This summer’s controversy-laden men’s Fifa World Cup took on a whole new layer of jeopardy when the US, the main co-host, attacked Iran, one of the competitors.

The football tournament, hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico and due to kick off on 11 June, had already been beset with criticism. There were worries about logistics and infrastructure, calls for a boycott over Donald Trump’s travel bans, and fears about fans’ safety in a US where Ice agents have been sweeping into cities for violent immigration crackdowns. Fifa itself has also been under fire – for its president Gianni Infantino’s sycophancy to the US president, and its “strategic partnership” with Trump’s Board of Peace.

Now Iran’s participation has been thrown into doubt by the war in the Middle East. Fifa seems unwilling to grant the Iranian football federation’s request to relocate its US fixtures to Mexico, and Trump has already said it would not be “appropriate” for the Iranian players to take part “for their own life and safety”.

Will Iran participate?

“When Trump has explicitly stated that he cannot ensure the security of the Iranian national team, we will certainly not travel to the United States,” said Mehdi Taj, the president of Iran’s football federation, on the Iranian embassy in Mexico’s X account.

Moving Iran’s fixtures to Mexico would be logistically tricky but not unprecedented. But then there’s the issue of the knockout stages: if the US and Iran both finish as the runner-up in their group, they would play each other in the last 32. Should Iran decide to withdraw, they would be the first qualifying team to do so since 1950.

As the schedule currently stands, Iran’s first group fixture is against New Zealand in Los Angeles on 15 June. New Zealand told The Athletic that it is continuing to “monitor the situation” but is making plans to play Iran “until we hear otherwise”.

What about other Middle Eastern teams?

Iraq has a chance to qualify for its first World Cup finals since 1986 but it needs to win a play-off against either Suriname or Bolivia on 31 March – in Mexico. With airspace currently closed over the Middle East, it’s hard to see how the Iraqis can travel to their match.

The Iraqi team coach, Graham Arnold, has called for the play-off to be postponed, and the country’s football chief, Adnan Dirjal, has, has written to Fifa to explain the “difficulty of the journey”. In the meantime, he has made plans for the team to travel Mexico by private plane, according to the BBC.

What else is a concern?

There are worries that Ice officers will be deployed at US World Cup venues, for security purposes. And there is alarm about the wave of violence in Mexico since the death of a cartel boss in Jalisco state. Guadalajara, the state capital, is due to host four games.

Last month, the EU Sports Commissioner, Glenn Micallef, urged Gianni Infantino to “help safeguard fans”, said Politico. He has since asked again as violence escalates in the Middle East but said there has been “no further communication from Fifa”. It’s “legitimate” to seek assurances from a “public security point of view”, particularly as “one of the hosts of this biggest sporting event in the world is party to a war,” he told the news site. “Let’s say there’s room for more clarity.”

Fifa also has “a lot to answer for” on its role with the Trump-backed Board of Peace, said Micallef. It may have pledged $75 million for football infrastructure in Gaza, but Europe would “prefer to partner up” with organisations that “respect the international rules-based order, like Unesco and Unicef” on such sports-related projects.

Safety and security at the World Cup is a “top priority”, said a Fifa spokesperson. We are “confident that efforts being made by Canada, Mexico and the US will ensure a safe, secure, and welcoming environment for everyone involved”.

Max Dowman made football history on Saturday. Running from his own half, he fired into an empty net to secure Arsenal a 2-0 win over Everton and become the youngest goalscorer in the Premier League.

But afterwards, in the “ecstatic dressing room, the man of the match wasn’t there”, said Miguel Delaney in The Independent. That’s because Dowman “isn’t actually the man of the match”, but a child. The midfielder, aged 16 years and 75 days, isn’t allowed in the same dressing room as the adults, and gets changed in his own space near the referees’ room.

‘Never left alone’

Dowman “probably cannot even remember a time when he was not skipping past opponents with a ball at his feet”, said Sam Dean in The Telegraph. There has been “a buzz” around his name for years. He was scouted when he was just four; at 13, he became the youngest player to represent Arsenal’s under-18s; at 14, he was the youngest to play for their under-21s. He also played for the England under-17s at 14, and started training with Arsenal’s first team. Earlier this year, he became the youngest player in Champions League history and the youngest starter for Arsenal.

There are “clear rules in place” for minors playing adult football, said BBC Sport. Dowman has to change in a separate room from his teammates, before going into the main changing room for pep talks. The teenager, who is due to sit his GCSEs this summer, divides his non-playing time between a private tutor and school. One member of Arsenal’s security team is “assigned to stay close to Dowman at all times”.

“In the eyes of the law, he is still a child,” said former Leeds United welfare officer Lucy Ward. “He looks and behaves like an adult, he’s in an adult environment and scores goals for Arsenal, but the law says that he is treated as a child until he is 18.” Dowman is “never left alone with anyone” who hasn’t been cleared by a DBS check. His parents must give consent when he travels for an away match, and he has to have a chaperone. “He doesn’t want to stand out – he just wants to fit in – but these safeguarding measures are in place for young players.”

‘Right temperament to deliver’

Last season, Dowman was “so far ahead of his opponents and teammates that he was almost playing a different sport”, said Dean in The Telegraph. It was obvious he had “outgrown youth football”. If Premier League rules hadn’t prevented him from playing for the senior team last year, “he might have broken through even earlier”.

In January, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta likened the teenager to a young Lionel Messi. That was after Dowman signed a pre-contract agreement with the north London club (his father handled the negotiations). A professional deal will follow when he turns 17 in December.

“For all the skill, though, you need to have the right temperament to deliver” at that age, said Sky Sports. For every wunderkind who went on to a glittering senior career, there are “players who fell through the trapdoor of promise”.

“He doesn’t seem to be fazed by the occasion or the moment or the context or the opponent,” Arteta said on Saturday. “I’ve seen a lot of players with talent but at 16, very few that can cope with that level of demand.”

Dowman’s goal will “go down in Arsenal folklore”, said Sky Sports. The “touch of the head” to gain control of the ball, the “physicality” required to get past Everton left-back Vitalii Mykolenko, and the touch that sent midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall “to the shops”. It took Arsenal closer to their first Premier League title in two decades, but it looked like Dowman “had been doing that for years”.

“I just felt it was a magical moment for Max Dowman, a magical moment for Arsenal and absolutely it stopped me in my tracks,” said football pundit Gary Neville. “This kid does look different.”

North Korea, one of the world’s most secretive and patriarchal countries, dominates in a surprising arena: women’s football.

The hermit kingdom became a powerhouse after the regime invested heavily in the women’s game as a tool of soft power and propaganda. The youth team still excels internationally, but after losing the Asian Cup final to Australia in 2010 the senior team “all but disappeared from global competition”, said The Guardian.

Now, the Eastern Azaleas are back in the tournament, playing their opening match against Uzbekistan in Sydney tomorrow. Invigorated by a “new generation of youth World Cup winners”, they are “hoping to return to the summit of Asian football”.

Rise and fall

At Fifa’s annual congress in 1986, the Norwegian delegate “demanded the creation of a World Cup for women”, said The Guardian. North Korean officials, so the story goes, were “inspired”. They returned to Pyongyang with a plan to use women’s football as a “tool to reassert their collapsing power on the world stage”.

Like China, the government saw sport as an opportunity to “strengthen their international profile”. Under Kim Jong Il, the women’s game “became a proxy platform” for North Korea’s political agenda. The government introduced development programmes in schools, built new facilities and even had teams in the military where players trained full-time at the state’s expense. That investment “paid off almost immediately”.

Between the 1990s and the 2010s, North Korea had one of the world’s best women’s football teams, winning three Asian Cup titles and more trophies across the continent. Then Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011 and, like his father, made competitive sport a “key policy priority”, said Jung Woo Lee, senior sport lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, on The Conversation. Any victory on the global stage “helps boost nationalism among the country’s people”. As North Korea grew more internationally isolated, sport became one of the only avenues through which it could assert itself.

But in 2011, a major doping scandal “put the brakes on this success”. Five players tested positive for a banned steroid at the Women’s World Cup in Germany. North Korea had a “bizarre excuse”, said The Times, claiming they had been “struck by lightning” and given a traditional Chinese medicine of deer musk gland, which caused the positive tests. Fifa was “not persuaded”.

North Korea was banned from the 2015 World Cup, then failed to qualify for the Asian Cup in 2018 and the World Cup in 2019. Tightening sanctions also made it impossible for players to sign overseas contracts. Then, when the pandemic hit, North Korea shut its borders and withdrew from both tournaments.

The missing decade

During the senior team’s missing decade, the youth teams flourished. The regime has “developed a sporting powerhouse of young girls”, said The Observer.

In 2013, it opened a state-run elite training facility to develop talent. At the Pyongyang International Football School, young girls are “selected, developed and educated following a highly disciplined and scientific approach”, said DW.

The first generation of graduates from that school are the reigning under-20 and under-17 World Cup and Asian Cup champions, and have won five of these titles since 2020. They have “cemented their status as the dominant force in women’s youth football”.

Their success is “the product of a broader strategy aimed at strengthening national pride and boosting the country’s international standing”, said Lee. Domestically, the regime uses the popular sport of football as a “propaganda tool to glorify their leaders and also how great their country is”, Lee told DW.

Many North Korean media reports say that players under a communist regime “do whatever they can, even if they’re physically exhausted”, said Lee. “Then they directly compare those mentalities with capitalist countries.” When those athletes are exhausted, they are substituted.

“That psychological element has seemingly given the team an edge, but beyond a strong sense of patriotism and years of disciplined work lies the motivation of a life-changing reward.” The regime can give players living in poorer rural areas, where food and healthcare shortages are common, a chance of a far better life in Pyongyang. It’s like “winning a lottery”, said Lee.

It remains to be seen whether North Korea can qualify for the senior women’s World Cup in Brazil next year. But this year’s Asian Cup, said The Guardian, will be “the best glimpse yet of whether this old, unlikely superpower of women’s football is rumbling back to life”.

The investigation into a widely decried ban on Israeli football fans from a match in Birmingham last year has become a search for someone to blame.

The West Midlands Police (WMP) classified the Maccabi Tel Aviv fixture against local team Aston Villa in November as “high risk”, due to violence after a previous Maccabi Tel Aviv match in Amsterdam. On that basis, the Birmingham Safety Advisory Group (which police are part of) barred Maccabi fans from attending, provoking widespread accusations of antisemitism – including by Keir Starmer. It has since emerged that the WMP’s report referenced a Maccabi match against West Ham that never took place, apparently due to an artificial intelligence hallucination.

Chief Constable Craig Guildford twice told the Home Affairs Select Committee that the WMP doesn’t use AI. He insisted the match had been identified through a Google search. But today he wrote to the committee apologising, and admitted the inclusion of the match “arose as a result” of an officer using the AI tool Microsoft Copilot. MPs are calling for Guildford’s resignation.

What did the commentators say?

“Despite denials at two separate hearings, it turns out they did use AI to produce their dodgy ‘intelligence’ dossier,” Conservative MP Nick Timothy, who has repeatedly criticised Guildford since the ban, posted on X.

This admission is “hugely embarrassing” for Guildford, said the BBC’s UK correspondent Daniel Sandford. But that is not his “biggest problem”. The WMP is accused of “mishandling intelligence” and then “doubling down” on the decision.

Behind that is the accusation that the safety advisory group “pandered to anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian voices within the community”, said the BBC’s Midlands correspondent Phil Mackie. That has “created a huge political headache” for both WMP and Birmingham City Council.

Each revelation “proves more damning” than the last, said The Wall Street Journal. They “confirm what many suspected” last October: WMP were “more afraid of local Islamists than they were of Israeli fans”. “In other words, British police gave local Islamists an antisemitic heckler’s veto.”

“Central to the WMP case” is what Dutch police told them, said The Guardian. The WMP says this is what “led them to believe Maccabi fans had been perpetrators of violence” after the Ajax match in 2024. But Dutch police appeared to contradict the WMP’s claim. Indeed, most of the victims of the violence were Maccabi fans.

The “narrative” spun by WMP – that the Israeli fans were too dangerous to host – “has slowly been unravelling”, said The Spectator’s assistant editor Madeline Grant. Hilariously, a phrase which kept coming up during the WMP officers’ evidence to the HAC was “an absence of intelligence”. “Of the truth of that there could be no doubt.” They “make Inspector Clouseau look like Poirot, Marple and Holmes rolled into one”.

“Something is rotten” in the WMP, said The Telegraph. Senior officers “misled the public” and “produced false intelligence in order to demonise Israeli fans, while disguising the real reason for the ban: fear of Islamist intimidation and a potential riot”.

A “secret dossier” proves the police “covered up threats against Israeli players” by “Asian youths looking for a fight”. The team were “constantly in danger of mob violence”. Police even consulted Green Lane Mosque before the match – “notorious for hosting radical preachers”. Guildford’s position “now looks unsustainable”.

Birmingham’s SAG also warrants scrutiny, said The Times. It includes several councillors who have “publicly opposed Israel’s participation in sports”. More broadly, the situation “gives an illuminating and depressing insight into how power is wielded in Britain today”. Guildford should admit the ban was “the result not of real intelligence but intense lobbying”. He “failed to discharge his duty with due impartiality and should resign”. “If not, the home secretary must show him the red card.”

What next?

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who ordered the policing inspectorate to investigate the WMP’s handling, is considering the findings of the first part of their inquiry and delivered a statement to the House of Commons today, saying she no longer has confidence in Guildford.

Guildford, however, is “digging in” and will refuse to quit, according to The Times. “He wants due process, he won’t accept it,” a source told the paper. “He’s lawyering up.” Only Simon Foster, the West Midlands police and crime commissioner (who appointed Guildford), has the power to sack him – and Foster claims MPs on the home affairs select committee are “biased against Guildford”.

“Ruben Amorim has shown that there is only so far a manager can push it,” said Sky News. The Manchester United head coach was shown a red card yesterday, only 14 months after joining from Sporting Lisbon.

After Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Leeds United, Amorim “inflamed tensions” with the Old Trafford hierarchy, telling the club’s director of football Jason Wilcox and scouting team to “do their jobs” as he had come to the club to be the manager, not the coach.

Just like Enzo Maresca, who left Chelsea on New Year’s Day, “challenging the leadership in public has ended in the sack”.

‘Inevitable and predictable’

Amorim’s sacking was “inevitable and predictable”, said Sky Sports. The Portuguese was the 10th manager appointed since Alex Ferguson left the club in 2013; the United hierarchy was “desperate to give him a full season in charge before judging him” – partly because of the £12 million cost of sacking him and also to avoid the “recurring instability” of ever-changing leadership.

“Ruben needs to demonstrate he is a great coach over three years,” United minority owner Jim Ratcliffe told The Times’ The Business podcast in October. “We have to be patient. We have a long-term plan. It isn’t a light switch.”

But United’s results since Amorim took charge were “so poor, they never afforded the club’s bosses, or Amorim, the luxury of time”, said Sky Sports. Last season United finished 15th – their lowest since the mid-1970s – and were heavily criticised after losing the Europa League final to Spurs. This season, after spending more than £200 million on “attacking talent” last summer, the results have still been “awful”.

Despite “signs of progress” and a “charismatic approach that charmed supporters”, Amorim “must be considered United’s worst permanent manager of the post-Ferguson era”, said The Guardian. United are “adamant there have been no power clashes” and that Amorim was “sacked due to a lack of progress”. But the Old Trafford bosses “cannot have liked” his comments.

“I came here to be the manager of Manchester United, not to be the coach of Manchester United,” Amorim said. “I know that my name is not Tuchel, it’s not Conte, it’s not Mourinho, but I’m the manager of Manchester United and it’s going to be like this for 18 months or when the board decides to change.”

‘Bitter fracture’

Former United defender Gary Neville told Sky Sports that Amorim’s words were “something similar” to those of Maresca before he left Chelsea. Maresca said in mid-December that he’d endured “the worst 48 hours of his career at the club”.

The Italian arrived at Stamford Bridge from Leicester in 2024 and led the Blues to Uefa Conference League glory in his first season, as well as a fourth-place Premier League finish, “sealing a return to the Champions League”, said the Daily Mirror. “He followed that up with a run to glory in the Club World Cup, beating Paris Saint-Germain in the final.” As recently as November, Chelsea were second in the league table, and Maresca won manager of the month.

But on New Year’s Day, he “dramatically left his role” after “an irretrievable breakdown in his relationship with the club’s board”, said The Sun. He had signed a five-year deal with a further 12-month option, worth about £4 million per season, but the “bitter fracture” with the Chelsea hierarchy, including co-owner Todd Boehly, and confrontations over who should start games and substitutions, “left him feeling he could not stay in SW6”. A 2-2 home draw with Bournemouth “brought the final rupture”. Maresca walked out of Stamford Bridge without speaking to his players and forfeiting a potential £14 million payout.

Chelsea have “cycled through” four managers and two interim bosses in less than four years, and are now hunting for their fifth full-time head coach of the Boehly era. But Maresca’s decision to forego his payout means he’s immediately available for work. He is now, according to Sporting Life, one of the favourites to replace Amorim at United.

There’s no disputing that Diego Maradona was one of the world’s greatest footballers. But it’s still hotly debated whether or not the Argentine star’s death, five years ago this week, could have been prevented.

Maradona’s family believes it should have been. They are “demanding justice so that he can rest in peace”, said El País. A second trial of seven health professionals, accused of negligent homicide relating to the former footballer’s death at the age of 60, will begin in March, after the first trial dramatically collapsed earlier this year.

Died ‘practically alone’

Maradona, captain of Argentina’s 1986 World Cup-winning team, died in a rented house just outside Buenos Aires on 25 November 2020. He was recovering from surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain. “The news that his heart had stopped beating plunged Argentina into collective grief,” said El País.

“No one was prepared,” said CNN. In Argentina, the pain was “atrocious”. His death “managed to unite in desolation a country deeply divided”. Hundreds of thousands attended his funeral, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Adults cried like children”, and the sounds of their weeping mixed with the noise of disturbances – “shouts from the police and hooligans”. His funeral “resembled his life: it was chaos”.

Maradona had “dodged death so many times” during decades of cocaine and alcohol addiction. He seemed to have “indestructible genetics”. But “one of the most famous human beings on the planet” died “practically alone, under medical care that is suspected of being, at the very least, deficient”.

Seven doctors and nurses were accused of “homicide with possible intent”: pursuing a course of action despite knowing it could lead to the patient’s death. Prosecutors alleged that the medical attention Maradona received was grossly negligent. Gianinna Maradona, one of his daughters, said the doctors had promised “serious home care” but what ensued was “a disastrous charade”.

‘Treated like an animal’

The case against the medical team centres on the decision to allow Maradona to recuperate from brain surgery at home “with minimal supervision and medical equipment, instead of a medical facility”, said The Guardian.

The original trial “exposed chilling claims about the footballer’s death”, said The Sun, including allegations that he was “treated like an animal” by his medics. Chief prosecutor Patricio Ferrari said Maradona spent his last days in a “house of horror”. He “shocked the room” with a “grim” photo of Maradona “lying on his back with his bloated stomach exposed”.

The post-mortem report concluded that Maradona had died from acute pulmonary oedema secondary to an acute exacerbation of chronic heart failure. His heart, the court was told, weighed “more than twice the normal size.”

Maradona had suffered at least 12 hours of extreme pain before dying, one of the experts who performed the post-mortem examination told the court. His heart “was completely covered with fat and blood clots, which indicate agony”, said forensic medic Carlos Cassinelli. He had “been collecting water” for days; this was “something foreseeable. Any doctor examining a patient would find this.”

But, months in, the trial dramatically collapsed in scandal. One of the three judges had secretly authorised recordings of legal proceedings for “Divine Justice”, a documentary about the case that would feature her as the star. Julieta Makintach recused herself, and the two remaining judges chose to annul the trial rather than replace her. This month, Makintach was fired and disqualified from holding any judicial position in the future.

The defendants, who deny all the accusations, will stand trial again in March. If they are found guilty, they face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

Maradona continues to captivate Argentina. Banks have issued a special silver coin ahead of the 2026 World Cup, commemorating his so-called “Goal of the Century” against England in the quarter-finals of the 1986 World Cup.

“Please do not allow football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle,” said Fifa president Gianni Infantino before the last men’s World Cup in Qatar. That didn’t stop Qatar being accused of using the tournament to sportswash its poor human rights record.

Next up is Donald Trump, who is showing every intention of exploiting the 2026 World Cup – to be hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico – to push his Maga agenda. Ever the showman, “Trump will make sure he is front and centre at this tournament”, said Alexander Abnos in The Guardian – even “in spots where he has no business or where his involvement may be seen as uncouth or inappropriate”.

Host cities threat

Having claimed credit for securing the tournament for North America back in his first term, the US president has repeatedly sought to insert himself into the World Cup narrative since returning to the White House.

He has recently used “safety concerns” to suggest he may ask Fifa to relocate matches away from Democratic-run US host cities, including Boston, Seattle and Los Angeles. “The governors are going to have to behave. The mayors are going to have to behave,” he warned.

Moving World Cup games away from a selected host city would be an “extraordinary decision that has little, if any, precedent”, said CNN. All the host cities were announced in 2022 and they have already lavished “time and money” on “infrastructure improvements, security planning and extensive plans to host an influx of millions of visitors”. Trump’s suggested alternative, against the background of his sending federal law enforcement agencies into Democratic-controlled areas “to crack down on illegal immigration and crime”, is for the host cities to “invite the National Guard” in now.

At a conference with Infantino in the White House, to discuss World Cup plans, Trump also told reporters he would be “OK” about ordering strikes against co-hosts Mexico as part of his ongoing war on drug trafficking. “They know how I stand,” he said.

Peace prize

Trump has struck up a bromance with Infantino – and critics say they share the same megalomaniac traits. This week’s visit to the White House was Infantino’s sixth this year, and he surprised many by accompanying the US president to Egypt for the signing of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Infantino will use next month’s World Cup draw in Washington D.C. to award the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize, conceived to reward “individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace and, by doing so, have united people across the world”. Fifa have disclosed no details about the process for choosing the winner and, if Trump receives the award, as expected, “it’s likely to add to the perception that it’s been created in response to the US president not winning the Nobel Peace Prize”, said The Associated Press.

