John Lovegrove and his son Scott drive from John's home in Dorset to every Coventry City home game [John Lovegrove]A Coventry City fan who moved more than 100 miles away from his beloved team ended up in Dorset living on Highfield Road before relocating to Coventry Close."I can't get rid of the Coventry connection," said Sky Blues-mad John Lovegrove.Highfield Road was the name of City's original home ground, and his address there on the south coast had been pure coincidence, he said. But he addmitted to being more conscious of what he was doing when choosing his Coventry Close abode.The supporter has lived in Dorset since 1998, making a round trip of more than 300 miles for every Sky Blues home game."There's actually a lot of Coventry fans down here, mainly in Bournemouth," the 76-year-old said. "But as far as I'm aware, I'm the only Sky Blues fan on Coventry Close."Lovegrove went to his first Coventry game when he was nine, when Jimmy Hill was the manager and said his favourite player then was George Hudson, whom he said "made it look so easy".Lovegrove had a season ticket for more than 20 years when he lived in Coventry and has one again - despite living 156 miles away - for the club's new Premier League campaign."I car-share with my son and two others who live down here. We met them by accident at an away match in Plymouth. We sat next to them, got talking, found out we all had season tickets and started car-sharing. That was three years ago."Assuming he went to every game at the Coventry Building Society Arena in the last three years, Lovegrove has clocked up at least 20,700 miles doing the round trip.As for his other fan credentials, he said he had seen every game City had played at Wembley bar one."I was there in 1987 for the FA Cup final, the Charity Shield the following year, the Checkatrade Trophy (2017), the Division 2 play-off final (2018) and the FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United."The only one I missed was the Championship promotion play-off against Luton, because I couldn't get a ticket."However, despite his passion for the Sky Blues, he might not be able to make Coventry City's first game in the Premier League for 25 years, when they face Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on 21 August."I'm hoping to get to Arsenal, but I'm in the ballot for that. But my son Scott, he will be there."Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. More on this story Football fans to cycle more than 500 miles to game914 miles, 185 fans - doing English football's longest away dayArgentinian Sky Blues fan returns for FA Cup game Related internet links Coventry City Football Club

More than 1,500 of Europe's best athletes are set to descend on Birmingham this month as the city hosts the European Athletics Championships.The renovated Alexander Stadium will welcome competitors from about 50 countries for seven days.Organisers have promised "elite performances, homegrown heroes and edge-of-your-seat finals".Here is everything you need to know.Where is it taking place?The championships will take place at Alexander Stadium in Perry Barr, Birmingham.First opened in 1976, the stadium became the home of UK Athletics in 2011 before undergoing a redevelopment ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games.It is said to be the largest athletics stadium in the UK, seating around 18,000 people.The North Stand has been renamed the Matthew Hudson-Smith Stand in honour of the Wolverhampton-born Olympic medallist and four-time European champion.Matthew Hudson-Smith has won four golds at European Championships [Getty Images]How do I get there?Spectators have been advised not to drive to the venue as Alexander Stadium will operate as a car-free venue for the event.There will be no spectator parking available at the stadium or in the surrounding local area. A pre-booked shuttle bus will run from Birmingham city centre. The pick-up point is James Watt Queensway.For those travelling by train, Perry Barr railway station is the nearest stop, about a 20-minute walk from the stadium.Perry Barr is regularly serviced by trains running from Birmingham New Street Station, Rugeley, Walsall, and Wolverhampton with additional services running on event days.Bus services including the 51, X51 and 52 stop near Perry Avenue, while the 33, 907, 907A, 934, 935, 936, 937, 937A and 997 stop close to Perry Park.Birmingham Airport is also expected to welcome athletes and spectators from across Europe.When is it?The championships run from Monday until 16 August with competition taking place across seven days.The action begins on Monday with the men's hammer and women's shot put events, plus sprint and hurdles on the track, with the first medals handed out including the winner of the men's 5000m final.The final day features nine finals, including 4x400m relays, the 4x100m relay, the women's 1500m and the men's pole vault.There will also be "one-day deciders" where events like the 100m sprint will go from heats through to the final on the same day.Who will star?A host of Olympic and world champions are expected to compete.Great Britain's 98-strong team includes Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson, sprinter Dina Asher-Smith and heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson.As well as 400m star Hudson-Smith, who was born in Wolverhampton, there are several athletes from the West Midlands in Team GB, including middle-distance runner Issy Boffey and marathon runner Ellis Cross from Birmingham. High jumper Joel Clarke-Khan and marathon runner Rose Harvey both hail from Worcestershire, while Clara Evans, another marathon runner, is from Hereford. Relay runners Josh Faulds and Jake Minshull are from Rugby and Coventry respectively, and long jumper Jazmin Sawyers is from