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Ref asks Messi for shirt after Miami's win in KC
Inter Miami CF captain Lionel Messi was presented with an unusual request following his team's 1-0 win at Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday as the game's referee asked him for his jersey.
Messi's shirt is arguably the most sought after in world football, with players and fans all over the world keen to get their hands on it.
On Wednesday, however, it was Mexican referee Marco Antonio Ortiz Nava who approached the 2022 World Cup winner on the pitch after the final whistle to request his jersey.
Messi, who had played all 90 minutes and scored the only goal in the first leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup first round, obliged.
Ortiz Nava, 36, had to wait to get his hands on the precious shirt as Messi agreed to give him the jersey once inside the changing room and for good reason.
Temperatures at the Children's Mercy Park hit 3 degrees Fahrenheit with a "real feel" of negative eight at half-time.
Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano labelled the freezing conditions "inhumane."
"I think it's impossible to play in these conditions," he said after the game. "It is not human."
Wednesday's strike was Messi's first official goal of the year.
The Argentina icon is back in action on Saturday when Inter Miami host New York City FC in their MLS opener.
Rubiales found guilty of sexual assault of Hermoso
Former Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales was found guilty of sexually assaulting player Jenni Hermoso on Thursday for kissing her without consent after the 2023 Women's World Cup final.
Spain's High Court set a fine of over 10,000 ($10,434.00) for the crime, but acquitted Rubiales of a count of coercion. The former executive told Reuters he would appeal, saying: "I am going to keep fighting."
Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence for Rubiales in a case that marred the celebrations of Spain's first Women's World Cup title and sparked a debate about sexism in women's football and wider Spanish society.
Rubiales said Hermoso consented to the kiss, but she denied it.
Judge Jose Manuel Fernandez-Prieto said he believed Hermoso's testimony that she had not given any consent, thus finding Rubiales guilty of sexual assault. However, he said that while this was "always reproachable," this instance was of minor intensity as there was no violence or intimidation.
As it involved a kiss rather than a more serious action, Rubiales should be spared time in prison, Fernandez-Prieto said.
"The pecuniary penalty must be chosen, which is less serious than the custodial sentence," he said in his ruling.
Rubiales was cleared of the charge of coercion for trying to downplay the kiss on the lips of Hermoso during the awards ceremony after the final in Sydney.
Three other former Spanish federation members accused of coercion -- former women's team coach Jorge Vilda, sports director of the men's team Albert Luque and head of marketing Ruben Rivera -- were also cleared of the charge.
The ruling banned Rubiales from going within a 200-meter radius of Hermoso and from communicating with her for one year. The fine was set at 20 per day over an 18-month period.
During the trial, Hermoso said the unsolicited kiss from her boss and the commotion that followed "tainted one of the happiest days of my life," while her teammates testified it left her overwhelmed, crying and exhausted in the following hours and days.
Hermoso's lawyer told Reuters it was up to his client to decide if "she wants to keep up the fight" after Rubiales avoided a prison sentence.
The Association of Spanish Footballers (AFE), which was a private prosecutor in the case, said the ruling was "a significant step forward in the defence of women's rights and in the fight for a sport free of abuse and inequality."
"When there is no consent there is assault and that is what the judge certifies in this sentence. The victim's word is honoured, as the law stipulates, and should not be questioned," Ana Redondo, Equality Minister in the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, wrote on X.
Information from Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Afghanistan begin with dreams to realise, South Africa with nightmares to squash
Big Picture: The game some didn't want SA to play
Group B of the Champions Trophy gets underway with a fixture between the dream side of the last two tournaments, Afghanistan, and the one which has nightmares about the number of times it has not got its hands on the trophy, South Africa.
Headlining both outfits are explosive batting line-ups, with Afghanistan's power at the top in an opening pair of Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz and South Africa's in the middle order. That makes the match-ups between South Africa's seamers and the Afghan top order and Afghanistan's spinners and the South African middle order the ones to watch for.
South Africa: LLLLL (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Afghanistan: WWWLW
In the spotlight: South Africa's experience and Afghanistan's spinners
South Africa could be forced to bench both Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs in what is an already strong batting line-up. Aiden Markram's more-than-part-time offspin means they may consider only one specialist spinner in Keshav Maharaj, which will create room for both seam bowling allrounders - Wiaan Mulder and Marco Jansen - and two other frontline quicks.
