Human Interest

New York City Football Club will become the first Major League Soccer (MLS) club to feature a small business on their shirts as the team have gifted their sleeve sponsorship to a Bronx craft chocolate company, Reuters has learned on Monday.

NYCFC, through a contest designed to help a local business impacted by COVID-19, surprised Sol Cacao with the prime advertising space to go along with the winning prize of a full partner package.

Lionel Messi’s Instagram account recently reached 200 million followers. The account mostly just tweets out ads for the biggest brands in the world, such as adidas, Pepsi, Gatorade and SpaceScooter.

While the soccer world was turned upside down early this week with the announcement of the European Super League — and its impending demise — the non-soccer world has been glued to the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who was filmed murdering George Floyd, a Black man, in broad daylight last year.

MADRID - Barcelona forward Antoine Griezmann has been spared having to remember three different dates to mark the birthdays of each of his three children — as they were all born on April 8.

When the French World Cup winner confirmed on social media that his wife Erika Choperena had given birth to a baby daughter on Thursday, remarkably it was on the same date as their elder children, Mia (born in 2016) and Amaro (born in 2019).

BUCHAREST - Romanian assistant referee Octavian Sovre's decision to ask Borussia Dormund striker Erling Haaland to autograph his yellow and red cards raised some eyebrows but the charity that is set to benefit from a cash boost is not complaining.

"The red and yellow-signed cards which my kindergarten classmate Octavian donated to our SOS Autism Bihor center will be used for a noble cause," Simona Zlibut, who oversees a therapy center set up by parents, told Reuters.

Zlibut's own 21-year-old daughter is autistic and she says the center depends on donations.

For all of the gains LGBTQ people have made over the past few decades, sports remain a highly visible reminder that homophobia and transphobia persist.

Cádiz and Valencia’s LaLiga match at the Estadio Ramón de Carranza was briefly halted on Sunday after Los Che defender Mouctar Diakhaby was racially abused by Cádiz’s Juan Cala. 

The event took place off the ball, but video shows Diakhaby confronting Cala before being restrained by teammate Kevin Gameiro and Cádiz’s Fali. Diakhaby was booked for his actions; Cala — who was already on a yellow — wasn't punished.

This month's League Cup final between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur will be allowed to host 8,000 spectators as part of pilot events to pave the way for the return of large crowds to stadiums, the British government said on Sunday.

The final will be held at London's Wembley Stadium on April 25. It was due to be played on Feb. 28 but was pushed back in the hope that a later date would allow fans to attend.