分类： sports

As Germany’s top-flight football league Bundesliga kicks off its new campaign this Friday, defending double champions Bayern Munich have entered the season with high ambitions of claiming an unprecedented treble, while their closest competitors have executed major offseason overhauls in a bid to close the growing gap on the Bavarian giants.

Bayern Munich will kick off their title defense at home against Stuttgart, the 2025-26 German Cup runners-up, fresh off a historic domestic campaign that saw the club claim both the Bundesliga and German Cup titles, secure the fourth-highest points total in league history, and set a new goal-scoring record of 122 goals across 34 regular-season matches. Led by star striker Harry Kane, who lined up alongside lethal wingers Michael Olise and Luis Diaz, Bayern dropped just one domestic fixture all last season, with Kane netting a hat-trick to seal the Cup final win over Friday’s opening opponent. The only significant setback of Bayern’s 2025-26 campaign came in European competition, where they bowed out of the Champions League semi-finals in a tight 6-5 aggregate defeat to eventual tournament winners Paris Saint-Germain.

This offseason, Bayern has reinforced its title-chasing squad by adding Moroccan World Cup standout Ismael Saibari and young German defender Nathaniel Brown, building on a already dominant core. The club’s hunger for silverware remains unquenched, as demonstrated by their recent 2-1 victory over Borussia Dortmund in the German Super Cup. Speaking to reporters after the Super Cup win, Kane made clear the team’s intentions for the new season, framing the early win as a warning to the rest of the league. “We fell just short in the Champions League, but our momentum is to keep pushing, pushing each other, pushing this team to see how far we can go,” the England captain said. “Our aim is to continue to dominate in Germany, and I think winning here is a great statement.”

Kane, who joined Bayern from Tottenham Hotspur in 2023 after years without major silverware in England, has already claimed three domestic trophies and two Super Cup titles with the Bavarian side, following a 61-goal haul across all competitions last season. The 33-year-old also has extra motivation for a strong start to the new campaign: the Ballon d’Or award will be presented in October in his home city of London, and Bayern’s leadership has publicly thrown their full weight behind Kane’s candidacy. “It can only be Harry Kane. We can just give it to Harry already,” Bayern board member Rouven Kasper told AFP. Sporting director Christoph Freund echoed that sentiment, noting “[Kane] deserves to win the Ballon d’Or — he had an outstanding season.”

Off the pitch, Bayern has also been navigating a health concern for star playmaker Jamal Musiala. The 23-year-old German international, who revealed this summer he is living with a neurological disorder that caused two on-pitch collapses during pre-season, is expected to be gradually eased back into the starting lineup, with Saibari’s arrival providing the squad with enough depth to cover for his slow return. Bayern’s technical staff has expressed confidence that Musiala will return to his best form in due time.

While Bayern enters the season as the overwhelming favorite, their Bundesliga rivals have all undergone major changes in the offseason in an attempt to mount a credible title challenge. Longtime Bayern challenger Borussia Dortmund, after years of prioritizing established senior players, have returned to their historic model of investing in high-potential young talent, sinking a reported 110 million euros into new signings this summer. That total matches Bayern’s own offseason spending on Saibari and Brown, with Dortmund adding 19-year-old winger Konstantinos Karetsas, teenager defender Joane Gadou, 23-year-old midfielder Giannis Konstantelias, and experienced midfielder Joey Veerman to their ranks.

For Dortmund head coach Niko Kovac, who won the Bundesliga title with Bayern in 2018-19, the gap between his current side and the defending champions remains sizable, even after the summer investment. “A lot must happen to close the gap,” Kovac told AFP. “We must play over our capacities, I would say. And then Bayern Munich play under their capacity. But you can be sure we will try everything.”

Elsewhere across the league, Stuttgart, who have qualified for the Champions League in two of the three full seasons under manager Sebastian Hoeness, has achieved a rare offseason stability: for the first time since Hoeness took charge in 2023, the club has managed to retain all its top talents despite interest from bigger European clubs, rather than selling key stars. 2023-24 Bundesliga winners Bayer Leverkusen have turned to Spanish manager Carles Martinez Novell to continue the club’s rebuild that began when former coach Xabi Alonso departed in 2025. RB Leipzig, who finished third last season to qualify for the Champions League, has appointed Argentine manager Martin Demichelis to replace outgoing coach Ole Werner, and has seen major squad turnover after selling star midfielder Yan Diomande to Real Madrid for 120 million euros. Despite bringing back fan favorite Christopher Nkunku on a season-long loan from AC Milan, the squad still lacks top-level experience in key positions heading into the opener.

