DAVID Beckham’s Inter Miami violated MLS budget rules to sign World Cup winner Blaise Matuidi, an investigation has confirmed.

The 34-year-old Frenchman signed for the American outfit back in August but was not confirmed to be one of the three allocated high-priced players that the league permits each club and was instead classified as a ‘target allocation money’ player (TAM).

Matias Pellegrini, Rodolfo Pizarro and Gonzalo Higuain were the three ‘designated’ high-priced players in the 2020 Inter Miami squad, meaning Beckham’s side needed to think creatively in order to get Matuidi on board.

They did so by buying Pellegrini out of his contract in order to get back in compliance with the rules.

And the league said Pellegrini is being loaned to Fort Lauderdale – the affiliate of Miami in the third tier United Soccer League’s League One.

“Matuidi’s compensation was above the compensation limit for a TAM player and he should have been classified as a designated player,” the MLS said in a statement.

“As a result, Inter Miami violated the designated player limit as the team had three designated players in addition to Matuidi during 2020.”

MLS said on Friday that final results from an investigation they are carrying out – including the potential for sanctions – will be announced in the near future.

Designated players wages do not contribute to the MLS salary cap.

Matuidi has now been selected as a designated player for the 2021 season after the buying out of Pellegrini’s contract and subsequent loan deal to Fort Lauderdale.

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Beckham is Miami’s co-owner and president of the club’s ‘soccer operations’.

The team finished 10th out of 14 teams in the Eastern Conference last season with seven wins, 13 losses and three draws.

They then went on to lose 3-0 to Nashville in the first round of the play-offs.

Former England women’s national team coach Phil Neville has taken over as manager of the club for the start of the 2021 campaign.

Miami begin their second season in the MLS on Sunday when they play host to Beckham’s former side LA Galaxy.

⚽ Read our Football live blog for the very latest news from around the grounds

Carrie Underwood performed her new bilingual song Tears Of Gold with David Bisbal on Thursday during the Latin American Music Awards .

The 38-year-old American Idol winner sung impressively in Spanish while performing with Spanish singer David, 41, during the awards ceremony held at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida .

Tears Of Gold is Carrie’s first-ever bilingual single and features both her and David singing in English and Spanish.

Bilingual single: Carrie Underwood performed her new bilingual song Tears Of Gold with David Bisbal on Thursday during the Latin American Music Awards in Sunrise, Florida

Carrie and David released Tears Of Gold in December along with a music video filmed in Los Angeles.

Their performance at the Latin AMAs was the song’s debut on live television.

David and Carrie opened their performance wearing black outfits and with their backs to each other as strings of light hung from above.

It appeared as drops of gold were falling from the ceiling as they delivered a spirited rendition of the uptempo pop ballad.

Spanish skills: The 38-year-old American Idol winner sung impressively in Spanish while performing with Spanish singer David, 41, during the awards ceremony held at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida

Dual languages: Tears Of Gold is Carrie’s first-ever bilingual single and features both her and David singing in English and Spanish

The audience roared with approval as Carrie launched into her Spanish segment and gave a loud applause at the end of their performance.

The 2021 Latin AMAs were hosted by Mexican actress Jacqueline Bracamontes, 41.

The awards ceremony broadcast on Telemundo also featured performances by Ozuna, Maluma, Ricky Martin, Carlos Vives, Eslabon Armado and others.

Killed it: The audience roared with approval as Carrie launched into her Spanish segment and gave a loud applause at the end of their performance

Matching outfits: David and Carrie opened their performance wearing black and with their backs to each other as strings of light hung from above

Tears falling: It appeared as drops of gold were falling from the ceiling as they delivered a spirited rendition of the uptempo pop ballad

Tears Of Gold competed in the coveted Video of the Year category, but the honor went to Selena Gomez for her De Una Vez music video.

Carrie will be back to her usual country music on Sunday when she performs at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Nashville.

She recently told CMT that she’s finally ‘feeling the spark’ and is ready to record new music after a challenging 2020.

Country star: Carrie will be back to her usual country music on Sunday when she performs at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Nashville

Three Stars

1. Tyler Toffoli , Montreal Canadiens. This signing has worked out better than Montreal could have ever hoped. With his two goals on Friday night — the only two goals in 2-1 Montreal win over the Calgary Flames — Toffoli topped the 20-goal mark, giving him 21 for the season in only 38 games. Going back to the 2019-20 season Toffoli has now scored 29 goals in 44 games since being traded away from the Los Angeles Kings. This has been one of the best free agent signings of the year. Montreal’s win gives it a six-point lead over the Flames for the fourth playoff spot in the North Division while still having three games in hand. Montreal has to be happy with its playoff chances at this point.

