Lionel Messi meets Afghan youngster Murtaza Ahmadi

ix-year-old Afghan boy Murtaza Ahmadi met his hero Lionel Messi on Tuesday - and walked out on to the pitch with him before Barcelona's friendly in Qatar.

The youngster became an internet star earlier this year when photographs of him wearing a blue-and-white striped plastic carrier bag with Messi's name and number scribbled on the back were posted online.

Murtaza Ahmadi with his plastic bag jersey

Tributes pour in for #Chapecoense players, others killed in plane crash

World football governing body FIFA, Brazilian President Michael Temer and football fans have paid tribute to members of Brazilian football team Chapecoense and others killed in a plane crash on Tuesday.

A plane flying the football team, its officials and journalists to Colombia for a football match crashed in a mountainous region, killing 76 of 81 people on board.

The tragedy has left the football world in shock with thousands of fans sending their condolences to the families and relatives of the victims.

Ozil told me to always play with a smile like Okocha, says Iwobi

Iwobi

Super Eagles and Arsenal striker, Alex Iwobi has revealed that the advice of team-mate, Mesut Ozil has been key to his flourishing role in Arsene Wenger’s first team.

“Mesut just tells me that I’m young and need to express myself on the pitch,’ Iwobi told the cub’s website. “Obviously I need to listen to other people’s advice as well, but he tells me to always play with a smile on my face and enjoy the game.’

Russian hackers leak Simone Biles and Serena Williams files

Simone Biles

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has condemned Russian hackers for leaking confidential medical files of star US Olympic athletes.

Athletes affected include tennis players Venus and Serena Williams and teenage gymnast Simone Biles.

A group calling itself "Fancy Bears" claimed responsibility for the hack of a Wada database.

Style games: fashion moments from the forthcoming Rio Olympics

• From Stella McCartney and Team GB to Ralph Lauren’s US uniform, Rio isn’t just for sports lovers. Next month, expect Canada to reference Gosha Rubchinskiy, golf wear to triumph and high jumpers to wear socks

H&M kit for the Swedish Olympic team.

It’s about sport, really. Sport, but also national pride, transitory crushes on archers you’ve never heard of, and predicting all the medals each country will win now that some of the Russian team has been banned from the tournament. Fashion, too, has its place, so with that in mind, here are seven looks, people and sports to look out for.

Canada’s soviet-chic uniform

The Canada uniform was designed by twins Dan and Dean Caten of Canadian brand Dsquared2 who really pushed the envelope, what with the regal blazersliteral zip-ups and tees in patriotic red and white in homage to the Canadian flag. However, in light of the news that the entire Russian team is being banned from the Olympics, we are now interpreting them as an homage to Russia, as seen through the lens of offbeat Russian designer Gosha Rubchinskiy and his eponymous label. Much better.

The Team Canada collection For Rio. Photograph: GP Images/WireImage

Rio Olympics: who are the real winners and losers?

• Special report: With just weeks to go until the start of the Games is it possible to assess exactly how this city of more than 6 million has really been impacted – for good and bad – by the awarding of the Olympics? Jonathan Watts and Bruce Douglas of The Guardian International visit five key sections of the city to assess the event’s likely legacy, and hear tales of corruption, hope and claims of thousands of families displaced.

  The run-up to every Olympics is marked by anxiety and controversy, but Rio de Janeiro has arguably outdone all of its predecessors on this score. Against a backdrop of economic recession, the impeachment of Brazil’s president Dilma Rousseff, a Zika epidemic, resurgent crime and water pollution, the city’s officials are not only having to fight off accusations of corruption, incompetence and unbalanced priorities, they are also battling to justify whether the Games were worth hosting in the first place.
  
  
  In this polemical combat, the establishment - the Rio city government and the International Olympics Committee - argue the event boosts economic developments and raises the global profile of the host. Challenging this is an array of social activists, critical academics, political opponents, displaced residents and environmental campaigners who argue that the Olympics are disruptive, destructive and skewed to benefit a wealthy elite.
  
  
  But beyond all the angry headlines, is it possible to assess exactly how this city of more than 6 million people has really been impacted – for good and bad – by the awarding of the Olympics in 2009? To assess this in the long term, it is necessary to go beyond the media furore and focus instead on the likely legacy for Rio’s residents.
  
  
  
  One of the most controversial issues for years has, of course, been the question of displacement: just how many residents have been uprooted as a result of building projects around Rio for the Olympics, not to mention the 2014 football World Cup? Where have they been moved to, with what compensation – and who is benefitting from the property (often very central) that they left?
  

Serena Williams’s Black Excellence comes at a vital time for America

At a time when race relations in America are approaching breaking point, Serena’s record-equalling Wimbledon win means her achievements take on greater significance than ever

 

The simple forehand volley caromed into the open court and the champion tumbled gently backward into the grass; the coup de grâce as elementary as the three service winners that preceded it. Serena Williams was the Wimbledon champion for a seventh time with a straight-sets win over Angelique Kerber – a record-tying 22nd major championship all but ending the argument over whether she is best there has ever been.

The greatest American sports tale of our time remains a work in progress: a black female Jehovah’s Witness from Compton who entered an arena populated almost exclusively by white women from more advantaged backgrounds and persevered in the face of racism, family tragedy, injuries and illness to dominate three separate eras of challengers and rewrite the history books of a sport not desperately keen to be revised. And at a moment in America where the basic value of black lives has been violently called into question, Serena’s latest showcase of unapologetic Black Excellence could not have come at a more vital time.

Messi, father sentenced to 21 months in prison for tax fraud

Barcelona’s Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi (L) sits in court with his father Jorge Horacio Messi during their trial for tax fraud in Barcelona, Spain, June 2, 2016.

A court in Spain on Wednesday sentenced Barcelona striker Lionel Messi and his father to 21 months in jail for tax fraud and slapped them with a fine of 3.7 million euros ($4.1 million).

But these prison sentences are likely to be suspended as is common in Spain for first offences for non-violent crimes carrying a sentence of less than two years.

The Argentina and Barcelona star and his father Jorge Horacio Messi were found guilty of using companies in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on 4.16 million euros of Messi’s income earned from his image rights from 2007-09.

The income related to Messi’s image rights that was allegedly hidden includes endorsement deals with Banco Sabadell, Danone, Adidas, Pepsi-Cola, Procter & Gamble and the Kuwait Food Company.

Messi, father sentenced to 21 months in prison for tax fraud

Barcelona’s Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi (L) sits in court with his father Jorge Horacio Messi during their trial for tax fraud in Barcelona, Spain, June 2, 2016.

A court in Spain on Wednesday sentenced Barcelona striker Lionel Messi and his father to 21 months in jail for tax fraud and slapped them with a fine of 3.7 million euros ($4.1 million).

But these prison sentences are likely to be suspended as is common in Spain for first offences for non-violent crimes carrying a sentence of less than two years.

The Argentina and Barcelona star and his father Jorge Horacio Messi were found guilty of using companies in Belize and Uruguay to avoid paying taxes on 4.16 million euros of Messi’s income earned from his image rights from 2007-09.

The income related to Messi’s image rights that was allegedly hidden includes endorsement deals with Banco Sabadell, Danone, Adidas, Pepsi-Cola, Procter & Gamble and the Kuwait Food Company.