Sports

No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Notre Dame both lose, and the Big 12 admits Notre Dame was wrongly denied a last play at BYU →

BYU beat second-ranked Notre Dame 28-24 on Saturday night, and the Big 12 later said one second was still on the clock when the game was ended. Hours earlier top-ranked Georgia lost to unranked Auburn, on a day when five of US college football's top eight teams lost.

The NBA tells its betting partners to stop selling bets on one player's first basket, the opening tip and stacked unders by one player →

After players were charged in betting cases, the NBA banned bets a single player can decide, but its rules reach only the firms it has deals with, not prediction apps.

College football's playoff nears a deal to double to 24 teams in 2027, with ESPN buying the extra games and the conference title games scrapped →

The College Football Playoff is close to growing from 12 teams to 24, with ESPN paying an estimated $325m a year more and each league's own championship game dropped to make room.

FIFA plans to give each of its 211 national football associations $25m, not $10m, from World Cup money, five months before they vote on Infantino →

FIFA's council meets in Zurich on Thursday to consider a $6.35bn development fund for 2027 to 2030, more than double what was planned, much of it from savings the World Cup filled. Infantino's critics had asked for more money for members, nobody has yet entered the race against him, and US tax papers show he was paid $1.72m that FIFA's own report left out.

Formula One will race in Africa again for the first time since 1993, after Rwanda signs a 10-year deal for a Grand Prix from the early 2030s →

Rwanda's government will build a track beside a new airport south of Kigali and counts the race as part of a plan to bring in tourists and investors. South Africa had up to four rival plans and Morocco never found the money; rights groups call it sportswashing.

Women's football heads for $1bn a year, but Fifpro finds the typical top-flight player earns $1,669 a month →

A survey of about 800 women in top leagues by Fifpro, the footballers' union, finds average pay has tripled since 2017 while most players earn far less, many are not paid all year, and almost half are thinking of quitting early.

The Arizona Cardinals trade Marvin Harrison Jr., the fourth pick of the 2024 NFL draft, to the Houston Texans for a second-round pick and a swap of late-round picks →

Arizona sold Harrison two and a half years after drafting him, for less than the first-round pick it wanted. Houston gets a 24-year-old receiver for about $9.6m over two seasons; Arizona keeps the $22.5m bonus it already paid.

Riders refuse to start Il Lombardia for five minutes over cars on race roads, then Paul Seixas, 20, becomes its youngest winner →

Cycling's riders stood still at the start of one of the sport's five great one-day races after a rider's death and two more vehicles on Italian courses in a week. Also: fans stop a Madrid match, Portugal suspends Ronaldo, and the top two US college football teams change places.

Everton's owners, The Friedkin Group, put the club up for sale less than two years after buying it →

The Texas group that owns Everton, and also owns Roma in Italy, says it may sell control of the club. It paid about 400 million pounds in 2024, and press reports put the asking price at about twice that.

Major League Baseball proposes cutting its season from 162 to 154 games in 2029, and ties it to a salary cap the players refuse →

Baseball's owners offered a weekly day off and a longer playoff round, timed for the national TV deals that start in 2029. The players' union says every offer depends on a salary cap it will not accept.

Jon Rahm tells LIV Golf's bankruptcy court he will not join LIV 2.0, and other players are expected to follow →

Golf's breakaway LIV tour lost its Saudi money and went bust. Its biggest star, Jon Rahm, says its new terms are unacceptable and is leaving, while a court lets LIV cancel the other players' contracts.

EuroLeague's club owners turn down the NBA's offer and vote to make their own places in the league permanent →

The 13 clubs that own Europe's top basketball league met near Lake Como on Tuesday. They said no to working with the NBA, and agreed that their ten-year licences should become places that never run out.

Alex Ovechkin says his 22nd NHL season will be his last, on a one-year deal that puts more than half his pay in a bonus →

The ice hockey league's all-time top goalscorer, 41, told his Washington Capitals teammates on Monday. His $4.25m wage plus a $4.75m bonus helped the club afford two new forwards.

Formula One's own engine software stalls cars in the rain before the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia, and Verstappen wins his first race of 2026 →

A bug in the software every Formula One car must run left cars crawling on the formation laps at Sepang, and the start was delayed by an hour and a half. Verstappen then won, Russell's engine failed, and Antonelli now leads by 84 points.

England beat Croatia 7-0 in a stadium shut as a punishment for racism, where UEFA's own rules let 6,200 children in free →

UEFA closed Croatia's ground over its fans' racism, but its rules let in children under 14. England won 7-0, Croatia's worst defeat ever.

The NFL suspends 49ers owner Jed York for six games and fines him $500,000, the same punishment it gave the Colts' owner in 2014 →

Half of York's ban had already passed when the NFL announced it. Also today: Manchester City lodge their appeal, college football's play-off reaches its TV deadline, and Wakefield play for their first Super League title.

Rome, Cincinnati and the Canadian Open will pay women the same as men from 2027, so all seven of tennis's big joint events now do →

The WTA, which runs women's tennis, also cut the number of mid-level events its top players must enter. Men won $9.6m in prize money at Rome this year, and women $8.3m.

Cristiano Ronaldo walks out of Portugal's camp after the new coach says he will start on the bench again →

Coach Jorge Jesus says a 41-year-old cannot play every three days. Ronaldo, the men's record international scorer, left a day before Portugal play Denmark and says he will explain later.

