Super League rugby club Leeds Rhinos faces a £1M ($1.4M) bill for flood damage that could keep the club out of its training ground "for a further six months."
The club has been training across the city of Leeds "since the river Aire burst its banks at Christmas." Rhinos CEO Gary Hetherington said, "It is looking like £1 million in total. It has caused massive disruption" (BBC, 1/26). ... Scottish Premiership side St. Johnstone Chair Steve Brown called the decision to hand over tickets intended for his club's supporters to Hibernian fans as "outrageous" and slammed the timing of the switch which came just a few days ahead of its League Cup semi-final.
The Scottish Professional Football League revealed on Monday that "around 600 seats in the Main Stand at Tynecastle, which had originally been set-aide for the Perth club's supporters if they sold out their allocation, would instead go to their opponents" (HERALD SCOTLAND, 1/26). ... The point demotion of French Pro D2 rugby side Tarbes, sanctioned in November for its “financial situation” and for “presenting falsified documents,” was confirmed by the French Rugby Federation (FFR) appeals committee on Monday. The 15 points the club was sentenced to lose was lowered to eight, allowing the club to avoid the relegation zone (L’ÉQUIPE, 1/25).
