Sports

Sir Alex Ferguson was deeply affronted by the Manchester United Football Club supporters who got stroppy about the proposed takeover of the huge English Premier League club he then managed by the US corporate raider, Malcolm Glazer, in 2004.

鈥淭hey carried on to the degree where they actually thought they should have a say in the running of the football club,鈥 exclaimed the outraged manager.

Ferguson got to the core of things by starkly asking just whose club it is.

The AFL Women鈥檚 second season is now in full swing. Launched on February 2, the Carlton-Collingwood聽game聽repeated the large crowds that greeted the start of last year鈥檚 inaugural season. After two rounds, Carlton, the Western Bulldogs and Melbourne remain unbeaten in the eight-team competition. As the season heats up, Jackie Lynch offers some hot tips for what to expect in the AFLW over the coming weeks. She will also tell you how to win 3000 Sam Newman Bobbleheads!

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This winter has been extremely cold in South Korea, with temperatures regularly reaching well below -10掳C 鈥 perhaps another sign of climate change.

Eleven women from Britain and Germany travelled to the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank in October on a tour of friendship, solidarity and football.

The promise of participants in the 鈥淔reedom Through Football鈥 tour was to share with the wider world the truth of life in Palestine. In particular, it was to highlight the story of women who play football in a country where football for women is far from a cultural norm.

The Billonaires鈥 Club: The Unstoppable Rise of Football鈥檚 Super-Rich Owners
James Montague
Bloomsbury, 2017
330 pages

At this stage of the 2017 English Premier League (EPL) season, it looks like one of the two Manchester teams will win the championship 鈥 and with barely a Mancunian between them. Both Manchester United and Manchester City have overseas owners, overseas managers and overseas-dominated player lists.

There has been a flurry of articles recently proclaiming that NFL player protests against racism and police brutality were winding down and entering a new stage: what聽 moving 鈥渇rom protest to progress鈥.

Then along came Bob McNair.

United States President Donald Trump has tried to focus the nation鈥檚 ire on anti-racist Black athletes. He tried to demonise them on the highest possible stage, calling for them to lose their jobs.

His transparent aim was to find a bogeyman to distract people from a cascade of scandal and failed legislation, and his administration鈥檚 disastrous response to the suffering in Puerto Rico.

Well, the results of this idiotic effort are in.

Tony Abbott cannot take a trick.

First, Abbott condemned the NRL for 鈥減oliticising鈥 sport 鈥 for having US hip hop performer Macklemore as its pre-show entertainment for the October 1 grand final. But far from the NRL backing down, all the ex-PM achieved was sending Macklemore鈥檚 2013 song in support of marriage equality 鈥淪ame Love鈥 to number 1 on iTunes 鈥 four years after it originally hit number 1 on the ARIA charts.

One year ago, Colin Kaepernick, then-quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers National Football League team, refused to stand for the US national anthem, famously kneeling instead. He was alone in his protest.

Over the weekend of September 23-24, tens of millions of football fans watched on TV as 200 mostly Black players knelt or raised their fists while the national anthem was sung. The rest of their teams stood in solidarity with their right to protest, arm-in-arm. In some cases, entire teams stayed in the locker room while the anthem played.

Women footballers in Australia, playing in the W-League, will receive a sizeable pay rise and improved employment conditions after a landmark collective bargaining agreement on September 11 between Football Federation Australia, W-League clubs and the players鈥 union, the Professional Footballers Australia (PFA).

Aboriginal AFL star Leon Davis has backed up the allegations made by his former Collingwood teammate Heritier Lumumba about racism inside the club, saying he 鈥渟hared his pain and grief鈥 as a Black man.

Football players, past and present, have spoken out on the case of Santiago Maldonado, an indigenous rights activist who has not been seen since Border Force officers violently broke up a protest by a Mapuche community in Argentina鈥檚 Patagonia region on August 1.