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The scenes from Old Trafford on Saturday are sure to be replayed and remembered for a very long time. In the last few weeks - since the collapse of the Super League - we have seen fans mobilise and take their grievances to the owners of their clubs. In the case of Manchester United, those gripes with the Glazers are well founded and have been for 16 years, as David Conn writes this morning. However, the US family do not have any immediate plans to sell the club and hope to increase its value to $10bn over the next few years. Meanwhile, speaking about vast sums of money and football, Manchester City meet Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final this evening with City in touching distance of a first ever final. However, Pep Guardiola knows his side still have plenty of work to do, even if they may receive a boost in the potential absence of Kylian Mbappé.
Moving on to rugby and Gerry Thornley writes in his column this morning that the ever-widening gap between French sides and the rest of Europe’s elite is a worrying trend. On Sunday La Rochelle blasted past Leinster to set up an all-French final in the Champions Cup. Ronan O’Gara’s side have a budget which is at least double that of Leinster and yet it is still only mid-table in the Top 14. Meanwhile, Owen Doyle writes this morning that we saw a mixed bag of refereeing over the weekend but the tactic of two players “latching” and charging at a defensive line must be outlawed for safety reasons.
In GAA, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ renowned head athletic coach John Norwig is set to offer relevant advice to his GAA peers as part of the ‘Be Ready to Play’ series of webinars. “Speaking generally about his job, the level of detail is extraordinary. In the current combine, which prefaces the annual draft, all the clubs descend on mid-America to run the rule over aspiring NFL stars,” writes Seán Moran.
In snooker, Mark Selby held off Shaun Murphy at the Crucible last night to seal a fourth world title which came in front of a capacity crowd in Sheffield.
And finally, Ireland’s track and field hopes for the Tokyo Olympics continue to grow after some fine performances at the the 2021 World Athletics Relays in Silesia, Poland over the weekend, writes Ian O’Riordan.