British motorsport looks set to be excluded from a planned overhaul of EU motor insurance rules after a European Parliament vote on Wednesday.

MEPs, meeting in Strasbourg, supported an amendment tabled by Conservative MEP for the West Midlands Dan Dalton to insist that motorsport teams and drivers would not be required to buy costly third party liability insurance.

Many teams, suppliers and other companies in the UK contacted Dan to warn that European Commission proposal would drive up costs.

However, motorsport events are already covered by comprehensive public liability insurance in the UK.

The Commission’s draft law came after a 2014 ruling by judges in Luxembourg that off-road vehicles should have unlimited third party liability insurance, including on private land.

Conservative MEPs said the legislation was so vague that it could have effectively shut down British motorsport as amateur clubs would struggle to cope with the extra costs, while many underwriters said they would refuse to offer this kind of insurance for larger events.

But Dan’s amendment included the phrase “in traffic” to mitigate the impact of the Commission’s proposal, which won the support of the European Parliament today,

This was a badly drafted proposal that should have been clearly thought through before it ever saw the light of day,” said Dalton, whose father used to volunteer as a marshal at motorsport events up and down the UK. “The vote is a victory for common sense regulation.

This would be catastrophic for grassroots enthusiasts. How could clubs produce the next motorsport stars of the future?

The next step is for negotiators from the European Parliament, EU governments and the European Commission to thrash out a compromise text that would eventually become the final law.”

He concluded: “I think MEPs have sent a clear message today. Everyone involved d: should make sure that motorsport is left unaffected by this new legislation. This is more than just a job for some people; it is a way of life,"

If the law takes effect before Brexit, or during the planned two-year transition phase, then it will apply in the UK.

The motorsport industry is worth more than nine billion pounds to the British economy. Motorsport Valley, which stretches from the West Midlands to East Anglia, employs more than 40,000 people.

Organizers of a sporting event in Wales have taken the step of banning boys from its national netball competition; saying it was aimed at encouraging more girls to take part while boys' physical strength sometimes put them at an advantage.

The Urdd National Sports Festival, which takes place in Aberystwyth, is one of many annual events it puts on and primary schools were – despite the ruling - told girls will be able to play in the football competition with boys at the same tournament.

Pupils have criticised the move, with some saying: "Netball isn't just for girls, it's for boys and girls. If they're taking away netball from the boys, why don't they take a sport away from the girls?"

Another pupil said: "Why can't boys play netball? I'm normally into football, but I wanted to try something different. If girls are allowed to play football, why can’t we do netball?"

The Urdd Gobaith Cymru was set up in 1922 to provide opportunities for children through the medium of Welsh.

British Athletics have accepted a European Athletics invite for Niamh Emerson to compete in the pentathlon at next week’s European Indoor Championships on home soil in Glasgow – the Amber Valley & Erewash athlete being only the second British athlete ever to win the IAAF World Junior Championship heptathlon title during a stellar 2018, which also included Commonwealth bronze, and has begun this year indoors in fine style with victory in the pentathlon at the Combined Events International in Cardiff with a personal best 4544 points.

That score placed Emerson fourth on the all-time British rankings and currently fourth on the 2019 world and European indoor rankings and has led to an official European Athletics invite to compete for Great Britain & Northern Ireland in Glasgow.

With Katarina Johnson-Thompson already announced, Emerson’s invite means there will be two British athletes in the pentathlon for the third time since the event was introduced onto the European Indoor Championships programme in 1992.

Emerson’s inclusion takes the number of athletes to have stepped up having competed at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Finland last year to four with Kristal Awuah (Herne Hill), Joe Brier (Swansea) and Alex Haydock-Wilson (Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow) all major senior international debutants for the British team.

The Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham welcomes more than 50 global medallists to Arena Birmingham this Saturday at the world’s number one ranked indoor athletics event with Olympic, world and European medallists on show for fans to see go head to head at the sold-out event.

Britain’s European 1500m champion Laura Muir competes in the women’s mile with an eye on Kirsty Wade’s 31-year-old British record of 4:23.86. Following her victory at the SPAR British Athletics Indoor Championships over 3000m and her Scottish indoor record over 800m in Torun, Muir’s race will be one of the highlights of the meet.

