Japan’s stunning victory over Germany, in the group stages of the FIFA Qatar World Cup 2022, left their football fans in a state of joyous disbelief and got the rest of the world firmly behind them.

But it’s their supporters who are earning praise in Qatar for their off-pitch tradition that appears to be uniquely Japanese: Cleaning up stadiums after other football fans have left. In what was becoming an increasingly common sight, Japanese fans stayed behind after their team’s win and helped to clean up the Khalifa International Stadium.

Baku City Circuit (BCC), Promoter of the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, has confirmed a change to its senior management structure that sees Arif Rahimov leave his position as Executive Director of the organisation after seven highly successful years.

Magsud Farzullayev has been named as the new General Director and brings with him a wealth of experience delivering major sporting events to Azerbaijan.

West Indies skipper Kraigg Brathwaite said he had full confidence in his young side, despite two crushing Test defeats to Australia, insisting they will learn from their mistakes.

The Caribbean team put up a fight in the first Test at Perth, taking it to a fifth day before losing by 164 runs. But in Adelaide, they were completely outclassed, being dismissed for just 77 in their second innings.

Jess Warner-Judd has been chosen to captain the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team at this Sunday’s European Cross Country Championships in Turin, Italy. The Olympian has been an ever-present in GB & NI cross country squads throughout her career, competing in every age-group team and in the mixed relay over the last 10 years.

The FIFA Qatar 2022 World Cup continues to throw up stories of ‘romance’, ‘shocks’, ‘tears’ ‘dejection’ and ‘celebrations’ as, following France’s place being the last to be booked for the semi-finals, this has, already, got to be the most open celebration of unpredictability of a tournament that has given loads.    

UK Athletics has announced the cohort of athletes on the Olympic and Paralympic Futures Programme for 2022/23, which is supported by Nike.

The Programme is a key step in the pathway to support athlete and coach development with the aim of progressing to become a successful senior athlete, and transition onto the World Class Programme (WCP) in the next cycle.