Sports, in brief

The US Senate voted 77 to 22 on Monday night to pass the Protect College Sports Act, a law for college sport across the United States. [1][3]

It would give the NCAA, which runs most US college sport, and its conferences a shield from federal lawsuits when they enforce limits on athletes' pay and transfers. [3][6]

Antitrust law normally stops rival businesses from agreeing to hold down what they pay. Pro leagues' salary caps are legal because players' unions agreed to them. [8]

College athletes are not employees and cannot bargain through a union. [8] A 2021 US Supreme Court ruling made clear the NCAA is not exempt from antitrust law. [1]

States led by California have passed their own laws letting athletes earn from sponsors. Courts have also struck down NCAA rules, such as its old limit on transfers. [3][5]

Schools may now pay their players up to about $21.5m a year, a limit set by a 2025 court settlement. [5][6]

The bill adds up to $27.5m more: a $22.5m fund for keeping players from leaving, and $5m for women's and smaller sports. [6][7]

Athletes could change school once without sitting out a season. They would get five years to play, starting when they finish high school or turn 19. [1]

The US Senate voted 52-47 against capping coaches' pay at $5m a year. The 15 best-paid college football coaches each earn more than $10m. [1][8]

The biggest conferences would be limited to 20 schools. A school that switches would spend three years without a conference. [1]

The bill does not say whether athletes are employees who could form a union. Ted Cruz, its Republican co-author, said ruling that out was too much for Democrats to accept. [1]

An amendment kept athletes' right to sue their schools under state law over things such as sexual misconduct or a wrongful death. [1][3]

Why it matters. Watch whether Speaker Mike Johnson calls the House back early, as Cruz hopes. If the House changes the bill, the US Senate has to vote again before 3 January. [9][4]

Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, the body that runs world football, wrote to its six regional bodies on Monday. [10][13] He said he would back the greatest amount of extra money for FIFA's 211 member countries that can responsibly be paid. [11] UEFA, which runs European football, and CONCACAF, for North and Central America, had asked FIFA to pay each of those countries at least $10m over 2027-30. [10] That comes to about $2.1bn, and they said FIFA's savings would reach about $6bn by the end of 2026. [10] FIFA's council will look at the idea on 15 October. [12]

Why it matters. Infantino stands for a fourth term as president in March, and so far nobody has entered against him; rivals have until 18 November. [13][11] He also defended his withdrawn plan to sell part of the World Cup to investors, saying it would have added money, not replaced it. [10][12]

The New York Giants traded a 2027 fifth-round draft pick to the Minnesota Vikings on Monday for quarterback J.J. McCarthy, 23. [15] The Vikings chose him 10th in the 2024 draft, the yearly share-out of college players among NFL teams. [15] He missed his first season injured and started only 10 games for Minnesota. [17] Last season his passer rating, a score for how well a quarterback throws, was the lowest of the 33 who played enough to qualify. [16] The Giants lost their starter, Jaxson Dart, to knee surgery last week. [15]

Why it matters. McCarthy had fallen to third choice in Minnesota, behind Kyler Murray and Carson Wentz. [18] The Giants' coach, John Harbaugh, says Jameis Winston will still start on Sunday, and McCarthy will count $3.8m against the Giants' pay limit next season. [16]

A US federal appeals court, the Sixth Circuit, ruled on Friday that Ohio and Tennessee may apply their gambling laws to Kalshi. [20][19] Kalshi runs a prediction market, an app where people buy contracts on the results of games. [19] It argues that only the national regulator for financial contracts may oversee it. [19] The judges said a sports result is not the kind of financial contract that national law covers. [19] Another appeals court, the Third Circuit, ruled the other way, and the US Supreme Court is considering whether to hear that case. [19]

Why it matters. The Ninth Circuit, which covers the western US, has also sided with the states, so the same contract is treated differently from state to state until the US Supreme Court decides. [19] FanDuel and DraftKings, which run state-licensed betting apps, face new competition from Kalshi-style markets, most of all in states where sports betting is not legal. [21]

Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, banned online betting last week, and the ban is expected to face legal challenges. [21] Flutter, the company that owns the US betting app FanDuel, said on Monday it could lose about $70m of revenue this year if its Brazil business stays shut. [21] Last year India passed a law curbing online bets. [21] That cost Flutter about $250m of revenue it had expected this year, after it paid $237m for an Indian gaming company. [21]

Why it matters. Flutter's shares fell 7.9% on Monday and are down more than 60% this year. [21] Its long-time boss, Peter Jackson, leaves at the end of the month. [21]

Last week an independent panel found Manchester City guilty of 114 breaches of the Premier League's money rules. [22] On Saturday City's chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, wrote to fans that the club is still confident of proving its innocence. [22] Roberto Mancini, City's manager when they won the 2012 title, said before Italy's game on Monday that claims about a 'double contract' were not his concern. [23] A German magazine reported in 2018 that he was also paid as a consultant by Al Jazira, an Abu Dhabi club tied to City's owner. [23]

Why it matters. Any appeal goes to a three-person board, and City cannot take it to sport's highest court, which once lifted a UEFA ban on them. [22] A hearing on the punishment could be months away, and City lead the league as they go to Liverpool on 11 October. [24][22]

The Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia's national wealth fund, will stop paying for a $15m series of five women's golf events after this year. [25] They are on the Ladies European Tour, where most tournaments pay $500,000 or less in total. [25] In their place Golf Saudi will back one $4m event in July 2027, run with the LPGA, the main US women's tour. [25][26] The fund has already said it will stop paying for LIV Golf, the men's league it spent more than $5bn on. [26][25]

