u/Sparky-moon

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta asked how he felt on Tuesday:

 "You probably don't realise it. It's one of the best feelings I've ever had. I was supposed to be here, at the training ground, watching the game with the boys and the staff because that's what they wanted - but I couldn't. I think 20 minutes before the game I had to leave. I couldn't bring the energy that I wanted, and ultimately it was their moment to watch it together and be themselves. 

"I went home, I went outside to the garden and had a BBQ and I didn't watch any of it. I was just hearing some noises in the living room and suddenly the magic happened. My eldest son opened the garden door, started to run towards me, gave me a hug and said: 'We are Champions, daddy!' It was beautiful."

“A civilian girl from Iraq and a sergeant-major figure, berating him and telling him how useless he was, why did he survive, how can he hold his head up when his mates have died, all that sort of thing. Really, deeply negative. And that was with him all the time. The child, there was obviously an incident in Iraq. Something happened and it involved a little girl. And there was a guilt complex around his mates. He didn’t feel lucky to have survived. He said he should have died. That was hard for him to take, because when he went out there he told himself he wasn’t coming back. He was going to be totally committed, and he was. Never missed a convoy, never missed a memorial service for a colleague.”

“We didn’t have any help for him and that was the saddest thing. And there was a limit to what we could do. We’re not experts, we’re not carers, and he’s our son. We couldn’t help our son. It’s not even like your friend or a team-mate, anything like that, it’s your son. The number of nights we cried because we couldn’t get help, the number of times we’ve broken down.”

“Combat Stress and Help for Heroes wouldn’t take him on. He was assessed but they said the condition was too complex and too severe. He needed real professional help from a military expert, but we didn’t have that. So he was referred to the NHS and, bless them, they do a fantastic job but there was no one that was military based or had military experience.”

The first World Cup with 48 teams has not even kicked off, yet a proposal is already back on the table, with renewed momentum, to expand the 2030 World Cup – led by Spain in terms of host venues, alongside Morocco and Portugal – to as many as 66 national teams.

The proposal first emerged months ago after a request from Conmebol to widen access and make it easier for teams rarely seen at football’s elite level to compete. At the time, the idea barely went beyond an opening move, a sounding-out exercise. Now, however, it is gaining strength again through several federations.

The former England defender Rio Ferdinand has been accused of “sportswashing” by campaigners for publicly backing Tanzania’s government, which was accused of human rights abuses when hundreds of protestors were killed in a police crackdown last year.

Ferdinand has been hosted on a visit to Tanzania by the country’s controversial culture and sports minister, Paul Makonda, who was sanctioned by the US government in 2020 for “gross violations of human rights”.

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“My wife brought it over.”

“These could be the last elections at Real Madrid because privatization is coming, or at least that’s what’s being announced. Those of us who disagree with that privatisation have an ethical and moral obligation to ensure that Real Madrid continues to belong to its members, that it has a more special place for those members.”

Daily Mail Sport has been told that several players are considering their legal options after it was revealed to us that contracts include a £150,000 promotion bonus for those who have appeared in 50 per cent of matches. Anything less than 50 per cent is awarded on a pro-rata basis.

This season, Aston Villa have more than double anyone else’s. Based on the last accounts, their revenue was €450.2m, with the next closest in the season’s Europa League field a mere €216.3m, which was Roma. Freiburg have a revenue of €162.8m, just 36 per cent of Villa’s.