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Bruno Fernandes followed Lisandro Martínez in revolt after his team’s 4-1 defeat to Como in the Champions LeagueYou have to credit Manchester United. Your local rivals have turned the Premier League into an almost meaningless farce. We are questioning the validity of anything we’ve seen over the past 20 years; wondering how many goals Erling Haaland will get in the Championship. We are looking at the league table from second position down and wishing we’d invested in inflatable bananas a month ago.And yet here comes the Old Trafford machine: from players to the captain to the manager to the director of football, to the director of the director of football, to a minority owner who feels the UK is being “colonised by immigrants”, to debt-leveraging majority owners who take vast sums out of the club and are collectively saying hold my Ineos-sponsored high-performance wellness immune boost smoothie. Continue reading...

Player has scored four goals in last two games for CityAston Villa the next test for Premier League leadersEnzo Maresca has revealed he held heart-to-heart conversations with Phil Foden to help the midfielder back to his best. Foden has struggled over the past two years but has scored four goals in his past two games to give hope he can recapture the form that won him the Professional Footballers’ Association player of the year award in 2023-24.City travel to Aston Villa on Saturday lunchtime aiming to continue their perfect Premier League start under Maresca, with Erling Haaland fit after sitting on the bench for Wednesday’s Champions League win over AEK Athens. Continue reading...

Returning from months on the sidelines is a huge challenge for any footballer. To do it twice in succession is a daunting prospect — but Chelsea’s Nathalie Bjorn has overcome the odds to do just that.

England showcased their football skills before their ODI tri-series match against Sri Lanka.

Manager apologises to fans after 4-1 defeat in ComoCaptain criticises ‘decision from the staff’ not to pressMichael Carrick’s future as Manchester United manager is in the balance after a humiliating 4-1 Champions League defeat by Como on Wednesday night.Before Bournemouth’s visit to Old Trafford on Sunday his future may be discussed by Jason Wilcox, the director of football, Omar Berrada, the chief executive, and Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the co-owner who controls sporting policy. Continue reading...

Manchester United suffer a heavy defeat to a Como side playing just their third ever game of Champions League football, as Nico Paz stars for the hosts to pile the pressure on Michael Carrick.

Manchester United suffer a heavy defeat to a Como side playing just their third ever game of Champions League football, as Nico Paz stars for the hosts to pile the pressure on Michael Carrick.

Manchester United suffer a heavy defeat to a Como side playing just their third ever game of Champions League football, as Nico Paz stars for the hosts to pile the pressure on Michael Carrick.

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!Now then, which one of you hipsters decided to put Porto 0-1 PSV on? Oh dear. This was another night of Bigger Cup at its Bigliest self, comebacks everywhere, 40 goals in nine games, six of those in a best-v-best clash as Paris Saint-Germain rallied late against Barcelona. Even in defeat, Lamine Yamal found space to decorate the room with a ludicrous toe-poke equaliser, and there was a wholesome tale in Italy as Scott McTominay scored twice for Napoli in their 4-3 win against Bodø/Glimt. These were his first strikes since returning from heart surgery, taking his tally at the club to 29 goals in 86 appearances. No wonder Erik ten Hag was peeved with his bosses at Manchester United for shipping the midfielder off to Naples.One has to admire the courage of Erik ten Hag, speaking out on Man United’s ‘toxic culture’ [yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition]. I broke out in a cold sweat reading about how they ‘give power to the players’. The stuff of nightmares, really” – Rowan Sweeney.Roberto De Zerbi wants Spurs to be a family (yesterday’s Football Daily)? And he thinks playing for or with a family will avoid relegation? Well, I have this uncle. He’s called Weird Uncle Fiver (now there’s a throwback – Football Daily Ed), and he loves to [snip – Football Daily lawyers, and time-travelling pedants]” – Mike Wilner.This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading...

He presented several arguments after Portugal walkoutInquiry chose to halve, then halve again his punishmentCristiano Ronaldo successfully fought to reduce his punishment for walking out on a Portugal training camp, after saying publicly that his sanction should be imposed “without mitigating circumstances”.After leaving the training camp in Denmark last month, Ronaldo said in a lengthy statement on social media that he should be punished as the Portuguese Football Federation saw fit and that his role as captain constituted “an aggravating factor”. Continue reading...

Jonathan Bukabakwa gets extra five-year ban from FifaDR Congo’s FA must improve education and complianceA coach in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who was banned from football for 20 years by Fifa for sexual abuse of a minor has had his ban extended by five years to 2048 by the world governing body.Jonathan Bukabakwa, known as Messi, has also been ordered to pay an additional fine of $15,000 (£11,200) after the Guardian revealed he had continued to work with young players despite his suspension. Continue reading...

