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      in Soccer

      Society and sport unprepared for the cesspit social media can be – these platforms are in desperate need of regulation

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      FOOTBALL originated as a working man’s game.
      The Saturday 3pm kick-off time was set because factories closed at 2pm and fans could go straight from work to support their local side.

      Jordan Pickford was slated for his challenge on Virgil van DijkCredit: PA:Press Association

      During a World War I armistice in 1914, a match was played between British and German soldiers before the real hostilities resumed.
      A century on and the game is now consumed by tribalism, driven by mis-guided loyalties.
      Social media, that 21st-century phenomenon, has taken the way those who watch football and what they say about it in a new direction.
      The likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram dominate every aspect of people’s thinking and have in part been responsible for the election of an American President.

      Twitter is the Wild West of unregulated commentary, with Premier League stars such as Raheem Sterling and Wilf Zaha regularly racially abused and often for simply being good footballers.
      Last week we also had rabid outbursts from people passing as fans, with death threats aimed at the Everton goalkeeper Jordan Pickford for his challenge on Virgil van Dijk in the Merseyside derby.
      Then we have the ridicule and abuse of Marcus Rashford, whose crime was to try to help combat child poverty.
      The list of victims is as long as the Magna Carta.

      Society and sport were woefully unprepared for the cesspit that social media can be.
      The platforms allow cowards to sit behind keyboards in their mum’s back bedroom spewing bile.
      Of course, the players can opt to not be in those environments — but these platforms are in desperate need of regulation that strips its users of anonymity.
      Football has always had a dissenting outlook, whether it is hooliganism on the terraces in the 1970s and 1980s or the taunts and raft of other “isms” that make up a large proportion of chants from fans.
      Then there’s the shouting out of managers from their jobs and the advent of the radio phone-in revolution enabling fans to vent their spleens.
      Owners of clubs receive dog’s abuse while emptying significant parts of their wallets for such pleasure.
      I remember my first day as Crystal Palace owner. They had been in administration for 18 months — a carcass of a club that had been given its last rites several times.
      Despite the euphoria of me saving it, one of the first posts I read on a fans forum said: “Thank God Jordan is here . . .  let’s give him a couple of weeks before we hammer him!”

      So while social media giants need to deliver more, they are also often amplifying what was already there.
      Like the tendency for a club owner to listen to the 500 vociferous fans in a 20,000 crowd who think they’re a w*, Twitter occupies that same value.
      It is a small, inconsequential minority who are spreading their brand of nonsense.
      Remember, empty vessels make the most noise.
      Listen to Simon Jordan and Jim White on talkSPORT at 10am Monday to Thursday.

      Sam Allardyce feels Jordan Pickford should’ve been sent off in Everton v Liverpool match More

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      in Soccer

      David Sullivan donates £25,000 to Marcus Rashford’s free school meals push as West Ham co-owner praises Man Utd hero

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      WEST HAM co-owner David Sullivan has donated £25,000 towards Marcus Rashford’s push for free school meals.
      Manchester United star Rashford, 22, is leading the fight to tackle child food poverty after the Government refused to extend meals across half-term.

      West Ham co-owner David Sullivan has donated £25,000 towards Marcus Rashford’s campaign to end child hunger in the UKCredit: Rex Features

      Sullivan has praised Man Utd star Rashford for his actionsCredit: PA:Press Association

      And Sullivan’s donation will go towards Rashford’s campaign through charity Fareshare UK and Child Poverty Taskforce.
      Sullivan said:“Marcus Rashford has done such a fantastic job of raising awareness and leading the way in tackling this very important issue, which impacts so many youngsters in our local communities up and down the country. 
      “It is a privilege to be able to help. On a national level, the impact of the Child Food Poverty Taskforce will be huge. 

      “While closer to home, I’m really proud that the club has been supporting free school meals during school holidays for years now and we have seen what a continued difference it is making in our local community.”

      Millwall are providing 100 hot meals per day for children this month. 
      Leeds and Manchester United will provide 5,000 meals for vulnerable children.
      This week the Red Devils and its foundation will team up with food charity FareShare to cook and package 5,000 meals in the Old Trafford kitchens.
      Schools will then send on the meals to kids usually on the free meals scheme.

      Reflecting on the MBE he was awarded earlier this month for his efforts, Rashford said: “It’s a nice moment for me personally but I feel like I’m still at the beginning of the journey that I set out to try to achieve.
      “I think what I would like to do now that I’m in this position is just speak directly to the prime minister and really ask for the vouchers to be extended until at least October half-term because I think that’s what the families need.
      “Speaking to them and knowing how much they’ve been helped, and how much it’s going to affect them if they don’t have it, that’s got to be my main focus now – to get that message across.”

