Sunderland chief executive Margaret Byrne has resigned following the Adam Johnson child abuse case. Johnson, 28, faces four to 10 years in jail after being found guilty of sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl. The Premier League club has been criticised for letting the England winger play after his arrest. Byrne, chief executive since 2011, said that decision “was a serious mistake”, with the club adding: “We are so very sorry for this.” In a statement, Sunderland said Johnson’s victim had been “very badly let down first and foremost” by the player and “his despicable actions”, but also “by the club they support”. “Mr Johnson lied to the club; he also lied to our fans and they have every right to feel aggrieved by this,” it added.

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Ghanaian Sellas Tetteh is to continue as caretaker coach of Sierra Leone after his loan agreement was extended. He will take charge of Sierra Leone’s upcoming matches against Gabon. The games are on the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying schedule but no points are on offer as Gabon are hosting January’s finals. “After the Gabon matches we will decide whether to make it permanent or not,” Abu Bakarr Kamara, of the Sierra Leone Football Association, told BBC Sport. The Ghana Football Association have replaced Tetteh as coach of their under-20 side with the appointment of Mas-Ud Didi Dramani. Tetteh, who has previously coached Black Stars and Rwanda, was initially loaned to Sierra Leone for three months after the search for permanent coach was put on hold by the football association. Continue reading →

Nike has suspended its contract with Maria Sharapova after the five-time grand slam winner announced she had failed a drug test. The 28-year-old Russian revealed on Monday that she had tested positive for meldonium following her quarter-final defeat against Serena Williams at the Australian Open in January. A statement from sportswear giant Nike read: “We are saddened and surprised by the news about Maria Sharapova. “We have decided to suspend our relationship with Maria while the investigation continues. “We will continue to monitor the situation.”

Watchmaker Tag Heuer has also decided not to renew its sponsorship contract with Sharapova, which ended on December 31 last year. “We had been in talks to extend our collaboration,” A statement from Tag Heuer, who had sponsored Sharapova since 2004, read. “In view of the current situation, the Swiss watch brand has suspended negotiations, and has decided not to renew the contract with Ms Sharapova.”

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Newcastle’s board are weighing up their next move as doubts over Steve McClaren’s future continue. The 54-year-old is under increased pressure following Saturday’s 3-1 home defeat to Bournemouth in the Premier League, with the club’s directors holding talks without their manager on Monday. That result left Newcastle in the relegation zone with 10 matches to play, one point behind 17th-placed Sunderland, with McClaren’s tenure as manager yielding just seven wins in all competitions all season. Six of those victories have come in the league but only two of them – against West Ham and West Brom – have been in the last 12 matches. McClaren is understood to have taken the training today.

Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho twitted a picture of himself and Luis Suarez as the latter showed up at Liverpool’s Melwood training complex this morning. Suarez is only on a visit and not coming back to the Reds at least for now.

Eintracht Frankfurt have appointed former Croatia boss Niko Kovac as their new manager. He has named his brother – Robert – as his assistant. The club sacked Armin Veh yesterday after seven matches without a win left them fighting relegation.

Romanian league runners-up ASA Targu Mures will take “drastic” action against the unsportsmanlike behaviour of their players after four were sent off and seven booked in a match against Pandurii Targu-Jiu on Monday. Strikers Marius Tucudean and Ramiro Costa, defender Marius Constantin and midfielder Claudiu Voiculet were shown red cards during the highly-charged game which Pandurii won 2-0. “The Board of Directors of ASA Targu Mures will analyse what happened during the match against Pandurii Targu-Jiu and will take drastic action against players who demonstrated unsportsmanlike conduct,” Targu Mures vice-president Claudiu Maior told local media. Referee Constantin Coltescu also booked three Pandurii players during a game featuring 46 fouls. “We came to play football but you saw what happened, I’ve never anything like this,” Pandurii’s Romania international defender Cristian Sapunaru said. “I hope they realise that it’s not normal to play that violently.”

Former world number one Maria Sharapova has revealed she failed a drugs test at the Australian Open. The Russian, 28, tested positive for meldonium, a substance she has been taking since 2006 for health issues. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) said the five-time Grand Slam champion would be provisionally suspended from 12 March. Sportswear company Nike said it was halting its relationship with her until the investigation was complete. “I did fail the test and take full responsibility for it,” said Sharapova, who won Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 2004. Sharapova has been the highest-earning female athlete in the world in each of the past 11 years, according to the Forbes list. With career earnings from tennis alone amounting to almost £26m, she claimed she had taken meldonium “for the past 10 years” after being given it by “my family doctor” but had known the drug as mildronate. “A few days ago, after I received a letter from the ITF, I found out it also has another name of meldonium, which I did not know,” she said.

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