Why it matters. The European tour is mostly where players try to earn their way to the LPGA, and Front Office Sports calls the loss of these events a major blow. [25] Golf Saudi says it will now spend on golf inside Saudi Arabia and on the tour's season-long points race. [25][26]

France won 1-0 in Belgium in the Nations League, a competition between European national teams, on Monday. [27] Michael Olise scored in the 89th minute. [29] Italy beat Turkey 4-1 in Bursa, three days after losing 2-0 at home to Belgium in Roberto Mancini's first game back as coach. [27][28] France lead the group with six points from two games, and play Italy in Paris on Friday. [29][27]

Why it matters. Italy missed this year's World Cup, and Mancini said his players had not deserved the criticism after the Belgium defeat. [28] Northern Ireland drew 0-0 at home to Hungary, and Ukraine drew 0-0 in Georgia. [27]

The Seattle Mariners, a baseball club, are replacing manager Dan Wilson and most of his coaches after a 76-86 season. [30] A year ago Seattle reached game seven of the American League's final series, one win from the World Series. [30] Front Office Sports says Wilson was fired, while CBS Sports says he told the club he would not return. [30][31] It opened what Front Office Sports calls baseball's Black Monday, when clubs that missed the playoffs change their leaders. [30]

Why it matters. Arizona's manager, Torey Lovullo, is out of contract after his team missed the playoffs on the last day. [30] The Los Angeles Angels, who lost 100 games for the first time, are being bought by Stan Kroenke for a record $4bn. [30]

Leicestershire, an English county cricket club, got eight of its 27 deducted points back on Monday. [32][33] It was punished for a pitch rated poor in a win over Glamorgan in August, after the match referee logged 43 examples of uneven bounce. [33] English cricket's regulator went back to the disciplinary panel because a separate, automatic 19-point loss had not been weighed when the penalty was set. [32][33] The panel said it would have cut the whole penalty to eight points if it could. [32]

Why it matters. It has no power over the automatic rule, so Leicestershire are still 17 points behind Essex. [32] They will be relegated from the top division unless their appeal succeeds. [32]

Baseball's playoffs start on Tuesday, and NBC, a US television network, has the whole first round to itself. [34] It is NBC's first playoff baseball since 2000, under a three-year deal worth about $600m. [34] Its Sunday night games this season averaged 2.7m viewers, the most for that slot since 2007. [34] The New York Yankees' Aaron Judge, out since 16 September with a calf strain, took live at-bats on Monday to push for a place in the squad. [35]

Why it matters. The Yankees play the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday, and NBC has put that series in its best evening slot. [34][35] Judge said he knows the risk includes an injury to his Achilles tendon. [35]

Two late pass interference calls, fouls for illegally blocking a player trying to catch the ball, shaped two big NFL games on Sunday. [36] In Denver a flag on the Rams' Josh Wallace wiped out what could have been a game-saving interception, a catch by the defending side, and the Broncos scored the winning touchdown. [36] Former referees working as TV analysts for CBS and NBC both said on air they disagreed with the calls. [36] The NFL declined to comment on Monday. [36]

Why it matters. The league made pass interference reviewable on video replay in 2019, then dropped it after 21 of 29 teams in a survey opposed keeping it. [36] So a call like these cannot be overturned. [36]

By Monday afternoon the US Department of Homeland Security had still not removed a video of Brian Dawkins, a retired American football star. [37] It used his tackles in a post about migrants heading for the US border. [37] The NFL, which controls how its game footage is used, asked for it to be taken down. [37] Dawkins said he never gave permission for his name or image to be used. [37]

Why it matters. A department spokesperson answered with a joke on Dawkins's nickname, Weapon X. [37] In March former players also criticised a Trump administration video that set football hits beside military attacks on Iran. [37]

Seven Arizona State University ice hockey players sent the university's president a 26-page letter on Monday. [38] It disputes the university's account of an August workout in which first-year player Matthew Mayich collapsed. [38] He is still in hospital, and his family's lawyer says heatstroke cut off oxygen to his brain. [38] The players say he was never given water, and that there was no ice or cooling tub at the session. [38]

Why it matters. They want the coaches put on leave during an outside investigation, and sent the letter through a lawyer because the coaches decide their playing time and scholarships. [38] The team starts its season on Friday with the same coaches in place. [38]

Tennis Australia, which runs the Australian Open, will run tickets, food, shops and sponsorship for golf's 2028 Presidents Cup in Melbourne. [39] The PGA Tour, the main US men's golf tour, owns the event and has never handed so much of it to an outside group. [39] The match between American golfers and an International team will be played at Kingston Heath late in 2028. [39] More than 300,000 people went to this year's Australian Open. [39]

Why it matters. All of the PGA Tour's own staff and systems are in the US, so it is hiring a local operator instead of building one in Australia. [39] The 2028 Presidents Cup is the first project for a new events company set up by Tennis Australia. [39]

Alex Eala, the Philippines' best-known tennis player, beat Thailand's Patcharin Cheapchandej 6-1, 6-0 on Monday at the Asian Games in Japan. [40] The win put Eala, 21 and ranked 18th in the world, into the quarter-finals. [40] She plays Joanna Garland of Chinese Taipei next. [40]

Why it matters. One more win would guarantee her at least a bronze medal, and three more would bring gold. [40]