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In the world of football, Zvonimir Boban has quit his role as UEFA’s Chief of Football after their President Aleksander Ceferin plans to continue in his post after the final mandate runs out. Rohan Bopanna reached his maiden Australian Open finals. In the realm of badminton, Priyanshu Rajawat and Lakshya Sen bowed out of the Indonesia Masters 2024.
Read below to catch major headlines and other updates about the sporting world in the past 24 hours.
Football
Zvonimir Boban quits as UEFA’s Chief of Football after “fatal” Aleksander Ceferin plan
Zvonimir Boba has quit as the Chief of Football for UEFA after a “fatal” plan which involves the President of the European footballing body, Aleksander Ceferin, to continue in his post after the final mandate runs out. The 55-year-old wrote an open letter regarding the matter, speaking about how he believes that Aleksander Ceferin intends to run for the UEFA President role after his third term finishes in 2027, which will break his own rule of serving the organisation for a maximum of 12 years.
Real Madrid overtakes Manchester City to become highest revenue-generating club
Real Madrid has overtaken Manchester City to reach the coveted status of the highest revenue-generating club in the world, bringing in €831m (£710m) for the 2022-23 season as per the study from Deloitte. The reigning English champions dropped to second place behind Real Madrid in terms of generating revenue among all football clubs worldwide despite earning record revenue for the last season, which amounted to €826m (£705.6m).
Liverpool join Manchester City in race to sign Joshua Kimmich: Reports
Liverpool have joined the fellow English club Manchester City in the race to sign the German midfielder Joshua Kimmich from Bayern Munich, according to the report from Sport Bild. Notably, the contract of the 28-year-old footballer with the German champions is set to expire in the summer of 2025, and there have been rumours about him looking forward to leaving the country to play club football elsewhere.
Manchester United not expecting to sign a replacement for Anthony Martial: Reports
Manchester United are reportedly not expecting to sign a replacement for the French forward Anthony Martial in the January transfer window after he underwent groin surgery, as per the Daily Mail. The 28-year-old is set to be ruled out for 10 weeks, which has put a question mark around whether or not he will play for Manchester United again before his contract runs out with the English club in the coming summer.
Some major results in football are as under:
EFL 2023-24
Fulham 1-1 (2-3) Liverpool
AFC Asian Cup 2023
Iraq 3-2 Vietnam
Japan 3-1 Indonesia
AFCON 2023
Namibia 0-0 Mali
South Africa 0-0 Tunisia
Tanzania 0-0 Congo
Zambia 0-1 Morocco
Copa del Rey 2023-24
Mallorca 3-2 Girona
Athletic Bilbao 4-2 Barcelona
Bundesliga 2023-24
Bayern Munich 1-0 Union Berlin
Coupe de France 2023-24
Feignies Aulnoye 0-4 Montpellier
Eredivisie 2023-24
Almere City FC 0-0 Fortuna Sittard
Tennis
Rohan Bopanna becomes oldest player to reach Australian Open 2024 finals
Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna reached his maiden Australian Open finals. He, along with his Australian partner Matthew Ebden made it to the final summit of the year opening Grand Slam by securing a win over ZZ Zhang and Tomas Machac. The Indo-Aussie pair beat Zhang and Machac 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 to make it to the summit clash of the tournament. Earlier, the 43-year-old Indian became the oldest World No. 1 in the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings after he secured a win over Argentina's Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni 6-4, 7-6 (5).
Aryna Sabalenka reaches Australian Open 2024 by beating Coco Gauff
World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka defeated Coco Gauff to reach the Australian Open 2024 finals. The defending champion outclassed Gauff 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 in one hour and 42 minutes on Rod Laver Arena to make a safe passage to the final. This was the first time that the two reigning Grand Slam winners locked horns against each other since their US Open battle. With her win over Gauff, the 25-year-old became the first player to reach back-to-back finals at Melbourne Park since Serena Williams in 2016 and 2017.
Hockey
Indian women’s hockey team secures comeback win over USA
The Indian women’s hockey team secured a comeback win over the USA in their second game of the FIH Hockey5s Women’s World Cup 2024 in Pool C. The Indian women defeated the USA 7-3 to mark an astonishing comeback after getting beaten by Japan. India’s goals came from Mahima Choudhary in the 17th minute, along with Mariana Kujur in 20 and 22, Deepika Soreng in 23’ and 25, Mumtaz Khan in the 27th and Ajmina Kujur in the 29th minute of the game. On the USA’s side, Jacqueline Sumfest in the 4th and 18th minute along with Captain Linnea Gonzales in the 14th minute score goals.
Badminton
Lakshya Sen, Priyanshu Rajawat bow out of men’s singles at Indonesia Masters
Indian badminton promising stars Lakshya Sen and Priyanshu Rajawat bowed out of the men’s singles at the Indonesia Masters 2024. Sen and Rajawat suffered defeats in their respective pre-quarterfinal matches on Thursday, January 25. Sen went down to eighth-seed Anders Antonsen of Denmark 19-21 18-21. Rajawat, on the other hand, slumped to Canda’s Brian Young 18-21 14-21 to crash out of the BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament.
Boxing
I have been misquoted: MaryKom denies reports of announcing retirement
Indian boxer M.C. Mary Kom denied the reports of calling it quits on her international career and said that she has been ‘misquoted’. She was quoted by ANI as saying, "I haven’t announced retirement yet and I have been misquoted. I will personally come in front of the media whenever I want to announce it. I have gone through some media reports stating that I have announced retirement and this is not true.”
She added, "I was attending a school event in Dibrugarh on 24 January 2024 wherein I was motivating children and I said, “I still have hunger of achieving in sports but the age limit in Olympics doesn’t allow me to participate though I can carry on with my sport.”
