Rayo Vallecano’s fascinating forward on his unique club, his musical passions and the goalscoring form that puts him among Europe’e elite An 11-year-old, second-hand VW Beetle with more than 300,000km on the clock pulls over on Clown Fofó Street in the heart of Vallecas. The music goes off, the Smiths silenced, and out gets Sergio Camello: movie aficionado with 156 films reviewed, part-time photographer, some-time drummer, Olympic gold medallist and the second top goalscorer in Europe’s top five leagues. Engulfed in graffiti, stickers covering the glass between metal bars in red, a single step up from the street, the small door into Rayo Vallecano’s ground is locked, but in 64 hours it will open for the first time this season. “It’s my home, it’s Vallecas,” Camello says. Forced to abandon their place, on Saturday at 2pm the tenants return. With the Madrid council declaring Estadio de Vallecas unsafe, unfit for purpose, Rayo’s home matches have instead been played in Leganes, out of the city to the south and boycotted by fans. Walking the neighbourhood that is proud of its social conscience, its community and its team, Camello can’t wait to be back again. And not just for the football; maybe not even for the football. “It’s the pre-game, the post-game, the people,” he says, passing the bar where they’ll be waiting for him after, same as always. Continue reading...

Premier League clubs, and their European rivals, left with a long list of absentees after a gruelling international break A four-match international break has presented a stress test. “The intensity of the squad, the athleticism of it, really, I think it’s designed for the elite,” said the Wales head coach, Craig Bellamy, on the completion of four matches in 11 days. Elite club coaches would disagree. The Nations League and the wider set of international games staged across the globe have been accompanied by a daily list of casualties, club officials viewing matches through their fingers as players pull up and gesture to the bench. Hamstring and muscle problems have been rife. Sunderland, for example, will be without Brian Brobbey, a key striker, and Dan Ballard, a defensive mainstay, because of strains picked up playing for the Netherlands and Northern Ireland respectively. Bournemouth, yet to win a Premier League match, have lost Alex Scott for up to two months. His performance for England in their 7-0 victory against Croatia won rave reviews, a young player taking his chance and outshining Luka Modric. It came at a heavy cost. A quadriceps injury that had been diagnosed pre-match worsened. “There was zero risk taken from our side,” said Thomas Tuchel. The Bournemouth coach, Marco Rose, is unlikely to see it that way. Continue reading...

Record try-glut in round one suggested all-out attack is en vogue, but maybe you can defend well and still concede tries in the modern game? After one weekend of the Prem season the feeling was we had crossed the Rubicon. A remarkable 52 tries, eclipsing the previous record for round one despite the fact that fewer matches were played added further weight to the argument – a criticism and a compliment – that the English club game is creeping closer towards a form of basketball. Then came round two and 41 tries. A sizeable number, certainly compared with seasons of yesteryear, but equally giving a sense that defences had their day in some cases. Sale’s gritty victory over Saracens was a dogfight, Leicester’s win over Newcastle wasn’t pretty and while Bristol ran in six tries against Northampton, their success owed everything to defensive steel. Continue reading...

Teams have always symbolized division within America. And the Fever have come to prominence during a time of dark political intensity It’s over for now, but no professional sports team spent more time receiving and drawing attention to itself than did the Indiana Fever this season. The Fever has broken, the team eliminated by the defending champion Las Vegas Aces for the second straight season, but Indiana succeeded in being the WNBA’s canary in the coal mine, embodying both the obvious and unintended consequences of rapid growth, while also allowing themselves to be a season-long distraction: part-time professional basketball team, part-time right-wing culture war centerpiece. Less than a decade ago, Atlanta and Minneapolis were praised for their unified political stances. Today, Trumpism has replaced social justice as the defining characteristic of the league – and as the curtain closed on the 2026 WNBA regular season, Indiana stood at its epicenter. The Fever were the most polarizing team in professional sports, known less for their basketball than their culpability in pulling the league from its old cultural identity as a Black/queer league into its current climate of political divisiveness – a calculated and dangerous path to popularity. This season, there was the basketball of the WNBA, and then there was the Indiana Fever, the league’s Maga-friendly option. This article originally appeared on Howard Bryant’s Substack. You can subscribe here. Continue reading...

* Manchester United midfielder was left out of initial squad * First leg of World Cup playoff is on Friday in Crete Sarina Wiegman heaped praise on Ella Toone for her positive reaction to being left out of England’s initial squad for their Women’s World Cup playoff against Greece, after recalling the Manchester United midfielder for Friday’s first leg in Heraklion, Crete. An injury sustained by Lucy Bronze, described by Wiegman as “really small”, prompted the England right-back to return to Chelsea and Wiegman called up Toone, who travelled to Greece on Friday from Spain, where she had organised a training routine during the international window. Continue reading...

