Category: Sports

Some supporters will be permitted to stand during the EFL Cup final between Manchester United and Newcastle United.

The match, on 26 February, will be the first major domestic English men’s final in almost 35 years in which standing will be allowed.

Both clubs will be allocated 867 seats within new safe-standing areas located behind each goal at Wembley Stadium.

Premier League and EFL clubs have been allowed to introduce standing areas since the start of the 2022-23 season.

It came after five clubs – Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, and Cardiff City – took part in a government-commissioned ‘early adopters’ pilot study during the second half of the 2021-22 campaign.

In safe standing areas, fans stand behind a barrier or a rail which helps prevent them from falling forward.

Designated standing areas had not been seen at Premier League grounds since the adoption of all-seater stadiums in the early 1990s – a recommendation of the Taylor Report following the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 when 97 Liverpool fans died following a crush at an FA Cup semi-final.

Spectators at many grounds have continued to stand in seated areas, most commonly behind the goals, despite regular warnings from local authorities and police that it is dangerous.

Standing areas in stadiums are commonplace in Germany’s Bundesliga and there are similar examples across the rest of Europe, the United States, and Australia.

The EFL Cup final will be Manchester United’s first domestic final appearance since 2018 and puts them a win away from ending their six-year wait for a trophy.

For Newcastle, it will mark their first cup final since 1999 and a chance to win their first trophy since Ujpest Dozsa was beaten in the 1969 Inter Cities’ Fairs Cup Final.

Sportswear chain JD Sports has said stored data relating to 10 million customers might be at risk after it was hit by a cyber-attack.

The company said information that “may have been accessed” by hackers included names, addresses, email accounts, phone numbers, order details and the final four digits of bank cards.

The data related to online orders between November 2018 and October 2020. 

JD Sports said it was contacting affected customers.

The group said the affected data was “limited”. It added it did not hold full payment card details and did not believe that account passwords were accessed by the hackers.

“We want to apologise to those customers who may have been affected by this incident,” said Neil Greenhalgh, chief financial officer of JD Sports. “Protecting the data of our customers is an absolute priority for JD.”

The attack related to online orders placed for the JD, Size?, Millets, Blacks, Scotts and MilletSport brands and it is understood it was detected by the company in recent days, but only the historical data was accessed.

The company said it was working with “leading cyber-security experts” and was engaging with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in response to the incident.

Mr Greenhalgh said affected customers were being advised “to be vigilant about potential scam e-mails, calls and texts”.

Cyber-attacks have hit several UK companies in recent times. Royal Mail became the victim of a ransomware attack earlier this month which led to it halting post and parcel deliveries overseas.

In December, the Guardian newspaper was also targeted by a suspected ransomware attack.

Lauren Wills-Dixon, solicitor and an expert in data privacy at law firm Gordons, said retailers were among the most common targets for cyber-attacks because of the large amounts of customer data they hold, and said firms needed to do more to plan for them.

But she said the increased use of technology by the industry “to reduce overheads and streamline operations has raised the risk even further”. 

“In this new world, it’s not ‘if’ but ‘when’ a cyber-attack will happen,” she said. 

A spokeswoman for the ICO confirmed it was aware of the attack and that it was assessing information provided by JD Sports. 

Scott Nicholson, co-chief executive of cyber security company Bridewell, said it was seeing a rise in malicious software, known as “malware” being used by criminals to steal information from companies.

“It is good to see JD Sports stating that they are working with experts to help from a containment and recovery perspective, but once the dust has settled their comments of ‘we take the protection of customer data extremely seriously’ will be put to the test by the ICO,” he added.

The US military commitment to the Pacific was underlined in a White House meeting between the leaders of the US and Japan. But behind the scenes, this renewed focus on Asia has sparked a fierce debate within one of its most fabled military forces, writes defense analyst Jonathan Marcus.

A bitter family row has erupted in one of the US military’s most hallowed institutions, the US Marine Corps.

A host of its former senior commanders are lining up to attack the current leadership over plans for its reinvention.

At issue is a plan to adapt the service for a potential conflict against China – a plan dubbed Force Design 2030. Almost from its inception, this plan has been under attack with a cohort of retired generals taking the unusual approach of going to the press to air their frustrations.

Retired senior officers have been meeting regularly; speaking at seminars and think tanks; and devising their own alternatives to a plan which they see as a disaster for the Marine Corps future. 

One prominent critic is the former US Navy Secretary and former Senator for Virginia, Jim Webb, who served as a Marine officer in the Vietnam War and ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2015.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, he described Force Design 2030 as “insufficiently tested” and “intrinsically flawed”. He warned that the plan “raised serious questions about the wisdom and long-term risk of dramatic reductions in force structure, weapons systems, and manpower levels in units that would take steady casualties in most combat scenarios”.

So what has got them all so upset? 

Launched in 2020 by Marine Corps Commandant General David H Berger, the plan is intended to equip the Marines for a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific region rather than counter-insurgency wars like Iraq and Afghanistan.

The new plan sees the Marines as fighting dispersed operations across chains of islands. Units will be smaller, and more spread out but packing a much bigger punch through a variety of new weapons systems. Huge amphibious landings like in World War Two or massive deployments on land – like in Iraq – will probably be things of the past.