South Africa (possible): 1 Temba Bavuma (capt) 2 Tony de Zorzi, 3 Rassie van der Dussen, 4 Aiden Markram, 5 Heinrich Klaasen (wk), 6 David Miller, 7 Wiaan Mulder, 8 Marco Jansen, 9 Corbin Bosch, 10 Keshav Maharaj 11 Kagiso Rabada
Ibrahim Zadran will return to the Afghan XI after last playing for them in March. He has been out with an ankle injury but has had some time at the crease in the ILT20. With AM Ghazanfar out with a back problem, they will have to choose between left-arm wristspinner Noor Ahmed, who had success at the SA20, and left-arm fingerspinner Nangeyalia Kharote. That would give them a variety of spin options, alongside Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi in the team and four seam bowlers to boot.
Afghanistan: (possible) 1 Ibrahim Zadran, 2 Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), 5 Azmatullah Omarzai, 6 Gulbadin Naib, 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Noor Ahmad/Nangeyalia Kharote, 10 Naveed Zadran, 11 Fazalhaq Farooqi
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi responds to questions on his side being underdogs against a side they have only met five times and beaten twice
"Like all the tournaments, we will come in with the prospect of seeing ourselves in the final but eventually obviously getting over the line. The nice thing is that we have guys with that experience and there's no there's no real baggage that exists amongst the guys. There's no negativity from the fact that we haven't been able to be successful in other ICC events. There's a lot more of a positivity and confidence in terms of our ability or how far we can go within the tournament."
Temba Bavuma says South Africa do not carry scars from previous tournaments into this one
Smriti Mandhana's RCB ready to kickstart homecoming party
Who's playing
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) vs Mumbai Indians (MI)Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, February 21, 2025
What to expect: RCB's Indian unit vs MI's overseas players
The formidable RCB side will be looking to continue their imperious run as they enter the home leg. They have a lot going for them this season and though they are without several match-winners from last season, their Indian players have stepped up. Smriti Mandhana continued her purple patch, Richa Ghosh looked in fine touch against Delhi Capitals after her blinder against Gujarat Giants, and Renuka Singh's new-ball bowling has also been a big positive. They will want to make the most of playing in front of their home crowd at Chinnaswamy, where they won three out of five games last season. They will play four home matches this season.
For MI, though, it's been all about the overseas players so far. They have banked on Nat Sciver-Brunt's excellent form with the bat and ball. She followed up her 59-ball 80 not out in the loss against DC with a solo effort of 57 against Giants and gave her side their first win of the season. In the bowling department, Hayley Mathews and Amelia Kerr have been their key wicket-takers. MI will be looking for more support from their Indian line-up, especially in the batting department, to put up bigger scores.
Team news and likely XIs
RCB left Prema Rawat out and brought in senior left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht for the match against DC. Bisht marked her return with figures of 2 for 35, dismissing Marizanne Kapp and Jess Jonassen.
RCB (probable): 1 Smriti Mandhana (capt), 2 Danni Wyatt-Hodge, 3 Ellyse Perry, 4 Raghvi Bist, 5 Richa Ghosh (wk), 6 Kanika Ahuja, 7 Georgia Wareham, 8 Ekta Bisht, 9 Kim Garth, 10 VJ Joshitha, 11 Renuka Singh
MI made two changes for their match against Giants, bringing in Parunika Sisodia for Saika Ishaque and G Kamalini for Jintimani Kalita. Kamalini played down the order and scored a boundary off the only ball she faced, while Sisodia went for 20 runs in her two overs.
MI (probable): 1 Yastika Bhatia (wk), 2 Hayley Matthews, 3 Nat Sciver-Brunt, 4 Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), 5 Amelia Kerr, 6 G Kamalini, 7 S Sajana, 8 Amanjot Kaur, 9 Sanskriti Gupta, 10 Shabnim Ismail, 11 Parunika Sisodia
Players to watch: Renuka Singh and Hayley Mathews
Stats that matter
Sruthi Ravindranath is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
Shahidi: 'We're not here to just participate, we want to win the title'
"Between 2019 and now there's too much difference and just recently we beat them [South Africa] in Sharjah - 2-1 - so we have that confidence with us and we are not under pressure anyway," Shahidi said at his press conference on Thursday. "Because right now we are focusing what we can do in this tournament and I believe that our team is more ready for this tournament and we are focusing on our own team. There is no pressure on us."
"First of all, about people here - there are a lot of Afghans," Shahidi said. "They live here in Karachi and in Pakistan and also a lot of Pashtun people, I think, they support us. So yeah, yesterday there was a lot of crowds shouting for us [during training] and it feels good and it give us confidence that we have supporters here and about our performance."
