George Foreman and Earnie Shavers are hailed as some of the biggest punchers in boxing history, but the heavyweight duo returned the same answer when they revealed who hit them the hardest during their professional careers.

Foreman and Shavers boasted a combined 138 stoppages by the time they both hung up the gloves, with both men remembered as some of the heavyweight division’s most devastating knockout artists before their respective passings. 

However, when discussing who returned the favour and hit him the hardest, Shavers named Ron Lyle, who knocked him out in 1975, as the hardest punching opponent of his career, in a clip that has been doing the rounds on social media.

“A guy by the name of Ron Lyle from Denver, Colorado. Lyle was a great puncher, yeah.”

Meanwhile, in an interview with Oxford Union, ‘Big George’ recalled his fabled five-round slugfest against Lyle, just four months on from the latter’s scrap with Shavers.

“Ron Lyle [hit me the hardest] and he hit me so hard that it didn’t even hurt. His distinction was that he was a convicted criminal, he had served in Colorado Penitentiary and boy was he muscular. 

“When I got into the ring, no one, beyond Sonny Liston, ever stood up to me. Everybody would have to run, hide and cover-up. No one stood up to me, but Ron Lyle decided ‘I ain’t running!’.” 

“He hit me so hard that it didn’t even hurt. There I was on the canvas, thinking ‘what excuse are you going have now?’. [When you lost to] Muhammad Ali you said the ropes were loose, someone drugged you, I had all of these excuses, so I was laying on the floor thinking ‘I can’t think of an excuse,’ I had to get up.

“When I got up, he knocked me down again, he knocked my teeth through my bottom lip.” 

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“He beat me so bad that he fainted and I won the fight.”

Lyle lost out to Muhammad Ali in the solitary world title challenge of his career, retiring with a record of 43-7-1 (31 KOs), following a brief four-fight comeback in 1995, which ended a 15-year run of inactivity.

Anthony Joshua returns to the ring next weekend, as he boxes Kristian Prenga in a warm-up bout for his super-fight with Tyson Fury.

Joshua will face the Albanian, who is a relative unknown, in the Briton’s first fight since surviving a fatal car crash in December, which claimed the lives of two of his teammates.

That accident in Nigeria occurred 10 days after Joshua stopped YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in Miami, a fight that “AJ” knows was not a comprehensive gateway to his all-British showdown with Fury.

So, 36-year-old Joshua (29-4, 26 KOs) will first face Prenga (20-1, 20 KOs), one night after Fury’s warm-up against Mariusz Wach. Joshua vs Fury is then due in late 2026, with a November date rumoured for Wembley Stadium – provided the fight takes place in the early hours of the morning, apparently.

Before then, on the Joshua vs Prenga undercard, British stars Hamzah Sheeraz and Josh Kelly will put their world titles on the line. Here’s all you need to know:

When is the fight?

Joshua vs Prenga will take place on Saturday 25 July at Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The main card will begin at 6pm BST (10am PT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET), with main-event ring walks due around 10.45pm BST (2.45pm PT / 4.45pm CT / 5.45pm ET).

How can I watch it?

The event will stream live exclusively on DAZN pay-per-view at a cost of £19.99. You do not need a DAZN subscription to secure the event, but it does come as part of their Ultimate plan (24.99 per month for 12 months, or £249.99 upfront).

Odds

Joshua – 1/33

Prenga – 28/1

Draw – 10/1

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Undercard

Subject to change; ‘C’ denotes champion:

Main card

Anthony Joshua vs Kristian Prenga (heavyweight)

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Hamzah Sheeraz vs Simon Zachenhuber (WBO super-middleweight title)

Josh Kelly vs Caoimhin Agyarko (IBF super-welterweight title)

Reito Tsutsumi vs Alvino Herrera (super-featherweight)

Jacob Bank vs Pawel August (super-middleweight)

Nishant Dev vs Cesar Diaz (super-welterweight)

Prelims

Lenny Patrach vs Oleksandr Khyzhniak (light-heavyweight)

Ziyad Almaayouf vs Frank Mango (welterweight)

Mikie Tallon vs Orlando Pino (super-flyweight)

Mohammed Alakel vs Lydon Chircop (lightweight)

Sultan Almohamed vs Efren Besalduch (super-featherweight)

Omar Hikal vs Brian Castellano (super-middleweight)

Mahmoud Mobark vs Bryan Zapata (super-lightweight)

We may earn commission from some of the links in this article, but we never allow this to influence our content. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent.

