It’s a familiar and understandable diversion of attention from the issues that dominated the buildup. Many Argentine fans were denied visas to attend the tournament and see Messi make history, Vozinha’s mother was only granted a visa bond waiver to the country after her son’s heroics for Cape Verde, and those fans seen on TV are often the lucky few rich enough to afford outrageous ticket prices.
Infantino, Trump relationship has eroded FIFA trust
Several factors have contributed to growing frustration with FIFA.
The decision to award US President Donald Trump FIFA’s inaugural Peace Prize last December, shortly before Trump started a war with tournament participant Iran, was reportedly a unilateral move by FIFA President Gianni Infantino and has further eroded trust both within and outside the organization.
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Donald Trump receives first FIFA peace prize
FIFA employ a rotation policy for World Cup hosting — that means each confederation should host a tournament in turn, with the exception of Oceania, which lacks the facilities since Australia began playing in Asian competition. But with matches in the 2030 World Cup scheduled in Europe, Africa and South America, that cleared the way for Saudi Arabia to be awarded the 2034 tournament unchallenged and much earlier than Asia would otherwise have been due, in 2042.
“I don’t think the players are listened to that much, if I’m totally honest,” said Bayern Munich and England striker Harry Kane last year.
US President Donald Trump was front and center when Chelsea lifted last year’s Club World Cup trophyImage: Seth Wenig/AP/picture alliance
Structurally, each of the 211 member nations (which sit in six continental federations), gets a single vote for the president every four years. These member associations are then financially rewarded, to a greater or lesser degree, through various schemes and programs.
“The commercial dimension is the bedrock of FIFA’s system of power. The money is used by the presidents to accumulate and consolidate their power,” Miguel Maduro, a former chairman of FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee, told DW. He was dismissed from the post in 2017 after attempting to enforce political neutrality rules regarding Russia.
“It’s what supports the system of patronage through which presidents reward those loyal to them and punish anyone that dares criticize anything. It explains why incumbent presidents are never challenged and stay in power indefinitely.”
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Can politics and the EU force FIFA to change?
Like Maduro, Nick McGeehan, of human rights NGO FairSquare, agrees that any reform would have to be imposed upon FIFA. And with individual member nations not incentivized or able to drive change, he is calling on the European Union to take up the fight.
“It requires political intervention. There is no other way to fix FIFA,” he told DW.
“I think the most obvious example would be the European Union, who could regulate and govern sport the way they regulate other things like Big Tech.”
A commission spokesperson would not be drawn on whether the EU might take on FIFA, telling DW only that the FSE and Euroconsumers complaint was being dealt with “in line with our standard procedures.”
Lionel Messi became the World Cup’s all-time top scorer during the 2026 group stageImage: Maria Lysaker/IMAGN Images/REUTERS
Asked whether they might intervene in the various questionable World Cup ticket practices, the spokesperson went on to confirm that EU laws “do not regulate the price levels for goods and services, such as event tickets.” But added that: “Traders must adequately inform consumers about the total price of their offers and avoid misleading commercial practices, such as making attractive starting price claims for tickets that are not available or pressure-selling techniques while consumers wait in the virtual queue.”
Though definitive political action is so far thin on the ground, McGeehan retains hope.
“There is going to be a politician somewhere who recognizes the political value of taking people on and actually trying to hold them accountable. And I find that quite an exciting prospect, because I think it’s inevitable right now.”
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Might UEFA and FIFA tensions force a breakaway?
While it operates under FIFA’s umbrella, there are simmering tensions between FIFA and the powerful European federation, UEFA. They were laid bare in UEFA’s hiring of Somalian referee Omar Artan for the Super Cup final, days after he’d been refused entry to the US to officiate at the World Cup.
“Football is made to connect people,” said UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin.
Somali referee denied US entry before World Cup debut
Last year, UEFA delegates walked out of the FIFA Congress, accusing Infantino of prioritizing “private political interests” after turning up late from a diplomatic tour of the Middle East alongside Trump.
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“There are tensions between UEFA and FIFA, and UEFA are a huge confederation and have the ear of some of the biggest and the most historic footballing nations. So if there was any form of breakaway within football it would have to come from UEFA or a number of UEFA nations getting together,” Geoff Walters, a professor in sports business at the University of Liverpool in the UK, told DW.
“But it’s hard in the context of football politics to put your head above that parapet because you get shot down. If you do say something, then what does it mean? Is it going to harm your chances of hosting competitions, which can be beneficial? Does it mean that you are ostracized from the international community?”
