A new campaign aimed to transform the way children and young people are coached in sport and physical activity by prioritising enjoyment has been launched to help increase activity levels.

Sport England’s latest Active Lives Children survey found only 47 per cent of children who regularly exercise strongly agree they enjoy taking part, which was down from the pre-pandemic level of 51 per cent.

The survey, published in December 2022, also showed 53 per cent felt they do not get enough exercise.

The launch of the ‘Play Their Way’ campaign by the Children’s Coaching Collaborative will be led by the 17 partner organisations and is funded by Sport England and the National Lottery.

Research shows enjoyment is one of the biggest motivators for children and young people to help them get active.

The Play Their Way campaign will be dedicated to ensuring children have the best possible experience in sport and activity through a ‘child first’ approach taken on board by England’s 2.6million coaches to build a grassroots movement which is hoped will in turn keep youngsters staying active through the rest of their life.

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A launch event is being held on Tuesday in south London at Peckham BMX Club, which has coached and supported more than 2,000 young people since opening in 2004 – including 2020 Olympic silver medallist Kye Whyte.

Sport England chief executive Tim Hollingsworth said: “Positive experiences for children and young people are at the heart of Sport England’s ‘Uniting the Movement’ strategy – and child-first coaching is an important part of this.

“Our research tells us that for children, fun is the primary reason for taking part in sport and activity. They will want to take part if they enjoy it.

“It is vital that we put fun and enjoyment at the centre of sport and activity, and give our children and young people the chance to shape their sporting experiences to boost activity levels.”

Head of coaching and policy at UK Coaching Heather Douglas added: “Coaches play such an important role in the development of children and young people’s lives, often in difficult circumstances, and can have a profound effect on the positive experiences they have in sport and physical activity

“We know that child-first coaching and giving children a choice and a voice in the way they are coached works, and that many of our coaches are out there doing this already.

“This campaign is about helping more coaches do more of this and through ‘Play Their Way’ we will be providing them with resources and support to help transform the way our children and young people are coached.”

:: To learn more about the campaign, access resources and sign up to join the biggest grassroots movement to transform the way we coach our children and young people visit www.playtheirway.org

The NFL Draft will be held in Green Bay for the first time in 2025, the league announced Monday during its spring meetings.

Events will take place inside and around Lambeau Field and Titletown, a complex with shops, activities and restaurants located near the iconic home of the Packers.

"The draft has become a prominent offseason event hosted in different cities with spectacular locations across the country, and we are excited to work with the Packers and Discover Green Bay to bring the 2025 NFL Draft to Green Bay and iconic Lambeau field," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.

The NFL Draft was held in New York City from 1965-2014, then took place in Chicago (2015-16), Philadelphia (2017), Dallas (2018), Nashville (2019), Las Vegas (2022) and Kansas City (2023).

"This is an incredible day for the Packers, greater Green Bay and the entire state of Wisconsin as we are excited and honored to be selected to host the 2025 NFL Draft," Packers president and CEO Mark Murphy said.

"The Packers have a rich and proud history that goes back to the early days of the NFL and are the only community owned team.

“That connection to our league's heritage combined with the great passion Packers fans will bring will make the draft a memorable event for those in attendance and NFL fans watching around the world.”

Ilkay Gundogan is determined not to lose momentum as Manchester City aim to close out the season by winning the treble.

City claimed the first of the three trophies they are chasing by winning the Premier League title over the weekend.

Their sights are now set on adding the FA Cup and Champions League but, before they can switch thoughts fully to their two finals next month, they have to complete the league programme.

City, who are unbeaten in 24 games, wrap up their Premier League campaign by travelling to Brighton on Wednesday and Brentford next Sunday and Gundogan is wary of easing up in those matches.

The City captain said: “We haven’t lost any games for so many weeks and that’s the standard that we have to set for ourselves.

“We do nothing different – we do the same things that we’ve done in the last few weeks and hopefully it can be a really special end to the season.

“I love the club and being part of this amazing team.

