hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm gavin ramjaun. george russell sees red as he calls max verstapen a bully. the mercedes driver also alleges the champion threatened to crash into him intentionally. "one of the darkest and most difficult periods of my life." charlotte dujardin is banned for a year following footage of her excessively whipping a horse. and tottenham's troubles continue — just one win in six now for them after defeat to bournemouth in the premier league.

hello and welcome to the programme. more from thursday's premier league and the club world cup draw to come. but first to the controversy happening in formula 1. the title might be decided, but the sparks are flying ahead of the final race of the season with mercedes driver george russell telling media in abu dhabi that now a—time world champion max verstappen is a "bully" that needs standing up to and that he's "allowed "to get away with too much". tensions have been increasing throughout the season between verstappen and his rivals, but this follows an incident during the last grand prix in qatar, when the red bull driver was penalised for slowing down too much in qualifying, blocking russell. verstappen later said he'd lost all respect for the british driver and called him "two—faced". today, though, russell claimed verstappen also told him after the session that he would deliberately crash into him. here's our f1 reporter, jenny gow. we do see this from time to time, if you think back to 2021, it was almost all—out war between mercedes and red bull

when it was max verstappen and lewis hamilton going for the title. this time it is not george russell going for the title otherwise i think it would be more explosive and powerful. it lines up, gives us a taste of what might come in the future. neither man are backing down, they are both standing and adamant that each other is a liar, and when you hear them say that and see the aggression and the fierceness in their voice, you think 0k, this is a bit spicy. when we say both of these guys might be angry with each other when it comes to racing, both of them are clean racers and that being said we know the background of max verstappen, we know how far he will push the rules, but they do stick within the rules. they will be under the spotlight, as you can see in all senses of the word, this weekend and we will see what plays out. three—time olympic dressage gold medallist charlotte dujardin has been suspended from all competition for one

year following a horse whipping controversy that saw her withdraw from the paris games. a video was released injuly showing what she described as "an error ofjudgement" during a coaching session. our sports news correspondent laura scott has more. the fei, the equestrian sports�* world governing body, received a video from a lawyer representing an anonymous whistle—blower, showing dujardin whipping a horse more than 20 times during a coaching session at a private stable. at the time she said she was deeply ashamed of the incident that had been filmed some years and she withdrew from the olympics. she has since lost sponsors, funding and some of her horses. in a statement, she apologised again, saying "i understand "the responsibility that comes with my position in the sport "and i will forever aim to do better." should she wish to return, there will be challenges ahead both in rebuilding her horses and her reputation but this fall from grace for the former golden girl of british dressage has broad ramifications injust

her future because there are fears of what damage it has caused a public trust in the sport. in response to the dujardin�*s conduct and today's ban, the chief executive of world horse welfare, roley owers, told us he felt the incident has forced the industry to sit up and take notice. our reaction to the video initially was to be shocked by it. what you see in that video is unethical training and it is not acceptable, and it is really important in the wake—up call once again for the industry and the sector to realise that training has to be ethical, and to do that we have to be rewarding our horses, getting them to understand what we ask of them and never causing them fear or distress. tottenham's patchy form goes on. not long ago they were celebrating a stunning 4—0 win away at champions manchester city. they're yet to win since then, and on thursday were beaten by bournemouth — a result which sees them drop to tenth.

spurs could have gone 5th with a win, that's the reality of how congested the middle of the table is at the moment. the only goal of the game, coming from 19—year—old defender dean huijsen, heading home from a corner in the first half. evanilson had a goal ruled out for bournemouth late on for offside. tottenham haven't gone two games unbeaten in the premier league since september. disappointed because i thought we started the game really well and then we had a poor goal. it is a difficult place to come anyway when you are sort of giving the opposition the opportunity to take the game and play it in the manner they want. so that was disappointing and it is something we have done consistently, and we always pay a price for it. a huge victory for fulham, who, thanks to tottenham's defeat, climb to 6th after beating brighton 3—1. alex iwobi had them ahead early on, capitalising on a mistake by brighton keeper bart verbruggen. brighton levelled thanks to carlos baleba in the second half but a matt o'riley

own goal, and then a superb late finish from iwobi sealed the three points, to his manager's delight. a really versatile player i can use in many different ways. tonight was difficult for him to play in a position we know he can play. he is not raining there every single day. even so it is best to take the point of view that he is a top player, and assess the way that he scores more than ever and are pleased to have him, what a game, he deserves all the credit. and we've had the draw for the club world cup in miami with the new—look tournament taking place in united states next summer. champions manchester city and chelsea represent the premier league. eight groups consisting of four teams with city drawn againstjuventus, morocco�*s wydad ac. and al ain of the uae — the abu dhabi club's president being sheikh mohammed, the brother of city owner

