Ferdinand signs new United deal

• Ferdinand was coming to end of his contact this summer• Defender tweeted: 'living the dream. Roll on next season'Rio Ferdinand has signed a new one-year contract at Manchester United. The centre-back, who was out of contract in the summer, has made 432 appearances since his United debut in 2002 and won his sixth Premier League medal with the club this season.Incoming United manager Davi

Barcelona's Columbus monument gets Barça team jersey

• Shirt in place for Sunday's Barcelona derby in La Liga• City council was paid for stunt to wind up Espanyol fansBarcelona's famous statue of Christopher Columbus has been dressed with a giant replica of Barça's new shirt, helping to wind up their derby rivals Espanyol for Sunday's match at Cornella-El Prat.The city council said they had been paid for the publicity stunt and that the rep

Uefa's new Champions League spot

• Governing body outlines 10-match ban for racism incidents• Uefa to use biological passports as part of antidoping schemeUefa is set to award a place in the Champions League to the winners of the Europa League from the 2014-15 season, in order to make that competition more attractive, with an announcement expected on Friday.Other plans under consideration include whether to award a fifth

Sport picture of the day: Mark Webber emerges from Monaco shadows

Dead space to the top left of the image draws our attention to the colourful detailing on the car, and the blur of the tyres provide an indication of movement

Giro d'Italia: stage 18 – live!

Rolling report: Follow stage 18 as the riders tackle a testing 21km uphill individual time-trial, with Barry GlendenningBarry Glendenning

Berlin to host 2015 Champions League final, Warsaw gets Europa League

• 2015 will be first European final in German capital• Olympiastadion hosted 1936 Olympic GamesBerlin will stage the Champions League final for the first time in 2015 and Warsaw will be the venue for the Europa League final, Uefa announced on Thursday."Two beautiful venues for our finals for 2015," the Uefa's general-secretary, Gianni Infantino, told a news conference.The timing could

The great European Cup teams: Liverpool 1977-84 | Paul Wilson

In the fourth of our six-part series, we look back at Istanbul's 'miracle', double delight in Rome and being the best of BritishThey won it five times, you know. Now that Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United have overhauled most of the other Liverpool claims to fame, the Reds' record in the European Cup seems likely to be the club's proudest boast for some time to come.It is worth remem

San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors react to playoffs semi-final Game 6 - video

The San Antonio Spurs beat the Golden State Warriors 94-82 in Game 6 of the NBA's Western Conference playoffs semi-final

Serena Williams oozes class to win Italian Open - video

Serena Williams looks to be in excellent form going into the French Open with a convincing win against Victoria Azarenka in the final of the Italian Open

Paralympian Jonnie Peacock looks forward to Manchester's BT Great CityGames – video

Paralympian gold medallist Jonnie Peacock discusses the Manchester Great CityGames

Josh Teater leads eight players into Open – video

Josh Teater, who has never competed in a major, shoots a 7-under-par total to win the American edition of International Final Qualifying

Racecourses to review safety in wake of jockey's compensation win

• Philip Hide gets £58,000 for 2006 fall at Cheltenham• Horse fell and threw jockey into plastic uprightA wholesale review of safety at British racecourses may be necessary in the wake of a successful claim for damages by Philip Hide, a jockey who fractured his pelvis and was put into an induced coma after falling at Cheltenham in 2006. Jockey Club Racecourses, owners of the track, were orde

Jonnie Peacock happy back in Britain after post-Paralympics adventures

The 100m T44 gold medallist talks about why training in the US wasn't for him and what has changed since 2012 gloryJonnie Peacock is sat in one of Manchester's grander hotels, looking fashionable in slim-fit denim and boy band scuff-stubble and chuckling drily at a prophecy made by the Guardian after his 100m T44 Paralympics gold medal. In the giddy delirium of that September night, when the

German football team score after shot rebounds off nearby American football bar – video

An amateur football game between German teams Altona 93 and Vier-und-Marschlande takes a farcical turn …

Gibraltar set to be new kids on the Rock as Uefa votes on its future | Paul Doyle

The tiny British territory has had an FA since 1895 and is confident it will join Europe's football family after Friday's voteUefa delegates will be asked to expand more than their waistlines when they gather in London ahead of the Champions League final. They will also be invited to enlarge Europe itself. At Friday's annual congress, representatives of the continent's national associations w

Women's Champions League final: Lyon look to avoid Wolfsburg upset – video

Favourites Olympique Lyon and Wolfsburg speak on Wednesday ahead of the Uefa Women's Champions League final

Cricket and its exquisite sadness

What is it about this unobtrusive game and the wistful yearnings it never quite fulfils?Somewhere within it, cricket has a deep, maybe unending, payload of sadness. It's there in its history, in its psychology and perhaps more than that, it's part of what the game actually is.By sadness, I don't mean melancholy or unhappiness: they are something different. It's not about tragedy, although

