分类： sports

A proposed move to bring former Irish football star Robbie Keane in as the next manager of Scottish Premiership champions Celtic has triggered widespread vocal and public pushback from the club’s pro-Palestine supporter base, over Keane’s decision to remain in his role at Israeli top-flight side Maccabi Tel Aviv after the outbreak of the latest Gaza conflict. Keane, who remains the Republic of Ireland’s all-time leading goalscorer and previously enjoyed a successful loan spell at Parkhead back in 2010, has emerged as the top candidate for the vacant managerial post, with reports confirming he has already entered direct talks with Celtic’s majority principal shareholder Dermot Desmond. What was shaping up as a potential popular homecoming for the fan-favorite former player has quickly turned into a major controversy, however, rooted in Keane’s 2023-2024 tenure at Maccabi Tel Aviv. Keane was first appointed to lead the Israeli side in June 2023, months before the October 7 Hamas attacks that prompted Israel’s large-scale military campaign in Gaza. Rather than stepping down from his role immediately after the conflict began, Keane chose to see out the full domestic season, guiding Maccabi Tel Aviv to a domestic league and cup double before resigning in 2024 and taking the top job at Hungarian side Ferencvaros in 2025. He has previously defended his decision to stay, noting he felt a professional responsibility to the coaching and backroom staff he had brought with him to the club. For a large and vocal segment of Celtic’s supporter base, that choice is unacceptable. Celtic fans have longstanding and well-documented commitments to Palestinian solidarity, regularly displaying large Palestine flags at club matches throughout the ongoing conflict. In recent weeks, as rumors of Keane’s impending appointment have spread, opponents have taken visible action to make their anger known: anti-Keane graffiti and protest banners have already appeared around the perimeter of Celtic’s Glasgow stadium, Parkhead. A formal statement coordinated by the group Celtic Fans for the Liberation of Palestine argues that hiring Keane would create deep, lasting division among the club’s global support base. As of press time, 67 separate Celtic supporter groups have publicly endorsed the anti-Keane statement, via the popular North Curve Celtic account on the social platform X. The statement emphasizes that Celtic’s own founding identity is rooted in solidarity with oppressed and displaced communities: the club was established in 1887 by Irish immigrant communities in Glasgow, who carried direct intergenerational memories of the Great Famine and colonial displacement. “Celtic supporters have a long and proud history of solidarity with the Palestinian people,” the statement reads. “For us, Robbie Keane’s decision to manage Maccabi Tel Aviv during the genocide in Gaza is impossible to ignore. To choose to manage a club in Israel while, less than 40 miles away, the same country was using indiscriminate weapons of mass murder against defenceless people is unconscionable. Celtic was founded by a community shaped by the legacy of genocide, displacement and famine. Our club’s roots lie in solidarity with those who suffered injustice and oppression. We urge the Celtic board to listen to supporters’ concerns and reconsider this appointment.” The vacancy for the managerial role opened up at the end of the 2024-2025 season, with interim manager Martin O’Neill, 74, stepping in to guide the club to a Scottish Premiership title and Scottish Cup victory on a temporary basis after the departure of the previous permanent manager.

Tennis icon Serena Williams is continuing her highly anticipated return to professional tennis, with organizers of the Berlin WTA Open confirming Friday that the 44-year-old American will compete in the tournament’s women’s doubles draw this June. This marks the next stop on Williams’ comeback trail, nearly four years after she stepped away from full-time competitive play.

In an official statement released alongside the announcement, Williams emphasized the significance of adding each new stop to her comeback schedule. “Every tournament I add to my schedule right now is special, and Berlin is no exception,” she said. “I look forward to playing in front of the German crowd and continuing to build momentum for the grass-court season.” Organizers noted that Williams’ doubles partner will be revealed at a later date, as preparations for the event continue to take shape.

The confirmation comes just days after Williams announced her return to the tour earlier this week, confirming she will kick off her comeback at London’s Queen’s Club tournament, which gets underway on June 8. The Berlin Open, hosted in Germany’s capital, is scheduled to open its doors on June 15, serving as a key traditional warm-up event for the 2025 Wimbledon Championships that kick off on June 29. This year’s edition of the Berlin tournament already boasts an incredibly competitive field, with nine of the top 10 players on the WTA tour set to compete at the west Berlin venue.

Williams’ most recent full-time tour appearance came more than two years ago, when she bowed out in the third round of the 2022 US Open, in what was widely expected to be her final professional tournament. After stepping away to focus on other pursuits and family, her surprise comeback has sent shockwaves of excitement through the global tennis community.