“Obviously, we want to finish the season with two more trophies. We have two more big finals, and the last two games of the Premier League season are going to be preparation for that.

“We don’t want to drop anything. I would love to lift two more trophies.”

The ultimate success of City’s season will now be defined by the FA Cup final, in which they face Manchester United on June 3, and the Champions League final against Inter Milan the following week.

After a strong run throughout the spring – capped by magnificent performances in crunch games against title rivals Arsenal and then Real Madrid in the Champions League – the focus is strong.

Kevin De Bruyne, who like Gundogan is now a five-time Premier League winner, said: “We like to win, and we’re never bored of it. We’ve won a lot in the past but we want to win again and again.

“We keep on working. We enjoy the games against Brighton and Brentford and prepare for United and Inter and hopefully we can do something special.

“Everybody wants it. We know we need to win two games, but they are hard games, and we need to prepare ourselves the best as possible and hopefully we can win them.”

Midfielder Rodri is confident City can achieve their goal.

He said: “We know there is a long way to go with two big finals and we have to prepare good.

“We can do it. We believe in ourselves. We have been working to arrive in these moments and we are prepared.”

Jimmy Jeggo believes Hibernian can recover from Sunday’s setback against Rangers to keep themselves in contention for a European place.

The Hibees had not lost in four games before the 3-1 cinch Premiership defeat to the Light Blues where goals from Gers skipper James Tavernier, Ianis Hagi and Todd Cantwell rendered Paul Hanlon’s added-time header as a consolation.

Lee Johnson’s side are in fifth place – two points ahead of St Mirren, four points behind Hearts and six behind Aberdeen – with European places potentially available up to fifth place in the league as long as champions Celtic beat Inverness in the Scottish Cup final.

Hibs finish the campaign with two tough matches, at home to Celtic and away to Edinburgh rivals Hearts and Jeggo remains positive.

The 31-year-old midfielder, who signed from Belgian club Eupen in January, said: “There were positives but there are still a lot of things we need to improve when it comes to these types of games to get a little bit closer.

“But we are at that stage in the season where we need results.

“We are still in with a chance of European football, which is our aim. It is about taking the positives from Sunday, looking at the things we need to improve on and then taking them into the game on Wednesday night, which will be a similar game.

“We know where we are as a team and we want to keep building.

“We feel that over the last couple of weeks we have taken a step forward and it is about continuing that.

“It is that time of the season where there is no point getting too down about things.

“We know we have to go out there in the next couple of games and do a job. We know it is going to be difficult, but we are ready for that.

“There is still an overriding sense of confidence in the team that we can do what we need to do to get a European place.

“A club like Hibs has to be in Europe. We are all well aware of the expectation.

“As players, that’s where we want to be. We know there are two really big games coming up and it is going to be difficult.

“But the gaffer is clear. We are building and there is another window coming up and all that kind of stuff.

“It is a big advantage to the club having European football and also for us as a team. It provides us with more challenges to grow and more challenges to get better.”

NFL owners approved a rule change that they hope will prevent a repeat of what happened in last season’s NFC championship game.

The bylaw passed on Monday allows NFL teams to designate an inactive third quarterback who can play if the first two QBs are injured during a game.

The third QB will not count against the limit of active players and will only be activated if either of the first two quarterbacks are injured or disqualified – not due to a benching for poor play.

If either of the first two QBs are later cleared to return by the team’s medical staff, the emergency quarterback must then come out.

This rule amendment had been discussed after the San Francisco 49ers’ only two active quarterbacks were injured in January’s NFC title game against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Brock Purdy injured his elbow and his backup Josh Johnson suffered a concussion, forcing Purdy to return.

Purdy, though, wasn’t a threat to throw, and without a functioning quarterback the 49ers couldn’t get anything going offensively and suffered a 31-7 loss.

For a league that prides itself on excitement, the highly anticipated game was a bore when San Francisco had the ball, but this new rule should make games more competitive if the first two quarterbacks were to get injured.

Nick Pope ensured Newcastle booked their Champions League place with a game to spare as he denied Leicester a priceless victory in their bid for Premier League survival.