Just 0.01 seconds outside the world indoor mile record in at the Millrose Games in New York last week, Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha’s next race on the track will be greatly anticipated as he goes over 1500m with Hicham El Guerrouj’s 22-year world indoor 1500m record of 3:31.18 under threat.

Among the Olympic champions in action are Jamaal’s Rio 2016 double gold medallist Elaine Thompson and Katerina Stefanidi, of Greece, who will feature in highly competitive women’s 60m and women’s pole vault fields respectively.

Thompson takes on the reigning European Indoor champion, Asha Philip, who claimed the SPAR British Athletics Indoor Championships title last weekend – her tenth national title in total - and Ivory Coast’s double world medallist Marie-Josée Ta-Lou.

Stefanidi has won almost all there is to win in the sport, and with only a few weeks until she aims to defend her European Indoor title, she’ll take on a strong field in Birmingham including European bronze medallist, Team GB star, Holly Bradshaw who cleared a British Indoor Championship record of 4.80m last weekend at Arena Birmingham.

Furthermore, five 2018 world indoor champions return to the venue including men’s and women’s long jump champion Juan Miguel Echevarria of Cuba, Serbian Ivana Spanovic and Ethiopian Samuel Tefera over 1500m, in addition to Kejelcha and Stefanidi.

World number two in 2019 following his 6.53 clocking in Berlin two weeks ago, Reece Prescod (GBR) goes in the men’s 60m, taking on world indoor silver medallist Su Bingtian of China. Newly-crowned British champion Dominic Ashwell and second-place Adam Thomas will have a last chance to chase European Indoor championship qualifying times.

The likes of 2018 Commonwealth Games and European Championship gold medallis Dina Asher-Smith and 1500 metre European, two-time 2017 European Indoor champion, 1500m/3000m double, and two-time 2018 World Indoor Championship medallist Laura Muir alongside the world’s very best, have been regular names at this event, the Muller Grand Prix Birmingham, lane-by-lane, with other major figures in this, the Muller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham - ranked as the best one-day indoor meeting in the world – will see more world-class head to heads expected to light up the Arena Birmingham today.

With the city known loving its athletics, and having produced many a British and world legends of the sport, such as Sir Mo Farah, today’s fare, part of the IAAF World Indoor tour, promises even greater excitement than ever before.

And it’s just another taster for when the very best in the Commonwealth comes to Birmingham in 2022.

Regarded as one of the game's greatest in his position, England’s World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks, earned 73 caps and who died yesterday, was named FIFA goalkeeper of the year six times

Perhaps best known for his wonder save from Pele during the 1970 World Cup, in Mexico, against Brazil, the star striker paid tribute to him calling him "a fine human being" and "a goalkeeper with magic."

Sir Bobby Charlton, who was part of the 1966 winning team alongside Banks, said: "Gordon was a fantastic goalkeeper, without doubt one of the best England has ever had.

I was proud to call him a team-mate. Obviously we shared that great day in 1966 but it was more than that.

Even though I was on the pitch and have seen it many times since, I still don't know how he saved that header from Pele."

Another of the ’66 heroes, Sir Geoff Hurst - who scored a hat-trick in the Final - tweeted: ‘One of the very greatest. Thinking especially of Ursula, Julia, Wendy and Robert. Sad for football, Stoke City and for England fans.’

Ex-England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who replaced Banks at Leicester, tweeted: ‘I'm devastated - today I've lost my hero,’ whilst former England striker Gary Lineker said: "An absolute hero of mine, and countless others, England's World Cup winner was one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, and such a lovely, lovely man."

Current England and Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling was among the first to pay tribute, also tweeting: ‘Of course there was that save, but it's so much more we are mourning today. RIP Gordon Banks. England legend, your legacy will live on.’

The Sheffield-born hero, who also won the League Cup with Stoke and Leicester, before retiring in 1973, is the fourth player of the England team that started the 1966 World Cup final to have died, after Bobby Moore, Ray Wilson and Alan Ball.

He was 81.