Sports Desk

A shortlist of six contenders has been announced for the 2025 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

England footballers Hannah Hampton and Chloe Kelly, rugby union player Ellie Kildunne, darts player Luke Littler, golfer Rory McIlroy and Formula 1 driver Lando Norris are the nominees.

Voting will take place during the show on BBC One and the BBC iPlayer on Thursday, 18 December.

The programme – presented by Gabby Logan, Alex Scott and Clare Balding, and broadcast live from MediaCityUK in Salford – will celebrate 12 months of incredible sporting action.

Alex Kay-Jelski, director of BBC Sport, said: “This has been a breathtaking year for sport, driven by athletes whose performances belong in the history books.

“Each one has delivered moments of pure brilliance that have defined 2025.

“It’s been incredible to watch, and I can’t wait to honour their achievements, and to see who the nation chooses as the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2025.”

The public can vote online on the night for the main award, with full details announced during the show.

The Team of the Year award will also be decided by a public vote, with contenders to be announced later in the month.

Other prizes awarded on the night include Young Sports Personality of the Year, Coach of the Year, Lifetime Achievement and the Helen Rollason Award.

The World Sport Star award, for which voting is open, will also be presented.

SEATTLE — Vince Dunn scored on the power play 1:21 into overtime and the Seattle Kraken ended a five-game losing streak on Wednesday night by beating the Kings, 3-2.

Matty Beniers tied the score for the Kraken with a power-play goal with 25.3 seconds left in regulation. Jared McCann also scored for Seattle, which had been winless in six outings (0-5-1) since Nov. 23. Eeli Tolvanan assisted on the tying and winning goals. Dunn added two assists.

Joey Daccord made 24 saves.

Alex Laferriere had a shorthanded goal and Kevin Fiala scored on the power play for the Kings. Anton Forsberg made 30 saves.

The Kraken got the power-play opportunity with 3:55 left in overtime when Adrian Kempe was called for tripping. Tolvanen, playing near the left circle, sent a pass across to Dunn just above the right circle, and his slap shot zipped past Forsberg.

It was a tripping penalty against Forsberg that gave the Kraken a power play with 38.8 seconds left in regulation. With Daccord already having been pulled for the extra attacker, Seattle took advantage of a Kings giveaway in their own end. Tolvanen gained control on the right side and sent it toward the net. Beniers redirected it past Forsberg.

Along with McCann’s fifth goal of the year at 3:21 of the second period for a 1-0 lead, all three Kraken goals were scored on the power play. They now have goals with the man advantage in three of the last four games after going 0 for 14 in the four games prior to that.

Laferriere tied it at 1-1 at the 8:16 mark of the second, scoring the Kings’ league-leading sixth shorthanded goal of the season.

Fiala put the Kings on top 2-1 on the power play with 5:20 left in regulation.

Michigan has fired head football coach Sherrone Moore with cause after a university investigation found “credible evidence” he had “engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member,” the school announced Wednesday.

“This conduct constitutes a clear violation of University policy,” athletic director Warde Manuel said in a statement, “and U-M maintains zero tolerance for such behavior.”

Moore started at Michigan in 2018 as tight ends coach and worked his way up to offensive coordinator. He was named head coach in January 2024, weeks after the Wolverines won the College Football Playoff national championship, after Jim Harbaugh left to become coach of the Chargers.

The Wolverines went 8-5 in Sherrone’s first season, including a win over Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl, and 9-3 this season, earning a spot in the Citrus Bowl against Texas on Dec. 31.

Associate head coach Biff Poggi has been named interim head coach. Poggi also served as interim coach for two games in 2025 while Sherrone was suspended after an NCAA investigation into Michigan’s sign-stealing scandal.

The start that Real made seemed like they had turned the corner, taking the game to City and going in front courtesy of Rodrygo’s low drilled effort.

But they conceded twice in the final 10 minutes of the first half through Nico O’Reilly poking in from close range and Erling Haaland’s penalty.

The Real ultras dressed all in white behind the goal had been chanting and clapping until that point, but when the Norwegian’s spot-kick rippled the net in front of them they were silenced.

There was, though, a period of unrest between minutes 65 and 71 when supporters whistled at the players in disappointment three times – the message was to say ‘give us more’.

They pushed and created chances thereafter but will it be enough to save Alonso? The impression has been given that they have another gear and it gives him a bit of credit.

There is a general feeling from fans that the manager is not to blame, it is the players that are not following his instructions – they are the ones that need to listen more and start applying what has been asked.

Ex-Bayer Leverkusen boss Alonso took over before the Club World Cup in the summer and started this season by winning 13 of his first 14 games, but it started to go wrong after the loss at Liverpool on 4 November.

Real have won just twice in eight games since and there has been an apparent clash of cultures at the club with players seemingly not buying into his strict methods and wanting to adopt a pressing style of play.

Asked if his players had played for him, Alonso said: “The performance has been intense. A professional Champions League level game. They have given their best, so from my side no complaints for anything.

“It is hard to take another defeat but we tried until the end.”

