England goalkeeper Mary Earps has expressed her dismay over the “very hurtful” decision not to put her replica shirt on sale ahead of the World Cup.

The Manchester United star was named the world’s best goalkeeper in women’s football by FIFA in February, and was also appointed vice-captain by England boss Sarina Wiegman for this global showpiece.

Earps claimed she only realised her shirt would not be made available by manufacturer Nike in April, and said she has since been “fighting behind closed doors” to find a solution before England open their campaign on Saturday against Haiti but to no avail.

The Euro 2022 champion said: “I can’t really sugar-coat this in any way, so I am not going to try. It is hugely disappointing and very hurtful.

“It is very, on a personal level, it is obviously hugely hurtful considering the last 12 months especially – and also I think there has been an incredible rise in goalkeeping participation over that year.

“I go into grassroots clubs and I am asked to bribe people to go into goal, and I have been to more clubs recently and that’s not been the case.

“A lot of that has come off the back of the Euros but also some of my success this year.

“For my own family and friends and loved ones not to be able to buy my shirt, they are going to come out and wear normal clothes and I know that sounds like: ‘Oh Mary, what a horrible problem,’ but on a personal level that is really hard.

“You know, (England captain) Millie  (Bright) spoke to me a couple of weeks ago or maybe a bit longer and said: ‘Mary, my niece is desperate to get your shirt, where can I get it?’.  I was like: ‘Yeah you can’t, it doesn’t exist’.

“I think that is a huge problem, and I think it is a scary message that is being sent to goalkeepers worldwide that you are not important.

“(Kids) are going to say: ‘Mum, dad, can I have a Mary Earps shirt?’ And they say: ‘I can’t but I can get you an Alessia Russo 23 or a Rachel Daly 9.’ And so what you are saying is that goalkeeping isn’t important but you can be a striker if you want.”

England men’s keeper Jordan Pickford also does not have a replica goalkeeper shirt available for purchase on the England store.

Earps claimed she offered to fund the shirts herself and that the Football Association (FA) has supported her efforts, but said she was ultimately forced to produce her own limited edition t-shirt because she at the very least “wanted to create something that people could have for themselves” at the World Cup.

The PA news agency understands that while the FA is involved in the design of England kits, the manufacturer ultimately determines the commercial direction of what is produced.

PA has contacted Nike for comment.

Tournament officials have changed the way the bunkers are raked for the 151st Open Championship following complaints from players that they were overly “penal”.

Masters champion Jon Rahm described Royal Liverpool’s 82 bunkers as “proper penalty structures” after having to play backwards out of one during his opening 74, while Rory McIlroy needed two shots to escape a greenside trap on the 18th.

In response, the R&A instructed greenkeeping staff to build up the edges of the bunkers to allow more balls to roll back into the centre.

“Yesterday afternoon the bunkers dried out more than we have seen in recent weeks and that led to more balls running straight up against the face than we would normally expect,” the R&A said in a statement.

“We have therefore raked all of the bunkers slightly differently to take the sand up one revet on the face of the bunkers.

“We routinely rake bunkers flat at most Open venues but decided this adjustment was appropriate in light of the drier conditions which arose yesterday.

“We will continue to monitor this closely for the remainder of the Championship.”

Even those players who managed to successfully escape from the bunkers on day one had expressed their concerns, with former champion Stewart Cink speaking out following a bogey-free 68.

“Eventually it’ll catch up with you,” the 2009 winner said. “The bottoms of them are so flat that if a ball comes in with any momentum, it’s just going right up to the lip and stop.

“There’s not a little upslope that helps you at all. They are very penal.”

American Brian Harman was having no issues with any bunkers as he carded four birdies in succession to surge clear at the top of the leaderboard.

Harman holed from 20 feet on the second and similar distances on the third and fourth before hitting the pin with his chip to the par-five fifth to set up a simple tap-in.

At eight under par the left-hander led by three shots from Tommy Fleetwood and South African amateur Christo Lamprecht, with Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo falling out of an overnight share of the lead following a double bogey on the second.

McIlroy began his second round in ideal fashion with a birdie on the first to improve to one under.

Sean Woods could step Savvy Victory up in class for next week’s Sky Bet York Stakes.

