the times | Wednesday December 2 2020 2GM 69
Sport
Announcing the special award for
Rashford last week, the BBC said the
criteria for the main prize was “and
always has been centred around
sporting achievement” and that despite
his “huge impact” outside of his sport
his performances on the pitch did not
justify a place on the shortlist.sensitive, otherwise he would not have
left Adrián on the bench when the
former West Ham United goalkeeper
had assumed he was Alisson’s deputy.
Fatigue, then, was a major theme at
Anfield. Ajax were so infectiously
sprightly that the home team could not
help but join in, defying the narrative
that the domestic season is so congest-
ed that football may grind to a halt, its
fuel to their manager’s ire
in the 17th to 24th positions as they
would go into the Europa League
knockout rounds.”
David Gill, England’s Uefa vice-pres-
ident and treasurer of the European
governing body, has declined to discuss
the reform options but said that there
were some “exciting” proposals and
raised the question of whether Premier
League clubs in Europe could still play
in the League Cup if there are four more
European matches.
He told The Times last week: “The FA
has already reduced the number of FA
Cup replays, [but] what happens with
the League Cup? That question has
been around for years, and can compen-
sation be looked at to help the EFL clubs
[if the cup formats are changed]?”
Gill also stressed that Uefa was deter-
mined to ensure that qualification for
the Champions League remained over-
whelmingly via domestic competitions.
Lars-Christer Olsson, the chairman
of the European League group covering
29 nations, said the Swiss system would
be more acceptable than that put for-
ward by the ECA in 2019 that called for
four groups of eight clubs, meaning 14
group games. He said: “The new pro-
posals are much more realistic but what
is important is protecting the access list
to all the European competitions.”The boxer Tyson Fury has been includ-
ed on the BBC’s Sports Personality of
the Year six-person shortlist, which has
no place for Marcus Rashford.
The BBC has stressed that sporting
merit is the only criteria for choosing
people for the shortlist and the
Manchester United striker, 23, will
instead get a Panel Special Award for
his work combating child food poverty.
His absence leaves Lewis Hamilton
and Fury the favourites to win the main
SPOTY accolade. The other contend-
ers are the England cricketer Stuart
Broad, the jockey Hollie Doyle, the
Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson
and the snooker player Ronnie
O’Sullivan. The event will be held in
front of a virtual audience at Media City
in Salford on Sunday, December 20.
Fury’s sporting achievement was to
come back from serious mental health
issues to win the WBC heavyweight
title against the previously unbeaten
Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas in
February. The 32-year-old also faced
fresh controversy in June after publicly
thanking Daniel Kinahan for negotiat-
ing a two-fight agreement with Antho-
ny Joshua. Kinahan has been identified
in Dublin’s High Court as the head of a
£1 billion drugs and arms operation.
The next month a farmer withdrew
allegations that he had been offered a
£25,000 bribe to provide Fury with an
alibi to cover up a failed drugs test in- Fury, who received a two-year
backdated ban in 2017, blamed the
result on eating uncastrated wild boar.
He has since resurrected his life and
career and is regarded by many as a
mental health champion.
Fury labelled SPOTY “a fix” when he
was omitted from the shortlist last year,
while the promoter Frank Warren
dubbed it an “absolute joke” when his
fighter failed to make it in 2018 on the
back of a spectacular draw with Wilder.
Fury came fourth in 2015 when he was
booed by a section of the crowd before
apologising for previous sexist and
homophobic remarks.
continued from back
More top club clashes in EuropeHow the ‘Swiss system’ could work in the Champions League
6 32 or 36 teams play in
one division that is split
into four pots of seeds.
6 A draw takes place to
allocate opponents for
each club to play ten
matches. A top-seeded
team would face two
other top seeds, three
each from pots two
and three, and two
more teams from the
fourth seeds. Half the
matches would be at
home, half away.
6 Results feed into a
league table of all 32 or
36 teams, with the top
16 going through to the
knockout rounds. The
top of the league would
play the team finishing
16th, second place
versus 15th and so on.
The eight teams
finishing 17th to 24th
would go into the
Europa League
knockout competition.
6 The final semi-
finalists (or quarter-
finalists) would qualify
automatically for thefollowing year’s
Champions League.The Times used a
random draw generator
to draw up potential
opponents for two
English clubs based on
the seeding pots for this
season’s Champions
League (no English
opponents permitted). It
produced this outcome:
Liverpool (pot 1) would
have matches against
Real Madrid (pot 1),
Paris Saint-Germain
(pot 1), Borussia
Dortmund (pot 2),
Shakhtar Donetsk (pot2), Ajax (pot 2), RB
Leipzig (pot 3), Lazio
(pot 3), Krasnodar
(pot 3), Bruges (pot 4),
Rennes (pot 4).
