Real Madrid have denied Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino's claim that president Florentino Perez had refused Spurs use of the club's residence before the Champions League final.

Tottenham and Liverpool are training at Madrid's Valdebebas facility next week ahead of Saturday's final at Atletico Madrid's Wanda Metropolitano stadium on June 1.

Speaking on Spanish radio on Thursday, Pochettino inferred that Perez had intervened to stop the team staying at the Valdebebas facility's residences because he had turned down Madrid in the past.

But in a statement on Friday, Madrid said: "Real Madrid are surprised by the comments made by Mauricio Pochettino about a supposed request made to our club for his team to stay at the Ciudad Real Madrid residence for the Champions League final.

"Real Madrid want to make clear that it is completely false that this request was made.

"Our club has always been completely open to all requests made by UEFA, the RFEF (Royal Spanish Football Federation), Atletico Madrid, Liverpool and Tottenham.

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"All the requests made to Real Madrid were solely and exclusively about the use of training pitches and dressing rooms at Ciudad Real Madrid, and they were all conceded by our club.

"Real Madrid want to underline also that the accommodation for the Champions League finalists is assigned by UEFA following criteria of organisation and security, and in no moment was our club asked by these teams if they could stay at the Ciudad Real Madrid residence."

Speaking on El Partidazo radio show, Pochettino was asked about Tottenham's arrangements.

"We will train at Valdebebas on Thursday morning and then on Friday at the Wanda Metropolitano," he said. "We will sleep at a hotel nearby. We asked if we could sleep at Valdebebas, but Florentino did not want to let us."

Host Juanma Castano asked: "Was that Florentino saying that if you don't want to coach Madrid you cannot sleep at Valdebebas?"

Pochettino said: "The day that you are coaching there, then you can sleep there. That was the subliminal message."

The Spurs boss has previously said he turned down the Madrid job last summer following the resignation of Zinedine Zidane.

The radio interview also saw Pochettino appear to suggest that he could leave Tottenham in the summer whether or not they beat Liverpool.

An officer from the ICC's anti-corruption unit (ACU) will, for the first time, travel alongside each of the 10 participating teams in the World Cup. The move is part of the ACU's drive to stave off the ever-increasing, ever-present danger of corrupt elements who have been frequently implicated in various sport-fixing scandals. However, the ACU is confident that the World Cup is "well protected".

Alex Marshall, the ACU general manager, said that the advantage of having an officer from his unit travel with each team was to instill confidence among the players and support staff in reporting any approach from corruptors. "We have put an anti-corruption manager from my team with each of the squads, my people who work all around the world. Usually this is someone who has worked with the team anyway, goes on tour with them, knows all the players and support staff, and has a good relationship so they can report any concerns," Marshall said at a media conference at the Oval on Friday.

Marshall said the exercise proved to be fruitful when ACU officers travelled recently with a few international teams. "It's something we've used at some of the T20 events around the world, and being away from the ground, it just allows anti-corruption managers to get to know the entire squad very well.

"The person who's with Bangladesh has been on tour with Bangladesh in recent months, knows all the players and all the squad. The person with Afghanistan has been on tour with Afghanistan, knows all the management, knows all the players. We've developed a much closer relationship with all the players and the squads, and having them (ACU officers) with them (the squad) throughout the whole of the World Cup just perpetuates that good relationship. The indicators that it's working are the amount of reporting we're getting from players."

Unlike his predecessors, Marshall has been more open and aggressive in his stance and words with regards to sending a message to unscrupulous elements. The ACU has identified that the corruptors, having found it hard to tread around players, have been trying to influence people on the "edge" which includes support staff, selectors, administrators, and groundsmen. Recently the ACU charged five people in Sri Lanka, including former captain Sanath Jayasuriya, as part its wide-ranging and longstanding investigations into alleged match-fixing activities. The others who were charged were Sanath Jayasundara, Dilhara Lokuhettige (twice), Nuwan Zoysa (twice), and Avishka Gunawardene.

"We have put an anti-corruption manager from my team with each of the squads. Usually this is someone who has worked with the team anyway." Alex Marshall

Marshall said the ACU had identified about a "dozen" corrupt elements globally, whose images were being shared with all 10 teams as well as the UK police. "This World Cup will be very, very well protected by anti-corruption (unit) working with police, National Crime Agency and gambling organisations. You can never guarantee any event will be free of an issue - what I can say is that the corruptors know how well protected this event is, they know how professionally it's run and we have an anti-corruption manager with every single squad, not just at the matches, but away from the matches looking out for these people. And it's around a dozen people who have had the 'disinvite' to the Cricket World Cup 2019 and who we will keep away.

