Sports, in brief

All 32 clubs in the NFL, American football's biggest league, had to hand in a 53-man squad at 6pm New York time on Sunday [1][4].

The New York Giants and the New England Patriots each got there by cutting 38 players from a 91-man training camp roster [1][2].

For hundreds of those players, the weekend ended their employment in the league [3].

No club could see the other 31 lists while it decided. The released names went onto the waiver list, which clubs worked through on Monday morning [2].

The Patriots, beaten in February's Super Bowl [21], hold only the 31st of 32 claims on those players [2]: the queue runs in reverse order of last season's table, so the strongest clubs pick last.

There is a second chance: each club may also carry a 16-player practice squad, and many of Sunday's cuts are re-signed within two days [4][11].

Odell Beckham Jr., 33 and without a regular-season game for the Giants since 2018, made their squad after a knee injury to Calvin Austin III opened a place six days earlier [1][5].

Will Levis, drafted 33rd overall by the Tennessee Titans three years ago, was released after slipping behind two other quarterbacks [3].

On the same weekend Aaron Donald ended a retirement of more than two years and signed for the Los Angeles Rams: one year at $20m, up to $30m with bonuses [6].

The league has no retirement paperwork. A player counts as retired once he has gone a year without a contract, and returns by applying to commissioner Roger Goodell [7].

Cleveland named Deshaun Watson its starting quarterback partly because releasing him now would leave a record $127m charge against the club's spending limit [8][9].

The Green Bay Packers lost their lead running back hours before the deadline, when the league put Josh Jacobs on its exempt list after a battery charge [12][13].

Money shapes the last few names: cutting three players would have saved the Minnesota Vikings $12.5m, and how much a club saves depends on how each contract was written [14][64].

Why it matters. Watch the practice-squad signings over the next two days: how many clubs quietly take their own cuts back is the measure of how much of Sunday was judgement and how much was the clock [4][11].

The Tampa city council voted 4-3, and Hillsborough County commissioners 5-2, to put up to $876m of public money into a new stadium for the Tampa Bay Rays [16][17]. The baseball club pays about $1.37bn and all cost overruns [18].

Why it matters. Economists have repeatedly found stadium subsidies deliver little or no public economic gain, and the county's share alone is $796m [18].

The NFL's 32 owners approved the sale of the Seattle Seahawks to Vinod and Neeru Khosla for $9.612bn, the highest price ever paid for an American football club [20][21][22].

Why it matters. It is only the third NFL club sold in a decade, and it passes from the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen to a Silicon Valley investor [22].

The SEC, the Big Ten and the Big 12 each passed rules within 48 hours barring athletes who have signed a professional contract or appeared on a professional roster from playing for their universities [23][24][25].

Why it matters. Until this month no player had ever left an NFL club in order to sign with a college; court rulings on eligibility opened the route, and the conferences are now writing over the top of it [28].

Louisiana State University's president abstained from the SEC vote on penalties, which passed 15-0. The university had lined up three former professionals, and the SEC says it will fight a Louisiana court order that let one of them play [26][27].

Why it matters. LSU has been the most aggressive university in signing players from the professional ranks, and Louisiana's governor's office did not comment [26].

League executive Troy Vincent said any player who returns to college football will not be eligible to play in the NFL until 2027 [25].

Why it matters. Both ends of the route are now closed within a week of each other.

The three-time defensive player of the year signed a one-year, $20m deal with the Los Angeles Rams, joining Myles Garrett, whom the club traded for in June [6][7].

Why it matters. The Rams are the only club starting the season with two players who have won that award more than once [6].

Ollie Watkins, Aston Villa's record Premier League scorer with 91 goals, completed a 51m pound move to Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia on a three-year deal, having made himself unavailable for Villa's opening match [29].

Why it matters. Villa were fined 22.5m euros by UEFA in June for breaking its squad-cost rule, and are the Premier League club closest to the record for sales in one window [30].