The timing of the award and Infantino’s “proximity to the president” have “raised questions about whether FIFA is adhering to its own rules on political neutrality”, said The New York Times.

“Indelible, sublime moments will still happen” at next year’s World Cup, said Abnos in The Guardian. “But those moments will be punctuated by Trump – eternally encroaching on even the most elevated of emotional experiences.”

The Euros might feel a little quieter after Sweden was knocked out at the quarter-final stage by England's Lionesses last night.

A group of Swedish football fans have been bringing colour, noise and a party atmosphere to the Uefa Women's European Championship in Switzerland.

The "Soft Hooligans" were formed after the 2017 women's Euros. We wanted to do something to "create a loud and inclusive culture around women's football", the group's founder, Estrid Kjellman, told London's The Standard. And, despite the use of "hooligans" in their name, the group is all about "good vibes and good vibes only".

'Like we were completely crazy'

Soft Hooligans have been "creating an atmosphere that's worlds away from past women's Euros", using "marching, drumming, and cheering, with boisterous show tunes" to support their team, said Jezebel.

Kjellman and her family were shocked at how "incredibly dead" the stands were at Euro 2017. When we cheered on the Swedish team, people "looked at us as if we were completely crazy", she told France24. "We joked that we were hooligans. And then we were like, 'But we're not like other hooligans, we're soft hooligans.'" And so the group was born, with a Facebook post soon recruiting others.

The group now has more than 5,000 members and, although it is not formally organised, the members come together under the same goal of loud and colourful support of the national team. You can spot them by their "drums, megaphones, banners and flags", including huge tifo displays featuring portraits of Swedish players, said The Guardian. The group's "core values", said France24, are that "everyone should feel welcome".

'A long way to go'

Soft Hooligans has not been without its detractors, facing "mockery online over its name" as well as being "ridiculed for not following the so-called norms of supporter culture", said The Guardian. But the group's swelling ranks mirror the rising interest in women's football, with a "record-breaking number of applications for tickets from Swedish fans for the Euros", up 70% from the last tournament in 2022.

There is still some way to go before interest in women's football reaches parity with men's football, though. Only between 11% and 20% of people surveyed across a selection of six European countries said they were interested in women's football, according to a recent YouGov poll, compared with between 32% and 40% who said they had an interest in football in general.

Kjellman agrees that women's football is "still very marginalised" but she remains "optimistic about younger generations", said France 24. "Women's football is much more accepted today," she said, and the "culture in the stands is also a big part of making it more and more interesting to go to women's football matches".

The one-year countdown to the Fifa World Cup 26 begins today and the biggest men's football tournament on the planet is already beset with controversy.

The 23rd World Cup will be co-hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada, with America taking the lion's share of the venues. But Donald Trump's recent travel ban on citizens of 12 countries, as well as his attacks on the two co-hosts and the intensifying immigration raids, have created immense uncertainty about safety and logistics. And with Fifa boss Gianni Infantino, an attendee at Trump's inauguration, announcing an expanded format and an unprecedented half-time musical show during the final, it's being dubbed the "Maga World Cup".

'The Donald Trump World Cup'

The US administration's new travel policy does make exceptions for "any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, travelling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event". But there are no exceptions for travelling fans from the "banned" countries. And, for other fans, there are widespread concerns about long wait times for foreign visitor visas, the impact of the administration's swingeing cuts to federal departments, and crumbling public transport in host cities.

It's clear that Infantino has "fully draped the tournament around one of his favourite strongmen", said Leander Schaerlaeckens, a lecturer in sports media, in The Guardian. The 2026 World Cup will be "leveraged for the glorification of a leader to a degree not seen since Benito Mussolini dominated the 1934 World Cup in Italy". This tournament will "be remembered as The Donald Trump World Cup (trademark pending)".

England and Wales are halfway through their qualifiers while Scotland and Northern Ireland are yet to start, so it remains to be seen which home nations will make it to the World Cup. But yesterday, in a friendly match, England were beaten 3-1 by Senegal: their first loss to an African team in 22 matches. New coach Thomas Tuchel "felt the full fury" of supporters after the "embarrassing defeat" said the BBC's chief football writer Phil McNulty. England, quarter-finalists in the 2022 World Cup, were "abysmal" and, if that performance is an "realistic indicator" of their hopes next summer, Tuchel will "need to conjure up a miracle".

'Logistical headaches', 'meaningless games'

All the teams who qualify will already face one difficulty in the US, said The Independent's chief football writer Miguel Delaney. The "absurd" size of the tournament, taking place across three geographical zones (west, central and eastern), means "logistical headaches" for teams looking for a base with training facilities.

And the tournament format could be an even bigger headache. There will be 48 teams playing, split into 12 groups of four. The first 17 days of the almost six-week tournament will just be matches in those 12 groups; only after that will the 48 teams be narrowed to 32, so "70% of the tournament will be spent eliminating a third of the field". There is "a genuine danger everyone will be fatigued by the quarter-finals."

Every World Cup expansion since the 1930s has come under similar criticism, and there are certainly advantages for the smaller countries who manage to qualify. But all the extra matches mirror the wider problem of "congestion" in the modern football calendar, and the rise of "so many meaningless games, or competitive games where everyone is shattered".

Some senior industry figures are "openly comparing" Fifa to Disney, which flooded the market with more and more films from franchises like Marvel and Star Wars: successful at first but ultimately diluting the content – and the profits. "Somehow," one senior football source told the paper, "Infantino has made football's premium tournament worse. It's going to be an absolute mess."

Everton's motto proudly declares that "nothing but the best is good enough", said The Guardian. The Premier League club's decision to move to a "sparkling new stadium" at Liverpool's Bramley-Moore Dock is an ambitious attempt to live up to those words.

After 133 years at nearby Goodison Park, the men's team will on Sunday play their final match at the ground, which will become home to Everton's women's team. The move brings hopes for the "birth of a new club", after years spent languishing in mid-table or worse in the Premier League.

'Catalyst for regeneration'

A new stadium has become "akin to a financial free kick" for clubs, said The Guardian, promising not only increased capacity for loyal fans, but "chunky revenue streams for decades to come".

For Everton, such plans are already in the works, said Liverpool's The Post. The "52,888-seater behemoth" is already being talked about as a venue for non-sporting events such as concerts and conferences. That income could help with everything from "signing footballers to new contracts" for existing players.

The club forecasts that the Bramley-Moore Dock ground will bring a "£1 billion boost to the city's economy", said Sky Sports, "and provide up to 15,000 jobs for local people (12,000 during the construction phase)". It estimates that 1.4 million people will visit the city each year to attend matches there.

But that ambition comes with a cost. Liverpool was stripped of its Unesco World Heritage status in 2021 because of the recent development along the city's historic waterfront, which includes Everton's new stadium.

The club's near neighbours Liverpool chose to scrap plans to explore the "profitable opportunites" offered by a new stadium in favour of substantial redevelopment of their existing ground at Anfield, said Football Ground Map. In so doing, they chose the best of both worlds: Anfield retained its reputation as a football "fortress" while the additional investment cemented a future promising "sustained success".

'Glory of Goodison Park'

But while the "commercial reasoning" behind abandoning one's "ancestral home" is hard to ignore, it's unlikely fans will find the "glory of Goodison Park" elsewhere, said former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy in the Daily Mail.

History offers cautionary tales. West Ham's transfer from Upton Park to the London Stadium in 2016 made big promises but delivered a "very dull atmosphere", said The Athletic. The nostalgic aroma of "onions, burgers and chips" was replaced by a "sanitised" and "apathetic" experience for fans.

Arsenal's challenges were similar, as a move from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium in 2006 was supposed to usher in a new era of dominance. But as the manager at the time, Arsène Wenger, later admitted, "we left our soul at Highbury", said ESPN in 2020.

Everton will be acutely aware of these pitfalls. But whether its brand new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock will be an "asset or albatross" remains to be seen, said The Post.

"Move over Sir Alex," said Anfield great Jamie Carragher in The Telegraph, there's now "no denying Liverpool are England's greatest club".

With Arne Slot's Reds clinching a record-equalling 20th title in the Dutch manager's first season at Anfield, Liverpool now sit alongside long-time rivals Manchester United as England's most prolific league winners.

After decades in the wilderness following their "relentless winning spree" from the 1970s to 1990, Liverpool's loyal supporters know the "massive symbolic importance" of this triumph can't be overstated.

'Seamless fit'

This season belongs to Slot, whose "educationist approach" to coaching was a stark contrast to his charismatic predecessor Jürgen Klopp, said The Guardian.

Slot put the emphasis on reflection and analysis, and often sparked "immediate and vast improvements in the second half" of matches. Even in losses – there have only been two in the Premier League so far – Slot is "level-headed and refreshingly honest", bringing "coolness" to the squad. This, paired with his "analytical mind", said The Independent, provided the "seamless fit" Liverpool were looking for.

What's more, Slot was able to win the league title "without a single major signing". Building on the success of Klopp, the coach deployed "clever tactical tweaks" to enhance the squad he inherited. Training sessions were rescheduled with an "earlier reporting time of 9.15am", with "compulsory" pre-session team breakfasts, said Sky News. Slot "bedded in his beliefs" from the moment he took the reins.

'Collegiate approach'

Of course, the players themselves have also been instrumental, said The Times, displaying a "collegiate approach which cannot be underplayed".

Mohamed Salah, already a prolific goalscorer, has "scaled new heights" this season, standing out with "preparation, professionalism and performance". And it is Slot's individual training sessions that seem to have drastically "reinvigorated" the player.

Alongside him, captain Virgil Van Dijk enjoyed a "renaissance season", said Caught Offside. After a "dip in form" in recent seasons, Slot's coaching appears to have returned the centre-back to his "dominant best".

But it was the team's midfield that truly "surprised this season", with players such as Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister providing an "energetic, technically gifted engine room" to ensure Liverpool's success.

With the league title sewn up, Liverpool's focus is now on new player recruitment as they hope to "go into overdrive this summer", said BBC Sport. The ultimate aim? Add yet "more power to a title-winning side".

The last English men's football manager to lift a trophy above his head at Wembley was Harry Redknapp, when he won the FA Cup with Portsmouth in 2008. Until yesterday – when Eddie Howe's Newcastle beat Liverpool to take the Carabao Cup.

Howe "pulled off something truly stunning", and the reverberations of his astonishing tenure at St James' Park will "echo through history", said Luke Edwards in The Telegraph. But the Buckinghamshire-born manager's triumph has once again turned attention towards a baffling question: where have all English football's "home-grown" managers gone?

'The best, no matter where they're from'

Eddie Howe is one of only two English managers in Premier League football, alongside Graham Potter at West Ham – although former Northern Ireland youth player Kieran McKenna, who coaches Ipswich, was born in England, and Everton are managed by Scottish-born David Moyes.

The Premier League "is not really an English league but a global league that happens to be in England", said Miguel Delaney in The Independent. The "ownership of the clubs is international" and, just as the players are now drawn from all over the world, so are the managers because the owners "want the best coaches, no matter where they're from".

The failure of top-drawer English players to evolve into the next generation of managers is also significant, said Ben Littlemore on Transfermarkt. With former players like Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard all turning their hand to management, England "should really be blessed" with home-grown managers. But this so-called "golden generation" of coaches has "struggled for success".

English football's "coaching incentives and methods" are behind those of their European counterparts". Even at the entry level, coaching qualifications are far more expensive in the UK than they are on the continent, and only available through a "handful" of hugely-oversubscribed courses, meaning that European countries have a much, much bigger pool of qualified coaches to draw from.

'Poster boy for success'

There is a "glaring absence of elite native coaches coming through" the English system, said The Standard. And that couldn't have been underlined more than by the recent appointment of German coach Thomas Tuchel to manage England's national side.

The "infatuation with foreign coaches" and a refusal to give a chance to "so many good ones of our own" is difficult to understand, said Harry Redknapp in The Sun. And now we're in a "catch-22 classic", said the Daily Mail: the perception that English managers "don't win major trophies" means they don't secure the best jobs, and "without the best jobs, it's impossible to win major trophies".

But perhaps the weekend's Newcastle victory is the moment the tide starts to turn. In a Premier League "flooded with more fashionable foreign coaches", home-grown Eddie Howe has now become the "poster boy for success", said Edwards in The Telegraph.

Manchester United have unveiled plans for a new £2 billion stadium that will be "the Wembley of the North" – and a sign of the club's ambition to be at the pinnacle of the footballing world, despite its current poor form on the pitch.

The "iconic" 100,000-seater stadium, designed by Norman Foster, will be built on a car park next to the team's current Old Trafford stadium. It will be to Manchester what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris, the club claims, and will pump £7.3 billion a year into the local economy, creating 92,000 jobs and more than 17,000 new homes.

And yet the massive project is a "risk", admitted Omar Berrada, United's chief executive, given the need to rebuild a team currently languishing at 14th place in the Premier League, and a club that's £1 billion in debt and laying off 450 staff.

Going 'bust' by Christmas

"New Trafford" is the brainchild of Jim Ratcliffe, Manchester United's minority shareholder, who, only earlier this week, was trying to justify redundancies and other backroom cost savings, such as cutting free staff lunches, by claiming the club was at risk of going "bust" by Christmas.

Ratcliffe's Ineos organisation took control of the club's sporting operations just over a year ago and "have wasted little time in making their presence felt", said The Athletic.

There "have been highs" in Ratcliffe's reign – United won the FA Cup last May – but there have also been "huge challenges", among them "a sacked manager, mass redundancies, fan protests and a team enduring its worst Premier League season".

While it is true United that "do have a cash problem", said The Athletic, Ratcliffe's statements "stretch credulity in the extreme".

No evidence was produced to support his claims, said Barney Ronay in The Guardian. "In reality, Manchester United are not going bust if you don't sack the tea lady." The 72-year-old petrochemicals billionaire is one of the richest men in Britain, "who keeps saying he's a fan" and could bail the club out. But now he is saying, "Go bust or do it my way." This is "basically a threat."

'Has to be matched by progress on the field'

What isn't in dispute is the club's current £1 billion debt, including £300 million in outstanding transfer fees. So, it is unclear how United will finance its ambitious new stadium plans.

Public money "could be provided to address infrastructure improvements and other developments in or around the area", said The Telegraph's James Ducker. Indeed, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves confirmed today that she will be "championing" the project. But raising the funding for the stadium itself will fall squarely on the club.

Even if United manage to finance and complete the build in five years, as planned, recent Premier League history has shown that a new stadium is far from a guarantee of footballing success. Arsenal, Tottenham and Everton have all made the move to a new ground, and found that the financial constraints severely hamper squad recruitment in subsequent years.

But, among rival clubs, United are in a league of their own, "irrespective of a decade of decay and their current playing malaise", said Simon Jordan in the Daily Mail. Past success has given them "unsurpassed recognition" worldwide, so, a "new all-singing HQ to reflect their aura" can be seen as a necessity if they're to stay as one of football's "market leaders".

Ratcliffe will know that building a stadium "has to be matched by progress on the field". For most teams, "such an ambitious project would be a fiercely challenging prospect because of over-reach". But, for Manchester United, "it's an opportunity". In fact, it could be a "vital game-changer for the whole club".

What a depressing spectacle is the melodrama now playing at Spain's National Court, said Fernando Palmero in El Mundo (Madrid). Its focus is Luis Rubiales, former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), who faces up to two-and-a-half years in jail for sexual assault and coercion. His horrific crime? Planting a kiss on footballer Jenni Hermoso as they celebrated Spain's victory at the 2023 Women's World Cup.

Rubiales says it was an "act of affection" to which she had consented; Hermoso says the kiss was non-consensual, and that Rubiales and three other RFEF officials then tried to pressure her into publicly defending him. "That the entire judicial and media machinery is focused on whether a kiss was stolen or not" is proof of something deeply wrong in our society. "Spanish institutions have been poisoned by the pernicious gender ideology introduced by the progressive coalition government" – as if Spain is a misogynistic dystopia, rather than a liberal country where "women and men have the same rights".

It "saddens me", said Carla de La Lá in La Razón (Madrid). I thought feminism was about empowerment; listen to Hermoso and you'd think women are too "fragile" and too "vulnerable" to sustain a mere peck on the mouth during a moment of national jubilation. Clearly, "being a victim is the new black": while Rubiales is facing jail for his transgression, Hermoso is living her best life, flitting from TV shows to PR events where she is lauded as a feminist icon. I can only imagine what victims of serious sexual trauma must think.

"It was a little kiss", people keep saying, said Ana Requena Aguilar on elDiario.es (Madrid), "a silly thing, a joke". And it's true: the act in itself probably wasn't deeply traumatising. But then, do we really want to live in a society where women are treated as "beings whose personal space and body can be crossed without consequences"?

This isn't really about the kiss, said Jordi Gracia in El País (Madrid). It's about calling out "the chauvinist arrogance at the heart of male power in Spanish football". Female footballers have had to fight for decades for recognition in the game. "Not long ago they did not exist": there were no competitions, no broadcasts of their matches, no interviews. Eventually, the boy's club running Spanish football "admitted women to the party": clearly though, those men believed they deserved a reward for such good behaviour – to wit, being able to treat female footballers however they liked. That chauvinist arrogance is now on trial.

Men's football megastar Cristiano Ronaldo turns 40 today but shows no signs of slowing down.

His age – practically over the hill for a professional footballer – has done nothing to "temper his competitive zeal" or quell his "unrelenting drive" to go down in history as the best player the sport has ever seen, said The Athletic.

Despite playing outside Europe at Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, Ronaldo, the highest-paid footballer in the world, is "quite possibly the most famous person in the world", too. His star status is so supreme, that when he does finally hang up his boots, he will surely find ways "not just to sustain his fame but to expand it".

'Self-made success'

Ronaldo's "performance level has dipped dramatically over the past few years" but it is a testament to his "professionalism and relentless pursuit of perfection" that he is still scoring goals in the twilight of a 23-year career, said Goal. There's even talk of him featuring in Portugal's World Cup squad next year. If he does, it'll be his sixth World Cup – something no other footballer has achieved.

It's this ambition that "still makes him tick", said the BBC. As well as the World Cup, he could aim for 1,000 career goals (he needs 77 more), 250 caps for Portugal (he needs 33 more) or even "sharing the pitch" with his 14-year-old son, who currently plays for Al-Nassr's youth teams.

But, for all of his epic footballing achievements, it is Ronaldo's global level of fame that is a truly "new development for the sport", said Barney Ronay in The Guardian. His "basic appeal is obvious": he is a "self-made success, an underdog story, a motivational tale". But he is also "perfect for the internet, too", exemplifying its "obsessions" with his "muscles, beauty, success, money". Ronaldo is unique in being able to "straddle two intersecting planes: pure sport and pure product".

'Building a business empire'

It's Ronaldo the 'product' that he's been busy investing in most recently, "building a business empire" that includes "ventures in a wide range of industries" from media to fashion and hospitality, said the BBC. In the past two years, he has "doubled the number of organisations in which he holds a majority share".

And then there's his power as an influencer. Ronaldo can easily access the hugest of audiences. His YouTube channel – the fastest ever to reach 1 million – now has 73.5 million subscribers. His polished output, and his recent collaboration with Mr Beast "marks a shift in how legacy icons engage with digital audiences", Louise Johnson, chief executive of sports and entertainment marketing agency Fuse, told The Athletic.

Ronaldo the footballer will clearly go on as long as he can but, when the end comes, it is unlikely Ronaldo the global megastar will be going away. Such is his fame, said The Athletic, "he cannot retire, not really".

On "windswept touchlines" in Aberdeen in the 1950s, people began to talk with excitement about a "puny, bespectacled kid with a squint who was somehow ramming home goals for his school and boys' club teams", said Michael Grant in The Times.

Small, thin and scrawny, with a terrible squint that forced him to wear glasses, there was little to suggest Denis Law "would make it as a footballer". Yet even while at primary school, he found the net with such regularity that his exploits frequently appeared in local papers.

In time, Law would go on to become one of the all-time greats of the British game – the scorer of 237 goals for Manchester United – placing him third on the club's all-time list, behind Bobby Charlton and Wayne Rooney – and arguably Scotland's greatest-ever footballer.

His legendary status at Old Trafford – where he was known as "the King of the Stretford End" – was reflected in the emotional tributes paid to him following his death last week at the age of 84.

Humble beginnings

The son of a fisherman, and one of seven children, Law grew up in a house without central heating and often slept "three to a bed", said The Telegraph. He "learnt his football skills by making do with a ball of wool suspended from a hook in the kitchen".

At 15, he signed for Huddersfield Town, where he was told that to do well he'd need corrective surgery on his squint. The operation, as he later said, changed his life. Law "emerged from hospital a more confident teenager" and, in 1960, was signed by Manchester City, then in 1961 by the Italian club Torino.

His time there was unhappy, however: the "negative mentality" of the football didn't suit his attacking style, and he left Torino after just 27 appearances. In July 1962, Manchester United signed him for a then British record of £115,000. United at this time was a club still reeling from the Munich air disaster four years earlier, said Sachin Nakrani in The Guardian. In Sir Matt Busby's "masterfully constructed" side, Law was deployed alongside George Best and Bobby Charlton: the trio became known as the "Holy Trinity".

Law's early years at United were prolific: in 1963-64, he scored 46 goals in all competitions – still a club record – and the next year was Division One's top scorer as United won their first league title since Munich. (He won the Ballon d'Or the same year – the only Scot ever to do so.) In 1968, he missed out on "United's defining success of the era" – victory in the European Cup – because of a knee injury. His mood was "only slightly lifted" when Busby visited him in hospital a day after United beat Benfica in the final, bringing the trophy with him.

Fearless to the end

"Brave, athletic and spring-heeled", Law was an "instinctive" footballer who could score goals of many types, from leaping headers to deft flicks from low crosses, said The Times. "Even his tap-ins were a thing of predatory beauty." He was known, too, for his "regal" celebrations: arm raised, one finger pointing skywards, the others gripping the cuff of his shirt.

