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• Striker starts in absence of suspended Nicolas Jackson

• Chelsea into last 16 with composed 3-0 victory over ES Tunis

It must be tough to play free-flowing football when it feels as if the game is being staged in an airless hotel room and nobody knows how to turn off the central heating. Chelsea nonetheless managed to keep their cool in suffocating conditions in Philadelphia, securing their place in the last 16 of the Club World Cup thanks to a composed 3-0 victory over Espérance.

This was a positive night for Enzo Maresca, who encountered few problems after trusting his second string to see off the Tunisian champions. Liam Delap scored his first goal for his new club and although Chelsea finished behind Flamengo in Group D there are benefits to going through in second place. After all a date with Bayern Munich on Saturday has been swerved, albeit more by luck than judgment after Benfica took advantage of Vincent Kompany’s disastrous attempt at rotation by nabbing top spot in Group C with a shock 1-0 win over the German champions on Tuesday afternoon.

Stop Tessa Wullaert and you stop Belgium? Improving side will hope to prove they are more than a one-woman team

This article is part of the Guardian’s Euro 2025 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between some of the best media organisations from the 16 countries who qualified. theguardian.com is running previews from two teams each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 2 July.

• Amateur New Zealand side lost 10-0 to open tournament

• Bayern already assured of spot in knockout round

It might not have been the shot heard around the world but it was a goal that reverberated 13,000km away when Auckland City scored to draw 1-1 with Boca Juniors at the Club World Cup.

Christian Gray, a trainee teacher at Mt. Roskill Intermediate School in Auckland, rose to meet the corner of Jerson Lagos, a barber, and headed in the equaliser as the mostly-amateur team from New Zealand held Diego Maradona’s famous old club to a draw.

• Manchester United player’s versatility an asset

• Flick believes Rashford would enhance his options

Barcelona are eyeing a loan move for Marcus Rashford, with the 27-year-old’s flexibility across the frontline viewed as an asset.

Barcelona’s No 1 target is Nico ­Williams but even if the Athletic ­Bilbao wide player is signed, Hansi Flick believes the Manchester United forward would enhance his options.

• November’s provisional relegation upheld by DNCG

• Decision comes despite recent sales of key players

Lyon have been relegated to Ligue 2 after failing to convince authorities they have resolved their financial difficulties.

The seven-time French champions were hit with a provisional relegation in November after racking up massive debts, and although they have since sold a number of first-team players, French football watchdog the DNCG upheld the relegation following meetings on Tuesday.

Head coach feels he is in good position to take team all the way again after returning from heady stint with senior side

It is no surprise to hear that the past two years feel like something of a blur for Lee Carsley. After leading England Under-21s to their first European title in a generation in 2023, the former Everton midfielder finds himself back in the semi-finals on ­Wednesday evening having spent almost six months in interim charge of the senior side.

“I was actually thinking about this the other day and how fast things have moved,” said Carsley as ­England prepare to face the Netherlands. “I definitely need a bit of reflection time, but it’s been so exciting. It put us backwards a little bit in terms of coming back to the 21s, in terms of the amount of monitoring that we would have been doing with the players, missing out on the three camps, which obviously I’ve done with the senior team.

• Nottingham Forest extremely reluctant to sell Elanga

• Goalkeeper Trafford was also wanted by Howe last year

Newcastle have had a £45m bid for the Sweden right-winger Anthony Elanga rejected by Nottingham Forest but hope to succeed where they failed a year ago by signing the Burnley and England goalkeeper James Trafford.

Eddie Howe has long admired Elanga but, as first reported by the Athletic, Forest are extremely reluctant to sell. They also appear uninterested in a potential part-exchange deal involving the Newcastle left-winger Harvey Barnes.

• Chelsea hold face-to-face talks at Club World Cup

• Bayern monitoring developments but Blues confident

Chelsea are pushing to finalise an agreement to buy Jamie Gittens from Borussia Dortmund. Enzo Maresca has made no secret of his desire to sign a winger and talks over Gittens are moving in the right direction.

Bayern Munich are also monitoring developments around the England Under-21 international but Chelsea are confident they will not be outflanked by the Bundesliga champions.

• Rules now aligned with other competitions

• Deal for Rangers showed difficulties with regulations

The EFL has changed its multi-club ownership rules to allow members to buy clubs in the Scottish and Irish leagues for the first time. Agreed at its AGM this month, the EFL is understood to have removed the Scottish Professional Football League and Irish Football League from the list of competitions clubs are prohibited from investing in.

The EFL has concerns about potential integrity issues raised by multi-club ownership, but given it is increasingly widespread it has opted to align its rules with other competitions, including the Premier League.

Our cartoonist visits Poenari Castle on Mount Cetatea to see what nonsense Vlad Dracula III has spouted this time

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Emma Hayes is leaning on NWSL players for friendlies to plan for individual development and vet wider playing pool

While national teams in Europe, Africa and South America prepare for the biggest tournaments in their region, the US women’s national team convene this month for three friendlies with a unique approach. For back-to-back tests against Republic of Ireland followed by a meeting with Canada, nearly all of their Europe-based players are on vacation.

“We’ve left out the vast majority of players that are playing in Europe bar one, and that’s Naomi Girma,” said the head coach, Emma Hayes. “The rest of those players have been playing non-stop [for the] last two years without a summer break and this is the only opportunity they will get for a much-needed break. It also gives us the chance to play players who are playing domestically.”