* Cadillac driver rode between Malaysia and Singapore * Bottas says four-day trip helped him acclimatise Valtteri Bottas has revealed the details of an incident-packed 418km bike ride including encounters with snakes, being chased by dogs and the eerie atmosphere of riding through the jungle at night as the Cadillac driver cycled between Malaysia and Singapore this week. The 37-year-old is a keen cyclist and after a suggestion from his girlfriend, the Australian Olympic cyclist Tiffany Cromwell, he decided to take on the challenge of riding from the last round in Sepang near Kuala Lumpur to this weekend’s grand prix on the street circuit in Singapore, under his own steam. Continue reading...

From transfers to stadium works and even the training-ground dog, there is no doubting the Spaniard’s influence at the club If anyone doubts Mikel Arteta’s status as No 1 at Arsenal in the week he committed his future to the club until 2030, just ask Win the dog. The chocolate labrador who played a starring role in the celebrations when Arsenal were crowned Premier League champions in May has become part of the family at the training ground in Hertfordshire since being introduced by Arteta in May 2023. Kai Havertz, David Raya and Mikel Merino, who issues commands in Spanish and has spoken about spending time with Win when out for three months with a foot injury, are particular favourites. But, according to sources close to Win, a therapy dog trained not to bark, there is no contest when it comes to her preferred human: Arteta. Continue reading...

* Confederation president clarifies his intentions to staff * Canadian was eyed as potential rival to Gianni Infantino Victor Montagliani has told Concacaf staff he intends to stand for re-election as the confederation’s presidentnext year, which will rule him out of going up against Gianni Infantino for the top job at Fifa. The Canadian businessman is understood to have relayed the message to most of the 41 members of Concacaf, the North and Central American and Caribbean confederation. Continue reading...

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! The recent international break has proved to be a goldmine for punishment admin, nicely wrapped up on Wednesday night with the latest chapter of the Southampton Spygate saga. It sounds like a three-part Netflix documentary – and almost certainly will be one day – but for now, here’s a reminder of what went down; feel free to add your own haunting synth soundtrack … two days before the first leg of their Championship playoff semi-final, Middlesbrough staff spotted someone lurking on the perimeter of their training ground and the EFL confirmed “an individual associated with Southampton” was involved. Southampton won the tie and advanced to the final, but the storm kept building. After days of uncertainty and wild speculation, Saints were kicked out of the playoffs (and docked four points for the following season) and Boro went to Wembley. Their opponents, Hull City, threatened their own legal action, which by now we can safely assume is going absolutely nowhere. Continue reading...

After a lengthy international break dominated by the Manchester City verdict, the Premier League is back on Saturday. Football writer Ed Aarons is online now answering your questions Sign in or sign up to take part AutumnMoon asks: Ooh the hostility, the bitterness, the claims and counter claims about following the rules, about ownership models, about rightful positions in competitions will no doubt produce a febrile, toxic atmosphere at the standout fixture of the week on Sunday. Are you looking forward to Palace vs Forest? Ed says: Yes Oliver Glasner’s homecoming should be interesting to say the least! I can still remember being in shock when I saw that he had defected to Nottingham Forest while covering England at the World Cup and woke up the next day thinking it must have been a bad dream… The Austrian couldn’t have done more for Palace in his spell in south London, ending the club’s long wait for a major trophy by winning the FA Cup and then following it up with the Community Shield and Conference League. He was always destined to depart at some stage though given his disagreements with the Palace board over the club’s lack of ambition, although like most people I didn’t think it would be to Forest. I think the reception for him will be mixed with many fans wanting to pay their respects to perhaps Palace’s greatest-ever manager but others are sure to let him know their thoughts on joining the club that many blame for being behind their demotion from the Europa League last season. Ed says: Yes and it’s one of the quirks of the fixture list for which we so love football that sees City head to Anfield for their first match since the verdict was announced. I’m sure that the Liverpool supporters have something planned for Sunday afternoon, especially given their close rivalry with them over the past few years. It will be interesting to see how City’s fans respond but they are going to have to get used to being the butt of everyone’s jokes again after so many years of dominance. Continue reading...

A speech at Anfield in 2009 was met with boos but it led to a change in tack by Labour government and an apology from David Cameron Since dawn, visitors from as far afield as Australia had been laying flowers, scarves and messages underneath Anfield’s Eternal Flame. These Hillsborough memorial anniversary services were usually subdued and respectful affairs, with 10,000 mourners sitting on the Kop to give themselves and the families support on the most difficult of days. But on the afternoon of 15 April 2009, the 20th anniversary of the disaster, it felt different. There was an edge in the air. An hour before the service began the Kop was full and the numbers in the three other stands were starting to swell. By the time I had walked with the families from the meeting place in the Centenary Stand to our seats at the front of the Kop, 29,000 people inside Anfield stood to give them the loudest and most heartfelt of ovations. After two decades in which a new generation had been born and reached adulthood, the wounds of Hillsborough were still gaping, the anger still raw at the lack of admission of guilt from above. Continue reading...