"If anymore pop up, we will be speaking to them as well. They are people who live all over the world, but the majority of the corruption we deal with has its origins in the sub-continent, unregulated betting markets."

In an interesting move, Marshall said the ACU had reached out to some of the corruptors - through solicitors and direct communication in some cases - alerting them they would be barred from the World Cup as soon as they were spotted. Some wrote back saying they would not come to the tournament. "I have either written, called or Whatsapped all the corruptors and the other main corruptors we know operating around the world to tell them not to come anywhere near the World Cup. So far they have all promised me they are not coming. But sometimes with corruptors, you find they don't always tell the truth. So we will be very proactive in keeping on top of them, keeping them away from the tournament."

And that's going to be enough to keep the corruptors away? "Who knows? I can't actually prevent somebody getting on plane somewhere, but what I can do is keep communicating with the corruptors, tell them they are not invited to the World Cup, if they are seen here, at the ground, they will be thrown out. We have shared their details with the law enforcement and the police here in the UK - if our guys see them anywhere around the World Cup, they will be asked to leave."

Marshall was confident the various safeguards put in place would make it really difficult for the corruptors to disrupt the World Cup. "When they look at the World Cup they see a very well organised, professional, well governed, well protected event. This is a very tough event for corruptors to come near."

ICC ACU open to amnesty across all cricket?

During the probe in Sri Lanka, the ACU also offered amnesty to encourage people to come forward with information. Marshall said the exercise had proved "pretty successful" with about 11 people coming forward. Asked whether the ACU planned to repeat the exercise in other countries, Marshall said he was open, but wanted to first wrap up the Sri Lanka investigation. "Not at the moment. We are still digging with what came from the amnesty - you will see we charged three people last weekend from Sri Lanka and there are more cases in the pipeline.

"When we come to the end of that, we will then evaluate whether we repeat that elsewhere or in fact across the whole of cricket. It was pretty successful - 11 people came forward and we got quite a lot of new information."

Commonwealth heptathlon champion is joined by Niamh Emerson, Carolin Schäfer, Tim Duckworth and Damian Warner in Hypomeeting action

Katarina Johnson-Thompson will start as favourite when she returns to heptathlon action this weekend (May 25-26) at the Götzis Hypomeeting, the most prestigious non-championship combined events meeting on the calendar.

The Commonwealth champion won in Götzis in 2014 and in the absence of world and Olympic champion Nafi Thiam, who is set to start her season at the Decastar meeting, will be hoping for a good multi-events opener this summer.

The 26-year-old, who claimed the world indoor pentathlon title last year, placed sixth in Götzis in 2016 and finished fourth the following year in one of the greatest ever heptathlon competitions as Thiam scored 7013 points to take the title ahead of Carolin Schäfer and Laura Ikauniece, who both surpassed 6800 points, and Johnson-Thompson, who set a PB of 6691 points.

The Briton went on to improve her heptathlon PB to 6759 points when securing European silver last year.

“When I come to Götzis, performances always go that extra level because of the atmosphere and how good the competition is,” Johnson-Thompson said in the pre-event press conference.

“I don’t really know what to expect points wise.

“I’m just happy to be here and hopefully the competitors will push me.”

Johnson-Thompson will be joined in the heptathlon by her fellow Briton Niamh Emerson, the world under-20 champion who will be looking for a step up at senior level following her European indoor silver medal behind Johnson-Thompson in March.

Emerson’s PB of 6253 points was set at the global under-20 competition last summer and she also claimed Commonwealth bronze behind Johnson-Thompson on the Gold Coast.

The Brits will face tough competition from Germany’s world silver and European bronze medallist Schäfer and Latvia’s 2015 world bronze medallist Ikauniece, who have both scored over 6800, plus 2014 world indoor champion Nadine Broersen of the Netherlands and American Erica Bougard, who was third in Götzis last year.

In the decathlon, Canada’s defending champion Damian Warner targets a fifth victory.

The Olympic and world medallist set his PB of 8795 points in Götzis last year.

