EPL
Crucial Blades fixtures in 2022/23 Championship run-in

Sheffield United have spent the vast majority of the season in a position to return to the Premier League but the Blades still have to hurdle the final few weeks of the campaign to ensure that is where they finish by May.
Paul Heckingbottom’s side have not finished a day outside the play-off positions since August and have been firmly ensconced in one of the two automatic spots at the end of every post-World Cup weekend.
However, such a stellar regular season would only heighten the agony if Heckingbottom can’t nudge his side over the line.
While an FA Cup semi-final looms after a thrilling comeback against Blackburn Rovers, here are the crucial league fixtures that await Sheffield United after the March international break.
Norwich have emerged as the ultimate yo-yo team in recent years but the Canaries face an uphill scrap if they are to earn a third promotion in as many Championship seasons.
The second-tier champions from 2019 and 2021 go into the international break outside the play-off spots but only three points behind sixth-placed Millwall. David Wagner inherited a team slumped in 11th but inspired an uptick in form which could derail Sheffield United’s own promotion aspirations.
Burnley and Sheffield United have formed the division’s top two at the end of every day since the World Cup. While the Clarets are all but assured of an automatic spot with a 13-point cushion to third, the Blades do not have the same safety net, sitting just three points above Middlesbrough.
Until Manchester City unshackled Erling Haaland in the FA Cup quarter-finals, Sheffield United had been the authors of Burnley’s heaviest defeat of the season, romping to a 5-2 victory at Bramall Lane in November with, like City, four goals after the interval.
A repeat of that rout at Turf Moor is highly unlikely; Burnley have only conceded more than one goal at home in two games this season – they didn’t lose either of them.
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Going into the March international break, West Brom are skirting around the periphery of the play-off spots, five points off sixth but with a game in hand on Millwall. It would very much suit Sheffield United if West Brom’s promotion hopes had been extinguished by the time they travel to Bramall Lane on the penultimate weekend of the season.
Both of Sheffield United’s joint-top scorers, Illman Ndiaye and Oli McBurnie, found the net in a 2-0 victory away to West Brom in October. No side has beaten the Baggies at the Hawthorns since but Carlos Corberan’s team are a much more feeble opponent on the road, earning just one league win away from home in 2023.
To say that Sheffield United’s record in the Championship play-offs is abysmal would be an understatement. Since the advent of a mini-tournament to decide the fate of second-tier sides in the late 1980s, Sheffield United have qualified for the play-offs five times – all have ended in failure.
In 1997, the Blades made it to their first play-offs, squeezing past Ipswich Town via away goals in the semi-finals before losing to a 90th-minute winner from Crystal Palace’s David Hopkins at Wembley. It would be the first of three play-off final defeats for the Blades – a joint record they share with Derby County and Reading.
Sheffield United returned to the play-offs last season for the first time since 2009 but once again came unstuck. Three months before Morgan Gibbs-White became Nottingham Forest’s record signing, the England youth international sparked a comeback for Sheffield United at the City Ground in the second leg of the play-off semi-finals, forcing the tie to penalties. Gibbs-White missed the decisive kick as the Tricky Trees advanced to a final they won before snapping up the playmaker that summer.
The Championship’s regular season concludes on Monday 8 May oddly, with all the teams kicking off simultaneously at 15:00 (BST). The Football League is yet to release the official dates of the play-off semi-finals but these traditionally take place on the first weekend after the season’s conclusion, which would be on 13-14 May.
The play-off pits the team that finished third at the end of the season against their sixth-placed counterparts while fourth and fifth battle it out for a spot in the final across two legs home and away.
When is the 2023 Championship play-off final?
The powers that be at England’s Football Association have been kind enough to reveal that the Football League play-off finals will take place between Saturday 27 May and Monday 29 May. With the League One and League Two finals to be played in this window, the Championship showpiece is often saved for last, with an afternoon kick-off expected.
EPL
Europa League final 2023 tickets: Prices for Budapest decider & where to buy

The Europa League final may not be a bucket list event that, say, the Champions League or World Cup finals are, but UEFA’s secondary club competition will mean a whole lot to those supporters whose sides progress into the showpiece event.
Just eight teams remain in this season’s iteration of the competition with several European behemoths of yesteryear still going strong. Manchester United, Juventus, and AS Roma sit among the favourites to at least reach the final in Budapest.
While the final at the Puskas Arena is still some time away yet, tickets for the event are set to go on sale soon.
Here’s everything you need to know about purchasing tickets for the 2023 Europa League final
There’s little information to access regarding 2023 Europa League final tickets right now, with more details expected to be released later this month.
Thus, exact ticket prices for the final in Budapest are not yet known. These were the prices for last season’s final between Rangers and Eintracht Frankfurt in Seville:
A release date has not yet been revealed for 2023 Europa League final tickets. In 2022, tickets went on general sale on 20 April.
Supporters will be able to purchase 2023 Europa League final tickets via UEFA’s ticket portal once they go on general sale.
There are three different hospitality packages for the 2023 Europa League final, but all are sold out on UEFA’s website.
The most expensive of these packages – Private Suite Gold – costs €890 per person. UEFA’s Private Suite Silver package is €200 cheaper at €690, with the main difference between these two options being where the suites are located. Silver suites are behind the goal, while gold suites are in the main or opposite stand.
Customers in both suites will also receive a match ball.
The Club package also costs €690 per person which grants access to UEFA’s Sky Club lounge.
All packages include prolonged hospitality service before and after the match, world-class catering, a live TV feed, a parking pass, and, most importantly, a match programme.
The 2022/23 Europa League final is scheduled for 31 May and will be held at the Puskas Arena in Budapest, Hungary.
EPL
Tottenham director Fabio Paratici banned from football worldwide by FIFA