* Teenager almost certain to leave despite fresh offer * Compensation for move to European rival would be low Manchester United have made JJ Gabriel an official scholarship contract offer, but remain at risk of losing the teenage forward for as little as £350,000. The prodigy, who turned 16 this week, stunned the club when he asked for his registration to be cancelled last month, setting in motion a scramble among Europe’s elite clubs for his signature. Continue reading...

Manager says he has made team ‘play-off ready’ since taking over in March. They now face Portugal in their quest to reach World Cup For seven and a half years, Michael McArdle worked in the construction industry while playing semi-professional football, studying for a degree in building services engineering and raising three young children together with his wife. Any leftover earnings he put into funding his football coaching badges. Eventually he took a big risk and decided to take “probably a 300% drop in salary” and commit to coaching, a life-changing moment that now may be leading towards a World Cup in Brazil next summer as the Northern Ireland Women’s manager. Continue reading...

Manchester City’s chair is key to the project of making Abu Dhabi a secure world power but his next move may be the sale of the club No one better understands the precarious tightrope Abu Dhabi walks when it tries to balance its relationships with western Europe while weighing the complex geopolitics of the Gulf region than Manchester City’s chair, Khaldoon al-Mubarak. He was eight when his father, ambassador Khalifa Ahmed Abdel Aziz al-Mubarak, left the family Paris apartment for work on 9 February 1984 and was assassinated on the street in cold blood by a Palestinian terrorist. And no one outside the emirate’s royal family could be more wrapped up in the project of making and maintaining Abu Dhabi as a significant and secure world power and the dominant member of the United Arab Emirates, a nation state still only 55 years old. His paternal grandfather, Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz al-Mubarak, was chair of Abu Dhabi’s Sharia judicial department and senior adviser to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, the founding president of the UAE. As such, Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz was the James Madison of the UAE (the founding father, not the Spurs player) in that he crafted the Islamic legal framework of the new nation in the 1970s. Continue reading...

While most supporters seem to want to get behind the club, some fear actions of the owners will divide fanbase Nicola Schofield, City fan for more than 40 years: One of my (million) concerns, as someone who feels angry with the owners, is if the owners’ strategy causes a split in the fanbase. I think everyone wants to get behind the club and team, but this is different to the experience of a relegation of the type I experienced in the 90s. We all shared that, and we stood by the club down to League One and as we came back up. This threatens to be messier, with those who may want the owners out (which is its own minefield) to those who will back them all the way. I think ultimately all fans want to ensure our club still exists, but I do worry at divisions this could cause and that might be hard to heal. Ben, season-ticket holder: I don’t think I have fully processed the news yet. I trusted the club completely and believed every word they said in response to the charges, so this has hit hard. I still think the FFP [financial fair play] rules aren’t fair and never have been. I know that won’t get much sympathy from other fans, and I understand why. Most of them have been waiting for this day for years. Whatever happens, nobody can take the last 15 years away from us. We lived every moment: Agüero in 2012, the centurions, the treble, Istanbul. Those memories are ours and no verdict changes that. Right now I just feel confused. One thing won’t change, though: whatever happens, I’ll still support the team. This is character-building, as my parents used to say to me. Continue reading...

Some of the biggest names in European football will bid for a franchise in ESL-style league, now due to launch in 2028 The launch of NBA Europe will be delayed 12 months until 2028, with a pre-qualifying competition planned for next year to find four temporary members to join the 16-team league’s inaugural season alongside 12 permanent franchises. The NBA is planning to invest about $10bn (£7.6bn) over 10 years in what sources have described as the sporting world’s biggest-ever startup competition. It is understood to have received multiple offers for the 12 franchises that exceed their targets, with prices expected to range from $500m to more than $1bn for the London franchise. Continue reading...

From transfers to stadium works and even the training-ground dog, there is no doubting the Spaniard’s influence at the club If anyone doubts Mikel Arteta’s status as No 1 at Arsenal in the week he committed his future to the club until 2030, just ask Win the dog. The chocolate labrador who played a starring role in the celebrations when Arsenal were crowned Premier League champions in May has become part of the family at the training ground in Hertfordshire since being introduced by Arteta in May 2023. Kai Havertz, David Raya and Mikel Merino, who issues commands in Spanish and has spoken about spending time with Win when out for three months with a foot injury, are particular favourites. But, according to sources close to Win, a therapy dog trained not to bark, there is no contest when it comes to her preferred human: Arteta. Continue reading...

