Sports, in brief

Owners judging their bosses

The Indianapolis Colts fired their general manager, the man who picks the players, after a 2-4 start. [13] Penn State would have to pay its football coach more than $62m to fire him, so it has not. [14] The New York Yankees are keeping their manager for a tenth season. [15]

Young players' pay deadlines

The NBA's deadline for extending its 2023 draft class passed on Monday, and CBS Sports lists seven new deals. [16] Portland let Scoot Henderson, the third pick that year, go without one. [17] Two of the Rays' key hitters, Junior Caminero and Jonathan Aranda, each earn under $800,000. [9]

Sport's rulers asked to explain

Uefa, which runs European football, gave Fifa, which runs world football, until 2 November to answer its questions in writing. [18] The judge who jailed Larry Nassar said gymnastics still puts medals before children's safety. [19] Polymarket, a betting app, removed a market on a rape case after public anger. [20]

NFL stars getting hurt

Philadelphia's quarterback Jalen Hurts will miss the rest of the season with blood clots in his lungs. [21] San Francisco's Mike Evans hurt an Achilles tendon on Monday night. [22] The Los Angeles Rams lost Davante Adams for six to ten weeks. [23]

One pressure seen across the day runs through Sports too.

• Yemen's war reaching Saudi ArabiaHigh ↑ · seen in 3 beats→

1. 1The Tampa Bay Rays beat Cleveland to reach a World Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, two low-payroll teams, as baseball's owners push for a salary cap
2. 2Colts fire their general manager
3. 3Uefa sets Fifa a deadline
4. 4Seven young NBA stars get new deals
5. 5Hurts out for the season with blood clots

The Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Guardians 7-3 on Monday night to win baseball's American League final four games to two. [1][2]

Watch whether the owners still press for a hard cap after a final between two low spenders, as the labour deal runs out on 1 December. [2][4]

The Indianapolis Colts fired Chris Ballard, the general manager who chose their players since 2017, on Monday. [13][25]

It came a day after a home loss to the Tennessee Titans, who had not won all season, left the Colts 2-4. [26][27]

Under Ballard the Colts went 72-82-1, made the playoffs twice and never won their division. [25][27] The owner, Carlie Irsay-Gordon, said waiting until the season ended would only delay the work. [13]

Head coach Shane Steichen, still in his job, said he shares the blame. [28]

It is the first big firing of the NFL season, three weeks before the 10 November trade deadline. [29]

The Colts have no first-round pick in next year's draft, after trading it and their 2026 pick to the New York Jets for cornerback Sauce Gardner. [30]

Uefa, which runs European football, gave Fifa, world football's governing body, until 2 November to answer its questions and hand over documents. [18][31] The letter went out on Monday. [32]

It asks about a plan, dropped in July, to sell a fifth of Fifa's commercial business for $4.2bn. [33][18]

It also asks about the pay of Fifa's president, Gianni Infantino, the peace prize Fifa gave Donald Trump, and a suspended ban for the US striker Folarin Balogun. [18][33]

Infantino had asked for the questions in writing at last week's Fifa council. [31]

Candidates who want to run against Infantino for Fifa president must declare by 18 November. [31] As things stand he would be re-elected unopposed next year. [32]

Monday was the NBA's deadline to extend the first contracts of players drafted in 2023. [17][16]

CBS Sports lists seven who signed, led by Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs at $252m over five years. [16]

Brandon Miller of Charlotte signed for $209m just before the 6pm deadline. [17]

Portland did not extend Scoot Henderson, the third pick that year, and Orlando did not extend Anthony Black, the sixth. [17][34]

Both can become restricted free agents next summer, when their teams may match any rival offer. [34]

A first-round pick's first contract follows the league's fixed rookie pay scale, and these deals replace it with what the market will pay. [34][16]

Orlando is $2.5m below the league's strictest spending limit, which made a deal for Black hard to fit. [34]

League rules fix a new player's pay for his first years, so a team that finds good ones gets them cheap until those years end.

So a team without money wins by finding good players early and using the years before the rule lets them go.

A fan cheering a $795,000 star in the World Series is cheering a price agreed before that player was drafted.

