The number of football matches in England and Wales where hate crime incidents were reported increased by 47% in the 2018-19 season, a British government study published on Thursday said.

Although football-related arrests dropped by 10% to 1,381 last season, the number of hate crimes reported increased from incidents in 131 matches the previous season to 193 matches in 2018-19.

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Ghanaian striker Kwesi Appiah is under pressure heading into AFC Wimbledon's fixture against key rivals Milton Keynes Dons, which is the pick of the EFL League One's seventh round of matches this weekend.

Appiah may have scored two goals this season (more than any other Wimbledon player) from five appearances, but he has generally been playing poorly and struggling for game time ahead of the visit to Stadium MK in Buckinghamshire for the latest instalment of the intense rivalry between the...

Third-tier club Bolton Wanderers, who faced being expelled from the English Football League if a takeover was not completed in two weeks, have been sold to Football Ventures (Whites) Limited, administrators said on Wednesday.

The sale comes just a day after fellow League One side Bury were expelled from the EFL with no possibility of appeal for reinstatement.

"We are excited to begin restoring this magnificent football club to its rightful position, securing its future for the fans, the loyal club...

Bury, expelled from the Football League (EFL) on Tuesday after failing to provide guarantees about their finances, have no right of appeal against the decision, EFL Executive Chair Debbie Jevans said on Wednesday.

Bury, with 125 years of Football League membership, became the first team to be expelled since Maidstone in 1992 after a takeover bid fell through just before a deadline to satisfy the EFL about their future.

"There's no appeal process. It is within people's rights to write to us, we await...

BURY, England -- The bailiffs turned up to collect the treadmills from Bury's training ground last Friday. Considering that the League One team's players had been paid six weeks' wages by the club over the past six months, there was no surprise among the squad to see the debt collectors take away the most basic of equipment, but it was a grim warning of what was to come. "The bailiffs took the anti-gravity treadmill, too," Bury defender Tom Miller told ESPN FC as he waited for news on the club's...