Over the past few seasons, Tarik Skubal has been one of the best, if not the best, pitchers in the sport. Since 2023, Skubal has the second-lowest ERA among pitchers with at least 50 starts and ranks 9th in total strikeouts, despite having 13 fewer starts than every pitcher above him on that list. The two Cy Youngs are a culmination of his continued dominance, but now his upcoming free-agent decision looms large for the Detroit Tigers.

Skubal is a Scott Boras client. If you know anything about Boras guys, it’s not common for any of them to take team-friendly deals to stay in smaller markets, so this could very well be his final season in Detroit.

At this moment, the Tigers are 44-52, good for 4th in the AL Central, but are still only 3.5 games back of the final Wild Card spot. Detroit closed out the first half of the regular season strong, going 9-3, and got as close as 4.5 games of the Central division.

In a normal year, the season would be all but over for the Tigers, but fortunately they’re playing in one of the worst American Leagues we’ve ever seen. The trade deadline is August 3rd, so Detroit has five series to decide whether to make a playoff push or sell. Only one of those series is against a team over .500, and three of the other four series are against the three worst teams in the American League.

Detroit isn’t out of it yet

Detroit is finally getting healthier, and a playoff push isn’t out of the question, but that doesn’t make them a contender. Skubal and Casey Mize make one of the best 1-2 punches in baseball, but the lineup is terrible.

Last season blinded Detroit to a flawed lineup. Most of the lineup outperformed their expected stats and have plummeted back to Earth this year. Kevin McGonigle, Riley Greene, and Dillon Dingler are a very solid top of the order, and Gelyber Torres should return from injury soon, but I’m just not very sold on this team.

The return you can get on a guy like Skubal can change the long-term direction of your organization. Mason Miller was dealt at the deadline for four players who are now the first, fourth, and twelfth-ranked players in the Athletics farm system. Skubal would only be a rental, but if you could land a top 10-20 prospect in the sport, I think you have to do it.

Unless Detroit is going to shock the world and pay Skubal’s massive extension, I think the Tigers should start preparing for a world without their ace. This team’s not strong enough to contend and will only set themselves back if they hold on to Skubal.

After the referee blew his whistle for fulltime at the end of Wednesday’s World Cup semifinal, Argentina players understandably celebrated their come-from-behind 2-1 win in injury time over their longtime bitter rivals England.

However, during the celebrations, Lisandro Martinez and Giovani Lo Celso waved to the fans and held up the banner, which read: “Las Malvinas Son Argentinas” (“The Falklands are Argentine”). It was unclear where ​the banner had come ⁠from, but there was a report that it had earlier been seen displayed in the stands.

“And they will always be Argentine,” midfielder Leandro Paredes told a reporter when asked about the banner.

“We were aware of what this match meant for the country. We tried to represent our nation and all those who lived through that sad moment in our history, so that they could identify with us and we could convey a positive image.”

Apparent violation of FIFA rules

The banner would appear to be in violation of tournament organizer FIFA’s Stadium Code of Conduct, which bans “banners, flags, flyers, apparel and paraphernalia ⁠that ⁠are of a political, offensive, and/or discriminatory nature.” It was not clear what, if any sanction football’s global governing body might impose on the players.

The question of sovereignty over the Falkland Islands in the ​South Atlantic has long been a source of tension between Argentina, which calls them “Las Malvinas”, and the United Kingdom.

Ongoing diplomatic tensions

This tension spilled over into war in the spring of 1982, when the leader of Argentina’s then-military junta ordered an invasion of the islands. Britain responded by sending a military task force to the islands, located a few hundred kilometers from Argentina’s eastern coast. In a conflict that lasted just over two months and claimed the lives of more than 900 soldiers on both sides, Britain repelled the invasion and reasserted control of the Falklands. While the islands’ residents voted overwhelmingly in a 2013 referendum to remain British, Argentines still claim the territory is rightfully theirs.

UK expects FIFA to ‘investigate thoroughly’

In response to the actions of the Argentine players on Wednesday night, the United Kingdom has called for FIFA to act.

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UK Business Secretary Peter Kyle told the BBC that the behavior of the players was “entirely inappropriate” and that politics and football need to be kept separate.

