The Guardian

After covering changes for matchgoing fans , Gavin Willacy assesses how coverage has transformed for fans at home By No Helmets Required Super League celebrated its 30th birthday in style at the weekend. The main party was at Headingley, where Leeds hosted Warrington in a repeat of one of the league’s original fixtures. As Sky Sports anchor Brian Carney welcomed guest after illustrious guest to r…

Woods focusing on his health and wellbeing after crash Florida judge grants his request to leave the US Tiger Woods has turned down the opportunity to captain the United States at the 2027 Ryder Cup, the PGA of America has announced. The former world No 1’s decision comes after he announced he would step away from golf for a period to focus on his health and wellbeing. Woods was charged with driv…

No business case for offering financial assistance Former players said county ‘drifting towards irrelevance’ The MCC has ruled out buying or investing in Middlesex as their ­tenants at Lord’s begin another ­season in a state of crisis. A group of distinguished former players, led by the ex-England captain Mike Gatting, has called on the chair, ­Richard Sykes, to stand down because of poor perform…

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! Watching 10-man Italy blow their last chance to qualify for this summer’s Geopolitics World Cup, Football Daily couldn’t help but remember the schoolmasterly ticking-off with which the legendary commentator Barry Davies admonished a similarly depleted team of their predecessors 24 years ago. That particular iteration of Italy had at least made i…

Roberto Baggio proposed an overhaul of talent pathway in 2011 but it was never acted on and the national team’s approach now is just not working The decline of Italy’s footballing expectations can be read in the headlines that greeted their third consecutive failure to qualify for a men’s World Cup. When the Azzurri lost their playoff against Sweden in November 2017, La Gazzetta dello Sport defin…

Japan’s goal wasn’t Palmer’s fault and Mainoo couldn’t track back, but Tuchel will now see the scale of what faces him To see a world in a grain of meaningless friendly. It has become a habit to say you don’t learn anything from these games. This isn’t strictly true. You just don’t learn anything new. But it’s all still there, ready to be decoded like a set of sporting tea leaves. On a strangely …

Arsenal ended Chelsea’s perfect record in Champions League quarter-finals, their 3-1 lead from the first leg was enough to counter the 1-0 defeat in a frenetic end-to-end encounter at Stamford Bridge. Sjoeke Nüsken’s injury-time strike gave Chelsea hope but it wasn’t enough. The manager, Sonia Bompastor, was sent off shortly before the whistle as emotions boiled over. The holders will play the wi…

Some countries, like Kosovo and Iraq, have only just qualified after playoffs while most have been fine-tuning in friendlies “There’s more talent and potential than in 2022,” Kylian Mbappé said ominously this week after France had beaten Brazil 2-1 despite having Dayot Upamecano sent off after 55 minutes. He may well be right. For the second game of this window, against Colombia, Didier Deschamps…

Best-laid plans of the head coach fell apart with his likely World Cup leaders all missing during problematic friendlies at Wembley “We tried to build a football team in three days against Uruguay,” Thomas Tuchel says, unable to stop laughing at the end of the sentence. Ridiculous, the England head coach wants to add, although he stops short of that. But incredulity is the theme as he rows back o…

Manchester United’s Women’s Champions League journey ended in Germany as Bayern Munich struck with two late goals to propel themselves into the semi-finals, despite a spirited display from the English side. Marc Skinner’s team led on the night for 70 minutes after Melvine Malard’s opener but Bayern built up a heavy spell of pressure in the second half and eventually found a way through United’s d…

Former athletes like me know that in professional sports you can get away with most things … as long as you’re talented enough When the Chicago Bulls waived Jaden Ivey on Monday , after he made a series of unprompted anti-LGBTQ and religiously charged comments on social media, the move was framed as a response to “conduct detrimental to the team.” On the surface, the situation appears straightfor…

Slot: ‘Hopefully he can make his legacy more special’ Liverpool’s record signing ‘in a really good place’ The Liverpool head coach Arne Slot believes Mohamed Salah will “leave the club a legend” after announcing his departure at the end of the season. The Egypt international took to social media last week to reveal he had come to an agreement with the club to end the contract he only extended las…

Police investigate chants heard at Barcelona friendly Spain’s coach and justice minister condemn behaviour Lamine Yamal has criticised chants by Spain fans during a friendly against Egypt in Barcelona that police are investigating for Islamophobia and xenophobia. Spain supporters chanted “who doesn’t jump is a Muslim”, prompting Yamal to respond on Instagram. He wrote that the chanting “was aimed…

The former England and Tottenham forward has had to be patient to get his chance but he ‘was never going to give up’ “It’s been a long time coming,” says Jermain Defoe on his first day as Woking’s manager. Dressed in a sharp grey suit that he admits he is wearing on the instructions of his mother, Sandra – “I know she’ll be watching this, and she’ll be like: ‘You’ve got to look smart!’” – the for…

At 17, Cooper Lutkenhaus is the youngest world champion in track and field history – and potentially USA’s poster boy for LA28 Fire on the boards. Slack jaws off it. Last week, I was fortunate enough to be yards away from the 17-year-old American high school student Cooper Lutkenhaus when he powered away from a strong 800m field in Torun to become the youngest world champion in track and field hi…