The United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland have dropped plans to stage World Cup 2030 and will instead focus on a bid for Euro 2028.

A joint announcement from the football associations of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic confirmed the decision following "an extensive feasibility study".

The committee chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), Julian Knight, had previously derided the World Cup bid as a "giant, expensive vanity project".

The joint statement on Monday confirmed: "The feasibility study included an analysis of the economic impact, the political football landscape and likely costs of hosting major international tournaments. On balance, the five associations have decided to focus solely on an official bid to host UEFA Euro 2028, and have agreed not to bid for the 2030 FIFA World Cup.

"Hosting a UEFA Euro offers a similar return on investment, with the European tournament carrying a far lower delivery cost and the potential of the benefits being realised sooner.

"It would be an honour and a privilege to collectively host UEFA Euro 2028 and to welcome all of Europe. It would also be a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate the true impact of hosting a world-class football tournament by driving positive change and leaving a lasting legacy across our communities.

"We believe the UK and the Republic of Ireland can offer UEFA and European football something special in 2028 – a compact and unique five-way hosting collaboration that will provide a great experience for the teams and the fans."

England, which last hosted a major tournament when it staged the Euros in 1996, failed in a bid for the 2018 World Cup, which took place in Russia.

London and Glasgow were among the host cities for Euro 2020, with the semi-finals and final taking place at Wembley Stadium.

Dan Ashworth has resigned as Brighton and Hove Albion technical director to join another Premier League club – widely thought to be Newcastle United.

Ashworth held talks with Newcastle previously as the club's new owners seek to appoint a director of football, with a chief executive set to follow.

"In line with his contractual terms, Ashworth will now begin an extended period of gardening leave, after which he will be able to take up a new position elsewhere," a Brighton statement detailing his departure read.

David Weir, Ashworth's assistant, has replaced him as acting technical director, with Brighton saying the handover would be completed "later this week".

Ashworth was the FA's director of elite development for six years up until 2018, playing a key role in the improved fortunes of the England team. He then joined Brighton the following year.

Brighton chairman Tony Bloom said: "We are extremely disappointed that Dan will no longer be our technical director. He leaves a significant legacy in place and for that we are greatly appreciative.

"Dan's done an outstanding job and helped build on the progress the club had already made across all of our technical areas. I wish Dan and his family well for the future."

Newcastle signed defender Dan Burn from Brighton at the start of last week and reports suggest Ashworth was offered the new job at St James' Park on Friday.

His imminent appointment comes as a boost to the relegation-threatened side, who face a huge game against Everton on Tuesday.

Coach Eddie Howe has revealed a return date for injured top scorer Callum Wilson remains "unclear", with the hope being he can "play a big part at the end of the season". March was initially suggested as a target for the striker.

Burn is a doubt for the Everton match, while Howe said he was yet to make a decision on Bruno Guimaraes, the £35million signing who joined over the weekend following international duty with Brazil.

Norman Powell ended up on the losing side in his Los Angeles Clippers debut but showed exactly what his new team can expect from him moving forward.

Powell joined the Clippers last week in a five-player trade with the Portland Trail Blazers.

Fellow two-way wing Robert Covington headed to LA with Powell, while the Blazers received Eric Bledsoe, Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson and a 2025 second-round draft pick.

Portland look to be building for the future, and the Clippers are too – to an extent.

With Paul George and Kawhi Leonard out injured and uncertain to return this year, a 2021-22 title challenge appears to be off the cards. The Clippers are eighth in the West.

Moving forward into next season, however, with two superstars returning, both Powell and Covington should improve the team.

Powell's Clippers bow suggested as much, as he scored 28 points from the bench in Sunday's 137-113 defeat to defending champions the Milwaukee Bucks.

"Literally for all my career, I have been in every single role on the team," Powell said afterwards.

"[I have been] the guy fighting and scratching trying to get into the rotation, being in a rotation, being taken out of a rotation, playing alongside Kyle [Lowry] and DeMar [DeRozan], playing alongside Kyle and Kawhi, playing off of them [in Toronto].

