Emmanuel Petit believes Middle East investment in Paris-Saint Germain has killed the competitive element of Ligue 1.

The French top flight was regarded as one of the less predictable in European football with Bordeaux (2009), Marseille (2010), Lille (2011) and Montpellier (2012) all winning the league prior to Qatar Sports Investment (QSI) completing their buy out of the capital club.

Since then PSG have claimed the title in each of the past three years and are odds-on favourites to retain it again having established a five-point lead at the top of the table after nine games.

QSI s vast investment has seen the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Angel Di Maria, Javier Pastore and Thiago Silva all join the Parc des Princes club and Petit believes it is harming the Fren…

It was a breathless game at Stamford Bridge on Sunday as Chelsea and Liverpool played out an entertaining 2-2 draw that saw Manchester City emerge as the biggest winners.

An exciting encounter that many will say was a great advert for the Premier League was in reality more an example of why there is unlikely to be any excitement in this year s title race.

Both teams showed immense quality at times, especially in scoring their goals, but also evidenced numerous weaknesses that simply do not exist at City, or at least not to the same extent, though it must be said that both were missing key players through suspension, injury and/or COVID-19 – or were just dropped for talking too much.

The headlines were already being written as the visitors took a 2-0 lead in the…

Former Real Madrid forward Julio Baptista said Zidane Zidane has earned the right to continue in his role as manager of the European champions.

Madrid missed out on La Liga success in 2015-16 but they made up for their domestic failure by winning the Champions League under Zidane s leadership in May.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winning penalty as Madrid defeated Atletico Madrid on penalties in Milan, after Zidane replaced the cautious Rafael Benitez in January.

Given the notoriously trigger-happy hierarchy in Madrid, nothing is ever certain at the Santiago Bernabeu, but Baptista who helped the Spanish capital club to La Liga glory in 2008  told Omnisport: I think he has the confidence of everyone to continue working.

The players respect him, the fans l…

LaLiga will request greater jurisdiction to punish clubs whose fans are guilty of racist abuse after feeling “powerless” at the lack of current sanctions in the wake of the latest Vinicius Junior incident.

The Spanish league is engulfed in a racism scandal after Real Madrid forward Vinicius was allegedly subjected to racist chants during Sunday’s game at Valencia and later claimed it was an example of “continuous episodes spread across several cities in Spain”.

LaLiga, according to the country’s law, can currently only identify and report incidents, and punishment is rarely handed out.

A cada rodada fora de casa uma surpresa desagradável. E foram muitas nessa temporada. Desejos de morte, boneco enforcado, muitos gritos criminosos… Tudo registrado.<…

Spain s modern-day international supremacy has twice hit a crisis point. One appeared less than two years ago, as the shame-faced world champions were left battered and bruised in Brazil. The other? An almost-forgotten friendly defeat to Romania that changed their fortunes forever.

On November 15, 2006, Spain lined up in Cadiz amid huge uncertainty over their international future. Just months after they were well beaten by France at the World Cup, back-to-back defeats to Northern Ireland and Sweden left them facing a battle to reach Euro 2008. Romania had lost once in a year.

Whistles from the fans had begun to grow in volume long before Ciprian Marica scored the only goal of the game. A team featuring Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Cesc Fabregas, Xabi Alonso and David Sil…

Newcastle United are interested in signing Barcelona winger Raphinha, according to . The report in the Spanish publication has claimed that Newcastle wanted to sign the former Leeds United star in the summer of 2023 and remain keen on the Brazil international.

Barcelona are not going to sell Raphinha in the middle of the season, but the La Liga champions could cash in on the winger at the end of the season if his performance levels do not improve. The 26-year-old has made three starts and six substitute appearances in La Liga for Barca this season, scoring two goals and providing one assist in those games.

Newcastle are seventh in the Premier League table at the moment with 20 points from 12 matches, six points behind fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur. Meanwhile, Barcelon…

Fikayo Tomori joked he does not purposely reserve all of his goals for Milan s clashes with Juventus after netting again in the famous fixture to help his side to a 2-0 win.

The England international opened the scoring from a few yards out in Saturday s Serie A contest after inadvertently blocking a goal-bound Olivier Giroud volley.

That was Tomori s second league goal for Milan, with the other coming in a 3-0 victory for the Rossoneri against the same opposition in May 2021.

Among players to have scored 100 per cent of their Serie A goals against Juve, Tomori is one of three to have scored more than once, alongside Luigi Carello and Francesco Duzioni.

Brahim Diaz added a second goal for Milan with a superb solo effort that started inside his own half, an…

Barcelona s victory over Real Sociedad at Reale Arena on Thursday was crucial for the future of the club , according to coach Xavi. 

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored the only goal of the game as Barca defeated La Real 1-0, moving up to second in LaLiga increasing their advantage over fifth-placed Real Betis to six points. 

It was the Blaugrana s only attempt on target across the entire game and they had 44.3 per cent possession – their second-lowest amount since 2005-06 – with poor finishing from Alexander Sorloth and Alexander Isak letting the visitors off the hook. 

Barca are now unbeaten in their past 13 LaLiga away games, which is their best such run since April 2019. 

Xavi was pleased with the fact their win came against a top-four rival, eve…

Anti-discrimination body Kick It Out received a 65.1 per cent rise in reports of discriminatory behaviour during the 2022-23 season – with reports of sexism and misogyny up 400 per cent.

Figures released by the organisation show 1,007 reports were made during the campaign from the grassroots and professional games and across social media, which Kick It Out puts down in part to an “increased awareness” of reporting procedures and fans becoming “less tolerant” of discriminatory behaviour.

Reports of online abuse rose by 279 per cent, with the organisation receiving 207 more reports related to online forums and social media than in the previous 12 months.

Racism was the most common form of discrimination, accounting for just under half (49.3 per cent) of a…

Manchester City and Leicester City will look to close the gap on Premier League leaders Liverpool in matchweek 18, with the Foxes bidding to maintain their fine away form.

Brendan Rodgers side, currently 10 points behind Jurgen Klopp s Reds, have won their last four away games in the top flight by a margin of 17-1, and they face a City side looking to bounce back at home after being beaten by United in the Manchester derby.

Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho has not lost any of his 13 home games against clubs he has previously been in charge of and he will be looking to maintain that run against Chelsea, while Danny Ings and Teemu Pukki have personal milestones in their sights when Southampton and Norwich City face Aston Villa and Wolves respectively.

Elsewhere, Ever…