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, […]

Johannesburg (AFP) – Factfiles for Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia, the five African nations who qualified this week for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. They will discover which three group opponents they are each going to face when the draw for the 32-team tournament is made in Doha on Friday. The first World […]

London (AFP) – England manager Gareth Southgate insists nobody can take their place in his World Cup squad for granted. Southgate's side stepped up their preparations for the World Cup with a 3-0 win against Ivory Coast in Tuesday's friendly at Wembley. He made 10 changes from Saturday's friendly victory over Switzerland to take a […]

Madrid (AFP) – Carlo Ancelotti has tested positive for Covid-19, Real Madrid announced on Wednesday, with the Italian likely to miss his team's La Liga game against Celta Vigo on Saturday. The 62-year-old's symptoms are "very light", a Real Madrid source confirmed, with the club confident Ancelotti will be able to return in time for […]

Stockholm (AFP) – Zlatan Ibrahimovic has said he will continue playing international football for "as long as possible" despite Sweden's failure to qualify for the 2022 World Cup. The 40-year-old came on as a substitute for the final 10 minutes in Sweden's 2-0 play-off loss to Poland in Chorzow on Tuesday. Ibrahimovic has endured an […]

Montevideo (AFP) – Peru booked a World Cup play-off spot against either Australia or the United Arab Emirates with a 2-0 victory over Paraguay on Tuesday, thus dashing the hopes of Colombia and Chile to reach the Qatar extravaganza. With Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay already qualified, all that was to play for in the […]

London (AFP) – England manager Gareth Southgate described Wembley boos for defender Harry Maguire as an "absolute joke" after his side eased to a 3-0 win against Ivory Coast in a friendly on Tuesday. Some sections of the crowd booed the Manchester United defender as he made his first international appearance of the year, days […]