The Philadelphia Eagles said on Monday that quarterback Jalen Hurts has a deep vein clot and clots in both lungs. [21]

He must take blood-thinning drugs, and he cannot play football while he takes them. [21] NFL Network and ESPN report the treatment will last at least three months. [21]

The first diagnosis, made in London, was a clot in a surface vein of his calf. [35] Hurts signed a five-year, $255m contract in 2023. [21]

The team and his agent expect a full recovery. [21]

Questions now turn to how he was cleared to play and to fly home from London, which the head coach was left to answer. [35]

The San Francisco 49ers beat the Washington Commanders 23-17 on Monday night, their sixth win in six games. [36] It is their best start since 2019. [36]

Quarterback Brock Purdy became the highest-rated passer in NFL history, at 105.6, once he passed the 1,500 throws needed to qualify. [36] Receiver Mike Evans, 33, left with an Achilles injury. [22]

Washington's Terry McLaurin was carted off with a knee injury in the first quarter. [37]

Evans signed a three-year, $42.4m deal this year, and the 49ers were already missing two other receivers. [22] Washington fall to one win in six games. [36]

Davante Adams of the Los Angeles Rams ruptured a hamstring and will miss six to ten weeks, coach Sean McVay said on Monday. [23]

Adams, 33, was averaging 80 receiving yards a game. [23] The Rams also put their new kicker, Blake Grupe, on the injured list with a torn knee ligament. [38]

Grupe was hurt making a tackle in his first game, a week after the Rams cut their last kicker. [38]

The Rams started the season as clear favourites for the Super Bowl and are now last in their division at 2-4. [23][39]

The Atlanta Dream beat the Golden State Valkyries 79-65 in San Francisco on Monday to level the finals of the WNBA, the US women's basketball league, at one game each. [40]

Angel Reese scored 30 points and took 16 rebounds. [40] At 24 she is the youngest player to reach 30 points and 15 rebounds in a WNBA playoff game. [40]

The Dream had lost all ten of their previous Finals games, going back to 2010. [41] Game 3 is in Atlanta on Wednesday. [41]

NBC is showing its first WNBA Finals since 2002. [42] Its executive producer, Sam Flood, says the ratings are through the roof. [42]

NBC, the US network, is showing the WNBA Finals, three NBA games on Tuesday and a Sunday night NFL game this week. [42]

It opens the NBA season with all three games on NBC and its Peacock streaming service, a first for the network. [42]

Before Monday's game, E! and USA Network, channels owned by Versant, a company split off from NBC's owner Comcast, ran an hour-long red-carpet show on the players' clothes. [43][42]

Comcast, NBC's owner, reports its earnings on Thursday. [42]

Comcast plans to make NBCUniversal, which includes NBC Sports, a separate company, likely in mid-2027. [42] Peacock made its first-ever profit last quarter. [42]

Portugal's football federation banned Cristiano Ronaldo for 30 days and fined him 255 euros, about 215 pounds, for walking out of the national squad. [44][45]

Ronaldo, 41, left after he was not picked to play against Norway and was told he would not start against Denmark. [44]

The ban counts from the Denmark match on 1 October, so he has already served 19 days. [44] He will not miss any of Portugal's matches. [44]

The federation said it took his apology and his career into account. [44] Its president wants him back in the team. [45]

Polymarket, an app where people bet on future events, removed a market on whether any of seven men accused of raping a Cornell University student will be charged with a felony. [20]

It came down after Front Office Sports reported on it and critics turned on the athletes who advertise the app. [20] About $451,600 had been bet since 30 September. [20]

The market ran only on Polymarket's international site, not its US app. [20]

LeBron James is paid $15m a year to promote Polymarket, and Derek Jeter and Sue Bird appear in its adverts. [20]

Kalshi, its main rival, said it would not have offered such a market. [20]

The US embassy in Saudi Arabia warned Americans on Sunday about flight cancellations and closed airspace, and the US State Department repeated it on Monday. [46]

The warnings follow a missile strike on Riyadh's airport by the Houthis, an armed group backed by Iran, that killed 12 people, Front Office Sports reports. [46]

Riyadh Season, a ten-week festival of sport and shows, still opens on 21 October. [46]

The Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez's fight on 31 October and Crown Jewel, a show by the wrestling company WWE on 7 November, are unchanged. [46]

WWE has worked with Saudi Arabia since 2018, and Morgan Stanley estimates it will be paid $150m to hold WrestleMania there next April. [46]

Front Office Sports says any cancellation would likely be costly. [46]

Also seen in World and Finance.

