Sports, in brief

Football's best-player prize, the Ballon d'Or, will be handed out at the London Palladium on 26 October. [9]

It is not won. It is voted for, by an international jury of journalists picked by France Football, the French magazine that created the award in 1956. [9][7]

For the women's award that jury is 50 journalists, one from each of the top 50 countries in FIFA's world ranking, and 27 of the 50 are based in Europe. [9]

Each journalist ranks ten players from the shortlist. First place on a ballot is worth 15 points, second 12, third 10, and it steps down to one point for tenth. [9]

The rules name three things to judge, in this order: how the player played, what the team won, and fair play. They are loose enough that a case can be made for several of the thirty. [9][1]

The season being judged ran from 3 August 2025 to 26 July 2026, which matches the European calendar rather than any other. [9]

Thirty men are on the shortlist, and the three favourites all spent this week explaining why it should be them. [1]

Kylian Mbappe of Real Madrid told France Football he believes he can win it. He won no trophy with his club or with France last season, and was top scorer in the Champions League, in Spain's league and at the World Cup. [1]

Mbappe then told reporters his objective was to convince the people who vote. His words to them: like you, they vote, right? [3]

Harry Kane of Bayern Munich scored 73 goals last season, the second-highest total on record, and said the number speaks for itself. He also said the prize is not in his hands. [6]

Lamine Yamal of Barcelona, 19, was runner-up last year and has won a World Cup with Spain since. He says he deserves it, and he and Mbappe have pushed their own cases harder than anyone else on the list. [2][11][5] His coach Hansi Flick backed him in public this week. [13]

David Beckham, who co-owns Inter Miami, used a television interview after Messi's 100th goal for the club to push Lionel Messi for a ninth award. [7][8][12]

Why it matters. The winner is named in London on 26 October, and the open question is how much weight the jury gives its own first criterion. Individual play is ranked above team trophies, and Mbappe won no trophy at all.

Aleksander Ceferin runs European football's governing body UEFA and Victor Montagliani runs the North American one. On Friday the two wrote to FIFA's members asking that $10m go to each of the 211 national associations out of World Cup reserves. [14] Those 211 associations elect FIFA's president, one vote each, and its president Gianni Infantino had offered them $20m each to back his plan to sell a stake in FIFA's commercial arm to private investors. [14][15] He dropped it after UEFA threatened to boycott FIFA tournaments. [15]

Why it matters. Candidates must enter by 18 November and the election is held in Morocco next March. [14] The associations being offered the money are the ones that will cast the votes.

FIFA banned Russian national teams from its competitions after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Russia's under-15 side has now been entered in a FIFA football festival in Azerbaijan. FIFA lifted its ban on Russia's under-17 team in 2023, but this would be the first time a Russian side actually plays. [16] Ukraine's football association called the entry the legitimisation of a terrorist state, asked other countries to stay away, and thanked Iceland and Germany for already pulling out. [16] Russia is drawn with Turkiye, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Sierra Leone and Sudan. [16]

Why it matters. The International Olympic Committee dropped its recommendation that sports federations ban Russia in July, so each sport now decides on its own. [16] In February Infantino said the ban had not achieved anything.

Zxavian Harris and Dae'Quan Wright signed contracts with NFL clubs, were released in August, then sued for a fifth year of college eligibility and won a ruling. [17] The SEC, the college conference LSU plays in, and other conferences then voted to bar teams from taking back anyone who had signed a professional contract, and LSU left both men off its 105-man roster. [17] On Wednesday the NFL told its clubs they may not sign either player this season and threatened discipline for any that did. [18][17] Their lawyer says they will act within the week. [17]

Why it matters. A judge said they could play. Two bodies that are not courts then each decided that they could not, and there is nowhere left for them to play this year.

