SPORT NEWS

  The former Liverpool and Chelsea striker Fernando Torres has announced his retirement from football. The 35-year-old Spaniard, who has been playing in Japan for Sagan Tosu since leaving Atlético Madrid last year , scored 81 goals across four seasons with Liverpool and won the Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup with Chelsea. A World Cup winner with Spain in 2010, Torres said on Twitter : “I have something very important to announce. After 18 exciting years, the time has come to put an end to my football career.” He will reveal more about his decision to retire at a press conference in Tokyo on Sunday at 10am local time (2am BST) After breaking through at hometown club Atlético, Torres moved to Liverpool in July 2007 and scored 24 Premier League goals in his first campaign in England. He made a £50m deadline-day switch to Chelsea in January 2011 and, despite recording disappointing goal hauls in the league, his late goal against Barcelona in April 2012 se...

  Barcelona's Philippe Coutinho will not make any final decisions over his future until he returns from the Copa America as speculation continues to link him with a move to Paris Saint-Germain. The ex-Liverpool man has struggled to adapt to life at the Nou Camp since his £105m move in January 2018, and scored just five goals in 33 La Liga appearances last summer. He has also received a rough ride from fans, often being booed and jeered as he is seen as expensive waste of money by many supporters of the club. PSG are said to be the team most likely to sign Coutinho this summer, with fellow Brazilian Leonardo returning as their sporting director. With another Brazilian, Neymar, rumoured to be leaving PSG , they may have money to spend, and Coutinho could prove to be a perfect foil for Kylian Mbappe. Leonardo has reportedly already been in contact with Coutinho's camp, but with the player fully focused on trying to guide Brazil to their ninth Copa Ameri...

Juventus have reached an agreement in principle with Chelsea over a deal for manager Maurizio Sarri to join the Italian champions, Sky Italia and the BBC reported on Thursday. There has been no official confirmation of the agreement from either club but Sarri, who won the Europa League with Chelsea, is expected to sign a three-year contract, Sky reported. Juve manager Massimiliano Allegri left the Turin club at the end of the season but Premier League Chelsea wanted compensation for releasing Sarri to cover the final year of his contract. According to Sky and the BBC, the clubs agreed a five million pounds ($6.34 million) compensation settlement late on Thursday and Sarri could be unveiled as Juve coach as early as Friday. Sarri arrived from Napoli in July 2018 and led Chelsea to third place in the league to secure a Champions league spot and then won the Europa League by beating Arsenal 4-1 in Baku.

The fixtures for the 2019/20 Premier League season have been released and we have all the details of who Chelsea are playing when. It’s a blockbusting opening fixture for the Blues as we travel to Old Trafford on the opening weekend of the season to meet Manchester United. Who do Chelsea play after Manchester United? Our first home fixture is against Leicester City before we head to East Anglia to take on promoted Norwich City. August concludes with a home game against another side that came up from the Championship, Sheffield United. When are the big London derbies? We travel to Tottenham and Arsenal in consecutive away fixtures either side of Christmas. Our first visit to Spurs’ new stadium is currently scheduled for 21 December, with the trip to the Emirates a week later. We host Arsenal not long after on 22 January, while Tottenham are at the Bridge on 22 February When do Chelsea meet Manchester City and host Manchester United? Our fixtures against the champions Man City are schedu...

It's time to get excited about the new Premier League season - the 2019/20 fixtures are out on Thursday. Top-flight teams across the country will discover their opening games, run-ins, Christmas fixtures and derby dates when the schedules are released at  9am on Thursday, June 13  - and you can follow it all with  Sky Sports  as we gear up for another bumper season of live football. Where will Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp start the new campaigns? Will newcomers Norwich, Sheffield United and Aston Villa get tricky or kind starts? And which games could be key come the business end of the season? Here's all you need to know... When are the fixtures released? All 380 Premier League fixtures for the 2019/20 season will be published at 9am on  Thursday, June 13 . Fans of Sky Bet EFL clubs will have to wait a little longer - Championship, League One and League Two fixtures are released at 9am on  Thursday, June 20 , while ...

England suffered more semi-final disappointment as they produced a defensive horror show to crash out of the Nations League to the impressive Netherlands in Guimaraes. Marcus Rashford's penalty, awarded after he was fouled by Matthijs de Ligt, gave Gareth Southgate's side an interval advantage. De Ligt made amends when he took advantage of poor marking at a corner to power home a header with 17 minutes left. England thought substitute Jesse Lingard's late strike had put them on course for the inaugural Nations League final against hosts Portugal in Porto on Sunday, only for VAR to intervene and rule it out for offside. The Dutch were the far superior side but they were gifted their route to the showdown against Portugal on Sunday by suicidal defending in extra time by England, who were hoping to go one better than their World Cup semi-final exit against Croatia last summer. John Stones was caught in possession by Memphis Depay who forced a brilliant sav...

    The Blues face being unable to sign any new players until the summer of 2020 unless they can get their suspension delayed or overturned The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) have confirmed that Chelsea have appealed their two-window transfer ban. FIFA punished the Blues after they were found to have broken rules regarding the registering of young players. Chelsea originally appealed to FIFA to have the ban overturned, but world football's governing body rejected their appeal in terms of them being able to register senior players. As such, the Stamford Bridge outfit have now turned to CAS, who could overturn the ban or delay it while they gather all the evidence required, meaning Chelsea could yet be free to add to their squad this summer. In a statement released on Friday, CAS said: "The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has registered an appeal filed by Chelsea Football Club Ltd (CFC) against the Fédération Internationale de Football Ass...