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
Manchester City’s chief executive struck a defiant note Wednesday in his first public comments on the team’s possible ban from the Champions League, saying charges that the club broke cost-control regulations in pursuit of on-field success were untrue. The chief executive, Ferran Soriano, made his comments in a video interview posted on the team’s website […] More
DORTMUND, Germany — Borussia Dortmund’s players hung back a little, idling halfway between the center circle and the goal. With Paris St.-Germain jerseys slung over their shoulders, the spoils of battle, they clapped each other on the back, they exchanged high fives, they ruffled each others’ hair. Most of all, though, they waited for him […] More
MADRID — Atlético Madrid scored early and then defended well to beat Liverpool, 1-0, in the first leg of the Champions League’s round of 16 on Tuesday, spoiling the reigning champion’s return to the place where it had won the European title last year. Midfielder Saúl Ñíguez netted in the fourth minute, and Atlético’s defense […] More
MADRID — Diego Simeone loved the way the sunlight hit the stands at the Vicente Calderón. First as an Atlético Madrid player, and then as its manager, he relished home games in the stadium in late afternoon, when he could look up from the field and see the red and white seats glinting in the […] More
MANCHESTER, England — Manchester City needed only a few minutes to come out swinging. It has been that way right from the start, right from the moment Der Spiegel, the German newsmagazine, started publishing the series of exposés that became known as Football Leaks. City responded to the allegations contained in those leaks — not […] More