sheikh mansour. chelsea face brazilian side flamengo, mexico's club leon, tunisian champions esperance sportive de tunis. all the other groups featuring teams like bayern, psg and real madrid are on the bbc sport website. now, we're talking about the most followed rugby union player in the world on social media — male orfemale. it's ilona maher, and she has almost 8 million followers on instagram and tiktok. she's an american olympic bronze medalist and she's just signed for bristol bears. her new coach dave ward has said it's a huge coup for the club. our rugby union reporter sara orchard sat down with her. people are posting the biggest star in rugby has come, and all these men are like she is not the biggest star! this person is the biggest star! i think they are getting it wrong. i am not the best player in rugby, you have the best players elsewhere, even on this team, i have had to do it in a different way for rugby. it is my thing but i've had

to correct this whole other thing around me and all these guys who comment she is not the biggest star but if you asked some of the biggest men's stars in the game they would say the biggest star is someone else because they see the value. i have had many messages saying we love what you do for the game, even translating into the men's game as well, bringing people out, so they underestimate the work of the stuff off the pitch. be on the pitch is amazing but as a female athlete, as a female rugby player, i have to do ten times as much off the field, i cannot just play the sport, i will not make millions playing rugby. i will never even make six figures playing rugby, that is a sad truth. so i need to put my focus on everything else and somehow that translates to being the biggest star rugby because of my personality, and because of who i am as a person and what i stand for. often it is individual athletes who really drive interest in a sport. you are the individual athlete right now for rugby. do you think the men's

professional premiership, bristol, are they learning from you? i hope so, i think it will be cool. i was saying that today. like, do you think they would like to make a tiktok with me? i think it will be a good learning curve. it isa it is a different way that they do things. how i have seen this productivity through social media, what it's done for me, so that will be interesting to bring that here. i think rugby is in many ways stuck in the old ways. on the field you just work there and that is where it stops, but we need to grow as the world and society changes. we want to get more players. where are they? they are on tiktok, they are watching my videos, we have an outreach programme and all these teenage girls took photos with me because they saw me on tiktok, and maybe that translates into them wanting to play. i hope that — bristol seems to be a perfect place that wants me to do my thing

and post the videos and whatnot because they have seen the value in it and ijust hope that we can work together mutually beneficial to create something really big here. what a signing for bristol there. just enough time to recap our top story — the row that's blown up in formula 1, between max verstappen and george russell. russell has labelled verstappen a "bully" and alleges the champion threatened to crash into him intentionally. verstappen accused russell of being "a backstabber", denying he would deliberately force a crash. verstappen was unhappy about the role russell played in the red bull driver being given a one—place penalty, which demoted him from pole position at the qatar grand prix last weekend. you can get all the latest sports news at from the bbc sport app, orfrom our website where you can also find details of cricket's second test between new zealand and england. from me and the rest of the team at the bbc sport centre, goodbye. we will see you next time.

hello there. well, it was wet and windy on thursday, and the weather is about to turn even worse still as we head into the weekend with our next named storm, storm darragh, barrelling in from the west. damaging gusts of wind, that's what we're most concerned about, but also the risk of flooding, especially in the northwest. and there will be some snowfall over the higher ground of scotland. but friday, a fairly quiet day of weather — the calm before the storm — particularly for the eastern half of the uk. it's a cold start to the morning compared to how mild it was on thursday. the sunshine lasting longest in the east, high cloud pushing eastwards and turning very wet, very windy by the end of the afternoon across northern ireland and for these western coasts too. temperatures staying in single figures, so a lot cooler than on thursday. but here comes the storm on friday night into saturday, deep area of low pressure,

tight squeeze on the isobars — first down towards irish sea coasts and then the strength of the winds transfers to north sea—facing coasts on saturday afternoon. there are plenty of weather warnings in force, but this is the most serious, an amber warning for damaging gusts of wind, gusts exceeding 70 to 80 miles an hour, perhaps, on some irish sea coasts. within these areas, we're likely to see coastal overtopping, transport disruption and even trees down. so this is the small hours, then, of saturday — blizzard—like conditions over the higher ground of scotland, even perhaps some snow to lower levels and across the pennines and the cumbrian fells. the rain will be relentless in the northwest, but it's mostly the strength of the winds we're concerned about. this is how we're starting off the day on saturday. now, if you've got travel plans — or indeed pre—christmas plans, perhaps — then do keep checking the forecast. it will be very windy. even inland across england and wales, we're expecting gusts of 50 to 60 miles an hour. the winds easing a little through the afternoon for irish sea coasts but picking up for north sea—facing coasts. coastal overtopping expected

across parts of norfolk, and these will be the day's temperatures — not that you'll notice the temperature too much. it will feel highly unpleasant outside and there'll be a lot of added wind chill, too. now, the area of low pressure pulls away as we head into sunday. high pressure builds in behind, but there's a brisk northerly wind and it certainly is going to feel cold and there'll be a lot of added wind chill, too. windiest towards the eastern half of the uk, plenty more showers piling down on that wind, and temperatures for most will stay in single figures into the start of next week. bye— bye.

live from london, this is bbc news. president macron will appoint a new prime minister in the coming days following the resignation of michel barnier. the embattled south korean president has lost the support of his own party chief was now calling for his suspension. i'm steve lai with the latest insole. —— in song. warnings that the nhs in england is under more pressure going into winter due to a sharp rise in cases of flu. hello there. i'm mark lobel. a warm welcome to the programme.

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