The Guardian

⚽️ News, discussion and buildup before weekend’s action ⚽️ Today’s matches | Tables | And you can also mail us here With Burnley and Wolves looking pretty much certain to go down, the battle to avoid that last relegation place is heating up. Tottenham slipped into that spot last night following West Ham’s 4-0 win – and they face a challenging game away at Sunderland tomorrow. Nottingham Forest an…

Arslanbek Makhmudov shouldn’t be much of a test but Gypsy King and his battered old rivals are fading away “I’ll make this short and sweet,” Tyson Fury said in a brief video he posted online on 13 January 2025 . “I’d like to announce my retirement from boxing. It’s been a blast and I’ve loved every single minute of it. I’m going to end with this: Dick Turpin wore a mask. God bless everybody. I’ll…

Could I turn £10 into £1,000? I thought I could but was undone by the harsh reality and lost a little bit of my soul along the way Welcome to How I Beat The Bookies: My Gambling Journey. Yes, my extreme methods can work for you. But only in the usual way. Which is to appear very briefly to work and then not to work at all. First it is necessary to address the latest blow to English football’s oth…

Midfielder on the prank-fuelled promotion at Bristol Rovers that kickstarted his career, confidence in Nottingham Forest’s survival and modelling for England ‘It was a brand-new car as well,” says Elliot Anderson, grinning as he relives the Gazza-inspired prank that sticks in the memory from his fruitful loan at Bristol Rovers. It is four years since a reserved teenager from Whitley Bay walked in…

Fernando Mendoza will almost certainly go No 1 overall. But who are the players that teams may take a swing on after the big names have gone? You have to go back to 2000 to find a year in which fewer than four quarterbacks were selected in the top 100 picks. But in this year’s mediocre quarterback class, the fourth quarterback may not go off the board until day three. After Indiana’s Fernando Men…

Ladies’ Day at Aintree draws sellout crowd for first time since 2012 as Jockey Club’s social media strategy pays off Horse-by-horse guide to this year’s Grand National The Aintree morning was still young, and the temperatures frigid enough for a thick coat, when Hayley Bentley arrived at Ladies’ Day wearing only a bridal dress and veil. “I love racing and got my future husband into it,” she expla…

Despite a raft of absences, world champions have such depth they will begin the 2026 tournament as firm favourites If there isn’t a conspiracy theory out there about England having a factory that churns out world-class players then there should be. The Red Roses squad will be without eight Rugby World Cup winners because of injury, pregnancies and retirements for the Women’s Six Nations but they …

Jodie Burrage and Harriet Dart beat Storm Hunter and Ellen Perez 6-3, 6-4 Australia to miss Billie Jean King Cup finals for second straight year Australian team captain Sam Stosur’s fears of a “funky” upset have been realised as an understrength Great Britain sent Australia crashing out of Billie Jean King Cup contention. After the visitors claimed both opening-day singles matches at Melbourne’s …

Mariners unveil Ichiro statue at Seattle ballpark Bronze bat snaps as curtain drops at ceremony Suzuki laughs off mishap with Mariano joke Oh, snap. The unveiling of Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki’s statue had an unforced error on Friday – a broken bat. Continue reading...

It would be odds-on that the 39-year-old is the lowest-ranked player ever to qualify for the Masters at Augusta There are two Masters taking place this year, the one you’re watching, and the one you’re playing in. Well. Maybe not you, exactly, unless you can count your handicap on two fingers, but the best player you know, that guy on the school run who used to play off scratch, that cousin who w…

World champions England will be favourites to repeat last year’s grand slam but France and Ireland will eye an upset Coach John Mitchell Captain Meg Jones Last year’s finish Grand slam champions Continue reading...

As talks begin over fixing the controversial regulations, the FIA’s Nikolas Tombazis says changes to ‘specific aspects’ are needed, not a total overhaul Formula One has endured a somewhat turbulent opening this season under the sport’s new regulations. Amid the sound and fury of some driver dissatisfaction with the new formula and safety concerns brought sharply into focus by a huge accident at t…

One of the great lessons of the Masters is money only goes so far, with strict rules designed to keep out ticket touts Jeffrey Epstein’s web of influence stretched from European palaces to Ivy League universities and Wall Street banks, but there was apparently at least one little corner of the establishment that seems to have been beyond his reach: Augusta National. In July 2019, Epstein sent an …

Six birdies in final seven holes for defending champion Burns and Reed at -6, Rose, Lowry and Fleetwood at -5 After spending 16 years as the hunter, Rory McIlroy is relishing his position as the hunted. The defending Masters champion has reached the halfway point of the 2026 staging in a style that asserts his desperation to hang on to the Green Jacket. Elk, served as sliders in the 36-year-old’s…

Fans jeer as draw follows losses to Mallorca and Bayern Marseille go third in Ligue 1 as Paris FC stun Monaco Real Madrid had to settle for a 1-1 draw against mid-table Girona in La Liga on Friday, extending the hosts’ winless run to three games in all competitions and giving leaders Barcelona the chance to stretch their advantage at the top. Federico Valverde put Madrid ahead six minutes after h…