England winger Nikita Parris apologised to former teammate Eniola Aluko on Wednesday for her public display of support to former England coach Mark Sampson.

The moment occurred when Parris scored for England against Russia during a match in 2017. Sampson had been accused of racially abusing Aluko and another player, Drew Spence, but Parris ran to Sampson and celebrated the goal with her boss.

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An inquiry into Sampson’s comments at the time ruled that he was guilty and was sacked from his position a day after Parris’ celebration.

Parris, who plays for Lyon in France, wrote an open letter to Aluko and posted it on her twitter page. It read: “Eni, I am sorry that my thoughtless actions caused you hurt.

“At the time I focused more on what I believed was showing unity when really it did nothing of the sort, it showed a lack of empathy, understanding and ignorance by singling out a voice who needed an ear to listen and a support system to help.

“I am now able to understand how I have been part of the problem which I aim to fight and eradicate.

“I am a proud black woman, I understand I have a social responsibility to help create change through my platform.”

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Immediately after the incident, Aluko called the celebration “naive”. She also said: “Some of them may have a special relationship with Mark Sampson and they have every right [to celebrate with him], but I think about the sensitivity at that time, and it wasn’t respectful.”

The FA sacked Sampson for what they described as “clear evidence of inappropriate and unacceptable behaviour by a coach”.

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They also apologised to Aluko and Spence, ruling that Sampson “made comments that were “discriminatory on the grounds of race”.

After England, Sampson went on to coach at League Two club Stevenage in July 2019. In September he was accused of using racist language in a coaches’ meeting. He was charged by the FA in November of that year, but in January 2020 that charge was dismissed out of court with an FA independent commission dismissing the claim.

Chelsea and England winger Callum Hudson-Odoi was arrested on suspicion of rape in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Police and an ambulance were called to an address in London at 03:53 BST to a report of an unwell woman.

When emergency services attended, a woman reported that she was raped. She was taken to hospital.

Hudson-Odoi, 19, was arrested at the scene and has since been released from custody.

He has been bailed to return on a date in mid-June as enquiries continue.

Chelsea have declined to comment.

Hudson-Odoi, who has three England caps and in September signed a new five-year contract with Chelsea, was the first Premier League player to test positive for coronavirus.

He made a full recovery and, like other Chelsea players, is waiting to return to training before any proposed restart to the season.

Some reports have suggested the woman involved visited Hudson-Odoi from another address.

Lockdown rules in England specify that only one person from each household may meet as long as they remain outdoors and keep two metres apart.

England international footballer Kieran Trippier has been charged with misconduct in relation to alleged breaches of the English Football Association’s (FA) Betting Rules.

According to the FA, Trippier breached rules E8(1)(a)(ii) and E8(1)(b) in July 2019, but did not go into further detail on the alleged offences.

Trippier was playing for English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur until 17 July 2019, when he left to join Spanish La Liga side Atlético Madrid.

FA Betting Rule E8(1)(a) states a participant shall not bet or instruct, permit, cause or enable any person to bet on the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of, or occurrence in or in connection with, a match or competition.

Rule E8(1)(a) also bans betting on any other matter concerning or related to football anywhere in the world, including player transfers, the employment of managers, team selection and disciplinary matters.

Meanwhile, Rule E8(1)(b) refers to where a participant provides to any other person information relating to football that they obtained as a result of of their position within the game and is not publicly available at that time.

The FA said that a participant would be deemed in breach of this rule when any of the information is used by that other person for, or in relation to, betting.

According to FA Rule E8, players, coaching staff, officials and club employees are not permitted to bet on games or other matters related to the club.

The FA said Trippier will have until 18 May to provide a response to the ruling.

In March, the FA suspended former England and Liverpool footballer Daniel Sturridge for breaching its gambling regulations, after his initial punishment was deemed too lenient.

In July 2019, Sturridge initially received a two-week ban, plus a further four suspended, after the independent regulatory commission found that he had instructed his brother to bet on the player joining Sevilla in the January 2018 transfer window. This transfer never materialised.

However, the FA appealed the ruling, calling for both a stronger sentence for the breaches of which Sturridge, and for the commission to reconsider its dismissal of eight other charges.

The additional charges that were dismissed all concerned Rule E8(1)(b) of the FA’s rules.
 

