World Curling has addressed the cheating allegations that rocked Friday night’s round-robin game between Canada and Sweden, concluding that “no violations were recorded” during the umpires’ observations that followed the claims.

Tensions flared when Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson accused Canada’s Marc Kennedy of double-touching the stone. Videos shared online appeared to show Kennedy touching the stone with an extended finger after he released the handle. 

The two opponents exchanged words when Eriksson said, “Maybe it’s okay touching the rock after the hog line, I don’t know.”

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Kennedy then fired back, “Who’s doing it? I haven’t done it once, you can f— off.”

The two continued to exchange words, but it was Kennedy who used profanities to express his displeasure with the accusations. 

“Come on Oskar, just f— off.” 

World Curling released a statement Saturday addressing the controversy – both the accusations and Kennedy’s sportsmanship. 

Canada’s Brad Jacobs and Marc Kennedy in action during the men’s curling round-robin session against Sweden at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The event took place in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, on Feb. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

“Game Umpires are situated at the end of each sheet and physically cannot see every delivery infraction. However, when they are made aware of delivery issues, game umpires are positioned to observe the delivery for three ends. During this period of observation in the Friday evening game, there were no violations recorded,” the statement began, noting that video replay is not used during games and an umpire’s call is final. 

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The sports governing body also addressed two rule concerns, including “double-touching” and touching the granite. According to the rules, players can retouch the handle multiple times, but “touching the handle after the hog line is not allowed and will result in the stone being removed from play.” 

Additionally, the stone will be removed from play if the granite is touched at all during “forward motion.”

As a result of the allegations, World Curling said that two officials will be positioned to observe all deliveries beginning with Saturday’s games. 

Canada’s Ben Hebert, Canada’s Brad Jacobs and Canada’s Brett Gallant compete in the curling men’s round robin between Canada and Sweden during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Feb. 13, 2026.  (Tiziana FABI / AFP)

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Canada was also issued a verbal warning from World Curling for Kennedy’s language during the game.

 “During that meeting it was made clear to those officials that further inappropriate behavior, determined by rule R.19 would result in additional sanctions,” the statement read. According to the rule, Kennedy could face suspension if he commits another violation. 

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Arne Slot has said the “last thing” Liverpool need this season is another injury after midfielder Wataru Endo was stretchered off against Sunderland.

Endo — who was already having to fill in for injured players at right-back in midweek — is now expected to be sidelined for “a long time” with a foot problem. His injury is another blow for Slot’s side, which is now extremely stretched ahead of this weekend’s FA Cup fourth round clash against Brighton & Hove Albion.

“The load management is important because the last thing we could use right now is another injury,” Slot said.

“That is always the difficult balance for the manager, including his medical staff, what is the best decision to make every single time. It is also true that a player could get injured if he has to play three games in seven days. But it also happened many times that a player could play three games in seven days.

“So that’s the challenge we are having, but the most important thing is we have to train today, see how the players are doing, listen to how they feel and then make the best possible decision.”

Liverpool beat League One side Barnsley to reach the fourth round of the FA Cup and Slot acknowledged his team need to ensure the small margins work in their favour if they want to progress to the next round of the competition.

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“Margins have been so small for us this season,” he said. “Every single time the other team has a bit of a sniff in the game, all of a sudden they score. [Whereas] we need to put so much in it before we are able to score.

“I didn’t see that much difference in the last 20 minutes [of Wednesday’s 1-0 win at Sunderland] as I saw against City [in Sunday’s 2-1 defeat]. The difference was that the first time they arrived after us scoring it was a goal. Before that we were challenging them in their box to score the second. So the margins are really small.”