* Extra investment agreed at latest WSL board meeting * Calls for fully professional match officials have grown Women’s Super League clubs have agreed to a major funding increase for match officials but the wait for full-time referees in the English top tier is set to continue until 2029, the Guardian has learned. The extra investment, decided at the latest WSL Football board meeting, will focus on enhancing officials’ education, analysis and physical performance, it is understood. Continue reading...

* Championship winners only 16th in new IMG gradings * NRL money contingent on London Super League side Runaway Championship winners London Broncos have been graded below even Barrow Raiders for next season – but they are still set to become the 15th team in an expanded Super League next season, the Guardian can reveal. The Broncos have swept aside the second tier in 2026, winning all three domestic trophies on offer after assembling a squad filled with NRL talent. Under the ownership of Kangaroos great, Darren Lockyer, London’s goal was two-fold this year: to dominate on the pitch as well as making a push for the top 14 in the Rugby Football League’s gradings system. Continue reading...

Premier League clubs, and their European rivals, left with a long list of absentees after a gruelling international break A four-match international break has presented a stress test. “The intensity of the squad, the athleticism of it, really, I think it’s designed for the elite,” said the Wales head coach, Craig Bellamy, on the completion of four matches in 11 days. Elite club coaches would disagree. The Nations League and the wider set of international games staged across the globe have been accompanied by a daily list of casualties, club officials viewing matches through their fingers as players pull up and gesture to the bench. Hamstring and muscle problems have been rife. Sunderland, for example, will be without Brian Brobbey, a key striker, and Dan Ballard, a defensive mainstay, because of strains picked up playing for the Netherlands and Northern Ireland respectively. Bournemouth, yet to win a Premier League match, have lost Alex Scott for up to two months. His performance for England in their 7-0 victory against Croatia won rave reviews, a young player taking his chance and outshining Luka Modric. It came at a heavy cost. A quadriceps injury that had been diagnosed pre-match worsened. “There was zero risk taken from our side,” said Thomas Tuchel. The Bournemouth coach, Marco Rose, is unlikely to see it that way. Continue reading...

Teams have always symbolized division within America. And the Fever have come to prominence during a time of dark political intensity It’s over for now, but no professional sports team spent more time receiving and drawing attention to itself than did the Indiana Fever this season. The Fever has broken, the team eliminated by the defending champion Las Vegas Aces for the second straight season, but Indiana succeeded in being the WNBA’s canary in the coal mine, embodying both the obvious and unintended consequences of rapid growth, while also allowing themselves to be a season-long distraction: part-time professional basketball team, part-time right-wing culture war centerpiece. Less than a decade ago, Atlanta and Minneapolis were praised for their unified political stances. Today, Trumpism has replaced social justice as the defining characteristic of the league – and as the curtain closed on the 2026 WNBA regular season, Indiana stood at its epicenter. The Fever were the most polarizing team in professional sports, known less for their basketball than their culpability in pulling the league from its old cultural identity as a Black/queer league into the current ugliness of the Magasphere – a calculated and dangerous path to popularity. There was the basketball of the WNBA, and then there was the Indiana Fever. This article originally appeared on Howard Bryant’s Substack. You can subscribe here. Continue reading...

Improvements to the car are paying off as the team look to lay the groundwork for renewed success next season The importance for Max Verstappen of emerging triumphant from the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia was writ large in the Dutchman’s pleasure at finally being able to drive a competitive car. In a ride with which he was comfortable and able to take to a dominant victory for Red Bull, Verstappen was in his element. With it came a sense of what might have been had he not been long out of the championship fight, but also what might be to come next year. The transformation was so marked because for so long this season the car has been a handful – the reason Verstappen’s title hopes faded long ago. That the team have come back to deliver a win in such emphatic fashion was no little achievement. Continue reading...

A speech at Anfield in 2009 was met with boos but it led to a change in tack by Labour government and an apology from David Cameron Since dawn, visitors from as far afield as Australia had been laying flowers, scarves and messages underneath Anfield’s Eternal Flame. These Hillsborough memorial anniversary services were usually subdued and respectful affairs, with 10,000 mourners sitting on the Kop to give themselves and the families support on the most difficult of days. But on the afternoon of 15 April 2009, the 20th anniversary of the disaster, it felt different. There was an edge in the air. An hour before the service began the Kop was full and the numbers in the three other stands were starting to swell. By the time I had walked with the families from the meeting place in the Centenary Stand to our seats at the front of the Kop, 29,000 people inside Anfield stood to give them the loudest and most heartfelt of ovations. After two decades in which a new generation had been born and reached adulthood, the wounds of Hillsborough were still gaping, the anger still raw at the lack of admission of guilt from above. Continue reading...