Belmont Park, a racecourse just outside New York City, reopened on Friday after a $550m rebuild by the New York Racing Association. [19] The work could not have happened without a $455m loan from New York State, pushed by the state governor Kathy Hochul. [19] She went to the ribbon-cutting about 14 hours after watching her home NFL team in Buffalo's new $2.1bn stadium. [19] The track is now meant to hold concerts and other events as well as racing. [19]

Why it matters. Owners are setting records at horse sales, helped by a US tax change that lets businesses deduct the full cost of some assets at once. [19] Whether enough people turn up to a rebuilt racecourse is the part nobody has answered.

World Athletics, which runs track and field, chose Nairobi to host the 2029 world championships. [20] It is the first time the championships will be held anywhere in Africa, and Kenya sits second only to the United States on the all-time medal table. [20] The stadium is already being upgraded because Kenya co-hosts football's Africa Cup of Nations next year. [20] Munich takes the 2031 edition; London and Rome lost the 2029 bid. [20]

Why it matters. It also brings a harder light onto doping in Kenyan distance running. The women's marathon world record holder, Ruth Chepng'etich, is serving a three-year ban. [20]

A stretch of the Fitzroy River in Queensland passed its technical assessment as the rowing and canoe venue for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics. [21] About 500 saltwater crocodiles live in it, though state records going back more than 40 years show no attack on a person. [21] The rowers' objection was not the crocodiles. It was the tide: the river bends and runs, and many in the sport say that makes the racing unfair. The venue is also about 600km from Brisbane. [21]

Why it matters. Queensland's premier David Crisafulli called the objectors interstate and overseas elites who did not want to go to regional Queensland. [21] The people who will row there train four years for one race.

Sunderland are the only club in England's top division playing without a sponsor on the front of their shirt. [22] Their previous deal, with the betting firm W88, was killed by a new Premier League rule banning gambling companies from shirt fronts. [22] A replacement with Visit Ghana, reported at 10m pounds a season, collapsed this week after the Ghanaian government never gave formal approval. [22] The club says talks with others continue and expects to sign within a month. [22]

Why it matters. English clubs may only spend a set share of their own revenue on players. Sunderland's share is 70% because they are in the Europa League, against the 85% the Premier League allows, so the missing 10m pounds is money off the wage budget. [22]

England's Premier League runs a Key Match Incidents panel: five people, three of them former players or coaches, one from the league and one from Pro Ref, which runs refereeing. [26] It reviews contested calls and votes on them. This month it ruled unanimously that Arsenal's Gabriel had not committed violent conduct when his raised boot hit Chelsea's goalkeeper Emi Martinez in the face. [26] In a separate case four of the five thought Brighton should have had a penalty, but three of the five said it was not a clear enough error to be overturned. [24]

Why it matters. The league's published record for that week says every decision after a video check was correct. [24] That line is the output of a three-to-two vote, not a measurement.

Manchester City beat Manchester United 1-0 through a goal by Erling Haaland. [25] The assistant referee flagged Haaland offside, and the video check found he was onside, played on by a United defender's foot. [25] But Enzo Fernandez was clearly offside in the same move and had dived in front of a United defender to challenge for the ball. [25] After a check lasting two and a half minutes the goal stood. Pro Ref said that evening the video referee should have sent the referee to the pitchside screen, and told United it was an error of judgement. [25][24]

Why it matters. The Premier League runs two different offside systems from two suppliers, which it says is not a deliberate choice. [25] The machine answered the question it was asked. A person got the next one wrong.

Arsenal had won all seven of their matches in every competition this season. On Saturday Brighton beat them 3-0 at the Amex Stadium on England's south coast. [28] It was Arsenal's first three-goal defeat in the Premier League in more than three years, and the last one was also at Brighton, in May 2023. [28] Their manager Mikel Arteta traced the collapse to a rushed goalkeeper's kick that went straight out for a throw-in and a weak clearance after it. [28] Brighton's manager Fabian Hurzeler took over from Roberto De Zerbi in the summer of 2024. [29]

Why it matters. Arsenal are the reigning champions. [39] Arteta said his team put itself in trouble three times in the opening minutes, and has to get out of that pattern faster. [28]