Although he was Scottish, he was "beloved of English football fans", but the affection wasn't always returned, said Richard Williams in The Guardian. A fierce patriot, Law described England's World Cup victory in 1966 as "the blackest day of my life", and gave no quarter to English club teammates when he faced them in internationals. In 55 caps for Scotland, he scored 30 goals – making him equal all-time top-scorer with Kenny Dalglish.

As a player, Law exhibited "absolute fearlessness", said Ian Herbert in the Daily Mail. And that spirit never left him: it was still evident four years ago, when he revealed he had Alzheimer's, and "described very precisely how the illness was limiting him". After Sunday's tribute, the fans at Old Trafford watched their team lose 3-1 to Brighton. What they wouldn't give for United's current side to display a fraction of Law's "warrior spirit".

What happened

Dutch police broke up a banned protest in central Amsterdam and detained more than 50 people Sunday amid fallout from what Israeli and Dutch authorities called "antisemitic attacks" on Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fans Thursday and Friday morning. Amsterdam's municipal government prohibited all public assembly on Friday and extended the ban through Thursday as Israel warned its citizens to "categorically avoid" sports and cultural events abroad, saying "preparations to harm Israelis have been identified in several European cities."

Who said what

Five people were treated at hospitals after last week's violence and more than 60 people were arrested on suspicion of participating in what Amsterdam's mayor called "hit and run" attacks on the Israeli soccer fans. Police said gangs of youths, many on scooters, chased Maccabi fans and pelted them with fireworks, "apparently inspired by calls on social media to target Jewish people," The Associated Press said.

Police also said "Maccabi supporters pulled a Palestinian flag from a building," burned a second Palestinian flag and "vandalized a taxi" in the 24 hours before the match, The Wall Street Journal said. "Videos circulated on social media of Maccabi fans chanting anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian slogans." People at yesterday's banned demonstration told the BBC they were gathering to protest Israel's war in Gaza and also the Israeli soccer "hooligans." Amsterdam police said anti-Jewish incidents continued through the weekend.

What next?

Paris police said Sunday that 4,000 officers and 1,600 stadium staff will be on duty Thursday to ensure security at a France-Israel match at the Stade de France stadium. President Emmanuel Macron will attend, in a show of "fraternity and solidarity following the intolerable antisemitic acts that followed the match in Amsterdam," a French government official said.

There were plenty of times over the past year when Manchester United could have fired Erik ten Hag, said Will Unwin in The Guardian. The Dutchman's position had been under "constant scrutiny" since Jim Ratcliffe purchased a 25% stake in the club.

And, prior to United's shock FA Cup final win over Manchester City in May, there'd been a growing consensus that his time was up: he'd just guided his team to an eighth-placed finish in the Premier League, their lowest ever, and United's top brass were known to be talking to other coaches. Yet in the event, they extended his contract, hoping that he might turn things around. This week, however, their patience finally ran out: after a dismal 2-1 defeat at West Ham that left United 14th in the league, and "fearful of another season outside the Champions League", United sacked ten Hag and installed Ruud van Nistelrooy as interim boss.

Better late than never, said James Ducker in The Daily Telegraph. United have been going backwards under ten Hag since winning the Carabao Cup in his first season – despite his "increasingly desperate" attempts to point to the two trophies he won during his tenure as evidence of progress. Just look at their league form: in the 20 months since that first cup win, they've played 61 games and lost 22 of them, conceding as many goals as they scored. A series of "supposed inferiors" – Brighton, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Fulham – won at Old Trafford, but ten Hag also tended to fail the toughest tests, said Richard Jolly in The Independent. United managed only one away win in 15 against the "big eight" under him; and in Europe, their record stands at one win in their past 11 games. All this, despite United having spent £600m on players since ten Hag took charge, including £82m on Antony – "pound-for-pound the worst signing in United's history" – and £60m on the injury-plagued Mason Mount.

It's hard not to blame Ratcliffe for this debacle, said Martin Samuel in The Times: a man known for his "hard-nosed business instincts", he shied away from sacking ten Hag in the summer when it was clear to all that the Dutchman should go. Ten Hag's successor will inherit "a campaign in crisis", with the club in danger of missing out on a Champions League place for a second season in a row.

Ten Hag was the fifth permanent manager to try to "right the ship at Old Trafford" since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013, said Carl Anka on The Athletic. None have overseen a serious title challenge, and the overwhelming sense is that, in the post-Ferguson era, United have lost sight of the things that made them "the biggest and most successful club in England". Whoever takes over from ten Hag will have to find them again – and fast.

The legacy of every England football manager "tends to hang on a single moment or personality trait that sticks in the popular imagination".

For Sven-Göran Eriksson, who died yesterday aged 76 after suffering from pancreatic cancer, "it's hard not to think of him as a professional seducer who stumbled into football management by mistake", said Michael Lee for PlanetFootball.

But while the tabloids were keen to play up his reputation as an unlikely lothario during his time in England, Eriksson also enjoyed a "hugely successful" managerial career, said the Daily Mail. He won 18 trophies over four decades coaching the likes of Benfica, Roma, Lazio, Sampdoria and Manchester City.

On football

He is perhaps best remembered as the first foreign manager to take charge of the England men's team, and the so-called 'golden generation' of players in the early 2000s that included David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney.

Back then, 23 years ago, it was a "different environment when arguably his biggest task was convincing the nay-sayers as much as doing the job", said The Mirror's chief football writer John Cross, "but then he quickly won over the England fans".

His stock phrase "First half good, second half not so good" entered the public consciousness and continues to be used to describe England's performances to this day. It perfectly "summed [up] England under Sven", said Cross: "halfway to being a really good football team".

While he couldn't translate the undoubted talent at his disposal into tournament success for England, he was still highly regarded in the UK and abroad, most notably in Italy. Having achieved a career high by guiding Lazio to the Serie A title in the 1990s, the Italian sports newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport hailed him as "the master of football".

He was also gracious in defeat, no more so than when he was facing the sack at Manchester City. "Even if you know you're going to be sacked," he said, "you still have to be professional until the end, and then I can say I have done my job and my work. That's important."

On life

Eriksson was never far away from the headlines during his time in England, where his private life was a "seemingly endless source of fascination for newspapers", said Indy100. They ran stories on high-profile affairs with the likes of Nancy Dell'Olio and Ulrika Jonsson, labelling him an unlikely Swedish playboy, but that "never appeared to dampen his spirits and he always maintained a positive outlook on life".

One story that epitomises this comes from former Manchester City midfielder Dietmar Hamann's book "The Didi Man", and took place during a post-season tour of Thailand in 2008, just days before Eriksson was let go by the club.

"One morning I was on a sun lounger by the pool when I saw Sven walking towards me carrying a silver tray with a bottle of champagne and two glasses on it," Hamman wrote. "It was still only ten o'clock in the morning… Sven came over and put the champagne on the table next to me, then placed one glass in front of me and the other by his lounger.

"I looked up and said, 'Boss, what are we celebrating?'… He turned to me and smiled that gentle smile of his and took on the air of a Buddhist philosopher as he said, 'Life, Kaiser.' Then after pausing for dramatic effect, 'We are celebrating… life.'"

Eriksson deserves to be remembered as a "terrific" football manager, said Cross, but it is this "sense of fun, the twinkle in his eye, which really defines him as one of the game's greatest characters".

"Don't be sorry, smile" was Cross's favourite Eriksson quote "among many". "That sums him up. And it fits perfectly into today because, looking back on his life, he had an absolute blast."

On death

Eriksson revealed his cancer diagnosis to Swedish radio station P1 earlier this year, saying that while he most likely had less than 12 months to live, he was trying to maintain a positive mindset.

"You can trick your brain. See the positive in things, don't wallow in adversity, because this is the biggest adversity of course, but make something good out of it."

In an Amazon Prime documentary about his life released last week, Eriksson gave an emotional farewell to his fans with some final words of wisdom.

"I think we are all scared of the day when we die, but life is about death as well," he said. "You have to learn to accept it for what it is."

And he hoped people "will remember me as a positive guy trying to do everything he could do".

Canada's Olympic women's soccer team is mired in an off-the-field controversy that threatens to derail their chances for glory at the Paris games. The scandal involves the reported use of drones to spy on opposing teams, and has led to the suspension of Canada's coach and questions about how much Canadian soccer officials knew. 

The scandal marks a fall from grace for a Canadian team that is the reigning world champion, having won the gold medal at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. What happened at the Paris games to cause the scandal, and where does Canada's Olympic women's team go from here?

What is the crux of the scandal? 

The incident began on July 22 when staff members for New Zealand's Olympic women's soccer team "noticed a drone flying above their practice" in Paris and called the police, said The Athletic. Law enforcement "tracked the drone back to its operator, Joseph Lombardi, an 'unaccredited analyst' with the Canadian women’s team." Lombardi was eventually arrested, and it was also revealed that a "separate drone incident at New Zealand training — on July 19 — had come to light."

Following an investigation, it was determined that Lombardi was "believed to have been using a drone to record the New Zealand women's football team during practice," the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) said in a statement. As the investigation continued, it was revealed that this was likely not "an isolated incident but a much larger pattern that extends across both the women's and men's national teams," Canada Soccer CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue said to reporters, per The Athletic. 

The Canadian team's coach, Beverly Priestman, also appeared to be aware of the spying. The use of drones to spy on other clubs is "something the analyst has always done and I know there is a whole operation on the men's side with regards to it," Priestman previously wrote in an email released by FIFA, adding that it was the "difference between winning and losing and all top 10 teams do it."

What is the fallout from the scandal?

The biggest fallout was the removal of Priestman, which came at the behest of the COC; the coach was suspended from the Canadian team for one year in addition to fines being levied. Priestman was "absolutely heartbroken for the players, and I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart for the impact this situation has had on all of them," the now-suspended coach said in a statement after the spying allegations came to light. 

In addition, FIFA "assessed a six-point penalty on the women's team during its Olympic run" as a penalty for the spying scandal, said NPR. This was a "major setback that meant Canada would need to win all three group stage games to advance." The team appealed FIFA's decision on the matter, but their effort was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Despite the six-point deduction, Canada did win all three group stage games, and "will next face Germany in the Olympic quarterfinals."

Aside from the Paris games, the scandal "threatens to spread beyond the Olympics, where Canada is the defending women's champion, to the men's team at the 2026 World Cup," said The Associated Press. Even as "Canada's players revived their Olympic title hopes on the field, the damage to the country's reputation for soccer integrity was hit hard," and there are "risks [of] further damage from spinoff investigations."

On the back of the drone fallout, the Canadian team is attempting to move past the issue — at least on the field. The players "haven't slept in the last three days. We haven't eaten. We've been crying," player Vanessa Gilles said to reporters after Canada beat France. They are "not cheaters. We're damn players. We're a damn good team. We're a damn good group, and we proved that today."

As ever, England expects. The Three Lions kicked off their Euro 2024 campaign in Gelsenkirchen last night looking to go one better than their last European outing and  lift their first major tournament trophy since 1966.

Bookmakers and pundits had England as one of the favourites going into the tournament. But while the 1-0 victory over Serbia put the team in control of Group C, manager Gareth Southgate left the stadium with "a banquet's worth of food for thought", said The Times's Jonathan Northcroft.

What did the commentators say?

Sven-Göran Eriksson's oft-quoted assessment of England games as "first half good; second half not so good" may have passed into football parody, but watching this "lopsided" win over Serbia, it felt "as if [the former England coach] had alighted on some eternal truth about this team at major tournaments", said The Telegraph's chief sports writer Oliver Brown.

"The transformation was maddening," wrote Brown. For the opening 30 minutes "we were watching a rejuvenated England, dominant and decisive", before the match settled into a "time-honoured pattern, where a frenetic start gave way to a shapeless conclusion".

This "occasionally awkward" 1-0 win was certainly not on the level of Germany's 5-1 thrashing of Scotland, said Miguel Delaney in The Independent, and it "will raise new questions over what England need to do to get to that level".

Phil Foden – recently named Premier League player of the season – was once again anonymous in an England shirt, while the experiment of playing Trent Alexander-Arnold alongside Declan Rice in midfield proved inconclusive. Harry Kane had just two touches out of 385 made by England in the first half.

Luckily for Southgate and England, Jude Bellingham, who scored the winning goal with a diving header, is "one of the few parts of this team where there is absolutely no doubt", said Delaney.

Comparing his impact to that of Pelé and Cristiano Ronaldo, Martin Samuel in The Times said that "the greatest players, in the heat of the moment, don't flinch from the fight".

Bellingham is "not out of control, but nor is he shy when tested", said Samuel. He could be the player of the tournament: "He just needs to shape it, and shape England too."

The Stourbridge-born Real Madrid midfielder was likewise "the toast of the European media", said Mail Online, "but they found little else to praise".

There had been "whispers of a new golden generation" coming into the tournament, but "this crop of hopefuls failed to pass the eye test for Europe's cynical scribes" as the players came in for "razor-sharp criticism" after Sunday's laboured win.

French sports newspaper L'Equipe gave John Stones a particularly withering 3/10 personal rating in what was a "disappointing performance overall" that was "marked by a drop in intensity in the second half".

German tabloid Bild agreed that England will have to "step up their game" if they are to lift the European Championship trophy come 14 July. But while Sunday might not have been barnstorming football, as Spanish sports site Marca said: "In a short tournament it is more important to win than to convince."

What next?

"In the end, Southgate's tendency towards caution did not cost England," said Brown in The Telegraph, "but it was worrying to witness this team sit back again on an early lead, just as they had, to great cost, against Croatia in 2018 and Italy in 2021.

"The great teams know when to go for the kill, and yet you wonder if this is a gear England even possess."

If in doubt, international managers will always be tempted to get all their best players on the pitch at the same time. The "conundrum", said Jamie Carragher also in The Telegraph, "is whether what is gained with so many high-class personnel in the line-up is lost with the set-up".

This is especially true when it came to captain and talisman Harry Kane, "a multi-tasking, modern centre-forward who was reduced to one-dimension", said Carragher.

Short-term, "I would expect Southgate to persist with Sunday night's plan", he said. "But going forward, getting the most from Kane is the only way in which England can win the competition."

Delaney concluded in The Independent that "any tournament is a voyage of discovery". But "Southgate still has a lot to figure out".

Growing anger over the use of video technology in football has been kicked up a notch further by high-profile incidents in recent matches. 

Since being introduced into English football in 2019, the use of the "video assistant referee" (VAR) has been a matter of much debate. Now, in the wake of what Metro called a "controversial weekend" for the tech, Labour leader and keen football fan Keir Starmer has thrown his weight behind calls to reform the system.

'We cannot suddenly ditch VAR'

Nottingham Forest released a furious statement on X following their Premier League defeat to Everton on Sunday, claiming they had been denied three clear penalties and accusing the VAR of being a fan of their relegation rivals Luton.

Just hours later, Coventry City were denied a place in the FA Cup final after staging a thrilling comeback from 3-0 down against Manchester United at Wembley. A last-minute extra-time winner by the Championship side was disallowed in a marginal offside decision, and they then lost the penalty shoot-out to their Premier League opponents.

Speaking at the FA's headquarters near Burton upon Trent, Starmer said in reference to the FA Cup semi-final: "It's a really well-worked goal, and it's ruled out because there's what, a toenail of difference between the attacker and the defender? Don't tell me a toenail gives you an advantage in football."

"Sorry to be a killjoy," said The Mirror's chief football writer John Cross, "but the offside decision to disallow what would have been Victor Torp's extra-time winner was the correct one". Just because a Coventry comeback "would have been a great fairytale, we cannot suddenly ditch VAR".

VAR has made hundreds of correct calls since its introduction, said The Guardian in an editorial last year, but they have been "overshadowed by numerous controversial decisions – especially those later accepted by referees to be wrong".

While technology is used to make real‑time decisions in cricket, rugby and tennis, "interruptions are part of those sports". But "in football, VAR reduces spontaneity and introduces stoppages", which "slows down – and lengthens – the most beautiful game".

'About keeping the game an art'

There are many who see only one way out of the current mess: scrapping VAR entirely.

"Yes, it could be better," said John Nicholson on Football 365, "but that would only bring it back to the standard of refereeing before VAR. There's a level that cannot be exceeded because people are not perfect. Accept it."

It is worth recalling that VAR was introduced as a "check on only the gravest refereeing oversights, not to re-referee every decision", said The Times. "Its increasing use outside this remit risks entrenching a sense of unfairness among fans."

Yet despite the outcry from clubs, fans and pundits alike, data suggests VAR has improved the accuracy of decisions by 14%.

The solution, then, is "not to abolish VAR", said the paper, but to use it "sparingly and increase transparency by broadcasting conferrals. The halting way VAR is employed causes confusion in the stands and stasis on the pitch, while its opacity fuels baseless ­conspiracy. To restore lost drama and a sense of fair play, spectators must be let in on the action."

Peter Walton, a Premier League referee from 2003-12, told The Times's senior sports writer Matt Dickinson that "it's not about making the game a science". Rather, "it's about keeping it as an art and leaving it as a debate", he said.

When Erling Haaland was asked in September 2021 to rate the then 18-year-old Jude Bellingham, he replied: "It's crazy. What can I say? He's amazing". The Norwegian – then a teammate of Bellingham's at Borussia Dortmund – wasn't exaggerating, said Craig Hope in the Daily Mail. Bellingham is no mere "generational talent"; he has the potential to become "the best of any generation".

Signed by Spanish giants Real Madrid in the summer, he has made an electric start there, scoring 11 goals in his first 12 appearances. There's a "swagger" to how the 20-year-old plays that suggests he knows he's "top dog in town". So it's a good thing that, as is increasingly clear, he "has the bite to justify the bark". 

Bellingham combines "elegance, movement and power" in a way that recalls Bryan Robson, Patrick Vieira and Zinedine Zidane, said Jason Burt in The Daily Telegraph. "How England have craved someone like this." 

His galvanising impact on Gareth Southgate's team is becoming more obvious with every game, said Henry Winter in The Times. In last week's 3-1 victory over Italy, which secured England's place at Euro 2024, it was Harry Kane who scored two goals, but it was Bellingham who made the real difference. 

His surging run into the box earned England the first-half penalty that drew them level. Then, with the scores at 1-1, he showcased his full range of talents in the "superb breakaway" that culminated in Marcus Rashford's goal. Having "won back the ball" with a well-timed challenge, Bellingham "charged through the middle" before touching the ball left to Rashford – and then capped the move with a remarkable decoy run that created space for Rashford to score. Such awareness and intelligence – vanishingly rare in a 20-year-old – suggest England "can prosper, even prevail, in Germany next summer".

“Let none of you feel defeated.” That was the message from King Charles III to England’s Lionesses after their Fifa Women’s World Cup dreams were shattered by Spain in yesterday’s final in Sydney.

A 29th-minute goal from captain Olga Carmona was enough to see La Roja “deservedly” triumph in front of a sell-out crowd of 75,784 at Stadium Australia, said Emma Sanders on BBC Sport. “Outplayed” by a Spanish side which was “full of flair and creativity”, England’s “wait to win a first Women’s World Cup title goes on”. After giving it their “everything”, the result was “really hard to take”, said captain Millie Bright. “We’re absolutely heartbroken”, but unfortunately “we just weren’t there”.

As manager Sarina Wiegman and her players process the heartbreak of losing a World Cup final, England fans praised the squad for their performance during the tournament held in Australia and New Zealand. Leading the plaudits, the King said in a message on social media that reaching the final was an “immense tribute” to their “skill, determination and team spirit”.

Wiegman, who also lost the 2019 final as Netherlands boss, urged the squad to be “proud” of their achievements. “Of course it feels really bad now” and “we’re very disappointed”, she told the BBC. But to play “how we have as a team”, overcoming “so many challenges”, we can be “so proud” of ourselves. “Only it doesn’t feel like that at the moment.”

Regrets? They’ll have a few…

There is certainly “no shame” in losing to a “superior” Spain side, said Jonathan Liew in The Guardian, and there will be “no recriminations” or “burning effigies” for a group of players who “left every piece of themselves on the Sydney pitch”. Will England have regrets? “They’ll have a few”, for another four years at least, as “the circle remains incomplete”. Perhaps “something good” will come of this defeat: “new ideas and strategies, fresh blood, a more realistic view of where this young side are in the order of things”.

While there will be regrets at “what could have been”, said Rob Harris on Sky News, the European champions made progress by “going further than ever at a World Cup”. The “hope” will be for “progress now”, not just in the English game – in a country “energised” to show more support for women’s football – but progress “more widely”.

They have ‘changed the game’

The message from the King was “well-judged”, said Oliver Brown in The Telegraph, as it restored a “dose of perspective” to the “bleak idea” that a moment 57 years in the making had “slipped from the Lionesses’ grasp”. Yes, falling short in a World Cup final is “gut-wrenching”, but a “soothing consolation” was the thought that “for this team, one result needed not spell the end”. ‌‌A World Cup final can be a “coldly binary affair”, with the winners “idolised” and the losers “relegated to footnotes”. In Australia, England “expanded the parameters” of what women’s sport can do, of how “powerfully it can lift the public mood”. They have “earned their seal of royal approval”. Even in the depths of a “short-lived sorrow”, they have “palpably changed the game”.

It’s obviously “devastating” to lose a final, said former Lionesses striker Ellen White on BBC Sport, but the nation back home were “gripped” and what the team have done for little girls – “creating role models for them” – is “just incredible”. The players “shouldn’t be disheartened”, it’s a “major achievement” to reach a World Cup final so “don’t underestimate how incredibly talented you are”, White added. “You will go again, you will get to major finals and you will win a World Cup soon. The whole nation was transfixed by this tournament so just know you are inspiring so many people.”

Christina Philippou, principal lecturer of economics at the University of Portsmouth explains where the money could come from to change the women’s game forever.

A long-awaited official review of women’s football in England sets out ten recommendations designed to transform and develop the sport at every level. The review, which was chaired by former international player Karen Carney, covers everything from playing standards to diversity goals and equal access to sports for girls.