Free agent pitcher Rich Hill, who spent the last four seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, was arrested at the New England Patriots-Buffalo Bills game on Saturday as he and his wife were charged with disorderly conduct. 

Foxborough police told the Boston Globe that Hill’s wife, Caitlin, repeatedly tried to enter Gillette Stadium with an oversized bag. When she was turned away several times and refused to leave the area, police arrested her. That’s when the 15-year MLB veteran intervened. 

“He saw her as they were trying to get her into a van to bring to the police station, and he started to interfere with the officers,’’ Robert Bolger, chief administrator for Foxborough police, told the Globe. “He was told several times to back up and he would not. And he ended up getting arrested.”

The Hills were both arraigned Monday, when Rich Hill’s charge of resisting arrest was dismissed and he was fined $500 for disorderly conduct. Caitlin Hill had her criminal charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing converted to civil infractions and was fined a total of $500.

“Despite Saturday’s events, my great respect for law enforcement remains unchanged,” Hill said in a statement released by his attorney. “However, seeing my wife handcuffed for a problem that was started because of her fanny pack was extremely difficult for me to witness. This was all overblown and we are glad to have it behind us.”

A native of Milton, Massachusetts, Hill spent three seasons with the Red Sox from 2010-12. He began his career with the Chicago Cubs in 2005 and played for five other teams before the Dodgers acquired him at the 2016 trade deadline.

Hill, 39, has enjoyed his greatest success in his late 30s with the Dodgers, going 30-16 with a 3.16 ERA over 361 1/3 innings. His three-year, $48 million contract expired this offseason, making him a free agent. However, he will miss at least the first half of the 2020 season recovering from elbow surgery in October.

New England Patriots player Antonio Brown has been accused of raping a woman who was his trainer in a federal civil lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The lawsuit alleges that Brown sexually assaulted the woman, Britney Taylor, three different times between June 2017 and May 2018. Brown denied the allegation Tuesday, and his lawyer added that Taylor filed the lawsuit as a way to get money out of the football player.

Taylor, a 28-year-old gymnast who met Brown at Central Michigan University and was later hired as his trainer, said the football player exposed his penis to her and then forcibly grabbed and kissed her in the first incident, allegedly at his Pittsburgh home in June 2017.

“Because her professional relationship with Brown was important and because
she took it seriously, Ms. Taylor willed herself to brush off the episode, hoping that Brown would stop pursuing her,” the lawsuit states.

Later that June, while the two were watching a church service on an iPad, Brown allegedly began masturbating behind Taylor and ejaculated on her back.

According to screenshots of text messages revealed in the lawsuit, Brown mocked Taylor afterward in obscene terms, saying he “jack my dick on your back.”

In a text the following March, Brown apologized to Taylor for reasons he did not specify. According to the complaint, Taylor agreed to come back as his trainer on the condition that Brown would not sexually pursue her anymore.

In May 2018, Brown, Taylor, and a few friends went to a club in Miami, according to the lawsuit. Taylor drove Brown and another unnamed football player back to Brown’s home. Before heading back to her hotel, Brown came inside to use the bathroom and get some food, the lawsuit states.

According to the complaint, while she was walking toward the front door, “Brown grabbed her arm, told her he wanted to talk to her, and pulled her into his bedroom.”

The two spoke for a few minutes, and when she got up to leave, Brown allegedly “cornered her and pulled her down on the bed on her stomach, pushing her face down into the mattress.”

Brown allegedly proceeded to rape Taylor, telling her “you know you want this” despite her shouts of “no” and “stop,” according to the complaint.

Taylor left “dazed and emotionally shattered,” according to the lawsuit. She returned to his house the next day to gather her things, and told Brown they “needed to talk about last night.”

“He replied, ‘You made me feel like a real rapist,’” the lawsuit states.

Taylor stopped working with Brown after the alleged rape, and “as is typical with many victims of rape, she made attempts to live her life as if nothing happened.”

Still, she suffered “near-daily panic attacks, frequent suicidal ideations, and insomnia” and lost 30 pounds in a month due to stress.

“It has been extremely difficult for her to process that Brown could betray and violate her so completely,” the lawsuit states. “Brown devastated her sense of self, made her question her worth as a woman and human being, and caused her to question whom she could trust.”

In a statement from his lawyer, Darren Heitner, Brown vehemently denied the allegations.