Father of Afghanistan national cricket team captain kidnapped

Police continue search after officials confirm Khobi Khan, father of cricketer Mohammad Nabi, was abducted from carGunmen have kidnapped the father of Afghanistan's national cricket team captain near his home in an eastern city, officials have confirmed.There has been no ransom demand since Mohammad Nabi's 60-year-old father, Khobi Khan, was abducted from his car in the city of Jalalabad,

Talking Horses: The latest news and best bets

The latest news and best bets in our daily horse racing blog, plus your chance to win Timeform's Racehorses annual in our tipping competition11am Injured Telescope pulled out of the DerbyTony Paley: Telescope, the leading British hope for the Derby at Epsom a week on Saturday, is injured and out of the premier Classic. "He has a sore left shin and won't be running," revealed trainer Sir Mic

The Breakdown | Lions advised to strike early to capitalise on Australia rustiness | Paul Rees

Matt Dawson believes the Wallabies' lack of a warm-up match before the first Test could be a key factor of the tourOne of the appeals of a Lions tour is that not even those in charge can see the bends that lie ahead. A sub-plot in the 1997 tour to South Africa was the confrontation at scrum-half between Robert Howley and Joost van der Westhuizen.Sunday newspapers which had made it the focu

Manchester City MLS franchise can help US soccer grow, says Hart – video

Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart says it would be 'great if soccer could grow' in the United States

Rory McIlroy comments on Sergio García's 'fried chicken' jibe – video

Rory McIlroy says the furore around Sergio García's 'fried chicken' comment in regards to Tiger Woods is 'a mountain out of a molehill'

Injured Telescope out of the Derby

• Colt has sore shin and will not run in premier Classic• Horse had disappointed in Lingfield gallop on WednesdayTelescope, the leading British hope for the Derby at Epsom a week on Saturday, is injured and out of the premier Classic."He has a sore left shin and won't be running," revealed trainer Sir Michael Stoute on Thursday morning.The colt disappointed in a racecourse gallop at Li

County Championship – live!

Cricket: Today's action from around the grounds with Richard Gibson and Richard RaeRichard GibsonRichard Rae

The great European Cup teams: Bayern Munich 1974-76 | Raphael Honigstein

Müller, Beckenbauer and co swept all before them in Europe for three seasons but their style never earned them universal lovePaul Breitner, the best afro-sporting, pipe-smoking Maoist left-back of all time, still remembers what he thought the instant Hans-Georg "Katsche" Schwarzenbeck took the shot that would become the most important goal in the history of the club; perhaps of any club, even

Super League Set of Six: Leeds defeat sets up Magic Weekend beautifully

Her Rugby League Association unveiled; Golden Point experiment fails down under; Adrian Lam is back for PNG1) Magic FormulaLeeds may not agree – although with five of the last six Super League titles in the bag, they can afford to be magnanimous – but their defeat by St Helens in the first Monday night match of the season has set up the Magic Weekend beautifully. Saints will go into their d

Classic YouTube | Del Piero's delights, tennis meltdowns and the danger of fan GoPro filming

This week's round-up also features top-corner goals, terrifying arm-wrestling and George Reynolds: Playing By His Own Rules1) Free-kick goodness for you: the Alessandro del Piero Juventus collection, a similar one of David Beckham's and a long-range howitzer compilation. Plus the joy of top-corner goals and, keeping the upbeat tone, the Real Oviedo story.2) The Exorcist x Over the Top = th

Football transfer rumours: Karim Benzema to Manchester United? | Paul Doyle

Today's piffle wants to be told how bad it isPeople are wising up to sockpuppetry but that's OK because The Rafa Benítez Experience shows that it is time to move on to the next level: mockpuppetry. What that means, readers, is that if you want to burnish your image, the thing to do is not write fake rave reviews of yourself but rather hire a mob to publicly taunt and abuse you. Do it now, rea

Allan Border, no more Mr Nice Guy

Australia's captain epitomised a hard-nosed approach that was to form the bedrock of the great sides that followedThroughout much of the 1980s Australian cricket was a mess, the national team cast about on the winds of rebellion, hamstrung by retirements and peppered by regular defeat. Yet in the 1990s the Baggy Green side was one of the greatest the sport has seen. A generation of England fa

LeBron, Birdman and Heat finally overcome Pacers in overtime

LeBron James buzzer beater and perfect shooting from Chris 'Birdman' Andersen claims 103-102 overtime win over Indiana Pacers in Eastern Conference final Game OneMiami Heat 103-102 Indiana Pacers_Heat lead series 1-0_A LeBron James overtime buzzer beater gave Miami an exhilarating victory over the Indiana Pacers in Game One of the Eastern Conference finals.James drove almost unattended