Sports

The Dutch driver Max Verstappen took his first win of the year in a chaotic, incident-strewn Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton fought back to second place.

Lando Norris took third place after a strong weekend in the McLaren, followed by two Ferraris with Charles Leclerc and team-mate Carlos Sainz.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedez, took pole position ahead of Sergio Perez, Red Bull, in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix qualifying session. Hamilton now has 99 pole positions in his career.

Max Verstappen took the third position and Charles Leclerc put the Ferrari fourth.

According to the Kyodo news agency, Toshihiro Nikai, the secretary general of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic party, said in a television interview on Thursday that cancelling this year's Olympic Games could be an option if Covid-19 infections continue to rise.

It is the first time that a senior government figure has admitted on the record that the Tokyo competition might not go ahead should the pandemic situation in Japan intensify.

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes won the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, beating Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who put him under immense pressure. Hamilton's celebrated his 96th win in Formula 1.

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas finished third as Mercedes got a double podium finish once again. Lando Norris was fourth for McLaren ahead of Sergio Perez, who had started from the pit lane in the second Red Bull, Charles Leclerc of Ferrari and Daniel Ricciardo, of McLaren.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was 0.388 seconds quicker than Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes to take a stunning pole position at the F1 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

Valtteri Bottas was third, ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly's Alpha Tauri.

Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been handed a further six years and eight months ban from the game and fined a million Swiss francs ($1.07 million) by the body's Ethics Committee after a probe into massive bonus payments.

The latest investigation looked into World Cup bonus payments made to Blatter and some former top FIFA officials, including former general secretary Jerome Valcke, former vice-president Julio Grondona and ex-finance director Markus Kattner.

The new bans start when the current suspensions of 85-year-old Blatter and Valcke, 60, end in October 2021 and October 2025, respectively.

Team New Zealand have won the 36th America’s Cup, beating Luna Rossa 7-3 in the best-of-13 series with a dominant 46-second victory in race 10 off the coast of Auckland. The defender retained the Auld Mug, international sport’s oldest trophy, four years after beating Oracle Team USA 7-1 at the 2017 match in Bermuda. It was their fourth America’s Cup triumph after winning in 1995, 2000 and 2017.

Thomas Bach is reelected as president of the International Olympic Committee. The German lawyer was unopposed and won the vote 93-1, with four members abstaining.

Bach said Tokyo was "the best prepared Olympic city ever" and reiterated that the Games would open July 23.

He also signed future Olympic hosts Paris and Los Angeles, while Brisbane, Australia, is now being fast-tracked for 2032 -- a move aimed at avoiding expensive campaigns and allegations of vote-buying.

Joan Laporta, who was president from 2003 to 2010, was elected FC Barcelona's President with an absolute majority of 54.28% of the votes. Laporta will serve a six-year term upon taking the reins again.

"We experienced the same thing in 2003. We were losing, had a huge debt and were having to pay too many expenses and income was lower than revenue. The situation today is very similar and my formula to get out of it is very simple. We need to control expenses, restructure the debt and work to generate new sources of income," Laporta told the BBC prior to the election.

Four people were arrested on Monday morning for 'Barçagate' so far, including the club's former president Josep Maria Bartomeu, former board member Jaume Masferrer, Barça's current CEO Òscar Grau and the head of legal services, Román Gómez-Ponti.

In February 2020, Spanish broadcaster Cadena Ser revealed a scheme in which then-president Bartomeu hired the company I3Ventures, which specialises in mass dissemination of offences and misinformation on social media.

Next Sunday, on March 7, FC Barcelona will hold an election to designate the new president for the coming six years, with three candidates: former president Joan Laporta, Víctor Font and Toni Freixa.

The champion of the Chinese Football League, Jiangsu FC, ceases playing with immediate effect. This was announced by the retail giant Suning, which owns the club. Jiangsu had won the Chinese Super League title for the first time only about three months ago.

