South African football news

France’s captain has played with a sense of unfinished business but he will be 31 when the next World Cup begins It was only last month that Kylian Mbappé suggested all roads may lead to Florida. He was in sufficiently mischievous mood to reveal David Beckham had been chewing his ear off about a move to Major League…

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Broadcasters expect to have time to analyse the game Channels planning for break to last 25 to 30 minutes ITV and BBC are planning to screen in full Fifa’s controversial half-time show from the final at the New York New Jersey Stadium on Sunday, but the broadcasters remain in the dark over how long it will last. The…

Luis de la Fuente’s final-bound team have been fuelled by togetherness and a commitment to each other that goes back a long way On the way out of the dressing room in Arlington, Luis de la Fuente gathered his “family” and delivered one last message before the World Cup semi-final against France . He had long known w…

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England World Cup winner died in 2020 but his death was never reported by authorities to the coroner’s office The England footballer and World Cup winner Nobby Stiles died with a brain condition caused by repeatedly heading a football, a coroner has ruled. Stiles, a tenacious, tough-tackling midfielder described by…

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We often call England v Argentina a grudge match – a simple story of mutual hatred. But the truth is far more complex, says the Guardian’s Jonathan Liew. It began with British influence, raising Argentina as a ‘faithful son’ in their own image through polo, tea, and football. But decades of nationalist rejection, ic…

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⚽ Dramatic late goals set up World Cup final with Spain ⚽ The semi-final – in pictures | Golden Boot | Player guide England’s defenders will face an extreme challenge when they come up against Lionel Messi in their World Cup semi-final. It is not just that he is the greatest player of all time but the almost unique…

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Proposal to protect vulnerable and stop money laundering could affect Premier League clubs and Formula One UK politics live – latest updates Unlicensed casinos could be banned from sponsoring sports teams in the UK from next year, in a move that poses financial questions for Premier League football clubs such as Eve…

West Ham winger available for right price after relegation Rashford has two years remaining on United contract Manchester United will target Crysencio Summerville should Marcus Rashford leave this summer, with the West Ham winger’s potential fee around £30m. Summerville is viewed as having the right profile in regar…

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Lionesses goalkeeper heading to Villa on a free transfer Millie Turner moves to Birmingham City for £100,000 Aston Villa have signed the former Everton goalkeeper Emily Ramsey on a free transfer. The 25-year-old received a call-up by England in 2023 – as part of the squad that won that year’s invitational Arnold Cla…

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Fifa did not appear before court in Frankfurt Governing body receives 15% commission from buyer and seller Fifa has been hit with an injunction by a German court ordering it to stop “manipulative processes” in the sale of World Cup tickets. The Frankfurt regional court has granted a request for a preliminary injunct…

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‘Nowadays Jairzinho works with kids in the favelas of Rio where the unwritten rule is that visitors have to leave by 5pm. I asked for 10 more minutes and when I turned round, a guy had pulled a gun on my crew’ I’m not a mad football fan. What I most love about the game is its universal appeal – it’s all about a ball…

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now! For a second there, it felt as if this was going to be a rerun for France of the Human Rights World Cup final . Conceding a penalty at the end of the first quarter and looking lost for most of the game, Les Bleus would eventually click. Kylian Mbappé would lock int…

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Whether it is our ‘identity maths’, naked nostalgia or diaspora experience. All seem scarred by the political contexts bearing down on this tournament Don’t already get The Long Wave in your inbox? Sign up here I have measured my life in World Cups. The first blurry moments of childhood memory, the passing into adol…

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

L’Équipe laments ‘mentally sunk’ players in Dallas Ouest France front page reads: ‘End of American dream’ French fans’ expectations of their national team had been at an all-time high: a semi-final on Bastille Day, Kylian Mbappé a hero, a squad unbeaten. Across the country, bars had been packed with viewers ­spillin…

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Brilliant buildup play has often withered but control and flawless execution overcame France’s more variable chaos When the World Cup came to North America, with its final held in the planet’s biggest media market, the tournament was bound to fixate on stars. Fox’s coverage certainly enables that bias. Every game is…

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Not everyone supports the country where they were born or grew up. Sometimes fans are won over by a player, place, population or style of play Footballers need to be born in a country or have a family tie to that place to represent them at the World Cup, but those rules do not apply to supporters. Sometimes fans are…

Match officials are enforcing tweaks to the laws of the game that have hardly been tested. The results? Drama, ‘mistaken identities’ and lots of confusion In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, the titular characters occasionally played a game known as Calvinball . The rules were amorphous. At any moment, something l…

Wayne Rooney previews England v Argentina.

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Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni says he is "not going to mix" football and politics before his side's World Cup semi-final against England.

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Will Keane and Harry Kane used to be team-mates for England Under-19s - but this week the former strike partners are on very different paths.

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