The Magpies’ £10million summer signing kept out Timothy Castagne’s volley in the second minute of stoppage time with his first save of the game to secure a 0-0 draw on a night when the home side battered at the door but were unable to find a way through.

Callum Wilson and Miguel Almiron were both denied by the woodwork, but a point was all their team needed to ensure their place among the continent’s big boys for the first time in 20 years.

By contrast, Leicester, who are still two points adrift of safety, will head into their final-day clash with West Ham knowing their fate is not in their own hands.

Eddie Howe’s men were lauded by a crowd of 52,152 on the final whistle, having secured Champions League football for just the third time in the club’s history and way ahead of the schedule drawn up by the club’s Saudi-backed owners when they took control in October 2021.

In some senses it proved to be a frustrating 90 minutes – it might have been more so had key midfielder Bruno Guimaraes seen red rather than yellow for a poor early challenge of Boubakary Soumare – but it was ultimately the bigger picture which mattered.

Howe was forced to make a last-minute change when, after he had taken part in the warm-up, midfielder Joelinton was unable to start and was replaced by Elliot Anderson.

Any fears the reshuffle might unsettle his team proved unfounded as they took the game by the scruff of the neck amid a party atmosphere at St James’ Park, although Guimaraes was perhaps fortunate to escape with only a booking for his studs-up ninth-minute clash with Soumare.

The Magpies dominated possession but in the early stages were unable to find a telling final ball.

Almiron, who had made another high-octane start, fired over after cutting inside from the right and Anderson tested goalkeeper Daniel Iversen for the first time with a curling attempt.

Alexander Isak was seeing plenty of the ball down the left but sliced a long-range effort well wide as the Magpies piled forward repeatedly without ever really being able to summon up the required precision to make the pressure tell.

For their part, City attempted to hit Jamie Vardy and Kelechi Iheanacho long and early and, although they achieved a measure of success, they met with stubborn resistance from Fabian Schar and Sven Botman.

Wilson twice went close to his 19th goal of the season four minutes before the break when he stabbed a shot against a post and then saw Wilfred Ndidi clear his follow-up header off the line, while Almiron was similarly denied by the woodwork before Isak steered the rebound wide seconds later.

Wilson headed over from a Kieran Trippier corner in stoppage time after Iversen had misjudged the flight and the half ended goalless.

James Maddison entered the fray at the break as a replacement for Iheanacho, but the traffic continued to head very much in the direction of his team’s goal, with Isak and Almiron menacing out wide, although the massed ranks of blue held impressively firm.

Iversen had to turn a 59th-minute Isak snapshot over his crossbar and block Sean Longstaff’s 76th-minute drive with a foot, but it was the Foxes who almost snatched victory at the death when Pope was forced into his first save of the game to keep out Castagne’s stoppage-time volley.

Juventus' hopes of a top-four Serie A finish suffered a huge double blow as the Bianconeri were thrashed 4-1 at Empoli on the same day they received a 10-point deduction. 

Moments before kick-off, Juve expressed "great bitterness" at the Italian Football Federation's decision to issue a new penalty over alleged transfer irregularities, putting them seventh in the table.

Massimiliano Allegri's side showed no signs of being fired up by that ruling, as Francesco Caputo's penalty and Sebastiano Luperto's powerful effort quickly put Empoli in control. 

Caputo doubled up with a delicate finish after half-time and though Federico Chiesa pulled one back, Roberto Piccoli's stoppage-time strike compounded the visitors' misery and left them five points outside the top four with two games remaining.

Federico Gatti had the ball in the net after 14 minutes, prodding in the rebound after Arkadiusz Milik headed against the crossbar, but Bremer was adjudged to have fouled goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.

Empoli took full advantage of that escape four minutes later, Caputo drilling home from the spot after Milik clumsily tripped Nicolo Cambiaghi just inside the area.

The hosts only required a further three minutes to double their lead, Luperto smashing into the roof of the net from close range after Wojciech Szczesny denied Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro.