"So, I think I can fit perfectly in here, with PG and Kawhi."

The 28-year-old, who signed a five-year, $90million deal last August, is scoring a career-high 18.9 points per game this year.

Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said: "We never thought it was realistic for us to get a player like Norm Powell for a team that won't have salary cap space for a long, long, long time.

"It's really, really hard to get players like Norm, who are under a long-term deal, who are in their prime.

"Norm's ability as a three-level scorer – the fact that when he's playing off the ball, he's such a prolific catch-and-shoot player – really, really, complements Kawhi and PG."

Covington, who had 13 points in his debut, added: "[I am] beyond excited.

"[The trade] is going to make us dynamic – more dynamic than what we already are – and it's going to be scary defensively."

Mikaela Shiffrin was disqualified from the giant slalom on Monday as her Winter Olympics began in disappointing fashion.

The defending champion missed a gate and fell on her hip only five turns into her first run at the challenging course known as the Ice River.

It was a rare error from the United States star, who has three Winter Olympic medals including two golds. She is bidding to become the first American to win three golds at the Games in alpine skiing.

Shiffrin has only failed to finish 14 times in 229 starts across all disciplines at World Cup, Olympic and world championship events and was top of the overall World Cup standings coming into Beijing.

"I won't hide the disappointment, but I'm not going to dwell on it because that won't help me," she said.

"I felt that I was pushing really quite well and attacking. But there was just one turn, I had a small, small mistiming when I really went to push on my edges and that makes all the difference.

"I have been really working on the right timing of my turns and really never thought this was going to be part of the issue. But it wasn't because I was holding back, so I can be proud of that. But it's five turns into the Olympic GS, there's disappointment for sure."

In total, there were 19 DNFs among the 80 starters in round one alone, including last year's World Cup winner Marta Bassino.

Sweden's Sara Hector took gold at the end of the second run, ahead of Federica Brignone and Lara Gut-Behrami.

Shiffrin, who will compete for five more medals at these Games, will next be involved in the slalom on Wednesday.

Brendan Rodgers expressed his concern that "the rules of society have changed" after a Leicester City fan attacked Nottingham Forest players in Sunday's FA Cup match.

The holders were thrashed 4-1 by the Championship side at the City Ground as their disappointing season took another negative turn.

As Forest celebrated their third goal, scored by Joe Worrall, a man emerged from the section for away supporters and appeared to swing punches at the group of home players before stewards wrestled him away.

He was later arrested and will reportedly face a life ban from all Leicester games.

Rodgers said the incident was symptomatic of "people feeling entitled" to act as they please in wider society.

"The rules of society have changed. There's a total lack of respect," said the Leicester boss.

"It's not just in football, it's in life. I speak to many business people and people in the military, all across society. It's the lack of respect and people feeling entitled that they can do things.

"The rules of society need to change, and we see that lack of respect today. We've seen it for the last couple of years. Supporters breaking into stadiums, what is that about?

"You come, you support your team and win, lose or draw, you have respect. It's lacking in society and it spreads into other aspects of life.

"It's behaviour that you never want to see. Whatever goes on in the field, it has to be a safe environment for the players, and we must always retain the respect in football.

"Unfortunately the guy has come on to the pitch and was clearly, clearly disappointed by what he was watching."

The result meant Leicester became the first FA Cup holders to lose a match in the following season's competition by three or more goals since Liverpool against Luton Town in January 1987.

They have now conceded 58 goals in all competitions this season, at least 10 more than any other Premier League club.

Newcastle United versus Everton may have been ringed on the calendar back in August, but not for the same reasons it is now the source of such intrigue.

Tuesday's fixture could have seen Rafael Benitez return to St James' Park for the first time since quitting as Newcastle manager back in 2019.

However, Benitez is out at Everton – as, at Newcastle, is Steve Bruce, his successor on Tyneside.

Instead, Frank Lampard heads north for his Premier League bow as Everton boss, set to take on Eddie Howe's Magpies in a match neither can afford to lose.