Tottenham managing director of football Fabio Paratici has been banned from football worldwide after FIFA extended the punishment imposed in Italy following his involvement in Juventus’ penalised accounting practices.
In January, the Italian giants suffered a shock 15-point deduction after the club was deemed to have inflated player transfer values in swap deals among other financial offences.
Paratici joined the Juventus hierarchy in 2010 and was the club’s sporting director between November 2018 and the summer of 2021, before he took up a similar role at Tottenham. The investigation into Juve’s accounts scrutinised transactions between 2019 and 2021 – when Paratici was at the heart of the club’s dealings.
At the start of the year, Paratici was one of several former Juventus board members that were banned from football following the conclusion of the investigation by the Italian Football Federation. Initially, Paratici was handed a 30-month ban from just Italian football, although the threat of extending the scope of that punishment internationally always loomed.
On Wednesday, FIFA released a statement confirming that they had indeed taken up that option, extending the ban handed out to Paratici and the other Juventus board members – including former owner Andrea Agnelli – worldwide.
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The statement read: “FIFA can confirm that following a request by the Italian FA (FIGC), the chairperson of FIFA disciplinary committee has decided to extend the sanctions imposed by FIGC on several football officials to have worldwide effect.”
Paratici was due to be in court this week for a a preliminary committal hearing regarding a portion of the charges levelled at Juve, but the date for those proceedings have been shunted back to 10 May. Juve appealed their 15-point penalty – which the prosecution only recommended as a nine-point punishment – and will hear the ruling of which on 19 April.
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EPL
Sir Alex Ferguson & Arsene Wenger inducted into Premier League Hall of Fame

Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have become the first managers to be inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame.
The duo won 16 Premier League titles between them across respective long-term spells with Manchester United and Arsenal.
With 13 of those championships, Ferguson is the most decorated manager in the history of the competition. He is the only coach to have won the Premier League three times in a row, doing so on two different occasions.
Ferguson said: “I’m truly delighted to be inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame. It’s an honour when you receive recognition like this. However, it’s not just about me as a person. It’s about the job at Manchester United and the bond we had over many years, so I’m also proud for the club, the staff and my players.
“My job was to send the fans home happy. United’s history and my own expectations were the things that drove me, and I then had to try and develop all my players with the same expectations and make sure we could go out and achieve them.
“I feel Arsene is a very worthy inductee as he transformed Arsenal Football Club fantastically. They became a tough team to compete with and we both wanted to win, which motivated us further. Through the years since retirement, we’d go for dinner together in a little restaurant he knows well in Switzerland. He is a really interesting man and I enjoy his company, but it is still my job to pick the wine!”
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Wenger arrived in England in 1996 as one of the Premier League’s first foreign coaches, and quickly proved sceptics wrong, transforming Arsenal into title winners and changing English football’s culture with his scouting and dietary expertise.
The Frenchman won three Premier League titles with Arsenal, including an unbeaten ‘Invincibles’ season in 2003/04.
Wenger said: “I am very grateful to have been selected for the Premier League Hall of Fame. We always wanted to give something special to the fans and when you have players capable of remarkable things, the most important thing for me is the obligation of perfection.
“I’d like to be known as someone who loved Arsenal, who respected the values of the club and left it in a position where it can grow and become even bigger.
“To share this with Sir Alex is a great honour for me. It’s like two boxers, you fight like mad and go the distance together. At the end of the day, you have respect and it will be a great opportunity to meet with him, share a good bottle of wine and memories of our old battles.”
In addition to Ferguson and Wenger, there are 16 other inductees in the Premier League Hall of Fame.
Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry were the first two people inducted when the Hall of Fame was created in 2021. They were followed later that year by Eric Cantona, Roy Keane, Frank Lampard, Dennis Bergkamp, Steven Gerrard and David Beckham.
In 2022, Wayne Rooney, Patrick Vieira, Sergio Aguero, Didier Drogba, Vincent Kompany, Peter Schmeichel, Paul Scholes and Ian Wright were inducted.
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