UEFA themselves had to deal with the threat of an elite-club-driven breakaway Super League in 2021 and the legal issues that followed. Maduro said the organization “suffers from that same governance flaws as FIFA, albeit in a less obvious and radical manner.”
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What’s in a FIFA breakaway for the rest of the world?
UEFA’s standing with the rest of the world’s federations may also have been weakened by Ceferin’s reported recent comments that the expanded World Cup makes a lot of matches “completely uninteresting.” A coalition of 13 football associations from Africa and Asia said they “firmly reject” the comments reported by Zurnal24 online newspaperin Ceferin’s native Slovenia.
The prestige and power of Europe and South America, particularly Brazil and Argentina, is also not as strong as it may seem compared to Infantino’s power base in Asia and Africa. Walters said this is another reason why a breakaway appears a distant possibility.
Cape Verde earned draws against Spain, Uruguay and Saudi ArabiaImage: Marco Bello/REUTERS
“If it was spearheaded by leading nations, what would happen to the smaller nations across the world? What would happen to their ability to develop football in their countries?
“That’s part of the challenge with global sport that we’re seeing, not just in the context of the World Cup, but in the context of a lot of sporting leagues, where you are seeing the bigger teams starting to look to push and break away. They want to maintain the largest slice of the pie, of the commercial income and revenues that are coming into that sport,” he said.
Is FIFA reaching areas others can’t?
While many others have questioned those commercial motivations, Infantino has insisted they are for the greater good.
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“Every dollar we generate goes back into football,” he told reporters on the eve of the tournament on June 10. “If we were selling our TV rights to pay-TV, like everyone else, we would generate four times as much revenue. And we could give all the tickets away, but they would still end up on the black market.
“As FIFA president we have to strike a balance. We invest in countries where no one else does — South Sudan, Bhutan. No one else is doing this.”
For now, that much is true. In football terms, no one else has the remit or the money. And, given how deeply FIFA is entrenched within the sport, the chances of a breakaway seem slim.
Although discontent has rarely been higher, unless a federation, alliance of countries or prominent individual grasps the nettle, the chances of reform seem only marginally less slim than before.
It’s hard to find any real flaws in Dan Lanning’s first four seasons leading the Oregon football program.
He inherited a strong foundation left behind by Mario Cristobal but has taken the Ducks to new heights since taking over the flock.
Oregon has won 10-plus games in each of his first four seasons, including 13 in each of the last two seasons since the team made a leap up in difficulty by joining the Big Ten. The Ducks were the No. 1 seed in the 2024 College Football Playoff before making a quarterfinal exit and advanced to the 2025 CFP semifinals before running into the Indiana buzzsaw.
Since Lanning arrived for the 2022 season, Oregon’s 48-8 record is tied with Ohio State for the second-best in the country, trailing only Georgia.
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This season, though, presents a new challenge for Lanning. Will Stein, his offensive coordinator the last three seasons, is now the head coach at Kentucky. Tosh Lupoi, his defensive coordinator for his entire Oregon tenure, is now the head coach at Cal.
Drew Mehringer and Chris Hampton were in-house promotions to replace them as offensive and defensive coordinator, respectively.
That makes this a year where Lanning can prove Oregon’s success has been firmly on his shoulders and that the Ducks will remain contenders as long as he’s in charge.
“Nobody’s going to have higher expectations for our team than us,” Lanning said Wednesday at Big Ten media days in Chicago. “We’re the guys in the building doing the work every single day. Certainly really proud of the team and the work they’ve put in. We have high expectations. We’ve got a lot that we want to accomplish.”
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The good news for Lanning is that the 2025 roster is largely still intact in Eugene. Oregon returns 14 starters from last year’s team and sits 11th nationally in ESPN’s returning production rankings.
Lanning is already seeing the difference.
“Last year, I felt like we had a team that had a ton of talent. This year, we have a team that has a lot of experience returning,” Lanning said. “A lot of those young guys that played are guys that have great experience. I am excited to see what that looks like.”
Quarterback Dante Moore, who threw for 3,565 yards and 30 touchdowns last season, chose to run it back with the Ducks instead of almost certainly going to the New York Jets as the No. 2 overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft.
The public is clearly believing in Lanning’s squad, with Oregon tied for the third-best odds (+750) to win the national title this season, according to DraftKings.
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Lanning likewise believes, telling ESPN on Wednesday that his team is “close” to bringing home the program’s elusive first national championship.
