The Guardian

⚽ Latest updates from 1pm (BST) kick-off at Hampden Park ⚽ Scotland: World Cup 2026 team guide | Mail Scott This match is being billed by the wise and highly respected mandarins of the SFA as “The Big Send-Off”. We’ve been here before, of course. Though if a Big Send-Off is once again a precursor to, and karmic guarantee of, a performance like this … … you’d deal on it, no? I’d take it in a heart…

As a skint 23-year-old I did two weeks in the US. It remains a personal favourite tournament 32 years later You never forget your first World Cup, and the tournament’s return to American shores this year will stir vivid memories for anyone who attended USA 94. It was a curious and distinctive tournament, one that heralded the World Cup’s more expansive, commercialised future, while also seeming a…

As universities prepare to spend millions paying athletes directly, fears mount that Olympic and women’s sports will pay the price. An improbable figure could well stop it Female athletes and Olympic sports athletes, two overlapping groups that have long thrived in US colleges, are facing an uncertain future on campus. These athletes’ college prospects may lie in the hands of a surprising savior …

Two decades of disappointment followed Parisian nightmare of Lehmann, Eto’o and all that, but now a first Champions League title is in sight They left London in their thousands, full of hope and devotion, heading for Paris in the springtime, yet romantic anticipation lasted all of 18 minutes, which was when Arsenal’s goalkeeper, Jens Lehmann, was sent off in the 2006 Champions League final agains…

Updates from Saturday’s play at Roland Garros Fonseca fightback stuns Djokovic | Mail Katy Bonjour et bienvenue au jour sept de notre couverture de Roland Garros 2026! After Novak Djokovic’s departure in the match of the tournament against the 19-year-old Brazilian sensation João Fonseca last night, opportunity knocks louder than ever before for the remaining men, with a first-time grand slam cha…

Brighton’s head coach has led team to Wembley date with Manchester City despite losing his father four months ago Growing up in Brisbane with a big time difference to London, Dario Vidosic loved being allowed to stay up past his bedtime to watch a big Wembley final on television next to his father, Rado, before trying to recreate a great goal with him in the garden the following day. On Sunday, R…

After dramatic qualification, an experienced squad could progress beyond the group stage if they beat Haiti in their opening game This article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network , a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the tournament ki…

Undermanned side upsets finals-bound ACT Brumbies 21-19 Players come together to mark victory and club’s expected demise An undermanned Moana Pasifika have capped off their potential final match with a stirring victory, upsetting the finals-bound ACT Brumbies 21-19. But there were mixed feelings as players celebrated a rare win before coming together with staff to mark the occasion of the club’s …

Carolina bury Montreal with first-period burst Hurricanes reach first Cup final since 2006 Brind’Amour’s team ends years of heartbreak Rod Brind’Amour wore a big smile as he walked on the ice to join his Carolina Hurricanes for a photo behind the Prince of Wales Trophy. It took eight years, but the Hurricanes have finally broken through their Eastern Conference final roadblock. Now comes the chan…

⚽ All the latest pre-match news for PSG v Arsenal ⚽ Arsenal fans’ race to Budapest | Mail us here To witness a Champions League final in person, first you have to get there. And that’s far from straightforward. “Ben Boxhall is flying to Kraków with two friends. They plan to catch a bus from Kraków to Budapest at 5am on Saturday. The trio have not got a hotel booked in Budapest and, after joining …

The Fifa president’s biography talks about magic a lot – and no wonder. There is no other way to explain his utterly ludicrous proximity to power Gliding through time as if surfing a rainbow, you can transform uncertainty into something beautiful. People sometimes like to talk in general terms about the idea, the abstract concept of the worst book ever written. Probably this title should belong t…

The manager Sébastien Migné has never set foot in the country, but there will be pride, passion and no little ability from the Caribbean nation This article is part of the Guardian’s 2026 World Cup Experts’ Network , a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 48 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from three countries each day in the run-up to the…

As a boy in the apartheid era I saw footage of the Gunners beaten in the 1969 League Cup final – on Saturday I will attend the Champions League showpiece with my son I fell for Arsenal in the white‑and-black world of apartheid, where television was banned as a tool of communist propaganda and the club of my dreams was 6,000 miles away and mostly invisible to me. So it feels fitting that a surreal…

Coach Tony Popovic will take a final look at players on the selection fringe with Australia’s 26-man squad to be named after the warm-up game The World Cup might have snuck up on many Australians, but the reality of the men’s football showpiece will leap out on Sunday, take hold of the nation and not let go for a month. The Socceroos play co-hosts Mexico in Los Angeles’ historic Rose Bowl in one …

Tim Payne identified as least-known player by Argentinian influencer Campaign launched to make defender a ‘hero’ before tournament New Zealand defender Tim Payne has become an unlikely star after an influencer from Argentina called on his followers to unite and make the little-known 32-year-old a “hero” of the upcoming World Cup. El Scarso, a football influencer also known as Valen Scarsini, iden…