England international Jude Bellingham told TNT Sport that the squad were “100%” behind their manager.

“I personally have a great relationship with him, a lot of the lads do as well,” he added. “After the first run of games we had some really great conversations internally and we felt we were on the back side of that form.

“In the past couple of games we let ourselves down again. No-one’s downing tools, no-one’s complaining and moaning thinking the season is over.”

Troy Aikman said he’s “done with NIL” after writing a check to a UCLA football player who never thanked him and went on to leave for another school after one season.

There was a reason for that lack of gratitude, according to one person familiar with the Bruins’ football name, image and likeness operations from that time not authorized to discuss donor information publicly.

The player in question didn’t know who funded his NIL deal, only that it was coming from the team’s collective, Men of Westwood. It was standard practice for players not to know which donors or alumni contributed NIL funds that were distributed to the team.

Aikman, who did not identify the player in his remarks, did receive thanks from Men of Westwood leadership, coach Chip Kelly and athletic director Martin Jarmond, according to the person familiar with the situation.

Aikman, the former UCLA quarterback who led the Bruins to a victory in the 1989 Cotton Bowl before going on to a Pro Football Hall of Fame career with the Dallas Cowboys, voiced his frustrations about NIL on the Sports Media Podcast with Richard Deitsch.

“I gave money to a kid, I won’t mention who,” Aikman told Deitsch. “I’ve done it one time at UCLA, never met the young man. He was there a year, he left after the year. I wrote a sizable check, and he went to another school. I didn’t even get so much as a thank-you note. So, it’s one of those deals, to where I’m done with NIL. I want to see UCLA be successful, but I’m done with it.”

Aikman went on to say he believed that players should be able to leave one school for another amid coaching turnover but should have to otherwise stay with the program paying them.

“There’s got to be some leadership at the very top that kind of cleans all of this up,” Aikman said. “Starting with players that accept money. There’s got to be some accountability and responsibility on their behalf, to have to stick to a program.”

Yet Newcastle found a way to climb it.

Following some strong words at half-time, the visitors rallied after the break and won a penalty courtesy of Nick Woltemade aggressively pressing Leverkusen goalkeeper Mark Flekken.

And after equalising from the spot, Gordon then went on to set up substitute Lewis Miley’s header to put Newcastle in front.

However, another familiar issue reared its head.

Despite taking the lead in the 74th minute, Newcastle were unable to see out the game.

This side have dropped more points from winning positions – 11 – than any other team in the Premier League.

They have failed to win four of their past five away games in all competitions despite taking the lead in all of them at some stage.

Newcastle may have hit the upright through substitute Jacob Murphy after going in front, but Howe’s side began to drop deep against Leverkusen late on, consciously or not.

And Grimaldo’s clever dummy took Newcastle’s midfield out of the game before Leverkusen’s talisman levelled.

It was a familiar story for Howe.

“I don’t think it’s ever a case of sitting back and absorbing pressure,” the Newcastle head coach said.

“That’s not number one in our aim, but you need to do whatever it takes to win. Sometimes that is par for the course, that’s what you have to do.”

Newcastle remain on course for at least a play-off spot and are only a couple of points off the automatic qualification places for the last 16.

But Howe’s team cannot afford to let history repeat itself when they host a PSV side who are starting to hit form, on 21 January, before a trip to the Parc des Princes to take on holders Paris St-Germain a week later.

“We have it all to prove,” Howe added. “The two games we have are very difficult games but I believe in the group. Wherever we go, if we’re near our best, we can win.”

The NFL is advocating a more performance-driven model for its game officials, one linking bonuses and postseason assignments to regular-season grades as opposed to seniority.

The plan was outlined in a memo distributed to the league’s 32 teams Wednesday and obtained by the Los Angeles Times. It comes with the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement with game officials expiring at the end of May and negotiations slowed to a crawl.

The topic was part of a two-hour virtual owners meeting on Wednesday.

In the memo, sent by NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent and Management Council General Counsel Lawrence Ferazani Jr., the league said it is looking to implement changes that will “improve the performance of game officials, increase accountability, and ensure that the highest-performing officials are officiating our highest profile games.”

The NFL is pushing for mandatory training and development programs for low-performing and probationary officials, and contends the union is “resisting our efforts to give these officials access to more practice repetitions.”

The league is also seeking to extend the probationary period for assessing new game officials to have more flexibility to identify and remove those who are underperforming. According to the document, the union’s latest proposal seeks to eliminate the probationary period entirely.

“Our union’s negotiating committee is working diligently on behalf of members, and we will continue to respect that process,” said Scott Green, Executive Director of the NFL Referees’ Assn., in a statement. “We look forward to our continued conversations with the league as we make progress towards a new CBA.”

As it stands, the NFL has no communication with game officials following the Super Bowl through May 15. The league wants to shorten that so-called “dead period” and increase access to officials for rules discussions, video review and the like.

The league is also proposing a practice squad for game officials to deepen the bench of talent.

The next formal bargaining session between the NFL and officials union is scheduled for Dec. 30 in Atlanta.