The 2026 season would be quite a time for him to break through and become the fifth active FBS coach who has won a national championship.
Trent Rockets held off a late assault from Annabel Sutherland and Lauren Winfield-Hill to beat defending champions Sunrisers Leeds by five runs and extend their winning streak to three matches.
Defending 139 at Trent Bridge after failing to capitalise on Sophia Dunkley’s 29-ball half-century, economical bowling helped Rockets reduce Sunrisers to 76-4.
However, with 55 runs required off the final 20 balls, Sutherland dispatched Georgia Elwiss for 23 runs, including sending two full tosses away for six, to drag Sunrisers back into the match.
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She and Winfield-Hill reduced the equation to 17 off five but when the latter was run out with three deliveries remaining, she took Sunrisers’ hopes of victory with her.
Sutherland finished the match with a six to end unbeaten on 59 (30), with her partnership with Winfield-Hill (15) worth 50 off just 27 deliveries.
Earlier, Rockets had appeared well set for a sizeable total after Dunkley backed up her 57 against Manchester Super Giants on Friday with a knock of 56 (33), including nine fours, before being bowled by Sutherland.
Nat Sciver-Brunt and Ashleigh Gardner briefly maintained the pressure, including taking Dani Gibson’s second set for 18 to carry Rockets beyond three figures off just 65 balls, but Sunrisers fought back with the ball.
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Jess Jonassen and Hannah Baker took two wickets apiece as Rockets slumped from 105-2 to 118-6, with the hosts also failing to hit a boundary for 32 deliveries as their hopes of a 150-plus total faded.
A trio of fours from Bess Heath in the final set proved crucial, putting Rockets’ total just out of Sunrisers’ reach.
Trent Rockets’ fourth victory of the tournament moves them to within four points of unbeaten Southern Brave at the top of the table. Sunrisers Leeds, who are without a win since their opener, slip to seventh.
The expanded format for the National Bank Open presented by Rogers returns for a second year in a row with the start of main-draw play on Sunday.
The 96-player tournaments, up from 56, now run over 12 days instead of seven. This year, the men are in Montreal while the women play in Toronto.
The 32 seeded players in each event get first-round byes, meaning they don’t hit the court until Tuesday or Wednesday.
Still, plenty of familiar names are in action over the first two days, including a big Canadian contingent trying to take advantage of an annual opportunity to play in top-level events on home courts.
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Here’s a look at what’s in store on opening day:
Venus opens play on Centre Court
While Serena Williams won’t include Toronto as part of her comeback, her sister Venus is in the city.
The 46-year-old plays the opening match on Centre Court against Kamilla Rakhimova of Uzbekistan.
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Williams has played a limited schedule this season, going 2-6.
The seven-time Grand Slam champion had her best finish in Canada in 2014 when she was runner-up to Agnieszka Radwańska in Montreal.
“I remember playing here the first time when I was like 15 or 16,” Williams told reporters in Toronto on Saturday. “I was such a young person. I played the night match and I didn’t know what was going on (laughing). But I learned a lot since that time. Folks in Canada are so nice.”
Bianca Andreescu produced a dramatic win with a terrible ending at last year’s NBO in Montreal. Andreescu badly injured her ankle in the final game of her first-round win over Barbora Krejcikova and then had to pull out of her next match.
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Andreescu is now ranked 174th in the world after reaching No. 4 in her breakthrough 2019 campaign, which included tournament titles in Toronto and at the US Open. The native of Mississauga, Ont. has been hit hard by injuries in recent years.
Andreescu has a tough draw to open the NBO. facing world No. 41 Nikola Bartunkova of Czechia in the featured evening match. The 20-year-old, who was ranked outside the top 500 last June, has wins over Belinda Bencic and Madison Keys this year.
Diallo looks to reverse fortunes
It has been a miserable year for Gabriel Diallo, who is 9-17 in 2026. The Montrealer has dropped to No. 99 in the rankings, and needed a wild card to get into his home event.
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Diallo is a long way down from his career-high No. 33 ranking, achieved last August. Diallo won his first career ATP Tour-level match at the 2023 NBO in Toronto. He hopes he can get a boost from playing at home as he opens in the featured night match against French qualifier Kyrian Jacquet on Sunday.
It’s a very winnable match for Diallo with Jacquet ranked 120th.
