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Europe’s top court ruled that UEFA’s control of European football is illegal. Olympic bronze medalist Sakshi Malik announced retirement after Sanjay Singh won the World Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) polls. In the realm of tennis, Carlos Moya described the 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal as a competitive animal.
Check out the major headlines of the sporting world in today's sports wrap.
European Court of Justice rules in favour of Super League; says FIFA and UEFA acted illegally
Europe’s top court ruled that UEFA’s control of European football is illegal. Along with it, the court also stated that FIFA and UEFA blocking the creation of the European Super League (ESL) was opposite to the EU law. The European Court of Justice found that FIFA and UEFA's rules were "contrary to EU law." The court said, "The FIFA and UEFA rules making any new interclub football project subject to their prior approval, such as the Super League, and prohibiting clubs and players from playing in those competitions, are unlawful. There is no framework for the FIFA and UEFA rules ensuring that they are transparent, objective, non-discriminatory and proportionate.”
FC Barcelona get huge injury blow ahead of Almeria clash as Pedri suffers muscle tension
FC Barcelona received a huge injury blow ahead of Wednesday's La Liga clash against Almeria, as the Spain international midfielder Pedri Gonzalez suffered a muscle problem. Pedri hasn't made it to the first XI for long since suffering a hamstring knock at the end of August. He has missed a total of 12 international matches in total, as Barca suffered their first defeat of the season to bitter rivals Real Madrid in an October 28 instalment of El Clasico. The Canary Island midfielder has a slight muscle injury after a knock in training. It means that he has joined the likes of Gavi, Inigo Martinez and Marc-Andre ter Stegen on Barca's injury list for their last game of 2023.
Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez blasts players for lack of spirit against Almeria
Barcelona coach Xavi Hernandez was seemingly unhappy with his players after seeing his team struggle to beat Almeria at home in La Liga. After the game, he told reports, “We had 30 shots and gifted them two goals. The first half is unacceptable. As a coach you can’t accept that — I told [the players] that at half-time. It’s as simple as that. The second half is better, but we missed a lot [of chances] and made a lot of mistakes. It’s been like this for over a month. The team lacked spirit.
He added, "The team doesn’t have that same spirit it had last season. There’s no aggression or focus. We need more rhythm and intensity. Like I said, unacceptable. You cannot lack spirit. You can play well, badly, win or lose, it doesn’t matter, but you have to give everything out of respect for the club and the badge. We didn’t win [trophies] last year because of individual quality. We won them because we were a group, a family. We were aggressive, we defended together and we attacked well.”
Major League scores
Scotland-Premiership
Aberdeen 2-1 Livingston
Rangers 2-0 St.Johnstone
La Liga
Eibar 1-1 Sporting Gijon
Leganes 1-1 Tenerife
Women’s Championships League Grp. D
BK Hacken 1-3 Chelsea FC Women
Real Madrid Femenino 0-1 Paris FC Women
Wrestling
Entire fraternity knows who has worked for betterment of sports: Brijbhushan Singh’s loyalist on WFI elections
UP Wrestling Association vice-president Sanjay Singh, one of the loyalists of the former WFI president Brij Bhushan Singh, said that the fraternity knows who would be better for the sport. Singh, hailing from Varanasi, won the WFI elections with 37 votes. He was up against Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anita Sheoran for the post of president of the wrestling governing body.
Before the polls, he had told the PTI, "The entire fraternity knows who has worked for the betterment of the sports and who have tried to cause damage. The work done by the WFI in the last 11 years is a proof that the sport of wrestling has grown at a good pace in India. People will have that in mind when they will cast their votes.”
Sakshi Malik announces retirement after Brij Bhushan’s close aide wins WFI polls
Olympic bronze medalist Sakshi Malik announced retirement after Sanjay Singh won the World Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) polls. The wrestlers conducted a press conference, where Malik made a symbolic protest by keeping her wrestling boots on the table. She said that she won’t compete under the presidency of Brij Bhushan’s loyalist.
The 31-year-old said, "We slept for 40 days on the roads and a lot of people from several parts of the country came to support us. If Brij Bhushan Singh's business partner and a close aide is elected as the president of WFI, I quit wrestling..." She added, "We have made demands for a woman president. If the president would be a woman, harassment would not happen. But, there was no participation of women earlier and today you can see the list, not even a single woman was given a position. We had fought with complete strength but this fight will continue. The wrestlers of the new generation have to fight.”
Chess
Eight-year-old British Girl gets crowned best female player at European chess tournament
An eight-year-old British Indian schoolgirl made chess history after she was named the “super talented” best female player at a European championship. Bodhana Sivanandan hails from Harrow in north-west London and won the European Blitz Chess Championship in Zagreb, Croatia. In the European championship, she locked horns with some of the best players in the world and defeated an international master who was 30 years her senior to claim the crown. She told the BBC, “I was very proud of myself when I got top girl in the European blitz.”
Her father said, “She’s trying her best. And it worked in favour of her [in the tournament]. So it was a good thing that happened in Zagreb when we went for the European rapid and blitz event.”
Vaishali feels more secure in her own identity and performance: Indian Grandmaster and coach R.B. Ramesh
Indian grandmaster and coach R.B. Ramesh said that Vaishali feels more secure in her own identity rather than being known as R. Praggnanandhaa. Notably, Ramesh is the coach of the sibling duo R. Vaishali and R. Praggnanandhaa and is set to be conferred with the prestigious Dronacharya Award. Speaking on Vaishali’s progress, he said, “Vaishali was known as Pragg’s sister. So this change was a bit tough on her. But now she’s outgrown these inhibitions and feels more secure in her own identity and performance, which I think is a big plus. She’s more confident in herself. Her last few months have been incredible. She has won the Grand Swiss, earned the GM title, and qualified for the candidates, so everything is falling into place.”
Tennis
He’s a competitive animal: Coach Carlos Moya on Rafael Nadal ahead of Australian Open
Former world number 1 Carlos Moya described the 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal as a competitive animal, adding that he is on the right path while recovering from his hip injury. Moya, who is Nadal’s coach, said, “As much as we try and get that into his head and make him see it, when he steps on a tennis court, he’s a competitive animal. A large part of my work and that of the team has been to stop him. Stop him in terms of the load of training, stop him in terms of hours of work, intensity.”
Speaking on Nadal’s recovery, he said, “It’s a process. In order to get to your best, the difficulty increases. It’s like a video game. You start on the first level, then the second, and you defeat the bosses, who get a little more difficult each time. This is a very similar thing to me. Things get increasingly difficult, but your level as a player increases too. I think we’re on the right path.”
Table Tennis
Harmeet Desai and Manika Batra get top billing in UTT Senior Nationals
India's number one male TT player Harmeet Desai, who is ranked the world's 75 and number one female player Manika Batra have received top billing in the 85th UTT Senior Nationals and Inter-State Table Tennis Championships. Manav Thakkar is ranked behind Desai at No. 88 G Sathiyan (89) and A Sharath Kamal (94) are seeded third and fourth in the men’s seeds. In the women’s category, Defending champion Sreeja Akula, world No. 88, is second-seeded.