Juve missed huge chances to pull one back either side of half-time, Bremer and Dusan Vlahovic both blazing over the crossbar when unmarked inside the area. 

Vlahovic's miss was swiftly punished as Caputo put the result beyond doubt after 48 minutes, lifting Akpa Akpro's square ball over Szczesny to complete his brace.

Chiesa gave Juve a faint glimmer of hope when he drilled a shot under Vicario with five minutes left, but Empoli restored their three-goal cushion in stoppage time as Piccoli fired into the bottom-left corner.

Juventus have been docked 10 points by the Italian football federation for irregularities in the club’s accounting.

The Serie A side were initially hit with a 15-point sanction in January but the penalty was rescinded after an appeal.

The federation has now moved to issue a new punishment after the federal court of appeal intervened, meaning the club could miss out on European football next season.

Tiger Woods has officially withdrawn from next month’s US Open at Los Angeles Country Club.

Woods pulled out of the Masters during the third round in April, saying at the time it was due to plantar fasciitis.

However, the 47-year-old then had a subtalar fusion procedure in New York to address the problem caused by a previous fracture of his talus, a bone in the ankle joint.

The 15-time major winner did not contest last week’s US PGA Championship at Oak Hill and the USGA confirmed he will also miss the US Open while announcing that 33 more players are now exempt for the year’s third major.

Twenty five of those players earned their place courtesy of being ranked in the world’s top 60, including world number 18 Tyrrell Hatton and major winners Patrick Reed and Jason Day.

Woods feared his leg would have to be amputated due to the serious injuries he suffered in a car accident in Los Angeles in February 2021.

He made a remarkable return to action 14 months later and finished 47th in the Masters, but withdrew from the US PGA following a third-round 79 and skipped the US Open before missing the cut in the 150th Open at St Andrews.

Woods will hope to defy the odds to compete in July’s Open at Royal Liverpool, where he won a third Open title in 2006 in his first tournament since the death of his father Earl two months earlier.

Sean Maitland is ready to help Saracens claim the Gallagher Premiership title on Saturday after his prolonged contract saga ended an unsettling period.

Maitland was about to prepare his departure speech for the club’s leavers’ event on April 28 because of the uncertainty over whether he would still be at StoneX Stadium next season.

It was a fraught time for the Scotland wing and his family due to the Premiership’s reduced salary cap making contracts harder to come by, but Saracens have chosen to retain his clinical finishing skills.

“It was lastminute.com. Again! The last two have been quite similar. The market is probably not the best at the moment, especially for a 34-year-old winger,” Maitland said.

“It’s a bit complicated with the salary cap and everything that’s going on in rugby.

“It doesn’t just involve me. I’m just so happy because I have a young family and my kids get to stay in the same school and in the same house for another year.

“Some things helped me – little micro-chats with my wife, small chats about the future and what could happen, keeping her updated about things here and at other clubs.

“I’m very grateful it’s sorted and I can just worry about playing rugby. To move from this club which I love would have been pretty difficult.”

The climax to the season against Sale at Twickenham on Saturday will be the last Saracens appearances for Jackson Wray, Duncan Taylor, Max Malins and Ruben de Haas.

Highlighting the precarious nature of the current landscape of English club rugby, Maitland did not know if he would be joining them out of the door, thereby ending his seven-year spell in north London.

“Before the London Irish game (April 23) I said to (performance director) Phil Morrow: ‘Am I preparing a leaver’s speech for next Friday?’. He looked at me and said: ‘We’ve got a bit of stuff to sort out’,” Maitland said.

“I didn’t hear anything on the Monday or Tuesday, and on Wednesday I was with my son knowing Friday was the leavers’ dinner and I still didn’t know what was happening.

“I got a call to come in and I had my wee son with me thinking: ‘I’m going to be told this is my last time here’.

“I sat down with Phil and (director of rugby) Mark McCall and they said: ‘Mate, we want to give you another year’. It was special.

“The game has given me so much over the last 15 or 16 years. I was accepting the fact this was my last year and wanted to go out on a high winning the Premiership, but one more year and the dream keeps going on.”

