The Guardian

The 154th Open starts at Royal Birkdale on Thursday with a host of compelling storylines to follow Scottie Scheffler won the 2025 Open by four strokes but the world No 1 arrives at Royal Birkdale having missed the cut at last week’s Scottish Open. The out-of-form American has claimed his fewest wins in a season since 2021, having claimed only one victory all year: January’s American Express, in h…

Many are in awe of the investment that Michele Kang is making into the women’s game. Others, though, are baffled There is one team whose transfer activity this summer has captured everyone’s attention. London City Lionesses, a club who finished in the bottom half of the second tier a little over two years ago, have stunned the women’s game by signing a flurry of big names, including the Spain sta…

An unlikely match ‘like a World Cup final’ was for some first proof of Yorkshire immigrant community’s love of cricket On 30 June 1986 the Yorkshire Post printed an invitation to a pre-match reception at the Majestic hotel. “Meet cricket club celebrities,” the invite read. “Auction, £10 (including buffet) .” But these were not just any old cricket celebrities, this was India and Pakistan, led by …

Stage starts from Vichy at 12.50pm BST/1.50pm CEST ‘I have haters’: Pogacar brushes off boos | Email Luke Tim Merlier made the time cut by three minutes yesterday. There are two categorised climbs today : the Côte de Billonnière is a category-four, coming soon after the sprint point: 1.1km long with an average gradient of 5.8%. The Côte de Billy-Chevannes is a cheeky 1.5km hill, that comes with 3…

The centre is embracing a friendly rivalry with his headline-grabbing teammate when they take on the Pumas It has been a long road for several of the players who went on last year’s British & Irish Lions tour to Australia. They are putting on a professionally brave face but for some the final weekend of the season cannot come soon enough. Factor in the travel, the training and associated other st…

Experienced Belgium right-back signs two-year deal Competing in Europa League was ‘big factor’ in move Sunderland have completed the signing of the experienced Belgium right-back Thomas Meunier on a two-year deal as Régis Le Bris’s team step up preparations for a second successive season in the Premier League alongside a Europa League campaign. Meunier, who has just returned from the World Cup, h…

Brilliant buildup play has often withered but control and flawless execution overcame France’s more variable chaos When the World Cup came to North America, with its final held in the planet’s biggest media market, the tournament was bound to fixate on stars. Fox’s coverage certainly enables that bias. Every game is billed like a boxing bout between two über-talented footballers rather than 22 pl…

L’Équipe laments ‘mentally sunk’ players iin Dallas Ouest France front page reads: ‘End of American dream’ French fans’s expectations of their national team had been at an all-time high: a semi-final on Bastille day, Kylian Mbappé a hero, a squad unbeaten. Across the country, bars had been packed with viewers spilling on to pavements, ready to crack open the fireworks ahead of hopes for the final…

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! Sure, an Argentina-England Geopolitics World Cup semi-final has a lot going for it . It’ll be 40 years since the Hand of God and, somehow, the first meeting between the two teams since an incredibly rare event: a memorable friendly, with Michael Owen’s late headers setting up a 3-2 victory in Geneva 21 years ago . In Atlanta, England supporters …

In July 1976, the 14-year-old Romanian becomes the first gymnast to be awarded a score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games 20 July 1976 Continue reading...

Match officials are enforcing tweaks to the laws of the game that have hardly been tested. The results? Drama, ‘mistaken identities’ and lots of confusion In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, the titular characters occasionally played a game known as Calvinball . The rules were amorphous. At any moment, something like a “30-yard base wicket” may become part of the game. Determining a “winner” wa…

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning , John Brewin and Philippe Auclair as Spain suffocate France to reach the World Cup final Continue reading...

⚽ All the latest news from a huge World Cup Wednesday ⚽ Spain reach final | Player guide | Golden Boot | Mail us World Cup Daily has dropped, and I’m listening to it as I type. Get your ears round it now. Lots to chew on, including Philippe Auclair claiming that for the first time ever most of the world is backing England in a match against Argentina, which may rouse readers in Glasgow, Dublin, C…

Look beyond the flashpoints and flare-ups and perhaps this is the greatest and most romantic of footballing rivalries It’s about the ball, right up until the moment it isn’t. On Sunday afternoon Godoy Cruz played Defensores de Belgrano in Nacional B, the second division of Argentinian football, and among the sea of blue home banners were two crosses of St George, apparently expropriated from Engl…

Former player found guilty of three assault charges against woman AFL commission says ‘violence against women has no place’ The AFL has removed Nicky Winmar from the Australian Football Hall of Fame after the former St Kilda and Western Bulldogs player was in June found guilty of three assault charges involving violence against women. Winmar, who retired from playing in 1999 after 251 AFL games, …