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The Zika virus may be deadly serious, but is it really a potent enough reason to explain the withdrawal of Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and many other star golfers from the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro?    There’s a more likely explanation: The Olympics simply are not a priority for them. Which is why golfers, along with stars from other already enriched sports, have no place in the Olympics. Think of…

Iceland’s fairy-tale run at Euro 2016 finally got its ending, and it wasn’t really a happy one. Hosts France dealt the Nordic nation an emphatic 5-2 defeat in Sunday’s quarterfinal, stopping the team’s unexpected march through its first-ever international tournament. But the gritty Icelanders have already been crowned the people’s champions, and the country’s football association signed off with a tweet expressing gratitude, and a promise. Soon after, hundreds of…

BRUSSELS—Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and five other Spanish soccer clubs will have to return tens of millions of euros to Spain’s federal and regional governments after benefiting from illegal tax breaks, the European Union’s antitrust regulator said. The European Commission said Monday a series of tax breaks, property deals, loans and bank guarantees gave those clubs an unfair advantage over their domestic competitors. …

Michael Phelps during the men’s 100-meter butterfly finals in the U.S. Olympic swimming team trials at CenturyLink Center.(Photo: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports) USA Swimming unveiled its official Olympic roster Sunday night, following the completion of its eight-day qualifying meet. The headliners are those you’d expect, from 18-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps (who will swim three individual events — the 100- and 200-meter butterfly and the 200 individual medley) to the current…

Kevin Durant is joining forces with the Splash Brothers. The free-agent superstar forward announced Monday he would join the Golden State Warriors after a whirlwind weekend of listening to pitches from six NBA teams. From his announcement on The Players’ Tribune: This has been by far the most challenging few weeks in my professional life. I understood cognitively that I was facing a crossroads in my evolution as a player…

Iceland’s fairy-tale run at Euro 2016 finally got its ending, and it wasn’t really a happy one. Hosts France dealt the Nordic nation an emphatic 5-2 defeat in Sunday’s quarterfinal, stopping the team’s unexpected march through its first-ever international tournament. But the gritty Icelanders have already been crowned the people’s champions, and the country’s football association signed off with a tweet expressing gratitude, and a promise. Soon after, hundreds of…

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<!– FOOTBALL GOSSIP German big guns Bayer Leverkusen are lining up a shock bid for Celtic defender Efe Ambrose. The Bundesliga side are preparing an offer of £1.5million for the Nigerian. (Daily Record) Ambrose is unlikely to figure in Brendan Rodgers’ long-term plans, but Celtic have a defensive crisis – Dedryck Boyata and Jozo Simunovic are injured while Charlie Mulgrew has yet to agree a new deal – ahead of…

There are two new trends in the world of sports betting that you might have missed: Entity betting and eSports gambling. Reports this week on both trends highlight the changing nature of the field. First, if you don’t know what “eSports” is, you’re not alone—it’s the latest in video games. And betting on the activity, which is basically placing bets on other people gaming, has grown to $8 billion in…

Iceland’s fairy-tale run at Euro 2016 finally got its ending, and it wasn’t really a happy one. Hosts France dealt the Nordic nation an emphatic 5-2 defeat in Sunday’s quarterfinal, stopping the team’s unexpected march through its first-ever international tournament. But the gritty Icelanders have already been crowned the people’s champions, and the country’s football association signed off with a tweet expressing gratitude, and a promise. Soon after, hundreds of…

There was a sense of wonderment from every perspective Sunday when Major League Baseball staged the first regular-season professional game on an active military base. The unlikely convergence of efforts that brought the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves together on this field that rose from a ramshackle abandoned golf course in less than four months crystalized when the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade flew four giant military helicopters out of the…

Right now, there are more great power-hitting third basemen in baseball than maybe ever before. Kris Bryant, Nolan Arenado, and reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson have all swatted 20+ homers already this season, plus Evan Longoria and Manny Machado are not too far behind with 18 each. Also in that mix is one of baseball’s most unheralded great young players, Diamondbacks third baseman Jake Lamb. Lamb, who is in his…

It looks like someone crashed the Marlins-Braves game at Fort Bragg on Sunday night, and it’s causing quite the uproar. Self-proclaimed baseball collector Zack Hample tweeted an image of a baseball he obtained during the special event, sparking a significant amount of criticism on Twitter. Fort Bragg commemorative baseballs? Oh yes! Martin Prado just tossed this to me after the 3rd inning. pic.twitter.com/OQoGJfExbR — Zack Hample (@zack_hample) July 4, 2016…

Guards search fans bags’ at security check points before entering the fan zone prior to the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.(Photo: Reinhold Matay, USA TODAY Sports) Corrections & clarifications: A previous version of this story referred to the shooting in Orlando as the Paris nightclub shooting. The reference was intended to be to the Pulse nightclub shooting. DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The sign of the times was impossible to…

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Caption Close The homeless crowd at Union Square is going to look radically different for one full weekend this month, and the tourists, shopkeepers and usual strollers-by are probably going to want to stop and stare. In a good way. These homeless folks are going to be wearing soccer gear and playing for the annual Bay Area championship of what is called Street Soccer USA. The program runs soccer programs…

Japanese star Hideki Matsuyama said Sunday he was pulling out of the Olympics because of the Zika virus, making him the seventh golfer to cite the mosquito-borne virus for sitting out golf’s return to the Olympics after 112 years. Matsuyama, who won the Phoenix Open earlier this year in a playoff for his second PGA Tour victory, told Japanese reporters of his decision after he finished the Bridgestone Invitational. He…

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Marquise Goodwin‘s 2016 Olympic dreams did not come into fruition on Sunday. Goodwin finished seventh in the men’s long jump at the U.S.A. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon, with a mark of 8.25m (27 feet, 3/4 inches). The top three finishers qualified for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August. The dual-sport athlete had been vying for his second trip to the Olympics since Buffalo’s…

Right now, there are more great power-hitting third basemen in baseball than maybe ever before. Kris Bryant, Nolan Arenado, and reigning AL MVP Josh Donaldson have all swatted 20+ homers already this season, plus Evan Longoria and Manny Machado are not too far behind with 18 each. Also in that mix is one of baseball’s most unheralded great young players, Diamondbacks third baseman Jake Lamb. Lamb, who is in his…

Hubert Edwards lived at Fort Bragg before he deployed in 1942 to serve in World War II in Europe, where his love for baseball grew while he listened to parts of games on grainy radio broadcasts that provided equal parts joy and fear. The joy was easy enough to understand. Those broadcasts soothed American troops with familiar sounds of home during the war. Edwards, now 97, his voice still strong,…