As a whole, its aim is to create a better version of the sport that exists now, with more women and girls playing better football in a healthier environment, and more people watching and enjoying it.

These kind of changes will come at a price. But Carney predicts it will be a price worth paying, and could turn women’s football in England into a “billion pound industry”.

Those costs though are considerable (and something I looked at as an adviser to the review on finances). Even at the grassroots level of women’s football, building and maintaining good quality pitches and changing rooms is an expensive undertaking.

Then at the top level of English football, the report lists some of the costs that will be required in the Women’s Super League (WSL) (the equivalent to the men’s Premier League) and the Women’s Championship to raise standards and encourage more girls to get involved. These include a salary floor for players, mental and physical health provisions, and dedicated marketing resources.

For each WSL club, those costs are estimated at an extra annual spend of £441,000. Yet according to publicly available accounts, the average income for those clubs was £1.9m last year. For some it was as low as £101,000. So where will they find the money?

The good news is that there are plenty of signs of growing income in the women’s game. And the review’s recommendations around professionalism, broadcasting, and fan engagement will help to use that extra income effectively.

As with the men’s game, football income tends to come from three main sources: match-day (tickets and hospitality), commercial (sponsorship), and broadcasting. Match-day is already growing, and the 2022-23 season has seen record attendance for the WSL, Women’s Champions League, and the Women’s FA Cup.

But maintaining this level of interest itself costs money, because healthy match-day attendance comes from good fan engagement. Better stadiums, dedicated marketing teams, and “support liaison officers” to engage with fans are all recommended in the review.

It also encourages women’s teams affiliated with men’s Premier League sides to play in the club’s main stadium. Arsenal’s women’s team for example, currently play some of their matches at the Emirates, which seats 60,704 spectators, and some at Meadow Park, which holds 4,500.

Not all matches can be held in huge stadiums though, as running costs are high and a full stadium is widely considered to be more atmospheric. But the grander facilities tend to have better facilities for fans, are more accessible by public transport and encourage club supporters to watch the women’s teams.

This is where the recommended marketing teams come in, because big stadiums require large crowds to be effective, and people need to know about upcoming matches if they are going to consider buying tickets.

Other fans who choose to watch at home are behind one of the other big sources of football income: broadcasting. The current deal for the WSL was a groundbreaking one in terms of coverage (up to 66 matches) and income (£8 million a year). But more will be required to cover the costs recommended in the review.

Show me the money

The issue here was highlighted in the recent dispute between Fifa and broadcasters over showing the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Even broadcasters in European countries with strong support for women’s football were offering less than 10% of what they were willing to pay to show the men’s World Cup.

This was despite encouraging signs for televising games. There was a 9% increase in WSL viewership in 2022-23 compared to the previous season – a strong rise given that some of it is only available on subscription TV. And streaming service DAZN reported a 42% increase in viewership for women’s Champion’s League matches.

Commercial income is the third area where the money can grow. Sponsorship income is up and there is evidence of positive impact on brands, such as Barclay’s title sponsorship of the WSL and the Women’s Championship and the online beauty brand Il Makiage’s association with Arsenal. This should encourage more brands to invest in women’s football.

The review also addresses the lack of diversity across the women’s game, where research shows that off-pitch roles (club directors for example) are predominantly held by men, and that a number of WSL and Women’s Championship club boards (the decision makers) are male only.

This is especially important as affiliated teams now make up most of the top two tiers of English women’s football. Research shows that greater diversity is linked to better finances, so addressing this imbalance should also help with money.

Because ultimately money is what women’s football – not just in England – badly needs. The review has good ideas for raising standards, improving participation, and attracting more fans. But all of them depend on two urgent goals: investment and faith in the future of the sport.

Christina Philippou, Principal Lecturer, Accounting, Economics and Finance, University of Portsmouth

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Mason Greenwood returning to play football for Manchester United would be “devastating”, female fans of the club have said.

The 21-year-old forward has not played for United since he was arrested in January 2022 after graphic images and audio, alleged at the time to involve Greenwood, were released on social media.

Charges including attempted rape and assault – all related to the same woman, and all of which Greenwood denied – were discontinued in February of this year.

After United’s own lengthy investigation, the club’s chief executive, Richard Arnold, is set to decide whether Greenwood can resume his career at United and a decision could be announced next week. “Inside the club there is a sense it would represent a major surprise if the player were not to come back,” said The Guardian’s Manchester football correspondent Jamie Jackson.

‘A double standard in football’

The case highlights a “double standard in football”, said Richard Jolly in The Independent. “Were a steward, a kitman or a press officer to have behaved as Greenwood did, it would be a simple decision to dismiss them for gross misconduct. But footballers are treated differently and United are wrestling with the question of how to justify that.”

Greenwood’s prospective return has provoked an outpouring of dismay from supporters. Television presenter Rachel Riley said she wouldn’t continue to support the club if Greenwood played for them again. “We’ve all seen and heard enough. It would be devastating for my club to contribute to a culture that brushes this under the carpet. I really hope they do the right thing,” she said on social media.

Riley’s words underline the problem for Manchester United that “the audio is always going to be out there”, wrote Daniel Taylor for The Athletic. “No matter how much they try to soothe public opinion, how much PR they sprinkle over it, that recording in isolation will always damn Mason Greenwood,” Taylor argued.

‘A decision for the market’

The whole case has been a damaging episode for the club for some time. But for an “update” on Greenwood’s future to be released on “arguably the most glorious day in the history of English women’s football seems grotesquely ill-judged”, wrote the Evening Standard’s business editor Jonathan Prynn.

“There has been a pattern of unacceptable, and sometimes criminal, sexual behaviour at the elite level of the men’s game for many years now,” he added. “This is surely the moment for the men – and it almost always is men – who run the game to draw a line in the sand.”

But Manchester United “would probably be right if they concluded that virtually any other club would keep Greenwood” as it is “a reality of football”, said The Independent’s Jolly. And United “do have a duty of care to Greenwood, and there are powerful voices within the club who believe in rehabilitation”, said The Times’s chief football writer Henry Winter. But they “also have a duty of care to their women’s team and to those many supporters who do not want Greenwood anywhere near their club”.

In the end, though, it won’t be “the victims of domestic abuse or sexual violence, the numerous courageous female United fans who have pledged to keep fighting and protesting until Greenwood is out of the club” who will decide if he plays again, said The Guardian’s Jonathan Liew. “It will, as ever, be a decision for the market alone.

“The market always gets what it wants in the end, whether you like it or not,” Liew added. “‘I asked you politely and you wouldn’t do it,’ the man’s voice says on the audio [leaked on social media]. ‘So what else do you want me to do?’”

England’s Lionesses, the reigning European champions, will play in their first ever Fifa Women’s World Cup final against Spain on Sunday after defeating co-hosts Australia 3-1 in today’s semi-final clash at Stadium Australia.

It was a “historic evening” in Sydney, said Emma Sanders on BBC Sport, as goals from Ella Toone, Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo “spoiled” the Australian “party”. Sarina Wiegman’s side will now be aiming to become the first senior England football team since 1966 to lift a World Cup.

Chelsea star Sam Kerr sent the vast majority of the 75,784 spectators into “raptures” and “sparked wild scenes of celebration” in the 63rd minute, said Tom Garry in The Telegraph. The Australia captain levelled the scores with a “rocket from range” that “flew past” England keeper Mary Earps. But despite Kerr’s “stunning” strike “the ride ends here” for the Matildas, said Vince Rugari in the Sydney Morning Herald, as their “history-making, record-breaking, nation-changing” World Cup run was “stopped in its tracks by the old enemy”.

Will James come straight back in?

Spain, who beat Sweden 2-1 in a dramatic semi-final yesterday, will provide an “even tougher” test, said Lionesses striker Russo, who has now scored seven goals in 12 appearances at major tournaments for her country. Every single game at this World Cup “has been of the highest level”, so “we have to be ready”, she added, “but we’ve been dreaming since we were little girls, so we’re excited”.

One “headache” – a good one – is that England will have Lauren James available for Sunday’s final after her suspension. Will she come straight back into the starting XI, asked former England and Arsenal defender Alex Scott on BBC One. Ella Toone is “right there” and it’s a “great headache” for Wiegman to have, she added. “I would start with the same 11” against Spain and “have someone like Lauren James come on”.

Wiegman has ‘a golden touch’

The semi-final victory means that Wiegman has now become the “first coach to guide two different countries to a Women’s World Cup final”, said AFP. She took her native Netherlands to the 2019 “showpiece match”, where they were defeated 2-0 by the United States. Having the chance as a coach or a player to make it to two finals is “really special”, Wiegman said. “I never take anything for granted, but it’s like I’m living in a fairytale or something.”

In “trying to capture” just “how good a manager” Wiegman is, said Luke Edwards in The Telegraph, it’s hard not to make comparisons between men’s and women’s football. But make no mistake, after guiding England to their first Women’s World Cup final, just a year after leading them to glory at the Euros, Wiegman’s “genius” is “not up for debate”. She has shown that she has “a golden touch”, first with her native Netherlands and now with England. Pep Guardiola is the “outstanding manager of his generation” in men’s football, but Wiegman is “probably the best of hers, too”.

The win over Australia caps a “sensational” two years under Wiegman, said Sanders on BBC Sport. Her Lionesses have “created history”, but this is “a team of winners” and “they have not finished yet”.

Sunday’s final between Spain and England, which is also at Stadium Australia in Sydney, will kick-off at 11am (BST) and is live on BBC One and ITV. Australia will play Sweden in Saturday’s third-placed play-off in Brisbane (9am BST).

After three successive Premier League titles, and five out of the last six, Manchester City once again go into a new campaign as the team to beat.

Pep Guardiola’s treble winners are aiming to become the “first club in English top-division history to win the title four seasons in a row”, said Paul Harrison on Sky Sports. With Erling Haaland leading the attack, the “odds-on favourites” have “few flaws”.

Following promotion from the EFL Championship, Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton Town join the upper echelons of English football. Have they “added enough to their squads” to avoid a relegation battle, or even “challenge higher up the table”?

Ahead of the opening weekend of the 2023-2024 Premier League season, we look at the pundit predictions and betting odds for the title, relegation candidates and golden boot winner.

Who will be crowned champions?

It will be “very hard for any club” to stop Man City after last season’s “superb Premier League-FA Cup-Champions League treble”, said Ian Darke on ESPN.com. And despite the “potentially damaging losses” of Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez, City’s squad “still oozes quality”. Mateo Kovacic will “fit in nicely” while the “already impressive” defence is now “bolstered” by new arrival Josko Gvardiol.

In a poll of 27 BBC Sport TV and radio pundits, 26 have predicted that City will lift the trophy, with only Ellen White tipping Arsenal. Guardiola’s team have now been the BBC pundits’ pre-season favourites in “seven of the eight seasons” since the Spaniard took charge in 2016, but they have “never been backed to this extent before”.

There is “plenty of intrigue” surrounding Arsenal and whether they will be able to “push the champions again”, said The Independent, especially after their “lucrative spending” and the addition of Declan Rice from West Ham. Nine of the paper’s writers back City to defend their title, while Michael Jones picks the Gunners. Arteta’s side have “proven they can challenge so I’ll go with them”, he said. Arsenal have “strengthened” and the “next step in their development” will be to win a “big trophy”. Why not the Premier League?

“No, everyone hasn’t said Man City,” said Mark Jones in The Mirror’s predictions. “Obviously”, City feature “quite heavily” when it comes to predicting the champions, with 11 Mirror writers backing them. But six have tipped Arsenal and four have gone for Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.

Title winner betting odds

• Manchester City: 5/6
• Arsenal: 5/1
• Liverpool: 8/1
• Manchester United: 12/1
• Chelsea: 20/1
• Newcastle United: 25/1
• Prices according to Oddschecker (as of 11 August)

Who will finish in the top four?

And what about the top four, asked Football365. It’s a prediction which “nobody ever gets right”. As we all know by now “this question is f***ing impossible”, said Dave Tickner, who predicts City will win the title ahead of Arsenal and Manchester United. Then it’s “any one of four or five teams” for that fourth spot.

Top four finish betting odds

• Manchester City: 1/16
• Arsenal: 4/9
• Liverpool: 4/7
• Manchester United: 4/5
• Chelsea: 7/4
• Newcastle United: 15/8
• Tottenham Hotspur: 5/1
• Brighton & Hove Albion: 15/2
• Aston Villa: 8/1
• Prices according to Oddschecker (as of 11 August)

Relegation battle: who will go down?

Luton and Sheffield United are “surely doomed before a ball is kicked”, said Sarah Winterburn on Football365. The third is “far more difficult”, but “I will opt for Wolves”. Agreeing, Ian Watson said he “can’t make a case” for Sheffield United staying up and Luton “will be the new Blackpool”, spending the season being “patronised all the way back to the Championship”. Wolves will follow them.

Relegation will be a “close call”, but Everton’s “lack of goals will tell”, said Jones in The Mirror, who sees the Toffees being “sucked into it” along with Luton and Sheffield United. You can “take your pick” from “eight or nine teams” to join newly-promoted Luton and Sheffield United in the bottom three, said Liam Prenderville in same paper. Wolves, Everton, Palace, Burnley and Bournemouth “will all be down there”, but “I think Forest will make the drop”.

Relegation betting odds

• Luton Town: 2/5
• Sheffield United: 4/6
• Nottingham Forest: 5/2
• Wolves: 11/4
• AFC Bournemouth: 3/1
• Everton: 3/1
• Fulham: 4/1
• Burnley: 9/2
• Crystal Palace: 8/1
• Prices according to Oddschecker (as of 11 August)

Golden boot: who will top the scoring charts?

Norway striker Erling Haaland scored a “record 36 goals in 35 league games” to win the golden boot last season, said Emlyn Begley on BBC Sport, and netted 52 goals, a record for a Manchester City player, in 53 games in all competitions.

If he “stays fit for the majority of the campaign”, said Greg Lea on talkSPORT, it is “hard to see” the 23-year-old finishing “anywhere other than top of the scoring charts”. Harry Kane would usually be the “likeliest challenger”, but the main doubt is “whether he will even be competing in England’s top flight this season”. Bayern Munich have had a bid accepted for Tottenham’s “talisman” and it’s likely that the England skipper will be moving to Germany.

Top scorer betting odds

• Erling Haaland (Manchester City): 4/6
• Mohamed Salah (Liverpool): 9/1
• Darwin Nunez (Liverpool): 18/1
• Marcus Rashford (Manchester United): 22/1
• Son-Heung Min (Tottenham): 33/1
• Rasmus Højlund (Manchester United): 33/1
• Alexander Isak (Newcastle United): 35/1
• Prices according to Oddschecker (as of 11 August)

BBC commentator Robyn Cowen summed it up as “daylight robbery” as ten-woman England beat Nigeria on penalties to reach the quarter-finals of the Fifa Women’s World Cup. After Lauren James saw red late on in normal time, the last-16 clash in Brisbane finished 0-0 after 120 minutes with the Lionesses progressing after winning 4-2 on spot-kicks.

Sarina Wiegman’s European champions were “outplayed by a brilliant Nigeria side”, said Rob Smyth in The Guardian. The Super Falcons created the “best chances” and hit the woodwork twice in the normal 90 minutes. However, after the “mother, father and extended family of scares”, England are through to the quarters where they will face Colombia or Jamaica on Saturday (11.30am BST). They were “outplayed” and “outclassed”, said Suzanne Wrack in The Guardian, but “somehow, somehow, not out”.

‘Moment of madness’

“Talk about digging deep,” said Phil Dawkes on BBC Sport. England were “staring down the barrel” of a World Cup exit after being “second best” to Nigeria. But “once again, the Lionesses find a way” and “when the dust settles” they’ll realise they “got out of jail” because they “did not play well”.

England played with 10 women through extra time after Chelsea star James was red-carded for an “ill-tempered stamp” on the back of Michelle Alonzi after the two “went down in a tangled heap”, said Reuters. James, who is England’s top scorer at the World Cup with three goals in the group stage, was “initially given a yellow card for the altercation” in the 87th minute, said Felix Keith on the Daily Mirror, but “VAR intervened” and the card was upgraded to red. She will be given an automatic one-game ban, which “could be extended to three games, meaning that her tournament could be over”.

Going from “hero to villain”, James’s reckless challenge “brought back memories” of David Beckham being sent off against Argentina at the 1998 men’s World Cup, said Gill Clark on Goal.com. In a tweet, former England striker and football pundit Gary Lineker called it a “Beckhamesque moment of madness” from the Lionesses forward.

England ‘have to improve’

With Germany, Brazil, Canada and holders United States all out, this Women’s World Cup has been described by AP’s James Robson as the “most open” ever. Change is “happening fast” in women’s football and a “levelling of the playing field” is being highlighted at the tournament co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

England know they will “have to improve” if they want to add the World Cup to their European crown, said WorldFootball.net. But in the end against Nigeria they “found a way, as they so often have under Wiegman”, said Emma Sanders on BBC Sport. And it was the “familiar sight” of Euro 2022 heroine Chloe Kelly “who ran away celebrating” after scoring the decisive penalty.

This summer’s Fifa Women’s World Cup will be broadcast live in the UK on the BBC and ITV. All 64 matches from the tournament will be on free-to-air terrestrial TV with both broadcasters showing the final.

Co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, the Women’s World Cup will take place from Thursday 20 July until Sunday 20 August. Eden Park in Auckland is the host venue for the opening ceremony and first game between New Zealand and Norway in group A. Stadium Australia in Sydney will host the showpiece final.

European champions England are one of the 32 nations competing in the Women’s World Cup. Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses – who are in group D with Haiti, Denmark and China – will be one of the favourites, but they have been hit by injuries to key players. Captain Leah Williamson, midfielder Fran Kirby and Euro 2022 top scorer Beth Mead have all been ruled out of the squad.

Defending champions the United States, who beat the Netherlands 2-0 in the 2019 final, will meet the Dutch again in group E, along with Vietnam and Portugal. And Australia’s “Matildas”, who have superstar captain Sam Kerr in their ranks, are in group B with Republic of Ireland, Nigeria and Canada.

Host cities and venues

• Adelaide, Australia: Hindmarsh Stadium
• Brisbane, Australia: Brisbane Stadium
• Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne Rectangular Stadium
• Perth, Australia: Perth Rectangular Stadium
• Sydney, Australia: Stadium Australia and Sydney Football Stadium
• Auckland, New Zealand: Eden Park
• Dunedin, New Zealand: Dunedin Stadium
• Hamilton, New Zealand: Waikato Stadium
• Wellington, New Zealand: Wellington Regional Stadium

Group draw

• Group A: New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Switzerland
• Group B: Australia, Republic of Ireland, Nigeria, Canada
• Group C: Spain, Costa Rica, Zambia, Japan
• Group D: England, Haiti, Denmark, China
• Group E: USA, Vietnam, Netherlands, Portugal
• Group F: France, Jamaica, Brazil, Panama
• Group G: Sweden, South Africa, Italy, Argentina
• Group H: Germany, Morocco, Colombia, Korea Republic

Group fixtures

All times BST.

Thursday 20 July

• Group A: New Zealand vs. Norway (8am, live on BBC)
• Group B: Australia vs. Republic of Ireland (11am, ITV)

Friday 21 July

• Group B: Nigeria vs. Canada (3.30am, BBC)
• Group A: Philippines vs. Switzerland (6am, ITV)
• Group C: Spain vs. Costa Rica (8.30am, BBC)

Saturday 22 July

• Group E: USA vs. Vietnam (2am, BBC)
• Group C: Zambia vs. Japan (8am, BBC)
• Group D: England vs. Haiti (10.30am, ITV)
• Group D: Denmark vs. China (1pm, BBC)

Sunday 23 July

• Group G: Sweden vs. South Africa (6am, BBC)
• Group E: Netherlands vs. Portugal (8.30am, BBC)
• Group F: France vs. Jamaica (11am, ITV)

Monday 24 July

• Group G: Italy vs. Argentina (7am, ITV)
• Group H: Germany vs. Morocco (9.30am, ITV)
• Group F: Brazil vs. Panama (12pm, ITV)

Tuesday 25 July

• Group H: Colombia vs. Korea Republic (3am, BBC)
• Group A: New Zealand vs. Philippines (6.30am, ITV)
• Group A: Switzerland vs. Norway (9am, ITV)

Wednesday 26 July

• Group C: Japan vs. Costa Rica (6am, ITV)
• Group C: Spain vs. Zambia (8.30am, BBC)
• Group B: Canada vs. Republic of Ireland (1pm, ITV)

Thursday 27 July

• Group E: USA vs. Netherlands (2am, BBC)
• Group E: Portugal vs. Vietnam (8.30am, ITV)
• Group B: Australia vs. Nigeria (11am, BBC)

Friday 28 July

• Group G: Argentina vs. South Africa (1am, ITV)
• Group D: England vs. Denmark (9.30am, BBC)
• Group D: China vs. Haiti (12pm, ITV)

Saturday 29 July

• Group G: Sweden vs. Italy (8.30am, BBC)
• Group F: France vs. Brazil (11am, BBC)
• Group F: Panama vs. Jamaica (1.30pm, ITV)

Sunday 30 July

• Group H: Korea Republic vs. Morocco (5.30am, BBC)
• Group A: Norway vs. Philippines (8am, BBC)
• Group A: Switzerland vs. New Zealand (8am, BBC)
• Group H: Germany vs. Colombia (10.30am, ITV)

Monday 31 July

• Group C: Japan vs. Spain (8am, ITV)
• Group C: Costa Rica vs. Zambia (8am, ITV)
• Group B: Canada vs. Australia (11am, BBC)
• Group B: Republic of Ireland vs. Nigeria (11am, BBC)

Tuesday 1 August

• Group E: Portugal vs. USA (8am, ITV)
• Group E: Vietnam vs. Netherlands (8am, ITV)
• Group D: Haiti vs. Denmark (12pm, ITV)
• Group D: China vs. England (12pm, ITV)

Wednesday 2 August

• Group G: South Africa vs. Italy (8am, BBC)
• Group G: Argentina vs. Sweden (8am, BBC)
• Group F: Panama vs. France (11am, ITV)
• Group F: Jamaica vs. Brazil (11am, ITV)

Thursday 3 August

• Group H: Korea Republic vs. Germany (11am, BBC)
• Group H: Morocco vs. Colombia (11am, BBC)

Round of 16

Saturday 5 August

• Group A winners vs. Group C runners-up (6am)
• Group C winners vs. Group A runners-up (9am)

Sunday 6 August

• Group E winners vs. Group G runners-up (3am)
• Group G winners vs. Group E runners-up (10am)

Monday 7 August

• Group D winners vs. Group B runners-up (8.30am)
• Group B winners vs. Group D runners-up (11.30am)

Tuesday 8 August

• Group H winners vs. Group F runners-up (9am)
• Group F winners vs. Group H runners-up (12pm)

Quarter-finals

Saturday 11 August

• Round of 16 one winner vs. Round of 16 three winner (2am)
• Round of 16 two winner vs. Round of 16 four winner (8.30am)

Sunday 12 August

• Round of 16 five winner vs. Round of 16 seven winner (8am)
• Round of 16 six winner vs. Round of 16 eight winner (11.30am)

Semi-finals

Tuesday 15 August

• Winner of QF1 vs. Winner of QF2 (9am)

Wednesday 16 August

• Winner of QF 3 vs. Winner of QF4 (11am)

Third-place play-off

Saturday 19 August

• Loser of SF1 vs. Loser of SF2 (9am)
• TV coverage: live on ITV

2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup final

• When: Sunday 20 August
• Where: Stadium Australia, Sydney
• Kick-off time: 11am (BST)
• TV coverage: live on BBC and ITV

He attended the Champions League final in Istanbul on Saturday, but prior to that Manchester City’s “mysterious benefactor” had only ever watched his team play once, said Sam Wallace in The Sunday Telegraph. Sheikh Mansour, a member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, must have been delighted he made the effort: he got to witness history being made. By beating Internazionale 1-0, City not only gained their first Champions League title, but became only the second English club, after Manchester United, to claim “the treble” (the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League in a single season).

