3 d. ago Football Daily | One man’s odyssey and a Hollywood striker get Wales fired up for Kazakhstan

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!Considering Cymru head coach Craig Bellamy is so patriotic that he lives in a house constructed entirely of Fragrant Spring daffodil bulbs, thinks the long-running BBC soap opera Pobol y Cwm is a documentary and has Dafydd Iwan’s stirring anthem Yma o Hyd as his ringtone, it was no surprise he was impressed by the journey undertaken by Wales fan John McAllister to get to his nation’s World Cup qualifier in Kazakhstan. Currently sitting second in Group J, a point behind North Macedonia but with Belgium three points further back with two games in hand, Wednesday afternoon’s match in Astana is a fairly must-win one for Wales. Anything less than three points would prove a crushing disappointment for McAllister, who set off for the Kazakh capital from Barry five weeks ago and has taken in 11 football matches, no end of foreign boozers, a heavy metal gig and some Irish stranger’s stag do as he travelled around 5,000 kilometres east across...

Events

4 d. ago Football Daily | Are Strasbourg a sister club to Chelsea or just their storage facility?

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!Strasbourg, official seat of the European parliament, the jewel of the Alsace region on the west bank of the Rhine. Important historically, geographically and politically. One of the city’s most famous sons, Arsène Wenger, as a boy, was so embedded that his first language was Low Alemannic German, not French. To use a word Wenger brought to the English football vernacular – footballistically – Strasbourg was never too much of a hub. The club reformed after liquidation as recently as 2011, having won just one French title back in 1979 when Wenger was a fringe player already embedded in coaching. In defence was the future France coach Raymond Domenech, the keen astrologist in charge when a very Gallic bust-up ravaged Les Bleus at the 2010 World Cup.We’re all captivated by the journey of Wrexham. It’s been amazing for Welsh football and hopefully now in a number of years we’ll see young players coming through There isn’t similarities t...

Sport

7 d. ago Manchester United v Burnley, Tottenham v Bournemouth: Premier League, EFL and more – live

Updates from this afternoon’s matchesScores | Tables | Read Football Daily | Mail EmilliaSunderland starting lineup: Roefs, Hume, Mukiele, Alderete, Mandava, Diarra, Xhaka, Sadiki, Talbi, Mayenda, Le Fee.Brentford starting lineup: Kelleher, Kayode, Collins, Van den Berg, Lewis-Potter, Yarmolyuk, Henderson, Ouattara, Damsgaard, Schade, Thiago. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Uefa to decide in September on Real Madrid request to play in Miami

La Liga game would be against VillarrealPlan also needs approval from Fifa and othersUefa will decide in September whether to approve a request by the Spanish football federation for Villarreal and Real Madrid to contest a La Liga game in Miami in December.European football’s governing body is expected to discuss the matter at its next executive committee meeting in Tirana on 11 September and, should no move be made to block the request, a landmark move will edge closer to reality. No major league has held a domestic game on foreign territory, despite prolonged attempts from the Spanish top flight to do so. Uefa’s signoff would clear a huge section of path, although the plan also requires approval from Fifa, US Soccer and Concacaf. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Uefa to decide in September on Barcelona request to play in Miami

La Liga game would be against VillarrealPlan also needs approval from Fifa and othersUefa will decide in September whether to approve a request by the Spanish football federation for Villarreal and Barcelona to contest a La Liga game in Miami in December.European football’s governing body is expected to discuss the matter at its next executive committee meeting in Tirana on 11 September and, should no move be made to block the request, a landmark move will edge closer to reality. No major league has held a domestic game on foreign territory, despite prolonged attempts from the Spanish top flight to do so. Uefa’s signoff would clear a huge section of path, although the plan also requires approval from Fifa, US Soccer and Concacaf. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Solskjær, Mourinho and a warning for Amorim after Manchester United | Football Daily

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!The modern football manager might wear classic Reeboks, or knackered Converse, or trackie bottoms tucked in socks but, to continue paraphrasing the Arctic Monkeys song, there ain’t no romance in our game no more. Nothing endures. The average managerial tenure tends to last between 18 months and two years. For Ole Gunnar Solskjær at Besiktas, it was a little more than seven months; José Mourinho got 14 at Fenerbahce. And so the pair, intrinsically linked by their sequential spells at Manchester United, find themselves on similar paths again, their sackings from Turkish nearly-clubs coming within hours of each other this week. Both have been caught in the meat grinder of Uefa’s endless European qualifiers. Solskjær’s brave Besiktas boys were downed by Ineos-owned Lausanne in the Tin Pot playoffs on Thursday night. A day earlier, Mourinho’s men were ousted by Benfica in the Bigger Cup equivalent.I used this word unintentionally, just t...

