A view of the statue of England’s soccer legend Bobby Moore stands in front of the UEFA Euro sign at Wembley stadium ahead of the Euro 2020 soccer championship in London. The British government says more than 60,000 fans will be allowed into the semifinals and final. Frank Augstein/Associated Press

SOCCER

More than 60,000 fans will be allowed into the semifinals and final of the European Championship at Wembley Stadium after UEFA secured an agreement Tuesday with the British government on an an increased capacity. No details have been provided yet on how fans from overseas can potentially attend without having to quarantine after flying into London.

The government had already agreed to increase the current group-stage capacity of about 22,000 to at least 40,000 for one game in the round of 16 game and the final three matches of the Euro 2020 tournament at the 90,000-seat stadium. Now Wembley will be allowed to be at about 75% capacity for the semifinals and final.

Croatia captain Luka Modric lurked on the edge of the area, waiting for the ball to come to him before stroking it into the top corner with the outside of his boot.

At 35, this may well be Modric’s last European Championship, and he doesn’t want to go home just yet.

Modric’s goal in the 62nd minute helped Croatia beat host Scotland 3-1 and give the team a spot in the Round of 16.

Advertisement

• Raheem Sterling scored as host England beat the Czech Republic 1-0 between two teams already assured of their places in the Round of 16.

• German soccer clubs are banding together to display rainbow colors during the country’s match against Hungary at the European Championship after UEFA rejected host city Munich’s plan to do the same.

Bundesliga clubs in Bremen, Frankfurt, Cologne, Wolfsburg, Augsburg and the two in Berlin will light up their venues during Wednesday’s final group game in Munich in response to UEFA’s decision to deny the city council’s application to have its stadium illuminated in rainbow colors.

UEFA, the governing body of European soccer which has the final say as tournament organizer, said in a statement Tuesday that it understood the intention behind the council’s proposal but “must decline this request” because of its political context — “a message aiming at a decision taken by the Hungarian national parliament.”

BASEBALL

WOODEN BAT LEAGUE: Saco-Biddeford Savings took the lead for good with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth as they edged Tequis Orthodotics 2-1 at  Biddeford.

Advertisement

Kalvin Camire picked up the win for Biddeford, allowing one earned run on five hits, striking out seven and walking one. Reliever Kyle Dion threw a scoreless inning for the save.

Kennebunk starter Quinn MacDonald allowed two unearned runs, striking out nine. He also added a double and single.

COLLEGES

CREIGHTON: The NCAA put Creighton men’s basketball program on two years’ probation and docked scholarships each of the next two seasons on Tuesday after alleging that a former assistant coach accepted cash from a management agency.

The committee on infractions said Preston Murphy did not take any other action after the meeting in a Las Vegas hotel. But the meeting itself violated NCAA rules because the receipt of money formalized a business relationship in which the management company could attempt to use the coach to gain access to Creighton players.

The penalties are the latest in a wide-ranging FBI probe into college basketball corruption that has ensnared numerous coaches and several high-profile schools, including Kansas and North Carolina State. Murphy, who was never charged with a crime, was given a two-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA, but most of the penalties were aimed at the Bluejays program for its failure to properly investigate the case.

Advertisement

They include a $5,000 fine plus 1% of the basketball program budget, the loss of a scholarship each of the next two years and a reduction in men’s basketball recruiting trips and visits. The Bluejays also cannot provide complimentary admission to home games for prospects and coaches during the November 2021 recruiting window.

BASEBALL: Freshman Tanner Witt pitched 5 2/3 innings of shutout relief, Silas Ardoin hit a tie-breaking, two-run single, and Texas eliminated Tennessee from the College World Series with an 8-4 victory at Omaha, Nebraska.

The No. 2 national seed Longhorns (48-16) picked up their first win in Omaha since 2014 while No. 3 Tennessee (50-18) went two-and-out in its first appearance since 2005.

Kellum Clark’s eighth-inning homer ended Griff McGarry’s bid for a no-hitter, and Logan Tanner went deep three batters later to lead Mississippi State past Virginia 6-5 at the College World Series.

SWIMMING

DOPING BAN: Chinese swimmer Sun Yang was banned for more than four years on Tuesday for breaking anti-doping rules after a retrial at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The court’s verdict ends Sun’s hopes of defending his Olympic title in the 200 meters freestyle in Tokyo next month. The ban is backdated to February 2020, meaning Sun could return for the 2024 Paris Olympics when he would be 32.

Advertisement

The judges found Sun “to have acted recklessly” when he refused to let anti-doping officials leave his home with a sample of his blood. Sun’s original eight-year ban imposed last year was overturned on appeal to Switzerland’s supreme court which ordered a fresh prosecution. Federal judges ruled the first guilty verdict unsafe because the chairman of the three-judge panel at CAS showed anti-Chinese bias in social media comments.

The retrial was heard by three new judges by video link over three days last month and fast-tracked ahead of the Tokyo Olympics opening on July 23. The case was about a failed attempt to take blood and urine from Sun by a sample collection team who made an unannounced visit to his home in China in September 2018. It turned confrontational and led to Sun’s entourage ordering a security guard to smash the casing of a blood vial with a hammer.

The World Anti-Doping Agency appealed to CAS when a tribunal appointed by swimming’s governing body, FINA, only warned the three-time Olympic champion about his conduct. WADA requested a ban of two to eight years for a second doping conviction. Sun served a three-month ban in 2014 imposed by Chinese authorities after testing positive for a stimulant that was banned at the time. The ban was not announced until after it ended.

Sun’s second ban was imposed after a rare CAS hearing held in open court and streamed live online. It lasted more than 10 hours in November 2019 at a special court session in Montreux, Switzerland.

Sun denied wrongdoing.

TRACK AND FIELD

Advertisement

DOPING: Russian former world champion hurdler Sergei Shubenkov was cleared on Tuesday in a doping case he explained was caused by his baby son’s medication. The judges at Shubenkov’s hearing described the case as “genuinely exceptional,” said track and field’s Athletics Integrity Unit which prosecuted it in secret ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

The 2015 world champion in 110 meters hurdles tested positive for “a low concentration” of a diuretic called acetazolamide in December. Shubenkov cited a medication that was being taken by his son, who was then aged three months, in a post on his Instagram page after the verdict was announced.

“A child at this age cannot swallow, so the pills must have been prepared in a certain way,” he wrote in Russian and English. “That resulted in tiny almost invisible particles of powder being at my kitchen that have caused a positive test.”

The AIU said in a statement it made “a thorough investigation of the athlete’s explanation,” that related to “unintentional ingestion of residue from medication being used to treat a family member.” The three judges at an independent tribunal “found that it was a ‘genuinely exceptional’ case, accepted the athlete’s plea of no fault or negligence, and rejected the AIU’s request that a period of ineligibility be imposed,” the AIU said.

TENNIS

INJURY: Fifth-ranked Dominic Thiem retired from his match at the grass-court Mallorca Championships because of pain in his right wrist, less than a week before the start of Wimbledon.

Advertisement

The 27-year-old Austrian was leading 5-2 against Adrian Mannarino, but he grimaced and clutched his wrist after striking a forehand.

The U.S. Open champion received a medical timeout and had the wrist taped but opted not to continue.

BASKETBALL

WNBA: Candace Parker had 23 points, 12 rebounds and six assists to lead the Chicago Sky to a 92-72 win over the host New York Liberty.

It was the sixth consecutive win for the Sky (8-7), matching the franchise record set in 2012 and equaled in 2013.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.