Former Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has reached a joint agreement with the Saudi Arabian Football Federation to end his contract as national team manager.

Mancini, 59, endured a difficult time as Saudi Arabia manager, a role he took on in August 2023 having left as Italy head coach weeks earlier.

On the eve of Saudi Arabia’s opening match at the Asian Cup in January, he said that three players had been dropped because they allegedly wanted to pick and choose which games to play.

Former captain Salman Al-Faraj, Sultan Al-Ghannam and goalkeeper Nawaf Al-Aqidi all strongly denied the claim.

During the Asian Cup Mancini walked down the tunnel before South Korea’s final penalty in a shootout that eliminated Saudi Arabia, saying: “I apologise for leaving early, I thought it had finished.”

Mancini’s regular complaint has been that home-grown forwards don’t play enough in the Saudi Pro League, that is populated by big signings from Europe’s top clubs.

Saudi Arabia have struggled in their 2026 World Cup qualifiers under Mancini, with surprise draws against low-ranked sides Bahrain and Indonesia.

Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway meet in the featherweight championship main event this Saturday at UFC 308, a fight the MMA community has been waiting for since it was announced.

Watch MMA Fighting’s UFC 308 Timeline video for an in-depth look at how both headliners got to this weekend’s pay-per-view at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.

The undefeated Topuria captured the UFC featherweight title with a Knockout of the Year contending finish of Alexander Volkanovski in the main event of UFC 298 in February. Prior to that, Topuria competed in his first promotional headliner at UFC Jacksonville, earning a lopsided unanimous decision victory against Josh Emmett in June 2023.

Holloway looks to once again call himself 145-pound champ. Since losing to Volkanovski for the third time at UFC 276 in July 2022, “Blessed” has been on a roll, winning all of his fights, including a knockout for the ages of Justin Gaethje at April’s UFC 300 event to win the BMF title.

Will Topuria’s streak of dominance continue, or will the Blessed Express begin another championship journey?

Bob Pockrass

FOX NASCAR Insider

NASCAR Cup Series drivers have dabbled in the podcast space.

Denny Hamlin has his “Actions Detrimental” podcast. Corey LaJoie has his “Stacking Pennies” podcast. Ryan Blaney used to do a podcast called “Glass Case of Emotion.”

We asked the Cup playoff drivers (except for Hamlin and Blaney since they have/had podcasts), If you had a podcast, what would you name it?

Some had ideas:

Christopher Bell: “The Bell’s Tolls.”

Alex Bowman: Somebody had a podcast a couple of years ago that I loved the name of, I think it was called “The Unprofessionals” — that’s very fitting.

Chase Briscoe: “Risky Brisckie’s Business.”

Harrison Burton: I’d call it “Burning Rubber With Burton” or something like that. I don’t know.

Brad Keselowski: If I had a podcast, it would be called “Let’s Talk About Six.” 

Tyler Reddick: I don’t know. “Don’t Know What To Expect Next.” I’m not really sure.

Daniel Suarez: “Daniel’s Amigos.”

Martin Truex Jr.: It’d be something around “Hunting and Fishing With Me.” I don’t know.

Others did not have an answer beyond they don’t expect to have a podcast or couldn’t think of one on the spot:

William Byron: I don’t think I would have a racing-related podcast. I don’t know. I would maybe defer.

Austin Cindric: I probably will never have a podcast, so I’ve got nothing for you.

Chase Elliott: I don’t have a podcast, so I don’t have to worry about it.

Ty Gibbs: I don’t know if I would. What’s Denny’s called again? (Actions Detrimental). Yeah, I don’t even know. I don’t know that I’m good with that podcast stuff.

Kyle Larson: I don’t know. I came up with the name “Actions Detrimental” [for Hamlin], but I don’t think I would have my own NASCAR-style podcast.

Joey Logano: I’ve never thought about it. I don’t know. I want to come up with something witty real quick here but I don’t have nothing that comes to the top of my head. I don’t have anything at the top of my mind.

Bob Pockrass covers NASCAR for FOX Sports. He has spent decades covering motorsports, including over 30 Daytona 500s, with stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter @bobpockrass.

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Aston Martin’s new Formula 1 CEO Andy Cowell says he is following a “work experience” package in aerodynamics as he steps out of his usual domain of F1 power units.

Cowell was appointed by Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll as the successor to Martin Whitmarsh as Group CEO, overseeing the British brand’s F1 and automotive activities.

The British engineer previously spearheaded Mercedes High Performance Powertrains, becoming the driving force behind the Brixworth plant’s successful hybrid power units that dominated F1 at their introduction in 2014.

Cowell left Mercedes and F1 in 2020, but was lured back into the series by Stroll, relishing the prospect of being able to step outside of his comfort zone by overseeing the entire F1 team rather than returning to an engine-related role.

As part of getting up to speed at Aston Martin, Cowell says the Silverstone-based team’s engineers put together an aerodynamics crash course to better understand what the aero department needs from the rest of the organisation.

“To be on the team side rather than on the power unit side brings me back to something that I loved, and I enjoyed for decades with a different challenge,” Cowell explained. “It’s a different set of technical challenges.

“One of the first people I spoke to in my early days at the factory was [technical director] Dan Fallows and I said to Dan: ‘I know that aerodynamicists want lots of power from the engine, no heat rejection, no aero blockage, I know all that, but what else does an aerodynamicist want?’ And so he put together a work experience package for me.

“I spent time with all the principal aerodynamicists, I watched some runs at the wind tunnel, spent time with the aero performance group that were measuring the pressure tappings at Singapore and then working out how that ties in with aero data and CFD.

“So, I guess I’m now wearing a bobble hat called an aerodynamicist but it’s a work experience compared with a bobble hat of a power unit person. I think it’s good to do something different.”

Martin Whitmarsh, Group CEO, Aston Martin Performance Technologies, Dan Fallows, Technical Director, Aston Martin F1 Team, Andy Cowell, Group CEO, Aston Martin F1 Team, Mike Krack, Team Principal, Aston Martin F1 Team, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin F1 Team, Adrian Newey, Lawrence Stroll, Owner, Aston Martin F1 Team, Lance Stroll, Aston Martin F1 Team, Tom McCullough, Performance Director, Aston Martin F1 Team, and Andy Stevenson, Sporting Director, Aston Martin F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Cowell will manage a star-studded line-up of engineers at the group’s F1 team, with former Red Bull man Fallows soon joined by Ferrari’s technical director Enrico Cardile and legendary designer Adrian Newey, who joins from Red Bull in March 2025. When asked how he will manage that high-profile array of engineering talent, Cowell said the team’s situation is not too different from Mercedes’ dominant run that started in 2014.

“I remember Mercedes Grand Prix pulling together a gaggle of impressive technical directors and it working out okay on that run into 2014,” Cowell said. “We’re quite a young organisation, operating with that level of facility and resources. There are lots of things to do, whether it’s setting up our own wind tunnel and all the facilities that are required to do that, whether it’s making a gearbox to go on the back of the Honda power unit for 2026, simulation tools, getting those to be class leading.

“And if you’ve got senior leaders that can each take one of those big challenges and focus on it, then we’ll get to the front quicker.

“What I want to do is make the organisational changes that I think will help all of us going forward, so that there’s not only office space and a desk and a chair and a drawing board ready, but there’s also a structure that’s got their name in it. So my ambition is that [Cardile’s and Newey’s] very first day in the factory is a working day, not a reflecting and making change day. I see that as my role as the CEO.”