Centre Court (starts at 12:30 p.m.) Kamilla Rakhimova (UZB) vs [WC] Venus Williams (USA) [Q] Aoi Ito (JPN) vs [WC] Katherine Sebov (CAN) Not before 7 p.m.: Nikola Bartunkova (CZE) vs [WC] Bianca Andreescu (CAN) Yulia Putintseva (KAZ) vs Shuai Zhang (CHN)
Grandstand (starts at 11 a.m.) Jessica Bouzas Maneiro (ESP) vs [WC] Ariana Arseneault (CAN) [Q] Moyuka Uchijima (JPN) vs Cristina Bucsa (ESP) Magdalena Frech (POL) vs [Q] Leolia Jeanjean (FRA) Not before 5 p.m.: McCartney Kessler (USA) vs [WC] Cadence Brace (CAN) Elena-Gabriela Ruse (ROU) vs Peyton Stearns (USA)
Court 1 (starts at 12:30 p.m.) Kimberly Birrell (AUS) vs Viktorija Golubic (SUI) [Q] Lucrezia Stefanini (ITA) vs Camila Osorio (COL) Not before 4 p.m.: [Q] Emerson Jones (AUS) vs [Q] Lanlana Tararudee (THA) Talia Gibson (AUS) vs Elisabetta Cocciaretto (ITA)
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Court 4 (starts at 12:30 p.m.) Xiyu Wang (CHN) vs Sara Bejlek (CZE) [Q] Lois Boisson (FRA) vs Antonia Ruzic (CRO) [Q] Rebecca Sramkova (SVK) vs [Q] Anna Blinkova (RUS)
Centre Court (starts at 11 a.m.) Aleksandar Kovacevic (USA) vs Nuno Borges (POR) Matteo Berrettini (ITA) vs Mariano Navone (ARG) Marton Fucsovics (HUN) vs Corentin Moutet (FRA) Not before 7 p.m.: [WC] Gabriel Diallo (CAN) vs [Q] Kyrian Jacquet (FRA) [WC] Alexis Galarneau (CAN) vs Vit Kopriva (CZE)
Rogers Court (starts at 11 a.m.) Jaume Munar (ESP) vs Rinky Hijikata (AUS) [Q] Nicolas Mejia (COL) vs Martin Landaluce (ESP) Luca Van Assche (FRA) vs [Q] Titouan Droguet (FRA) Not before 6 p.m.: [Q] Sho Shimabukuro (JPN) vs Marin Cilic (CRO) [Q] Benjamin Bonzi (FRA) vs Yannick Hanfmann (GER)
Court 5 (starts at 11 a.m.) [Q] Michael Zheng (USA) vs Miomir Kecmanovic (SRB) [Q] Aleksandar Vukic (AUS) vs Daniel Altmaier (GER)
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Court 9 (starts at 11 a.m.) Adolfo Daniel Vallejo (PAR) vs Juncheng Shang (CHN) James Duckworth (AUS) vs [Q] Christopher O’Connell (AUS)
Indian boxer Lovlina Borgohain said she felt hurt after noticing that India’s Northeast was missing from a map used by a popular Indian restaurant in Glasgow. The Assam boxer spotted the issue during a celebratory dinner for India’s record-breaking Commonwealth Games boxing campaign and raised it with the restaurant management.The Indian boxing contingent visited an Indian restaurant after winning 10 medals: seven gold and three silver. The 28-year-old Indian boxer, who won silver, noticed that the map used on napkins and displayed outside the restaurant did not include the Northeast.“Please don’t take this the wrong way. I felt a little hurt by this. In the map of India, our North East is missing. Yes, even outside, the map that’s displayed has cut off the North East. As someone from the North East, that really hurts us. That’s all I wanted to say. Please keep this in mind next time. Thank you so much,” Lovlina said, as quoted by news agency PTI.
Restaurant promises correction
Boxing Federation of India president Ajay Singh, who was present at the dinner, said the matter was handled calmly, with no confrontation. He said the restaurant accepted the mistake and promised to correct it.“There was no confrontation. It was an aberration and we pointed that out, me and Lovlina. They accepted their mistake and assured us that it will be corrected,” Singh told PTI.The Glasgow restaurant is a popular Indian dining spot and has previously hosted visiting sports teams and other dignitaries.
Tigers acquire: OF Zyhir Hope, RHSP River Ryan, RHSP Brady Smith
The Dodgers are looking to threepeat and the Tigers are, for all intents and purposes, throwing in the towel on their season. Expect righty Casey Mize and second baseman Gleyber Torres, both rentals like Skubal, to move prior to Monday’s deadline. The Dodgers don’t have anything else to address before the deadline, really. Their roster is very well set now.