World silver medallist Rico Freimuth will be hoping to bounce back from his disappointing 2018 when he left with a DNF from Götzis and ended his season early. Another German, Kai Kazmirek, plus Commonwealth champion Lindon Victor of Grenada could run him close.

Others in contention will be Russia’s Ilya Shkurenyov, the Netherlands’ Eelco Sintnicolaas, American Devon Williams and Germans Pieter Braun and Mathias Brugger, plus Britain’s European indoor silver medallist Tim Duckworth.

Duckworth, who finished fifth at the European Championships in Berlin last summer, set his PB of 8336 points when claiming the NCAA title last year, with that mark placing him third behind Daley Thompson and Dean Macey on the British all-time decathlon list.

An entry list and timetable can be found here.

INDIANAPOLIS — Tyler Courtney used a restart with seven laps remaining to pass leader Kevin Thomas Jr. and win a bittersweet Hoosier Hundred Thursday night, in the final running of the event at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

Courtney kept pace with Thomas, following him for 92 straight laps until making the winning move on a restart that made all the difference, one that came with a bit of advice courtesy of a voice from above.

“(Tyler Ransbottom), who’s my crew chief on the sprint car and midget, and my spotter tonight, told me on the open red that Jason McDougal had been making up time on restarts doing that same move,” Courtney said. “KT was lifting on restarts into one. So, I knew that if I could just outbrave him a little bit getting in and make sure I didn’t blow past it, it would work. Luckily, it did. You get the open track, no lapped cars, nothing, I got to run as hard as I wanted to for the last eight laps and that’s what I did. If it was going to blow, it was going to blow with me trying.”

Courtney is aware of the list of illustrious drivers who have won the Hoosier Hundred.

“My name is now alongside a lot of great names,” Courtney realized. “Including Kody Swanson, one of the best Silver Crown drivers in our lifetime. Foyt, Andretti, Pancho Carter, all those names. It’s incredible.”

Courtney started third as Chris Windom got the jump on the field on the initial start from his outside front row starting position. Windom led the first five trips around the one-mile dirt oval, but Thomas and Courtney were able to make up ground and close the gap. Thomas ducked to the inside of Windom coming off turn four with Courtney a car length behind in third when all broke loose.

Seemingly without warning, Windom’s right-rear tire shredded, sending the 2016 Silver Crown champ into one of the most harrowing crashes witnessed in the century-plus history of the Indiana State Fairgrounds. Windom’s car immediately veered his car right, hitting nose first into the outside wall, which sent him barrel-rolling seven times and lasting nearly a half-straightaway.

Windom climbed from the mangled wreckage unscathed.

Following the lengthy red flag, Thomas dominated, driving for four-time Hoosier Hundred winning team Foxco Racing to lead a race-high 87 laps.

By lap 16, Thomas had already infiltrated lapped traffic and the interval between he and Courtney rarely fluctuated as Thomas built a half-straightaway lead over Courtney with a quarter of the laps in the books.

Just after halfway, four-time Hoosier Hundred winner Kody Swanson put the heat on Courtney for second while Thomas managed to stretch his lead over the following ten laps.

Six-time All Star Circuit of Champions titlist Chad Kemenah found the turn-two wall in his maiden Silver Crown start.

Though Swanson applied pressure, Courtney wasn’t going to allow him to make any sort of run at him as he bid his time in anticipation of making his own move.

“I knew if I kept KT within sight and Kody behind me, I was going to be at a good pace,” Courtney realized. “We tried not to let KT get too far. If he got too far, then I’d pick up the pace a bit. Luckily, we got that last red there and made a few adjustments, timed the restart right and made a bold move. I wanted it really bad.”

On the lap-69 restart, Swanson turned up the wick, getting to second briefly by going underneath Courtney between turns one and two. Courtney fought back on the outside and regained second by the exit of turn two as Swanson slipped back to third. Jason McDougal, meanwhile, making his second career Silver Crown start was mega-impressive using the cushion long thought to be extinct to travel from his 25th starting spot and into the top-five with 25 laps remaining.

Thomas worked through lapped traffic once again, getting hung up ever so slightly, allowing Courtney to close the gap briefly while Thomas nudged ahead, yet Courtney remained within striking distance, chopping down Thomas’ lead to a half-second with nine to go.