The match was a nervy affair, said Daniel Boffey in The Observer, with few signs of the “seemingly effortless grace that has been the hallmark of Pep Guardiola’s team this season”. But with games like this, the result is all that matters – and Rodri’s calmly taken 68th-minute goal ensured that the night ended in triumph for City.

So Guardiola has done it again, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. He has racked up an extraordinary amount of silverware over his career: now he has trebles in two different European leagues to his name (he achieved the first with Barcelona in 2009). It’s a distinction that “almost defies belief” – one that entitles the Spaniard to be considered the greatest club manager of all time. True, he has never coached at a club with modest resources: he actually began his managerial career at Barcelona, before moving to Bayern Munich in 2013, and then on to City in 2016. But while it undoubtedly helps to be at a club that spends “north of £2bn during your seven years in charge”, it would be wholly wrong to see Guardiola as merely a “figurehead for some colossal corporate vanity project”. The 52-year-old is a genuine visionary, who has elevated football to the status of art – and who has fashioned City into “arguably the most elegant side English football has seen”.

What makes Guardiola so special is how he has “changed what is considered possible in football”, said Jonathan Wilson in The Guardian. When he arrived at Barcelona in 2008, the sport was in a period of “astringency”. Defensively minded managers such as José Mourinho and Rafa Benítez dominated the game. There was little emphasis on creativity. But Guardiola saw that technical improvements in boot, ball and pitch quality – combined with the crackdown on challenges from behind – were creating opportunities for teams to play with more freedom and more flair. He saw that football could be less about physical dominance, more about the “manipulation of space”. That has made the sport more attacking and exciting, with a higher number of goals per game. All football fans have a lot to thank him for.

Two trophies down, one to go. After winning this season’s Premier League title and FA Cup, Manchester City will head to Istanbul for tomorrow night’s Uefa Champions League final looking to complete the treble. Standing in their way at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium are Italian side Inter, who have won the Champions League three times in their history.

If Pep Guardiola’s men finally claim European club football’s biggest prize they will match the achievement of rivals Manchester United, who in 1999 became the first and only English club to have won the Premier League-FA Cup-Champions League treble. Should the dream become a reality for City, their status as one of the best sides in history will at that point be beyond dispute.

City secured their place in the final after beating holders Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate in the two-legged semi-final. Inter defeated city rivals AC Milan 3-0 on aggregate to progress to the Istanbul showpiece.

The ‘Holy Grail’ for City

The Citizens have “dominated” English football under Guardiola, but the European Cup has “continued to elude them”, said Joe Brophy on talkSPORT. They will make “one last push for glory” in Istanbul and “few will bet against them finally claiming their Holy Grail”, said Phil McNulty on BBC Sport. The “big question” is do the Nerazzurri have enough to stop City emulating United’s treble of 1999?

Since the Abu Dhabi United Investment Group acquired Man City in 2008, the club has been “transformed” from “mid-table mediocracy” to a “global footballing powerhouse”, said Felix Richter on Statista. However, City’s success has “always been eyed with suspicion”, as it “wouldn’t have been possible without the financial muscle of its Emirati owners”. The success has also come at a “high price”. Despite a net transfer spend of a “whopping” €1.45bn since 2008, the club has only reached one Champions League final – in 2021 where they lost 1-0 to Premier League rivals Chelsea.

City will go to Istanbul as big favourites to win the game. But until they actually get their hands on the trophy can they be ranked as a giant of European football. Speaking after the FA Cup final, Guardiola admitted that “now is the first time we can talk about the treble”. He said: “We have done incredible, five Premier Leagues, two FA Cups and Carabaos but we have to win the Champions League to be recognised how the team deserves to be. It has been amazing, been fun, but we have to win it.” City’s Spanish midfielder Rodri added: “I think Pep said that you will not be ‘big, big’ if you don’t win in Europe. It’s the exam we have to pass.”

Champions League final key details

• Who: Manchester City (Eng) vs. Inter (Ita)
• When: Saturday 10 June 2023
• Where: Atatürk Olympic Stadium, Istanbul, Turkey
• Time: 8pm kick-off (BST)
• Referee: Szymon Marciniak (Poland)

Live TV and radio coverage

The Champions League final will kick-off at 8pm (BST) on Saturday 10 June. In the UK, BT Sport will show exclusive live coverage on its 1HD and Ultimate channels and the broadcaster will also show the match free-to-air via its mobile and TV app, online at btsport.com/final, on Virgin and its YouTube channel. BT Sport’s build-up to the final will begin at 6pm. BBC Radio 5 Live Sport will have live radio commentary from the Atatürk Olympic Stadium.

The stadium

This is the second Champions League final to be played at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium. Located in the Başakşehir area of Istanbul, west of the Bosphorus, the stadium boasts a seated capacity of more than 75,000. The Atatürk previously hosted the classic final between Liverpool and AC Milan in 2005. Dubbed the “miracle of Istanbul”, Liverpool came back from 3-0 down at half-time to draw 3-3 before going on to lift the trophy after a penalty shoot-out.

Pundit predictions

According to FiveThirtyEight’s Soccer Power Index (SPI) ratings, City have a 75% chance of winning the final compared to Inter’s 25%. “Ultimately”, however, the final “isn’t a lock” for City by any means even if they are the favourites, said Paul Kasabian on Bleacher Report. Inter could come out and “play the game of their lives”, or City could “struggle mightily”. Anything can happen in a single match. On paper, the guess is that City will win “comfortably” as they are “simply too good everywhere on the pitch”. The pick is for City to win 3-1, said Kasabian.

“Everything – literally everything – is pointing towards a Manchester City win here,” said Opta Analyst. The “only hope” for Inter is that their opponents “aren’t quite at their best, and get some key decisions wrong when the ball is in dangerous areas of the pitch”. The Opta “supercomputer” gives City a “64.6% probability” of winning in 90 minutes, compared to “just 16.4%” for Inter. Overall on the night, City are given a 74.1% chance of lifting the trophy. “It will take something special for Inter to deny City the treble they are chasing.”

Will City make up for their loss in the final two years ago and “finally become champions of Europe”, or will Inter “beat the odds” and claim the continental crown for the fourth time in their history, asked ESPN. City “will win”, and “relatively comfortably”, 3-0, said Rob Dawson. There’s “no pretending” that City are “anything but overwhelming favourites”, said Gab Marcotti. “So I’m going for a 2-0 City win.” No way City are letting this one go, said Julien Laurens. Expect a “tough game against a low Inter block”, but a “moment of magic” from Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland or Bernardo Silva will “win it 1-0 for City”.

Guardiola’s team will “surely never have a better chance” of winning the Champions League, and in turn a famous treble, said Alex Young in the London Evening Standard. “That is not to say that Inter are pushovers.” Guardiola “infamously tinkered too much” when City lost to Chelsea in the final two years ago, “so there is always that danger”. But you would think “any selection should overpower Inter” tomorrow night. “Man City to win 2-0.”

I would back Manchester City, but I’ve seen this “too many times” in the past – “people expected them to turn up against Chelsea two years ago”, said Paul Merson on SportsKeeda. Inter “absolutely demolished” AC in the derby and “if they pull off a similar start”, they “have a chance”. The “only thing that could trip City up is nerves”. Merson predicts a 3-1 win for the English club.

It’s not just the pundits and data experts who have had their say on Saturday’s final – but also players from rival clubs. At last weekend’s Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix, Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe and Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold both “revealed their predictions”, The Sun reported. Mbappe believes the final will be a “great game” and he thinks that City “are going to win”. Alexander-Arnold “appeared to agree” and told Sky Sports: “I think Man City are always the favourites for everything!”

Betting odds

According to Oddschecker, City are the heavy favourites to lift the Champions League trophy tomorrow night. The English side are priced at 10/21 to win, Inter are 13/2 and the draw is 4/1. With 52 goals in his debut season at City, including 12 in the Champions League, Erling Haaland is priced at 12/5 to score the first goal in the final. The prolific Norwegian striker is also 14/1 to net a hat-trick. All prices as of 9 June.

Agony and ecstasy; despair and jubilation. No period in the sporting calendar brings with it such a dramatic clash of emotions as the end of the football season. And where despair is concerned, few clubs could have felt it as abjectly this weekend as Leicester City, said James Gheerbrant in The Times. Seven years ago, the “feisty Midlands club wrote the great fairy tale of the Premier League era”, when they won it after starting the season as 5,000/1 outsiders. And in their 2-1 victory over West Ham United on Sunday, they “showed the quality of a side who should have stayed up, comfortably”. But “this season has been a mess” of bad management and poor recruitment. And so it was that their victory over West Ham was not enough. Everton’s 1-0 win over Bournemouth meant that they survived at the expense of the Foxes, who, along with Southampton and Leeds, have now been relegated to the Championship.

But Leicester’s misery was Luton Town’s joy. After 31 years out of the top flight, the club joined Burnley and Sheffield United in being promoted to the Premiership, after beating Coventry in the Championship play-off final at Wembley on Saturday. The match got off to a terrible start for Luton, said Matt Barlow in The Mail on Sunday: shortly after kick-off, captain Tom Lockyer collapsed on the pitch and was rushed to hospital. It was 1-1 at full time so it went down to a penalty shoot-out, only settled – after 11 consecutive successful spot-kicks – when Coventry’s Fankaty Dabo skied his effort into the stands.

To get an idea of the extraordinary feat achieved by Luton, consider the career of Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, said Tom Allnutt in The Times. When he joined the club in 2013, it was languishing in the fifth-tier Conference (now National) League, losing to the likes of Braintree and Halifax Town. Back then, the team trained on a public field – sessions regularly interrupted by dog walkers. Mpanzu’s first-team debut, away to Staines Town, was witnessed by just 621 people. Next season, the 29-year-old midfielder, the first player in English football history to climb from non-league to the top division with the same club, will be playing in rather grander venues.

Luton’s “resurrection” over the past decade has challenged “the assumptions of the modern game”, said Jim White in The Daily Telegraph. Usually, when teams rise that fast, it’s with the boost of “financial doping”. Yet Luton has never had a “sugar daddy”. On the contrary, the club’s descent to non-league status was the product of decades of financial mismanagement by a succession of “asset-stripping owners”. A consortium of local businessmen took over in 2009 determined that such a situation should never recur. They put stringent financial controls in place and stuck to them. Luton secured promotion despite having one of the lowest playing budgets in the Championship – testament to the shrewd oversight of manager Rob Edwards.

The Championship play-off final has been dubbed the “richest game in football”, said Luke Baker in The Independent. Ahead of the 2020 play-off final, Deloitte calculated that victory would bring somewhere between £135m and £265m to the winning club (depending on whether they stayed up or not). With serious money flooding into Luton’s coffers, there’s one thing they urgently need to do, said Ben Fisher in The Guardian: spend on the “creaking but charismatic” Kenilworth Road stadium. The “Kenny” has a capacity of a mere 10,356, making it the smallest stadium in Premier League history. Even the club’s chief executive, Gary Sweet, has joked about Erling Haaland arriving at its “s**t entrance”.

Just to make it compliant with Premier League regulations, Luton will need to spend at least £10m in the off-season, installing extra TV camera positions, upgrading floodlights, and rebuilding a portion of the stands. And promotion may well accelerate construction of a larger stadium in the town’s centre, with a capacity of around 20,000. But in the meantime, the club’s fans and players are cherishing the memory of Saturday’s victory, said Matt Barlow. Asked how he and his teammates would celebrate that night, a grinning Mpanzu replied: “Tonight? Celebrations Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We’re going to enjoy this one.”

At the start of this year, Manchester City had a “rough” few weeks, said Sam Lee on The Athletic. Their Premier League campaign was stuttering (at one point in January they were eight points adrift of Arsenal), and on 11 January they were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by relegation-bound Southampton. Even more concerning for manager Pep Guardiola was that “word of disharmony in the Manchester City camp had spread far and wide”. He himself acknowledged this, referring in interviews to the poor “body language” and “mood of his players”. How things have turned around since then. Last weekend, having won their previous 12 Premier League matches, City were crowned champions for the third year in succession. And with the FA Cup final against Manchester United on 3 June and the Champions League final against Inter on 10 June, their season has every chance of getting better still. Should City claim both titles, they will become only the second English club after Man Utd to win a treble. Their status as “one of the best sides in history” will at that point be beyond dispute.

If you want an explanation for City’s current dominance of English football, you have to start with the fact of their vast resources, said James Ducker in The Daily Telegraph. This was laid bare on Sunday, when City began their title coronation match against Chelsea with “£484m worth of talent on the bench”. The starting line-up Guardiola chose to field contained only two players – Kyle Walker and Manuel Akanji – who had started City’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid the previous week. The likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva were all rested. And yet this “second string” still enjoyed 65% possession as they easily overcame Chelsea, a team that itself has “had lavished more than £550m on players in eight months”. It was a display which suggested that Leeds manager Sam Allardyce “may have been on to something” when he said City “have the best two teams in the Premier League”.

Yes, City’s success has much to do with the spending power of owner Sheikh Mansour, said Jamie Carragher in The Daily Telegraph, but you can’t attribute it solely to that. Were money all that mattered, Manchester United (who’ve spent more than City on players in the last decade) wouldn’t be so far behind; “Paris Saint-Germain would be delivering similar standard performances”. What sets City apart is the fact that they have, in Guardiola, the most visionary manager of modern times.

City certainly wouldn’t have lifted the Premier League trophy in five of the past six seasons had it not been for the Catalan’s manic work rate and superb motivational skills, said Paul Hirst in The Times. But another of his qualities is perhaps even more important – and that’s his commitment to changing his tactics. No other manager has grasped as fully as Guardiola that the key to maintaining supremacy in football is to avoid the trap of becoming predictable. “Every year he tries something new, whether it be a tweak in formation or the redeployment of a player in a new position.” This season’s innovation has come at the back, with his adoption of the inverted full-back – a requirement that one of the back four (usually John Stones) moves to what is effectively a midfield role whenever City have possession. Stones has been a revelation in this role: witness the way he “was running rings around Real Madrid’s midfield” during last week’s 4-0 victory in the Champions League semi-final second leg.

Some claim that City’s current dominance is worrying for the future of English football, said Martin Samuel in The Times. They predict that it will “turn the Premier League into a dull, predictable battle for second place” – the equivalent of Germany’s Bundesliga, long dominated by Bayern Munich. Such arguments, however, overlook the fact that “sporting success is about individuals, not institutions”. City wouldn’t have won what they have in recent years had it not been for Guardiola – in the same way that Manchester United’s success during the 1990s and 2000s owed everything to Alex Ferguson. Guardiola will “eventually leave”, and at that point things are likely to change. “City didn’t dominate before he arrived, and chances are they won’t after he has left, either.”

Antonio Conte’s 16-month spell in charge of Tottenham Hotspur is officially over after he left by “mutual consent” last night. The 53-year-old’s departure comes just over a week after he publicly labelled his players as “selfish” after they threw away a two-goal lead to draw 3-3 against Southampton.

The result capped a “miserable” March for Spurs and Conte, said Sky Sports. They were “dumped out” of both the FA Cup and the Champions League to leave them “without a trophy for another season stretching back to 2008”.

Over the years Conte has given some “extraordinary” press conferences, said Jason Burt in The Daily Telegraph. But none like the ten-minute rant after that draw on 18 March. He “came out swinging at everyone”, including club chairman Daniel Levy. It was a “declaration of war” for the Italian, who was out of contract at the end of the season.

With Spurs sitting fourth in the Premier League table, but out of all cup competitions, the club confirmed the Italian’s exit and also announced that Cristian Stellini will take over as acting head coach for the remainder of the campaign. Stellini will be assisted by Ryan Mason.

“We have ten Premier League games remaining and we have a fight on our hands for a Champions League place,” said Levy. “We all need to pull together. Everyone has to step up to ensure the highest possible finish for our club and amazing, loyal supporters.”

Exit was a ‘mere formality’

Relations between Conte and the club “deteriorated at all levels”, said James Olley on ESPN. In the “remarkable” post-match news conference, Conte launched a “stinging attack” on the players and the club’s owners, ENIC. “Tottenham’s story is this: 20 years there is this owner and they never won something. Why?” Conte said. “The fault is only for the club, or for every manager that stays here? I have seen the managers that Tottenham had on the bench. You risk to disrupt the figure of the manager and to protect the other situation in every moment.”

Conte’s exit was a “mere formality” from the moment he concluded his “incendiary unmasking of his squad’s frailties and the culture of failure at the club”, said Phil McNulty on BBC Sport. It put Levy “right in the frontline” for criticism from fans – and that “invariably only ends one way”.

Who will take over at Tottenham?

While it was clear that Conte had recognised his time at Spurs was more or less done, that doesn’t mean there’s no truth to what he said – he simply told Spurs “a few home truths”, said Martin Samuel in The Times. In recent years, an extraordinary “roll call of managers” has passed through Tottenham – their achievements alone “would command several pages” – but not one has won a “sausage” while at Spurs. That has to say something about the club’s culture and executive management: it “cannot be that all the managers are a poor fit”.

In the wake of Conte’s dismissal, and with the club “still battling” for top four, Levy is “reportedly keen to grasp the nettle” and hire a “permanent fix right away”, said Mark White on FourFourTwo. Julian Nagelsmann, who was sacked by Bayern Munich just a few days ago, is “expected for talks shortly”.

Nagelsmann, 35, previously managed Hoffenheim and RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga and is the bookies’ favourite to replace Conte, according to Oddschecker. Other names being linked include former Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Oliver Glasner, Celtic’s Ange Postecoglou, ex-Spain boss Luis Enrique and former Real Madrid head coach Zinedine Zidane.

Harry Kane spoke of his pride after becoming England’s all-time record goalscorer. In the 2-1 victory over Italy last night the Tottenham striker netted a first-half penalty as England got their European Championship qualifying campaign off to a great start. Kane’s spot-kick was his 54th goal in 81 games for the Three Lions and he is now one clear of previous record holder Wayne Rooney.

England’s captain had the chance to break the record in the World Cup clash against France in December. He missed the crucial penalty in the quarter-final defeat in Qatar, but made no mistake from the spot in Naples.

It was a “really special night” and “I am really proud”, Kane said after the match. Thanking everyone for making “this dream become a reality”, he had “a feeling” he would break the record from the spot, especially after the miss against the French. “It had to be a penalty,” he added. “Thankfully I put it away. I was really disappointed with how the World Cup ended. It feels like forever since I last put on an England shirt. I was itching to get out there. It was a great feeling to see that hit the back of the net.”

“Remarkably”, the 29-year-old has reached the 54-goal tally in “39 fewer games than it took Rooney”, said Phil Dawkes on BBC Sport. Just six Englishmen have scored 40 or more goals for their country and “what marks Kane out among this group” is “the speed at which he has scored his goals”. He has a scoring rate of one goal every 1.5 games for England.

Here we look at England’s all-time leading men’s goalscorers and the most memorable goals and moments from Kane’s international career.

England’s all-time leading men’s goalscorers

27 March 2015: debut goal after 79 seconds against Lithuania

It took Kane just 79 seconds to open his goal account for the Three Lions. Making his senior debut against Lithuania at Wembley on 27 March 2015, the then-21-year-old came on as a sub in the European qualifier and scored with a header. That game saw him replace Rooney on the pitch, “a substitution that now seems to hold greater significance eight years on”, said Opta Analyst.

10 June 2017: equaliser stuns Scotland at Hampden

Hampden Park in Glasgow was rocking as two free-kicks by Leigh Griffiths put Scotland within moments of a memorable victory against their old rivals. But “cue Kane” and his “knack of knowing how to find the back of the net”, said Mark Mann-Bryans of the Press Association. Handed the captain’s armband by Gareth Southgate ahead of the 2-2 draw, Kane showed “why he is the man for the big occasion” by volleying home an equaliser in the 93rd minute.

2018 World Cup: six goals and the golden boot

Kane emulated Gary Lineker by winning the Fifa World Cup golden boot. In the 2018 tournament in Russia, the striker showcased “his prowess on the world stage” with six goals as England reached the semi-finals, said Damian Mannion on talkSPORT. In the group stage Kane scored a hat-trick against Panama and two against Tunisia, then in the round of 16 added to his tally against Colombia.