Newcastle remain in the bottom three yet can close to within a point of their opponents with a win that would surely drag Lampard's men into the relegation battle.

Ahead of a mammoth encounter, Stats Perform's Ben Spratt and Patric Ridge examine the issues that have brought the two teams to this point and consider how they can each hope to kick clear of the danger – starting at Gallowgate.

Why Newcastle are in trouble – BS

This has felt like a relegation campaign right from the outset, with Newcastle's positive performances going unrewarded and their poorer displays being ruthlessly punished.

Newcastle led within five minutes at home to West Ham on the opening day, as Bruce attempted to deliver a more exciting, attacking brand of football. He succeeded only in leaving a hapless defence hopelessly exposed.

They lost 4-2 to the Hammers, the first three of 21 points dropped from winning positions, the first four of 43 goals conceded – 10 of which have been a result of errors leading to goals (four), penalty goals (five) or own goals (one).

Those mistakes have continued under Howe, who has also quickly grown tired of a consistent trend of contentious refereeing decisions going against his side at both ends of the pitch.

The assumption from those not watching this luckless outfit on a weekly basis has been that January spending would lift Newcastle to safety. That theory is about to be put to the test, however, with the neutral perhaps anticipating more ambitious targets than Chris Wood and Dan Burn.

Why Everton are in trouble – PR

Benitez was never the right choice at Goodison Park – but not only due to his Liverpool connections. While his disciplined, organised Newcastle side appeared to play to a clear plan, his Everton team were, largely, shocking.

After a 1-1 draw with Manchester United in October, Everton had 14 points from their seven Premier League games – their best start since 2004-05 (16 points), when they finished fourth – but the underlying level of performances always suggested that if injuries hit, which they did, the Toffees may struggle. And struggle they have.

Benitez – who cannot be blamed for all of Everton's issues, it has to be stressed – wanted to play on the counter-attack, yet his team could not defend. Across 19 league games in charge, they shipped 34 goals – including 11 from set-pieces, a problem that persists.

But Everton's issues have not been restricted to one area of the pitch.

From a 1-0 defeat to West Ham on October 17 to Benitez's final match in charge against Norwich City on January 15, Everton ranked 18th for goals (11), 16th for shots on target (46/139) and 12th for touches in the opposition box (259), as well as having the third-worst defence (27 goals conceded), with 20.6 expected goals against the fourth-worst in the division. Their position is in no way false.

Why Newcastle can survive – BS

Newcastle's £90million January outlay – the largest in world football – may not have brought a host of superstars to Tyneside, immediately guaranteeing survival, but their five signings could yet transform the way Howe's side play.

Kieran Trippier, Burn, Matt Targett and Bruno Guimaraes have all been recruited from teams who are used to having the ball – which cannot be said for Newcastle, despite their coach's footballing philosophy. No team in the Premier League have had a lower average share of possession (37.8 per cent), with just Burnley, who have two games in hand, completing fewer passes (4,962).

If Newcastle are now able to move the ball out from the back with greater confidence, their costly mistakes in possession should start to subside.

This has, after all, been a season of such fine margins. The Magpies have not lost to any of the other eight teams in the bottom nine; crucially, however, they have only beaten two of them. A new style of play, operating further away from their own goal (only Wolves have a deeper average starting position than Newcastle), should mean more opportunities created in attack and fewer conceded in defence.

Newcastle have been working towards this Everton game for more than two weeks, although only Trippier of the new faces went on the "team bonding" trip to Saudi Arabia. How quickly and effectively the rest of the signings have settled should be evident in Newcastle's approach – and, perhaps, the result.

Why Everton can survive – PR

Had they carried on with Benitez for much longer, or perhaps even left Duncan Ferguson in caretaker charge, Everton's survival chances may have been slim.

Yet that should change under Lampard – and seemingly already has. A clip of the new Toffees manager instructing his players to "enjoy the ball" during a training session last week came as a breath of fresh air to supporters who, under a succession of managers, have become accustomed to their team surrendering possession far too easily.