With Thomas and Courtney’s battle set to rage on down the stretch, just in front of them in turn two was two-time ALMS champion Chris Dyson who banged the turn-two wall and endured his own upside-down thrill ride from which he escaped injury.

Courtney’s team made some chassis adjustments during the red flag.

It appeared the changes helped immensely when the green flag waved on the lap-93 restart. Without lapped traffic on the horizon now, Courtney showed no hesitation, aiming for the top and driving it into turn one harder than he had all night up to that point.

Thomas showed no vital signs of reestablishing the top spot down the stretch as Courtney grew his lead by leaps and bounds to win his second career Silver Crown race, but first on one of the historic one-mile dirt ovals where he became the first driver won in all three USAC National divisions in 2019.

Thomas finished his fourth-straight USAC Silver Crown race on dirt in the runner-up spot.

Swanson’s bid for a fifth-straight Hoosier Hundred victory to break a tie with Al Unser (1970-’73) came up short, finishing third ahead of Justin Grant and Brady Bacon.

To see full results, turn to the next page.

Centurion will remain the host venue for South Africa's Boxing Day Test against England later this year, with CSA confirming its fixture list for the 2019-20 season. As well as a full England tour featuring four Tests, three ODIs and three T20Is, South Africa will also host Australia for six limited-overs matches in February and March.

England will travel to Cape Town, the traditional venue for South Africa's New Year Test, followed by matches in Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg. Durban misses out on a Test but is the venue for an ODI and T20I; England will also travel to East London for the start of the T20I series.

The tour will begin in mid-December with one two-day and one three-day tour match in Benoni. After the Tests, England have two one-day warm-up games scheduled in Paarl.

Australia's arrival in late February will see them go straight into T20Is at Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, with the three ODIs scheduled for Paarl, Bloemfontein and Potchefstroom - Australia's first visit to Senwes Park since the 2003 World Cup.

"This will be a huge summer both for our Standard Bank Proteas, who are currently ranked in the top three in all three formats, and for our fans who can look forward to action-packed and top-quality entertainment against two of the powerhouses of world cricket," CSA chief executive Thabang Moroe said.

"The Test matches will take on particular significance as this will be our first home series in the ICC World Test Championship following our away series in India in October. I am delighted also to announce that we will be working closely with SA Tourism around the Test host venues of Pretoria, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg to ensure that this series creates a win-win situation both for cricket and the South African economy.

"The two KFC T20 international series take on extra relevance as we start our preparation for the ICC Men's World T20 to be played in Australia in October and November next year."

South Africa 2019-20 fixtures

Dec 18-19 - Inv. XI vs England, Willowmoore Park, Benoni Dec 20-22 - South Africa A vs England, Willowmoore Park, Benoni Dec 26-30 - 1st Test v England, SuperSport Park, Centurion Jan 3-8 - 2nd Test v England, PPC Newlands, Cape Town Jan 16-20 - 3rd Test v England, St George's Park, Port Elizabeth Jan 24-28 - 4th Test v England, Bidvest Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg Jan 31 - Inv. XI vs England, Paarl Feb 1 - Inv. XI vs England, Paarl Feb 4 - 1st ODI v England, PPC Newlands, Cape Town Feb 7 - 2nd ODI v England, Kingsmead, Durban Feb 9 - 3rd ODI v England, Bidvest Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg Feb 12 - 1st T20I v England, Buffalo Park, East London Feb 14 - 2nd T20I v England, Kingsmead, Durban Feb 16 - 3rd T20I v England, SuperSport Park, Centurion

Feb 21 - 1st T20I v Australia, Bidvest Wanderers, Johannesburg Feb 23 - 2nd T20I v Australia, St George's Park, Port Elizabeth Feb 26 - 3rd T20I v Australia, PPC Newlands, Cape Town Feb 29 - 1st ODI v Australia, Eurolux Park, Paarl Mar 4 - 2nd ODI v Australia, Mangaung Oval, Bloemfontein Mar 7 - 3rd ODI v Australia, Senwes Park, Potchefstroom

England's preparations for the World Cup have received a potentially significant setback, after Eoin Morgan, their captain, suffered a blow to the left index finger during a fielding drill.

Morgan, who had been preparing for England's warm-up match against Australia at the Ageas Bowl on Saturday, is due to be sent to hospital for an X-ray after practice.