As the first kickoff of the new Bundesliga season approaches, all eyes will be on whether Bayern can turn their domestic dominance into a historic treble, or if the league’s revamped challengers can finally dethrone the Bavarian giants.

As European football’s elite clubs gather in Monaco for Thursday’s 2025-26 UEFA Champions League draw, the long-simmering dispute between UEFA and FIFA over a controversial private investment plan for World Cup commercial operations is set to de-escalate, multiple sources confirmed to AFP.

The conflict erupted in late July, when news broke that FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s administration had proposed launching a commercial subsidiary under the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) initiative, which would allow private investors to purchase equity stakes in the entity that operates FIFA’s flagship events, including the men’s and women’s World Cup and the Club World Cup.

The proposal triggered immediate and fierce backlash from UEFA, which controls the lion’s share of global football’s multi-billion-dollar economy through its top club competitions and member association revenues. Led by president Aleksander Ceferin, UEFA slammed the plan in unvarnished terms, calling it a “shady, opaque backroom deal” that threatened the fundamental structure of the global game. The governing body issued a blunt ultimatum: no UEFA national or club teams would take part in any FIFA competition as long as the proposal remained on the table. That hardline stance was widely credited with forcing FIFA to shelve the controversial plan almost immediately.

Now, ahead of Thursday’s draw, sources close to UEFA’s executive committee and member association talks in Monaco told AFP the threatened boycott will “likely” be withdrawn. UEFA had laid out two non-negotiable conditions for backing down from the threat: a full scrapping of the original investment proposal, and a permanent guarantee that no similar attempts to restructure FIFA’s top event commercial operations would be advanced in the future. One senior source confirmed Wednesday that UEFA has now received the required assurances, satisfying both conditions.

The decision to drop the boycott threat also removes a major point of internal friction for UEFA, which has pushed for Infantino to step down over the controversy. A split among member associations over a boycott would have undermined the bloc’s unified front calling for the FIFA president’s departure, a risk that is now eliminated. The timing also removes immediate uncertainty for upcoming FIFA events: the Under-20 Women’s World Cup is set to kick off in Poland next month, and European qualifying for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil is already underway.

With the governing body dispute moving toward resolution, focus has fully shifted to the draw itself, which will set the stage for the new season of Europe’s most prestigious club competition. Defending champion Paris Saint-Germain enters the draw chasing an unprecedented three-peat in the modern era; the French side retained their title last season after beating Arsenal on penalties in the Budapest final, and only Real Madrid, who won three consecutive Champions League crowns between 2016 and 2018, have achieved the three-peat feat in the last 50 years. PSG manager Luis Enrique reiterated the club’s ambitions earlier this month, saying “We have won the last two, which means we can win a third. It will be very hard, but that is our ambition.”

This season marks only the third iteration of the Champions League’s revamped format, which expanded the competition to 36 teams competing in a single unified league phase, with each side facing eight different opponents before the knockout round. The new format has amplified the growing polarization of European club football, with the wealthiest clubs from the continent’s top four leagues set to dominate participation and capture the bulk of competition prize money. Half of all 36 competing clubs hail from the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, and the Bundesliga. The English Premier League leads all leagues with five entrants: Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, and Aston Villa. La Liga also has five representatives, including Real Betis, who return to the Champions League group stage proper for the first time in 20 years.

The draw will also feature several historic debuts for underdog clubs who defied expectations to reach the league phase. In Italy, Como, coached by former Arsenal, Barcelona, and Spain midfield star Cesc Fàbregas, will make their first ever Champions League appearance after upending more established Italian sides to qualify. Azerbaijan’s Sabah will also make their debut, having fought through four qualifying rounds starting from the very first preliminary round to earn their spot. Austria’s LASK completes the list of first-time qualifiers, pulling off a stunning late comeback to beat Celtic in the play-off round to secure their place in the 36-team league.

