Paris (AFP) – Former Arsenal player Jill Roord scored as Wolfsburg defeated the London side 2-0 on Thursday to set-up a Women's Champions League semi-final clash with holders Barcelona. Dutch international Roord, who spent two seasons with the English side before leaving for Germany in 2021, opened the scoring after just nine minutes after Arsenal […]

Doha (AFP) – Lingering divisions over FIFA's decision to hold the World Cup in Qatar overshadowed the annual congress of football's world governing body on Thursday, forcing its president Gianni Infantino to insist that the event had already brought change to the Arab state. Just 235 days from the start of the first World Cup […]

Doha (AFP) – FIFA's decision to hold the World Cup in Qatar took centre stage at the global body's annual congress on Thursday with president Gianni Infantino forced to defend progress made by the Gulf state on human rights. Infantino and Qatar's top organiser hit back after Norway's football federation head, Lise Klaveness, a rare […]

Doha (AFP) – FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Thursday tried to distance himself from a highly controversial project to hold the World Cup every two years as he suggested the plan had never actually been proposed by world football's governing body. "Let me be very clear that FIFA has not proposed a biennial World Cup," […]

Cairo (AFP) – Mohamed Salah has stirred doubts about his future with the Egyptian national team following their failure to qualify for the World Cup. In comments to his team in a video published by Egypt's ministry of youth and sports, the Liverpool forward said how proud he was of the team, "whether I'm here […]

Bangkok (AFP) – Liverpool and Manchester United will meet in a high-profile friendly in Bangkok in July, the clubs said on Thursday, as Premier League teams resume lucrative pre-season tours which stopped when Covid hit. After the July 12 clash in the Thai capital, Cristiano Ronaldo and his United team-mates will fly to Australia for […]

Melbourne (AFP) – Manchester United will play Crystal Palace at Melbourne Cricket Ground in July, organisers said Thursday, as Premier League teams resume pre-season tours which stopped when Covid hit. Cristiano Ronaldo and his United team-mates are set to meet A-League club Melbourne Victory on July 15 and Palace four days later at the 100,000-capacity […]

Doha (AFP) – AFP Sport runs the rule over the eight stadiums which will host matches at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar from November 21 to December 18: – Lusail, Lusail Iconic Stadium (80,000 capacity) Qatar's biggest stadium will host the final on December 18 as well as, amongst other matches, the first semi-final. […]

Los Angeles (AFP) – The United States and Mexico booked their tickets to the World Cup finals in Qatar on Wednesday after securing the results needed to claim the last two automatic qualifying places from the CONCACAF region. The USA were beaten 2-0 by Costa Rica in San Jose to finish third in the standings while […]

Sunderland (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Rows of empty red seats in the upper tiers of Sunderland's Stadium of Light offer a persistent and painful reminder that one of English football's sleeping giants remain mired in the third tier. There has been no bounce in the Black Cats since back-to-back relegations sent them down to League […]

Doha (AFP) – The countdown towards the most controversial World Cup in history really begins on Friday as the draw for Qatar 2022 takes place in Doha, less than eight months before the start of the tournament itself. As pandemic restrictions ease, some of football's biggest names will be there for the draw at a […]

Barcelona (AFP) – A world record crowd for a women's football match of 91,553 saw Barcelona cruise into the Champions League semi-finals by thrashing Real Madrid 5-2 at Camp Nou on Wednesday to seal an 8-3 win on aggregate. The crowd figure surpassed the previous record for a women's match when 90,185 watched the 1999 […]

Barcelona (AFP) – A world record crowd for a women's football match of 91,553 saw Barcelona cruise into the Champions League semi-finals by thrashing Real Madrid 5-2 at Camp Nou on Wednesday to seal an 8-3 win on aggregate. The crowd figure surpassed the previous record for a women's game when 90,185 watched the 1999 […]

Doha (AFP) – Qatar on Wednesday opened one of the world's biggest sports museums with artefacts from some of the most famous Olympic heroes but also gives prominence to local athletes hoping to boost efforts to attract a new generation into sports. The 19,000 square metre 3-2-1 Museum Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, next to […]

Doha (AFP) – Traffic police nervously watched a World Cup crowd make a mark in Qatar's capital Wednesday as FIFA set the scene for even bigger gatherings at the event by announcing that 800,000 tickets have already been sold. Security conscious Qatar authorities had wanted to keep big groups from nine newly-qualified countries — Cameroon, […]