The duo have carved out lucrative and successful careers as TV audiences elsewhere are falling. It seems they won’t be together for much longerTroy Aikman knew when it was time to go. His aching body made the decision for him when he ended his NFL career in 2001. A quarter of a century later, with one of the top quarterbacks of the 1990s established as half of the pre-eminent broadcasting duo in American sports, his potential exit from the booth is not so clearcut.Aikman clearly feels his voice remains in fine working order, but his bosses at ESPN may not agree. The color commentator’s Monday Night Football play-by-play partner, Joe Buck, is reported to have agreed a new deal with the network worth $108m over six seasons (his previous deal was for five years at $15m a season), yet Aikman has claimed ESPN does not want to renew his contract. Continue reading...

The Overlap has gone daily, with Steven Gerrard and Joe Hart among the latest additions to an ever-growing familyViewed in 2026, Nathan Barley, Chris Morris’s 2005 sitcom, shows remarkable prescience about the last two decades of metropolitan life, from smartphone addiction and digital derangement to sheer existential vapidity. When Barley’s character referred to his occupation as “self-facilitating media node”, Morris and co-writer Charlie Brooker were way ahead on the creator economy. What the pair failed to predict was ex-footballers joining the sector in droves. These days, if you are a former footballer without a podcast or YouTube channel, then did you ever really play the game?Setting aside the Gary Lineker Goalhanger empire, manspreading its centrist-dad agenda into issues way beyond guffaws with Micah Richards and Alan Shearer, there is Gary Neville to rule them all. Manchesterism’s second-most influential practitioner has been on heavy manoeuvres. Unlike Lineker’s productions, the Overlap’s output continues to stick largely to football; a rugby podcast was mothballed in February, though its cricket equivalent continues. Continue reading...

IFR chair David Kogan insists regulator has power to actCity have appealed against Premier League’s chargesThe Independent Football Regulator (IFR) will have “absolute power” to force Manchester City’s owners to sell if they are ultimately found to have run the club improperly, the watchdog’s chair has said.Manchester City have been found guilty of circumventing Premier League rules by an independent commission, which found they set up “sham” commercial arrangements to inflate revenues or reduce costs by over £900m over a nine-season period. Continue reading...

Fire, noise, fury, a sense of empty energy. And across town, a football match too. Do any of these randomly pitched autumnal Champions League fixtures mean anything? Probably not when you’re Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona, and the only game in town is risk-free TV income and a semi-guaranteed place in the knockout stuff.But this was still a dazzling occasion at the Parc des Princes, where the champions of France and Spain played out a light, open, frictionless, exhibition-style game of football. PSG finished 4-2 winners, having been pegged back to 2-2 midway through the second half. But this was also a game where the score almost did not seem to matter, and where the only really hard message was the frailty of the Barcelona backline and PSG’s thrilling attacking energy in these midweek A-games. Continue reading...

Trabzonspor president Ertugrul Dogan is among 147 club officials given a 45-day ban by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) for breaching betting rules.

Trabzonspor president Ertugrul Dogan is among 147 club officials given a 45-day ban by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) for breaching betting rules.

Trabzonspor president Ertugrul Dogan is among 147 club officials given a 45-day ban by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) for breaching betting rules.

Trabzonspor president Ertugrul Dogan is among 147 club officials given a 45-day ban by the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) for breaching betting rules.

As Tottenham edged to victory over Coventry, a familiar face among the post-match salutations. Could that be Dejan Kulusevski? For it was he, playing 526 days since his last Spurs appearance. Much has changed though still much stays the same. Ben Davies’s deflected late clincher catapulted Spurs up to … 16th. When Kulusevski last played on 11 May 2025, Tottenham were 17th, the position in which they finished both that season and in 2025-26.Further to Peters and Lee [Monday’s Football Daily letters] another 70s example that occurred to me was the West Ham players Mervyn Day and Bill Green. They were both in the West Ham United team from 1976-78, and in Carlisle United’s greatest season 1974-75. When Green was still at Carlisle, he played against West Ham’s Day. So plenty of Green Day commentary opportunities there. Of course, the band hadn’t formed yet, but who knows, perhaps they thought of the band’s name whilst watching some old 70s football footage” – Bob Dunning.On the subject of musical football matchups, all I can say is that it’s just a shame Gareth Barry was at Manchester City a few years too late to play alongside David White” – Tim Russell.As an aside to the music makers and fitba’, in the late 60s at the old Highbury, we would be entertained at every first team match by the local constabulary brass band. Such was the style of play, it did introduce a some element of entertainment into our visits to the old stadium” – Tommy Boyd (and, surprisingly, others).This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading...