AC Milan have sacked Marco Giampaolo from his role as manager after four defeats in their first seven games, which has left the Rossoneri in 13th place.

Giampaolo was appointed following Gennaro Gattuso departure the summer after Milan missed out on a top four finish on the final day of the past campaign.

Former Inter boss Luciano Spalletti had been mooted as a potential replacement, as well as ex-Nerazzurri manager Stefano Pioli.

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Despite finishing fifth, they opted out of competing in the Europa League this season and accepted a one-year ban from European competition.

Giampaolo's aim had been to take the seven-time European champions back into the Champions League for the first time since 2014.

In the summer, Milan signed Rafael Leao, Theo Hernandez and Ismael Bennacer among other but kicked off the campaign for a 1-0 defeat away to Udinese, where they failed to muster a shot on target.

Milan followed that up with a 1-0 victory over Brescia before earning a second consecutive win at Verona. However, a dire display in the home derby against Inter, where Milan were soundly beaten 2-0 saw the pressure rise on Giampaolo.

In their next match, Milan took the lead away at Torino before two Andrea Belotti goals in four minutes saw the home side earn a 2-1 victory and Rossoneri were then beaten 3-1 at home to Fiorentina.

Despite recording a 2-1 win away at Genoa, it was not enough to secure Giampaolo more time as was dismissed soon after.

"Must do better" has become a mantra for Clare Connor, the ECB's managing director of women's cricket, when speaking about the game's appeal to women and girls and the chicken-and-egg effect that has on England's ability to produce a big enough pool of world-class players.

The ECB's elaborate plan to overhaul the game for women and girls, unveiled in central London on Tuesday, aims to address the problem by allowing another 40 women to make a living as full-time professional cricketers, offering greater incentives for players to stay in the sport and increasing the depth of England's talent stocks.

The Transforming Women's & Girls' Cricket strategy commits £20 million over two years, which is expected to grow to £50 million in the next five years, to improving player experiences from club to elite level.

The 40 new domestic contracts will be awarded in addition to the existing ECB central contracts currently handed to England's top 21 players in an attempt to keep talented players in the game when they would otherwise have to drop out to earn a living elsewhere.

While the ECB won't say how much the new contracts are worth, Connor said they were "in line with" Professional Cricketers' Association recommendations and, when added to earnings from The Hundred, would be "not far off what one of the lowest-paid England centrally contracted [women's] players are currently earning".

The PCA's recommended minimum salaries for players aged 18-24 in 2019 ranged between £18,433 and £26,114, although those figures are now being reviewed for 2020, when the minimum wage for full-time professionals kicks in at £27,500. The PCA said after Tuesday's announcement that discussions with the ECB were "positive but ongoing" regarding player payments.

Connor said the plan was for the number of domestic contracts to increase over the next five years.

"The feedback from lots of county meetings and talking to a lot of people and from talking to our own staff from a performance perspective, was that it would be better to have a smaller number of full-time pros who aren't trying to juggle further education or part-time jobs," Connor said.

"It's not an end point, it's certainly the start point to try to get to somewhere near 100 by the end of the strategy, but to have a group of pros underneath the centrally contracted group who are full-time cricketers is more powerful than having, for example, another 80 or so who are very part-time earning a very part-time wage.

"It will give us a pool of players who should really be pushing much harder for England places than a larger number of semi-professional players would."

Back in July, as England stared down an eventual 12-4 Ashes series drubbing, Connor said Australia's superior domestic structure and investment model had been a telling factor. By increasing the number of women who can make a living from cricket, the ECB hopes to emulate Australia's success. England won the 50-over Women's World Cup in 2017 but were beaten by Australia in the World T20 final last year.

In another move aimed at bridging the gap between domestic and international level, the entire domestic structure will be revamped from next season with the existing 34 first-class and national counties grouped into eight regional teams which will play a 50-over competition from 2020 and both 50 and T20 competitions from 2021.

The biggest region is London and the East, comprising first-class counties Middlesex, Northamptonshire and Essex plus six national counties. Each region will have an administrative centre, to be determined by early December, with a dedicated regional director of women's cricket. Loughborough is likely to play an important role, given its high performance facilities, and Connor said alliances would likely be formed between the regions and their respective teams in The Hundred with "some alignment of players and staff".

Connor was also comfortable with the salary bands for players in The Hundred, although there was an ongoing aim to address the disparity between women's and men's earnings. The lowest-paid men will earn £30,000 from The Hundred, while the lowest-paid women will earn £3,000.

"No women in this country were even paid to play cricket until five years ago and whilst there's no one more impatient than me in that area I think we have to be realistic about where we are and we have to acknowledge that what we've done across the Women's Hundred is we've benchmarked it across a lot of women's sports competitions - FA Women's Super League, Women's Big Bash, the direction of travel for the women's IPL - and it's a really good start point," Connor said. "There is huge commitment to close that gap as quickly as we can."

Other initiatives announced as part of the plan include the introduction of an Under-19 women's program next year to prepare for an ICC Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup in 2021, expanding cricket programs to more primary and secondary schools, increased funding for girls' county age group cricket and a pot of funds for clubs to improve girls' recreational cricket.

There remain holes and unanswered questions, including the lack of an elite domestic T20 competition next season and the fact that players not on central or domestic contracts will still be forced to make tough decisions on their future career path. But 40 more professional players is far better than the status quo and the ECB plans to hold information sessions for players on how the new structure affects them once the regional hubs are finalised in December.

England captain Heather Knight said there was no better time to be a woman playing cricket.

"I remember I was a 14-year-old girl and I was training with the Devon boys team," Knight said. "The coach asked for a show of hands, 'who wants to be a professional cricketer?' A few of the boys put their hands up and I thought, 'I'm going to put my hand up as well' even though it wasn't an opportunity at that moment for girls to be a professional.

"I thought maybe it might change in the future and yeah, I'd love to do that as a job. So I stuck my hand up and a few of the boys sniggered a little bit, so it's great now that it can be professional and not just at an international level."

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- Denver Broncos cornerback De'Vante Bausby, who was taken off the field Sunday on backboard after a collision with a teammate, said Monday he "couldn't move'' for 30 minutes after the hit, but hopes to return to the field as soon as possible.

"Strengthen my (neck) muscles again and I'll be good to go,'' Bausby said Tuesday.

Asked if he was nervous or afraid after the collision, Bausby said: "Little bit ... I was never unconscious, I just couldn't move, but I was still talking and everything. The doc, the neurologist said I was going to be fine and I just trusted that, and after about 30 minutes I was able to wiggle my toes and after a couple hours I was able to regain full mobility so I was straight, I was fine ... They said I was paralyzed for 30 minutes, after 30 minutes I could wiggle my toes and after two hours I could move everything else.''

Bausby was motionless on the field after he tackled Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler with 14:51 remaining in the second quarter. On the play, as Bausby was making contact with Ekeler, Broncos linebacker Alexander Johnson plowed into Bausby.

The Broncos medical staff quickly removed the facemask from Bausby's helmet, stabilized his neck and strapped him to the backboard. He was taken to the Los Angeles Trauma Center.

There, Bausby underwent several tests, including multiple MRI exams before he was discharged from the hospital and returned to Denver on the Broncos' chartered flight.

"I was just happy (to return with the team),'' Bausby said. "I was ready to get up out of there ... Los Angeles Trauma Center, I was ready to get up out of there, happy to rejoin my team on the plane ride back here ... I was just calm, and I just trusted what the doc was saying.''

Monday, Broncos coach Vic Fangio said Bausby had a "compression'' injury and that there was "no timetable'' for Bausby's return and "he'll definitely miss some time, don't know if he'll miss the rest of the season or not. These things, the first few days, and week, will tell the story.''

Bausby echoed those sentiments Tuesday when he said: "Right now, we're just going to take it real slow, gain my strength back and all that mess. I don't have a timetable, but hopefully pretty soon, my plan is to come back and play (this season), though.''

The fourth-year cornerback, who has been waived nine times in his NFL career and spent last season in the Alliance of American Football, signed with the Broncos shortly after the AAF shut down. He has battled his way up the depth chart and has made two starts this season, including Sunday's game against the Chargers.

He has 12 tackles and has knocked down three passes.

Penn State coach James Franklin on Tuesday denounced a letter that was sent to one of his players that members of the team have interpreted as being racist.

Safety Jonathan Sutherland received a letter from a Penn State alum that was critical of his appearance and said his "shoulder length (sic) dreadlocks look disgusting."

"Jonathan Sutherland is one of the most respected players in our program," Franklin said in defense of his player at his weekly news conference. "He's the ultimate example of what our program is all about. He's a captain, he's a dean's list honor student, he's confident, he's articulate, he's intelligent, he's thoughtful, he's caring and he's committed.

"He's got two of the most supportive parents and I would be so blessed if my daughters would marry someone with his character and integrity one day."

In the letter, written by Johnstown, Pennsylvania, resident Dave Petersen, Sutherland's hair, appearance and demeanor are criticized. Petersen said in the letter that he and his wife "...miss the clean cut young men and women from those days. Watching the Idaho game on TV we couldn't help but notice your -- well -- awful hair (sic). Surely there must be mirrors in the locker room! Don't you have parents or girlfriend (sic) who've told you those shoulder length dreadlocks look disgusting and are certainly not attractive."

Petersen also wrote that while he believes Sutherland will be "playing 'on Sunday'" someday, "we have stopped watching the NFL due to the disgusting, tattoos, awful hair and immature antics in the end zone."

Sutherland's teammates, including defensive lineman Antonio Shelton, made the letter public through social media, and it has since gone viral. Shelton's tweet had over 13,700 retweets and 46,200 likes on Twitter as of Tuesday afternoon.

In his own Twitter statement Tuesday, Sutherland called Petersen's opinions "degrading," but said that he has taken "no personal offense."

‼️ pic.twitter.com/9DmM0Cs9Fh

— Jonathan Sutherland (@jay_suth) October 8, 2019

The Tribune-Democrat, a newspaper in Johnstown, spoke with Petersen about the letter and how it has spread far and wide on the internet. Petersen said he did not intend for the letter to have a racist message.

"Was not the intent at all," Petersen told the Tribune-Democrat. "I would just like to see the coaches get the guys cleaned up and not looking like Florida State and Miami guys."

Petersen added that his letter "wasn't threatening or anything. I was just disgruntled about some of the hairdos that we're seeing. You think of Penn State as a bunch of clean-cut guys. And you do see so many who are clean cut. But the tattoos and the hair -- there are a lot of guys with hair coming down their backs and it just looks awful. And it's the same for the NFL and NBA, too."

Whether it was Petersen's intent or not, the Penn State football players have taken the letter as an attack on them and who they are.

Penn State University responded to the letter via Twitter, saying the university strongly condemns the message or any message of intolerance. A university spokesperson told ESPN that school officials were made aware of the letter via Twitter and stand behind their student athletes.

"At Penn State we strive to create an atmosphere that promotes inclusivity and respect," the spokesperson said. "The well-being of students, faculty and staff members is the university's priority. As part of this, Penn State provides a range of assistance and resources for students and employees, and we encourage any community member who needs support to reach out."

Franklin echoed the university's message in his news conference Tuesday, saying the Penn State community and football program are about inclusion and bringing people together.

Penn State football has "110,000 fans from all different backgrounds, throughout our region, from all different parts of the state, and they're hugging and high-fiving and singing 'Sweet Caroline' together," Franklin said. "This is my football. This is the game that I love and most importantly my players I love, and will defend like sons."

WHEATLAND, Mo. – With rainy and cold weather expected later this week, the schedule for the sixth annual Lucas Oil MLRA Fall Nationals and B-Mod Clash of Champions II at Lucas Oil Speedway has been adjusted.

Lucas Oil Speedway General Manager Danny Lorton announced Tuesday that the races will be pushed back a day, with action now set for Saturday and Sunday. He added that starting times will be moved earlier on both race days to provide warmer conditions for race teams and fans.

“We want to get both days of racing in and we think this will be our best option,” Lorton said, adding that Thursday’s scheduled practice session and party in the pits also has been cancelled.

Gates now will open at 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday with hot laps at 3:30 p.m. and racing starting at 4:05 p.m.

Camping will be open Friday through Sunday with check-in starting on Friday.

The sixth annual MLRA Fall Nationals will feature the MLRA combining with the COMP Cams Super Dirt Series Presented by Lucas Oil for a 50-lap, $5,000-to-win feature on Saturday and a 40-lap feature for $3,000 to win on Sunday.

The B-Mod Clash of Champions II will co-headline the doubleheader. The Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods will have two sets of heat races on Saturday to help set the lineup for Sunday’s 40-lap, $3,000-to-win feature.

Will Vaught enters the action 88 points in front of Mitch McGrath and 99 clear of Logan Martin in the MLRA championship chase. The COMP Cams Series finds a tight championship battle brewing. Timothy Culp leads Tony Jackson by 28 points.

We’re back with a new edition of the SPEED SPORT Power Rankings and there is a new No. 1 in town! Who took over the top spot this week? Click below to find out.

LEE, N.H. – For the 49th consecutive season, Sammy Swindell can call himself a winner.

Swindell entered last Saturday’s Northeastern Midget Ass’n race at Lee USA Speedway riding an epic 48-year winning streak. However, this year hadn’t yielded a triumph and the pavement winged midget event was his final scheduled race of the season.

“It was something I’d like to get done, but it’s like a lot of things were out of my control this year,” he said in reference to continuing the winning streak. “We didn’t get to race very much. Some of it with the weather the first part of the year and the way things played out later in the year.”

Saturday was the 21st race of the season and the first in seven weeks for Swindell, who was making  his third start of the year in a winged midget for Bertrand Motorsports.

“It was the fifth or sixth race ever that I’ve ran one of these cars and it’s been so spread out,” he said. “Every time you go back it’s almost like starting over. All the tracks were different. This was the first time I went back to the same track with the same car. We had some confidence there. We had a good time the last time, but had one issue that we found after I’d ran it that was off. This time I was making some small changes.”

Swindell won his heat race after starting second. That result didn’t particularly matter as the 25-lap main event was lined up via a handicap system. Since it was Swindell’s second time at the track this year he lined up fourth – the best starting position he’s had in a pavement winged midget feature.

“The key was to get to the lead right away,” he said. “They threw a little bit of a question mark in there because the last couple of laps of the race before some guys had crashed and they put oil down the frontstretch and going into turn one. They were under some curfew issues and they were trying to speed things up. There was some speedy dry on the track. When we first went out it was pretty slippery. Since it was so cold they gave us a couple of hot laps before the race. One guy got in the stuff and spun. After that they blew the stuff off the top, but it was still really, really slippery. My plan was to make a run around the top. Once we got our warm-up laps in I knew there was no way that was going to work.

“On the start the guy on the inside of me didn’t get going so that left me the whole race track. I drove between the two guys in front about halfway, but I figured the bottom would be the best place to be. I was able to get ahead of the guy who started in front of me. Then I was on the guy who was leading, but it was where it was really narrow getting into turns one and two. The only choice I thought I had was to run the outside of him in turns three and four. The way he ran the first couple of laps he stayed out too much. When I took the lead he turned in early and I was able to stay in the gas and get around him.”

Swindell took the lead on lap four and pulled away to a victory by more than three seconds.

“That’s the first time I’ve had a car that drove that well all night and throughout the race,” he said. “The biggest help was going back to the same place and knowing where the racing line was and where the grip was. The last time we changed gears and changed some things. This time all we had to do was fine-tune some things. It made it easier.

“Thanks to Tim and his team for the opportunity. I’m glad we were able to get a win.”

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Daytona Int’l Speedway officials have unveiled the course for the historic 50th annual Daytona Supercross, scheduled for Saturday night, March 7.

The course for the Daytona Supercross, which is the longest continuous Supercross race in America dating back to 1971, was designed by five-time event champion Ricky Carmichael for the 13th consecutive year. Carmichael’s course design features a nod to the history of the Daytona Supercross and includes elements from past Daytona courses such as the over-the-wall jump, the Daytona tunnel jump and grass as a fourth racing surface; the Daytona logo will also be displayed in the center of the extended course.

“It was really important to bring back some of these old-school elements to the 50th annual Daytona Supercross,” Carmichael said. “Think of all the years and talent that has come through Daytona and the DAYTONA Supercross, we had to bring something back that was going to be special.”

Carmichael calls it “an honor” to design the grueling and challenging course for the Daytona Supercross.

“Being a fourth generation Floridian, it’s so special to me to be a part of Daytona Supercross,” Carmichael said. “[This event] it’s always held close to my heart. I love going there. The fans are epic. The event is epic. It’s where the strong survive and I can’t wait to watch these guys battle it out.”