List of All Articles with Tag 'sports'

By Michael Church HANGZHOU, China Japan successfully defended their women’s Asian Games soccer gold medal on Friday as

Conor McGregor has hinted that he has returned to the testing pool of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (Usada), setting him up for a UFC comeback. It was announced in February that McGregor would fight Michael Chandler this year, in the Irishman’s first bout since he suffered a broken leg while losing to Dustin Poirier in July 2021. Since the announcement, however, McGregor has remained absent from Usada’s testing pool, ruling out a 2023 return to the ring. That is because, in order to fight, athletes must be in the Usada pool for six months while returning zero positive results and at least two negatives. But on Thursday (5 October), McGregor took to Instagram to share photos of himself training at Crumlin Boxing Club in Dublin, and his caption read: “Find my targets. Hit them. F*** the consequences. You’re going down. This is fighting. Submitted my stuff to Novitzky. Ball rolling.” McGregor, 35, was referring to Jeff Novitzky, the UFC’s Senior Vice-President of Athlete Health and Performance. McGregor added, “See you soon you little light work b***h,” seemingly taking aim at Chandler. If McGregor has in fact re-entered Usada’s testing pool, he could be in line to return at UFC 300, which may take place in April. McGregor’s last win came in January 2020, when the former dual-weight champion stopped Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds. He then suffered the first knockout defeat of his career in January 2021, when he faced Dustin Poirier in a rematch of their 2014 clash. Six months later, McGregor fought the American in a trilogy bout, suffering a broken leg at the end of Round 1 – handing Poirier a TKO victory. Meanwhile, American Chandler last fought in November 2021, when he was submitted to Poirier. Chandler, 37, is a former three-time Bellator lightweight champion. This summer, McGregor and Chandler served as opposing coaches on the newest season of The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC’s reality television show. Chandler’s team of fighters dominated McGregor’s, with Kurt Holobaugh ultimately winning the lightweight finale in August. On the same night, Brad Katona won the bantamweight finale for Team McGregor, but only after switching from Chandler’s team. Click here to subscribe to The Independent’s Sport YouTube channel for all the latest sports videos. Read More Let’s get ready to rumble! Inside the ropes with boxing’s ring announcers Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk undisputed rematch ruled out after major call Anthony Joshua could fight on same card as Eubank Jr vs Benn, claims Eddie Hearn UFC schedule 2023: Every fight happening this year When is the next UFC event? The Independent’s pound-for-pound UFC rankings

Manchester United's poor start to the season can be attributed to a lack of consistency throughout the 90

Arsenal forward Bukayo Saka is in contention to face Premier League leaders Manchester City, despite going off injured

Buffalo defensive end Greg Rousseau was ruled out of Sunday’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars because of a foot injury

On Thursday evening, Arsenal were still hoping that Bukayo Saka would feature on Sunday, but Mikel Arteta has had to start drawing up alternative plans. And that could serve his side well in a pivotal clash with the potential to define the title race. It is no bad thing to have Pep Guardiola second-guessing you, and the Manchester City manager can take that to third-, fourth- or even beyond fifth-guessing. The Catalan will be rolling everything around in his mind, having pored over recent footage. Most of the footage of recent Arsenal-City games, mind, has been all too clear. They’ve all gone one way, to an almost farcical degree. City have beaten Arsenal for 12 successive Premier League games. That run would be bad enough if it was over a bottom-half side, but it is virtually unprecedented among financial heavyweights or the old “big six”. Arsenal have admittedly had many iterations throughout what was a transformative and often difficult period in their history, but you have to go back to a Shkodran Mustafi header in April 2017 for the last time they even claimed a point off City. And you have to go back to December 2015, and goals from Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud, for Arsenal’s last victory in the fixture. That is what Arteta is trying to overcome, as he makes constant appeals to only consider the present and the future. It is not just about revenge for last season, a quick recovery after a shock defeat to RC Lens or even reasserting Arsenal’s title credentials after a rare City defeat. It will be about overcoming the knowledge that the champions almost always beat them. That can be a huge psychological factor for a team, creating a fatalism, even subconsciously. Arteta can at least point to one big victory in the FA Cup as well as this summer’s shoot-out win in the Community Shield, but the fact that the Premier League represents their great ambition means there’s a different feel to it. It’s something they need to address, especially if they are to actually beat City in the league. It is one of those psychological hurdles that needs to be overcome, just as City faced with Manchester United after the Abu Dhabi takeover. The Community Shield may still influence this, mind, because of how Guardiola did something so different in that game. He decided to properly bait the press, in the same way that Roberto De Zerbi has made this his great innovation. Arsenal didn’t bite, and came through the game, but it has almost set a kind of tactical arms race in motion; where last season’s top two keep trading significant moves that could affect the course of this year. Arsenal beat City to Declan Rice, City attempted to undercut Arsenal’s entire approach by baiting the press. Arsenal didn’t respond but are trying to add more tactical variety to last season, meaning they didn’t start the campaign as well as the champions. City then lost Rodri to a red card and unexpectedly lost a game, allowing Arsenal back in. That could now be offset with the absence of Saka, as both managers attempt to figure out what happens next. Perhaps Arsenal are “due”, but that could have been said years ago. Will Guardiola attempt to bait Arsenal again? Does Arteta prepare for that, or something different altogether? Both of these managers could send each other down all manner of avenues with second guesses. And how it all ends may depend on just who starts. Read More Bukayo Saka ‘in contention’ for Arsenal vs Man City as Gareth Southgate reveals plan Gareth Southgate gives Bukayo Saka injury update ahead of Arsenal vs Man City Manchester City can put a stamp on the season with Arsenal win – Rico Lewis Bukayo Saka ‘in contention’ for Arsenal vs Man City as Gareth Southgate reveals plan Gareth Southgate gives Bukayo Saka injury update ahead of Arsenal vs Man City Ollie Watkins and Jarrod Bowen make England return but Raheem Sterling left out

You may have seen the video of Jordan Henderson promoting Saudi Arabia’s bid to host the 2034 World Cup. It is a moving watch. There’s his giant face plastered across the screen, while wearing the famous green and black colours of Al Ettifaq FC. “Very excited about the announcement,” Henderson says in his excited voice. “Go Saudi Arabia 2034.” It is important to note that his World Cup promotional work is voluntary. We know this because he said so in an interview with The Athletic. So when we see raw emotion like this on social media, we know we are getting real Henderson, authentic Henderson, out there backing the bid. Not a paid ambassador, just a boy who fell in love with a gulf state. Henderson is having one of his all-time great seasons: four assists in eight games as captain of Steven Gerrard’s Ettifaq outfit; still in the England squad despite no discernible superior attributes to James Ward-Prowse; all while getting the chance to grow the Saudi Pro League, one of his big motivations for moving there. He is not the only one excited. Gerrard described the prospect of a Saudi World Cup as “potentially one of the best shows the world’s seen”. Al-Ittihad striker Karim Benzema was stunned, tweeting: “Wow! Amazing news.” Al-Ahli winger Riyadh Mahrez was relieved the world will finally get to see the country’s “passion and love of the game”. If it sounds like they think the bid is already won, that’s because it might be. To catch up on a whirlwind week at Fifa HQ, it was announced on Wednesday that six countries across three continents would host the 2030 World Cup. That satisfied the confederations of Europe, Africa and South America. And barely an hour later, Saudi Arabia publicly launched its bid for 2034. Things have fallen into place quite nicely. Fifa’s rules on rotating the World Cup around the globe mean there are only two possible federations left to stage the 2034 World Cup: Oceania and Asia. That doesn’t leave a lot of competition. What’s more, Fifa gave any rivals to the Saudi bid a 25-day deadline for submission. Australia has hinted at joining the race, but a cynic might conclude it would be the tortoise chasing a wealthy and well-prepared hare that’s already crossed the finish line. The World Cup is a logical endpoint to something much bigger. Sport is a mirror to the world order, and Saudi’s emergence in football is both a consequence and a signal of a gravitational shift. As Rory McIlroy put it recently, upon accepting the increasing influence of Saudi Arabia on the game of golf: “You see everything else happening in the world, you see big private equity companies in America taking their money, the biggest companies in the world … if this is what’s happening, then the way I’ve framed it is that the world has decided for me.” There is an inevitability to all this. Even so, given the rapid emergence of an oppressive dictatorship in the world of football, it might have been nice for even just one press conference with Fifa’s dear leader, Gianni Infantino, to scrutinise this flurry of announcements that appear to pave the way for Saudi 2034. This, remember, is an organisation whose “corruption” section on Wikipedia is longer than this article. Infantino has himself taken on the distinct air of a dictator in recent years. He was sworn in for another term as Fifa president in March after winning an election unopposed, annointed to obedient applause at a ceremony in Rwanda. Fifa presidents are supposed to serve a maximum of three terms, but Infantino recently “clarified” that his first three years in the job didn’t count as he was only filling in for the deposed Sepp Blatter. It seems likely he will serve until the bitter end in 2031, capping a 15-year stint as the most powerful man in football. Infantino and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have a friendship of sorts and have been pictured at various matches together, most notably in Qatar last year. The 2034 World Cup might be the first tournament after his reign ends, a parting gift to Bin Salman, like a prime minister handing out one last peerage to an old ally. The road to 2034 will no doubt be smoothed by Saudi’s many levers of soft power. It will host the Fifa Club World Cup in December, and will continue to invest heavily in the Saudi Pro League. Lionel Messi remains an ambassador and Cristiano Ronaldo is its marquee player. The league is set to go after more big, bright stars closer to their prime, with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah a high priority. All that will lay the groundwork for the ultimate goal, hosting the World Cup, a platform like no other to project Saudi Arabia’s global standing. So as Henderson put his enthusiastic support behind the message, emitting slight hostage energy, perhaps one day he might reflect that he was just a tool. Read More Jurgen Klopp: We haven’t looked for Alexis Mac Allister’s best position yet Ollie Watkins and Jarrod Bowen make England return but Raheem Sterling left out Harvey Elliott hails team spirit after Liverpool’s new look midfield impresses Paul Pogba faces lengthy ban after anti-doping failure confirmed Liverpool’s new double-act are surprising even Jurgen Klopp Erik Ten Hag has endless problems, but Man Utd have a way out of toxic mess

Brighton & Hove Albion are the best-coached club in the Premier League and play "incredible football" despite losing

Second-seeded Iga Swiatek advanced to the semifinals of the China Open by defeating Caroline Garcia 6-7, 7-6, 6-1 in a tense quarterfinal

It’s Josh Allen vs

Belgium coach Domenico Tedesco has called up midfielder Mandela Keita for the first time for upcoming European Championship qualifying matches against Austria and Sweden

The Buffalo Bills consider themselves the home team in designation only in traveling to play the Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Sunday