Maitland has benefited from Saracens adopting a more adventurous approach to attack shaped by last season’s Premiership final loss to Leicester and that experience – the Tigers won through a last-gasp Freddie Burns drop goal – also underlined how winning and losing can be balanced on a knife edge.

“The whole season has been special, the way we have changed how we are playing, scoring tries. To win the final would top a really special year,” Maitland said.

“But as we know from last season it’s a one-off game and anything can happen – decisions, yellow cards, red cards – and Sale are a great team.”

Southampton’s owners have announced a shake-up at board level in the wake of relegation from the Premier League.

Martin Semmens has left his role as CEO, with Sport Republic – the majority shareholder at St Mary’s – taking full operational control of the club.

Serbian businessman Dragan Solak has been appointed chairman of Sport Republic but Rasmus Ankersen will continue as CEO of the company and Henrik Kraft stays on as club chairman.

Saints are still looking for a new manager, with Swansea boss Russell Martin reported to be the frontrunner.

A statement read: “These are the first of many changes that we will be making to ensure the success of the club.

“Our incoming director of football, Jason Wilcox, will lead a review of the football department and we will announce the club’s leadership team for next season in the coming weeks.

“By taking these steps now, we are laying the groundwork for our goal of returning Southampton FC to the Premier League as soon as possible.”

Owen Burrows will walk the course at Sandown on Thursday before deciding whether or not to allow Hukum to run in the Racehorse Lotto Brigadier Gerard Stakes.

Hukum is set to face a field that includes Desert Crown, last year’s Derby winner – who is similarly due to make his return from a long absence – in a mouthwatering renewal of the 10-furlong Group Three contest.

However, the Lambourn trainer hinted that if there is not enough moisture in the ground, he could withdraw his six-year-old, who is scheduled to make his comeback after an injury which has sidelined him for 11 months.

Burrows went from the high of winning the Coronation Cup, a first Group One success at Epsom in June, to despair in the space of a few hours, when Hukum was found to be lame after returning home.

A year-older full-brother to the brilliant Baaeed, Hukum picked up a hind leg injury which required three screws to be inserted and it seemed likely he would be retired to stud.

However, he has made a remarkable recovery and Burrows is keen not to take any unnecessary risks with Sheikha Hissa’s Shadwell-owned colt.

“Hopefully he can get back on the track,” said the handler. “He seemed to have improved again from the year before and then he got that injury. It was hugely disappointing, but it doesn’t do to dwell on things.

“It was a pretty straightforward injury. If he was a two- or three-year-old, then he would definitely have come back. There would have been no issue.

“But with him just winning a Group One, my automatic thought was that he would head off to stud.

“But Sheikha Hissa quite sportingly said that if there was a good chance of getting him back, then she’d be happy to give him a chance. Touch wood he’s had plenty of time and we have had a nice preparation with him.”

Though a winner of over £630,000 and successful in nine of his 15 starts, any plans to defend his Coronation Cup title on his first outing of the season were scratched.

Yet Burrows is well aware of the task Hukum faces on his return, which is a stepping stone to a potential run at Royal Ascot.

“We thought it was probably a bit strong to go straight back into a Group One, so this is going to definitely be a prep run.

“He needs to get out now. It is slightly concerning that we are drying up so quick, though.

“I wouldn’t risk him on proper fast ground. Sandown’s clerk of the course, Andrew Cooper, normally does a great job producing safe ground.

“I’ll get there sharp and I said to Richard Hills (Shadwell’s racing manager) this morning that we will have a walk of the track and all being well, if we are happy, then he will take his chance

“It’s pretty obvious the task we face, though. Desert Crown was a pretty impressive Derby and Dante winner last year. There doesn’t appear to be many chinks in his armour.

“He looks a relaxed horse who looks pretty solid, so it is a massive ask, but it is all about getting our fella on the track and getting a run into him.

“The Hardwicke would probably be the next plan, but I wouldn’t be risking him on fast ground through the summer, so the back-end races and an autumn campaign could be on the agenda.”