"We are doing very good and, in this tournament, we are here to compete here and our aim is to win the final," Shahidi said. "We are not here just to participate here in this tournament. We are definitely 100% looking to win this event and at the same time because we played a lot of quality cricket from last two years and it's a good chance for us because the boys are very experienced and these conditions are also suitable for us. So we have a good chance and let's start it from tomorrow and hopefully we start with the win and we go with the same momentum throughout the tournament."
"[But] we've also had a good look at them - I think probably a similar team that we played against in Sharjah that will be coming again. So, I guess we kind of know what to expect."
Bavuma said the challenge for his bowlers in this tournament would be to keep their discipline on batting-friendly tracks. "I think in terms of the conditions here, we've had a nice look at what to expect. Probably batter-friendly wickets and I think quite a nice challenge for the bowlers. Our challenge as a bowling unit is to be one of the more disciplined and precise bowling units. I guess always look for opportunities to take wickets.
"From a batting point of view, scoreboard pressure is a big thing. Guys getting in, making sure they go get big so we can challenge for those 330-340-350 type of scores."
Shahidi on playing in Afghanistan: 'Hopefully that day comes'
"I have answered this in Pashto but let me say it again because in media I heard a lot from other countries that they [Afghanistan] don't have facilities, they don't have stadiums, they don't have academies. It's totally wrong," Shahidi said. "We have good facilities. We have cricket academies. We have High Performance Centre in Kabul and Jalalabad and also, we have stadiums in every zone of Afghanistan. So, we have the facilities to call a team to come to Afghanistan but in our country there were some security issues that's why other countries are not coming but hopefully soon, as soon as possible, one of the countries will come to Afghanistan and you will see the crowd also.
"When we play domestic cricket, it's fully packed. Even people wait outside the stadium and try to come and watch the domestic game, like more than 50,000, 40,000 or 30,000 people coming for the finals of an event. I know that if any team come to Afghanistan, there will be like thousands of people, fans come and arrive to the stadium because there is a lot of craze for cricket. There are a lot of people who love cricket. So hopefully that day comes and hopefully it comes soon."
*This story was updated after the South Africa press conference.
Joe Root has been England's first-choice No. 3 for the best part of a decade, but slid down to No. 4 in the final match of their recent ODI series in India - which they lost 3-0 - and will retain that role against Australia. Smith has only batted at No. 5 or 6 in his seven-match ODI career to date, but will be thrown into a new role in his first match at an ICC event.
England struggled to balance their side after Jacob Bethell's injury in India, looking one batter light in the second ODI and short on bowling in the third. They have retained their batting-heavy balance for the start of the Champions Trophy, with Liam Livingstone carded at No. 7, which means that Livingstone and Root will have to share 10 overs between them.
Root has batted at No. 4 in 56 of his 163 ODIs innings, but the vast majority were in the early years of his international career. The decision to bat Smith at No. 3 means that England's engine room of Root, Harry Brook and Jos Buttler will bat from No. 4-6 rather than No. 3-5, bolstering their middle order after a series of collapses in India.
Smith only played two of England's eight games on their white-ball tour to India after sustaining a calf injury which ruled him out of the end of the T20I series and all three ODIs. But he has been declared fit to face Australia, and will take the gloves ahead of Phil Salt - who will open with Ben Duckett - and Buttler.
Brydon Carse has also been passed fit after a toe injury ruled him out of the second and third India ODIs, and has been picked ahead of Gus Atkinson, Jamie Overton and Saqib Mahmood. He will bat at No. 8 and is England's third seamer, with Jofra Archer and Mark Wood set to share the new ball.
Australia's Champions Trophy squad has been depleted by the late withdrawals of five senior players: Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Marsh (all injured), plus Marcus Stoinis (retired from ODIs) and Mitchell Starc (personal reasons). The two sides last met in the format at the end of the 2024 English summer, with Australia winning the series 3-2.
England XI vs Australia: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Jamie Smith (wk), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jos Buttler, 7 Liam Livingstone, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood.
Gill ton helps India ace tricky chase after Shami five-for
India 231 for 4 (Gill 101*, Rahul 41*, Rishad 2-38) beat Bangladesh 228 (Hridoy 100, Jaker 68, Shami 5-53) by six wickets
India will still consider this a banana peel survived having misread the conditions and decided to field first should they have won the toss. On a slow pitch with no assistance for the quicks, they were gifted early wickets through some indiscriminate hitting. Bangladesh possibly felt the new ball was the best time to bat: they didn't wait for a bad ball on offer and kept losing wickets. The first three fell to ambitious shots to plain good-length bowling with little seam.