Rosemarie Aquilina, the judge who jailed Larry Nassar in 2018, said there have been very few meaningful changes since his crimes came out. [19]

Nassar, a former team doctor for USA Gymnastics, sexually abused more than 250 women and girls. [19]

She spoke in Rotterdam, where the world championships are on this week, alongside survivors from Gymnasts for Change International, a campaign group. [19]

She said the sport still puts money and medals before children's safety. [19]

World Gymnastics, the sport's governing body, is choosing a new secretary general, as the current one leaves at the end of the year. [19]

Campaigners say the rules exist but are not enforced. [19]

China qualified first for Wednesday's women's team final at the world gymnastics championships in Rotterdam, with the United States second. [47]

Russia, competing under a neutral flag, came third, though three of its best gymnasts were refused visas by the Netherlands. [47][48] Great Britain missed the final in ninth place. [47]

The top three teams in the final win the first places at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. [47][48]

The US have won every world team title since 2011, and China have not won one since 2006. [48][47] Algeria's Kaylia Nemour qualified first in the all-around. [47]

Sarina Wiegman extended her contract as England women's head coach to the 2029 European Championship. [49] Her deal had been due to end after next summer's World Cup in Brazil. [49]

Wiegman has led England since September 2021 and won two European titles with them. [50] England must still beat Ukraine in a two-leg playoff to reach the World Cup. [49]

Seven of the team that started the 4-0 defeat by Spain in June had also played in the 2022 European final, so she must find their successors. [50]

Elina Svitolina, a Ukrainian tennis player ranked sixth in the world, announced her separation from her husband, the French player Gael Monfils. [51][52]

She wrote that Russia's war on her country had taken a toll she had rarely spoken about, with sleepless nights and doubt. [52]

The couple married in 2021 and have a four-year-old daughter. [51] Monfils, 40, had been expected to retire after the Paris Masters, which begins on 31 October. [51]

Svitolina grew up in Odesa, the port city Russia has bombed throughout the war. [52] Monfils now seems to have brought his retirement forward. [51]

Tottenham Hotspur beat Coventry City 3-1 for their first Premier League win of the season and climbed out of the bottom three. [53]

James Maddison scored with his first start in 18 months, after a knee ligament injury and a broken shoulder. [54]

Dejan Kulusevski came on for his first game in more than a season. [53] It was only Spurs' sixth home league win since November 2024. [53]

Coach Roberto De Zerbi had tried team dinners and a trip to Marbella to lift the side. [54]

Coventry, managed by Frank Lampard, were angry that a Spurs goal stood despite an elbow. [53]

Leicester City, FA Cup winners in 2021, will play Oxford City in the first round of the FA Cup. [55]

Oxford City play in the National League North, the sixth tier of English football. [55]

It is Leicester's first time at this early stage since 2008, after they were relegated to League One, the third tier. [55]

The draw named 91 teams, and the first round is played around 7 November. [55]

Four sides reached the first round for the first time. [55] Eighth-tier AFC Rushden and Diamonds won five ties to get there and now visit Burton Albion. [55]

Stephen Fleming, the New Zealander who now coaches England's Test cricket team, said a national team should mainly be coached by someone from that country. [56]

Since 1999, only two Englishmen have led England's Test side. [56] Fleming's staff is mostly English coaches, and he said developing them is a priority. [56]

His first series is in South Africa in December. [56]

England's coach for the shorter one-day and 20-over games, Brendon McCullum, and its selector, Marcus North, are also from overseas. [56]

Fleming said he will invite county coaches and former players into his set-up. [56]

Rain held up the second day of the second Test, cricket's five-day international match, between South Africa and Australia in Gqeberha until mid-afternoon. [57]

When play began, South Africa lost three more wickets and closed on 97 for 5. [57][58] Scott Boland, 37, took four wickets for 31 runs. [58]

Marques Ackerman, opening the batting for the first time in his first-class career, was out for 6. [57][58]

South Africa lost the first Test and changed two of their batsmen for this one. [58] Australia left out Nathan Lyon, sixth on the list of all-time Test wicket-takers. [56]

England's one-day cricket team play Pakistan in Rawalpindi on Tuesday in a series with Sri Lanka. [59]