Tottenham lost 3-2 at home to Aston Villa on Saturday. Villa had not won a league game all season. [30] It is Tottenham's worst ever start to a Premier League season and leaves them 19th of 20, after they spent more than 380m pounds in the summer to stop a third straight finish near the bottom. [30] Their manager Roberto De Zerbi did not speak to his players afterwards because he did not want to say anything. [30] Villa have now won as many league games at Tottenham's ground in the past year as Tottenham have. [30]

Why it matters. A supporter who goes to every home game has paid roughly 600 pounds for each home win over that period. [30] Saturday's goals at least ended a run of more than eight hours without a league goal. [30]

Aaron Judge, the New York Yankees captain, went back on baseball's injured list on Friday with a strain in his right calf. [31] He had returned less than two weeks earlier from a fractured rib that kept him out for more than three months. [31] The club would not say how bad it is or when he might play; he is eligible to return on the final day of the regular season. [31] In his seven games back he missed with 41% of his swings at fastballs, against a league average of 19%. [31]

Why it matters. The Yankees can clinch the top wild-card place as early as Sunday, so the games left barely matter in the table. [31] They mattered to Judge, who needed the time at bat to find his timing before the playoffs.

Arizona State beat Kansas 24-17 at Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday, in a game organisers called the Union Jack Classic. [32] It was the first match between top-division American college teams played in Britain; an earlier college game in London, in 1988, drew about 5,000 people. [32] This one drew 46,523 into a ground that holds more than 90,000, with the upper tier closed. [32] Brett Yormark, who runs the Big 12 conference, said buyers came from 35 countries and that he is already talking to schools about London next year. [32]

Why it matters. The NFL has played a regular-season game in London every year since 2007. College football is now testing whether the audience that built will follow a different version of the same sport. [32]

The New Zealand Warriors sold out a 50,000-seat stadium in Auckland in under 48 hours for Sunday's knockout game against Newcastle. [35] Australia's National Rugby League moved the match from the club's usual ground to Eden Park, the country's national stadium, and about 48,000 are expected, close to 10,000 more than the club has ever drawn. [37] In Australia it went the other way. Cronulla moved a final from their 15,000-seat home to the 42,500-seat Allianz Stadium and barely 17,000 came, a crowd their own halfback called embarrassing. [36] A Penrith against Sydney Roosters final drew 22,148. [36]

Why it matters. The league was criticised for the empty seats in the first week of its finals. [35] One move filled a bigger stadium. The other left a bigger stadium two-thirds empty. [36][37]

The United States beat France in the final of the women's basketball World Cup, a fifth consecutive title. [38] France had dominated the tournament until then, and for the first twenty minutes its defensive pressure stopped the Americans finding any rhythm. [38] The game was a rematch of the 2024 Olympic gold medal final, which the same two countries contested. [38]

Why it matters. France arrived having beaten everyone in front of them and still could not hold it past the first twenty minutes. [38] That is the distance the rest of women's basketball is trying to close.

In 1,307 completed Premier League matchweeks since 1992, only three have ended with no home team winning, the last in September 2000. [39] This month's fourth round came close: five away wins and four draws, with Leeds beating Newcastle 4-1 at Elland Road the one home victory. [39] Leeds were 3-0 up at half-time, and their opening goal took a double deflection on its way in. [39] Dominic Calvert-Lewin has now scored in five straight home league games there. [39]

Why it matters. Home advantage is one of the oldest assumptions in football, and one near-miss proves nothing on its own. [39] It is the kind of week that makes people start counting.