      Man Utd’s Marcus Rashford helps out at food charity after MPs reject bid to extend school meals More

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      in Boxing

      Derek Chisora ditches Smart car for beefy 4×4 to focus on mammoth Oleksandr Usyk challenge

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      DEREK CHISORA has parked his Smart car to focus all his road rage on smashing into Oleksandr Usyk on Saturday.
      The 6ft, 18st fans’ favourite usually squeezes himself into the tiny motor to run errands, visit London gyms and pose for photos.

      Derek Chisora has swapped the Smart car for a chauffeur-driven 4×4

      But in the final fortnight of camp, heavyweight Chisora beefed up the horsepower and handed over the reins.
      With his chauffeur-driven 4×4 waiting outside the Hayemaker gym, the 36-year-old said: “A couple of weeks out from every fight, I put that Smart in the garage and get myself a big car and a driver.
      “If I have been training hard all day, then it can be hard to concentrate in the car when you are driving yourself home.
      “This close to a fight I just want to train and relax and keep myself and other drivers safe.

      “It’s not about me being a danger on the road but you never know what can happen, it’s better to take no risks.”
      The Chisora v Usyk build-up — which has been running most of the year after their original May date was postponed due to coronavirus — has not just been respectful, it has been hilarious.
      Ukraine’s 2012 Olympic heavyweight gold medallist and undisputed cruiserweight king uploaded an Instagram video of him running on the beach and shadow boxing, while growling “Derek! Where are you, Derek?”.
      Fellow heavyweights Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte then posted their own versions on social media, with Del Boy firing back with clips of his own to help lift lockdown spirits.

      After a tough day of training, Del Boy, here with David Haye, reckoned he was safer to be dropped home instead

      Chisora is preparing to face Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk in their heavyweight showdown on SaturdayCredit: ©Mark Robinson Ltd

      He said: “Usyk started it with the video of him running on the beach. I have seen fighters and people make their own versions now and when I have been out driving and shopping, have had people yelling ‘Derek!’.
      “The whole country seems to have enjoyed it and, right now, people need that.
      “This week people can forget their problems by enjoying the build-up, making predictions and the day after, can say to their friends ‘Did you see the fight? Wasn’t it unbelievable?’.
      “People need fun things to take their attention right now, even just for a split second, because we are in the s***.”
      A few weeks ago Chisora’s manager, David Haye, posted a video offering £100 to any heavyweight southpaw who could last a round — and a grand if they could floor him.
      A few oddballs offered their services but Chisora insisted the reward for dropping him should have been £20,000.

      He said: “Guys turned up but nobody got the grand. I was never going to pay that.
      “I had MMA middleweight Darren Till message me but he was too late — I even had cabbies knocking on the gym door.
      “Everybody wants that £1,000 but I don’t get dropped in sparring — it was David’s money anyway.
      “I would have £20,000 of my own money on the line and not get dropped in sparring, anyone could give it a go.”
      Sounds like Smart money.

      Derek Chisora takes repeated punches to the stomach to show he’s ready for upcoming fight More

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      in Motorsport

      Lewis Hamilton is Britain’s greatest ever sportsman after surpassing Michael Schumacher’s F1 race wins record

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      THERE cannot be any debate about it now.
      It is a fact, rather than an opinion, to state Lewis Hamilton is the greatest British sportsman of all-time.

      Lewis Hamilton won his 92nd Grand Prix over the weekend… overtaking Michael Schumacher’s recordCredit: Splash News

      There is simply no other person from these islands who can claim to be the greatest of all-time at any sport with a global reach.
      In football, athletics, tennis, golf or boxing, no other Brit comes close.
      So Hamilton’s 92nd Grand Prix victory — secured in Portugal on Sunday, to  surpass Michael Schumacher’s record  — ought to be the clincher.
      Hamilton will equal Schumacher’s record of seven Formula One drivers’ titles this year, too.

      That he stands on the brink of such an achievement, from a relatively poor background in a rich man’s sport, and as the first black man ever to compete in F1, makes Hamilton more remarkable still.
      Perhaps you don’t recognise Hamilton’s status because Formula One leaves you cold — and here you have my sympathy.
      Petrolheads are often a breed apart from most general sport lovers.
      And, in the modern era, F1 is the only major sport which doesn’t grab me in any way.