This long-awaited fight is happening exactly as intended: at the sweet spot where commercial potential meets a genuine absence of jeopardy The 1912 Olympic marathon was held in a brutal Scandinavian heatwave, and before long Shizo Kanakuri of Japan was flagging. His journey to Stockholm had been debilitating; he had barely trained and struggled to sleep. At around the 16-mile mark he finally gave in. Exhausted and disoriented, he stumbled off the road and into a garden party, where – according to his bemused hosts – he sat and drank orange juice for an hour. The next day, deeply ashamed at his failure to complete the race, he quietly took a boat back to Japan. In Sweden the mystery of the “disappearing runner” took on almost mythical proportions. Kanakuri’s name was on the country’s missing persons list for more than 50 years. Continue reading...

While most supporters seem to want to get behind the club, some fear actions of the owners will divide fanbase Nicola Schofield, City fan for more than 40 years: One of my (million) concerns, as someone who feels angry with the owners, is if the owners’ strategy causes a split in the fanbase. I think everyone wants to get behind the club and team, but this is different to the experience of a relegation of the type I experienced in the 90s. We all shared that, and we stood by the club down to League One and as we came back up. This threatens to be messier, with those who may want the owners out (which is its own minefield) to those who will back them all the way. I think ultimately all fans want to ensure our club still exists, but I do worry at divisions this could cause and that might be hard to heal. Ben, season-ticket holder: I don’t think I have fully processed the news yet. I trusted the club completely and believed every word they said in response to the charges, so this has hit hard. I still think the FFP [financial fair play] rules aren’t fair and never have been. I know that won’t get much sympathy from other fans, and I understand why. Most of them have been waiting for this day for years. Whatever happens, nobody can take the last 15 years away from us. We lived every moment: Agüero in 2012, the centurions, the treble, Istanbul. Those memories are ours and no verdict changes that. Right now I just feel confused. One thing won’t change, though: whatever happens, I’ll still support the team. This is character-building, as my parents used to say to me. Continue reading...

Jorge Messi wanted his country to fall in love with his son. That ambition was fulfilled during a brilliant international career that ended this week “What Argentina is doing in this World Cup is of a sacred order,” Brazilian writer Milly Lacombe posted at the height of the tide of anti-Argentinian sentiment during this year’s tournament. She was exploring the contradiction she felt around her support of Lionel Messi: “a player who is a God and a man who shakes Trump’s hand”. Lacombe highlighted the importance of acknowledging the complexities around Messi and the Argentinian team. How is it possible that Messi was not speaking out against the racist incidents we all saw around the Argentina team, she asked. “That’s why it hurts so much to see someone with Messi’s power choosing to make himself small,” she wrote. Continue reading...

The Test series shapes as one of unforced errors and modest scores with both sides unconvincing with the bat and relying on their bowling attack Lost among the looking back to Australia’s Test tour of South Africa in 2018, there lies a similarity to the team about to take on that challenge in 2026. The previous side relied on a primo bowling quartet of Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, along with David Warner’s power as opener and the middle-order ballast of Steve Smith. The rest of the batting was makeshift: Cameron Bancroft the recently added opener, Usman Khawaja with at that stage a parlous record away from home, and the Marsh brothers an entirely unknowable quantity at five and six. This time around, the same four bowlers have burnished their careers by a further 998 Test wickets, the proven batting still consists of one aggressive left-handed opener plus Smith, and Australia otherwise remain makeshift. Continue reading...

While it’s full steam ahead for Alex Scott, Lewis Hall and Myles Lewis-Skelly, others look likely to be left behind Thomas Tuchel’s original idea had been for continuity. The England manager wanted to build on the positives from the World Cup and he was minded to stand by the vast majority of the players who had been a part of the journey to the semi-finals in North America over the summer. His squad for the four-match Nations League window and the beginning of a new international cycle would not be defined by radical change. What was it about the best-laid plans? As Tuchel prepared to name his group in mid-September, he knew that he would be without a clutch of World Cup players because of injury. He then lost another handful after the announcement. Fast forward to the Czechia game at Wembley on Tuesday night – the final one of the quartet – and, after further withdrawals, Tuchel could count only 12 players who were available to him during the World Cup. He knows the train moves quickly in football, stopping for nobody. That flexibility is a prerequisite in his line of work. This felt like something else. Continue reading...

‘It doesn’t look like proper cricket,’ says Faf du Plessis as Canada’s Super60 tournament raises a few eyebrows Have you heard about Schrödinger’s six? When a cricket ball has spawned off the edge of the bat and flown all of 35 metres, is that really a six at all? How about when it comes in a hulking yet virtually empty 50,000-seater stadium in Canada, the ball smashed into the empty stands and kerplunking down the vast swathes of unpopulated seats to be retrieved by a clinically unbothered fielder? You might have seen some of the footage from Canada’s “Super60” T10 tournament in Vancouver this week, particularly a delivery from the Mississauga Masters’ Ali Khan that soared over the Toronto Sixers batter Kieron Pollard’s head and away over the lilliputian straight boundaries of Vancouver’s BC Place. For once this was unquestionably not a six but a five, a wide plus four: a six can only be struck off the bat. But the pertinent question was, what even is any of this? Continue reading...