Although the indication from the England camp is that the scan is purely precautionary, the loss of their captain would be a grievous blow to the team's hopes of living up to their No. 1 world ranking, and lifting the World Cup for the first time in the team's history.

Morgan's leadership has been an integral part of England's rise from ignominy at the 2015 World Cup, both through his on-field tactical acumen and cool head, and in fostering the close-knit team culture that has already enabled the squad to regroup following the potential disruption caused by Alex Hales' failed drugs tests.

Speaking at the launch of the England team kit earlier this week, Morgan explained how the team had put in place contingency plans to cope with unexpected setbacks.

"We've planned for instances when the [team] culture had been tested or individually we'd been tested," he said. "There's still loads of things that we've planned for that might continue to crop up throughout the World Cup.

"I wouldn't say it's been smooth, I'd say we've been better equipped at dealing with anything that's cropped up, certainly as a group," he added.

"Our prep and planning has been excellent and the guys have responded to that by performing on a consistent basis."

England's opening match of the World Cup takes place against South Africa at The Oval on May 30.

More to follow

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

A 22-strong GB team has been selected for the event in Naples

Jess Judd, Greg Thompson and Jenny Nesbitt are among the 22 British athletes selected for the World University Games taking place in Naples, Italy, from July 3-14.

Loughborough University student Judd returns to the Games two years on from winning bronze in Chinese Taipei and will hope for an upgrade as she tackles the 5000m once again.

Thompson will also make a second successive appearance, with the current British discus No.1 having thrown a PB and IAAF World Championships qualifying standard of 65.56m last month.

Thompson will be joined in the discus by Nicholas Percy, while Commonwealth Games fifth-placer Taylor Campbell is selected in the hammer.

Nesbitt joins Judd and Thompson in making back-to-back appearances at the Games and will compete over 10,000m, while Mari Smith earns her second British call up this year having finished fifth at the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March.

Delighted to be heading back to the World University Games this summer to represent GB ?? Taipei was incredible 2 years ago and I can’t wait to do battle over 25 laps again ? https://t.co/ArhLUUbEx4 pic.twitter.com/nrFBL0dYzA

— Jenny Nesbitt (@jennynesbitt) May 24, 2019

Team leader Spencer Duval said: “I am delighted to announce a team of 22 athletes for the World University Games in Italy later this summer.

“The Games represent a great opportunity for all athletes selected to test themselves against the best students in the world with a handful returning from two years ago and many others set to experience the event for the first time.

“The team is full of quality throughout, in particular in the field events, and we look forward to seeing them perform to the best of their ability in Naples in July.”

British indoor silver medallist Smith’s selection in the 800m and that of Lucy Turner in the heptathlon are subject to the pair proving their fitness ahead of the Games.

British team

Men
100m: Adam Thomas
200m: Jordan Broome
1500m: Michael Wilson
110m hurdles: Miguel Perera, Khai Riley-La Borde
3000m steeplechase: Mark Pearce
High jump: William Grimsey
Long jump: Samuel Khogali, Jack Roach
Hammer: Taylor Campbell, Joseph Ellis
Discus: Nicholas Percy, Gregory Thompson
Decathlon: Harry Maslen

Women
800m: Mari Smith
1500m: Dani Chattenton
5000m: Jessica Judd
10,000m: Jenny Nesbitt
100m hurdles: Jessica Hunter
Half-marathon: Rebecca Murray
Heptathlon: Emma Nwofor, Lucy Turner

The Laver Cup event between Europe and the rest of the world is to become an officially sanctioned ATP Tour event.

The competition, backed by 18-time men's Grand Slam winner Roger Federer, has taken place twice, in Prague and Chicago, on an exhibition basis.

"It's wonderful to know that the Laver Cup will be part of the tour that I've dedicated more than 20 years of my life to," said Switzerland's Federer, 37.

This year's competition will take place in Geneva from 20-22 September.

The Laver Cup, which has been won by Team Europe both times, will not have any ranking points but, being an ATP event, will mean it gets the same back-up and logistical support as other tour events.

Federer, Spain's Rafael Nadal and Serb Novak Djokovic have each taken part in the event, while greats Bjorn Borg, of Sweden, and American John McEnroe have been captains.

"It has struck a chord with fans worldwide in a very short time," said Chris Kermode, executive chairman and president of the ATP.