach said United — who he will officially join on November 11 — will not be able to play as defensively and “will have to adapt”. In Amorim’s final home match in charge of Sporting, Phil Foden gave City an early lead before a Viktor Gyokeres hat-trick and Maximiliano Araujo goal inflicted the first...

Barcelona midfielder Marc Casado and Porto striker Samu Omorodion have been named in Spain’s senior squad for the first time for November’s Nations League matches. Athletic Bilbao defender Aitor Paredes completes a trio of uncapped players in Luis de la Fuente’s squad, in place of Barcelona’s Pau Cubarsi, after the 17-year-old sustained a head injury in Wednesday’s Champions League victory against Red Star Belgrade. Casasdo, 21, has enjoyed a breakthrough season in Hansi Flick’s first team, starting in 12 matches this campaign and earning his first cap for...

Manchester United first-team coach Darren Fletcher has been handed a three-game touchline ban and fined £7,500 by the Football Association (FA). Fletcher was found to have “acted in an improper and/or confrontational manner and/or used abusive and/or insulting words towards the fourth official and the referee and/or assistant referees” in United’s 2-1 victory over Brentford on October 19. The 40-year-old admitted to this misconduct but denied that he was abusive. However, the FA’s independent Regulatory Commission found this to be proven and imposed a three-game...

Events in the Dutch capital on Thursday shocked the world - and asked serious questions of the sport's governing bodies

Sporting Lisbon have appointed Joao Pereira to replace Ruben Amorim as the club’s head coach. Amorim, 39, officially left Sporting on Monday, November 11, to join Manchester United after overseeing the Lisbon club’s 4-2 victory at Braga on Sunday to continue their 100 per cent winning record in 11 Portuguese league games this campaign. 40-year-old Pereira, a former right-back, has been involved in coaching at Sporting since his retirement from playing in 2021 and has most recently been the club’s B team coach. Pereira began his career at Sporting’s Lisbon rivals...

FC Cincinnati midfielder Marco Angulo has died aged 22, five weeks after suffering serious injuries in a car accident. Angulo, on loan at Ecuadorian club LDU Quito this season, was involved in a crash in the Ecuadorean capital on October 7 and died at a local hospital 35 days later. Angulo was one of five people in the car that crashed into a metal structure on the motorway and he is the third to pass away from the incident. Roberto Cabezas Simisterra, a full-back for Independiente Juniors, and Victor Charcopa Nazareno also lost their lives.Estarás siempre en nuestros corazones querido...

Turkish football club MKE Ankaragucu have defended their former president Faruk Koca as being the “target of one-sided public perception” after he was sentenced to more than three years in prison for assaulting a referee last year. Koca punched referee Halil Umut Meler at the end of a Turkish Super Lig match in December after his team conceded a 97th-minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw against Caykur Rizespor. A statement from Ankaragucu chairman Ismail Mert Firat on Tuesday said the verdict was “impossible to interpret with good intentions” and added that Koca had been...