      Hamilton won the Portuguese GP to seal his latest historic featCredit: AP:Associated Press

      Unlike in the time of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, or James Hunt and Niki Lauda before them, the sport lacks sex-and-violence appeal. To be brutally honest, it lacks the glamour of genuine danger. Senna was killed competing at it. Lauda almost.
      Drivers were playboys, cars were 200mph cigarette adverts. Champagne, grid girls, black smoke and fireballs. A life less ordinary. It couldn’t help but thrill.
      Now you will be lucky to see any overtaking. Any actual car racing.
      Hamilton gets this and is privately apologetic about the fact that he and his Mercedes team are making F1 so predictable.
      We should not allow all that to undermine Hamilton’s singular brilliance among British sportsmen though.
      He didn’t get to choose his era and he only gets to drive the fastest car because he is proven to be the best driver.
      Even if you accept Hamilton’s greatness you may not actually like or admire him as a man.
      Yet this sort of thinking is either lazy or outdated. Hamilton is anything but the bland corporate entity he has often been typecast as.

      The Brit has stood up for social justiceCredit: EPA

      Hamilton has never shied away from standing up for what’s rightCredit: Reuters
      Over the past few years, he has been consistently fearless in speaking out on several issues in an off-message manner.
      Hamilton, 35, has also championed environmental causes in a sport which is far from green.
      And when coronavirus began to take hold, as Hamilton’s rivals trotted out ‘the show must go on’ platitudes before the scheduled season-opener in Melbourne in March, the Brit blew the lid off the whole charade by insisting the staging of the race was ‘ridiculous’.
      Soon, he was proved right as the Australian Grand Prix was cancelled and major sport went into global lockdown.
      Then, most importantly, come Hamilton’s words and actions on race. Like Tiger Woods, he is a black man who rose to dominate an almost exclusively white sport.
      You’d like to call them both trailblazers — yet that would suggest that many others have followed. And in F1, as in golf, they haven’t.
      In recent times, Hamilton has been far more vocal on the issue than Woods, supporting the Black Lives Matter  movement with persistence and vigour.
      He is opposed on this issue, at every turn, within his sport. Yet he continues to call out the ill-informed bigots inside F1.

      Hamilton has also set up, and partly funds, the Hamilton Commission ‘to identify the key barriers to recruitment and progression of black people in UK motorsport’.
      Not that these barriers ought to be  difficult to identify when many wealthy parents bankroll their go-karting sons to the tune of several hundred thousand pounds.
      Hamilton’s status as a great driver has been obvious since he emerged in Formula One in 2007. Now he is marking himself out as a great man, too.
      And you don’t have to love the current era of Formula One to recognise him as Britain’s sporting GOAT.

      Lewis Hamilton on his 92nd win and beating Michael Schumacher’s record More

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      in Soccer

      Man City star Sergio Aguero faces another MONTH on sidelines and will miss Liverpool showdown, confirms Pep Guardiola

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      PEP GUARDIOLA fears Manchester City hotshot Sergio Aguero could be out for up to a month.
      And that would rule the Argentine out of the showdown with champions Liverpool on November 8.

      Sergio Aguero could be missing for another month after injuring his hamstring against West HamCredit: Getty Images – Getty

      Aguero injured his hamstring against West Ham on Saturday in only his third game back after summer knee surgery.
      Boss Guardiola said: “Ten to 15 days is the minimum. If it’s a little bit longer it will be three weeks, one month.
      “The muscular injuries normally don’t change much over time. And the case of Sergio will be the same, there will be no exception.”
      City face four games in 12 days, starting against Marseille in the Champions League tonight and ending with the visit of Jurgen Klopp’s Reds.

      Guardiola confirmed Gabriel Jesus — his other senior striker — should return from a groin problem in the next week to ten days.
      But that means they will face Marseille and Sheffield United on Saturday without any central strikers once again.
      Guardiola insisted he had no regrets about bringing back Aguero too soon after four months on the sidelines recovering from a knee op.
      He added: “It was muscular. If you’re four or five months out with a knee problem you have the risk. We tried to handle it the best as possible.

      Pep Guardiola will have no senior strikers fit to face Marseille or Sheffield United this weekCredit: Getty Images – Getty

      “We didn’t rush him back, we were incredibly patient, we didn’t force the doctors. It was when people told me he was ready.
      “Of course we knew he was not in the best condition and he was without training, but he was important for those minutes.
      “We tried to avoid it and looked to bring him off for the last 25 minutes but his muscles got tired.”
      The two-week international break starts after the Liverpool game and City will hope Aguero has recovered by then.

