Football Notes: Cardiff City Secures Automatic Promotion To EPL

Cardiff City "secured automatic promotion" to the Premier League despite drawing at home to Reading, "thanks to Fulham's defeat at Birmingham." Fulham's loss -- its first of '18 in the League Championship -- "brought relief and pure euphoria to the Welsh side." Reading joined in the celebrations, with the draw sealing its survival (BBC, 5/6).

Atlético Madrid coach Diego Simeone called on UEFA to "change the away-goals rule," suggesting sides playing the second leg away have an "unfair advantage under current regulations." He said, "UEFA needs to have a look at how difficult it is to play a second leg at home, with your opponent having 30 extra minutes in which one of their goals counts double, when as the home side you don’t have this advantage. I invite those within sporting justice to have a look at this" (REUTERS, 5/5).