Lionel Messi’s word choice was telling. Perhaps he has started to develop a little resistance to Barcelona’s capacity for self-immolation over the last few weeks. The club has, after all, spent most of 2020 lurching and bouncing from one drama to another, almost all of them of the team’s own making. There was the abysmal […] More
FIFA has turned to an American financial advisory firm to jump-start its efforts to secure the $1 billion it will require to successfully launch its inaugural 24-team Club World Cup next year. Hiring the firm, the Raine Group, which has experience in closing deals in the sports sector, suggests that a tender process begun by […] More
BURNLEY, England — They tell the old war stories quite often at Burnley nowadays, and with a certain amount of nostalgic glee. They remember the days — not so very long ago — when instead of an ice bath to soothe weary legs, the club had a trash can filled with freezing cold water. These […] More
Enjoying this newsletter every week? Forward it to a friend and tell them to sign up at nytimes.com/rory. Manchester City’s fans do not see themselves as victims. They are — they feel — like the lucky ones, the lottery winners. More than that, in fact. Any fool can win the lottery. Manchester City earned it. […] More
The United States Soccer Federation and the members of its World Cup champion women’s national team each proposed a way out of their bitter equal pay lawsuit in court filings late Thursday night. The federation sought to avoid a looming gender discrimination trial by asking the judge to dismiss the players’ claim. The women’s players […] More
The N.F.L.’s 32 teams moved quickly on Thursday to approve a new proposed labor agreement that includes a 17th regular-season game and an expanded playoff structure. Under the proposal, the playoffs would grow from 12 teams to 14. Team owners, including John Mara of the Giants, the chairman of the N.F.L.’s management council, declined to […] More
LONDON — Swiss prosecutors on Thursday charged Nasser al-Khelaifi, a Qatari businessman who is one of the most prominent figures in soccer, with inciting a former secretary general at FIFA to break the law and the official, Jérôme Valcke, with accepting bribes and criminal mismanagement. The charges came more than two years after the Swiss […] More
The N.F.L. playoffs could expand to include two extra teams as soon as this coming season under a proposed labor agreement now being reviewed by the owners and players, according to a league official who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly. In the new playoff structure, a seventh team from each conference would qualify for the […] More