Ice hockey's NHL clubs are worth $2.43bn on average as the season starts, 16% more than a year ago. The Islanders agreed to sell 15% of theirs at a $3bn value. →

Sportico's yearly count puts the Toronto Maple Leafs top at $4.8bn. A fixed limit on player pay, money shared between clubs and bigger TV deals explain most of the rise.

The US Senate votes 77-22 to let college sport cap what athletes are paid without being sued. The House is not due back until after November's elections. →

The bill more than doubles what a school may pay its players, to about $49m a year, and shields that limit from most lawsuits. A cap on coaches' pay was voted down.

Brandon McNulty, whose job is helping Tadej Pogacar win, becomes the first American man in 33 years to win cycling's world road race →

Pogacar was out hurt, the race is ridden in national teams, and two American teammates kept the chasers from catching McNulty in Montreal.

Stephen Curry signs for about $20m less than he could have, to leave the Warriors room to spend →

The Warriors' 38-year-old star agreed two more years for $116m on Friday. The gap gives the club about $10m more to spend on other players next summer.

Manchester City are found guilty of breaking the Premier League's spending rules. The punishment is still to come. →

A private panel of three judges has found the club guilty on 114 of 115 charges, eight years after leaked emails started the case. Sanctions are not decided, City will appeal, and the other clubs are preparing to sue.

The WNBA's playoffs start on Sunday. The Mystics took fifth place from the Fever on the games between them. →

Eight teams are left in the WNBA, the top women's basketball league in the US, and two of them finished level on 28-16. The Washington Mystics went fifth because they won two of their three games against the Indiana Fever.

Brisbane can win a third AFL title in a row on Saturday. Their star midfielder is banned for the final unless an appeal on Thursday frees him. →

Lachie Neale lost his tribunal case on Tuesday under a rule that gives every gut punch a one-match ban. Manchester United and Barcelona both reported record income and a loss, and baseball and the WNBA reached their last week.

The Presidents Cup starts on Thursday. The Americans have lost it once in 15 tries, and the PGA Tour runs both teams. →

Golf's Presidents Cup begins at Medinah, near Chicago, with the United States heavily favoured again. The PGA Tour owns the event and runs both sides, and the International captain says his team needs more independence.

Three of American football's young quarterbacks were hurt in two days. Every man who replaced them had been signed months earlier. →

Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Jaxson Dart all left games inside 48 hours. Nobody can buy a quarterback in September, so each club played the spare it had already paid for.

Savers' retirement money helped buy baseball's Dodgers and basketball's Lakers, a lawsuit says →

Mark Walter owns two of the biggest clubs in American sport. A class action filed this week says the insurance companies he owns put 42 per cent of their customers' money into businesses he controls, while telling regulators the figure was 3 per cent.

Football's best-player prize is decided by a jury of journalists. The favourites spent this week campaigning for their votes. →

The Ballon d'Or is handed out in London on 26 October by journalists picked by a French magazine, and its rules leave most of the judging to them. So Kylian Mbappe, Lamine Yamal and Harry Kane all spent this week explaining what their own season should be worth.

F1 will run 10 sprint races next year, even at Monaco. It has still not said where this season ends. →

Formula One's 2027 calendar swaps practice sessions for extra races on ten weekends and opens in Bahrain, while the last two races of 2026, in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, wait on the war with Iran. Also: the Asian Games open without an athletes' village, two star quarterbacks bet on next year's pay, and a $230m contract keeps a struggling quarterback on the field.

College football lets schools pay players $21.6m. The richest are spending about $50m. →

A count of every big school's player budget shows Ohio State and Oregon near $50m and Boston College near $10m, as the US Senate starts debating a law that would roughly double the limit.

Clearlake bought out Chelsea's chairman and his partner for a reported 950m pounds. Lower down English football, owners are tired of paying losses. →

Chelsea's biggest owner took control after buying out Todd Boehly and Mark Walter, while advisers say at least half the clubs further down English football want new money or a buyer. Also: Tottenham's owners pay in again, Garcia stops Benn, tennis players end their public pay campaign, and the Asian Games open in the rain.

The NBA is in talks to buy control of European basketball. It says it will start its own league either way. →

Adam Silver confirmed negotiations to become EuroLeague's majority owner, and said the NBA's 16-team European league does not need the deal to happen.

Kawhi Leonard's trade to Toronto, agreed in June, went through on Monday. He gave up a $7.45m bonus to help it happen. →

The Clippers sent Kawhi Leonard back to Toronto 76 days after agreeing the deal, once the NBA had punished them for paying him outside the salary cap; Europe won golf's Solheim Cup back, and Marc Marquez drew level at the top of MotoGP.

Athletics put $10m on three nights in Budapest. Second place there paid more than a world title. →

World Athletics ran its first Ultimate Championship, with the best 16 in each event, no limit per country and $150,000 for every winner. It wants a big television event for the one year in four with no Olympics and no World Championships.

The NBA's owners meet on Monday. The record Lakers sale is not up for a vote; two new teams and a suspended owner are. →

Basketball's 30 owners gather in New York on Monday and Tuesday. The $12.5bn sale of the Lakers is reported to be off the agenda, while the price of two new teams, a league in Europe and the punished Clippers are on it. Across the day, a league is a club: its members vote on who joins, who is thrown out, and what a newcomer pays.