According to the group, they want to focus on the retail business in the future. Other business areas not related to the core business would be closed and scaled back. At the beginning of the month, the Group announced that it was in a difficult situation due to the Covid-19 crisis. Jiangsu has allegedly amassed around $90 million in debt.

Riccardo "Reynor" Romiti has won the IEM Katowice in Starcraft 2. The tournament is equivalent to a world championship in the tradition-steeped e-sport. The 18-year-old beat the Korean Joo "Zest" Sung-wook (28) 4:2 in the final.

Australia has taken a considerable step towards hosting their third Olympics after Brisbane was named as the International Olympic Committee’s “preferred partner” to begin talks over hosting the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2032.

Following the recommendation by its Future Host Commission, the IOC will start a targeted dialogue with the Brisbane 2032 Committee and the Australian Olympic Committee to discuss the city's potential to host the Olympic Games 2032.

Under the IOC’s revamped selection process, it is seen as the first major step towards the bid being rubber-stamped as Brisbane seeks to follow in the footsteps of Melbourne and Sydney in becoming an Olympic host city.

Following international criticism of the dress code rules for women at the beach volleyball tournament in Doha, the organizers have now withdrawn the originally planned restrictions on women's workwear. Qatar Volleyball Association (QVA) has "confirmed that there will be no restrictions on female players wearing standard uniforms during the event in Doha if they so wish" according to a spokeswoman for the world federation

According to the report by the LA County Sheriff's Department, the golf star crashed his car at 7.12 a.m. local time while travelling north alone on Hawthorne Boulevard. The vehicle sustained extensive damage, but no other vehicle was involved.

The 45-year-old had to be freed from his car with the help of a hydraulic rescue kit.

Since the awarding of the 2022 World Cup ten years ago, over 6500 guest workers have died in the host country Qatar. This is the result of an evaluation by the "Guardian", which was published on Tuesday.

According to the report, the information about the deaths comes from inquiries to the governments of the countries of origin; the victims come mainly from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

According to the newspaper, the actual death rate is probably considerably higher: The figures presented do not include workers from the Philippines and Kenya, which also make up a large number of the guest workers in Qatar, according to the Guardian. Cases from the last months of 2020 are also not included.

Luna Rossa wrapped up a comprehensive 7-1 win over Ben Ainslie's Ineos Team UK to win the America's Cup Challenger Series in Auckland.

The Italian boat won both of Sunday's races to set up next month's contest against holders Team New Zealand for the 36th America's Cup.

In January, Luna Rossa edged the USA boat American Magic out of the Prada Cup Semi-Final.

Starting from the 1980s Italy has seriously launched the challenge to the America's Cup. On two occasions, in 1992 and 2000 it won the Challenger title, but coming out defeated on both occasions. In 2021 it re-launched the challenge again with Luna Rossa, winning the final at Prada Cup that gives away the title of Challenger 2021.

Despite being a serious challenger to the America's Cup repeatedly since 1983, this is the first time Italy

The Serbian Novak Djokovic won his ninth Australia Open after a 7-5 6-2 6-2 win over Daniil Medvedev in less than two hours Sunday at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.

Djokovic celebrated his 18th Grand Slam title, leaving him two behind Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's record total of 20 Slam victories.

Japan's Naomi Osaka cemented her place as the outstanding star of the women's game by beating American Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3 in 77 minutes. The Australian Open was her fourth Grand Slam title.

"I have this mentality that people don't remember the runners-up," Osaka said. "You might, but the winner's name is the one that's engraved.

After his apology for sexist remarks failed to quell domestic and overseas outrage, Yoshiro Mori resigned his position as the president of the Tokyo Olympics Organising Committee.

Last week, Mori sparked international outrage by saying, "Board meetings with women take too long because they talk too much." The 83-year-old former prime minister of Japan later apologized, but by then, the damage had been done.