UEFA, which runs European club football, gave the 2028 Champions League final to Bayern Munich's Allianz Arena and the 2029 final to Barcelona's Camp Nou. [40] The Munich ground holds 70,000 and is ready; Camp Nou is still being rebuilt under a project started in 2023. [40] The women's Champions League finals go to Lyon in 2028 and Cardiff's Principality Stadium in 2029. [40] Barcelona's comes a year before Spain co-hosts the 2030 World Cup with Portugal and Morocco. [40]

Why it matters. A final is awarded years ahead, so a club can win one with a stadium that is not finished. Barcelona has just done that. [40]

Fanatics, the American sports merchandise company, will open a trading-card store in Paris on 23 October, its second in Europe. [23] Its first, on Regent Street in London, opened 18 months ago, and the company's founder Michael Rubin says it is taking about $25m a year against an original estimate of $6m to $8m. [23] That shop was broken into this month and about 200 cards were stolen, among them a 2004 Lionel Messi card and a Kobe Bryant rookie card. [23] The Paris store is 5,500 square feet. [23]

Why it matters. Paris hosts its first NFL game two days after the shop opens. [23] Fanatics has had a ten-year deal with Paris Saint-Germain since 2020 and owns Topps, which prints the cards. [23]

Aryna Sabalenka was fined $7,500 for smashing a racket at the end of her US Open final defeat by Elena Rybakina. [27] Sabalenka had won the previous two titles and lost this one 6-4, 5-7, 6-2; she said afterwards that holding it in would have been worse. [27] Ten other players were fined for racket abuse at the same tournament. [27] Belinda Bencic was fined $5,000 for hitting a ball into the crowd and striking a spectator, and was not thrown out of the match. [27]

Why it matters. The rulebook says players must not violently or angrily hit, kick or throw equipment anywhere on the tournament site. [27] What counts as violent is settled after the match, by officials, against a list of standard fines.

Zinedine Zidane, now France's head coach, named five new players in his squad and left out Karim Benzema and N'Golo Kante. [41] Benzema won the Ballon d'Or in 2022 and has not played for France since leaving a World Cup four years ago with an injury. [41] France play in Turkey on 25 September and in Belgium three days later, then host Italy on 2 October and Belgium on 5 October. [41] One of the new names, the 21-year-old Jacquet, joined Liverpool from Rennes this summer for a reported 70m euros. [41]

Why it matters. A squad list is the only thing that makes a player an international. Benzema, who won the sport's biggest individual prize in 2022, found out on Friday that he is not on it. [41]

Alabama, ranked tenth in American college football, trailed Florida State by 15 points and won 50-36 in Tuscaloosa on Saturday. [33] Their quarterback Keelon Russell threw for 320 yards and three touchdowns and ran in another, and the team finished with 615 yards. [33] Lightning delayed the kickoff and stopped play again in the second quarter, after which the teams agreed to skip half-time. [33] Alabama scored touchdowns on five possessions in a row to turn a 21-6 deficit into a 40-28 lead. [33]

Why it matters. Alabama's defence had allowed one third-down conversion in 23 attempts across its first two games. Florida State converted eight of fifteen. [33] Two weeks of a record meant nothing in the third.

Clemson came back from 14 points down to beat North Carolina 28-20 on Saturday, through a two-and-a-half-hour weather delay. [34] North Carolina is coached by Bill Belichick, who won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and is in a difficult second year in college football. [34] A defeat would have been Clemson's first at home to North Carolina in 25 years. [34] Clemson finished seventh in its 17-team conference last season, and only two of the 17 reach the conference final. [34]

Why it matters. Belichick's team plays third-ranked Notre Dame on 3 October, a game that may settle whether he stays at North Carolina. [34] His two years there have been marked by investigations and staff resignations as much as by results.

Steve Cohen, who owns the New York Mets, said on the club's own television broadcast on Saturday that he has identified things the club can do better and wants to add voices to the front office. [42] He spoke in the week the Mets' former first baseman Pete Alonso hit his 300th career home run at the Mets' own ground, to cheers from Mets fans. [42] The club retired the newly inducted Hall of Famer Carlos Beltran's number the same day, and beat Philadelphia 10-3. [42]

Why it matters. An owner saying in public that his own front office can do better is a message to everyone who works in it. [42] Cohen said the next few weeks would be busy.