Sport

Just two months after he was made to step back from presenting Match of the Day for using his social media platforms to express support for migrants and refugees, former England football captain Gary Lineker has been given a human rights award in Italy. 

We spoke to Alastair Campbell, former director of communications to Tony Blair, who now hosts a podcast produced by Gary Lineker’s company, and Times columnist Matthew Syed, who himself hosts a BBC radio programme.

“We have never said that Gary should be an opinion free zone”, the BBC insisted this evening as they announced that Gary Lineker would not be presenting Match of the Day after his series of tweets criticising the government’s asylum policy and comparing their language to Germany in the 1930s.

The Premier League is coming under pressure to examine the Saudi-backed takeover of Newcastle United football club after its chairman was named in court documents as “a sitting minister” of the Riyadh government.

The former Yorkshire County cricketer Azeem Rafiq has been giving evidence at the English Cricket Board hearing into allegations of institutional racism at the club – which has been accused of bringing the game into disrepute.

For decades football fans say they have been ignored and many have watched the clubs they love going out of business. 

We spoke to Chief Constable Mark Roberts, head of the UK football policing unit, and began by asking him how concerned we should be about rising football violence.

Reports of incidents at games have risen to their highest levels in nearly a decade.

We spoke to Darren Lewis, assistant editor and football writer at the Daily Mirror, and began by asking him what made Pelé so special as a sportsman.

Landmarks across Brazil have been lit up in memory of the footballing legend Pelé – as the country began three days of national mourning.

Millions of fans are expected to watch England’s World Cup quarter-final knockout clash with France.

Vladimir Putin has said that further prisoner swaps between the US and Russia were possible – and that dialogue between the two country’s intelligence services would continue – following the release of Brittney Griner. The basketball star today arrived home in Texas having been freed from a Russian penal colony in return for a notorious…

As Harry Kane leads his team out against Senegal tomorrow, a fellow England football captain will be cheering him on from back home. 

Attention has swung to Qatar where the football world cup has just got underway.  

On Sunday, the World Cup will finally kick off with hosts Qatar facing Ecuador followed by a frenetic three weeks of games.