Human Interest

BARCELONA — Brazilian soccer player Dani Alves can be released from jail on a $1.1 million bail while he appeals his rape conviction, after serving about a quarter of his four-and-a-half-year sentence, a Barcelona court ruled on Wednesday.

The conditions for Alves' release include relinquishing both his Brazilian and Spanish passports so he cannot leave Spain as well as an obligation to appear before the court on a weekly basis or whenever summoned.

The court also imposed a restraining order barring Alves from coming within 3,300 feet of the victim.

Tottenham Hotspur and Brazil forward Richarlison said players must rise above the stigma and seek psychological help for mental health issues, ahead of Saturday's international friendly against England.

The 26-year-old, who is set to earn his 50th cap for Brazil in friendly matches against England and Spain, opened up about how therapy helped him find his rhythm again.

Player-to-player relationships within the same squad are inappropriate and can lead to significant challenges for managers, Chelsea coach Emma Hayes said.

Reports in British media this week said Leicester coach Willie Kirk is under investigation by the club amid allegations of a player-coach relationship.

Asked about the need to safeguard players, Hayes told reporters: "Player-coach relationships - they're inappropriate, player-to-player relationships are inappropriate."

Emma Hayes relationships quote

Chelsea forward Sam Kerr has the Women's Super League club's "full support", manager Emma Hayes said with the Australia captain set to face trial in the UK having been accused of racially aggravated harassment of a police officer last year.

Kerr was charged on Jan. 21, almost a year after the incident in London was alleged to have occurred. The 30-year-old pleaded not guilty via video link at Kingston Crown Court on Monday.

MELBOURNE — Australia captain Sam Kerr will face trial in the UK accused of the racially aggravated harassment of a police officer in London over a year ago.

Chelsea forward Kerr, one of the world's most recognizable women footballers and a sporting idol in her home nation, was charged on Jan. 21, almost a year after the incident was alleged to have occurred.

"The charge relates to an incident involving a police officer who was responding to a complaint involving a taxi fare on 30 January 2023 in Twickenham," the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

BARCELONA — Brazilian footballer Dani Alves was convicted of raping a woman in the restroom of a Barcelona nightclub in 2022 and sentenced to 4-1/2 years in prison on Thursday, which he will appeal.

The top court in Spain's Catalonia region also ordered Alves, who has been jailed on remand for over a year and repeatedly changed his story, to pay $163,000 to the victim.

Inter Miami will be the last club Luis Suarez plays for, the Uruguay striker said on Thursday.

Suarez, 37, signed a contract with the Major League Soccer side last year for the 2024 season after a stint with Brazilian club Gremio.

He reunited with former Barcelona team mates Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, with whom he won four LaLiga titles in five years in Spain.

""Inter Miami will be my last club, my family already know that. I don't have a date yet, but it's the last step," Suarez said in an interview with Uruguayan radio station Del Sol.

AMSTERDAM — A Dutch court on Wednesday sentenced Spartak Moscow forward Quincy Promes to six years in prison in absentia for drug trafficking.

Former Dutch international Promes did not attend court hearings in Amsterdam and is not expected to return to the Netherlands in the foreseeable future.

Prosecutors last month sought a nine year sentence for Promes, for his involvement in the smuggling of 1,360kg (2,998 pounds) of cocaine through the port of Antwerp, Belgium, to the Netherlands in two shipments in 2020.

Quincy Promes cocaine sentencing