Following the Berlin event, Williams will have two additional pre-Wimbledon tune-up tournaments to refine her form: one in Bad Homburg, Germany, and another in Eastbourne, England, before she competes at the All England Club. For Williams, Wimbledon has long been one of the most successful stops of her legendary career: she has claimed seven singles titles and six doubles titles at the grass-court Grand Slam over the course of decades on the tour.

Defending National Rugby League premiers Brisbane Broncos are fighting to rescue their disappointing season, and that fight has forced head coach Michael Maguire to make a difficult call: dropping star five-eighth Ezra Mam from the starting lineup ahead of this weekend’s critical clash against the Gold Coast Titans.

Maguire has made it clear that the decision to move Mam to an extended reserves bench, promoting 23-year-old playmaker Tom Duffy into the starting halves combination for Saturday’s Suncorp Stadium showdown, is rooted purely in recent on-field form, not personal preference or locker room tension. The premiership-winning playmaker has struggled through a rocky start to the 2024 season, currently sitting atop the league’s rankings for most missed tackles and failing to deliver the dynamic attacking output that helped the Broncos claim the premiership last year. His poor form came to a head last weekend, when Brisbane suffered a humiliating home loss to the St George Illawarra Dragons — a side that had yet to register a win all season heading into the round.

Beyond his spot in the Broncos side, Mam’s demotion also puts his place in the Queensland Maroons squad for the upcoming State of Origin II match on June 17 in serious jeopardy.

In a press conference outlining his team selection, Maguire pushed back against any suggestion that the axing was a disciplinary move or a sign he has lost confidence in the star playmaker. “You make decisions around what you feel is right for the team. Obviously, Ezra’s been going through a rough patch with his form, and Tom Duffy has been turning out strong, consistent performances in reserve grade,” Maguire explained. “I’ve always believed that when a player is performing well, they deserve an opportunity to prove themselves at the top level. This is just a rough patch that Ezra is going through right now. He’s gone back to the training ground and has been working incredibly hard to fix his errors.”

The coach noted that form slumps are a normal part of every elite athlete’s career, and how Mam responds to this setback will ultimately define his contribution to the team for the rest of the season. “Every player may go through that, or will go through that, at some stage in their career. It’s all about how you respond,” he said. “He’s fine with the call, he understands why I made it. I’m always very transparent about what I expect from the players, and to be honest, he knows his own game better than anyone. That self-awareness is a good thing.

“This is just a chance for him to step back, put in the work in training, and get back to the level of play that we know ‘Ez’ is capable of. He’s a quality player … that’s exactly why he’s still in the match day squad on the bench. We’ll see how the game unfolds, and he’ll be ready if we need him.”

Brisbane will already be missing two key players for Saturday’s clash: forward Pat Carrigan and utility back Gehamat Shibasaki, both sidelined with injury. Maguire is demanding a marked improvement from his side after the insipid performance against the Dragons that extended their losing run to four straight games, leaving the side at serious risk of tumbling out of the top eight finals race if they drop to five consecutive defeats.

After the final whistle against the Dragons, star prop Payne Haas publicly called out his side’s lack of effort and fight, a criticism that Maguire says he fully supports. “I have no issue with what Payne said. We all share the same belief in this group, we all know what this team is capable of, but at the end of the day, you have to go out and show that on the field,” Maguire said. “We’ve had glimpses of our best form over the last couple of months, but we haven’t been able to put it together week in, week out. That’s the problem we have to fix, and we need to fix it fast. I know this group is capable of playing far better than we have been recently.”

Wests Tigers head coach Benji Marshall has publicly thrown his support behind star prop Terrell May, urging the forward to keep speaking openly after May’s bombshell comments that his loyalty lies exclusively with Marshall — not the club itself.

In an appearance on the Unscripted podcast, May pulled no punches when discussing his stance on institutional loyalty in professional rugby league. “Benji showed a great deal of loyalty to me,” May explained. “I know it sounds harsh, and it will probably get taken out of context, but I will never pledge full loyalty to any club again. At the end of the day, every club operates as a business. My loyalty is to Benji, not the organization.”

May doubled down on the clear stance: “As long as Benji remains at the Tigers, I will stay here for good. But if the club ever let Benji go, my loyalty to him means I would leave too.”

The prop has built a reputation for unfiltered, honest commentary in media appearances, a trait Marshall is determined to protect at a time when most elite athletes are trained to stick to generic, risk-free talking points.