The four-year-old came from last to first under Tom Marquand to take the Listed Gala Stakes at Sandown earlier this month and may now test the water at Group Two level in the feature event on the final day of the Go Racing In Yorkshire Summer Festival.

Savvy Victory’s clear-cut Sandown success was just compensation for a luckless run at Royal Ascot when badly hampered at a crucial stage in the Hampton Court.

Woods is now scouring the programme book after his charge was hiked 6lb in the weights, with an appearance on the Knavesmire at the forefront of the Newmarket handler’s mind.

He said: “He has taken his run at Sandown very well and is back cantering. We are just waiting to see what options we have. We don’t have many options being rated 111 now.

“So, he will have an entry at York and will have an entry at Haydock (Betfred Rose Of Lancaster Stakes, August 12). Depending on the ground and opposition, we will make out minds up after that.”

Woods added: “We’ll put him in the York Stakes over 10 furlongs, but that ground can be a bit iffy sometimes.

“He likes cut in the ground and the weather is messing up everything at the moment. I had 11 entries for Saturday and I run one!

“If either one isn’t good, there is a Group Three at Windsor (Winter Hill Stakes, August 26), but he will be stepped up, rather than running again in a Listed race. He will be stepped up to a Group Two or Group Three.

“It’s a nice problem to have, so I’m happy.”

England’s unlikely World Cup mascot will be watching the Lionesses from his forever home as Dave the cat settles into his new surroundings.

While football might not have come home from Qatar, stray cat Dave did after the friendly feline became a firm favourite of the squad as he roamed freely around England’s Al Wakrah training base.

Manchester City duo John Stones and Kyle Walker were pictured with Dave on most evenings and the latter said the team would adopt the cat if Gareth Southgate’s men won the World Cup.

Despite their quarter-final exit at the hands of France, Dave was still given the chance to travel to the UK and was eventually rehomed by the Football Association’s media operations manager Anna Bush and her family.

“There was a discussion around wanting Dave to end up with a family with young children, so I put my hand up and volunteered and my children are absolutely delighted,” she told the PA news agency.

“They’ve never had a pet before and what a first pet to have! They (the players) are aware and delighted. He’s got a new home and a family to look after him.”

He left Al Wakrah in December, just two hours after the squad had departed for home, and headed to a veterinary clinic where he had blood tests and vaccinations.

After being in quarantine for months he was welcomed by his new family, instantly taking to his  surroundings and showing he picked up a keen eye for football after his stint as England’s top cat.

While Dave lived the life of a stray during the men’s World Cup, he can watch the women attempt to follow up their Euros success from last summer in the comfort of his new home.

The Bush family even have a way of making sure Dave – who now has his own Instagram page – is part of any success Down Under as he offers up his match predictions, with a little incentive to back Sarina Wiegman and her team.

“He has settled in so well,” added Bush.

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“He loves the surrounding area and loves it in the sun – he is finding his feet and absolutely loves watching my two boys play football in the garden.

“One of them actually coloured in both of the crests ahead of the Champions League and wanted Manchester City to win so he put a few treats down (on the City crest) and so Dave predicted that Man City were going to win the Champions League final and they did!

“Now we have to start doing that for the Women’s World Cup I suppose – bring on England on Saturday.”

Claire Williams said selling the family’s Formula One team is a grief that has been difficult to come to terms with, admitting it has felt like someone cut her heart out and never gave it back.

Claire, 47, has been an F1 outsider for coming up to three years following the sale of the team founded by her father Sir Frank Williams to American investment firm Dorilton Capital for £136million.

She resigned as de facto boss at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, while Frank – who extraordinarily took his motor racing team from an empty carpet warehouse to the summit of the sport – died a year later.

“When I left in Monza it felt like someone cut my heart out and it has never been returned,” said Claire, in an interview with the PA news agency ahead of Williams’ 800th race at this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

“You just have to find something to put in its place. But it was very difficult then and three years on, it is still really hard.

“It is just one of those griefs that is really difficult to get over, or to come to terms with. Now we have lost Dad, it sometimes feels as though it was just a dream. Did that period in our lives really happen?”