Eleven Premier League clubs paid more for a player this summer than they ever had before. Chelsea spent $476m, including $159.6m on Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers; Tottenham broke their record twice [31][30].

Why it matters. A record fee at eleven of the twenty clubs in one summer is a league-wide reset of what a player costs, not one club overspending.

Swedish club Djurgardens agreed a fee thought to be over 1.5m pounds for Boreham Wood winger Abdul Abdulmalik [32]. It beats the English fifth-tier record set when Leicester paid 1m pounds for Jamie Vardy in 2012 [32].

Why it matters. Boreham Wood had rejected bids of 1m and 1.5m earlier in the summer, and the player then made himself unavailable [32].

The European Leagues, which represents Europe's domestic competitions, said through Claudius Schafer that there is no future at FIFA for its president Gianni Infantino, and that it has complained to the European Commission about the international match calendar [33].

Why it matters. The Italian and Romanian federations both withdrew support for his re-election the same week [34].

UEFA, European football's governing body, dropped its threat to boycott FIFA competitions after written assurance that the plan to sell a stake in them was permanently withdrawn [34]. Days later it raised the prospect of criminal action [35].

Why it matters. The boycott would have stopped six European teams playing at the women's under-20 World Cup, which starts in Poland on 5 September [34].

The Bundesliga awarded UK and Ireland live rights for some matches to Jamie Vardy's YouTube channel, replacing The Overlap. Sky Sports keeps Saturday nights [36].

Why it matters. Germany's league says it does these deals to be found by people who were not looking for it, and by viewers with different habits [36].

Sky agreed to acquire ITV's media and entertainment business. ITV says it reaches about 40 million people a week; combined, the two would account for around 20% of all in-home viewing in the UK [37].

Why it matters. Two of the biggest buyers of British televised sport would become one, sitting second only to the BBC in viewing [37].

The National Women's Soccer League put its Sunday night matches on the free Roku Channel: eight games this season, 25 in 2027. Terms were not disclosed, and the league said paying subscription services had also bid [38][39].

Why it matters. The Roku Channel took 3% of all US television viewing time in June, second among free ad-supported apps [39].

DAZN bought EverPass, the company that streams games to bars, giving the NFL a shareholding in DAZN. The league already holds 10% of ESPN and a minority piece of the owner of CBS [40].

Why it matters. A league that owns part of its broadcasters sits on both sides of its next rights negotiation.

Ice hockey's NHL could award a 33rd franchise to Austin or Houston by the end of the year for a $2bn fee, with Houston the sixth-biggest US television market. Talks about a 34th team in Phoenix or Atlanta are under way [41].

Why it matters. The fee is about three times the $650m Seattle paid to join in 2021, and the timing is ahead of a new media deal [41].

Basketball's NBA has asked groups interested in Las Vegas or Seattle for detailed portfolios, with a second Las Vegas deadline in September. The league is understood to be seeking $7bn to $10bn a team and has not committed to adding any [61].

Why it matters. Commissioner Adam Silver has said he hopes to decide by the end of 2026 [61].

A US federal appeals court ruled that federal commodities law probably does not override Nevada's gambling rules for sports contracts, so Kalshi must keep Nevada users blocked from its most popular category [42].

Why it matters. A different appeals court took the opposite view, and the coalition lobbying for these firms spent $50,000 in California between April and July [42][43].

The league renewed multi-year deals with DraftKings and FanDuel and added Fanatics, with all three agreeing to block bets tied to officiating and injuries [44].

Why it matters. The bodies that police a sport now earn from the betting on it.

A study in The BMJ estimated that a minimum of 25% of NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a brain disease linked to repeated head impacts. It is the first estimate based on all players rather than donated brains [45].

Why it matters. The famous 2017 finding of the disease in 110 of 111 donated brains counted cases without ever counting the population they came from [45].

Two former NBA players declared their intent to enter the 2027 WNBA draft, pointing out that the league's collective agreement requires players to be women but never defines the word [46].

