Barcelona hope to have clarity on the future of Ousmane Dembele by the end of this year, sporting director Mateu Alemany said on Saturday.

The winger s contract expires at the end of the season and, while head coach Xavi has insisted the player wants to stay, there has been no sign of an imminent new deal.

Clubs including Newcastle United, now bankrolled by a Saudi Arabia-backed consortium, have been linked with January bids for the France international, who would be free to leave for nothing at the end of the campaign.

However, Alemany appears confident Barca will be able to keep the 24-year-old, who was signed in 2017 for an initial €105million following Neymar s world-record €222m move to Paris Saint-Germain.

We ve been at this for a long time, al…

Germany head coach Joachim Loew has dropped striker Patrick Helmes plus midfielders Jermaine Jones and teenager Marko Marin from his Euro 2008 squad, it was announced on Wednesday.

Loew named an extended squad on May 16 for a training camp in Mallorca, but had to drop three players before submitting his final 23-man squad for the tournament, co-hosted by Austria and Switzerland, which begins on June 7.

The decision made by our coaching team was a very difficult one, said Loew.

It was a millimetre decision, because everyne of the three players earned their place in the Euro 2008 squad.

The decision was especially hard as all three did well in the training camp and will have a role to play in the national team after the tournament.

All three …

With more than £6.5 million in prizes up for grabs, Royal Ascot is Britain’s most valuable horse racing event and the 2017 edition is shaping up to be a huge success as well, taking place from 20th to 24th June.

There will be eight Group One races held over the course of five days and another ten races, and chances are horse racing betting enthusiasts will be looking to get a piece of the action.

Betting

Ryan Moore at 1/3 and Aidan O’Brien at 2/7 are odds on favourites to win the top jockey and top trainer titles at the 2017 Royal Ascot, while the Ascot Gold Cup on Thursday, 22nd June will be the main event.

Aidan O’Brien’s Order of St George is defending the trophy won last season and is priced at , while Big Orange (7/1), Sheikhzayedroad (9/1) and Si…

French champions Paris Saint-Germain won 4-1 at Le Havre on Friday, capitalising on a late collapse by the hosts to get their Ligue 1 season off to an excellent start.

PSG opened the scoring after three minutes when Goncalo Ramos found Lee Kang-in inside the box and he sent a left-foot shot into the net.

The visitors joy was short-lived, however, as Ramos was hurt in a challenge and the Portuguese international had to be replaced by Randal Kolo Muani, who rattled the crossbar shortly after entering the fray.

The hosts, who had a goal chalked off in the first half for offside, shocked PSG after the break as Gautier Lloris in the 48th minute, before Josue Casimir s goal was disallowed following a VAR decision for handball in the build-up.

Lee was then inch…

Italian referee Roberto Rosetti will take charge of the Euro-2008 final on Sunday, UEFA announced on Monday.

The 40-year-old hospital director has already taken charge of the Croatia v Turkey quarter-final and the opening match of the tournament, co-hosts Switzerland against Czech Republic.

He has been a FIFA referee since 2002 and officialised at the 2006 World Cup finals.

Wednesday s Germany v Turkey semi-final in Basel, Switzerland, will be overseen by Swiss referee Massimo Busacca, while Thursday s second semi-final between Spain and Russia, in Vienna, has been given to Belgium s Frank De Bleeckere.

…

Neymar may have missed out on helping Paris Saint-Germain claim the Ligue 1 title on the pitch against Monaco on Sunday, but the Brazilian deserves to play a key role in the celebrations.

While a broken foot sustained by the world s most expensive player ruled him out of the Champions League last-16 second leg against Real Madrid, he was hugely decisive domestically.

A haul of 19 goals in 20 league appearances represents a strong first season in Ligue 1 for the forward, who also provided a league-high 13 assists.

But along with the numerous highs, there were some lows for Neymar continuously linked with a move to Madrid in his first year at the club.

Here we pick out some of those extremes from Neymar s first PSG campaign.

HIGH Scoring…

Juan Sebastian Veron s sensational return to professional football with Estudiantes has been delayed due to a ban that dates all the way back to 2011.

Club president Veron has followed through on his promise to make himself available for the Copa Libertadores this season after fans reached his target of box sales in their new stadium.

Tuesday s meeting with Botafogo was set to bring about the 42-year-old s comeback, but he has been forced to wait after Estudiantes were informed he was due to serve a suspension accrued almost six years ago.

Veron had not served a three-match ban following Estudiantes Copa Sudamericana elimination at the hands of Arsenal de Sarandi.

The suspension was reduced to one game in 2016 as part of CONMEBOL s centenary celebrations…

The touchdown market has become one of the most popular and potentially profitable props in the NFL betting world. Each week, we’re going to throw down four to five units as we try to uncover some of the best weekly NFL TD props and dig into the matchups that surround them.

Week 10 has us looking at a fringe tight end touchdown that is mispriced, a pair of rushing TDs that also offer great value and a Tampa Bay receiver TD prop that will likely drop in price as injury news rolls out.

Without further ado:

…

An NFL betting mantra you’ll hear, year-in and year-out, is “Don’t overreact to Week 1.” While that’s certainly advice bettors should adhere to, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t react at all to what happened in the opening week of the season. 

I combined my preseason notions of every NFL team with their Week 1 efforts to come up with my best NFL parlay picks for Week 2.

…

A new NFL season and another year of NFL Underdogs picks brings with them some “first day of school” jitters.

I’ll be honest, even after almost two decades of breaking down the NFL odds for Covers.com, I still get nervous when it comes to Week 1.

Along with sweating my hard-earned coin on my weekly free NFL picks, I feel added pressure to prove to readers old and new that I know what I’m talking about. Much like the first day of school, you want to make a good impression in Week 1.

The 2023 NFL season, however, hits a little different than past Septembers.

The rapid growth of sports betting has brought with it more and more media types peddling picks and predictions, clogging up the hallways with deafening noise and overwh…