Sport news in brief
Safe standing at Wembley final for first time in 35 years
Football fans will be permitted to stand at a major men’s domestic cup final for the first time in almost 35 years when Manchester United face Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley later this month. The English Football League have announced that both teams will receive an allocation of 867 seats within new safe standing areas behind each goal at Wembley Stadium.
The new Wembley was granted a safe standing license after the government approved safe standing areas following the successful trial. The men’s and women’s FA Cup finals in May are also set to feature rail seating behind each goal.
Taylor vs Serrano rematch will not be at Croke Park
Eddie Hearn has admitted that a potential rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano will not take place at Croke Park. After Taylor narrowly outpointed Serrano at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in April, in the biggest women’s fight of all time, conversations quickly turned to a rematch in Ireland, with Croke Park the desired venue in Taylor’s home country.
Her promoter Hearn has now said, however, that the 82,000capacity stadium in Dublin is no longer an option. Instead, the city’s 3Arena is likely to host the bout, which is targeted for 20 May. “The cost of hire and everything involved in the event is three times higher, nearly, than staging it in Wembley Stadium,” Hearn said on The MMA Hour on Wednesday
Fifa criticised for Saudi Women’s World Cup links
Former New Zealand international Maia Jackman said Saudi Arabian sponsorship of the Women’s World Cup would be in “complete opposition” to female empowerment and set back her work as an ambassador for the tournament. Australia and New Zealand, co-hosts of this year’s World Cup, wrote to global soccer governing body Fifa on Wednesday seeking urgent clarification after The Guardian reported Visit Saudi will be named as a major sponsor of the tournament.
Jackman, one of Fifa’s “Beyond Greatness Champions”, a team of women promoting the World Cup, said accepting Saudi sponsorship would be a “disempowering message” for women.“Fifa have so much power to change the world for females and this kind of comes out,” she told New Zealand news website Stuff. “If (the Saudi sponsorship) goes to fruition, it
would affect how people see the sport. It’s hard when we’re trying so hard to push things forward,” she added. Reuters
Chess players perform worse in cities
Chess players perform worse in cities and urban areas where air pollution is high, a study has found. Research carried out by the Maastricht University School of Business and Economics in Netherlands used chess engine Stockfish to analyse moves while monitoring levels of air quality. It found that a small increase in fine particulate matter in the air increased the likelihood of error by 2.1 per cent, and the severity of those errors rose 10.8 per cent.
The study, published in the journal of Management Science, analysed 30,000 moves by 121 players through three tournaments in Germany in 2017, 2018 and 2019, which each lasted two months. “We find that when individuals are exposed to higher levels of air pollution, they make more mistakes, and they make larger mistakes,” study co-author Juan Palacios said. “We find it interesting that those mistakes especially occur in the phase of the game where players are facing time pressure,” he added.
Want your views to be included in The Independent Daily Edition letters page? Email us by tapping here letters@independent.co.uk. Please include your address
BACK TO TOP*