After 90 minutes of gripping football in Paris, the VAR in this morning’s Champions League game decided that everyone needed to hear from him because the game had not had enough controversy.
PSG defender Presnel Kimpembe leapt to block a shot which deflected out for a corner off his arm, seemingly innocuous, most players barely registered a half-hearted appeal before the VAR became the least popular person in France, which, considering they were playing an English side is a massive achievement.
Anyway, Marcus Rashford held his nerve through the delay, scored the penalty and sent United through to the Quarter Finals on away goals.
As Sir Alex Ferguson once said, “Football, bloody hell.”
This is the moment that sealed progression to the #UCL final eight for Manchester United.#PSGMUN #UCL #OptusSport pic.twitter.com/cYPh1ca8Bq
— Optus Sport (@OptusSport) March 6, 2019
Not content to let the game in Paris have all the headlines, a VAR decision helped decide the clash in Portugal as well as FC Porto defeated Roma thanks to a late Alex Telles penalty in extra time.
Incredible.
The moment that sends Porto into the final eight of the #UCL.
Porto 3-1 Roma (4-3 on aggregate)#FCPASR #UCL #OptusSport pic.twitter.com/paFUBUzokC
— Optus Sport (@OptusSport) March 6, 2019
-With James Caughlin
They may sing “Up, Up Cronulla” but the only thing that’s “Up, Up Cronulla” is what the club owes to their creditors.
The Australian is reporting that the Sharks lost $3.262 million in 2018 which was actually an improvement on 2017.
Brent Read from The Australian writes “The Sharks exist on the smell of an oily rag, mounting losses off-set by mounting loans,”
The article also suggests that the Sharks owe $1.5 million to private lenders due next week along with another $2.5 million due to be paid in March next year.
The Sharks have also copped heavy fines from the NRL, have been caught with salary cap breaches dating back to 2013 (although it didn’t affect their 2016 title) and coach Shane Flanagan was deregistered by the NRL.
The @Cronulla_Sharks were ‘systematically cheating’ when they won the title, Paul Kent said on #NRL360.
Read here: https://t.co/k0BaijLXb7 pic.twitter.com/8PeiUEWKwl
— FOX LEAGUE (@FOXNRL) March 6, 2019
Jack de Belin is set to launch legal action against the ARL Commission on the grounds of misleading and deceptive conduct.
FOX Sports is reporting that the Dragons and de Belin as applicants against the ARL Commission and the NRL with de Belin himself footing the legal bill, not St.George-Illawarra.
De Belin was sacked by NRL CEO Todd Greenberg last week under the games ‘no fault stand down’ policy as a result of him pleading not guilty of aggravated sexual assault in an incident back in Wollongong before Christmas.
De Belin is seeking to restrain the NRL from introducing this policy.
He will appear in the Federal Court of Australia on Tuesday.
It’s just another day of off-field scandal for the NRL.
The season can’t come soon enough.
.@badel_cmail with the latest news on Jack de Belin who’s taking the ARL Commission to Federal Court tomorrow to fight suspension. #NRLTonight pic.twitter.com/FPbikTT11f
— FOX SPORTS News (@FOXSportsNews) March 6, 2019
One week into using them during the JLT Community series, the AFL is ditching the expensive LED signs that were meant to be used to display to players during games.
Reason being? No one could see them in the sun.
Genius!
The AFL has requested clubs return the screens and cost nearly $5000 each. They also took weeks to be delivered from overseas.
“We didn’t use the message board on the weekend because we knew that they wouldn’t work.”
And now the expensive LED screens are heading for the scrap heap.https://t.co/3V7ph1XHko
— FOX FOOTY (@FOXFOOTY) March 6, 2019
They also weighed around seven kilos each resulting in complaints from clubs about how heavy they are.
It’s just another thing to add to the scrap-heap of crap ideas the AFL has come up with in recent years.
might struggle to enjoy any AFL story more than this for the year 😂😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/jvunSUAU68
— Len (@lenphil29) March 6, 2019