“In fact, the World Cup has one of its central tenets that politics is separate from football,” he noted.  “That is now a matter for FIFA. I expect FIFA to do its investigation thoroughly.”

In the match itself, England had their hopes set on reaching their first World Cup final since 1966, when they last won the competition. The Three Lions took the lead in the 55th minute, but relinquished control and Argentina took advantage with two late goals, both assisted by Lionel Messi.

The 39-year-old superstar now has the chance to defend the World Cup title with Argentina. In his way stand Spain, who delivered a dominating performance in their 2-0 win over France in the first semifinal on Tuesday.

Edited by: Jonathan Harding

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McLaren have fallen to the back of the top four teams in recent races as rivals have introduced upgrades, but the hope is that the aerodynamic package to be brought in across the Hungarian and Dutch Grands Prix on either side of Formula 1’s summer break will return them to competitiveness.

They decided that it was better to take the grid penalty in Belgium, where they expect to be no more competitive than at the last race in Britain but where passing is relatively straightforward, than compromise Hungary, where the car should perform better and overtaking is notoriously difficult.

Norris said: “I have to wait and see really how the overtaking is. We probably have a small straight-line speed advantage, comparing to people a little bit further back. So comparing to them we should have a good chance.

“To just overtake in general could be pretty difficult here. But the slipstream is pretty big, and there’s still a few straights, but there’s no straight-line mode (through some of the flat-out sections), and therefore the slipstream is pretty large, and you can gain a good amount from that.

“But we know it’s better than Zandvoort, and better than Hungary taking penalties. I hope it’s not the end of my weekend before it started, but I’m still confident we can have a good race.”

Norris’ grid penalty comes after a troubled start to the season for the team that won a drivers’ and constructors’ championship double last year, in both performance and reliability terms.

Technically, the part replaced in Belgium is known as the ‘power electronics’, which is a control computer within the battery module.

Norris failed to start the Chinese Grand Prix in March after a terminal issue with his power electronics unit, and a second example of that part had to be withdrawn after suffering problems in practice at the following race in Japan.

The Japan unit was repaired but suffered a terminal problem in practice in Monaco.

A McLaren statement said: “While the power electronics unit we installed in Japan, and have used in every session since Miami, has worked reliably, Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) has since introduced a series of reliability fixes to their new power electronics systems.

“However, in order to take advantage of these improvements, we must incur a 10-place grid penalty on Lando’s car in order to take a new unit.”

The statement added: “We now plan to use this fourth power electronics unit for the remainder of the season, in order to maximise reliability while minimising sporting penalties on Lando.”

McLaren will have a new rear wing design in Spa, which the team hopes will better suit the specific characteristics of the flowing high-speed track around the Ardennes forests.

This wing will have a conventional opening style in straight-line mode, rather than the somersaulting designs introduced this season by Ferrari and Red Bull.

Red Bull have had to revert to a conventional wing this weekend after Max Verstappen suffered high-speed crashes at the previous two races because of issues with the design.

Mercedes have had a series of engine-related reliability issues this year, not all to do with the battery.

Another has emerged with the engine used by championship leader Kimi Antonelli at the British Grand Prix.

That has had to go back to the HPP’s base in Brixworth for investigation and the Italian has a new engine as a result this weekend in Belgium. This is from within his allocation and therefore comes with no penalty.

Depending on the outcome of the investigations, Mercedes hope to be able to put Antonelli’s Silverstone unit back into the pool for use later in the year.

Most hardcore Minnesota Vikings fans wonder if the team will sign an extra linebacker or backup guard in the next two months before the regular season begins, but according to CBS Sports, the club is a little skimpy at safety.

Josh Edwards analyzed every NFL team’s main roster need ahead of training camp, claiming the purple team might need a safety.

Harrison Smith’s Uncertain Status Drives the Concern

Edwards: Vikings Need a Safety

CBS Sports landed on safety, and Edwards opined, “With Harrison Smith not currently in the plans for the 2026 season, safety is a weakness after selecting Florida defensive tackle Caleb Banks in the first round. Joshua Metellus, Jay Ward, Jakobe Thomas and Theo Jackson are competing for those two spots.”

“The interior offensive line needs to stay healthy and Blake Brandel is tasked with filling Ryan Kelly’s shoes post-retirement. Linebacker and cornerback are a few other spots to monitor.”