Stoke-on-Trent.From elsewhere in the world, Swedish pole vault world record holder Mondo Duplantis, Dutch star Femke Bol, Italy's Nadia Battocletti and Mattia Furlani, Portugal's Isaac Nader and Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen are all expected to feature.Britain heads into the championships as the most successful nation in the event's history, having won 134 medals, including 50 golds.How can I watch?The championships will be shown live across the BBC.Coverage begins on BBC Two at 10:30 BST on Monday, with action throughout the week on BBC One, BBC Two and iPlayer.BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds will provide daily live commentary, while the BBC Sport website and app will feature live coverage, reports, analysis and video clips.Jeanette Kwakye will present the morning television coverage, with Gabby Logan hosting in the evenings. They will be joined by Olympic medallists and athletics experts including Jessica Ennis-Hill, Greg Rutherford and Jenny Meadows.Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. More on this story European Athletics Championships: Birmingham preparesHodgkinson & Asher-Smith in GB squad for EuropeansEuropean Athletics Championships road race routes revealed Related internet links Birmingham European Athletics Championships 2026

PHOENIX (AP) The two-time defending World Series champions are in a rare funk.The Los Angeles Dodgers lost their season-high seventh game in a row in a stunning collapse on Friday night after the Arizona Diamondbacks rallied for a 4-3 win when rookie Ryan Waldschmidt hit a two-run, walk-off homer against closer Edwin Diaz.A loss is a loss but to get walked off never feels good, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. We didn't play a clean game, a great game, on either side of the baseball, but we did enough to put ourselves in position to win a game. "Unfortunately, we couldn't finish it.It was another rough outing for Diaz, who has an 11.00 ERA over 11 outings this season. The 32-year-old is a three-time All-Star, but hasn't been able to help the Dodgers much after signing a $69 million, three-year deal during the offseason.Waldschmidt connected on Diaz's hanging slider, hitting it into the left-center field seats for his second career homer and first big league walk-off.It's the slider, Diaz said. The fastball was great today, but I missed the slider right in the middle. I think I was trying to be perfect with the pitch and I'm missing right in the middle I've got to be better. I'm a big league pitcher so I've got to make pitches.The Dodgers were swept by the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs coming into Friday night's game. They still have a comfortable lead in the NL West 7 1/2 games in front of the Diamondbacks despite a 10-16 record since July 5.Roberts acknowledged that Diaz has been struggling since his return from the injured list on July 29, but the manager wasn't necessarily ready to try a new closer. His reasoning was simple: there's no clear-cut alternative.Honestly, you've got to look at the options, Roberts said. The way some of these guys are throwing, they're not throwing great, either."The Dodgers still look like a formidable team, particularly after adding ace left-hander Tarik Skubal in a trade-deadline deal with the Detroit Tigers last week. Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell is also slated to return on Tuesday after missing most of the season with injuries.And the lineup still has plenty of star power with Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts and Kyle Tucker.Roberts said before Friday's game that the remedy for the recent troubles was simple.We've just got to play better, Roberts said. I don't think the standings I mean they're important, they matter but I just feel like with the talent we have, we've just got to play good baseball and it'll take care of itself. It always does.___AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Already too many bad moves! German talent takes huge transfer riskWolfsburg put at least five million euros on the table for Muhammed Damar. That makes him the second-most expensive signing of the relegated club and, naturally, he is expected to be a key player. At first glance, that doesnt sound like much, but for both sides it could be the biggest risk they have taken this summer or even in their careers.The reason: throughout his career so far, the 22-year-old talent has often made some pretty poor decisions when it came to transfers or new contracts. Too often, otherwise more people would probably already have his name on their radar.Damar, who was regarded early on as an attacking player with enormous potential, began his career at three Berlin clubs. He was developed there and then ended up at TSG Hoffenheim at the age of 18.Shortly after that, the run of rather poor club choices began. After one year with the Sinsheim side, he moved on loan to Hannover 96 in the 2. Bundesliga in 2023 in order to gain playing time.Fiasco at Hannover 96That backfired completely. Shortly after his arrival, coach Stefan Leitl ruthlessly cast him aside. Instead of being on the pitch or at least on the bench in second-division stadiums he was sent to the second team. Daniela Porcelli - 2025 Getty ImagesRegional league football instead of the professional game. That was probably not how Damar had imagined it. In the U23s he did record 12 goal contributions, won the title, and later said that his time in Lower Saxony helped him grow as a person, but it is unlikely to have done much for his career.Things went better at his next loan stop in Elversberg, where he managed nine goals in 34 games. But when he returned to his parent club hoping to finally get Bundesliga minutes, he was completely wrong again.That was mainly