Sir Frank oversaw 114 victories, 16 drivers’ and constructors’ world championships and became the longest-serving team boss in the sport’s history.

His story is made all the more remarkable by a horrific car crash which left him with injuries so devastating doctors considered turning off his life-support machine.

Until his death in 2021, he was recognised as the world’s oldest surviving tetraplegic.

Frank, who lived at the team headquarters in Grove, Oxfordshire, handed over the managerial baton to daughter Claire in 2013.

She guided the team to a brilliant third in the constructors’ championship, behind the financial muscle of Mercedes and Ferrari over the following two years, before a lack of major investment contributed to Williams’ decline. A decade has passed since a Williams driver last won a race.

“There was so much that went on in those last few years, which to this day I will never be able to talk about,” continues Claire.

“But I saw the team through three very difficult seasons and I was able to hand over something that was still living and still breathing to someone with deeper pockets than us. We kept everyone in jobs, we didn’t go into administration and I am very proud of that.

“When I have challenging circumstances I bury my head in jobs and when we sold Williams, my next concern was, where did Dad go?

“As much as Dorilton were kind enough to say he could always live at the factory, I needed him close to me. And coincidentally the house next door to us came up for sale, so we moved Dad in.

“I managed his care team. I made sure he was happy and comfortable in his new home and we went off and did some nice stuff together. He would pick up my little one, Nate, from nursery.

“But then he got sicker, greater care was required to look after him and he passed away. But for the next six months, we organised this wonderful memorial service. We then decided to move house, renovating our old house in Ascot and our new home in South Downs.

“So, I am the master of distraction. Life carries on. And as much as I miss Williams, and I miss Formula One dreadfully, there is a whole other world out there. You have to go and find happy elsewhere. That is what I have done.”

However, Claire discovered her zen state is disrupted by watching the sport she loves.

She will not tune in on Sunday to see Alex Albon and rookie Logan Sargeant scramble for a point or two under the tutelage of new team principal James Vowles – an appointment Claire said her father would have approved of – in Williams’ landmark race.

“I turned on the TV to see Alex had scored a point in Australia earlier this year,” she continued with a broad smile.

“Ted’s Notebook was on and Ted [Kravitz] grabbed James and said, ‘mate, congratulations, you are only Williams’ third team principal and you have got a point. How does it feel?’

“And I was like, third team principal? That is Frank, that is Jost [Capito] and that is James, what about me? Ted has just cancelled me on national television!

“I may not have been called team principal but I operated that way and I have literally just been erased. I turned it straight off and vowed never to watch again.

“But I tried watching the last race at Silverstone. I thought to myself, ‘Right, I am going to do this. Come on’. But I watched the formation lap and that was that. I lasted five minutes.

“I don’t know what it is, but if you talk to any person who has worked, lived and breathed Formula One – no matter if that is for 20 years or 20 minutes – it does something to you. It absorbs you, and when you leave, particularly involuntary like I did, it is very difficult to watch it and not feel that loss.”

Claire dovetails speaking engagements and “top-secret television projects” with her role as brand ambassador for Williams Advanced Engineering.

Earlier this year, she launched the Frank Williams Academy in her father’s honour. The project aims to raise £1.5m to help educate and train those affected by spinal cord injuries. She also revealed Sky offered her the chance to return to the F1 paddock as a pundit.

“It was too soon,” said Claire. “It is better when you leave, you leave.

“Unless someone said to me, ‘Come back and be a team principal and you can have Williams back’, I don’t necessarily think there is a job I would want, but never say never.”

England boss Sarina Wiegman vowed the Lionesses would do “everything” they can to bring home a first World Cup when they begin their campaign against Haiti in Brisbane on Saturday.

Wiegman also provided a welcome update on captain Millie Bright, who is fit to start tomorrow’s contest after concerns she was still recovering from the knee injury she sustained in March which required surgery.

The World Cup trophy is one that has so far eluded both England and Wiegman, who led the Netherlands to the final four years ago in France but fell to defeat at the hands of the United States.

Asked if England could lift the trophy this year, she said: “We’re here and we have a dream, and of course there’s always a chance to win the World Cup, and many more countries can win the World Cup I think, but of course we’re going to give our everything starting tomorrow.”