Euro 2020: back to his ‘goalscoring best’

At the 2020 Uefa European Championship, played in summer 2021 due to Covid, Kane “struggled to find his form in front of goal” during the group stage, said Albert Pearson on Planet Sport. But in the knockout stages England’s “captain fantastic” was “back to his goalscoring best” with a header against Germany in the round of 16, two against Ukraine in the quarter-final, and the extra-time winning penalty against Denmark in the semi-final. Kane ended the tournament with four goals as England finished runners-up following a penalty shoot-out loss against Italy at Wembley.

23 March 2023: Kane spot-on in Naples

The ball that Kane had “sent into the night sky” from the penalty spot against France in Qatar three months ago is “still out there somewhere, floating in the desert air”, said Barney Ronay in The Guardian. But when his moment came in Naples, “he wasn’t going to miss this”. Former record holder Rooney led the plaudits as Kane scored his milestone 54th goal. “I knew it wouldn’t take long but that was quick,” Rooney tweeted. “Great man, unbelievable goalscorer and an England legend.”

Football’s global governing body Fifa has confirmed that the next men’s World Cup in 2026 will be expanded from 32 teams to 48 and have a new round of a last-32 knockout stage. Co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the USA, the tournament will feature 12 groups of four in the opening round and in total there will be a staggering 104 matches – up from the 64 played in Qatar last year.

The date for the 2026 World Cup final has been set as Sunday 19 July by the Fifa Council and the increase in competing nations means that the finalists will play eight games from the group stage through to the showpiece fixture, rather than the seven played by winners Argentina and runners-up France in 2022.

Groups of three ‘lose the excitement’

It had been proposed that the 2026 event would have an opening-stage format of 16 groups of three. However, the “excitement” generated by the “traditional” format used in Qatar has “helped to convince the Fifa Council to stick with four-team groups”, said Kaveh Solhekol, chief reporter of Sky Sports News.

At a council meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, ahead of the annual congress later this week, Fifa said the decision to amend the proposed group stage format was “based on a thorough review” that considered “sporting integrity, player welfare, team travel, commercial and sporting attractiveness, as well as team and fan experience”.

Three-team groups “lose the excitement” of simultaneous games in the final round of matches, said Chris Burton on Goal. That format has also “created controversy in the past – most notably at the 1982 World Cup”, as sides can “collaborate to ensure that they both progress to the knockout stages”. With 12 groups of four now confirmed, it means that the eight best third-placed teams will join the top two in the final 32.

‘Dollar signs spinning round their eyes’

The “good news” is that of the two “utterly dreadful” options available, Fifa has picked the “very slightly less utterly dreadful option”, said Dave Tickner on Football365. There was “no good option” available because of those 48 teams. Once Fifa’s “top brass” had decided to expand the tournament – with “dollar signs spinning round their eyes” and also with “absolutely no regard for the wellbeing or quality of the sport they occasionally profess to love” – it was “already doomed”.

With “more, more, more”, this “greedy expansion” of the World Cup is the “last thing football needs”, said Miguel Delaney in The Independent. A “bloated” World Cup in 2026 shows why football “desperately needs an independent regulator to do Fifa’s job of caring for the global game”.

For starters, the change will “add about 1.5 million more tickets” and “more money can be demanded from rights holders and ‘partners’”, said Tony Harper on The Roar. From the “sublime” to the “ridiculous”, this “money-grabbing move” could “destroy the greatest show on earth”.

What they had was ‘perfect’

Fifa president Gianni Infantino has “already started with the inevitable and disingenuous guff” about this being “designed to grow the global game” rather than “cheap, grubby coin”, Tickner added on Football365. But he’s fooling nobody. This is “a disaster”. In 2017 Infantino stated that “we are in the 21st century, and we should shape the World Cup for the 21st century.” Football is “more than Europe and South America; football is global.”

Frankly, this is “absolute bollocks” – “intelligence-insulting bollocks at that”, said Tickner. What they had was “perfect” and what we have now is “a mess – a long, dull mess”.

Premier League clubs are taking short-haul flights to and from games despite flying being up to 30 times worse for the environment than going by coach.

An investigation by the Daily Mirror found that just a matter of weeks after Green Football Weekend, an initiative designed to help tackle climate change, Liverpool took a 33-minute flight back from Newcastle rather than a three-hour coach journey.

The paper cited research from the University of Leeds, which found that Liverpool’s coach trip would have produced up to 135kgCO2e, compared to well over 3,000kgCO2e for the plane.

“Taking a coach would have been at least 25 times better for the climate compared with chartering the plane,” Dr Sally Cairns, from the university’s transport institute, said. “Prioritising climate change in decision making is critical if we are to meet climate targets. Sports stars, politicians and other celebrities have a key leadership role to play.”

‘World full of marginal gains’

Domestic flights “are commonplace in the Premier League, with player welfare considerations often trumping the financial cost and environmental impact”, said the Mirror. Packed fixture schedules mean clubs “sometimes feel like they are left with little choice but to fly back from far-off away games”, added the paper.

Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp argued that the Premier League’s decision to schedule a 5.30pm kick-off for their game away to Newcastle left them with no other option than to fly.

“In a world full of marginal gains, Liverpool simply could not risk arriving back to Merseyside late on Saturday evening as preparations for Real Madrid would be key,” said the Daily Express.

“Convenience is a significant factor, as is the pursuit of the best sporting conditions for elite players,” said the BBC. “A short plane journey is regarded as better for a footballer’s physical condition than a longer coach journey,” the broadcaster added.

It’s not just Liverpool. Nottingham Forest were also criticised recently for taking a 20-minute flight to Blackpool. “Whether it is right or wrong, I think it is pretty normal for a team, in the Premier League particularly, and for a lot of Championship teams, to fly distances like that,” manager Steve Cooper told reporters.

Leeds striker Patrick Bamford told BBC Sport at the beginning of last season that he was conflicted about the number of short-haul flights taken in the Premier League. “It’s a hard one because first and foremost I’m a footballer,” he said. “There aren’t going to be many clubs who put themselves at a competitive disadvantage,” he added, saying that “ideally the things we do have to be good for the planet” but “I know it wouldn’t make sense for us to travel on the day of the game, for instance”.

‘We should be able to find a solution’

There does appear to be an awareness that action must be taken. The Premier League committed to the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework in November 2021, which means it aims to cut its emissions in half by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2040.

“Generally, I think we can do better,” Chelsea manager Graham Potter told reporters earlier this season. Describing the short-haul flights as “a challenge”, Potter added: “We should be able to find a solution, definitely.”

Flying isn’t always the best option from a medical perspective as well, according to Liverpool’s former head physio Matt Konopinski. “Top teams will prioritise speed over other factors but flying is not always a good thing,” he told the BBC. “With flying, one of the things we struggle with – anecdotally – is hamstring issues,” said Konopinski. “The other negative can be when a player is already carrying swelling on the knee – that can be exacerbated.”

In France, Paris Saint-Germain were criticised for laughing off questions about their transport choices earlier this season. The PSG coach Christophe Galtier replied sarcastically to one reporter who had questioned a short-haul flight the club had taken: “I thought I would get that question. To be very honest with you, this morning we spoke with the company that organises our trips, and we’re trying to see if we can travel by sand yacht.”

Sitting next to Galtier at the press conference, PSG striker Kylian Mbappé “burst into laughter when he heard the question from the reporter”, said Le Monde.

Afterwards, the French sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said in a tweet: “M. Galtier, we’re used to more relevant and responsible answers from you – shall we talk about this?”

To put it simply, Liverpool’s 7-0 win over Manchester United was an annihilation. Jürgen Klopp’s side put on a masterclass at Anfield yesterday, scoring six goals in the second half as they condemned the Red Devils to the joint-heaviest defeat in their history.

In what was a tight first-half, Liverpool broke the deadlock two minutes before the break through Dutch forward Cody Gakpo. But in the second period, Klopp’s men delivered the “complete performance” with Darwin Núñez (two), Gapko’s second, Mohamed Salah (two), and Roberto Firmino leaving United “overwhelmed at a joyous Anfield”, said Phil McNulty on BBC Sport. With his brace, Salah also became Liverpool’s record Premier League goalscorer. The Egyptian has now scored 129 goals in 205 league appearances.

For Liverpool, the victory puts them within three points of the top four – they also have a game in hand on fourth-placed Tottenham. For United, the lows of this shocking defeat came just a week after the highs of ending their six-year trophy drought when lifting the Carabao Cup at Wembley.

‘The strike force awakens’

Since becoming Liverpool manager in 2015, Klopp has led the club to success and completed the “full set” of major trophies: Premier League (2019-20); FA Cup (2021-22), League Cup (2021-22), Uefa Champions League (2018-19), Uefa Super Cup (2019), and Fifa Club World Cup (2019).

Despite the trophy haul, in recent seasons Klopp’s first Liverpool team has looked “aged” and it has been “reasonable to ask whether he was equipped to build another”, said Jonathan Wilson in The Guardian. One game is “nowhere near enough to assert that a new Liverpool is being born”, but it felt a “lot closer at the final whistle than it had at kick-off”.

The front three – Gakpo, Núñez and Salah – all scored twice, but “the goals were only part of it”. The trio had a “coherence and a zip” that has “been rare this season”. While there is “clearly still work to be done”, there is the sense that a front three of Salah, Núñez and Gakpo “could represent a viable future”.

Welcome to Klopp’s “Liverpool 2.0” – “the strike force awakens”, said Chris Bascombe in The Telegraph. The Reds have endured a “turbulent season”, but the reinvention of Gakpo and Núñez “assumes their status in a new era”, while Salah has reprised his role as the “ultimate goalscoring weapon”.

Wherever he has coached, Klopp has “always built one team capable of reaching their ceiling”. He is, however, “yet to do it twice at the same club”. That is “the challenge he accepted” when signing a new contract 12 months ago, according to Bascombe.

‘Absolutely atrocious’

While Liverpool celebrate having the bragging rights in the northwest, Erik ten Hag’s United team must lick their wounds after an absolute mauling. Speaking after the game, the Dutch head coach did not mince his words as he accused his players of being “unprofessional” for their capitulation in the second half. As a team “you have to stick together”, he said. “That is what we didn’t do. It is a surprise for me, I didn’t see this from my team. I don’t think it is us. I don’t think it is Manchester United. It was really bad, really poor.”

Ex-United and England defender Gary Neville was also scathing of the Red Devils’s performance. Speaking on Sky Sports, he labelled the second half as being an “absolute disgrace” and a “shambles” which was “epitomised” by captain Bruno Fernandes, “who has been embarrassing at times”. He believes that the players do not understand the “dangers of this fixture”. The players “have been eaten alive out there”.

The mauling of Ten Hag’s side “threatens to derail their season” as much as it has “reignited” Klopp's hopes of a top-four finish, said Goal.com. Aren’t Liverpool meant to be in crisis? We thought United were meant to be back? If anyone decided that yesterday’s match would be the first they watched this season, “they would have refused to have believed either of those narratives”. It was “absolutely atrocious” from Manchester United.

At his first attempt as manager of Manchester United, Erik ten Hag has led the club to trophy success – their first silverware since winning the Uefa Europa League in 2017. In the Carabao Cup final yesterday at Wembley Stadium, goals from Casemiro and Marcus Rashford sealed a 2-0 victory over Newcastle United.

With the League Cup already in the trophy cabinet, Man Utd will now have their eyes on further glory this season. They are third in the Premier League table, through to the FA Cup fifth round and also into the Europa League round of 16 after beating Barcelona in the two-legged play-offs.

Speaking after the win at Wembley, Ten Hag said that he hopes this cup can be the “inspiration” to “give even more, to be even more collective, to have even more togetherness”. Winning silverware “shows something” and that you are going in a “good direction”, he added. However, “it’s one cup”, it’s February and this has to be the “motivation” to “continue on this pathway”. He urged his players to “be happy for 24 hours”, but “not satisfied”.

‘Only just getting started’

Confirmed as United’s boss at the end of last season, Dutchman Ten Hag started his tenure with a 2-1 defeat at home to Brighton, followed by a 4-0 hammering at Brentford. It was a tough beginning to life at Old Trafford, but in seven months he has turned the team’s fortunes around and also showed his mettle by solving the Cristiano Ronaldo dilemma.

There is a “change in mood” at the club and the work of Ten Hag has been “central to the switch”, said Phil McNulty on BBC Sport. It may be “too early to make definitive judgements”, but he has the “feel of a transformative manager”, with an “air of authority and tactical acumen” – and now has “a trophy to prove it”.

Sky Sports’ Nick Wright agreed that the former Ajax coach has “transformed” United. He knows that silverware is the “only currency that really matters” at Old Trafford, but also understands the “weight of history”, and the importance of the “club’s identity”. Nine months in, Ten Hag is “only just getting started”.

A new age for United?

This was “Ten Hag’s triumph”, said Oliver Holt in the Daily Mail. He has only been in charge of the Red Devils since the summer, but he has “changed the character” of the club. “Perhaps it would be more accurate to say he has changed it back.”

A “symbol” of that change, this was a victory for the “attitudes he has altered” and the “values he has instilled”. It was also a victory for “the notion that authority is vested in the manager”, not in “preening superstar players” like Ronaldo or Paul Pogba, who “seek to wrest it from them”.

Yesterday’s match was a “pleasingly old-fashioned occasion”, said Jonathan Wilson in The Guardian. “Spiky and tense, colourful and noisy”, it was a Wembley final “like they used to be”. It may not have been “a game for the ages”, but there was “enough incident to hold the attention” and to “provide triggers” for future memories. The win may prove the “herald of a new age” for Manchester United, but it may also be “one of the last of its kind, a memorial for the old football”.

The English football referees’ body has apologised to Arsenal after “human error” was to blame for an incorrect VAR decision that allowed Brentford’s equaliser to stand in last weekend’s Premier League game.

Former top referee Howard Webb, who is now in charge of Premier League officials, also apologised to Brighton after they had a goal disallowed for offside against Crystal Palace because VAR guidelines were wrongly drawn.

The twin controversies have put VAR “once again under the microscope”. The technology is facing scrutiny “from fans and managers alike”, said the Independent after a survey for Sky Sports found that 67% of fans believe VAR makes watching football less enjoyable.

1. Pro: can help referees

VAR was introduced to football in the early 2010s to minimise human error and help referees make the right decision. Standing for “video assistant referee”, it allows certain incidents to be reviewed by the main referee or by the VAR team, helping the correct decisions to be made.

The VAR team helps referees in four scenarios: goals and offences leading up to a goal; penalty decisions and offences leading up to a penalty decision; direct red card incidents and mistaken identity, explained Fifa. A wrong decision in these scenarios can swing a game, so supporters hope it will make the game fairer.

2. Con: disrupts the game

When there is a potential goal or penalty, the referee has to pause the match and review the footage on a screen. Sometimes, this process takes several minutes, which disrupts the flow of the match and means players stand around waiting, which can impair their performance. VAR is “taking the spontaneity away from the game”, wrote former Liverpool striker Stan Collymore for Caught Offside.

“It’s clear that football is fairer but it’s also clear that VAR has had an impact on the flow of the game,” David Elleray, a former Premier League referee, told Four Four Two. “Inevitably if you are going to stop the game to look at a replay, that involves stopping the flow of the game.”

3. Pro: more excitement

VAR has “helped to add an extra layer of excitement to matches”, said Digital Mahbub. It argued that “the suspense of waiting for a decision from the VAR officials can often be just as thrilling as watching the match itself”.

Legendary referee Pierluigi Collina also feels that the technology increases the thrill of the game, said Goal. “I don’t think VAR kills the excitement of a goal celebration, if anything it increases the level of excitement,” he said. “You get to celebrate twice, when scoring and when it’s confirmed.”

4. Con: produces mistakes

VAR has not eliminated mistakes from the game. Last weekend alone, offside checks surrounding key goals “cost Arsenal and Brighton victories” while Chelsea were “controversially not awarded a penalty in their London derby against West Ham”, said the Independent.

Referees chief Howard Webb contacted Arsenal and Brighton to “acknowledge and explain” the “significant errors”. Last December, the BBC noted that Premier League video assistant referees had made a number of “incorrect interventions” this season and “missed another six incidents when they should have stepped in”.

5. Pro: greater player discipline

Supporters of VAR argue that the enhanced scrutiny of players has led to greater discipline on the field. “Behaviour is better,” Elleray told Four Four Two.

He added that there has been a “significant reduction” in diving, a “general reduction in players mobbing and arguing with referees” and “fewer players getting away with violence on the field behind the referee’s back”.

6. Con: dehumanises the game

“One of football’s charms is that it’s an unpredictable sport”, where “anything can happen” and “part of this is due to human error – whether it’s a mistake by a player, coach or referee,” said Digital Mahbub. VAR “takes away from this element of unpredictability” and detracts from the “human element of the game”, it added.

This dehumanising element could lead to poorer refereeing, believes Collymore. “We’ve now got a situation where referees are having their natural skills blunted because they know they can always rely on VAR,” he wrote.

Jakub Jankto, a 27-year-old Czech footballer, has become the first current international in men’s football to come out publicly as gay.

In a short video posted on Twitter on Monday, the Sparta Prague midfielder said: “Hi, I’m Jakub Jankto. Like everybody else, I have my strengths. I have my weaknesses. I have a family. I have my friends. I have a job which I have been doing as best as I can for years, with seriousness, professionalism and passion.

“Like everybody else, I also want to live my life in freedom. Without fears. Without prejudice. Without violence. But with love.

"I am homosexual and I no longer want to hide myself.”

Who is Jakub Jankto?

Jankto was born in Prague, and has a three-year-old son from a previous relationship. He is currently on loan to Sparta Prague from the Spanish side Getafe. Since joining Sparta Prague in August, he has made 10 league appearances, said the BBC. He has scored once and provided one assist.

Jankto has so far spent most of his club career in Italy with Udinese, Ascoli and Sampdoria. He then signed for Getafe in 2021. He has also made 45 appearance for the Czech Republic, scoring four goals since making his debut in 2017. He started for his country in the Euro 2020 group match against England at Wembley in June 2021.

“Jankto is the most prominent active men’s player to come out, by some distance,” said Paul MacInnes in The Guardian. And, he added, Jankto’s “age and personal history” could be “significant in helping change perceptions… within the game”.

The response so far

Jankto’s video had been watched a million times on Twitter within four hours of being uploaded, said The Guardian. It received 100,000 likes in the same period on Instagram.

Sparta Prague released a statement in support of the player, which read: “Jakub Jankto spoke openly about his sexual orientation with the club’s management, coach and teammates some time ago.

“No further comments. No more questions. You have our support. Live your life, Jakub. Nothing else matters.”

Jankto’s Spanish team Getafe likewise said: “Our maximum respect and unconditional support for our footballer, Jakub Jankto.”

Organising bodies such as Fifa and the Premier League, along with many clubs worldwide, also issued statements of solidarity. Uefa, European football’s governing body, wrote: “Well done, Jakub. You’re a true inspiration, and European football is with you!”

Jankto’s statement is “quite significant in the fact he’s 27 years old, he’s already built an image of himself in the mind of the public, in the mind of fans,” Jon Holmes, the founder of the advocacy group Sports Media LGBT+, told The Guardian. “To then break that mould and go against the image that had been created around him is a really significant thing to do.”

The final lines of Jankto’s message – “This is not an entertainment, the purpose of this video is to encourage others” – have been interpreted as a reference to former Spanish internationals Iker Casillas and Carles Puyol making a joke about coming out last year.

“In this space of LGBT representation in sports there are still quite a lot of firsts to be broken and he’s the guy who’s stepped forward to do that today,” Holmes said.

A long way to go for football

Jankto is not the first footballer to publicly come out. He “joins Australian player Josh Cavallo as the only openly gay top-flight male footballers in the world”, said CNN.

Jake Daniels, an 18-year-old striker for Blackpool in England’s second tier, also came out in May 2022. The German midfielder Thomas Hitzlsperger, who played for Aston Villa, came out in January 2014 a few months after retiring.

However, there are currently no active players in the Premier League who have come out publicly.

“Former footballer Clarke Carlisle, a prominent spokesman for player welfare, said eight Premier League players had told him they were gay,” reports The Daily Telegraph. So why have none felt able to come out yet?

While governing bodies have made statements of support many times, some felt they lost some credibility on the matter last year when they asked players to withdraw their promise to wear rainbow armbands in support of LGBT+ rights while playing in Qatar.

Many also remember Justin Fashanu, who came out as the first openly gay professional footballer 32 years ago. Fashanu took his own life in 1998, aged 37, “following years of homophobic abuse”, said the Telegraph. “From primary school onwards, the sport has long been associated with stereotypical, red-blooded male heterosexuality.”

San Diego Loyal midfielder Collin Martin, who came out as gay in 2018, told the Daily Express there are countless reasons why a player will not be open about their sexual orientation. He said it takes time “to work up the courage to come out in an environment where so few have done so before”.

Manchester City bosses have said the club are “surprised” by the financial charges brought against them by the Premier League. Following a four-year investigation, the club have been referred to an independent commission over a number of alleged breaches of league rules.

The reigning champions have been charged with “breaking financial fair play rules around 100 times over a nine-year period”, said Kaveh Solhekol on Sky Sports. The alleged financial breaches cover a period from 2009-10 to 2017-18 “inclusive”, the Premier League confirmed.

In a statement Man City said it “welcomes” the review by an independent commission to “impartially consider” the “comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence” that exists in support of the club’s position. “As such we look forward to this matter being put to rest once and for all.”

‘Biggest moneymakers in world football’

The Premier League’s financial fair play (FFP) rules are “designed to ensure clubs pretty much spend what they earn”, Solhekol added. “You can get around that potentially by inflating how much you’re earning or hiding how much you are spending.”

According to the Premier League statement, City breached rules requiring them to provide “accurate financial information that gives a true and fair view of the club’s financial position”, Katie Falkingham reported on BBC Sport. This information “covered club revenue, which includes sponsorship income and operating costs”. Further alleged breaches “relate to rules requiring full details of manager remuneration” – from the 2009-10 to 2012-13 seasons, when Roberto Mancini was in charge – and “player remuneration” between 2010-11 and 2015-16.

