Emma Raducanu and Tyson Fury may not attend Sports Personality of the Year award ceremony

Emma Raducanu has shown ‘ruthless streak’ says commentator

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BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award frontrunners Emma Raducanu and Tyson Fury are not expected to attend December’s ceremony with the event likely to take place without the two British stars. This year’s awards will take place at Salford’s MediaCity on December 19 after initially being booked in for the P&J Live Arena in Aberdeen, Scotland.

Gary Lineker, Clare Balding, Gabby Logan and Alex Scott will all be part of the BBC broadcast that will take place in front of a live studio audience.

As always, the winning sportsperson will be crowned following a public vote, based on who achieved the most in the current year.

The winner of the award must either be British or reside and play the majority of their sport in the UK.

There are no surprises about this year’s frontrunners with tennis sensation Raducanu the heavy favourite to pick up the prize.

The 18-year-old put her name up in lights at this summer’s Wimbledon championships when she reached the fourth round in her first major tournament as a wildcard.

Yet the best was yet to come as Raducanu went on to win the US Open at Flushing Meadows in September to etch her name into tennis history.

In doing so, she became the first British woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since Virginia Wade at Wimbledon in 1977 and also the first British Grand Slam singles champion since Andy Murray at Wimbledon back in 2016.

However, while she may be the favourite, Raducanu is not expected to be in attendance on the night in Manchester.

That’s because as per The Sun, the teenager has just recently signed up for the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi.

The tournament takes place between December 16 and December 18 and while she could technically still head back to England, Raducanu is expected to remain in the Middle East to ramp up preparations for the Australian Open in January.

As for the WBC and Ring Magazine heavyweight world champion Fury, it’s no secret that the Gypsy King is not a big fan of SPOTY.

Back in 2020, Fury asked the BBC to be removed from the award’s shortlist claiming he was “the people’s champion” and had “no need for verification or any awards.”

His request was rejected as Fury threatened legal action, instructing his lawyers to write to the BBC asking for his name to be removed.

“Let’s hope they listen and take me off,” he told ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

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But the BBC refused to oblige, stating that the shortlist was drawn up by an “independent expert panel who choose contenders based on their sporting achievement in a given year.”

Adding in a statement: “On this basis, Tyson Fury will remain on the list for Sports Personality of the Year 2020. As always the winner will be decided by the public voting during the live show and it is of course up to Tyson if he chooses to participate in the show.”

This year’s shortlist, which is not expected to be released until December, could also contain Fury on the basis of his recent world title defence and brutal knockout of Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas.

Given the backlash in 2020, there is also a chance the BBC could avoid upsetting the Gypsy King any further, therefore ensuring he remains off the list

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