FIFA world number four England are ranked 49 places above Saturday opponents Haiti, who beat Chile in the qualifying play-off to reach a maiden World Cup.

The Lionesses are heavy favourites to top Group D, which also includes 13th-ranked Denmark and number 14 China.

Wiegman, however, was quick to dismiss the idea that facing lower-ranked opposition puts England in a position of having more to lose, perhaps more so than when they kicked off their winning Euro 2022 campaign against Austria last summer.

“The pressure is always something. Everyone expected England to win anyway. This is for tomorrow and also last year, and that was also for the Austria game for the European Championships,” she added.

“So that’s not different. What we’re just trying to do is play our game and focus on what we have to do and how we can win, and that’s basically what we do all the time, so bring it back to what actions we need to take as a team.”

Wiegman said she has “basically decided” on her starting XI for tomorrow but would not reveal whether or not the players had already been informed.

The Lionesses begin their sixth World Cup still having not come to an agreement with the Football Association over issues surrounding performance-based bonus payments and commercial structures.

On Tuesday, Bright posted a statement on Twitter on behalf of the team which said they were “disappointed that a resolution has still not been achieved” but would “pause discussions, with full intentions of revisiting them following the tournament”.

The skipper, who will wear a FIFA-sanctioned ‘Unite for Inclusion’ armband in Saturday’s contest, reiterated that those discussions are now fully parked.

“Obviously it’s not a situation everyone wants to be in, but I think as players we’re not just programmed to play football,” Bright said.

“Sometimes we have to have these conversations. But we have a very professional group and football is always at the front of everything. So as players now our heads are in the game, they always have been on the game.

“Everything is on hold with those sorts of questions. We’ll address the situation at a later date, but for now it’s all about the tournament.”

Earlier, Haiti manager Nicolas Delepine took a lighthearted stab at the Lionesses, who have not scored in their last three matches including the behind-closed-doors training game with Canada on the Sunshine Coast a week ago which ended in a goalless draw not for official records.

He told a press conference: “It’s going to be a difficult game, for sure. And if I have to talk about the strengths of England, I’ll be here all day.

“In big competitions England are tough opponents. They played well in the European Championships.

“We’re expecting a high intensity game. They are a difficult team to play against, they are attacking with threats everywhere but they maybe have a problem with finishing.”

Natalie Grinczer has taken a difficult road to get to the start line of her second Tour de France Femmes.

At the start of this month the 29-year-old Brit was worried she would not see out the season after French team Stade Rochelais ran into financial problems and she was left scrambling for a new employer.

Trying to find a contract during one of the busiest periods of the season was far from easy. Grinczer struggled to get answers while teams were focused on the Giro Donne, the Italian Grand Tour, but she has landed on her feet by signing for Lifeplus-Wahoo for the rest of 2023.

And just days after her deal was announced, Grinczer was named in the British team’s seven-strong Tour de France Femmes line-up.

“If you’d asked me two or three weeks ago about the Tour I would have told you no,” Grinczer told the PA news agency. “Having no team and all the stress that comes with that, and now I’m in the Tour…one day I’ll write a book about it.”

Grinczer started the season well, feeling settled in her second year with Stade Rochelais and earning top-10 finishes at the Vuelta Extremadura Feminas, the Grand Prix Feminin de Chambery and the Gran Premio Ciudad de Eibar.

But by the time she finished sixth at the British national road race in Saltburn at the end of June, Grinczer was talking to Lifeplus-Wahoo boss Tom Varney about an answer to her problems.

“There was maybe a week and a half of uncertainty where I was putting myself out there, talking to people I knew from previous years and asking if they had any spaces,” she said. “I couldn’t even think about 2024 because my immediate problem was not having any races now.

“I started speaking to Tom after the nationals and he came back to me to say they had a space for the rest of the season so I was really lucky with how it panned out.”

Grinczer balances her career on the bike with her job as an NHS physiotherapist. After doing her last shift on Tuesday, she headed to Clermont-Ferrand on Thursday to prepare for the opening stage of the Tour on Sunday.