Evidence of Lampard's impact was there to see in the 4-1 FA Cup win over Brentford on Saturday. Even though Dele Alli and Donny van de Beek were cup-tied and Dominic Calvert-Lewin was out injured, Everton scored four goals in a game for the first time since Carlo Ancelotti oversaw a 5-4 win over Tottenham last February.

Everton had 55.8 per cent of the possession, a share they were only twice able to better under Benitez (both in defeats), with Lampard placing more of an emphasis on his defenders playing into midfield. A duel success rate of 63.1 per cent (53/84) was their best in any game across all competitions this season, as the Toffees noticeably looked to engage higher up the pitch.

Given Newcastle preferred to invest in their defence, Everton – between Calvert-Lewin, Richarlison and Demarai Gray – should have the strongest attack of those in relegation trouble. With Alli and Van de Beek also to come into the midfield and Abdoulaye Doucoure to return from injury, Lampard's more attacking, intense approach should suit the Toffees moving forward.

The Brooklyn Nets will not trade James Harden says head coach Steve Nash.

The 2018 MVP has been the subject of trade speculation as Thursday's deadline approaches but the Nets head coach quashed the talk.

Harden, who joined the Nets from the Houston Rockets in January last year, had turned down a three-year extension in the off-season fueling the rumours.

"Yes, that's correct," Nash told reporters before Sunday's 124-104 loss to the Denver Nuggets, when asked if the Nets do not plan to trade Harden.

He added: "I've talked to James; he wants to be here. He wants to be here long term as well, so I don't think anything's changed other than noise from the outside.

"James wants to be here, we're building with James and we think we have the best chance to win with James.

"I don't think anything's changed on the inside, in our locker room, in our communication, it's just all the noise from the [outside]."

Harden's Nets teammate Kyrie Irving, who scored 27 points with 11 assists against the Nuggets, reiterated Nash's sentiment that the 32-year-old guard was committed to Brooklyn.

"The few conversations that we've had, he's been really committed, and we just hold him to his word, but obviously when we're going out to play games we can't even really think about it," Irving said.

"We would love to have him in the lineup, at his optimum healthy version of himself, and then we'll let the rest take care of it, but who knows? Who knows what's going to happen?"

Harden was absent for the Nuggets defeat with hamstring tightness, which has forced him out of the Nets' past two games, not helping end their eight-game losing skid.

"It's day-to-day," Nash said. "It's a matter of does that strength get back to where we feel confident and he feels confident that we're not risking anything. That's what we're dealing with right now."

The Brooklyn Nets' losing skid extended to eight games as reigning MVP Nikola Jokic recorded a league-high 14th triple-double in the Denver Nuggets' 124-104 win on Sunday.

Jokic finished with 27 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, including scoring 23 points in the second and third quarters when the Nuggets reversed a deficit into a 21-point lead.

Brooklyn were without James Harden for the second straight game due to hamstring tightness, with Kyrie Irving scoring 27 points with 11 assists.

The Nets, who are also playing without the injured Kevin Durant and LaMarcus Aldridge, have surpassed their longest losing streak since losing seven in a row in late 2019 and early 2020.

Brooklyn are 29-24 and have dropped down to seventh in the Eastern Conference.

Double-doubles for Bucks trio

The Milwaukee Bucks won their third straight to improve to third in the east with a 34-21 record after a 137-113 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 28 points, 10 rebounds and five assists while Jrue Holiday added 27 points and 13 assists. Bobby Portis also had a double-double with 24 points and 11 rebounds.

Joel Embiid and DeMar Rozan put on scoring masterclasses but the Philadelphia 76ers got up after a fast start 119-108 over the Chicago Bulls. Embiid finished with 40 points with 10 rebounds, while DeRozan had a season-high 45 points along with nine rebounds and seven assists.

Luka Doncic had a triple-double with 18 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists despite foul trouble as the Dallas Mavericks won 103-94 over the Atlanta Hawks.

