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BAGANBAZAR GRAPHSource-attributed newsSPORTS deskClub’s ruthless approach was always at odds with their public image and this inglorious story has further to runThere is no episode in English football’s history that even resembles a precedent for the epic Manchester City disciplinary drama, which encapsulates the modern game at breaking point. Here was a grand, stoic old club, taken over in 2008 by Abu Dhabi royalty and mega-funded to imperious success, then crowned serial champions by a league simultaneously pursuing charges of monstrous financial cheating.On Friday sources confirmed that saga, in which Pep Guardiola’s expensively constructed City teams won five Premier League titles and the Champions League during the years since the investigation began in December 2018, culminated in guilty findings on almost all of more than 100 charges. Continue reading...
BAGANBAZAR GRAPHSource-attributed newsSPORTS deskA million tickets under $100 have proved popular but next week’s main release will be a litmus test for the expanded 24-team format in AustraliaThere is just over one year to go until the men’s Rugby World Cup, the world’s third best-attended sporting event, kicks off. It promises to be an international celebration that also unites Australia, and an opportunity to bury the memories of Jonny Wilkinson from 2003.Size alone cannot guarantee its success, however, and the coming week’s main release of tickets will be a litmus test for the expanded 24-team format. Will the tournament’s 52 matches in seven cities – from the mouth-watering pool match between the hosts and the All Blacks to the less-than-traditional rugby clash between Chile and Hong Kong – sell out? And will those without the sponsor’s credit card have the chance to buy tickets at all? Continue reading...
BAGANBAZAR GRAPHSource-attributed newsSPORTS deskHarlequins 17-33 BathArgentinian full-back scores stunning try on counterLast season’s top two kicked off the season in opposition to last season’s bottom two. Bath duly completed the expected, joining Northampton with a bonus-point win to open their account. The team the Saints succeeded as champions last season travelled to the Stoop to remind Harlequins how much more they have to work on if they are to return to the sort of form that made them champions not so long ago.The home team took to the field with a host of absentees, it is true. No Marcus Smith; no Alex Dombrandt; no George Furbank, a new signing with a shiny champion’s gong around his neck. They were bright as they always are, but the substance of their visitors was too much in the end, leavened by a flash of genius by the Argentinian Santi Carreras that will long stay with all who witnessed it. To boast that sort of muscle, to boast that sort of genius, Bath will take some beating again this season. Continue reading...