“He will pursue all legal remedies to not only clear his name, but to also protect other professional athletes against false accusations,” Heitner said.

Heitner said Brown and Taylor had had “consensual sex” at least once. He also insisted that Taylor’s allegations against the athlete are a “money grab.”

Brown’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, also denied the allegations, saying Brown is a “loving father of five children, including a daughter.”

“I wouldn’t be doing this interview if I didn’t believe Antonio,” Rosenhaus said on ESPN on Wednesday. “These allegations are false. He denies every one of them. I am very confident that his legal team has facts that will prove this.”

In a statement on her lawyer’s website, Taylor said, “deciding to speak out has been an incredibly difficult decision.”

“I have found strength in my faith, my family, and from the accounts of other survivors of sexual assault,” Taylor said. “Speaking out removes the shame that I have felt for the past year and places it on the person responsible for my rape.”

A spokesperson for the Patriots said they “take these allegations very seriously.”

“Under no circumstance does this organization condone sexual violence or assault. The league has informed us that they will be investigating,” the spokesperson said.

The NFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Representatives for the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office said they “always encourage all victims of sexual assaults to report these matters to the police for proper investigation,” and while the allegations have not been previously reported to them, they “will be reaching out to the pertinent police agencies to determine if they had any prior contacts or investigations.”

“If such police investigations exist, we would certainly be interested in those reports and any related evidence gathered,” the State Attorney’s Office spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for the Miami-Dade Police said they are not currently involved in the case.

A spokesperson for the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, where the 2017 incident allegedly occurred, said they “have not received any criminal complaints of sexual assault regarding, nor are there or any active investigations into, Antonio Brown.”

BuzzFeed News has reached out to the district attorney in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

The NFL has a recent track record of players being accused of domestic violence or sexual misconduct.

In 2014, Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens was charged with assault for punching his then-fiancé in the head and knocking her out. Kareem Hunt was cut from the Kansas City Chiefs after he was caught on video attacking a woman in a hotel lobby in 2018, but was later signed by the Cleveland Browns, where he is currently suspended.

Reuben Foster of the Washington Redskins was charged with domestic violence against an ex-girlfriend, with the charges later being dropped. In 2014, while at Oklahoma State, Tyreek Hill pleaded guilty to domestic violences charges for beating his pregnant girlfriend. In March he was accused of child abuse.

Allrounder Ben Stokes could be returning to New Zealand again this summer.

Stokes, who played a short spell for Canterbury in the Ford Trophy, has been named in the England Twenty squad play Australia and New Zealand in a tri-series tournament.

“Ben Stokes is included, though his involvement remains subject to any relevant legal or disciplinary developments in relation to the incident in Bristol in September,” a press release by England Cricket stated.

“Should the ECB Board receive formal confirmation that Stokes has either been charged or that he will face no charges, they would convene within 48 hours to make a decision on his availability for the team at that stage,” the release continued.

Stokes spent a month in New Zealand late last year visiting his parents in Christchurch and playing for Canterbury in the Ford Trophy 50 overs competition and Twenty20 Super Smash League.

The 26-year-old New Zealand-born allrounder is currently suspended from the England team as he waits to learn whether he will be charged over his role in an incident outside a nightclub in the England city of Bristol in September.

Stokes had mixed fortunes on the field in his brief stint with Canterbury. He scored 36 runs in three 50 overs matches while taking 1-144 and he scored 133 runs in three Twenty20 innings, taking two wickets.

Stokes has been named in England’s squad for a one-day series in Australia in January but his selection is provisional on any future legal action.

(Reuters) – Suspended England all-rounder Ben Stokes has been withdrawn from the squad for this month’s five-match one-day international series against Australia and was replaced by batsman Dawid Malan, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said on Monday.

Stokes, who was provisionally named in England’s squad, is awaiting a decision on whether he will be charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for his involvement in an altercation outside a Bristol nightclub in September.

The ECB said he would not travel with the group of players leaving for Australia on Tuesday and his availability will depend on CPS advice.

“Should ECB receive formal confirmation that he has either, a) been charged or, b) will face no charges, the ECB board would convene within 48 hours to make a decision on his availability to represent England at that stage,” ECB said in a statement on their website (www.ecb.co.uk).

The ECB said Stokes has been cleared to participate in the player draft for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament.

The first ODI between Australia and England will be played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Jan. 14.