Bangladesh were 35 for 3 when Axar was introduced in the ninth over. Tanzid Hasan, the only batter who had looked comfortable, played him for the turn and paid the ultimate price with an outside edge. Mushfiqur Rahim, arguably batting too late at No. 6 especially in the absence of the injured Mahmudullah, played the original line, and was done in by the rare one that turned. Axar slowed down the hat-trick ball even more, Jaker Ali obliged with an edge, which Rohit spilled.
Soon Hardik Pandya dropped Hridoy on 23 in Kuldeep Yadav's first over. Scoring runs was still a task on the sluggish surface, more than 10 overs went without a boundary, but also India went the middle overs without a single wicket for the first time since the 2023 World Cup final. Jaker did provide an opportunity on 24 but this time KL Rahul missed the stumping off Ravindra Jadeja.
The duo found their touch deeper into the innings, but Hridoy was hampered by cramps all over his body. Shami returned to the challenging task of bowling with a short leg-side boundary but used the slower ball wide outside off to not just deny them boundaries but also collect three more wickets. A cameo from Rishad Hossain and Hridoy's fight despite crippling cramps took Bangladesh to a fighting total.
Rohit continued his high-intent starts of recent times, and Gill matched him shot for shot as India raced away from the three Bangladesh quicks. Just before the field was about to spread, Rohit fell for 41 off 36 in a bid to make one last use of the field restrictions. Immediately, scoring became laborious. Even the master accumulator Virat Kohli struggled to manipulate the ball into gaps before falling to a legspinner again, this one with the letters of Rashid scrambled to Rishad.
Shreyas Iyer played the conditions for a while, but once he got a couple and a boundary off Mustafizur Rahman, he overreached and lobbed a slower ball to mid-off to be dismissed for 15 off 17. Promoted for the dual tasking of breaking the sequence of right-hand batters and also have an eye on the net run rate, Axar skied a slog-sweep, failing to read the Rishad topspinner.
The last three wickets had fallen for 75 runs and had taken 20.2 overs. You would have thought the sight of KL Rahul would have brought calm to the proceedings, but he tried an uncharacteristic hoick early on only to be dropped by Jaker, whom he had himself reprieved earlier in the day. That proved to be the last opportunity for Bangladesh even as India overcame the ghosts of the failed chases in Sri Lanka last year.
The man to thank was Gill, who anchored the chase and made sure he was there at the end. He was 26 off 23 when Rohit got out, but as the conditions changed he tightened his game and took only selective risks. His next boundary came only when the skiddy fast bowler Tanzim Hasan came back. In the 32nd over. By that time had brought up his slowest half-century.
Gill was content with singles off the spinners and even Mustafizur, who bowls a wicked slower ball to make use of these conditions. He scored just 30 off the 52 balls following Rohit's dismissal, then went into middle gears before finishing it off in glory. He needed 12 out of the 19 runs to bring up a hundred, and hit a six and a four off Tanzim to get to the mark off 125 balls and take his customary bow. Rahul took India home with a six off Tanzim with 21 balls to spare.
Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo
Pulisic refutes reports of spat with AC Milan boss
Christian Pulisic has denied there is a rift between himself and AC Milan head coach Sérgio Conceição after reports emerged that he had demanded to leave the club should the Portuguese manager remain next season.
Italian media claimed on Thursday that Pulisic and midfielder Youssouf Fofana had irreparably fallen out with Conceição in the wake of Tuesday's disappointing exit from the UEFA Champions League at the hands of Feyenoord, with La Repubblica saying the United States forward would ask to exit unless Conceição was sacked before the 2025-26 campaign.
The report also claimed that Pulisic and Fofana were the most vocal in opposing Conceição's methods that had supposedly grated on several members of the squad despite the coach being appointed only on Dec. 30.
Milan shared a statement from Pulisic on X in response to the claims.
"I have never argued with the coach and I have never asked to leave," Pulisic said. "I am very happy at Milan and I want to continue wearing this shirt. Reading these lies is unacceptable, but let's all continue to remain united and fight together on the pitch, for the club and for our fans."
Multiple sources had told ESPN that the reports of a standoff had been greatly exaggerated, and that the team are united in their pursuit of qualifying for the Champions League again next season.
