Sky Blues to host La Liga's Real Betis in pre-season
Coventry City will host Spanish La Liga side Real Betis at the CBS Arena on 30 July as part of their pre-season campaign.Seville-based Betis lost to Premier League side Chelsea in the Europa Conference League final in May but enjoyed a successful season, beating top clubs such as Real Madrid to end the season in sixth and secure European football again.The match will mark the first meeting between the two sides.The Sky Blues are also set to travel to League Two's Bristol Rovers the week prior for their first meeting since 2020 - the year Coventry last secured promotion to the Championship.
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BBC News
21 minutes ago
- BBC News
Push to keep reviving Wolverhampton's architectural history
A city's historic buildings are undergoing a revival and one local photographer, Ian Hughes, said: "We should be shouting about it from the rooftops."Talking about Wolverhampton, he admitted he was once "one of the naysayers who felt it was a dump" - but has found a love for the city's architectural history and said: "There's a lot to celebrate in Wolverhampton."Emma Purshouse, editor of the Black Countryman magazine, also believes the city has some amazing said: "If it was Stratford or the posh parts of London, they'd have been preserved and made part of a tourist trail." Mr Hughes started going on walks around the city two years ago, taking photos of the buildings as he has more than 10,000 images and said the city was now "definitely a phoenix rising from the ashes".One recent discovery which stuck in his mind was a large brick building near the canal."Nobody seemed to know what it was," he said - but he eventually found it had once been a butter and cheese Hughes said it was a "lovely building, totally overgrown and desperately in need of repair" and he felt it had an interesting story to tell. Mr Hughes said he did not know why Wolverhampton "chose to knock things down" but it was nothing new or unique to the said the Victorians "just swept everything away" to create the modern city centre and their buildings had in turn been replaced after World War Two."In the 1950s, councils up and down the country did exactly the same," he Mr Hughes is not angry about the city's lost history and said: "People made what they think were the right decisions at the time."These buildings were never built to last forever and be part of history, they were built with a purpose and those purposes are long, long gone." Ms Purshouse said she believed it was "easier to knock things down than preserve them" but there were many examples of interesting architecture still in said her favourites included the Great Western pub, with its cobbled street "because it feels like you've just stepped back in time into a little Victorian pocket of Wolverhampton" and the Lychgate Tavern off Queen's some old buildings were "hidden" behind modern shop fronts, with others it had been "easier to knock things down than preserve them", she added. Ms Purshouse was appointed Wolverhampton's first poet laureate during the coronavirus pandemic and, like Mr Hughes, spent a lot of time walking around the said while some buildings had been lost, there were also good examples of historic buildings being preserved, such as the Albion former corn mill has been turned into flats but its appearance has been also hoped the city's former eye infirmary would be treated sensitively when the old NHS site was is planning consent to turn it into flats, a special needs school and an eating disorder city council said the Victorian building and former nurses accommodation would be restored as part of that work and it was encouraging the owners to move the project Purshouse said she has happy to see buildings change their use if they can "keep the architecture and keep the feel of the things". Mr Hughes said there were also encouraging signs for the future of Wolverhampton, with projects such as the planned redevelopment of the former Beatties site will be turned into a mixture of apartments and shops and the city council said it was in "regular contact" with the owners of this building too, "to offer support and encourage action to move things forward". The councillor responsible for development in Wolverhampton, Chris Burden, said the city was "full of beautiful architecture" and the council took the preservation and restoration of heritage buildings "extremely seriously".The authority pointed to a number of other buildings which have been brought back into include the Grade II listed Civic Hall and Wulfrun Hall, now known simply as The Halls, which were refurbished at a cost of £ former Royal Hospital, which closed in 1997, has also been brought back into use as flats for people over the age of projects still in the works include turning the former Chubb Locks factory into a four-screen cinema and the restoration of the central council said it was also working with the owners of the city's other empty buildings to bring them back into use and improve how they look from the outside. While it might be romantic to think Wolverhampton's forgotten buildings could all be brought back into use, Mr Hughes believes people should be realistic about the future of town shopping habits changing, he said: "Towns as we knew them are gone, they're never coming back."But he said if developers were prepared to put in the money and the effort, the centre of Wolverhampton "could become what it used to be". Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
The Sun
27 minutes ago
- The Sun
Man Utd transfer news LIVE: Gyokeres ‘says yes' to Amorim reunion, Chelsea hold Garnacho interest, Mbeumo latest
Antony offered reunion Manchester United flop Antony could be saved from his Old Trafford hell by the man who brought him in the first place. According to reports, new Bayer Leverkusen boss Erik ten Hag is considering signing the winger this summer. Ten Hag was in charge at United when the Brazil international arrived for £86m in 2022 after their previous stint together at Ajax. But the 25-year-old's time in Manchester has been nothing short of a disaster as he even admitted he went days without eating it got so bad. Man Utd are understood to prefer a permanent sale for Antony if an exit is sanctioned. According to Sky Sports, Leverkusen could offer a viable option for the Brazilian to finally call a permanent end to his time at the Theatre of Dreams. The Bundesliga giants are thought to have shortlisted Antony as one of a number of forwards they are keen on should Florian Wirtz leave for Liverpool this summer.
BBC News
35 minutes ago
- BBC News
Worcestershire cricket festival aims to inspire women and girls
A cricket festival returns to Worcester this weekend, celebrating women and girls in the is Worcestershire Cricket Foundation's annual women's softball festival with teams from across the country competing. This year, it aligns with the Worcestershire Rapids women playing at Worcester's New Road ground for the T20 and girls' performance coach Jess Beach told the BBC it was "amazing to play there as we don't do it too often". "We're really looking forward to showing what we can do," she Beach said it was really important more women and girls were inspired to get into the sport and she had noticed an increase in opportunities in recent years. "When I was young, there weren't many girls playing," she said. "Now you can get so many teams at clubs which is really exciting to see." 'Celebrate women's cricket' T20 Blast is a new tournament for 2025, with 18 county teams from across England and Wales competing. The festival takes place at a ground next to New Road, where the Women's Rapids are set to play the Derbyshire Falcons from 10:30 BST on Sunday. "We've been working hard this week so hopefully we get a good couple of wins," Ms Beach said. The Worcestershire Cricket Foundation said Megafest is "one of the biggest" soft ball festivals in the country."It's a chance to celebrate women's cricket," a spokesperson said there would be a participation event focussed on fun as well as a new second competition festival, where a Megafest champion will be crowned. Follow BBC Hereford & Worcester on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
