57 h. ago Trump says he wants to ditch the word ‘soccer’. Does America finally understand football?

But don’t blame America for the word

Sport

5 d. ago Whisky leaders urge Starmer to 'seize the moment' in Trump meeting to ditch tariffs

Donald Trump is poised for Aberdeen talks with Keir Starmer and John Swinney later this month.

Politics

9 d. ago US set to be host to biggest sporting events with guests it doesn’t want | Emma John

Donald Trump is closing the borders even though the World Cup and 2028 Olympics will take place in his countryCall it big, beautiful timing. On Tuesday, Fifa announced it had taken an office in Trump Tower. On Wednesday, Donald Trump announced he would attend the Club World Cup final. And who could begrudge the US president a little sporting entertainment after the week he has had? Those Nobel peace prize applications don’t write themselves.Trump’s attendance at a tournament that we can be 95% sure he doesn’t understand is, doubtless, a huge coup and political victory for football. This is a sport that only a decade ago was openly considered un-American, scrawled into the rightwing commentator’s list of pet peeves between meteorologists and Judy Blume. Ann Coulter described soccer’s growing popularity as a “sign of the nation’s moral decay”. Glenn Beck likened it to Obamacare: “It doesn’t matter how you try to sell it to us, it doesn’t matter how many celebrities you get we want not...

Politics

2 w. ago US shoppers ditch Shein and Temu as Trump closes tax loophole

Once ascendant online retailers are shifting focus to Europe as US-China trade dispute takes a heavy toll

Politics

3 w. ago Rangers legend Graeme Souness fuming after councillors reject development plan

The football hardman said he didn't understand the decision "on any level".

Politics

3 w. ago Plans for Anne Burrell’s final Worst Cooks season revealed weeks after her death

The chef was found dead June 17 in her Brooklyn home

Events

3 w. ago How to watch Inter Miami vs Palmeiras: TV channel and live stream for Club World Cup today

Final group game goes down to the wire for America’s glamour club

Society

4 w. ago Cult of celebrity feels like a fundamental tension at the heart of the game

The individual walk-ons at Club World Cup underline Fifa’s failure to understand that football is a team sport – just ask PSGIt is in the details that the truest picture emerges. Quite aside from the endless politicking, the forever-war with Uefa, the consorting with autocrats and the intriguing broadcast rights and partnership deals, there has been, not a new, but growing sense during the Club World Cup that Fifa doesn’t really get football. There is something cargo-cultish about it, creating outcomes without engaging in processes.Perhaps that is inevitable with Gianni Infantino’s style of leadership; like all populists, he is big on vision and short on practical reality. It was there in the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams. Continue reading...

Events

4 w. ago Fifa’s embrace of cult of celebrity reveals a fundamental tension at the heart of the game | Jonathan Wilson

The individual walk-ons at Club World Cup underline Fifa’s failure to understand that football is a team sport – just ask PSGIt is in the details that the truest picture emerges. Quite aside from the endless politicking, the forever-war with Uefa, the consorting with autocrats and the intriguing broadcast rights and partnership deals, there has been, not a new, but growing sense during the Club World Cup that Fifa doesn’t really get football. There is something cargo-cultish about it, creating outcomes without engaging in processes.Perhaps that is inevitable with Gianni Infantino’s style of leadership; like all populists, he is big on vision and short on practical reality. It was there in the expansion of the World Cup to 48 teams. Continue reading...

Sport

4 w. ago America is showing us football in its final dictator form – we can’t afford to look away | Barney Ronay

It has been an ominous week for the sport in the US but talk of a boycott of next year’s World Cup misses the pointShould we give it a miss? Is it best to stay away from next summer’s Trump-Infantino US World Cup? Depending on your politics the answer may be a resounding no or a bemused shrug. Some will see pure drive-by entertainment. Why would anyone want to boycott a month-long end-of-days Grand Soccer Parade staged by two of the world’s most cinematic egomaniacs?But it is a question that has been asked, and will be asked a lot more in the next year. Those who intend to travel will need to answer it by action or omission. Would it be better for dissenting media and discomfited football fans to simply no-platform this event? Continue reading...

Sport