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Maidstone United: The demise and rise of an expelled Football League club

This is the story of Maidstone United, the last club before Bury to be expelled from the English Football League. For the past 27 years they have been trying to return to the pinnacle of their football existence. But this is not a club that sees itself as a football tragedy – not with more than 20 trophies and eight promotions won since 1992 and an England international among its alumni. “It is a tragic episode in our story. That is what it is, because the story is still going,” said John Still, Maidstone’s head of football who returned to the club last season after 30 years away. Still says there was no “romanticism” in the reunion, despite them being back in the fifth tier last term, the level he left the club at in 1989 having been the boss that took them to the old Fourth Division. He simply felt his former club had run out of “momentum” – the sort that gets a team from Kent County League Fourth Division to the top tier of the non-league system. The 69-year-old, however, was not able to guide them to safety last season as they…

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Football transfer rumours: Mandzukic and Dembélé to Manchester United

Having retained the Revenue Cup on Tuesday after announcing record income of £627m, Ole Gunnar Solskjær knows that if he could get his Manchester United team to match the performances of the club’s world-beating marketing bods, things would be just hunky-dory at Old Trafford. To do this he needs cold, hard goals, though. United have scored only eight in the Premier League this season and with a threadbare strike force that has an average age of about 12, he wants a wily old head up front. The Class of 99’s Teddy Sheringham is not currently available so instead United will “swoop” for rugged Juventus forward Mario Mandzukic, who has won medals wherever he has gone by sticking his rock-hard head in where it hurts and joining the dots with some neat hold-up play. With Juventus understood to be only too happy to let him go, the 33-year-old – who United were close to signing last summer – should be available for a packet of fags and some spare change. But one cheap-as-chips forward just won’t do – Ed Woodward has a point to prove and United have cash to burn, so they might break their…

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Women’s football: Which top European clubs still don’t have a team

After Manchester United launched a women’s side in 2018-19, every major English club has one and teams in Europe are following suit. Real Madrid and Eintracht Frankfurt have announced intentions to take over local women’s teams CD Tacon and FFC Frankfurt respectively – but who is yet to catch up? Scotland Livingston is the only Scottish Premiership side to not have a women’s team, though there are no professional sides established yet. Celtic had planned to form a professional women’s team by the end of 2019 and the Hoops also submitted plans for a women’s training center. In June, Scotland FA chief executive Ian Maxwell said: “A number of clubs are looking at pretty much full-time women’s teams. The more opportunities there will be for girls, the more clubs will follow suit.” Germany Borussia Dortmund is arguably the biggest side in Europe without a women’s team. When approached by BBC Sport, the club replied: “Borussia Dortmund focuses on the women’s handball team, which has a long and successful history.” From 2009, Hertha BSC had cooperation with FC Lubars, but because of financial issues, they lost their licences for the second tier of the women’s Bundesliga…

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College Football Week 5 Lines And Top 25 Betting Report

A little shakeup in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll, but nothing of significance at the top. Wisconsin moved into the top 10 following a Badger’s beatdown of Michigan, 35-14. The Wolverines suffered the biggest drop in the poll down nine spots to No. 20. The top four teams remained the same with three of them, blowout winners, last Saturday – Clemson, Alabama, LSU – and each covered the huge point spreads. The other winner was No. 3 Georgia, who held off Notre Dame 23-17, dropping the Irish from No. 7 to No. 10. Georgia received 1 first-place vote in this week’s AP Poll. Alabama had 6 and Clemson 55 first-place votes. Here are this week’s betting lines and match-ups for the Top 25 college football teams. Washington State, Arizona State, and TCU all lost and dropped out of the Associated Press (AP) Poll. They were replaced by No. 21 USC, No. 24 Kansas State, and No. 25 Michigan State. Kansas State is an underdog this week at Oklahoma State, and the Cowboys are knocking on the door and will crack the Top 25 with a victory over the Wildcats. When Circa Sports in Las…

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Football transfer rumors: Donyell Malen to Arsenal or Liverpool

Anyone who has watched Arsenal this season would know exactly what it is they need to take that next vital step towards becoming a fixture of the Premier League’s top four again. Unfortunately “anyone” is not in charge of recruitment at north London’s premier entertainment business, so instead of making a defender who can actually defend a priority, the Gunners will join the queue of clubs looking to sign PSV Eindhoven’s £50m-rated striker Donyell Malen, who has scored 10 goals in 13 games this season. That’s the same Donyell Malen who Arsenal sold to the unbeaten Eredivisie side for just £500,000 two years ago. Even if they really did need a forward, to save face and look vaguely competent, they really shouldn’t let it be known they’re interested in that one. It says here the Gunners will have to duke it out with 45 other unimaginative clubs who have a member of staff who knows how to type “in-form Dutch striker” into Google. Liverpool is on that lengthy list too. While we’re on the subject of young strikers who have made lazy scouts sit up and take notice, Erling Braut Haaland’s hat-trick for RB Salzburg…