Since 2008, City “have been bankrolled” by Sheikh Mansour, the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and a member of the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, said Chris Burton on Goal. The investigation extends “right across what has been a glittering era” for the club since the takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group.

City have become the “biggest moneymakers in world football”, said Rob Harris on Sky News. The club brought in “more than £600m in revenue” last year – “fuelled by sponsorships from Abu Dhabi”. Now sponsoring City has “significant value” as one of Europe’s most successful teams with stars like “scoring sensation” Erling Haaland and head coach Pep Guardiola in the dugout.

‘Day of reckoning’

In 2020 European football’s governing body Uefa ruled that City had committed “serious breaches” of FFP regulations between 2012 and 2016, said Falkingham on the BBC. However, a two-year ban from European competitions was “overturned” by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).

City “always knew there would be a day of reckoning” with the Premier League over their finances, said Simon Mullock in the Mirror. And they are “already primed for a battle” they believe will “finally clear them from allegations of cheating”.

It was “the timing” of the announcement rather than “the confirmation” of the allegations that “took City by surprise”, said Mullock. The “defiant message” is that the commission will give them the opportunity to “rid the club of the stench of suspicion” that has “lingered over them” in the two-and-a-half years since the Cas verdict.

What happens next?

If proven, the financial rule breaches would be the “greatest offences” committed by a club in the history of the Premier League, said Paul MacInnes in The Guardian. The independent commission “could recommend that City be expelled from the competition, suspended or docked points if it finds the club guilty”.

Findings of “wrongdoing” would not only be “reputationally damaging” for Man City, said Sky News, but also for the UAE and its “showpiece sports – and soft power – investment project”. While they appealed to Cas in their case against Uefa, City are “unable to do that this time”, said Mitchell Wilks on Goal. The club will now await the outcome of the Premier League’s investigation.

The proceedings before the commission will be “confidential and heard in private”, the Premier League said in its statement. The commission’s “final” decision will be published on the Premier League’s website and the league will be “making no further comment in respect of this matter until further notice”.

So “here we go again”, said Barney Ronay in The Guardian. Chapter two in the “slow-burn but undeniably gripping story of Manchester City and the case of the financial regulations”. Expect another “lawyered-up deep dive into undeclared payments, Football Leaks and the leftovers of a befuddled Uefa legal process.

“Make no mistake, though. This is serious, an array of new charges that threatens, if proven, to undermine the entire edifice of English football’s dominant power of the last decade, not to mention call into question the entire basis and motivation of the nation-state club ownership model.”

If Arsenal are to win the Premier League title for the first time since 2004, they may well look back to the dramatic victory over Manchester United as the moment where their name started to be engraved on the coveted silver trophy.

In a thriller at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, Mikel Arteta’s side ended Man Utd’s ten-match unbeaten run with a 90th-minute Eddie Nketiah goal securing a 3-2 win. The victory saw them move five points clear of Manchester City with a game in hand at the top of the table. Earlier in the day City had closed the gap to two points with Erling Haaland scoring a hat-trick in a 3-0 win over Wolves.

Following the “emotional” battle against the Red Devils, in which his side came back from 1-0 down, Gunners head coach Arteta said “it doesn’t get much better than that”. After the derby win against Tottenham last week, “to come here against this team” and “play the way we played”, the performance was “incredible”, the Spaniard told Sky Sports. “To win it in that way makes it even better.”

Arsenal ‘will be champions’

Aware that Man City were “on their shoulders” after beating Wolves, a draw would “hardly have been disastrous” for Arsenal coming against Erik ten Hag’s “improving” United team, said Phil McNulty on BBC Sport. But the whole mood in the Emirates was “lifted sky high” by Nketiah’s “last-gasp intervention” and the “celebrations on and off the pitch” at the final whistle “showed the huge significance” of the late winner.

The “pressure is on City to reel them in”, but this Arsenal side are “playing without fear and nerves”, said Mark Ogden on ESPN. Of course, “both may come”, but right now they are “showing the same kind of carefree form that propelled Leicester to the title in 2016”. Unless City can beat them in their first league meeting at the Emirates on 15 February, “it will become increasingly difficult” to see how anyone can stop Arsenal from winning the title.

In the eyes of those who have seen them “wilt under pressure in recent years”, Arsenal are having to “prove themselves on a weekly basis”, McNulty added on the BBC. Why should there be “lingering doubts” about the “pedigree” of a team that have won 16 and only lost one of their first 19 league games?

Arsenal “will be champions”, said Jonathan Liew in The Guardian. “It’s about time someone committed this to print.” Arteta and Co “will not say it themselves”, they may “not even yet believe it themselves”, but there is “not a better or more complete team in England”.

Arsenal ‘won’t win the league’

Ex-City assistant Arteta insists that his former club are still the team to beat. The Arsenal boss has “been at pains not to acknowledge” his team’s position as title favourites, said the Daily Mail, and is adamant that Pep Guardiola’s squad, “who have won four of the previous five championships”, remain “a cut above”.

With 50 points from their opening 19 games, Arsenal may have a five-point lead, and a game in hand on their title rivals, but City under Guardiola are a “massive powerhouse” and you can imagine them sitting there “not being too fazed by this”, said Gary Neville on Sky Sports. The reason he believes that Arsenal “won’t win the league” is because “they’ve not won it for 20 years” and the majority of the players “haven’t won it yet”. Neville doesn’t see the Gunners going on to win the title, “I still think Man City will” and feels the defending champions “have a special run in them”.

Twelve years after being awarded the Middle East’s first Fifa World Cup, host nation Qatar is revelling in the aftermath of a classic finale, which culminated in Argentina captain Lionel Messi finally landing the biggest prize in football.

Held on the Gulf state’s national day, the match between Argentina and France will ultimately go down in history as the greatest final of all time. Fans were left bewildered by the action on the pitch at the Lusail Stadium, but the “other” side of this World Cup, the off-field controversies, will remain a huge talking point.

Qatar spent $6.5bn on stadiums and facilities and $200bn on infrastructure in order to host the “unlikeliest World Cup ever”, said Andrew England in the FT. But ever since it was awarded the tournament by Fifa in 2010, “ceaseless questions” have been asked about the “morality” of the decision.

Moved to winter because of the country’s climate and blighted by allegations of corruption, there were also concerns expressed about Qatar’s lack of media freedom, its anti-gay laws and its lack of football heritage. Most of all, though, there has been intense scrutiny of the deaths and injuries of migrant workers used for its World Cup mega-projects.

Qatar is the big World Cup winner

The real winner of this World Cup is not Argentina, the “upstart” semi-finalists Morocco, the “otherworldly” French hat-trick hero Kylian Mbappé, or the “legendary” Messi, said Jules Boykoff and Dave Zirin in The Nation.

The champion is Qatar, “and they didn’t have to win a match”. The host nation looks to have successfully – “with the West’s full complicity” – engaged in “brazen sportswashing”, earning plaudits and envy from authoritarians the world over. Qatar “executed its sportswash brilliantly”, and “despots” – and those “aspiring to be such tyrants” – are “noticing the dividends the country is reaping”. Even sportswashing that costs more than $200bn “appears to be money well spent”.

This World Cup “has delivered” for Qatar, said Sam Wallace in The Telegraph. Representatives of the “most powerful states in the world” have attended this tournament – and the world “now knows Qatar exists”. This is what “Big Football” can do for a nation.

Qatar “isn’t alone in crafting this game plan” though, said Daniel Rouse on The Score. Its Gulf neighbours are also “trying to boost their respective images” through sports, and money “isn’t much of an obstacle” in a region where fossil fuels were discovered throughout the 20th century.

After the Winter Olympics in Beijing and the World Cup in Qatar, “the Year of Sportswashing comes to an end”, said Scott Stinson in the Toronto Sun. The big question now is how long before Fifa does it again?

Saudi Arabia is rumoured to be “leading a potential joint bid” for the 2030 World Cup and that particular kingdom “has not been subtle about splashing around its wealth on sporting ventures”. It’s “not hard to imagine” the Saudis deciding that they want a “gleaming new 80,000-seat stadium” in Riyadh to host a World Cup final and it’s not hard to imagine that Fifa, “which is no one’s idea of a model for ethical governance”, would at least be “receptive to the idea”.

‘Two adopted sons’ star in a classic

There has “always been two World Cups” at Qatar 2022, said Barney Ronay in The Guardian. First, “the one Qatar built out of human wastage”, the one that has held “a mirror up not only to the depravity of big sport”, but to a global labour market that “drives migrant workers into lucrative near-captivity” – a system Qatar did not create, which it has “simply embodied with manic hypercompetence”. Then there is the “other World Cup”, the spectacle that brings “joy and drama”, and that “feeling of collectivism”. And which Messi’s brilliance has “elevated into one of the great sporting stories”.

Billed as “Messi vs. Mbappé”, this was the “dream World Cup final” for Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said Jesús Mata in Spanish newspaper Marca. The duo are team-mates at Paris Saint-Germain, a club that has been owned by Qatar Sports Investments since 2011.

In the final, which ended 3-3 after extra-time before Argentina’s 4-2 triumph on penalties, Messi scored two and Mbappé scored three in a match full of end-to-end action. As well as lifting the trophy for the first time in his career, while dressed in a traditional Arab robe, Messi was also awarded the golden ball for the tournament’s best player. Mbappé, already a World Cup winner in 2018 with France, took home the golden boot for top goalscorer after his eight at Qatar 2022. It was a small consolation for scoring the first World Cup final hat-trick since Geoff Hurst’s for England in 1966.

So, “it turns out you can buy football history”, said James Olley on ESPN. With the “two adopted sons” of Qatari-owned PSG at the “epicentre of a pulsating, breathless 120 minutes”, it really could not have been “scripted more perfectly” for the host nation.

It all comes down to one last game in Qatar – the holders France against Argentina in the 2022 Fifa World Cup final at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar. With two of the world’s best players in opposition on Sunday, it promises to be an exciting clash for the neutrals, but a nerve-wracking one for fans of the respective finalists.

Lionel Scaloni’s Argentina team started their Qatar 2022 campaign with a shock 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia, but 2-0 victories over Mexico and Poland ensured that they qualified as group C winners. In the knockouts La Albiceleste beat Australia 2-1 in the round of 16, the Netherlands on penalties in the quarter-finals, and Croatia 3-0 in the semi-final.

Didier Deschamps’s France won their two opening group D games – 4-1 against Australia and 2-1 against Denmark – and although they lost 1-0 to Tunisia, Les Bleus qualified as group winners. France beat Poland 3-1 in the round of 16, England 2-1 in the quarter-finals, and Morocco 2-0 in the semi-finals.

Both nations are aiming for their third World Cup win. France were triumphant at Russia 2018 and on home soil in 1998, while Argentina won at Mexico 1986 and on home soil in 1978.

Messi vs. Mbappé: a ‘dream final’ for Qatar

Argentina’s Lionel Messi and France’s Kylian Mbappé have lit up Qatar 2022 and they will go head-to-head for a possible World Cup triple: winning the trophy, the golden boot for top goalscorer and the golden ball for the tournament’s best player. With five goals apiece, Messi leads the golden boot race having provided three assists compared to Mbappé’s two.

Rivals on the international stage, the duo are club team-mates at Paris Saint-Germain and form two-thirds of the “M-N-M” attack, along with Brazil’s Neymar. As well as the team trophy and individual awards at stake on Sunday, there’s also the bragging rights for when they return to the French capital. Messi vs. Mbappé is the “dream World Cup final” for Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, said Jesús Mata in Spanish newspaper Marca. PSG have been owned by Qatar Sports Investments since 2011.

The final represents different scenarios for the two No.10s. Mbappé, 23, is aiming for a second World Cup winners’ medal having starred for Les Bleus in Russia four years ago. Meanwhile, Argentina captain Messi, 35, has played in five World Cups for his country, but has never won the trophy. Having already broken Argentina’s all-time World Cup goals tally with his 11th, a penalty against Croatia, he is set to add another record this weekend. Barring a late injury, Messi will make history on Sunday by appearing for a men’s record 26th time in the World Cup – in what will be his last World Cup match.

This World Cup final “could be one for the ages”, said Phil McNulty on BBC Sport. And on the evidence of what we have seen in Qatar so far, “it is too close to call”. The result could even come down to “one moment of genius” from the two players “most likely to provide it”.

Messi? Deschamps only bothered by one objective

French boss Deschamps is aiming to become just the “second manager to win successive World Cups”, said the BBC. He was asked about the “will for Messi to win” his final World Cup game and whether if it had left him feeling “alone in the world”. The 54-year-old replied that he was “fine being alone” and that “doesn’t bother me”.

“I don’t have any particular worries or stress about the game,” he added. “When you prepare for a game like this you need to keep your focus, remain composed, but, of course, in a World Cup final especially you have the match and the whole context behind that. Of course, the objective is to come out with the title.

“I know Argentina and many people around the world, and maybe some French people as well, would hope that Lionel Messi could win the World Cup, but we’re going to do everything to achieve our objective.”

2022 Fifa World Cup match facts

• Who: Argentina vs. France
• When: Sunday 18 December 2022
• Where: Lusail Stadium, Al Daayen, Qatar
• Kick-off time: 3pm (all times GMT)

How to watch on TV in the UK

The BBC and ITV have split the coverage of the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar, but for the final they will both show Argentina vs. France on Sunday. ITV’s coverage is from 1.30pm to 6pm, while the BBC’s is from 1.50pm to 5.45pm. The final kicks off at 3pm.

Predictions and odds

“Do I have to? Really?”, said Joe Brennan on AS. “I will go for a draw after 120 minutes” and “endless penalties” until every player and substitute scores and the managers have to take one each. Then Scaloni “buries his” and Argentina win. “OK, maybe it doesn’t play out exactly like that, but it’s the only way my brain can compute how to separate these two football giants. I predict an Argentina... win? Wait, do I?”

Athos Salome, nicknamed the “Living Nostradamus”, correctly predicted that France will face Argentina in the World Cup final, “before a ball was kicked in Qatar”, said the Daily Star. And now the Brazilian has revealed who he reckons will win the tournament. Making his predictions based on a system called “Kabbalah” that “analyses mathematical probabilities”, unfortunately for France, Salome’s senses have told him that Argentina will emerge victorious in the finale.

This game has “just about everything” with “immense quality” all over the pitch and it could come down to “a moment of pure genius” from any of the world-class talents available to Deschamps and Scaloni, said Jack Rathborn in the Independent. For that reason “we’ll side with Messi”, a man “possessed” and surely determined to “not let this rare second chance pass him by”. He may have to wait until extra-time for his moment, but we’re “picking Messi to drag his side to victory once again”. Prediction: Argentina 2-1 France AET.

There’s “enough talent” in both sides for this game – which is “devoid of a clear favourite” – to be decided by “a moment of magic”, said Grey Whitebloom on 90min.com. But there has been “plenty of evidence” this winter to suggest “a mistake may prove even more likely and pivotal”. Argentina, Messi and their “deafening travelling support” may just edge out Mbappé and Co. Prediction: Argentina 2-1 France.

While Messi would appear to be “destined for the ultimate glory”, this French team “will take some beating”, said Jonathan Gorrie in the London Evening Standard. “Seemingly incapable of panicking” and boasting “obvious firepower”, they could “feasibly weather the Argentine storm” on their way to a third World Cup win. Prediction: France to win 2-1.

There’s not much between these teams and “I can see it going all the way to penalties”, where Argentina will be “the slight favourite”, said Robert Kidd on Forbes. “I think it will finish 1-1 after extra time”, and Argentina, and Lionel Messi, will win the 2022 World Cup on penalties.

As much as a Messi-led victory for Argentina will be “memorable”, a French victory will be “historic”, said Dan Roberts on Football Italia. It will be the “first time since 1962 that a nation has won the tournament twice in a row”. Obviously, it will “break Argentinian hearts”, but this is a France team that could be about to “go down in history”.

Right now, the latest odds are “about as close as they can be”, said Brian Good on Oddschecker. But, it looks as though France have the “early upper hand when it comes to the betting markets”. France are priced at 10/11 to lift the trophy, while Argentina are 19/20. Prices as of 15 December, according to Oddschecker.

Team news

Messi looked to have been holding his left hamstring during the win over Croatia, but the Argentine skipper insisted there was no problem and that he felt “really good”, “strong” and “ready to play each game”. Considering the way Messi “tore” Croatia to shreds, “potentially on one leg”, there’s almost “no chance he would be kept out of the World Cup final”, said Kyle Bonn on The Sporting News.

Argentina will also hope that winger Angel Di Maria will be fully fit, while full-backs Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel are both available after suspension. Nahuel Molina should keep his place at right-back, but Acuna could replace Nicolas Tagliafico at left-back.

In the semi-final, France were without midfielder Adrien Rabiot and defender Dayot Upamecano, who sat out the win against Morocco due to illness. They are both expected to be ready.

There have also been suggestions that Karim Benzema could make a “sensational return” to the France squad for the final, said Jonathan Gorrie in the London Evening Standard. The Ballon d’Or winner was ruled out of the tournament with a thigh injury, but with Deschamps not calling up a replacement it means that the Real Madrid striker is still registered on the 26-man squad. The 34-year-old has returned to training at Real and “could fly out” to Qatar in what would be a “dramatic boost” for Les Bleus.

Possible starting XIs

• Argentina: Martinez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Acuna, De Paul, Paredes, Fernandez, Mac Allister, Messi (captain), Alvarez
• France: Lloris (captain); Kounde, Varane, Konate, T. Hernandez, Rabiot, Tchouameni; Dembele, Griezmann, Mbappe; Giroud

The stadium

The 80,000-seater Lusail Stadium is the centrepiece of the Qatar World Cup and will host the final on Sunday. Located nine miles north of Doha, there have been six group games, one round of 16 match, one quarter-final and the semi-final between Argentina and Croatia previously held at the stadium during the tournament.

Squads

Argentina

• Head coach: Lionel Scaloni
• Key player: Lionel Messi
• One to watch: Julian Alvarez
• Goalkeepers: Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa), Franco Armani (River Plate) and Geronimo Rulli (Villarreal)
• Defenders: Gonzalo Montiel (Sevilla), Nahuel Molina (Atletico Madrid), German Pezzella (Real Betis), Cristian Romero (Tottenham Hotspur), Nicolas Otamendi (Benfica), Lisandro Martinez (Manchester United), Juan Foyth (Villarreal), Nicolas Tagliafico (Olympique Lyonnais), Marcos Acuna (Sevilla)
• Midfielders: Leandro Paredes (Juventus), Guido Rodriguez (Real Betis), Enzo Fernandez (Benfica), Rodrigo De Paul (Atletico Madrid), Exequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen), Alejandro Gomez (Sevilla), Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton & Hove Albion)
• Forwards: Paulo Dybala (AS Roma), Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain), Angel Di Maria (Juventus), Nicolas Gonzalez (Fiorentina), Joaquin Correa (Inter Milan), Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan), Julian Alvarez (Manchester City)

France

• Head coach: Didier Deschamps
• Key player: Kylian Mbappe
• One to watch: Aurelien Tchouameni
• Goalkeepers: Alphonse Areola (West Ham), Hugo Lloris (Tottenham), Steve Mandanda (Rennes)
• Defenders: Theo Hernandez (AC Milan), Ibrahima Konate (Liverpool), Jules Kounde (Barcelona), Benjamin Pavard (Bayern Munich), William Saliba (Arsenal), Dayot Upamecano (Bayern Munich), Raphael Varane (Manchester United), Axel Disasi (Monaco)
• Midfielders: Eduardo Camavinga (Real Madrid), Youssouf Fofana (Monaco), Matteo Guendouzi (Marseille), Adrien Rabiot (Juventus), Aurelien Tchouameni (Real Madrid), Jordan Veretout (Marseille)
• Forwards: Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich), Ousmane Dembele (Barcelona), Olivier Giroud (AC Milan), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Kylian Mbappe (Paris St-Germain), Randal Kolo Muani (Eintracht Frankfurt), Karim Benzema (Real Madrid)
• Injured and out of the World Cup: Lucas Hernandez (Bayern Munich)

As with every Fifa World Cup, much of the tournament chatter centres around which nation will lift the trophy and which players will shine on the biggest stage of all. And at Qatar 2022 there’s been one player in particular that the pundits and fans have talked about more than any other: Argentina captain Lionel Messi.

When Messi announced in October that this would be his fifth and final World Cup, the football writers around the globe focussed on how the 35-year-old had never won the sport’s biggest prize and it was “now or never”. Even Messi admitted that Qatar represented the last chance he would have of fulfilling his ambition of winning the World Cup with Argentina. “My last opportunity to make my dream, our dream, a reality,” he said.

After inspiring his nation in Qatar, he now has his date with destiny when Argentina take on holders France in Sunday’s final at the Lusail Stadium – in what will be his last World Cup match for his country.

Messi has come close before, when Argentina lost the 2014 final to Germany. And now he’s just one victory away from achieving that “dream” and emulating another legendary Argentine No.10, Diego Maradona, who captained La Albiceleste to World Cup glory at Mexico 86.

Can he complete the clean sweep?

During his long and glittering career Messi has won almost everything – he can look in his trophy cabinet and find seven Ballon d’Ors and winners’ medals from four Champions Leagues, ten Spanish La Liga titles, three Fifa Club World Cups and the Copa América with Argentina last year. There is, however, one big space left to fill in the cabinet – and that’s for the elusive World Cup winners’ medal.

With five goals so far in Qatar, he could “complete the clean sweep”, said BBC Sport. That would be lifting the trophy and winning the golden boot for top goalscorer and the golden ball for the tournament’s best player. The fact he has never won a World Cup – unlike compatriot Maradona or Brazil’s Pele – has “sometimes counted against him in debates about the best of all time”, but he has “a chance to remedy that” in Sunday’s final.

