Birmingham’s Juninho Bacuna has alleged he was racially abused at West Brom as boss Tony Mowbray called for stronger punishments.

The midfielder raised an incident with the fourth official Tom Nield in injury time of the 1-0 defeat at The Hawthorns.

Bacuna was seen pointing at the crowd at full-time, having also spoken to referee David Webb, while West Midlands Police are expected to launch an investigation.

“You have to have a deterrent for the guy who’s had a few drinks, he comes to the match and there’s an opportunity in his mind to shout some racial abuse,” said Mowbray, after Andreas Weimann’s late winner for Albion. “He has to think: ‘Hang on a minute’.

“You make decisions and there has to be a consequence, he shouts this thing a…

Rangers striker Kemar Roofe is set for another spell on the sidelines with a groin injury which requires a scan.

The 30-year-old came off at half-time in the 4-0 Viaplay Cup win over Livingston at Ibrox on Wednesday night.

Roofe has been bedevilled by injuries since signing for the Light Blues from Anderlecht in 2020 and ahead of the visit of Aberdeen in the cinch Premiership on Saturday, Gers boss Michael Beale confirmed the former Leeds forward would miss that game at least.

Beale said: “He is away for a scan so no news on that one at the minute. He didn’t train today with the rest of the team.

“Until we get the news back from the scan, we don’t really know what we are dealing with. It is not an area which has ever been an issue before.

…

Sergio Ramos is leaving Real Madrid, the Spanish giants confirming on Wednesday that the 35-year-old defender will hold a farewell event on Thursday.

Ramos joined Madrid from Sevilla in 2005 and went on to cement his name as a legend at Santiago Bernabeu.

During his 16-year stint with Los Blancos, Ramos has won LaLiga five times and helped Madrid to four Champions League titles.

Diminishing returns last season, mainly due to injury, mean he does not quite go out on a high, but he will nevertheless be considered as one of the club greats.

BRILLIANT IN BOTH BOXES

It is not often that a defender is known for his goalscoring exploits, but Ramos certainly bucks the trend.

Indeed, he is the only defender to score 100 goals while playing in on…

Ivory Coast interim coach Emerse Fae has warned his players it is not their “destiny” to win the Africa Cup of Nations, despite their remarkable run to a semi-final showdown with DR Congo.

Fae’s side fought back to claim a remarkable last-gasp win over Mali in the quarter-finals after being reduced to 10 men just before half-time following Odilon Kossounou’s dismissal.

Nene Dorgeles had fired Mali in front in the 71st minute, but Simon Adingra’s 90th-minute equaliser took the tie to extra time before Oumar Diakite grabbed the winner with almost the last kick of the match.

The Elephants also came from behind against Senegal in the last 16 after scraping out of their group as the last of the four best third-placed teams.

“We are aware that we ha…

Gareth Southgate praised Rico Lewis after the teenage debutant bounced back from a contentious penalty call made against him during an impressive first England appearance away to North Macedonia.

An unbeaten year that started with victory in Italy ended with a 1-1 draw away in chilly Skopje as the Euro 2020 runners-up rubberstamped their place among the top seeds for next year’s finals.

Monday’s trip to Skopje represented England’s final match on foreign soil before Euro 2024 gets under way in June, and Southgate’s side had to dig deep after falling behind to a team they beat 7-0 in June.

Lewis was unlucky to see a spot-kick awarded against him shortly after Harry Maguire survived making a clumsy challenge in the box, with Enis Bardhi scoring after Jordan…

Brazil legend Cafu believes anything other than winning the World Cup in Qatar will be deemed as a failure for the Selecao.

Tite s side breezed through World Cup qualifying as they topped the South American group after going unbeaten through their 17 games, winning 14 and drawing three.

The world s number one ranked side and five-time winners have been labelled by many as favourites to lift the World Cup come December.

Brazil, who boast the likes of Liverpool pair Alisson and Fabinho, along with Paris Saint-Germain duo Neymar and Marquinhos, have been drawn into a group with Serbia, Switzerland and Cameroon.

However, the Selecao have not appeared in a World Cup final since 2002, when they won the competition, with the last four editions seeing European t…

Leah Williamson is part of the England squad for next month’s Euro 2025 qualifiers against Sweden and the Republic of Ireland.

The Arsenal defender returned to the international fold in February for the first time in nine months having recovered from an anterior cruciate ligament injury, but subsequently had to withdraw before friendlies against Austria and Italy due to a hamstring issue.

Chelsea’s Fran Kirby is also back, having missed the games in February after pulling up in the pre-Austria warm-up with a knee problem, while club mate Millie Bright remains out injured.

Here we go!

The selected for our upcoming qualifiers…

— Lionesses (@Lionesses)

Maya Le Tissier misses out, with fellow Manchester United defender Millie Turne…

Callum McGregor spoke of Celtic being at a “crossroads” following their shock Viaplay Cup exit to Kilmarnock on Sunday.

The Hoops captain did not like what he witnessed from last season’s treble winners at Rugby Park, where Marley Watkins’ second-half goal sparked an unlikely post-mortem into Celtic’s last-16 demise.

Boss Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham at the end of the season after completing the clean sweep and winger Jota and defender Carl Starfelt have also gone, while returning manager Brendan Rodgers was without Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Reo Hatate and Oh Hyeon-gyu for the trip to Ayrshire.

Rodgers gave a debut to Swedish defender Gustaf Lagerbielke alongside fellow new signing Maik Nawrocki, with a first start for summer rec…

England made it two wins from two in World Cup qualifying as they secured a 2-0 victory against Albania in Tirana on Sunday evening.

It took until the 38th minute of the game for the Three Lions to finally find an opener as Harry Kane nodded in Luke Shaw s cross. Mason Mount then doubled the lead just after the break as he got on the end of a cool ball from Kane and caressed a great finish into the far corner to secure the three points for Gareth Southgate s men.

Here are three things we learned from the game:

Kane back on the England goal trail

Despite Kane s stunning season for Tottenham Hotspur in 2020/21 in which he has managed to find the net on 27 occasions in all competitions, it was somewhat of a surprise to find out that he had not scored for his natio…