Sports

LUXEMBOURG (AP) — The European Court has ruled against a Barcelona fan group in France that demanded that the European Commission should investigate whether Paris Saint-Germain unfairly signed Lionel Messi and jeopardized Barcelona’s finances. The court in Luxembourg decided that the European Commission does not have to accept the group as an interested party and

By HANNA ARHIROVA Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian tennis player and Olympic bronze medalist Elina Svitolina has pushed for a total ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Paris Games in an interview with The Associated Press. Svitolina won her bronze medal in singles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She

By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer GENEVA (AP) — The International Olympic Committee has pushed back against the mayor of Paris by insisting there are no plans for “a Russian or Belarusian delegation” at the 2024 Games while also acknowledging that some athletes from those countries could be welcomed. The IOC statement came a day

By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer Sweden’s Olympic leaders are weighing up whether to bid for the Winter Games in 2030. The Nordic country’s potential entry into the race to stage the 2030 Games comes at a time when the International Olympic Committee has delayed the process and is searching around for more contenders to

By DAVID BRANDT AP Sports Writer PHOENIX (AP) — It’s likely the only time football fans will see Kansas City’s Chad Henne or Philadelphia’s Gardner Minshew during the Super Bowl will be on the sideline. But this is the NFL and sometimes things don’t go according to plan. That’s why the backup quarterbacks for the

By TERESA M. WALKER AP Pro Football Writer The rash of quarterback injuries in the NFL made developing a game plan even more challenging. Game week preparations are still geared to developing offensive schemes around the projected starter and opponents plotting to derail  those plans. But everyone is well aware how quickly that can change.

By DOUG FEINBERG AP Basketball Writer Brittney Griner texted her good friend Diana Taurasi on Tuesday asking how the USA Basketball training camp was going. Griner was back in Arizona, choosing to skip the camp in Minnesota so she can be with her wife and recover from her time in a Russian jail. She was

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina coach Dawn Staley has strongly defended her team in response to comments by UConn coach Geno Auriemma after the top-ranked Gamecocks’ 81-77 victory over the Huskies on Sunday. Staley spoke on her radio call-in show Tuesday night, saying she’s angry when her team is wrongly criticized for its success.

By The Associated Press Kareem Abdul-Jabbar passed Wilt Chamberlain for the NBA’s career scoring lead on April 5, 1984 during a game against the Utah Jazz in Las Vegas. The Associated Press, as part of its coverage of LeBron James’ pursuit of Abdul-Jabbar’s record, is looking back at Abdul-Jabbar’s historic night.

MERIBEL, France (AP) — Marta Bassino has won the women’s super-G to give Italy its second gold medal at the Alpine skiing world championships and Mikaela Shiffrin took silver. Shiffrin led Bassino by three-tenths of a second at the second split but couldn’t match the Italian’s pace in the last part of the Roc de

MUNICH (AP) — Bayern Munich has signed goalkeeping coach Michael Rechner from Bundesliga rival Hoffenheim to replace the fired Toni Tapalović. The Bavarian club says the 42-year-old Rechner was joining the team’s staff but didn’t give any details regarding the length of his contract. Bayern fired Tapalović on Jan. 23 because of what sporting director

By STEPHEN WHYNO AP Hockey Writer A bizarre scene unfolded in a low-level minor hockey league over the weekend: The home team didn’t show up. The visiting team from Quad City took the ice for warmups at the arena in Danville, Illinois, for a Southern Professional Hockey League game at the Vermilion County Bobcats. Fans

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — The coach who led the Croatian national soccer team to the semifinals of the 1998 World Cup in France has died. Miroslav “Ciro” Blazevic was 87. His family and friends say Blazevic died at a Zagreb hospital after a long battle with prostate cancer. Blazevic was known as the “coach of

By JOSH DUBOW AP Pro Football Writer This year’s Super Bowl features a rare matchup of the NFL’s top two teams from the regular season. The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs were the league’s only 14-game winners, marking just the sixth time since the 1970 merger that the squads with sole possession of the

SINSHEIM, Germany (AP) — American coach Pellegrino Matarazzo has been hired by Bundesliga club Hoffenheim. It comes four months after he was fired by another German club, Stuttgart. The New Jersey-born Matarazzo spent just over two years at Hoffenheim as an assistant coach and youth coach from 2017 through 2019 before taking the Stuttgart job.

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN AP Sports Writer BRUSSELS (AP) — Domenico Tedesco has been appointed head coach of Belgium’s national team. The Belgian federation says the 37-year-old Tedesco, who previously coached Schalke 04, Spartak Moscow and Leipzig, has signed a deal until after the European Championship next year in Germany. He replaces Roberto Martinez, who guided