No shooting magic for Orlando

The struggling Orlando Magic managed five-of-25 from three-point range and 35.8 per cent shooting from the floor in their 116-83 loss to the Boston Celtics. The Magic are last in the east with a 12-43 record.

Marco Asensio has been singled out for individual praise by Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti after his match-winning display in Sunday's 1-0 triumph over Granada.

Asensio proved to be Madrid's most likely attacking outlet in the absence of the injured Karim Benzema and suspended Vinicius Junior.

The Spanish forward, who has netted six LaLiga goals this term, scored the 74th-minute winner and was denied another by an outstanding save from Granada goalkeeper Luis Maximiano.

"He's a very important player," Ancelotti told reporters after the game. "He's scored a lot this season, he's made a lot of goals, and is very committed defensively, which is important for us.

"I don't know if he's a starter, but he's an important player. He is reliable, he works hard and we won the game today thanks to his best quality, his shooting.

"He returned from a difficult period of injuries full of confidence."

The hard-fought victory keeps Los Blancos top of LaLiga by six points from second-placed Sevilla, following a difficulty with availability down.

Madrid had drawn 2-2 with Elche in their last league game while they were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by Athletic 1-0 in midweek.

"This is an important week for us because we've had a really tough period with some long trips and we didn't come into this game at 100 per cent," Ancelotti said.

"We had six players out for tonight’s match and I hope to have them all back for our next game."

Madrid face Villarreal in LaLiga on Saturday before returning to the Champions League against Paris Saint-Germain in the last-16.

Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai has spoken to an international mainstream outlet for the first time since allegedly going missing after making claims of sexual assault by a senior Chinese politician.

In November, Peng posted claims on Chinese social media Weibo that she had been sexually assaulted by former Chinese vice-premier, before disappearing from public view and later denying making the allegations in a video interview posted by a Singaporean Chinese-language newspaper.

The situation led to widespread concern for Peng's wellbeing, initiating the #WhereIsPengShuai campaign, while the WTA went as far as suspending Chinese tennis tournaments.

Peng spoke to French outlet L'Equipe from Beijing, where the Winter Olympics are being hosted, alongside the chief of staff of the Chinese Olympic Committee Wang Kan, where she insisted there was no reason for concern.

“I don’t think I was aware of it all [global interest] because I don’t watch the news from foreign media much,” Peng said. “I can’t read in English but I heard about it. I never thought there’d be such worry, though, and I’d like to know why was that the case?”

The former world number 14 again denied making the sexual assault allegation in the first place.

“Sexual assault? I never said anyone had sexually assaulted me in any way,” Peng said. “There was a huge misunderstanding in the outside world following this post. I don’t want the meaning of this post to be twisted anymore. And I don’t want any further media hype around it.

“I never disappeared. Everyone could see me. I never disappeared. It’s just that many people, like my friends or people from the IOC messaged me, and it was simply impossible to answer so many messages. But I’ve been always in close contact with my close friends.

“I talked to them, I answered their emails, I also talked with the WTA... But at the end of the year, the communication IT system of their website was changed and many players had difficulties logging in. But my colleagues and I always stayed in touch.

"That’s why I don’t know why the news I had disappeared spread."

The Chinese state media released photos, emails and videos of Peng late last year although many suspected they were staged, thus concerns about her wellbeing will remain despite her latest interview.

Peng also spoke about WTA president Steve Simon's decision to suspend Chinese tennis tournaments, revealing she contacted him directly after it was announced as she felt the situation was "a bit exaggerated".

“I didn’t choose anything. Like everyone, like you, I saw the statement on the official WTA website,” Peng said.

“It was very unusual for me, why would I need psychological assistance or that sort of thing? I didn’t know how I should figure it out. But if the WTA psychologists couldn’t reach me and thought that I had disappeared, I think that’s a bit exaggerated. So after reading this statement, I responded to WTA president Steve Simon myself.

“Several copies were sent, and these emails I wrote myself. This is my personal statement. The same evening, I also sent it by WeChat to my colleagues in the players’ department in order to personally confirm that I was the author of the messages sent from my work email.”