Messi has been “collecting records” in this tournament, said Rob Dawson on ESPN. Against Croatia in the 3-0 semi-final victory not only did he score his 11th World Cup goal, passing Gabriel “Batigol” Batistuta on Argentina’s all-time list, but he also equalled Germany’s Lothar Matthaus as the joint record appearance maker (25) in men’s World Cup history. Barring a last-minute injury, he will break that record on Sunday in his last World Cup match. “None of that will matter”, though, if this tournament “doesn’t end with a World Cup winners’ medal on his CV”, Dawson added.

‘Settle the GOAT debate once and for all’

He may be in his twilight years, but against Croatia in the semi-final the “diminutive No.10” proved that he is “not normal”, said Mark Doyle on Goal. After “tormenting” Josko Gvardiol on the right flank and cutting the ball back for Julian Alvarez to score his second of the night, the fans behind the goal “bowed before their god” once more. “And why wouldn’t they? What Messi has already achieved in Qatar is super-human.”

Messi has the “farewell he wished for” – a “goodbye” as far as Argentina is concerned, said Sid Lowe in The Guardian. “Still, what a way to go.” Of course, “it is not done yet” – the greatest game of all awaits, it is “colossal”. But even getting there “felt a little like something had been won”, like some “realisation” had been reached. “By Messi and about Messi.”

While his “nemesis” Cristiano Ronaldo “contemplates a future without a World Cup medal, and possibly a club no one has heard of”, Messi is just one win away from “settling the GOAT debate once and for all”, said Ben Snowball on Eurosport. For all his “dazzling artistry through the years”, he needs this one to “banish Pele and Maradona from the conversation”.

In his best “deep narrator voice”, Snowball captured the magnitude of what Messi could achieve at the Lusail Stadium: “The world stops. For one man’s search for destiny. His fans call him the GOAT. His haters call him Pessi. So can he prove them wrong and claim the one major trophy that has eluded him? **and breathe** Yes, Lionel Messi will go for World Cup glory.”

Sunday’s Fifa World Cup final between Argentina and France will kick-off at 3pm GMT. The match is live in the UK on both the BBC and ITV.

England and Portugal supporters won’t agree, but what a Fifa World Cup semi-final we have to look forward to at the Al Bayt Stadium on Wednesday evening. In the blue, white and red corner you have France, the reigning champions, while in the red and green corner you have Morocco, the underdogs and first African nation to ever reach the final four of a World Cup.

Didier Deschamps’s Les Bleus will go into the match as favourites, but Morocco’s superb victories over Belgium in group F, Spain in the round of 16 and Portugal in the last eight will give them huge confidence of causing another major upset against Kylian Mbappé and Co.

“Marvellous” Morocco have “lit up” this World Cup, said Shamoon Hafez on BBC Sport. Roared on by many fans in Qatar, they’re not just the first African side to reach the semi-finals, but also the “first Arab one from a country with a Muslim majority”. The “history makers” are now just one win from football’s showpiece fixture.

Head coach Walid Regragui has mastermind the Atlas Lions’s incredible run and he believes they are becoming a team everyone “loves” because they are showing what can be achieved. “It is not a miracle – those in Europe might say it is, but we have beaten Portugal, Spain, Belgium and drawn against Croatia without conceding,” Regragui said. “That is the result of hard work. African and Arab teams work hard but we have made our people happy and proud. The whole continent is proud. When you watch Rocky Balboa, you want to support him and we are the Rocky of this World Cup.”

Lloris expects ‘hostile’ atmosphere

Morocco’s run to the World Cup final four has the potential to “galvanise” football in Africa, said Veron Mosengo-Omba, general secretary of the Confederation of African Football (Caf). However, he told BBC Sport Africa that “dreaming” is not enough for the continent, and there needs to be more “long-term efforts”. Morocco have shown that “it is possible for Africa to shortly have more teams in the World Cup semi-final, and even in the final”, Mosengo-Omba added. But “galvanising and dreaming” is “not enough” to grow the game and make African football “more competitive” to win the World Cup. “It needs concrete actions and long-term efforts.”

Now one step from the final, Morocco and their fans will provide tough opposition for the holders at the Al Bayt Stadium. France captain Hugo Lloris is expecting a “hostile atmosphere” inside the stadium, but Les Bleus are “ready” for anything. “Obviously, it is already a success for Morocco – but, believe me, they won’t want to stop here,” said the French goalkeeper. “They want to become even more of a hero for their country. We prepare to respond to the demands of a semi-final of a World Cup – it doesn’t matter the opponent.”

The winners of Wednesday’s semi-final will go on to face Argentina in the 2022 Fifa World Cup final on Sunday at the Lusail Stadium.

Match facts

• Who: France vs. Morocco
• What: Fifa World Cup semi-final
• When: Wednesday 14 December 2022
• Where: Al Bayt Stadium
• Kick-off time: 7pm (all times GMT)

How to watch on TV in the UK

Wednesday’s semi-final clash between France and Morocco will be shown live in the UK on BBC One and iPlayer. TV coverage begins at 6.30pm and the match kicks off at 7pm.

Team news

French boss Deschamps does not have any suspension worries for the semi-final. It also did not appear that any of his players picked up injuries in the quarter-final win over England. He could name the same starting XI for the third match in a row.

Morocco striker Walid Cheddira was sent off for a second yellow card in the win over Portugal and will miss the semi-final because of suspension. The Atlas Lions could have some injury concerns in defence after captain Romain Saiss was stretchered off with a thigh injury against Portugal. Nayef Aguerd and Noussair Mazraoui are also doubtful after missing the quarter-final win.

Possible starting XIs

• France: Hugo Lloris; Jules Kounde, Raphael Varane, Dayot Upamecano, Theo Hernandez; Aurelien Tchouameni, Adrien Rabiot; Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe; Olivier Giroud
• Morocco: YYassine Bounou; Achraf Hakimi, Jawad El-Yamiq, Romain Saiss, Yahya Attiat-Allah; Azzedine Ounahi, Sofyan Amrabat, Selim Amallah; Hakim Ziyech, Youssef En-Nesyri, Sofiane Boufal

Predictions

France don’t play “dazzling football”, but they are “good to watch” because they have got “so many eye-catching players”, said Chris Sutton on BBC Sport. It is that “quality in attack” that should “make the difference” in this game as well. I am backing France to “score first and see it through”. Morocco will score, and they will “rely on adrenaline as much as their quality”, but I fear this will be “a game too far” for them. “I would love to be wrong, just because the African side have arguably been the best story of this World Cup, but this is probably where they say goodbye.” Prediction: France 2 Morocco 1.

Morocco’s “fitness troubles in the rearguard” will “surely spell the end” of their clean sheet streak, and likely their inspirational World Cup run, said Ben Knapton on SportsMole. Walid Regragui’s “wounded warriors” may very well try to rush themselves back for what could be a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, and France will “no doubt take advantage”, so a second successive final should be on the menu for Les Bleus. Prediction: France 2 Morocco 0.

It won’t come as a “huge shock” to learn Les Bleus are the “clear favourites” with the Opta match prediction model ahead of kick-off, said Ryan Benson on Opta Analyst. The “supercomputer” reckons Deschamps’ men have a “64.3% chance” of winning in normal time. Morocco, of course, “already defied the odds to get this far”, though their “13% likelihood of victory” is a reduction from 18.8% ahead of the Portugal game. “The draw and extra time is rated at 22.7%, and the Atlas Lions would presumably take that in a heartbeat.”

France, who may have the “most potent attack” of all the teams left in the competition, are favourites for the game, but they “must not underestimate their opponents”, who have already exceeded expectations, said Soyoye Jedidiah on SportsKeeda. Morocco’s “resolute” defence has been “key to their exploits” on the global stage, but the Africans “could fall to a superior side”. Prediction: France 2 Morocco 1.

It has been a “monumental effort” from Morocco, but this looks like it could be “one match too far for them”, particularly with a squad that is “now increasingly stretched”, said Matt Verri in the London Evening Standard. France have shown they “do not have to be at their best to get the job done” in the tournament, and they look set to reach a second World Cup final in a row. Prediction: France to win 2-0.

It is going to be “brutally difficult” for France to break Morocco down, “that much is clear”, said Kyle Bonn on Sporting News. At the risk of “doubting Morocco a third time”, it’s tough to imagine the Atlas Lions advancing to the World Cup final. An early goal will be “key” for France here, as the “longer they go without scoring”, the more “panic will set in and the more Morocco will grow in belief”. Prediction: France 1 Morocco 0.

As we have seen, Morocco “are not to be underestimated”, said Joe Brennan in AS. However, France have “so much firepower” together with a strong defence and “should be too much for the African side to make their way to the final”.

The stadium

This will be the ninth and last World Cup match played at the 60,000-capacity Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor. The design of the stadium, which also hosted the England vs. France quarter-final, is inspired by the tents historically used in the Gulf region.

Squads

France

• Head coach: Didier Deschamps
• Key player: Kylian Mbappe
• One to watch: Aurelien Tchouameni
• Goalkeepers: Alphonse Areola (West Ham), Hugo Lloris (Tottenham), Steve Mandanda (Rennes)
• Defenders: Theo Hernandez (AC Milan), Ibrahima Konate (Liverpool), Jules Kounde (Barcelona), Benjamin Pavard (Bayern Munich), William Saliba (Arsenal), Dayot Upamecano (Bayern Munich), Raphael Varane (Manchester United), Axel Disasi (Monaco)
• Midfielders: Eduardo Camavinga (Real Madrid), Youssouf Fofana (Monaco), Matteo Guendouzi (Marseille), Adrien Rabiot (Juventus), Aurelien Tchouameni (Real Madrid), Jordan Veretout (Marseille)
• Forwards: Kingsley Coman (Bayern Munich), Ousmane Dembele (Barcelona), Olivier Giroud (AC Milan), Antoine Griezmann (Atletico Madrid), Kylian Mbappe (Paris St-Germain), Randal Kolo Muani (Eintracht Frankfurt)
• Injured and out of the World Cup: Lucas Hernandez (Bayern Munich)

Morocco

• Head coach: Walid Regragui
• Key player: Achraf Hakimi
• One to watch: Sofiane Boufal
• Goalkeepers: Yassine Bounou (Sevilla), Munir El Kajoui (Al Wehda), Ahmed Reda Tagnaouti (Wydad Casablanca)
• Defenders: Nayef Aguerd (West Ham United), Yahia Attiat Allah (Wydad Casablanca), Badr Benoun (Qatar SC), Achraf Dari (Stade Brest), Jawad El Yamiq (Real Valladolid), Achraf Hakimi (Paris Saint-Germain), Noussair Mazraoui (Bayern Munich), Romain Saiss (Besiktas)
• Midfielders: Sofyan Amrabat (Fiorentina), Selim Amallah (Standard Liege), Bilal El Khannouss (Racing Genk), Yahya Jabrane (Wydad Casablanca), Azzedine Ounahi (Angers), Abdelhamid Sabiri (Sampdoria)
• Forwards: Zakaria Aboukhlal (Toulouse), Soufiane Boufal (Angers), Ilias Chair (Queens Park Rangers), Walid Cheddira (Bari), Youssef En-Nesyri (Sevilla), Abde Ezzalzouli (Osasuna), Abderrazak Hamdallah (Al Ittihad), Amine Harit (Olympique Marseille), Hakim Ziyech (Chelsea)

Both Argentina and Croatia needed penalty shoot-out victories to reach the semi-finals of the Fifa World Cup – and this match at Lusail Stadium on Tuesday night has the potential to go the distance again.

Lionel Messi and Luka Modric, the captains and No.10s of Argentina and Croatia respectively, could well hold the key to unlocking their opponents’ defence. But should they breach the backline they will then face two of the tournament’s top goalkeepers. Argentina keeper Emiliano Martinez made two saves in the shoot-out win over the Netherlands. While Croatia stopper Dominik Livakovic made one penalty save against Brazil, adding to the three that he made against Japan in the round of 16 shoot-out.

Messi, who has scored four goals so far at Qatar 2022, will no doubt be Argentina’s main attacking threat. There’s also the added storyline of the 35-year-old aiming to win a first World Cup in what is his fifth and final tournament.

Croatia, who are looking to reach their second successive World Cup final, will “need to guard” against the Argentina skipper, but they have “nothing to fear”, said head coach Zlatko Dalic. He told Fifa+ that his team won’t man-mark Messi “in a player-on-player style”, as they didn’t do that in their last meeting against Neymar and Brazil.

“We know how much he runs, how much he likes to play with the ball at his feet and the key to our defensive phase will be discipline,” Dalic added. “If we repeat the same thing as against Brazil, which is that we are close [to him], that we stand by the player, we have nothing to fear.”

The winners of this match will return to the Lusail Stadium for Sunday’s Fifa World Cup final where they will face France or Morocco.

Match facts

• Who: Argentina vs. Croatia
• What: Fifa World Cup semi-final
• When: Tuesday 13 December 2022
• Where: Lusail Stadium
• Kick-off time: 7pm (all times GMT)

How to watch on TV in the UK

Tuesday’s semi-final clash between Argentina and Croatia will be shown live in the UK on ITV1 and ITVX. TV coverage begins at 6.15pm and the match kicks off at 7pm.

Team news

Argentina full-backs Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel are both suspended, so Nicolas Tagliafico should come in on the left while Nahuel Molina will continue on the right. Winger Angel Di Maria came off the bench against the Netherlands, and his fitness could be a key factor in whether head coach Lionel Scaloni “opts for a four- or five-man defence”, said Marc Mayo in the London Evening Standard. Papu Gomez missed the quarter-final with an ankle knock and remains a doubt.

Croatia head coach Dalic has no suspension or injury worries. Left-back Borna Sosa returned for the win over Brazil while striker Bruno Petkovic is pushing for a start after scoring the late extra-time equaliser in the quarter-final.

Possible starting XIs

• Argentina: Emiliano Martinez; Nahuel Molina, Cristian Romero, Nicolas Otamendi, Lisandro Martinez, Nicolas Tagliafico; Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernandez, Alexis Mac Allister; Julian Alvarez, Lionel Messi
• Croatia: Dominik Livakovic: Josip Juranovic, Dejan Lovren, Josko Gvardiol, Borna Sosa; Luka Modric, Marcelo Brozovic, Mateo Kovacic; Andrej Kramaric, Mario Pasalic, Ivan Perisic

Predictions

“I put my hands up here” because I have written off Croatia numerous times throughout this tournament, said Chris Sutton on BBC Sport. “And I don’t mind saying I’ve got them badly wrong.” Who knows how this game will play out and I would say it is “50-50 in terms of who will win”. But I haven’t done too badly “following my heart rather than my head”, so “I am going to do it again” and send Messi through to the final. “Yes, this means I am writing off Croatia yet again – which probably means another shoot-out, which they will win.” Prediction: Argentina 1 Croatia 0.

Ahead of kick-off, the Opta supercomputer makes Argentina “the favourites to progress without needing penalties (55.8%)”, said Patric Ridge on Opta Analyst. Croatia are given a “17.9% chance” of winning. Eight of Croatia’s last nine World Cup knockout matches have gone to extra-time, however, “so do not be surprised if this match is drawn over 90 minutes, or even 120”.

Another World Cup knockout game for Croatia, another period of extra time? “Strap in”, said Ben Knapton on SportsMole. Knowing how “dangerous” the Croatians are from 12 yards, Lionel Scaloni should “call upon his enviable wealth of attacking options” to try to “put the game to bed” in normal time, but it may take 120 minutes for La Albiceleste to deny the Checkered Ones another final appearance and set up a “tantalising contest” with Morocco or France. Prediction: Argentina 2 Croatia 1 (after extra time).

Despite Croatia’s “impressive showing” against Brazil, I am backing Argentina to deliver Messi his first World Cup victory, said Matthew Williams on Goal. I would expect a “low-scoring, highly-contested” match that is decided by corner kicks and individual brilliance. “Both of these categories favour Argentina.” Prediction: Argentina 2 Croatia 0.

After the way Croatia played against Brazil, “it’s hard to see why they can’t muster the same performance” against a similar opponent in Argentina, said Kyle Bonn on Sporting News. Argentina “do not look inspired” in the final third, and seeing as they’ll miss a few players due to yellow card suspensions, “Croatia could do the business again here with a pragmatic performance”.

Given how both teams have operated thus far, “it’s going to be very tight”, said Jonathan Gorrie in the London Evening Standard. Messi, however, “could prove the difference” for Argentina. Croatia “don’t hold too much of an attacking threat outside of penalties” and the Argentina captain could “punish them” in a game of few chances. Prediction: Argentina to win 1-0.

That “tightness” between the two teams makes this contest “almost impossible to predict over 90 minutes”, said Feargal Brennan on Football Italia. A draw at the end of normal time is a “strong possibility” – and extra time and penalties further down the line.

The stadium

The 80,000-seater Lusail Stadium is the centrepiece of the Qatar World Cup and will host the final next Sunday. Located nine miles north of Doha, six group games, one round of 16 match and the quarter-final between the Netherlands and Argentina have so far been held at the stadium.

Squads

Argentina

• Head coach: Lionel Scaloni
• Key player: Lionel Messi
• One to watch: Julian Alvarez
• Goalkeepers: Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa), Franco Armani (River Plate) and Geronimo Rulli (Villarreal)
• Defenders: Gonzalo Montiel (Sevilla), Nahuel Molina (Atletico Madrid), German Pezzella (Real Betis), Cristian Romero (Tottenham Hotspur), Nicolas Otamendi (Benfica), Lisandro Martinez (Manchester United), Juan Foyth (Villarreal), Nicolas Tagliafico (Olympique Lyonnais), Marcos Acuna (Sevilla)
• Midfielders: Leandro Paredes (Juventus), Guido Rodriguez (Real Betis), Enzo Fernandez (Benfica), Rodrigo De Paul (Atletico Madrid), Exequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen), Alejandro Gomez (Sevilla), Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton & Hove Albion)
• Forwards: Paulo Dybala (AS Roma), Lionel Messi (Paris Saint-Germain), Angel Di Maria (Juventus), Nicolas Gonzalez (Fiorentina), Joaquin Correa (Inter Milan), Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan), Julian Alvarez (Manchester City)

Croatia

• Head coach: Zlatko Dalić
• Key player: Luka Modric
• One to watch: Josko Gvardiol
• Goalkeepers: Domink Livakovic (Dinamo Zagreb), Ivica Ivusic (NK Osijek), Ivo Grbic (Atletico Madrid)
• Defenders: Domagoj Vida (AEK Athens), Dejan Lovren (Zenit St Petersburg), Borna Barisic (Rangers), Josip Juranovic (Celtic), Josko Gvardiol (RB Leipzig), Borna Sosa (VfB Stuttgart), Josip Stanisic (Bayern Munich), Martin Erlic (Sassuolo), Josip Sutalo (Dinamo Zagreb)
• Midfielders: Luka Modric (Real Madrid), Mateo Kovacic (Chelsea), Marcelo Brozovic (Inter Milan), Mario Pasalic (Atalanta), Nikola Vlasic (Torino, on loan from West Ham), Lovro Majer (Rennes), Kristijan Jakic (Eintracht Frankfurt), Luka Sucic (RB Salzburg)
• Forwards: Ivan Perisic (Tottenham), Andrej Kramaric (1899 Hoffenheim), Bruno Petkovic (Dinamo Zagreb), Mislav Orsic (Dinamo Zagreb), Ante Budimir (Osasuna), Marko Livaja (Hajduk Split)

It was another night of World Cup heartbreak for England as they were beaten 2-1 by holders France. Harry Kane equalled Wayne Rooney’s England’s scoring record with the 53rd goal for his country, but a late penalty miss proved decisive in the quarter-final at the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor.

Aurelien Tchouameni had given the reigning champions the lead with a superbly struck effort from outside the box on 17 minutes, but captain Kane equalised with a penalty nine minutes into the second-half. Olivier Giroud’s header then put Les Bleus back into the lead on 78 minutes and it proved to be the winning goal. Kane had a late chance to score a second equaliser from the spot, but he blazed his kick high over the bar.

The defeat was England’s seventh in ten World Cup quarter-finals, said Mitch Phillips on Reuters. And it marked another “four years of hurt” since their solitary triumph in 1966.

Regrets and a cruel outcome

Gareth Southgate and his Three Lions players “nursed a familiar sense of missed opportunity” as an elusive major tournament triumph “escaped them once more”, said Phil McNulty on BBC Sport. A “brutal outcome”, England’s display against France “deserved at least to drag the game into extra time”.

As England found a way in Al Khor “to go out of the World Cup on penalties”, it was a “cruel” ending for Kane, said Barney Ronay in The Guardian. “Let’s not dress it up”, the penalty miss will “come to haunt” the skipper because he “loves this stuff, knows his strengths, his role, and because he feels it so deeply with England”. Kane’s penalty will now “stay up there, lost in the thin desert air” and “merge and mingle” with the other spot kicks that “never fell back to earth”.

The “biggest regret” for England, and the difference this time around, is that the tournament was “there for the taking”, said Jamie Carragher in The Telegraph. The “same old outcome” does not mean we are watching the “same old England” and “seeing the same old story”. If England had beaten France, “I would genuinely have believed England were about to win the World Cup”.

What next for Southgate?

England boss Southgate, who led his team to the World Cup semi-finals in 2018 and the final of the Euros last summer, will “review and reflect” on his side’s defeat before making a decision on his future.

“Whenever I’ve finished these tournaments I’ve needed time to make correct decisions because emotionally you go through so many different feelings and the energy that it takes through these tournaments is enormous,” he said. “So I want to make the right decision, whenever that is, for the team, for England, for the FA.”

Appointed in October 2016, Southgate’s current contract runs until December 2024. He admitted that he had found “large parts” of the last 18 months “difficult” and that he was “conflicted” about his future in the role. “I don’t want to be four, five months down the line thinking I’ve made the wrong call,” said the 52-year-old. “It’s too important for everybody to get that wrong.”

Didier Deschamps’s French side are now on course to retain the trophy they won in Russia four years ago. Describing the quarter-final victory over England as “fabulous”, the French head coach admitted that his team “got a bit lucky”, but praised his players for keeping their lead with “our hearts and our guts”.

With the World Cup semi-final line-up now complete in Qatar, Argentina will face Croatia on Tuesday and France play Morocco on Wednesday.