A random draw for
Manchester City (pot 2)
would result in matches
against Bayern Munich
(pot 1), Porto (pot 1),
Real Madrid (pot 1),
Barcelona (pot 2),
Borussia Dortmund
(pot 2), Dynamo Kiev
(pot 3), Inter Milan
(pot 3), Lokomotiv
Moscow (pot 3),
Borussia
Mönchengladbach (pot
4), Ferencvaros (pot 4).Stuart Broad 66-1
Player-of-the-series award
against West Indies and
became second England
bowler after James
Anderson to take 500 Test wickets.Hollie Doyle 20-1
Broke her own record for
winners ridden in a year
by a British woman.
Became first woman to
ride five winners on the same card.Jordan Henderson 16-1
Captained Liverpool to
their first league title in
30 years and won the
Football Writers’ Player of
the Year award.Ronnie O’Sullivan 10-1
Won World Snooker
Championship title 19
years after his first and, at
44, became oldest winner
since Ray Reardon in 1978.Tyson Fury 8-1
Beat Deontay Wilder after
knocking him down twice
in February to become
the WBC world
heavyweight championFury on SPOTY shortlist
but Rashford left in cold
Rick Broadbent Hamilton, the 2014 winner, is the
favourite. The seven-times Formula
One world champion has been in
record-breaking mode this season. As
well as equalling Michael Schuma-
cher’s mark for title wins in Turkey last
month, he has surpassed the German’s
number of race wins (91) with 94.
Hamilton, 35, has also been active off
the podium. After the killing of George
Floyd in May at the hands of the
Minneapolis police, Hamilton high-
lighted the lack of diversity in Formula
One. He inspired a new-look, all-black
Mercedes car as a vivid emblem in the
fight against racism and set up the
Hamilton Commission to make “real,
tangible and measurable change”.
Broad, 34, this summer became only
the second England bowler to reach
500 Test wickets to stand seventh on
the all-time list before earning the
player of the series award against West
Indies by taking 16 wickets at an
average of 10.93. Doyle broke her own
record for the number of winners rid-
den by a British woman, including five
winners on the same card and a maiden
triumph at Royal Ascot. The 24-year-
old would be the first woman awarded
the top prize since Zara Phillips (now
Tindall) in 2006 if she were to win.
Henderson, 30, led Liverpool to their
first league title since 1990, while
O’Sullivan, 44, became the oldest world
snooker champion since Ray Reardon
in 1978 with his sixth title.
Rashford’s campaigning forced the
government into two U-turns and he
will be honoured for that at the
ceremony. The England forward and
Sir Alex Ferguson, the former United
manager, came together at the
weekend to support The Times and
Sunday Times Christmas appeal for
FareShare, the poverty and food waste
charity. “Marcus has opened the eyes of
everyone in Britain,” Ferguson said.
The cricketer Ben Stokes won the
top prize last year with Hamilton
second and the sprinter Dina Asher-
Smith third.
The public can vote by phone or
online on the night.The six in contention
Lewis Hamilton Odds 1-6
Equalled Michael
Schumacher’s record of
seven world titles and
went past his mark of 91
grand prix victories this season2020 champions Bayern Munich lift the trophy
rechargeable battery petering out after
the lack of a proper rest and sensible
pre-season conditioning.
Once you know how upset their
manager is about the demands placed
on his squad it alters how you watch the
game. Every spurt of pace from Sadio
Mané was accompanied by a wince of
concern that the forward may pull up
with a strain. When Andy Robertson,
the left back, needed attention from the
physio midway through the first half it
was not only Kelly holding his breath in
case the twinge was serious.
Liverpool now have a break from BT
Sport and it will be the turn of Amazon’s
touchline reporters to handle the mood
of Klopp after he has faced Wolver-
hampton Wanderers in the late game
on Sunday night. At least the German
can rest a good many players for the
final group game against Midtjylland
having guaranteed top place with this
victory over Ajax. Perhaps BT would
have preferred that last group game to
be a must-win fixture for the Mersey-
side club but, in the long term, a fit and
relatively rested Liverpool is far better
for their Champions League coverage.before Kelleher, left, on his European debut, denied Huntelaar spectacularly
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY ORMESHERReal beaten again by Donetsk
Real Madrid’s troubles continued
last night when they were beaten
2-0 at Shakhtar Donetsk leaving
their qualification for the knockout
stages of the Champions League in
considerable doubt. Second-half
goals from Dentinho and Manor
Solomon secured the win for
Donetsk, who won 3-2 in Madrid
earlier in the group stage. Coach
Zinedine Zidane is under growing
pressure but said: “I’m optimistic.
This is a difficult moment but we
need to show our character now.”