      Man City star Phil Foden nearly falls into BT Sport pundits as he shows off his skills ahead of Porto match More

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      in Soccer

      Tottenham star Sanchez reveals battle to the top as pals ended up in gangs while he took three buses home from training

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      IT has not been an easy journey for Davinson Sanchez.
      The Tottenham defender might be a multi-millionaire Premier League star now.

      Davinson Sanchez has revealed some of his childhood friends have ended up in jail – or dead – with gang crime never far awayCredit: AP:Associated Press

      But as a kid growing up in Colombia, his dad could not afford to pay for  TWO bus fares to join him for the journey to training.
      That meant a ten-year-old Sanchez had to make the two-hour trip across one of the country’s most dangerous regions on his own.
      Gangs and crime were never far away and some of his school pals who took that path are now either in jail —  or the cemetery.
      But Sanchez, despite his parents  splitting up before he reached high school, stayed on the straight and narrow thanks to football.

      And aged just 20, he moved 5,500 miles to join Dutch giants Ajax —  having rejected Barcelona because he insisted he was too good to play for their B team.
      Sanchez has always had a strong belief in his own ability.
      It is that confidence which enabled him to speak with such assurance at a Black History Month event organised by Tottenham Hotspur Foundation last week.
      The centre-back quizzed the young people on their knowledge of key black figures in football history,

      The defender met with young people at a Black History Month event at SpursCredit: Getty Images – Getty

      But the select group of teens, sat safely socially distanced in one of their  stadium’s huge NFL locker rooms, did know that their special guest’s own back story is as equally as inspiring.
      Sanchez, 24, was born and bred in the small rural town of Caloto.
      He explained: “I started playing  football when I was about six and it was sometimes hard to take the bus.
      “My father used to take me to training and it was not always easy because he also had to bring food to the table. I would train every day after school from 3.30pm until 5.30pm and then I had to take three buses to get home, which would take at least two hours.
      “Sometimes I would not get home until 8pm or 9pm — and then I would have to do my school homework. Many times I would fall asleep at the table.
      “When I started going to training my father used to take me. But that meant we had to buy two bus tickets and it was not easy for us, you know.
      “The tickets only cost £2 each but we had to get two or three buses.
      “I knew it was costing the family too much money so one day when I was about 10 or 11 I said to him, ‘Look, this is taking away my nest egg! I know the roads and where the buses stop so I am old enough now to travel on my own’.”

      Sanchez won the Copa Libertadores – South America’s most prestigious trophy – with Atletico Nacional in 2016
      Asked if it was dangerous, he admitted: “At the time I didn’t think so because I was young — but I wouldn’t do it now.”
      With crime rife in Caloto, Sanchez regularly had to run the gauntlet.
      The Spurs centre-back, who insisted he never encountered racism growing up or in football, recalled: “I saw a lot of bad things like drugs and people stealing things.
      “I know friends who took what I call the easy way and some of them are now dead, or in jail, because they were involved in bad things.
      “But I also have a lot of friends from school who took the right way and they are working in good jobs and are good fathers, brothers and sons.
      “It is up to you which path you choose. But taking the easy way was never an option for me.”
      By his teens, Sanchez already had  a reputation as one of the hottest football prospects in Colombia and he was snapped up by one of its top clubs Atletico Nacional — whom he later helped win the 2016 Copa Libertadores.
      A £4.5million transfer to Ajax followed that summer after he had rejected a move to Barcelona.

      The Catalan giants had already agreed a deal with Nacional — but headstrong Sanchez refused to go.
      He explained: “The agreement was that I had to go to Barcelona B and from there I had to build up my experience.
      “I said to them, ‘You need to check  the agreement as I am not going to the second team. If I leave  now I want to play for the first team — I don’t want to play for the competition I don’t know’.
      “They said, no, so I said the deal was not for me.”
      Tottenham signed Sanchez from Ajax back in 2017 for a then club-record fee of £35m and he has become a key man  for Jose Mourinho this season.

      Tottenham paid Ajax nearly £40m for SanchezCredit: Rex Features

      But he has never forgotten his roots and, despite his relatively young age,   has set up a foundation in Caloto which coaches, educates and feeds 600 poor children and their families.
      Sanchez will also have another mouth to feed shortly as his wife Daniela is due to give birth to their first child any day.
      That will not stop him from boarding the Spurs team bus to their Premier League clash at Burnley tonight as they aim to shake off that crazy 3-3 draw with West Ham.
      Not the longest or toughest journey he has ever made…

      Jose Mourinho urges Tottenham to tie Son Heung-Min down to new long-term contract More

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      in Soccer

      Man Utd’s Harry Maguire got away with Hulk Hogan WWE choke on Chelsea’s Cesar Azpilicueta as VAR messed up again

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      MANCHESTER UNITED drew with Chelsea on Saturday — mainly thanks to Harry Maguire getting away with a choke hold that wrestler Hulk Hogan would be proud of.
      Referees had another weekend to forget and VAR made matters worse.