Grinczer started the inaugural edition of the revamped race in Stade Rochelais colours 12 months ago, getting a taste for what instantly became the biggest race on the calendar, but it sadly proved short-lived as she crashed out on stage three.

“Everyone came to the Tour in the best shape, with the best equipment and a lot of new kit and everyone went all out for it,” Grinczer said. “On the first day we signed on in front of the Eiffel Tower and went through the famous tunnel on to the Champs-Elysees and it was really cool.

“Unfortunately I crashed along with about 100 other people – I don’t know who didn’t crash in that peloton. It was frustrating. I’ve never been in a race where there seemed to be no etiquette.

“Normally there is a little bit of etiquette in the peloton but everyone was taking increased risks and it was a hostile place to be. Maybe after a couple of days it would have settled down into more of a rhythm but I didn’t experience that. Hopefully this time I’ll get a bit further and find out.”

Grinczer puts that hostility down to the huge importance of the race, which attracts a spotlight unlike any other, and she is prepared for the same again this time.

“It’s a bit of an all or nothing race for the riders,” she said. “You want to do the best you can and if that involves taking risks or riding differently to normal then you do that.”

:: Lifeplus-Wahoo are offering 10,000 UK-based fans free GCN+ passes to watch the Tour de France Femmes, available on a first-come, first-served basis from lifepluswahoo.com/embraceeverymoment.

Overcast conditions greeted the early starters as day two of the 151st Open Championship got under way at Royal Liverpool.

Home favourite Tommy Fleetwood shared the overnight lead on five under par with Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo and South African amateur Christo Lamprecht, but was not due out in round two until shortly before 3pm.

Rory McIlroy was set to resume his bid for an overdue fifth major title just before 10am, the 2014 winner at Hoylake having made what could prove a crucial par save on the 18th on Thursday evening.

Fifty of the last 52 Open champions have been within five shots of the lead after round one and McIlroy holed from 10 feet on the last – having needed two shots to escape from a bunker – to return a level-par 71.

“It was a really good par in the end,” McIlroy said. “I got lucky because that ball could have gone into a deeper part of my footprints and I could have been there all night.

“I could have let that round get away from me, but I didn’t with the two birdies on the back nine. I need to shoot something in the 60s [on Friday] and I will be right there for the weekend.”

Fleetwood had earlier ridden a wave of home support to the top of the leaderboard in what will be an emotional week, with Friday marking the first anniversary of the death of his mother Sue.

“It really was a great day,” the 32-year-old from Southport said. “To get that support all day was amazing.

“If you’re not going to enjoy this atmosphere and these experiences then what’s the point? Make sure you have the time of your life out there.”

Spain’s Adrian Otaegui was the first contender back out on the course on Friday and scrambled a par on the opening hole to remain one off the pace.

The Baltimore Orioles edged the slumping Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 in 10 innings on Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series between the American League’s top teams.

Rookie Colton Cowser delivered a sacrifice fly in the 10th and Felix Bautista pitched two hitless innings with three strikeouts, getting a game-ending double play as Baltimore won for the 10th time in 12 games.

Baltimore, which started July 6 ½ games back in the AL East, now has a one-game lead.

Orioles second baseman Ramon Urias kept the game tied at 3 in the eighth when he made a diving stop on pinch-hitter Harold Ramirez’s sharp grounder with two on and two outs.

Adley Rutschman singled home a run and later scored on Ryan O’Hearn’s sacrifice fly during a three-run fourth against Tyler Glasnow, who struck out nine in seven innings.

The Rays dropped to 3-12 in July, tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates for the majors’ worst record.

Kyle Gibson allowed three runs and seven hits with eight strikeouts over six-plus innings.

Braves rally past Diamondbacks to end four-game skid 

Austin Riley delivered a go-ahead three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning as the Atlanta Braves halted a four-game losing streak by rallying for a 7-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. 

Matt Olson added two home runs to add to his National League-leading total and also had three RBIs to help Atlanta prevent the Diamondbacks from sweeping the three-game series. 

With the Braves down 5-3 in the eighth, Michael Harris doubled off reliever Miguel Castro and Ozzie Albies drew a two-out walk to set up Riley’s blast – his third straight game with a home run. 