Events

9 d. ago Manchester United in a funk after coastal sojourn to Grimsby turns Super Bad | Football Daily

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!Fifty-five years have passed since James Brown, singer, songwriter and minister of new super-heavy funk, released a song about people who “like a dull knife [that] just ain’t cutting”, were “talking loud and saying nothing”. Manchester United would probably have preferred to prompt thoughts of Brown’s I Feel Good but they are where they are – and if they ever do shake their money-makers they could probably then benefit from dropping a few of them. Sometimes we don’t get to choose which 70s deep funk classic we unwittingly call to mind, and Ruben Amorim left no doubt when after Wednesday night’s ineffably miserable defeat by Grimsby he opined about feeling “my players spoke really loud today At half-time I told them that they were speaking really loud to me. I understand what you are doing, what I am seeing.” Like a dull knife, they just weren’t cutting.Physically, because they’re small, they look like wee boys. They’re clearly not w...

Sport

1 week ago Football Daily | Pafos FC and Kairat Almaty? The Champions League gets a hipster makeover

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!The joy of a Bigger Cup European tour is what makes a season for the fans – the trinket on offer in Budapest is merely a bonus. Six Premier League sides will get to test themselves against the best over the coming months and there are a few new faces in the competition and some intriguing passport stamps to collect. Who wouldn’t want to travel to the Cypriot city of Paphos in September to watch their beloved club play David Luiz’s Pafos FC? The temperature reaches 29C and there is no chance of rain. There are miles and miles of beaches to enjoy with a Keo in hand. If anything, the prospect of a 90-minute match is a bit of a distraction. The even better news is there are flights from London, Manchester and Newcastle.I’m someone who is passionate and will fight ever[y] time I step on the pitch. But I need to set a better example and you fans know how much I love you and this club” – West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen takes to InstaChat to expain...

Sport

2 w. ago Football Daily | Cole Palmer v French vineyard is football’s latest random copyright battle

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!Victoria Beckham taking on and losing against Peterborough United in a battle over the nickname “Posh”. Cristiano Ronaldo trademarking the combination of his initials and shirt number, “CR7”, to boost his brand. Kylian Mbappé nabbing the rights to his iconic crossed-arms goal celebration when it almost certainly would have been far more lucrative to seize ownership of that ubiquitously annoying “cry more” gif so beloved of dullards on several Social Media Disgraces. In a football business already swamped with cash and opportunists eager to get their mitts on as much of it as they can, it ought to come as no surprise that the very top players, clubs and Peterborough try to maximise their income by making their personal “brands” off limits to potential counterfeiters, bootleggers and other ne’er-do-wells.I don’t want any players who don’t want to come to the club. If they don’t want to come here and wear this fantastic badge, we don’t...

Events

3 w. ago Barcelona XI vs Mallorca: Rashford debut, predicted lineup, confirmed team news for La Liga today

Rashford could lead the line for Barcelona this evening

Politics

3 w. ago Playboy reveals plans to move HQ from California to Miami to shed itself of ‘anti

Playboy CEO Ben Kohn said California is “anti-business” as the global brand prepares to move its headquarters to Miami, Florida

Politics

3 w. ago Playboy is moving its headquarters to Miami Beach and opening a new club

Playboy has announced plans to move its global headquarters from Los Angeles to Miami Beach

Society

3 w. ago Football Daily | A new Premier League season rolls off the assembly line with subplots galore

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!Will Liverpool canter to another title? Have Manchester City rediscovered their mojo? Have Arsenal finally found the missing pieces of the jigsaw? Will Chelsea’s midsummer Copa Gianni endeavours catch up with them? Can any or all of the three promoted sides make a decent fist of not going straight back down this time? Will Fulham finish 11th or 12th? How adverse an effect will being the father of twins going through the terrible twos have on the form of Jarrod Bowen? Some early clues to the answers of these and many other questions will be provided this weekend as the latest beautifully packaged model of the Premier League rolls off the assembly line, kicking off with tonight’s ding-dong between Liverpool and what’s left of a Bournemouth carcass that has been feasted upon by a wake of vultures during the transfer window. A club so resilient and resourceful that at one point they exhibited the massed ranks of their lame and halt Davi...