Pulisic was withdrawn after an hour of Milan's 1-1 draw with Feyenoord, the first player to be substituted despite leading the team in goal contributions in all competitions this term with 21. He has moved positions to right wing to accommodate Conceição's desire to play Rafael Leão on the left-hand side and loan signing João Félix through the middle, though sources said there had been no indication this had been the cause of any row.
Milan have struggled this season, with Paulo Fonseca fired after just half a campaign as the Rossoneri were eighth in Serie A with a game in hand on the teams ahead of them.
Conceição was brought in on a 2-year deal and made an almost immediate impact as they defeated fierce rivals Inter Milan to lift the Italian Supercoppa in January.
Their form in the league under the former FC Porto coach has seen the team move to seventh, though they still have a game in hand on fourth-placed Juventus, who are five points ahead.
Milan travel to Torino on Saturday in their next game as they continue their pursuit of a place in next year's elite European club competition.
Sources: Monahan, Tiger visit WH to talk merger
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan and player directors Tiger Woods and Adam Scott are meeting with officials at the White House on Thursday, in what the tour hopes is another step in reunifying men's professional golf, sources told ESPN.
Monahan and Scott met with U.S. President Donald Trump on Feb. 4 in an effort to speed up the federal government's approval of the tour's proposed deal with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which plans to inject $1.5 billion into the tour's for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises.
It wasn't immediately clear if Trump or PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan were attending Thursday's meetings in Washington.
The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the PIF announced they had reached a framework agreement to form an alliance on June 6, 2023. That deal expired at the end of 2023, but the sides continued to negotiate a potential deal over the past two years.
The PIF, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, is financing the rival LIV Golf League.
The U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division has been reviewing the PIF's proposed investment into PGA Tour Enterprises for the past several months to determine whether it violated federal antitrust laws.
U.S. lawmakers, including Senators Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut), have raised national security concerns, saying the deal would allow Saudi Arabia to sportswash its controversial human rights record.
At last week's Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines outside San Diego, Monahan told reporters that the meeting with Trump earlier this month was productive and was about "the reunification of the professional game on one tour, with all the best players on it."
"Everything is moving forward with pace, and I think there's a general -- when you look at all the parties involved -- there's a general enthusiasm for getting this done," Monahan said. "I think the meeting [with Trump] ultimately gets us one step closer to a deal being done, but there's a lot more work to do."
During Sunday's final round coverage of the Genesis, Woods told CBS that negotiations with the PIF are in a "very positive place right now."
"I think things are going to heal quickly," Woods said. "We're going to get this game going in the right direction. It's been heading in the wrong direction for a number of years, and the fans want all of us to play together -- all the top players playing together -- and we're going to make that happen."
Bucks' Portis banned 25 games for positive test
The NBA has suspended Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis for 25 games for violating the league's anti-drug policy, the league announced Thursday, a ban that sidelines the 2021 champion for the majority of the remainder of the season.
Portis tested positive for the drug tramadol, a medication used to treat severe pain among adults. It is an instance that his representative, Mark Bartelstein of Priority Sports, said was an accident.
"I am devastated for Bobby right now because he made an honest mistake and the ramifications of it are incredibly significant," Bartelstein told ESPN.
"Bobby unintentionally took a pain medication called tramadol, thinking he was taking a pain medication called Toradol. Toradol is an approved pain medication that he has used previously and that teams and players use for pain and inflammation at times. Tramadol, however, is not an approved pain medication and was just recently added to the banned substance list this past spring. The tramadol pill he took came from an assistant of his, with a valid prescription for the painkiller, which he mistakenly told Bobby was Toradol. This was, again, an honest mistake that was made because of the similarity in the names of the drugs and the fact they both serve a very similar purpose. Bobby was using this anti-inflammatory pain-reducing medication to deal with an elbow injury he had this past fall and believed he was taking Toradol to alleviate some pain in preparation for that night's game."
Portis will not appeal the suspension, Bartelstein said.
The suspension is a devastating blow to the Bucks, who are in fifth place in the Eastern Conference at 29-24 and now lose one of the NBA's premier sixth men. The Bucks have one open roster spot to make an immediate move while Portis will lose $2.85 million with the 25-game suspension.
Portis will be eligible to return on April 8 against the Minnesota Timberwolves -- with four games left in the regular season.
Portis has averaged 13.7 points and 8.3 rebounds in 46 games, ranking sixth in scoring and second in boards off the bench among NBA players. He has finished top 3 in voting for the Sixth Man of the Year award over the past two seasons, and he has totaled the second-most points for a reserve in the last three years.
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