Olson followed with his 32nd homer of the season to extend the lead to 7-5, and Raisel Iglesias worked a scoreless ninth to record his 17th save. 

Dominic Canzone’s first major league homer – a three-run blast off Braves All-Star Spencer Strider in the seventh – erased a 1-0 Arizona deficit, and Emmanuel Rivera followed with a solo shot that put the Diamondbacks up 4-1 until Olson’s two-run homer in the bottom of the inning.  

Strider recorded 13 strikeouts while allowing four runs in six-plus innings, while All-Star counterpart Zac Gallen yielded three runs on five hits over seven innings.  

Cardinals beat Cubs for 6th straight win

Jordan Walker and Paul DeJong each hit a two-run homer and the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Chicago Cubs 7-2 for their sixth consecutive win.

Tyler O’Neill opened the fourth inning with a double against Marcus Stroman and Walker followed with his ninth home run to give St. Louis a 3-0 lead. After Lars Nootbaar and Paul Goldschmidt singled, Nolan Arenado doubled both home one out later.

Steven Matz limited Chicago to one run and three hits over five innings while striking out six.

Yan Gomes had two triples and a single for three of the Cubs’ six hits.

Rory McIlroy had a clear target in mind as he looked to boost his bid for a second Open Championship victory at Royal Liverpool on Friday.

McIlroy recovered from a slow start to card an opening level-par 71 to trail Ryder Cup team-mate Tommy Fleetwood, Emiliano Grillo and South African amateur Christo Lamprecht by five shots after day one.

The world number two, who lifted the Claret Jug at Hoylake in 2014, was two over par after 13 holes before making birdies on the 14th and 15th and a crucial par on the 18th after needing two shots to escape a greenside bunker.

“It was a really good par in the end,” McIlroy said. “I got lucky because that ball could have gone into a deeper part of my footprints and I could have been there all night.

“I could have let that round get away from me, but I didn’t with the two birdies on the back nine. I need to shoot something in the 60s and I will be right there for the weekend.”

Fleetwood had earlier ridden a wave of home support as he carded six birdies and a bogey in a five-under-par 66.

“It really was a great day,” the 32-year-old from Southport said. “To get that support all day was amazing. If you’re not going to enjoy this atmosphere and these experiences then what’s the point? Make sure you have the time of your life out there.”

Austria’s Sepp Straka plays mainly on the PGA Tour but showed he has the imagination to thrive on links courses with a deft chip on the 18th.

Three players shot 66, but the nod goes to 22-year-old amateur Lamprecht for an impressive performance on his Open debut.

As one of his sponsors is an American airline, Stewart Cink had to be diplomatic about his travel woes on the way to Hoylake.

The par-five fifth played fractionally easier than the 15th, giving up two eagles and 72 birdies for a scoring average of 4.673.

The 507-yard 10th hole is a par five for the members but a par four for the Open and played predictably difficult, yielding just 13 birdies and playing to an average of 4.346.

Turning cloudy with a chance of showers on Friday morning. Drier and brighter by the afternoon. Becoming breezy with wind gusting up to 24mph.

0635 Rasmus Hojgaard, Matthew Southgate, Alex Fitzpatrick
0958 Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose
1253 Louis Oosthuizen, Joost Luiten, Christo Lamprecht
1404 Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick, Jason Day
1448 Scottie Scheffler, Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott

Outgoing Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder has agreed to pay the NFL $60 million following an independent investigation into allegations of workplace and financial improprieties, the league announced Thursday.

The investigation, led by former U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, found that Snyder sexually harassed a former team employee and withheld around $11 million in revenue from other owners by deliberately omitting ticket sales revenue on reports sent to the league.

The NFL released the findings of the year-long investigation shortly after the owners unanimously approved Snyder's agreement to sell the Commanders to a group led by Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris for $6.05 billion, the highest purchase price ever for a North American professional sports franchise.

The investigation was prompted by testimony given by Tiffani Johnston, a former cheerleader and marketing employee, to a Congressional hearing looking into allegations of workplace misconduct within the organisation in February 2022.

Johnston stated that Snyder placed his hand on her thigh during a work-related dinner and pushed her towards his limousine after the function in an unsuccessful attempt to have her ride with him.