Here now are our grades for Saturday’s Skubal blockbuster.
Los Angeles Dodgers: A
Back-to-back World Series champions get back-to-back Cy Young winner. It’s that simple.
We needn’t overthink this. The Dodgers are trying to become baseball’s first back-to-back-to-back World Series champion since the 1998-2000 Yankees, and they just added the reigning two-time Cy Young winner to a team that went into Saturday with the best record in baseball. Furthermore, it cost them nothing off their major-league roster. That’s an easy, easy A.
As good as Hope is (and he’s very good), he was L.A.’s fourth-best outfield prospect behind Josue De Paula, Eduardo Quintero, and Mike Sirota. Ryan was no higher than seventh or eighth on their rotation depth chart. Smith is a Single-A lottery ticket with a very big arm, but is also the kind of pitching prospect a World Series contender should never sweat giving up to get a Skubal type. All things considered, this trade package represents minimal pain for the Dodgers. They dealt from positions of depth across the board.
The Dodgers have a comfortable 10-game lead in the NL West. They’re adding Skubal for the five to seven starts they hope he will make for them in the postseason. What he does in August and September is almost irrelevant. Here is the club’s rotation depth chart:
The master plan likely has Skubal, Yamamoto, and Ohtani as the top three starters in the postseason, in whatever order. Glasnow and Snell are overqualified candidates to be the No. 4 starter. Wrobleski, Sasaki, and Sheehan have bullpen experience and can be impactful in that role. The Dodgers have depth and impact. It’s the game’s best rotation, at least on paper.
Detroit Tigers: C
The Tigers decided they would simply no longer like one of the best pitchers in baseball on their team.
Hope, 21, is tearing the cover off the ball in Double-A, slashing .293/.369/.530 with 23 home runs and 18 stolen bases. He’ll be ready to help the Tigers sometime next season, perhaps even on Opening Day. The long-term hope is that, well, Hope will join Max Clark, Dillon Dingler, and Kevin McGonigle to form the position player core of the next pennant-winning Tigers team.
Ryan, 28 next month, returned from Tommy John surgery earlier this year. He’s currently on the Triple-A injured list with a hamstring injury, but once he’s healthy, he’s a ready-made MLB starter who can step right into Detroit’s rotation. Ryan was so impressive in spring training that we made him one of our breakout picks for 2026. The only question is health (which is a pretty big question).
MLB Pipeline ranked Smith as the Dodgers’ No. 17 prospect before the trade and said he has “some of the best upside among Los Angeles’ starting pitching prospects.” The 22-year-old has a 4.36 ERA in 74 ⅓ innings split between two Single-A levels this year. Smith rounds out a strong trade package that aligns with the established precedent for a rental ace.
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Why do the Tigers get a C then? Because they’re two games behind the third wild-card spot in the loss column, and they decided they would rather not employ one of the best pitchers in baseball the rest of the season. I understand the reasoning behind the trade. I do. You can’t let Skubal leave for nothing as a free agent. What’s the point of having all these wild-card spots and all this talk about competitive imbalance when teams behave like this?
History tells us the prospects aren’t going to amount to much. The best player — by far — to come out of the Sabathia, Lee, Greinke, and Price trades was Michael Brantley. The second best is probably Matthew Boyd. The Tigers put an inadequate roster around Skubal and that led to the trade. The return is fine. The reason it happened is a major bummer.
The Los Angeles Dodgers (69-42) made a blockbuster trade to acquire Tarik Skubal early Sunday morning, but before he debuts next week, the team will look to avoid being swept by the red-hot Boston Red Sox on ‘Sunday Night Baseball.’ Boston (59-51) is 22-4 since the start of July and won the first two games in this series. Jake Bennett (6-4, 2.74 ERA) will start for Boston, while Los Angeles counters with Emmet Sheehan (4-7, 4.95 ERA).
The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every MLB game 10,000 times, and entered Week 19 of the MLB season on a sizzling 39-23 run on all top-rated MLB picks. It also excelled at making home run prop picks in 2025, returning nearly 30 units of profit. Anybody following its MLB betting picks at sportsbooks and on betting sites could have seen strong returns.
After 10,000 simulations of Red Sox vs. Dodgers, the model is going Under 9 total runs in over/under sports betting. The Red Sox have seen seven of their past eight games go under the total, while the Dodgers have gone under in three of their past four games. That’s in line with season-long trends as the Dodgers have a 54% Under rate, while Boston’s Under rate is 57%.