For 14 years, Smith has held down the fort at safety for the Vikings, and recently, co-pilots like Camryn Bynum and Josh Metellus have faithfully served alongside him. With Smith perhaps retired — although he never explicitly announced it — Edwards is evidently paranoid that the current safety unit isn’t enough.

The Current Group Might Be Enough?

If one assumes that Smith will not return for Year No. 15, the safety section of the depth chart still has a full platoon of names that will probably make the 53-man depth chart at the end of August:

• Josh Metellus
• Jay Ward
• Theo Jackson
• Jakobe Thomas
• Tavierre Thomas

While Smith, in theory, would be missed, most NFL teams get by just fine with five safeties. Edwards must believe the current batch of safeties lacks talent because quantity is not a problem. None of those five is unplayable.

The Smith Angle

Of course, if Smith re-signs with the Vikings for one more year — that’s a real possibility and not a hot take — the safety fears can be set to the side, at least for a year. Even at age 37, Smith would likely play at a serviceable, if not better, level, and in a jiffy, the so-called safety roster need would fall by the wayside.

It’s just that Smith’s status is a mystery, an offseason whodunnit for the 2026 Vikings.

Smith’s longtime teammates, wide receiver Adam Thielen and fullback C.J. Ham, retired in March. The Vikings even made an event of it. That was the perfect spot for Smith to go out with his pals, but he did not, leading fans to speculate further about his future.

Perhaps Smith has chosen to skip the grueling part of the summer for the first time in his career, eyeing a contract sometime in August or later. If not, it will remain bizarre that he walked away without saying goodbye.

The Viking Age‘s Brad Berreman wrote Tuesday about Smith, “The idea that he could wait until into the season to return has been put out there, and that seems like more of a possibility as more time passes without news. Maybe Smith is not as on the fence about retirement as it has seemed he is for the last four months.”

“Maybe ‘plans for retirement’ are a fairly recent development, whatever the reasons are to push it that way. In any case, as everyone waits for an answer about Smith’s future, the trend toward retirement has become hard to ignore.”

The Free Agent Options

Here’s a little secret about the NFL and free agency: there are always a handful of decent safeties on the free-agent wire, usually older veterans. The summer of 2026 is no different:

• Jamal Adams
• Quandre Diggs
• Mike Edwards
• Terrell Edmunds
• Rayshawn Jenkins
• Ifeatu Melifonwu
• Jabrill Peppers
• Jordan Poyer
• Taylor Rapp
• Donovan Wilson
• Xavier Woods

Rather easily, Minnesota could sign a man on the list above, and just like that, the suspect safety depth would evaporate.

Rookie Jakobe Thomas could also see more action if Smith remains retired. NFL writer Trevor Ripley noted this week, “The Vikings selected Thomas out of Miami in this April’s NFL Draft, but it’s hard to start in the NFL as a rookie. It’s even harder to start for Brian Flores as a rookie.

“The Vikings clearly have some options, but how Thomas progresses could be the x-factor in all this. If he’s not able to handle a significant role, Ward or even an outside signing may slide up into the starting rotation.”

The Vikings’ defense ranked third in the league last year per EPA/Play and DVOA.

Dustin Baker is a novelist and political scientist. His second novel, The Invaders , is out now. So is … More about Dustin Baker

A Big 12 media poll came together and put Texas Tech on top of the league, followed by BYU and Arizona.

Kenny Dillingham and the Sun Devils are woefully underrated.

On today’s episode of Locked On College Football, Spencer McLaughlin and ‘Locked On Huskies’ host Roman Tomashoff discuss Washington’s 2026 schedule.

Their win total is lower than it should be, at 7.5 regular-season wins.

Colorado has a challenging Big 12 schedule in 2026 with JuJu Lewis likely to take the reins at QB.

The Buffs need to have a better coaching support system around him than last year.

00:00 Quarterback changes and rankings
06:34 Coaching changes impact Utah football
10:56 Washington’s potential against top teams
14:54 Discussing Washington’s football schedule
17:09 Defensive team analysis with newcomers
22:58 Discussing college football offenses
25:06 Debating Colorado’s tough schedule
31:38 Comparing Georgia Tech and Colorado

/ @lockedoncollegefootball  

The match is tense, the ball is in play and millions of viewers are following every movement. Then, often before the first hydration break, the television coverage leaves the pitch.