Why it matters. Tennis and golf use different tests, from testosterone levels to genetic screening, and no shared standard exists [46]. A separate argument says the attention would do more good aimed at pay, coverage and medical research [47].

Five of Jerry Buss's six children voted to sell the family's remaining 17.8% of the Los Angeles Lakers, worth over $2bn at the club's $12.5bn valuation. Jeanie Buss, who has run the club since 2013, says no valid vote took place [48][49].

Why it matters. It would end nearly half a century of one family running the club [49].

Joey and Jesse Buss agreed to take about 5% of the San Diego Padres, bought last week at a record $3.9bn for a baseball club [63].

Why it matters. It puts them in direct competition with Mark Walter, who bought their family's Lakers stake and owns the Los Angeles Dodgers [63].

Mark Walter's holding company said the Los Angeles Dodgers and its Cadillac Formula One team are not for sale, while the US justice department and securities regulator investigate the group after a whistleblower complaint [50][51].

Why it matters. Walter is reported to be selling his roughly 13% of Chelsea, so what is and is not for sale is the live question [50].

RAJ Sports and Kaiser Permanente opened a 100,000 sq ft performance centre in Hillsboro, Oregon on 22 August, designed around women athletes, with two pitches, basketball courts and rooms for players who have recently given birth [52].

Why it matters. It serves the Portland Thorns and Portland Fire, and was not adapted from a building made for men [52].

Boston Legacy will play the 2027 NWSL season at Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, because construction on its own ground is not finished [53].

Why it matters. It has been splitting this season between Gillette Stadium in Foxborough and the same Pawtucket ground, while its own is built [53].

Bristol City Women, now owned by investment group Mercury13 after splitting from the men's club, appointed a chief executive to build a club that runs independently while chasing promotion from England's WSL2 [56].

Why it matters. It is a test of whether a women's club can fund its own ground and staff rather than sharing a men's club's.

The English Football League and the Scottish Professional Football League are considering legal action after finding that a Russian streaming service, Football TV, has broadcast their matches this season. Both stopped selling rights in Russia in 2022 [54].

Why it matters. Both leagues stopped selling rights in Russia in 2022, so these broadcasts earn them nothing at all [54].

US college football changed its targeting rule for 2026 so that a first offence no longer carries over into the next game, while adding automatic penalties for taunting and celebrations [55].

Why it matters. It arrives the same week as the first population-wide estimate of brain disease among professional players [45].

Esther Gonzalez, Gotham FC's all-time leading scorer and a World Cup winner, ended her contract saying she was stepping away from the sport, then signed for Al Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia nine days later [57].

Why it matters. The move has drawn objections from LGBTQ+ supporters who have refused to follow the Saudi league [57].

Thomas Mueller, Mats Hummels and two other former Bayern Munich players are part of a group that acquired 90% of Estrela da Amadora in Portugal [58].

Why it matters. Retired players are joining the buyers' side of a market they used to be sold in.

South Melbourne, exiled from Australia's top division for two decades, has asked to take the place left by the collapse of Western United, with the league's board meeting this week [59].

Why it matters. The club is asking for a vacancy left by a collapsed rival rather than winning a place on the pitch [59].

Northern Ireland's Irish Premiership players launched a player-led Gambling Support Group in the same season that betting companies took sponsorship of both the men's and women's leagues and three cups [60].

Why it matters. The support and the sponsorship arrived together, funded from opposite ends of the same activity [60].

Halfway through its media contract, the Big Ten conference dropped a bye week from the college football schedule, giving its broadcasters a deeper pool of games each week [62].

Why it matters. Eight of last season's ten highest-rated college games involved Big Ten teams, but only two of the top ten regular-season games did [62].

Boston sent Mickey Gasper to the minor leagues to make room for two returning players, days after he hit five home runs in nine games [15].

Why it matters. Baseball has the same fixed-roster arithmetic as Sunday's cuts, running all season instead of on one afternoon [15].