Eight of Bennett’s 11 starts have gone Under, and the model is projecting that he gives up just 2.4 earned runs through six innings. Neither teams clears five runs in the simulations as they combine for 8.5 runs with the Under hitting 54% of the time in simulations. Get the Red Sox vs. Dodgers money-line pick at SportsLine.
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How to make Red Sox vs. Dodgers picks
After simulating every pitch of Dodgers vs. Red Sox 10,000 times, the model also says one side of the money line has all the value. You can get that pick at SportsLine.
Triple H has been under the crosshairs of a lot of fan criticism over the last few years due to his booking decisions as the Head of WWE’s creative. The Game currently serves as the Chief Content Officer in the company and is responsible for a lot of major creative decisions there. He recently addressed the controversy regarding his process of determining which stars to push into the main event spot and major storylines.
One of the biggest fan concerns with WWE’s booking over the last few years is the lack of young talent in the main event spots. Even at this year’s WrestleMania, both main events featured wrestlers who have been active for more than 10 years and all past the age of 40. While in AEW, MJF held the company’s World title for the majority of this year and he just recently turned 30.
Thanks for the submission!
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At the SummerSlam post-show, Triple H was asked about how some stars might feel like they are not receiving the main event spot that they should be in. The Game responded to the question by sending a message to the locker room about his mentality.
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“And.. you know whenever anybody says like I don’t know why I’m not in that spot like, I don’t know, are you more over than Cody? Are you more over than Roman? Are you more over than Punk? Are you more over than Liv? IYO? Right? Those people are in that spot. Get there, start to make those crowd reactions happen. Whatever you need to make it happen, that’s what’s we’re all here to do. So um I love that mentality,” he said. [48:49 onwards]
There are a lot of young stars in WWE right now who are potential future WrestleMania main-eventers.
Triple H has teased that Nick Aldis might return to the ring again in WWE
Tensions between Nick Aldis and Gunther had been building up over the last few months ever since the Ring General joined the SmackDown roster. Things got out of control after both stars got into a physical altercation after the Night of Champions and Aldis cost Gunther the match at Saturday Night’s Main Event. Triple H announced the match between the two for SummerSlam at the Kickoff show for the Biggest Party of the Summer.
Aldis made his in-ring return for the first time in nearly three years but lost to Gunther. During the post-show, Triple H talked about the National Treasure’s return and stated that he might wrestle once again.
“I have to admit, I was emotional for him knowing him as a human being, and I was really excited for him. So, incredibly proud of him and what he accomplished tonight, and gunther as well. But as far as will it happen again? Never say never. I would have never said never about him being in there tonight, and here we are. So let’s see. Let’s see where it goes,” he said. [38:55 – 39:25]
It will be interesting to see if Nick Aldis will be competing more often in the WWE moving forward.
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Manchester City have added a trip to Shenzhen into their itinerary for their Asia trip with some senior players off to meet a sponsor
A number of Manchester City players are heading to China on Monday as part of the club’s partnership with Chinese company BYD. The Blues are not playing any matches in Asia’s biggest football market this summer but are giving extra attention to one of their most recent sponsors.
BYD became the official automotive partner of City in February 2026 and their logo features on the sleeve of the training kit of the men’s and women’s teams and inside the dugout at the Etihad, while a BYD car has led the team bus into the stadium for Premier League and domestic cup matches. As well as CEO Ferran Soriano, star players Erling Haaland, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Rodri, Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden have all been used to promote the partnership.
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The company, which produces electric vehicles as one of its major arms, was present in Hong Kong for the friendly with Inter on Saturday night given it has deals with the Italian team as well. There was a car in the corner of the Kai Tak Stadium and their branding was prominent inside the ground.
And with the company headquarters in Shenzhen just a short hop over the border from Hong Kong, City are sending some of their players over to film some content with their partners. A number of club officials are also expected to watch City Football Group side Shenzhen Peng City play on Sunday night, although no players will be present as they are only visiting BYD before heading back to Hong Kong.
The China pitstop in City’s itinerary highlights the commercial element of the summer tour and also underlines the importance given to their recent partnership with BYD. Former Liverpool and Chelsea executive Christian Purslow told the Football Boardroom podcast that City had struck a coup with the signing.
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“[They are] one of the fastest growing companies in the world, the dominant EV maker in the world nudging ahead of Tesla,” he said. “Every single football club in the world would want BYD as their automotive car partner; they’ve gone to Manchester City.
“There are no suggestions of any links whatsoever from Manchester City’s ownership group to BYD – it is a huge public Chinese company.”
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