down to his biggest rival for the position: Andrej Kramari.By then, he was already 34 years old, but even after Damars return last season he had no intention of stopping and just kept banging in the goals.So experience was always preferred over talent. Damar only stepped onto the pitch 15 times, usually for just a few minutes right at the very end. So once again, no real playing time.Forever in the rivals shadowWhy he extended his contract in Sinsheim by another two years at the end of May 2025, even though Kramari had also renewed just a few weeks earlier, remains unclear and rounds off the rather mediocre decisions of his career so far.That Damar has talent is actually beyond question. With the DFB, he went through every youth national team up to the U21s. Last year, reports circulated that the German player with Turkish roots was being courted by the Turkish federation and tempted with the prospect of playing at a World Cup. That did not happen, but Damar is definitely on the radar and now has to hope he does not fall off it. His career has reached a crossroads if he still wants to break into the very top tier. Karina Hessland - 2025 Getty ImagesThere is certainly a real chance that the move to VfL Wolfsburg will finally bring him his breakthrough at professional level. The Lower Saxony side go into the league as favorites and, if all goes well, he could play a leading role in that. The bosses clearly seem to see huge potential in him otherwise they would hardly have put five million euros on the table for him.A knife-edge gambleStill, it is also a bold decision, because the Wolves situation is extremely fragile. After relegation, immediate promotion is a must. If the first few games go wrong, alarm bells will ring straight away. After all, expectations are crystal clear: with this squad, the Wolves are supposed to tear the league apart and ideally have promotion all but wrapped up by the winter break.How quickly the mood can turn when such expectations are not met is something VfL could, for example, find out in Hamburg.The pressure on Damar, given the transfer fee and the sporting situation in Wolfsburg, is immense. Both sides depend on this expensive signing delivering. So the 22-year-old will probably not be able to play with the same freedom he had in Elversberg.So it remains to be seen whether this transfer will turn out to be the first truly good decision in Muhammed Damars career one that puts him on every football observers radar within just a few weeks or whether, in the end, we will conclude that the risk did not pay off for either side.This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in here.

When does the Premier League start? Kickoff times for opening weekend of 2026/27 campaign originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.With the 2026 FIFA World Cup over and club teams now returning to preseason action, the excitement is building for the start of competitive club action for the 2026/27 season.As the most visible and profitable league in the world, many eyes around the globe are fixated on when the Premier League will get going again.Defending champions Arsenal will look to win their first-ever back-to-back Premier League titles, while Manchester City, Chelsea, and Liverpool all under new management are expected to challenge for the prize.The Sporting News brings you a look at when the coming campaign gets under way and who will be playing where in the very first matchweek.MORE:Arsenal 2026/27 preseason schedule | Man City preseason schedule| Liverpool preseason scheduleWhen does the Premier League start?The first match of the 2026/27 Premier League season will be onFriday, August 21with defending champions Arsenal hosting last season's Championship winners Coventry City.The match will kick off at 8 p.m. local time in London, which is 3 p.m. ET in the United States and Canada.There is also the annual curtain-raiser the weekend before, as Arsenal will meet Manchester City in the FA Community Shield on August 16.Premier League 2026/27 opening weekend scheduleDateTime (ET)MatchLocationFri, Aug. 213 p.m.Arsenal vs. Coventry CityEmirates Stadium (London)Sat, Aug. 227:30 a.m.Hull City vs. Man UnitedMKM Stadium (Hull)Sat, Aug. 2210 a.m.Ipswich Town vs. SunderlandPortman Road (Ipswich)Sat, Aug. 2210 a.m.Everton vs. Crystal PalaceHill Dickinson Stadium (Liverpool)Sat, Aug. 2210 a.m.Nottingham Forest vs. LeedsCity Ground (Nottinghamshire)Sat, Aug. 2212:30 p.m.Brentford vs. TottenhamGtech Community Stadium (Brentford)Sun, Aug. 239 a.m.Man City vs. BournemouthEtihad Stadium (Manchester)Sun, Aug. 239 a.m.Brighton vs. Aston VillaAmerican Express Stadium (Brighton)Sun, Aug. 2311:30 a.m.Newcastle vs. LiverpoolSt. James' Park (Newcastle)Mon, Aug. 243 p.m.Fulham vs. ChelseaCraven Cottage (London)When is the Premier League final day 2026/27?The 2026/27 Premier League season will wrap up on Sunday, May 30, 2027.By then, the title-winner for the English top flight will be determined, if it hasn't already.As per usual, all matches on the final day will begin at the same time, to avoid any club gaining a competitive advantage.Is there a winter break in the 2026/27 Premier League?Like last season, there will NOT be a winter break in English football this season.There is a slight gap in Premier League fixtures from games scheduled the week of January 6 until the weekend of January 16, but that will likely be filled by FA Cup fixtures, scheduled to complete the third round proper that weekend.Due to the crowded fixture schedule, English football does not typically take a winter break like many other leagues.The last time the Premier League took a winter break was the 2023/24 season, but even then it wasn't much, as each club got one weekend off.

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