World Sports News in Brief

Man City banned from European competition for two seasons by UEFA

English champions Manchester City have been banned from European competition for the next two seasons and fined EUR30 million (US$32.53 million) by European soccer’s governing body UEFA after an investigation into alleged breaches of Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

Man City banned from European competition for two seasons by UEFA

* UEFA has received approximately 28.3 million requests for 2.5 million available tickets at the 2020 European Championship, double the amount sought in the last edition of the event, European soccer's governing body said on Friday (Feb 14).

* Three weeks after Kobe Bryant, one of the most dominant players in NBA history, was killed with his daughter and seven others in a helicopter crash, the global sports icon was named a finalist to the Basketball Hall of Fame. The announcement came during the NBA All-Star weekend in Chicago, which is likely to be muted as the National Basketball Association pays homage to the fallen star.

* AS Monaco celebrated their third successive Ligue 1 win after a second-half header by Islam Slimani gave them a 1-0 home victory over Montpellier in an entertaining clash on Friday.

* Atletico Madrid's disappointing season continued as they shared the spoils with Valencia in a thrilling 2-2 draw in La Liga at Mestalla on Friday.

* Wolverhampton Wanderers had a goal controversially ruled out by VAR as they were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Leicester City, who finished with 10 men, in the Premier League on Friday (Feb 14). The result leaves Leicester in third place on 50 points, a point behind Manchester City.

* Borussia Dortmund scored three second-half goals as they crushed Eintracht Frankfurt 4-0 in the Bundesliga on Friday (Feb 14) to take over second place.

* French champions Paris St Germain have overtaken Manchester City as the most financially powerful club in world football, the annual Soccerex Football Finance 100 report showed. PSG topped the 2020 edition with a football finance index score of 5.318, which is based on the value of the current squad, tangible assets, finance available in their accounts, potential owner investment and net debt.

* Former McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne will be an official reserve for Mercedes in Formula One this season while also competing in the all-electric Formula E series, the team announced on Friday.

* Liverpool winger Sadio Mane and midfielder James Milner are back in contention for the Premier League leaders after the pair recovered from injuries that had sidelined them in recent games, manager Juergen Klopp said on Friday (Feb 14).

* Frenchman Gael Monfils continued his excellent form to beat Briton Dan Evans 7-6(5) 6-2 and reach the Rotterdam Open semi-finals in the defence of his title on Friday. Monfils will meet Serb Filip Krajinovic or Russian seventh seed Andrey Rublev, while Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta faces Canadian teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime in the other semi-final after both came through with narrow triumphs.

Reuters, CNA