The first matchday of the league phase is scheduled for September 8 to 10, with the league phase wrapping up in late January 2026. This season’s Champions League final will be hosted at Atlético Madrid’s Metropolitano Stadium on June 6, 2026.

Ahead of the highly anticipated AFL wildcard final between the Western Bulldogs and Collingwood Magpies at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, a surprising off-field decision by AFL headquarters has dominated headlines, catching the attention of Bulldogs head coach Luke Beveridge. The decision: granting non-tenant Collingwood permission to hold a main training session at Marvel Stadium this week, a privilege long denied to the Bulldogs and other long-term tenant clubs of the venue. Beveridge, who has been focused entirely on preparing his side for Friday night’s do-or-die clash, couldn’t hide his amusement at the lopsided decision when questioned by reporters. “When I heard the news, I almost fell off my chair,” Beveridge told media with a laugh. “It’s just hilarious – a real crack-up. None of the actual tenant clubs can get approval to train on that ground for a main session. The only time we’ve ever been offered access is for a quick captain’s run in just our running shoes, and that’s not even worth the trip down for us.” Collingwood has been forced to hunt for alternative training grounds for much of the 2024 season after unseasonably heavy rainfall left its primary Olympic Park training facility unusable. The club has already made use of local university and school ovals multiple times this year to make up for the poor conditions at its home base, and this week turned to AFL headquarters to request access to the vacant Marvel Stadium surface. Collingwood completed its full main training session at the Docklands venue on Thursday, marking a rare access win for a club that doesn’t hold tenant status at the ground. Beveridge went on to acknowledge that the Bulldogs did not submit their own request for Marvel Stadium access this week, meaning the club was not formally turned down on this occasion. He also acknowledged the end-of-season reduction in event traffic at the venue likely made the approval easier for Collingwood to secure. “We put in requests for access to Marvel Stadium pretty much every year, and I get it – the ground gets a lot of use, so they want to limit extra foot traffic when they can,” he explained. “But the principle of it just gets me: if tenant clubs can’t get on it, why does a non-tenant get the green light? It’s just one of those situations where if you didn’t laugh, you’d cry. Obviously there’s less event traffic on the ground this time of year, so it was an easy case for them to make. Collingwood put their request in, made a solid case, and got approved – that’s just how it goes.” The Bulldogs coach declined to be drawn into any further discussion about Friday night’s high-stakes final, choosing to keep focus on his team’s preparation. The match, which Collingwood will face as the away side despite being the higher-ranked team, will kick off at the MCG on Friday evening with a spot in the next round of the AFL finals on the line.

The breakaway professional golf circuit LIV Golf is set to implement sweeping layoffs affecting most of its employees starting next week, a company spokesperson confirmed Wednesday. The drastic restructuring move comes as the tour enters a period of deep uncertainty following the sudden termination of massive backing from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), the deep-pocketed backer that poured an estimated $5 billion into the league over multiple years to poach top-tier talent from the established PGA Tour.

PIF’s funding commitment wrapped up immediately after LIV wrapped its 2024 regular season at the Indianapolis season finale last weekend. In an official statement, the LIV spokesperson outlined that the organization is scaling back its current operations as it transitions toward a planned rebranded “LIV 2.0” iteration set to launch under new ownership next season.

“The funding commitment announced by PIF earlier this year will reach its conclusion. As a result, we are scaling back operations as we transition to the next chapter of LIV Golf and work toward making LIV 2.0 a reality,” the spokesperson said. “This week, we informed many of our colleagues that their employment under LIV 1.0 will end in the first week of September. We are grateful to our employees for their hard work and dedication in building LIV Golf, and we remain committed to supporting those affected through this transition.”

LIV’s leadership says it has already secured a preliminary agreement with an unnamed prospective lead investor, and has offered top players substantial equity stakes in the reorganized league to incentivize them to stay. The circuit is also actively seeking additional minority investors, targeting a finalized restructuring deal by the end of October. A source familiar with the internal plans told Agence France-Presse that only a small core team will be retained through the transition period, and the organization hopes to rehire many laid-off employees if the new investment deal is successfully completed.