Verdict has been a long time coming and the Southampton head coach has recaptured hearts and minds at St Mary’s “Hi Tonda, are you a cheat?” That simple, succinct, question cut to the heart of a matter that has vexed the Football Association all summer. It was posed by the Northern Echo’s Dominic Shaw after Southampton overcame Middlesbrough in the second leg of May’s Championship playoff semi‑final and proved the cue for Tonda Eckert to walk out of his press conference at St Mary’s. Although Southampton’s manager subsequently admitted to authorising spying on opponents, England’s football authorities struggled to decide what punishment best fitted an act some regard as heinous but which others fail to take seriously. Now, in autumn, we finally have an FA verdict, with Eckert given a six-week ban suspended until the end of the 2027-28 season, a £28,000 fine and a reprimand. Continue reading...

While it’s full steam ahead for Alex Scott, Lewis Hall and Myles Lewis-Skelly, others look likely to be left behind Thomas Tuchel’s original idea had been for continuity. The England manager wanted to build on the positives from the World Cup and he was minded to stand by the vast majority of the players who had been a part of the journey to the semi-finals in North America over the summer. His squad for the four-match Nations League window and the beginning of a new international cycle would not be defined by radical change. What was it about the best-laid plans? As Tuchel prepared to name his group in mid-September, he knew that he would be without a clutch of World Cup players because of injury. He then lost another handful after the announcement. Fast forward to the Czechia game at Wembley on Tuesday night – the final one of the quartet – and, after further withdrawals, Tuchel could count only 12 players who were available to him during the World Cup. He knows the train moves quickly in football, stopping for nobody. That flexibility is a prerequisite in his line of work. This felt like something else. Continue reading...

* Head coach pleased ‘everyone bought in’ to new ideas * Jarell Quansah says: ‘We can really dominate teams’ Thomas Tuchel believes England have unlocked a new level after moving forward with his tactical tweaks in the opening Nations League fixtures. The head coach wanted the players to retain their aggression, especially in the high press, to step on to the front foot and to harness the chaos often seen in the Premier League. But he has also tried to get them to play with greater freedom, to trust and follow their instincts more – while being alive to the need to cover for their teammates. The results have been positive. After losing to Spain at Wembley, England recorded three wins: two against Czechia either side of the 7-0 victory against Croatia in Rijeka. They have in essence guaranteed their progress into the quarter-finals of a competition regarded as a tune-up for Euro 2028, while putting a bit of distance between themselves and the heartbreaking World Cup semi-final defeat by Argentina in July. Continue reading...

* Two-time major winner is reportedly owed over £100m * Tour filed for bankruptcy after Saudi funding withdrawn Jon Rahm is to quit LIV Golf due to the “unacceptable” terms offered for the proposed relaunch of the breakaway series. LIV is going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings in the US after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund withdrew support at the end of the season having spent $5bn (£3.7bn) in four years. Continue reading...

Technical director held court at club’s training base, comparing rugby to winemaking and claiming interviews ‘steal my joy’ Brendan Venter began his long-awaited public appearance with head bowed, uttering one-word answers and with a general demeanour he would rather be anywhere else. By the end he had compared Prem Rugby to an “autocracy”, mentioned Ukraine and Gaza, and detailed an inspirational talk he recently gave at a school. Of course there was wine to talk, too. An audience with Saracens’ technical director and head of culture is rarely boring and the latest was worth the wait. Continue reading...

On a night where he equalled Peter Shilton’s England appearance record, Harry Kane did what he always does It is a very Harry Kane kind of thing to equal a record. Respectful, no ego, all about the collective. On a room temperature night at Wembley Stadium Kane duly did this, drawing level with Peter Shilton’s record for England caps, and doing so while delivering a performance of Total Midweek Kane. There were two neat, slick goals, one in each half, the high points of a 3-0 win against Czechia that all but guarantees a place in the Nations League knockouts. England need one more point in November to be certain. At which point Kane will have the chance to carry on equalling his own new caps record, humbly paying tribute to himself each time, saying, yeah, it’s an honour to share that number with a man like (myself). Continue reading...