For a few seconds, Gianni Infantino fills the screen.

The recurring appearance of the Fifa president has become almost as predictable as the shots of players arriving at the stadium or supporters waving national flags. Infantino has been shown during matches across the 2026 World Cup, sometimes alongside heads of state, royalty or football officials, and sometimes as the clear focus of the camera.

The repetition has created an uncomfortable question for viewers: are broadcasters required to show him?

The answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no.

Television companies that purchase World Cup rights are not known to receive a direct instruction telling them to show Infantino at a particular minute. They are, however, obliged to use the international match feed supplied by Host Broadcast Services, or HBS, the company responsible for producing the tournament’s pictures.

Fifa owns 49 per cent of HBS.

The production company also operates under an agreement requiring a “dignitary shot” during each half of a match. When Infantino is the highest-ranking football official present, that arrangement creates a system in which his appearance becomes highly likely, even without an explicit instruction naming him.

Are broadcasters obliged to show Infantino?

Broadcasters are obliged to carry the footage provided by HBS, but that does not mean they personally choose every image shown during a match.

HBS creates the central television feed distributed to World Cup rights-holders around the world. National broadcasters may add their own commentators, graphics, studio analysis and pitch-side reporting, but the core match pictures are supplied centrally.

That means when the world feed cuts from the action to Infantino in the directors’ box, hundreds of broadcasters can show the same shot simultaneously.

Fifa says it would be misleading to suggest that it has issued instructions requiring specific shots of its president during the 2026 tournament.

There is, however, an agreement between Fifa and HBS that every half should include a shot of the most senior dignitaries in attendance. These may include heads of state, senior confederation representatives, federation officials, celebrities and people carrying “VVIP” accreditation.

“It is standard practice for seats which include football officials, public figures and celebrities to be shown as part of the match running order, whoever they may be,” a Fifa spokesperson was quoted as saying by The Athletic.

HBS has offices in Zug, London and Miami and performs one of the most influential roles at the tournament.

Its cameras determine what the global audience sees beyond the football itself: supporters, coaches, celebrities, royalty, political leaders and officials.

This centralised system provides Fifa with a consistent product across markets. A viewer in India, Britain, Brazil or Japan may hear different commentary but will usually see the same replays, crowd reactions and dignitary shots.

From a commercial perspective, the model is valuable because Fifa can sell a standardised premium broadcast package to rights-holders across the world. Broadcasters receive a professionally produced feed without having to independently film every angle of every match.

A rights-holder can choose to cut away from the feed using its own cameras when available, but most broadcasters remain dependent on the pictures supplied by HBS. During live play, abandoning the central feed also carries the risk of missing a significant moment.

The economics behind the global feed

The World Cup’s broadcasting model is built around scarcity and control.

Fifa owns the event, sells its media rights and determines which production feed accompanies those rights. The centralised footage becomes part of the product purchased by television companies.

The approach offers several commercial advantages.

It allows Fifa to maintain consistent production standards across more than 200 markets. It ensures that official branding, sponsors, stadium presentation and ceremonial elements are incorporated into the coverage. It also reduces the possibility that different broadcasters will present radically different versions of the same event.

HBS, meanwhile, sits at the centre of the value chain.

Fifa’s 49 per cent interest gives it exposure to the production operation, while Infront retains the controlling stake. Infront itself belongs to Wanda, the Chinese conglomerate that has previously held extensive commercial interests in global sport.

This ownership structure does not prove that individual shots are politically motivated. It does, however, make the question of editorial independence legitimate.

The organisation selling the broadcast rights is also a major shareholder in the company deciding which images accompany the matches. Those images repeatedly include the organisation’s president.

The economic value is not limited to direct production income. Visibility has institutional value.

Every shot of Infantino reinforces his position as the public face of the tournament. With the World Cup drawing one of the largest cumulative television audiences in sport, even brief appearances are distributed across countries, languages and platforms.

Unlike a paid advertisement, the images appear inside the match coverage itself and are repeated by broadcasters that have little practical ability to replace the central feed.

Dignitary shot or presidential branding?

Fifa’s dignitary-shot policy provides a formal explanation for showing Infantino.

But not every appearance has shared the focus so evenly.

