Sports

Cristiano Ronaldo is facing a $1billion class action lawsuit in the U.S. after promoting his non-fungible token (NFT) collaboration with cryptocurrency exchange Binance on social media.Binance has recently taken a hit to its reputation. Last week, Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao resigned from the company after pleading guilty to money laundering violations. The United States’ justice department also said Binance would be required to pay $4.3billion (£3.4bn) in penalties — and report suspicious activity to federal authorities.Last November, Ronaldo launched a collection of NFTs with the company, the cheapest of which was priced at $77. One year later, this costs about $1. The plaintiffs are suing the 38-year-old in Florida, claiming they made loss-making investments on the back of hi...

This season, The Athletic is following Union Berlin, a Bundesliga club from the former East Germany who were playing regional-level football less than 20 years ago, on their inaugural Champions League journey for our series Iron In The Blood.GO DEEPERIs the Premier League still on course for an extra Champions League spot?As Union Berlin’s players drifted down the tunnel and the stands in Braga’s Municipal Stadium emptied to the tune of one last song over the PA system, Marie-Louise Eta stood alone by the side of the pitch for a moment, lost in her thoughts.Union had just picked up a second successive point in the Champions League on the road — that was the good news.The bad news was that Union had carelessly squandered a lead against a team that had played with 10 men for more than an hou...

Ultimately, a single wrong answer cost Rafael Benítez his job, the one he had coveted for most of his working life. The slight downturn in results, the disaffection of the players, the sudden loss of trust from those who had chosen to employ him — all of it, he believed, could be traced back to that single, relatively harmless, misstep.Not long into his ill-fated reign as coach of Real Madrid, in 2015, Benítez had been asked what seemed, on the surface, a simple question: Did he regard the team’s star, Cristiano Ronaldo, as the best player in the world? Perhaps Benítez was trying to be clever. Perhaps he was trying to challenge his star. Perhaps he was, unadvisedly, being honest.Either way, he did not really see the big deal. Ronaldo was certainly one of the best players in the world, he r...

The homestretch of the NFL season is upon us, and the Power Rankings are in an optimistic mood. That means that this week we’ll look at the best-case scenario for all 32 teams the remainder of the season.For some, it’s a Super Bowl ring, for some, it’s a postseason appearance and for some, it’s a new head coach under the Christmas tree.(Last week: 1)Sunday: Beat Buffalo Bills 37-34 in overtimeBest case: Super Bowl ringThree coaches in NFL history have started 10-1 in back-to-back seasons, according to Elias Sports. They are Don Shula, Tony Dungy and … Nick Sirianni. The Eagles, who played without offensive tackle Lane Johnson (groin), have beaten the Cowboys, Chiefs and Bills in consecutive games, and their next three are against the 49ers, Cowboys and Seahawks. Jalen Hurts, who had five...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — With their 12-year-old daughter, Katie, swimming nearby, Shari and Christian Grimes stood on the pool deck talking to Sandpipers of Nevada coach Chris Barber. Christian had just been offered the deputy fire chief job in Logan, Utah, and the family was considering moving there from their home in Las Vegas.Barber is a good listener with a calm head, Shari says, and the Grimes family trusts him. So she didn’t take his words that day lightly. Barber started by saying that Katie could move anywhere and earn a college swimming scholarship.“But I’m telling you right now,” he continued, “there is something different about her. And if you leave her here, she will be an Olympian.”Shortly after, Ron Aitken, the Sandpipers CEO who coaches the team’s top swimmers, heard what t...

Tiger Woods laid out a plan for the 2024 season, saying the best scenario for his return to golf is to potentially play one tournament per month.Woods suggested a scenario of playing the Genesis Invitational in February and then finding a tournament for March before the majors begin in April.“I need to get myself ready for all that. I think this week is a step in that direction,” he said at a Tuesday news conference at the Hero World Challenge, the golf tournament he hosts annually in the Bahamas. “I’m just as curious as all of you are to see what happens. … I don’t have any of the pain that I had at Augusta or pre that in my ankle.”Woods withdrew from the Masters on April 9 due to plantar fasciitis and underwent a subsequent ankle surgery that month. The foot condition also caused him to ...

Tennis’ Grand Slams are attempting to partner with a collection of the sport’s other best-known tournaments in what could become the most revolutionary transformation of the game since the 1990s.Their goal, according to five people who have been both involved with and briefed on those discussions, is to form a partnership with at least the 10 largest tournaments and their own events — Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the French Open and the Australian Open — to create a premium tour that resembles a tennis version of Formula 1. The move comes as the sport’s most powerful entities, executives and top players have come to accept that tennis in its current form does not work nearly as well as it should. Among their criticisms: it is confusing for fans to follow; hundreds of millions of dollars that ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – With a pang of nostalgia, traditionalists have noted this year’s Michigan-Ohio State game might have been the last of its kind.Stretching back to the 1970s, no rivalry in college football has been played with more at stake. This game determines legacies, alters coaching careers and, more often than not, decides the Big Ten race. This season, the stars aligned for one of the biggest Michigan–Ohio State games ever played, a 30-24 Michigan victory that put the Wolverines on track for a third consecutive trip to the College Football Playoff and left Ohio State on the outside looking in.With the Big Ten scrapping its divisions and expanding to 18 teams next season, a Michigan-Ohio State rematch in the conference championship game could become a reality. The new 12-team Colleg...

Manchester United and Chelsea share a problem they cannot hope to run away from. Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge might be able to narrate storied chapters of the Premier League’s history, but neither can project a compelling future.At least not in their current states. The famous homes of Manchester United and Chelsea have become weights that threaten to hold back their owners. They are not fit for an elite long-term purpose.The day the first bulldozers come rumbling over the horizon might not be imminent, but it has become inevitable. There is an acceptance of that reality, even from those with the onerous task of funding it all.The Premier League’s landscape will soon be modernising elsewhere, too.Plans are afoot for Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace and Manchester City to ...

From an outside perspective, Utah State’s dramatic, double-overtime, bowl-clinching 44-41 win over New Mexico on Friday may have looked like the beginning of quarterback Levi Williams’ comeback story.The third-string QB broke out with 351 all-purpose yards and five total touchdowns in his first start since 2021, and he still has one year of college eligibility left.But the dynamic performance that punched the Aggies’ ticket to bowl season is more like a fairytale ending to the closing chapter of his football book because Williams intends to forgo his final year of college eligibility to pursue a dream of becoming a Navy SEAL. Williams will complete his Master of Business Administration from USU’s business school in December.“It’s always been in my heart my entire life. My mom was Army. My ...