2. Jeremy Swayman , Boston Bruins. With Jaroslav Halak still sidelined, Swayman has stepped into the lineup and been absolutely sensational for the Bruins. He stopped all 25 shots he faced in a 3-0 win over the New York Islanders on Friday to record his first career shutout. He has now won four of his first five starts in the NHL with a .938 save percentage.

3. Nick Bonino , Minnesota Wild. Bonino had a goal and an assist for the Wild in a 3-2 win as they sent the San Jose Sharks to their fourth consecutive defeat. The Wild now have a 12-point cushion for a playoff spot in the West Division, and an 11-point lead over the St. Louis Blues for the fourth playoff spot.

Other Notable Performances From Friday

• Taylor Hall scored for the second game in a row to help lead the Bruins offense. Read more about that game here .

• Robin Lehner stopped all 16 shots he faced and Chandler Stephenson had a goal and an assist for the Vegas Golden Knights as they dominated the Anaheim Ducks, 4-0, and outshot them by a 51-16 margin.

Highlights Of The Day

David Pastrnak scores with 2.4 seconds to play in the first period to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead over the New York Islanders.

It took William Karlsson just nine seconds into the second period to score the first goal of the game for the Vegas Golden Knights.

Mats Zuccarello scores with a quick shot right off the faceoff.

Scores

Montreal Canadiens 2, Calgary Flames 1 Postponed )

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Mumbai will be eager to register their second win while SRH under David Warner will be eyeing their maiden win of IPL 2021.

Rohit said at the toss: “We are going to bat first. It is very hard to predict, looks a good track but we will only get to know as the game progresses. It looks a bit sluggish though. We have made one change. Adam Milne comes in place of Jansen. We understand the conditions and it’s very important to back your skills. Last game was good for us.”

Warner told host broadcaster: “We would’ve batted first for sure. All four wickets look exactly the same here. We know what we are gonna do here. We have been in this position before, we have made four changes. I can’t remember the names, gotta look at the team-sheet.”

Playing 11s:

Sunrisers Hyderabad: David Warner (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Manish Pandey, Virat Singh (in for Wriddhiman Saha), Vijay Shankar, Abhishek Sharma (in for Shahbaz Nadeem), Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mujeeb Ur Rahman (in for Jason Holder), Khaleel Ahmed (in for T Natarajan).

Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Rahul Chahar, Adam Milne (in for Marco Jansen), Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult

In the battle between captains Eoin Morgan and Virat Kohli, the Bengaluru franchise will hold a slight edge over Kolkata after its two wins from as many outings.

Known for his tactical nous and man-management skills, the World Cup-winning English skipper Morgan will be keen to bring KKR back on track after a familiar middle-order collapse cost them the game against Mumbai Indians.

After two ordinary seasons, the purple brigade started its campaign in an emphatic fashion, ticking all the boxes against Sunrisers Hyderabad. But against their nemesis MI, KKR middle-order collapsed in an inexplicable fashion to suffer their 12th loss from 13 matches.

Morgan’s astute captaincy in using his bowling resources was the highlight as KKR had bowled out MI for a modest 152. In his new role of bowling at the death, Andre Russell has taken six wickets at an impressive average of 7.83, but has failed to deliver with the bat.

With 14 runs from two matches, the big-hitting Jamaican has looked a shadow of his past. Vice-captain Dinesh Karthik, too, will be under pressure to deliver after his painstaking stay in the middle in the last game.

While Nitish Rana has impressed the most in batting, their star opener Shubman Gill has faltered after impressive starts, and KKR would hope the youngster fires in the coming days.

On a slow Chepauk deck where batting at the death has been a concern, KKR’s bowling has been a revelation with Morgan cleverly using his resources. Against the star-studded RCB who are yet to fire in unison this season, KKR’s bowling would once again look to make an impact.

It would not be a bad idea to bring in left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav in place of veteran Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who has bowled just the opening over in each of the two matches.

Boasting a famed batting line-up in Kohli, AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell and the talented youngster Devdutt Padikkal, RCB are yet to perform to their full potential.

But it did not matter much as RCB have won both their matches with new signing Maxwell holding fort in the middle and the likes of Shahbaz Ahmed and Harshal Patel making the difference in bowling. Bought for Rs 14.25 crore in the 2021 auction, Maxwell has bounced back from a poor last season in the UAE.

On a difficult batting wicket, Maxwell’s 59 — his first IPL half-century since 2016 — was the cornerstone before Bengal left-arm spinner Shahbaz turned it around against SRH in the 17th over, taking three wickets for one run.

In their first match, Harshal Patel’s five-for set it up before de Villiers’ 48 sealed a two-wicket win over defending champions MI. Kohli will be keen that his star-studded batting fires in unison against KKR.

Match date: April 18, Sunday.

Match time: 3.30 PM IST

Live telecast: Star Sports Networks

Live streaming: HotStar, JIO TV