Jorge Messi wanted his country to fall in love with his son. That ambition was fulfilled during a brilliant international career that ended this week “What Argentina is doing in this World Cup is of a sacred order,” Brazilian writer Milly Lacombe posted at the height of the tide of anti-Argentinian sentiment during this year’s tournament. She was exploring the contradiction she felt around her support of Lionel Messi: “a player who is a God and a man who shakes Trump’s hand”. Lacombe highlighted the importance of acknowledging the complexities around Messi and the Argentinian team. How is it possible that Messi was not speaking out against the racist incidents we all saw around the Argentina team, she asked. “That’s why it hurts so much to see someone with Messi’s power choosing to make himself small,” she wrote. Continue reading...

* American involved in disputed point during tournament * Gauff called out ‘insane’ amount of abuse online Coco Gauff said she had been left drained by the racist abuse she experienced during the China Open after losing in the last 16 to Elise Mertens. The American was dismayed earlier this week after an incident during her match against Chinese teenager Sun Xinran. The 16-year-old thought she had hit a winner late in the first set but Gauff had raised her hand to stop the point because she was distracted by flickering lights on the stadium’s advertising hoardings. The move prompted some boos from the crowd. The umpire agreed to have the point replayed, and Gauff went on to win 7-5, 6-1. Continue reading...

Improvements to the car are paying off as the team look to lay the groundwork for renewed success next season The importance for Max Verstappen of emerging triumphant from the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia was writ large in the Dutchman’s pleasure at finally being able to drive a competitive car. In a ride with which he was comfortable and able to take to a dominant victory for Red Bull, Verstappen was in his element. With it came a sense of what might have been had he not been long out of the championship fight, but also what might be to come next year. The transformation was so marked because for so long this season the car has been a handful – the reason Verstappen’s title hopes faded long ago. That the team have come back to deliver a win in such emphatic fashion was no little achievement. Continue reading...

* Eckert was charged by FA with misconduct * Southampton found to have spied on three opponents Southampton’s manager, Tonda Eckert, has been given a six-week suspended ban by the Football Association for his part in the Spygate scandal that landed the club with a four-point penalty and expulsion from last season’s Championship playoffs. The outcome means Eckert can continue in the dugout, starting with Sunday’s derby at home to Portsmouth. The German has been fined £28,000 by the FA after admitting its charges, with his ban suspended until the end of next season. Continue reading...

Nothing compares to sport’s contrasts, and few are as stark as the exits of two defining icons of the modern football era. As one continues to negotiate his grand departure from the international stage in a swirl of petulant rancour, bitterness and posturing, the other’s farewell was – up to a point – a study in dignified grace. Ignoring the somewhat jarring moment when an otherwise quite touching drone display lit up the night sky over Buenos Aires with an advert for an insurance company, Lionel Messi’s final match for Argentina was the perfect curtain call. If yesterday’s Football Daily was right in predicting that the South Korean draft dodgers will end up on latrine duties, it will at least give them a different angle on anticipating their colleagues’ movements …” – Phil Taverner. James Vortkamp-Tong (yesterday’s letters), could I be one of 1,056 to retort that Carl Simon totally deserved the recognition. Nobody does it better (or even half as good)” – Trevor Smith. Strange timing that Ronaldo’s headline-grabbing strop just happens to be in the same window as Messi retiring from international football. Probably just a coincidence though” – James Vortkamp-Tong. Point No 9: Mr Jesus agrees to polish my statue twice a day, while insisting he wouldn’t do this for the likes of Pelé or Messi” – Cristi Dan Levy (not that one). Continue reading...

* Demand for Springboks and All Blacks outstrips hosts * England lost 42-21 to Ireland in last Twickenham game England have been outstripped by South Africa and New Zealand in demand for tickets for the Nations Championship finals weekend at their own stadium in an embarrassing snub for Steve Borthwick’s side. Six rankings matches will all take place at Twickenham next month – two on Friday, two on Saturday and two on Sunday – in a culmination of the competition’s first edition. The grand finale on Sunday pits the top nation in the Northern Hemisphere pool against their southern counterparts. Second plays second, third plays third and so on. Continue reading...

From ‘the new Toni Kroos’ to the US’ next big hope, Cavan Sullivan, we select some of the most talented players born in 2009. Check the progress of our classes of 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 … back to 2014. Here’s our Premier League class of 2026 Continue reading...

There has been no new manager bounce, Ben Gannon-Doak is playing in an odd position and the wider plan looks flawed Scotland are staring at a third-place finish in Group B1 of the Nations League, which will have repercussions for their seeding in Euro 2028 qualifying. More striking, though, was the general standard of performance over Sébastien Pocognoli’s first four games as manager. Continue reading...

The 1990s felt like a golden age, but there are 21 British players in Serie A this season – more than ever before By The Football Mine What do Jimmy Greaves, Ray Wilkins, David Beckham, Paul Gascoigne and Kyle Walker have in common? They all made more than 50 appearances for England as well as playing for Italian clubs. While they are household names, the first Englishman to represent an Italian club is less familiar. Former soldier Charles Adcock moved to Padova just after the second world war having been spotted playing for the British army. By a strange quirk of fate Adcock never played league football in his own country. After spending a handful of years in Italy, he returned to England in 1953 where he played for non-league Peterborough United. Continue reading...