White's investigative team conducted several interviews with Johnston on the matter and found her to be "highly credible," and her account of the events was corroborated by other witnesses, according to the report.

“The conduct substantiated in Ms. White’s findings has no place in the NFL," Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. "We strive for workplaces that are safe, respectful and professional. What Ms. Johnston experienced is inappropriate and contrary to the NFL’s values."

Another former employee, Jason Friedman, testified that the team knowingly withheld ticket revenue that was to be shared with other teams according to NFL bylaws. Friedman also said the Commanders retained security deposits from customers purchasing leases for stadium suites for more than a decade.

The report said it was unable to determine the exact amount of money withheld due to Snyder and the Commanders not fully cooperating with the investigation.

Harris' group, which includes NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson, agreed to purchase the Commanders for the record sum in May pending owners' approval, which was granted in a special meeting held Thursday in Minnesota. In addition to the 76ers, Harris' holding company is also the majority owner of the NHL's New Jersey Devils.

Snyder purchased the then-Washington Redskins in 1999 for $800 million and had a tumultuous reign of more than two decades. He and his wife, Tanya, agreed to put the franchise up for sale in November amid pressure from the NFL and corporate sponsors. 

Joe Cullen produced a 142 checkout against Daryl Gurney on his way to becoming the first player through to the Betfred World Matchplay semi-finals on Thursday night.

Former Masters champion Cullen beat Gurney 16-11 in the best of 31 legs to secure a maiden appearance in the last four at the Winter Gardens.

Cullen, who edged out Gerwyn Price in a second-round thriller, averaged 97.11 and threw eight 180s on his way to victory.

After Cullen raced into a 5-0 lead, Gurney started to fight back and a 132 checkout reduced the deficit to 8-5, but Cullen responded to take out 142.

Two 13-dart finishes later in the match ensured it was Cullen who was victorious and he will face Nathan Aspinall in Blackpool on Saturday for a place in the final.

“It feels great, but I am the same as the other six players left. I feel like I can win the tournament, but it is showing it on the day,” Cullen told Betfred.

“I feel like I am good enough, as are the other players left, but it is all about showing it on the day.

“You could be rubbish the whole year, but if you find a good week here, you can write your name into history and that is what I am trying to do.”

Aspinall ended the fine run of housemate Chris Dobey with a 16-12 win in the second match on day six of the tournament.

Dobey made a brilliant start and, after leading 3-2 at the end of the first interval, a 140 checkout helped him establish a 6-3 advantage.

That became 7-5 before world number nine Aspinall showed his pedigree by winning three legs on the spin.

Aspinall took out 92 to move 10-8 ahead and, despite a couple of nervy throws in the final leg, the Stockport right-hander checked out 25 to secure his own first semi-final appearance at the World Matchplay.

Their last-four showdown will be the sixth meeting between Cullen and Aspinall, with the latter winning 10-2 in their last encounter in the UK Open in March.

Ireland full-back Jimmy O’Brien insists that Johnny Sexton’s three-match ban will not affect the team ahead of their preparations for the World Cup.

Sexton was handed the suspension for misconduct after becoming involved in what appeared to be a heated exchange with match officials towards the end of Leinster’s Champions Cup final defeat to La Rochelle.

The ban means that the 38-year-old fly-half will miss Ireland’s three warm-up fixtures, but he will be available for their opening World Cup match against Romania in Bordeaux.

O’Brien told BBC Sport: “It is what it is.

“We’ll just keep going, and other lads will get a chance [to play in the warm-up games]. He’ll be back for the World Cup, and it hasn’t really affected us much.”

Ireland are set to get their World Cup preparations under way with warm-ups against Italy, England and Samoa in August.

The tournament then begins in France in September with Ireland drawn in Pool B alongside Romania, Scotland, Tonga and current holders South Africa.

O’Brien has earned five caps for Ireland and is hoping to make the most of the opportunities provided in August’s warm-up matches.

“Hopefully I get a chance to play in a few of them,” the Leinster back added.

“There are so many good players I’m sure everyone will be the same and they’ll all get a chance. Whenever I play, hopefully I play well and put my hand up.”