Some shots have centred primarily on Infantino, including during matches in which his presence carried no obvious connection to either team. The repetition has made the coverage feel less like incidental recognition and more like an established part of the broadcast format.

The distinction matters.

A policy requiring the highest-ranking official to be shown may be technically neutral. In practice, Infantino is usually the most senior Fifa figure present, particularly when he attends games with national officials of lower rank within the football hierarchy.

The system can therefore produce the same outcome as a direct instruction without explicitly naming him.

This is also not the first World Cup at which the television treatment of Infantino has raised questions.

During the 2022 tournament in Qatar, The Times of London reported that television production crews received emails instructing them to ensure that Infantino appeared during matches. The reported guidance also said he should not be shown using his mobile phone.

That detail suggested concern not merely with documenting his presence, but with managing how that presence was presented.

Fifa disputes the suggestion that comparable instructions have been issued for the current tournament. Nevertheless, the Qatar precedent continues to shape the interpretation of the 2026 shots.

Two games a day and a sponsor’s private jet

Infantino’s visibility has also been supported by an unusually ambitious travel schedule.

During the group stage, he sought to attend two matches a day across North America, despite the vast distances between host cities and the tournament’s multiple time zones.

Qatar Airways, a Fifa sponsor, provided a private aircraft for his travel.

On June 11, Infantino attended the opening match between Mexico and South Africa in Mexico City. He then travelled about 285 miles by private jet to Guadalajara in time for South Korea’s match against the Czech Republic.

Four days later, he attended Belgium’s match against Egypt in Seattle before flying south to Los Angeles for Iran against New Zealand that evening.

The arrangement served an operational purpose, allowing the Fifa president to attend more fixtures across a geographically demanding tournament. It also dramatically increased the number of occasions on which the broadcast’s dignitary-shot requirement could feature him.

The overlap between sponsor support, executive travel and global television exposure illustrates the commercial ecosystem surrounding the World Cup.

Qatar Airways gains association with Fifa and the tournament. Infantino gains the ability to appear at more matches. HBS captures his presence, and rights-holders distribute those images worldwide.

Each part of the arrangement can be defended independently. Taken together, they create a powerful visibility machine.

Qatar had previously provided Infantino with a residence in the Gulf state ahead of the 2022 World Cup.

Why Infantino’s screen time matters politically

Infantino’s broadcast prominence has acquired additional significance because he intends to seek another term as Fifa president in 2027.

Victory would allow him to remain in office until 2031 and take his tenure to 15 years.

He is currently unopposed.

Three of football’s six continental confederations — those representing Africa, Asia and South America — have publicly backed his re-election. Together, they account for 110 of Fifa’s 211 member associations, already giving him the declared support of a majority of the electorate.

Fifa presidential elections are not decided by television viewers. Each member association holds a vote.

Yet global visibility can still reinforce political power.

Infantino’s repeated presence beside world leaders, royalty and star players presents him as the central authority of the tournament. For officials watching in Fifa’s member countries, the imagery conveys reach, access and control.

Whether that amounts to personal propaganda is a matter of interpretation. There is no publicly established evidence that every shot is deliberately inserted to support his campaign.

But the political benefit is difficult to ignore.

A president seeking another term is being repeatedly shown through a feed produced by a company in which his organisation owns 49 per cent. The broadcasters carrying those images have purchased rights from the same organisation and are required to use that feed.

The structure does not need an explicit campaign slogan to produce favourable exposure.

How Fifa compares with other competitions

The frequency with which Infantino appears is unusual when compared with other major football bodies.

Premier League coverage does not operate under a known requirement to show chief executive Richard Masters during every half of every match he attends.

Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin is normally pictured during the Champions League final and other major ceremonial occasions. He is not routinely shown whenever he attends a group-stage or knockout match.

The difference is partly explained by the World Cup’s ceremonial status. Heads of state and senior officials regularly attend, making dignitary coverage a conventional part of the production.

Infantino cannot be everywhere — but the cameras follow when he is

Infantino attended all 64 matches at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where stadiums were concentrated within a relatively small geographical area.

The expanded 2026 tournament presents a different logistical challenge.

One hundred matches have already been played, with four remaining, across the United States, Mexico and Canada. Even with private air travel, Infantino has not been able to attend every fixture.

Yet when he is present, the global audience usually knows.

This is partly because the dignitary-shot agreement makes his appearance predictable. It is also because the production system ensures the same image is transmitted through broadcasters around the world.