Politics

3 w. ago Premier League clubs to have final say on playing matches abroad as vote option emerges

Spanish football will break new ground this season after Villarreal and Barcelona were given permission to play their LaLiga fixture in Miami on December 20 - but English football will not follow suit for now

Politics

3 w. ago Football Daily | Wayne Rooney, Tom Brady and a serving of ultra

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!Today’s Football Daily would like to start with the topical events of 15 February 1983. That was the day Manchester United outplayed and outviolenced Arsenal in the first leg of their Milk Cup semi-final at Highbury. United won 4-2; they were 4-0 up after 80 minutes before taking their foot off Arsenal’s throat, and shinbone, and head. “Perhaps we’ve been concentrating too much on passing and technique,” lamented Don Howe, Arsenal’s head coach and assistant to the manager, Terry Neill. “Against United we went out to strike the ball about instead of putting some meat into the game.” In 1980s English football, there was no place for veganism. Things have changed since the days when ABH was a bookable offence, and only then after the first 10 minutes, but English football still has a pretty noxious meat footprint. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Football Daily | Ref Cams: behold the era of football’s electronic all

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!When Football Daily were a lad and everything about football was much better, top-flight referees were able to go about their business unencumbered by nothing more hi-tech and new-fangled than a wrist-watch, a coin, a whistle, red and yellow cards, and a stubby little pencil they could’ve half-inched from the betting shop. Fast forward several decades and while the standard of officiating remains much the same, advances in the fields of both technology and vanishing foam dictate that Premier League refs are now forced to include spray cans, headsets and now body cameras on the list of items to be ticked off their pre-match checklists before they can lead teams out on to the pitch.As an Atlético member of 13 years standing, can I throw a few more comments into the mix of La Liga’s anti-fan policies (yesterday’s Football Daily)? Want to book flights and accommodation to Spain to catch a game? Oh wait, you won’t know the date or even t...

Politics

3 w. ago Six bombshells from explosive Rashford podcast – Man Utd failure, Klopp and 'frustration'

Marcus Rashford pulled no punches during his appearance on The Rest is Football podcast - and Daily Star Sport has a look at the six biggest bombshells

Events

3 w. ago Champions League qualifying and Carabao Cup first round: football – live

Follow updates from Tuesday’s action around EuropeLive scores | Read Football Daily | Follow us on Bluesky15 min: Fenerbahce 0-0 Feyenoord (agg: 1-2) Jhon Duran – the very same – has just hit the side netting with Fener’s first half-chance. Feyenoord have probably played the more intricate football but Fenerbahce look a threat on the break.Champions League qualifying latest (6pm KOs unless stated)Qarabag 4-1 Shkendija (5pm, agg: 5-1)FC Copenhagen 0-0 Malmo FF (agg: 0-0)Fenerbahce 0-0 Feyenoord (agg: 1-2)Pafos 1-0 Dynamo Kyiv (agg: 2-0)Plzen 0-0 Rangers (agg: 0-3) Continue reading...

Sport

3 w. ago Football Daily | La Liga, where every team plays each other home and away. Unless they’re in Miami

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!Spanish football is famed for nothing if not its integrity. Whether it’s Franco using his influence to elevate Real Madrid, in general, but with particular regard to the Di Stéfano affair; the way the government facilitated the sale of Madrid’s training ground for a gazillion euros; Barcelona conjuring then pulling their beloved levers; the way it treats the women’s game, in general but with particular regard to the Luis Rubiales affair; racism more suited to a dissertation or police report than a tea-timely email; to say nothing of the Fuentes blood bags.To Manchester United I decided and said yes. I wanted to join Manchester United, to see Alex Ferguson [but Dortmund] could not sell me, because they knew if I stayed they could earn more money, and that I could wait maybe one or two more years” – Robert Lewandowski on how he almost became a Red Devil in 2012, two years after a volcanic ash cloud scuppered a planned move to Blackbur...

Politics

3 w. ago Football Daily | Virgil v the cosmos, plus shootout ineptitude: the Community Shield delivers

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!Though rumours abound that, somewhere in the USA USA USA, the Copa Gianni continues in perpetuity, Donald Trump cavorting with Infantino in front of a rapt crowd of -67, back in England, the new season is well under way. Somehow, the Community Shield – or, to give it its proper name, The Annual Curtain-Raiser – has negotiated the logistical nightmare that is a transfer window yet to slam shut, revealing a game that, in a shocking turn of events, did not encourage one to pretend that football does not and has never existed. Continue reading...

Events