Despite these tentative plans, the very survival of the reimagined tour hinges entirely on one critical factor: whether LIV can convince its biggest drawing card players to remain on the roster. Currently, the league’s lineup includes major champions and fan favorites such as Bryson DeChambeau, Jon Rahm, and Sergio Garcia, none of whom have publicly confirmed they will stay with the circuit through the transition.

Multiple industry reports have suggested several top LIV stars are in informal talks about a potential return to the PGA Tour, though PGA Tour officials confirmed this week that they currently have no formal pathway in place to allow LIV players to rejoin the established tour. Speaking at the Indianapolis season finale Sunday, DeChambeau struck an optimistic tone, saying he was “proud” of what LIV had built and that he held “great thoughts about what could happen next year.” Just one day later, however, the 2020 U.S. Open champion posted a cryptic message to Instagram: a photo gallery of his biggest LIV victories paired with the caption “It was a good run,” leaving fans and analysts speculating about his next move.

Just 30 minutes after the final whistle dropped at the Santiago Bernabeu, La Liga fans are still buzzing from a masterclass performance that delivered Jose Mourinho his first home victory since returning to Real Madrid’s dugout. The headline act on the night? French superstar Kylian Mbappe, who bagged a stunning hat-trick to anchor the Los Blancos to a dominant 4-1 thrashing of Copa del Rey holders Real Sociedad, extending their perfect start to the new campaign with two wins from two opening matches.

Mourinho made a bold call ahead of kickoff, sticking with the exact starting XI that earned a dramatic late 2-1 away win over Espanyol in his first match in charge last weekend. The Portuguese veteran had previously acknowledged that getting his three global superstars — Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham — firing at full capacity at the same time would be a tricky challenge, but not an impossible one. Saturday’s fixture proved he is already moving in the right direction, as the star trio combined to tear apart the Basque visitors, with Bellingham notching two assists and Vinicius adding a fourth goal to wrap up the result.

The opening 40 minutes of the match was a tightly contested end-to-end affair, with both sides creating clear-cut chances. Vinicius fired over the crossbar early on, while Real Sociedad keeper Alex Remiro made a sharp low save to deny Mbappe at his near post. At the opposite end, Real Madrid keeper Thibaut Courtois pulled off a brilliant reflex stop to keep out Mikel Oyarzabal, and Sociedad’s Sergio Gomez sent a flying volley just inches wide of the far post.

The breakthrough finally came five minutes before halftime, when Uruguayan midfielder Federico Valverde threaded a perfect through ball to Mbappe. The two-time defending La Liga top scorer took a clever first touch to shake off his marker before burying a blistering strike into the top corner, opening his goal account for the new campaign.

Real Madrid could not hold onto their lead through to halftime, however. A misplaced turnover from Job Ochieng led to a blocked shot that fell kindly into the path of Luka Sucic, who fired home the equaliser via a deflection off Alvaro Carreras, sending the sides into the break level at 1-1.

After the interval, Valverde revealed after the match that Madrid adjusted their pressing strategy, and the tweak immediately paid dividends. Early in the second half, Remiro pulled off another save to deny Mbappe after a clever pass from Arda Guler, but he could do nothing to stop the Frenchman’s second strike. A smooth build-up between Valverde and Bellingham ended with Bellingham playing Mbappe through on goal, and the former Paris Saint-Germain forward calmly slotted home to restore Madrid’s lead.

Madrid’s third goal came from Vinicius, who had been relatively quiet for most of the match until that point, and it was Bellingham’s tenacity that created the chance. The English midfielder’s initial shot was blocked, but he fought to win back possession in the penalty area before squaring the ball for an unmarked Vinicius to tap into an empty net.

Buoyed by his goal, Vinicius turned provider for Mbappe’s third just minutes later, playing a perfectly weighted through ball that put the striker one-on-one with Remiro. Mbappe lifted a delicate chip over the onrushing keeper that bounced into the net, capping his hat-trick with what many observers are already calling the goal of the match.