Captain Harry Brook says he has learned from being punched by a bouncer in New Zealand almost a year ago. [59]

England have won their last three one-day series after losing seven of eight before that. [60] Wicketkeeper Jos Buttler is injured and fast bowler Jofra Archer is rested. [59]

The 50-over World Cup is less than a year away, in southern Africa. [61] Brook averages 51.3 as captain in one-day games, against 25.2 before. [60]

Duncan Ferguson, the former Everton and Scotland striker, became manager of Glentoran, a Belfast club, on a contract of several years. [62]

He was Everton's assistant manager and has managed Forest Green Rovers and Inverness. [62] Glentoran have not won the league since 2009 despite heavy spending by their owner, Ali Pour. [62]

They are 11 points behind the leaders, Coleraine. [63]

Ferguson said Glentoran should be challenging for the title and every cup. [62] His first game is at home to Ballymena United on Saturday. [62]

Ben Wiggins, 21, son of the five-time Olympic champion Sir Bradley Wiggins, signed his first professional contract with Jayco-AlUla, an Australian team. [64]

He won the national under-23 time trial this year and finished in the top 10 at the Tour of Britain in September. [64]

He races at cycling's top level from next season. [64]

His father became Britain's first Tour de France winner in 2012. [64] The son joins the team he has wanted to ride for since 2019. [64]

Saido Berahino, the former West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City striker, retired at 33 to coach with Burundi's national team. [65]

He scored 20 Premier League and cup goals for West Brom in 2014-15. [65]

Stoke bought him for 12m pounds in 2017, but he struggled and the club was relegated in 2018. [65] He later played in Belgium, Cyprus, India and Slovenia. [65]

Berahino was born in Burundi and played for England at youth level before choosing his home country. [65]

Ieuan Evans, the former Wales captain, will step down on Wednesday as chair of the British and Irish Lions, the touring rugby team, after almost four years. [66]

Evans was tour manager when the men's team won the 2025 series in Australia. [66] He also brought independent directors onto the board. [66]

The Lions are searching for a new chair, who will oversee the first Lions women's tour, to New Zealand next year. [66]

Ronnie O'Sullivan lost 4-3 to Ka Wai Cheung, ranked 110th, in the first round of the Northern Ireland Open snooker in Belfast. [67] Judd Trump also lost 4-3, to Martin O'Donnell. [67]

O'Sullivan was the eighth of the first nine top-16 players at the Waterfront Hall to lose, and Trump went out later the same day. [67]

It was Cheung's first main-draw knockout win at a ranking event. [67]

Cheung, a qualifier from Hong Kong, now plays Stuart Bingham for a place in the last 16. [67]

Premier League clubs took the knee, kneeling before kick-off as a protest against racism, before matches this weekend for October's No Room for Racism campaign. [68]

Six players at five clubs stayed standing, among them Manchester City's Marc Guehi. [68] Guehi said he claps instead, and that the campaign should look at how to move forward. [68]

Players began taking the knee in 2020, after the death of George Floyd. [68]

The Premier League says each player chooses, and it supports either choice. [68]

Brentford said they are working with police after a man on a nearby rooftop kicked a rugby ball towards the pitch during their match with Liverpool on Saturday. [69]

A video shows others laughing and cheering as he kicked it. [69] The club called it dangerous and potentially very harmful. [69]

It said the police inquiry could lead to a criminal prosecution. [69]

Brentford lost the match 2-1 with two players sent off, and the ball was taken off while play went on. [69]

Cheltenham racecourse, the home of jump racing in Britain, opens its season on Friday after repairs to its drainage. [70] A large hole appeared in the track in late January. [70]

The Jockey Club, which owns the course, cancelled two spring meetings to make time for the work. [70]

More than a kilometre of drains was replaced or upgraded, and radar found no other problems. [70]

The March festival went ahead, so the cost fell on the smaller spring meetings. [70] The clerk of the course, Jon Pullin, said cancelling them was the right decision. [70]

Catherine Breed, a 33-year-old open-water swimmer, finished a 900-mile swim down the whole coast of California on Monday. [71]

She set off from the northern border on 1 July, 111 days earlier. [71]

She has already swum the English Channel and the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland, each about 21 miles. [71]

She compared each day to a half Ironman, a long race of swimming, cycling and running. [71]

She planned it for three years and used it to draw attention to the state of the coast. [71]