      Harry Maguire got up close and personal with Cesar AzpilicuetaCredit: AFP or Licensors

      We take a look at the three big calls that had fans raging:
      REF CHOKED ON HARRY HOLD
      HARRY MAGUIRE’S grapple with Cesar Azpilicueta during Manchester United’s game against Chelsea was a clear penalty.
      It was like a strangle hold on one of those old wrestling shows.
      A referee always tries to get in the best possible position for the ultimate viewing angle but Martin Atkinson has not seen it. 

      I would have thought VAR would have recommended a review.
      In my opinion it is a clear and obvious error. That’s why we have VAR.
      Stuart Attwell was the VAR official. Had he asked Atkinson to go over and check, he would have awarded a penalty.

      Hulk Hogan might have been proud of Maguire’s moveCredit: Getty Images – Getty

      The statement from the PGMOL and the Premier League was that it was not a clear and obvious error. 

      I am bemused by that statement.
      VAR is simple for me. The IFAB protocol is: was that incident a clear and obvious error? One word, in capital letters. YES.
      DEAN DECISION WAS FAB

      There’ll be no need to drop MikeCredit: AFP or licensors
      DURING the first half of Liverpool’s win over Sheffield United, Mike Dean initially awarded a free-kick for Fabinho’s challenge on Ollie McBurnie.
      It was a subjective call by Dean, and because it was close VAR checked it and informed him the challenge was made on the line of the penalty area, which is classed as inside the area — that is fact.
      So, there was no need to go over to the monitor and Dean could award the penalty.
      That’s how you want VAR to be used.
      HAMMERS WENT GAR GAR

      Eric Garcia appeared to bring down Michail Antonio in the boxCredit: Getty Images – Getty
      MICHAIL ANTONIO should have been awarded a penalty when he was taken down by Eric Garcia.
      The Manchester City man went in for the challenge with the wrong leg and made contact with the West Ham player before he got the ball.
      Man City got away with one there.
      Once again, if VAR official Peter Bankes had asked referee Anthony Taylor to view the monitor, he would have awarded the penalty.
      We are seeing so many inconsistencies with VAR.
      What disturbs me is that we are yet to see a ref show mental toughness to stick with his original decision after going to the monitor. They always overturn their own call. 
      It is obvious officials need more leadership, training and education.

      Frank Lampard says he was ‘just waiting for the red card’ after late Lo Celso tackle on César Azpilicueta which VAR deemed ‘no serious foul play’ More

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      in Soccer

      Everton’s unbeaten run did not end due to playing badly, Hasenhuttl’s Southampton just executed ­tactical plan superbly

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      IT WOULD be a big mistake to think Everton’s defeat at Southampton yesterday was due to the Premier League leaders performing poorly.
      The Toffees came unstuck because Ralph Hasenhuttl’s team again executed his ­tactical plan so well.

      Southampton executed Ralph Hasenhuttl’s game plan perfectlyCredit: Getty Images – Getty

      Last season we saw Saints play a few different systems.
      But now he is very much going for 4-4-2 out of possession – so they have got that good defensive structure – or 4-2-2-2, when they are in possession.
      The Saints midfield played very narrow so Carlo Ancelotti’s men got dragged inside.

      That left space out wide and Danny Ings took full advantage of it when he darted out left and put the ball in for Che Adams to score the second.
      Both of Hasenhuttl’s fullbacks – Ryan Bertrand and Kyle Walker-Peters – had so much space to exploit and they did it really well.
      Another thing that stood out was Saints are a high-pressing team and they play a high line as well.
      That came under scrutiny when they lost 5-2 to Tottenham last month.

      Against Everton, yes, they were pressing but Oriol Romeu in midfield was positioned in front of the two centre-backs so that they could play a little bit deeper.

      They didn’t have to play too high to remain connected to the rest of the team because Romeu was the link between midfield and defence.
      Looking at Everton I think Ben Godfrey is going to be an excellent signing for them from Norwich.
      But he is not a right-back, he is a centre-back and a very impressive one who, I believe, will play for England.
      But again it was not about how poor Everton were it was how good Saints were.
      They have ten points from their last four games after losing their first two this season.
      They no longer look a work in progress and have taken fully on board what Hasenhuttl wants from them.

      Anthony Joshua takes part in star-studded Zoom call with Arsenal legend Thierry Henry and PSG star Mbappe More