In a small moment that carried bigger off-pitch significance, Vinicius was substituted with seven minutes left to play for new signing Yan Diomande, and he left the pitch all smiles while embracing Mourinho. That stands in stark contrast to last season, when the Brazilian forward openly showed anger after being substituted by former coach Xabi Alonso during a Clasico win over Barcelona in October. The 2024-25 season already looks different for Vinicius, who recently signed a contract extension with Real Madrid keeping him at the club until 2032.

After the final whistle, Mourinho was full of praise for his side and for Mbappe in particular. “This guy is incredible,” he said of the French forward. “I see him really hungry to make history with Real Madrid, and I see a team where, despite Kylian being Kylian, it’s hard for me not to talk about the team.”

The Portuguese coach added that he was happy with every aspect of his side’s performance, even the patchy first half. “I liked everything, and you might tell me the second half was good and the first half wasn’t, but I liked the team even when it wasn’t good,” he said. “I’m really happy that the players ended up content, winning at home, smiling, and tomorrow — training — because on Sunday comes Malaga.”

Valverde echoed his coach’s praise for Mbappe, telling Real Madrid TV after the match: “It’s spectacular, incredible (to have Mbappe), we have to enjoy Mbappe and make the most of him as possible. We have to give him a thousand balls so he is comfortable, he can score goals, and he’s happy.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the matchweek, Spanish champions Barcelona will host Athletic Bilbao on Thursday, with new high-profile signing Rodri expected to make his debut from the bench under new manager Hansi Flick.

As the AFL finals race reaches a fever pitch, the Western Bulldogs have delivered a major boost to their premiership hopes, confirming star big men Aaron Naughton and Tim English are on track to take the field against Collingwood in Friday night’s do-or-die blockbuster clash. The announcement comes amid swirling off-season speculation linking English to an interstate move, but Bulldogs head coach Luke Beveridge has moved to ease fan fears, insisting the club is confident the ruckman will see out his contract and remain at the Whitten Oval beyond this campaign.

English has been sidelined since sustaining a knee injury in round 22 of the regular season, while Naughton was forced to cut short his round 24 outing against Melbourne after an existing ankle injury flared up. Both stars completed a full training session this week, and Beveridge confirmed their fitness has progressed far better than expected ahead of the high-stakes encounter.

The coach noted that the club will carefully manage English’s game time to avoid aggravating his still-healing knee, but the outfit is targeting 70 percent game time for the key ruckman. “They both got through training yesterday, and all signs point to them being available to play,” Beveridge told reporters ahead of the clash. “We’re already short on tall personnel down the spine, so losing either of these two would have forced us to get creative with our line-up, like we had to do last week. Ryan Gardner stepped up really well in that fill-in role, even with limited minutes, and that was a great outcome for the whole group.”

Beveridge added that Collingwood’s relatively undersized forward line and midfield eases some of the immediate pressure on the Bulldogs’ ruck division, even with English coming off a layoff. “Collingwood aren’t a side stacked with elite height across the park, so that takes some of the sting out of any potential disadvantage,” he said. “That said, the ruck contest is always a critical battle every week. Tim has had a few weeks off to recover, so there’s no question he’ll be a little underdone coming into this game. We’ll work through his minutes step by step, but right now it looks like he’ll get through, and we’re hoping he can spend at least 70 percent of the match on the field.”

Beyond the immediate on-field preparation, Beveridge addressed rampant off-season speculation that English could request a trade to GWS at the end of the 2024 season, following his partner Rudi Ellis’s recent signing with Sydney-based Super Netball club the NSW Swifts. The coach pushed back on the rumours, saying the club has not received any internal indication that English wants to leave.

“We’re pretty secure in the fact that Tim will be here next year, and for a fair bit longer beyond that,” Beveridge said. “We haven’t seen or heard anything internally that gives any of this speculation any credence. I fully expect him to see out his current contract. He hasn’t given any hint that he’s unhappy here, and he’s been an incredible servant of this club for a long time.”

Beveridge added that he has no interest in entertaining hypotheticals about player movement during the finals campaign, with the club’s full focus fixed on this week’s cutthroat clash. “It’s probably not a time to be dealing in hypotheticals, and I’d rather not speculate on what might happen after the season,” he said. “All this silly season talk is not something we want to get wrapped up in right now. We’ll deal with those questions when we have to, but right now every bit of our energy is going towards preparing for this game.”