Speaking to media on Friday morning, Marshall pushed back on criticism of May’s remarks, arguing professional rugby league sends a mixed message to its players. “It’s a strange dynamic, isn’t it? As a sport, we all say we want players to be honest, show their true personalities and express themselves openly. But when they actually do that and tell the unvarnished truth, a lot of people end up uncomfortable with it,” Marshall said.

“One of the things I love most about Terrell is that he is unapologetically himself. We want him to keep being open, we love that he tells it like it is — even if that truth rubs some people the wrong way. What he says is his choice, and I fully encourage him to share how he really feels. Loyalty is a two-way street, after all. It means everything to me, and that’s the kind of honesty I want from my squad.”

The controversy around May’s comments comes as the Tigers prepare for a high-stakes Sunday afternoon clash against competition favorites the Panthers. The match also looms as a critical opportunity for hooker Api Koroisau, who is fighting for a State of Origin recall to replace injured Cronulla star Blayke Brailey.

A key talking point heading into the game is the availability of 18-year-old teenage sensation Heamasi Makasini, who has been named in the match day squad just one week after leaving the field early with a shoulder injury. Makasini’s return itself came only a week prior, after he spent more than a month on the sidelines with a foot injury sustained in round 7.

Makasini did not return to the pitch for the second half of last weekend’s match against the Bulldogs, but his first 40 minutes of play impressed Marshall, even after a shaky performance against Brisbane that included multiple uncharacteristic errors. Initial fears that the forward had suffered a serious AC joint injury proved unfounded, Marshall confirmed.

“We thought the AC injury was worse than it actually turned out to be. He was able to do light training all week, so he’s perfectly fit to play this weekend,” Marshall said. “I thought he was really good last week. He brought incredible energy to the pitch, he was playing against Stephen Crichton, who he’s looked up to for years, and he played with real intent right from the kickoff. He just picked up a little knock halfway through, that’s all.”

Marshall added that the brief time off the pitch has been a net positive for the young player, who is still adjusting to the intensity of top-flight first-grade rugby league. “I think that little break did him a world of good. He’s only 18, so sometimes as a coach you have to know when to give a young player a short spell to reset. This break came at exactly the right time for him to come back fresh, and he’s looked sharp all week in training.”

The National Basketball Association has handed down permanent bans to two individuals, including a teenager who stormed the playing court last week during the opening game of the NBA Finals in San Antonio, all in an attempt to snap a selfie with San Antonio Spurs superstar Victor Wembanyama, league officials confirmed Thursday.

The disruptive incident unfolded midway through the fourth quarter of Game 1 at the Frost Bank Center, where the New York Knicks held on to secure a win over the Spurs in the first matchup of the championship series. Witnesses and game footage show the unidentified juvenile fan ran across the court with a smartphone held high, stopping directly in front of Wembanyama and Knicks center Mitchell Robinson before security personnel could intervene. The pair of star players appeared taken aback by the uninvited intrusion, before guards quickly removed the fan from the playing surface and paused the contest for several minutes.

Per official statement from an NBA spokesperson, the individual who entered restricted court space was taken into custody by local law enforcement immediately after the incident, and will be barred indefinitely from entering any NBA-owned or operated arena across the league. A second individual, who aided the fan in planning or executing the court breach, will also receive the same lifetime ban, the spokesperson added.

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office confirmed to local outlet the San Antonio Express-News that the primary suspect is a minor, so his identity will remain protected under juvenile privacy laws. He still faces two misdemeanor charges: intentionally disrupting a lawful public gathering and criminal trespassing, as event signage clearly prohibits unauthorized entry onto the playing court.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Wembanyama shared that the encounter left him caught off guard, a reaction he compared to a bizarre incident from his rookie season. “I’ve never been in that situation,” the French 7-foot-4 phenom explained. “I didn’t know how to act. It really surprised me, almost as much as that time a bat crossed the court.” That earlier 2023-24 season incident at the same arena saw a stray bat fly across the playing surface mid-game, creating an unexpected disruption.

Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson downplayed the severity of the encounter in his post-game remarks, noting that security handled the situation quickly and efficiently. “I don’t think it was an event at all,” Johnson said. “I thought security got him out of there. I think everybody moved on to the next play.”

Beyond the court storming, the league is also investigating a separate separate incident involving another fan and Knicks star point guard Jalen Brunson during the closing minutes of Game 1. Broadcast footage captured Brunson engaged in a heated verbal exchange with a courtside fan, after which he complained about the individual’s behavior to veteran referee Scott Foster. The Athletic reports league officials are currently reviewing whether the fan engaged in inappropriate taunting of Brunson, with potential disciplinary action pending the outcome of the probe.