For viewers, the effect is repetition. For Fifa, it is control over the visual identity of its most valuable tournament. For Infantino, it is unmatched exposure during the period leading towards another presidential election.

The Nike swoosh will be absent from the World Cup final, a stark indicator of rival Adidas’s dominance on the tournament’s biggest stage.

Argentina’s semi-final victory over England on Wednesday extinguished the sportswear giant’s hopes of sponsoring a team in Sunday’s ultimate match.

Amid a fierce brand battle both on and off the pitch, the outcome represents a significant visibility boost for Adidas, which outfits both finalists: Argentina and Spain. Adidas had sponsored a total of 14 national teams in the tournament, while none of Nike’s 12 teams, including semi-finalists England and France, managed to secure a spot in the final.

This outcome arrives as Nike grapples with years of steadily shrinking market share, having heavily relied on the tournament for a much-needed boost in sales and visibility.

The company signaled last month that CEO Elliott Hill’s turnaround strategy faces significant obstacles, with persistent weakness in China and a cautious outlook overshadowing a modest fourth-quarter revenue beat. Nike’s shares have lost nearly a third of their value this year as investors grow impatient with Hill’s progress.

Morningstar analyst David Swartz underscored the deeper challenges facing Nike, stating, “There are more important issues, such as footwear innovation, inventory control, and stabilizing sales and margins in China.” He added, “Adidas got more publicity, but that’s just the way it goes.”

A Nike spokesperson maintained the company’s long-term perspective, asserting that “our vision for football has never been tied to a single moment.” Meanwhile, Adidas called the World Cup final a “proud moment” for the company, though it declined to share specific sales projections.

Despite its teams not reaching the final, Nike invested significantly in the tournament. It unveiled two new Mercurial soccer boots, partnered with local streetwear designers, and refreshed soccer merchandise at over 5,000 Nike and wholesale stores globally. Its “Rip the Script” World Cup campaign, featuring stars like Kylian Mbappe and Kim Kardashian, garnered 1.5 billion views in its first week, with national team kits selling 2.5 times more than during the 2022 Qatar World Cup.

However, Adidas, an official World Cup sponsor, has emerged as the “clear winner” in the athletic footwear and apparel market, according to Drake MacFarlane, a research analyst at M Science. Stronger momentum in the U.S. and Europe helped the brand gain share from Nike in the second quarter. While World Cup demand offered a lift, Adidas’ improvement extends beyond the event, whereas Nike continues to face pressure in Europe.

M Science data shows Adidas’s share of the footwear market rose to 19.2% in June, up from 16.0% a year earlier, while Nike continued to shed share. Adidas executives reported robust bookings for World Cup products, totaling around 250 million euros (\$292 million) in the first quarter, with similar figures anticipated for the current quarter.

India’s Virat Kohli (ANI Photo)

Virat Kohli added another milestone to his glittering career during the second ODI against England, moving past Australian great Ricky Ponting to become the fifth-most capped player in the history of international cricket. The match marked Kohli’s 561st international appearance, taking him ahead of Ponting’s tally of 560 matches. Only four players now stand above the former India captain on the all-time list, with Sachin Tendulkar continuing to hold the record.

Most international appearances

Kohli celebrated the landmark with another composed innings, scoring 65 off 66 balls before falling to Jofra Archer for the second successive ODI in the series. Archer, reintroduced into the attack to break India’s flourishing partnership, struck with a back-of-a-length delivery that forced Kohli into a mistimed pull. The ball flew off the top edge and Adil Rashid completed a comfortable catch running in from third man. Before his dismissal, Kohli played a key role in stabilising India’s innings. He first added 60 runs with Rohit Sharma after the opener made 26, before stitching together a 67-run stand with Shreyas Iyer to put India in a commanding position. The half-century also saw Kohli achieve another notable feat. It was his 14th score of 50 or more in ODIs against England, drawing level with West Indies legend Viv Richards for the second-most such scores against the opposition. Only Kumar Sangakkara, with 15 fifty-plus scores against England, sits ahead of the Indian batting star. Kohli’s latest milestone further underlines his remarkable longevity across formats. Since making his international debut in 2008, the 37-year-old has amassed more than 28,000 international runs while becoming one of only a handful of cricketers to feature in over 560 matches for their country.