The Bayern Munich completed a sextuple of titles in the 2019-2020 season with a 1:0 win against Tigres, from Mexico. Benjamin Pavard scored the solo goal for the German side.

The other silverware for Bayern were the UEFA Champions League, the European Supercup, the Bundesliga, the German Cup and the German Supercup.

Mohamed El Shenaway saved two penalties in the shootout as Al Ahly edged Palmeiras 3-2 to finish third at the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020 after 90 minutes had ended with the score 0-0.

As FIFA prepares to turn the competition into a 24 team format to be contested in China next year, human rights supporters point out that not enough is being done to prevent the abuse of workers in this year's host country, Qatar.

FC Bayern faces Tigres UANL at this Thursday's final, and is also facing criticism, having gone as far as banning a fan for a critical banner display.

About a year after the helicopter crash that killed, among others, Kobe Bryant, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has announced that the pilot made a crucial mistake before the crash.

It said the pilot lost his bearings in the clouds of the hilly area near Los Angeles on Jan. 26, 2020. He was prohibited by law from continuing the visual flight into the clouds, but he did so anyway, the NTBS chairman said.

Shortly before the crash, he said, the pilot told air traffic controllers he was climbing with his helicopter and had almost broken through the clouds. In fact, however, the Sikorsky S-76B skidded and sank, he said.

Technical problems with the helicopter had previously been ruled out.

Yoshiro Mori, the head of the Tokyo Olympics organising committee, said last Wednesday that women talk too much and that meetings with many female board directors would "take a lot of time". Around 440 Games volunteers have quit in response to Mori's comments.

On Tuesday, the IOC added the remarks were "in contradiction" to its "commitments and the reforms of its Olympic Agenda 2020" - though it did not mention any further action against Mr Mori.

"Besides Mr Mori's apology, the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee also considers his comment to be inappropriate and has reaffirmed its commitment to gender equality," the IOC said.

Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 team have announced their much-anticipated agreement to continue racing in 2021. In the midst of the pandemic — which personally affected Hamilton — and of major technical and financial regulation changes in the sport, the two parties have agreed only to a one-year contract.

However, the cooperation between Hamilton and Mercedes is extending further from the race track. "I'm proud to say we are taking that effort further this year by launching a foundation dedicated to diversity and inclusion in the sport," stated Hamilton.

Robert Lewandowski's scored twice to help FC Bayern Munich beat the Egyptian Al Ahly SC 2-0 and book a FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020 final against Tigres UANL.

In the final on Thursday, Hansi Flick’s team will take on Mexican club Tigres, which beat Brazil’s Palmeiras 1-0 on Sunday. That made Tigres the first team from CONCACAF to reach a FIFA Club World Cup final.

Football superstar Tom Brady has added another impressive chapter to his hero story. With the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he ensures a bitter defeat of the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.

Quarterback legend Tom Brady has won the Super Bowl for the seventh time in his career and dethroned the favoured defending champion Kansas City Chiefs with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Buccaneers won on Sunday (local time) in Tampa 31:9 (21:6) and are now the first team in NFL history to celebrate the greatest triumph in American football in their own stadium.

Tigres become first Mexican side to reach FIFA Club World Cup final, after beating the Brazilian Palmeiras 1:0. Andre-Pierre Gignac scored for the Concacaf champions.

Tigres will now face the winner of the match between Bayern München versus Al Ahly, to be played Monday, February 8th.

RB Leipzig will not host Liverpool in the Champions League later this month after authorities ruled the English club cannot enter Germany because of coronavirus mutations in the UK, the Interior Ministry said Thursday. The match was set to take place in Leipzig on February 16, but the German federal police responsible for border control (the Bundespolizei) rejected RB's application for a special permit that would have allowed Jürgen Klopp's Premier League outfit to enter the country.

"The Coronavirus Protection Order agreed by the federal government last Friday envisions only a few exceptions and no special arrangements for professional athletes," the German Interior Ministry said in a statement.