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Has football gone too VAR

(CNN)The English Premier League season is only six games old and already the constant debate surrounding VAR has become almost as customary as a pre-match pint and halftime pie. After a weekend in which Manchester City hit eight, Liverpool won its sixth consecutive game to maintain its perfect record and Manchester United fell even further behind its rivals, it is instead VAR — or video assistant referee — that is occupying center stage. Social media was in meltdown following a number of controversial decisions, dispelling the notion that VAR would consign post-match arguments to history. It could take fans up to 10 years to understand how VAR works, according to Lukas Brud, secretary of IFAB, the International Football Association Body, which is responsible for the laws of the game. But should Brud’s prediction be proved correct then the next decade could prove rather painful for football fans? Take Saturday’s game between Leicester and Tottenham where Spurs star Son Heung-min was adjudged to have been offside in the lead up to his side’s second goal. The ruling, which came after a lengthy two-minute review, showed Son to be millimeters offside. While sports such as cricket and…

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College Football Gave Us a Monumental Betting Day on Saturday

Scott Van Pelt will do this in a much more entertaining way on his weekly “Bad Beats” segment, but Saturday was so wild that I had to weigh in and show you four truly spectacular backdoor covers. First up we have Alabama -25 against South Carolina. The Crimson Tide were leading 47-16 for a nice cover with just 15 seconds remaining. Then this happened. Final score 47-23 as the Gamecocks storm through the backdoor. On the 1-10 pain scale for Crimson Tide backers, this gets a 7 since it was just an 11-yard touchdown. Next up: Syracuse +28 vs. Clemson. The Tigers led 34-6 with 58 seconds left when they had a 2nd-and-7 from their own 43-yard line. You figure two runs and everyone goes home with a push. As the great Lee Corso says, “not so fast.” The Clemson running back busts one up the middle and takes it 57 yards for the touchdown to hand Orangemen backers a loss. Final score 41-6. On the 1-10 pain scale, this is a solid 8.5 for anyone who bet ‘Cuse. Next up: Kentucky +8 vs. Florida, over/under 48.5. The Gators held just a one-point lead when…

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SEPT. 17 FOOTBALL POWER RANKINGS

The O-Zone Football Power rankings will be released on every week throughout the football season. Rankings are a measurement of dominance within class and not a strictly head-to-head comparison. Coaches are encouraged to send any information, including stats, milestones and records to Chris Parker (cparker@ky3.com). See the top plays of last week’s football games in the video above. Joplin (C6 – 3-0 – LW: 2) The Eagles held off Carthage in a 56-55 thriller on Friday. The game featured more than 1,100 yards of total offense from the two teams. It ended with defense, as Joplin stopped Carthage on a potential game-winning two-point conversion. Isaiah Davis rushed for 248 yards and five touchdowns. Blake Tash threw for 245 yards and two touchdowns. The Eagles are up to No. 3 in the latest state rankings. There is a good chance they will hold down this top spot for the rest of the regular season with their two toughest opponents in their rearview mirror. Lamar (C2 – 3-0 – LW: 3) Lamar took care of business in a 48-21 win over Aurora. The combined record of the Tigers’ opponents so far is 3-6. This week they go…

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Maryland’s new indoor football facility, set to be finished next year, brings the program up to speed

Michael Locksley wanted to be the coach at Maryland. It’s the school just 10 miles from his childhood home, and the one where he had worked two previous stints as an assistant. But as Athletic Director Damon Evans worked to reel in Locksley from Alabama late last year, the massive construction zone adjacent to the football stadium didn’t hurt. The Terrapins didn’t have an indoor practice facility until 2017, making Maryland the last Big Ten football program to build one. And now the school aims to keep up with the sport’s elite with the nearing completion of the $196 million Cole Field House project that adds more high-end spaces for football, two outdoor fields, resources for other Maryland athletes and a large academic wing. “You want your resources to match expectations,” Evans said. “When you’re competing with all these teams, not only in the Big Ten but around the country, and you see what they have, recruits, student-athletes, prospects, they like the bright, shiny toys. So it was very, very helpful.” The school expects the football performance center to open in the fall or winter of 2020, with the completion of the academic area coming…

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Les Miles Revels in and Reflects on Kansas’s Historic Power 5 Road Upset

Welcome back to Rewind Monday, where we take a closer look at one of the weekend’s top storylines in college football. This week, it’s Les Miles and Kansas, which just earned its first Power 5 road win in more than a decade. The last time this happened, Les Miles was 48-years old and in his first job as a college head coach. The memory is nearly two decades old, but the feeling is tough to forget. His Oklahoma State squad entered a game at big brother Oklahoma as a 28-point underdog. The Cowboys were 3–7 and had lost five of their last six. The Sooners were 10–1 and ranked No. 4 in the nation. Oklahoma State beat Oklahoma 16–13. Not since that day, Nov. 24, 2001, had Miles felt like this. But here he was, now the 65-year-old head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks taking his team on the road as 18-point underdogs and romping to a historic victory: Kansas 48, Boston College 24. Week 3 of college football provided its share of entertainment and intrigue, but no result turned heads quite like this one, a stunner that swept the nation on a Friday night,…

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