Livingston knock back offer for Prior
Livingston have rejected a bid from Latvian champions RFS for goalkeeper Jerome Prior. (Sky Sports), externalRead the rest of Friday's Scottish gossip.
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BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
One 3pm opener, Martin's first Old Firm & who has hardest start?
The palpable excitement whipped up by the unveiling of a bunch of dates in a calendar is a strange phenomenon in Scotland, fully grown adults will be like kids at Christmas this Friday morning. Booking trains, scanning hotel booking websites, all while conducting a Google map scan of every pub along the route of a train station to a stadium with military season's Premiership fixtures were unleashed to supporters at 0900 BST, but what are the things punters will be talking about as they update their social diaries? The death of the 3pm on a Saturday A bizarre quirk of this season's Scottish Premiership opening day is that there's three of games get things going on Saturday as Kilmarnock host Livingston and Motherwell take on Russell Martin's then have to wait until Sunday for three more to follow, including defending champions Celtic against St Mirren, while Hearts and Aberdeen bring the whole thing to a close on there is actually only one game - Kilmarnock v Livingston - which kicks off at 15:00 BST on the Saturday. This will have traditionalists burning their match programmes and hurling their Bovril out the Well, the game at Fir Park has been shifted later for television, making it four of the six opening games being broadcast live. Hibs and Dundee United also have European qualifiers on the preceding Thursday. When is the first Old Firm game? Yes, yes, there are three city derbies in the Premiership. There's no west-coast bias here. However, there will be a particular clamour around the first meeting of Celtic and Rangers this season. The Ibrox side have a new manager in Martin, and there will plenty of anticipation to see how his team fare against Brendan Rodgers' Celtic given the chasm between the two clubs last teams will also have been in European qualifying beforehand to give this one an extra who picked up seven points in last term's derbies and still finished miles behind, host the first Old Firm meeting on 31 August with a noon is the Dundee derby? It's the day before at Dens Park. Will United still be in Europe by then? Will Steven Pressley, a former city rival in his playing days, have got off to a flyer with the blue half of the city?You then have to wait until the first weekend in October before the Edinburgh derby takes centre another city rivalry that will feature a new manager and Hearts boss Derek McInnes will have home advantage for his first taste of the fixture. Will the Premiership fixtures change? You can bet your Killie Pie on it.A restricted amount of television fixtures have been released so far. Basically the opening two weekends, the first Old Firm game and the festive Edinburgh that, it's a disconcertingly straightforward calendar so far. But hang fire booking your hostel in of games will still be moved for television, while European football has the potential to cause and Aberdeen are both guaranteed group stage football, with the latter almost certain to have a raft of games moved to a top of that, you have the unknown fate for Dundee United, Hibernian and Rangers on their continental adventures. Which team's Premiership start is the most difficult? The answer to this will be the same regardless who you ask: "My team."Football fans are not renowned for their impartiality or rational thinking, every person's favourite club has been dealt a short hand. Or have they?Our friends at Opta have crunched the number for the opening four games, and it appears St Mirren - who have Celitc, Rangers and an away trip to Easter Road among their opening matches - have got it the you have Dundee, who have Rangers, Hibs, Kilmarnock away on a plastic pitch plus a derby. Then it's Motherwell who open to Martin's Ibrox appears the SPFL super computer was built in Edinburgh, with both capital clubs allegedly having the softest last words. What are the festive Premiership fixtures? In recent memory, Scottish football has had Christmas Eve fixtures, Boxing Day fixtures, Hogmanay fixtures and even New Year's Day fixtures. Thoughts still lie with the hungover Motherwell fans watching their team get scudded 5-0 by Hamilton Academical on 1 January in this year the calendar has fallen away from any landmark dates across the festive 27 December is the chosen day for a full card, the Edinburgh derby kicking things off at 12:30 then have six games on Tuesday 30 December, before we bounce on to Saturday 3 January as the Dundee and Glasgow derbies provide a blockbuster start to the new as with everything, keep an eye out for television commitments to potentially rip this up...
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
K-League to end rule banning foreign goalkeepers
Foreign goalkeepers will be allowed to play in South Korean professional football from next year when a ban on signing them is ended after 27 years. The ban has been in place since 1999 and was introduced to help develop homegrown keepers by ensuring they received enough playing there were only 10 professional clubs in South Korea 26 years ago, compared to the current 26 in the country's top two divisions."Starting in 2026, clubs will be permitted to register foreign goalkeepers," said the Korea Professional Football League."The K-League previously restricted their participation beginning in 1996 and introduced a full ban in 1999 to encourage the development of domestic goalkeepers, as most clubs at the time relied on foreign players in the position."
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Hannah Hampton: Doctors told me I couldn't play football – now I'm England No 1
Hannah Hampton says she is striving to live up to the legacy of Mary Earps as the goalkeeper prepares for her first major tournament as England's No 1. Hampton's rise to be England 's first-choice goalkeeper is all the more remarkable for the fact she was born with strabismus, an eye condition which affects depth perception. She underwent multiple operations as a child and was told by doctors that she would not be able to play sport because of that inability to judge distances, but she has continually defied such predictions. She has previously joked that being a goalkeeper, where being aware of the ball's exact location quite an important part of the job, 'doesn't really make a lot of sense', but being told she could not do something 'made me more determined to get to the highest level possible. It was always my passion to do sport and it was my dream'. Yet Hampton has recently opened up about how she considered quitting football after reports emerged of her allegedly being dropped from the England team because of a poor attitude in 2022, which Hampton insisted were inaccurate. Speaking about why she decided to carry on playing, Hampton said: 'I've always gone through life trying to prove people wrong. 'I was told from a young age that I couldn't play football, that it wasn't a profession I could pursue, the doctors told my parents that. 'I'm here right now. You can't let all the scrutiny win. I think if you do that it just adds fuel to the fire and I wasn't willing to accept that. I wanted to show who I am as a person and show that [the stories] weren't always true. So I thought, 'just dig in'. I did that and I'm sat here right now. I think I can say that I've proved people wrong.' She managed to put that turbulent period behind her, joining Chelsea from Aston Villa in 2023 and working her way back into the Lionesses' set-up. Hampton got her chance with England when Earps picked up an injury in May last year and performances against France and Sweden were impressive enough for her to retain her place. The two goalkeepers shared game time as Sarina Wiegman tried to decide who was No 1, with Hampton eventually getting the nod when she started both games against Belgium in April. Earps made the shock decision to retire at the end of May after being told by Wiegman that Hampton was now the Lionesses' first-choice goalkeeper. Hampton, 24, watched on as Earps won the golden glove at the 2022 European Championship and the 2023 World Cup but will now have the chance to replicate her former team-mate's achievements at this summer's Euros in Switzerland. 'It's been difficult for everyone to come to terms with what her decision is, but we have to respect that,' Hampton said. 'I've done everything I need to do. I've sent her a text and I congratulated her on a very successful international career and I think that's all I really can do. 'I'm not expecting anything back, she's been an unbelievable player. We're going to miss her as a person here. She's a big personality in this team and she glued us all together at times when we needed to. 'Now I've got to just go and live up to her legacy. I'll give it my best shot for sure.' Hampton, who helped Chelsea achieve a domestic treble last season and was the joint-winner of the Women's Super League golden boot with 13 clean sheets, admitted knowing her place in the pecking order going into the tournament has been helpful. 'Getting that bit of clarity already helps you prepare for whatever your role is,' she said. 'My role is different this time around compared to the last tournaments but it's not going to change my mindset.