* Four-year-deal secures Spaniard’s future until 2030 * Title winner now among best-paid managers in the world Mikel Arteta has promised “this is only the beginning” of what he can achieve as Arsenal manager after signing a new long-term contract that will take his reign of the club beyond a decade. The Spaniard is understood to have signed a four-year deal that will secure his future until 2030. It includes a hefty pay rise in recognition of his success last season as Arsenal ended their 22-year wait to be crowned champions after three successive runners-up finishes. Continue reading...

In an exclusive interview, former Ipswich manager talks of his lasting affection for the club, savouring time out with family and friends and ideas for his next move It was on the Portman Road pitch, bathed in bright early May light while immersed in the relief and joy of a third promotion in five years, that Kieran McKenna realised the moment was right. The thought had flickered earlier in the season that this might be his final campaign at Ipswich, only to be pushed into the subconscious by the Championship’s remorseless grind. “But standing out there, I felt this was probably time,” he says of those moments after QPR had been swept aside and a return to the Premier League assured. “Another big victory, a full stadium, in front of my family and the fans. It was an amazing way to go out on a high.” Five months later McKenna has no regrets about electing to cut things short while the going was so good. The golf bag lying outside his garage speaks of a man enjoying the break and, more pertinently, of something bigger. His son has recently become interested in the sport and sharing those moments with loved ones, whether out on the greens or spending part of the summer travelling along the East Anglian coastline in a camper van, were among the biggest reasons to pause a soaring career. At 40, McKenna had spent two decades immersed in coaching; it was time to appreciate life’s essentials while continuing professional development at his own speed. Continue reading...

* Commission concluded in July threat level was low * Manchester City whistleblower given 10 days’ notice Portuguese authorities kept Rui Pinto in the dark for almost three months about their decision to end his status as a protected witness and notified the Manchester City whistleblower 10 days before it was due to expire, it can be revealed. According to documents seen by the Guardian, the special security programmes commission (CPES), which oversees Portugal’s witness protection programme, met on 8 and 9 July to discuss Pinto’s case. It concluded that the threat level against him was low and that the special protection measures were no longer warranted. Continue reading...

‘It doesn’t look like proper cricket,’ says Faf du Plessis as Canada’s Super60 tournament raises a few eyebrows Have you heard about Schrödinger’s six? When a cricket ball has spawned off the edge of the bat and flown all of 35 metres, is that really a six at all? How about when it comes in a hulking yet virtually empty 50,000-seater stadium in Canada, the ball smashed into the empty stands and kerplunking down the vast swathes of unpopulated seats to be retrieved by a clinically unbothered fielder? You might have seen some of the footage from Canada’s “Super60” T10 tournament in Vancouver this week, particularly a delivery from the Mississauga Masters’ Ali Khan that soared over the Toronto Sixers batter Kieron Pollard’s head and away over the lilliputian straight boundaries of Vancouver’s BC Place. For once this was unquestionably not a six but a five, a wide plus four: a six can only be struck off the bat. But the pertinent question was, what even is any of this? Continue reading...

The Broncos demolished the second tier, winning 26 of their 27 games, but promotion is not only decided on the pitch By No Helmets Required Two years ago this week, London Broncos were relegated from Super League, their ground had flooded and their owner had walked away after spending £24m of his private fortune. The club were soon asking supporters to save them. They did – and fans wearing last year’s away jersey listing those saviours’ names (including mine) across their chests were among the proudest people in the ground on Sunday when London thrashed Doncaster 78-6 in the Championship Grand Final. London Broncos have completed a second-tier treble this season but their fans cannot celebrate promotion to Super League yet. Instead they will spend this week waiting to see if they have made the grade – promotion being decided not only by gradings based on both on-field and off-field criteria but also the key decision on whether to expand to 15 teams. Continue reading...

* Former captain admits guilty verdict ‘doesn’t look great’ * But he insists memories of ‘many trophies’ will remain Manchester City’s glory years cannot be taken away from the players, despite the club being found guilty of all charges of breaching Premier League financial rules over a nine-year period, insists former captain Kyle Walker. City have appealed against last week’s seismic judgment of an independent commission that they broke rules between 2009-10 and 2017-18, with the club found to have boosted their income by a staggering amount of more than £900m. Walker spent eight years at City from 2017 to 2025, winning the Champions League as well as 12 major domestic honours. “Obviously it doesn’t look great,” said the current Burnley captain on TalkSport. “It’s in an appeal stage so for me to start commenting on the legal action … it’s not going to do myself justice or anyone involved in it. Continue reading...