All the latest Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Serie A deals and a club-by-club guide

• Women’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves

Every deal in the NWSL, WSL, Liga F, Frauen-Bundesliga, Première Ligue and Serie A Femminile as well as a club-by-club guide

• Men’s transfers summer 2025: all the moves

• Andrews poised to take first senior managerial role

• Previous coaching roles include Ireland and MK Dons

Brentford have agreed a deal with their set-piece coach Keith Andrews for the former Republic of Ireland midfielder to replace Thomas Frank as the manager.

Andrews is understood to have impressed Brentford’s hierarchy when interviewed for the role after Frank’s departure for Tottenham. Frank’s former assistant Justin Cochrane had been a candidate to step up before he followed Frank to Spurs.

• Boro fill role left by sacking of Carrick earlier in June

• ‘It’s something that’s not lost on me, how big this is’

Rob Edwards has been confirmed as Middlesbrough’s new manager, their eighth since relegation from the Premier League in 2017.

“It’s a real privilege to be given the opportunity to be head coach of this great football club,” said Edwards after long-running negotiations to finalise the 42-year-old’s three-year contract and composition of his coaching staff were finally concluded. “It’s something that’s not lost on me, how big this is, how important this is and what it means to people. There is an amazing fanbase here.”

• Trump’s military action raises questions for football body

• Infantino and council to decide if Iran can play in Mexico

Fifa is facing new questions over the increasingly fraught World Cup next year, with the issue of how to treat Iran while the country is involved in a conflict with the co-host the US.

There are no provisions within Fifa’s regulations to prevent Iran from playing their group matches in the US, despite the country being subject to military action by the Trump administration and Iranian citizens being under a travel ban that prevents them from entering the country. The ban contains an exemption that could apply to players, staff or associated families with teams at the 2026 Fifa World Cup.

• PSG to meet Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in round of 16

• Brazilian duo Botafogo and Palmeiras face off on Saturday

A relentless attacking performance paid off for Antoine Griezmann in the 87th minute on Monday, yet proved in vain for Atlético Madrid as they tumbled out of the Club World Cup.

After teammate Ángel Correa’s shot was blocked by a defender, Griezmann’s left-footed finish gave Atlético a 1-0 victory over Botafogo in Pasadena.

• Defender’s representatives pushing for higher basic wage

• Fears at Anfield over running down deal that ends in 2026

Ibrahima Konaté is stalling on signing a new deal at Liverpool, raising fears at the club that another key player could run down his contract after this summer’s departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold.

The French defender enters the final year of his deal next month and is understood to have rejected Liverpool’s initial offer of an extension.

While battle lines are drawn between the two strikers with very different journeys to the top, there is a way both can thrive

“They are quite similar,” Enzo Maresca said last week of Liam Delap and Nicolas Jackson, but of course nobody wanted to take any notice of that bit. Already battle lines are being drawn, positions entrenched. Delap or Jackson. Jackson or Delap. One must survive. One must go reluctantly on loan to Serie A. Those are just the rules.

On these terms alone, it’s been a very good week for Delap. Against Flamengo in the Club World Cup on Friday, he was preferred up front, and played with bristling, controlled aggression for more than an hour before making way for Jackson. He then watched as his replacement lost possession with his first touch, went studs‑up with his second, was sent off and scapegoated for Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat, and later issued a grovelling apology on social media for his actions.

The show about retro football is back with a Homeric series on how the sport evolved at the end of the 20th century

By Nessun Dorma

The European Championships of 1980 and 2000 were only 20 years apart. They also belonged, both literally and figuratively, to different millennia. Euro 80 was a violent mess of negativity, apathy and hooliganism, Euro 2000 a joyous, sunkissed celebration of 21st-century football.

That jarring contrast was the spark for the latest series of Nessun Dorma: an odyssey through the history of football in the 1980s and 1990s. Our aim is to highlight, via a series of subterranean dives into each football season, how it went from being a “a slum sport played in slum stadiums and increasingly watched by slum people” – as a Sunday Times editorial called it in 1985 – to a multi-gazillion pound industry.

On a 200-acre site in Fayette County, Georgia, US Soccer hopes to build the best facility of its like in the world

Thirty minutes away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Atlanta, the land becomes greener, the trees are taller and builders are working in the intense Georgia sun to ensure US Soccer’s new National Training Center is ready for action in time for the men’s World Cup next year.

It is an enormous site, spanning more than 200 acres in Trilith, Fayette County, and the hope is it will be the best training facility in the world when it opens. Funding has partly come from Arthur M Blank, who owns three sports teams in Atlanta, and executives are confident everything is on schedule for the doors to open in April.

Twenty-four long years after their relegation, then tumbling lower into ‘the mud’, the club whose fans would not let them die witnessed their return to Spain’s top table

Somewhere in the middle of all those people, of all the shouting and the crying, the emotion and the endless embraces, Santi Cazorla said that this, this, was the dream of his life. It was the dream of all their lives. At 11.43pm on 21 June 2025, the man who was twice a European champion with the greatest generation Spain has ever seen, who has won at Wembley, the Camp Nou and the Santiago Bernabéu, was crouched at the side of the pitch at the Carlos Tartiere ready for one last run. And when the final whistle went – on this game and an entire era – he set off, 40 years old and a kid again leading them all on to the pitch and into primera.

From the touchline they followed, let loose at last. From everywhere else they did too, the stands where 29,624 fans had been through it again emptying on to the pitch. A quarter of a century later, Real Oviedo had returned to the first division. “It’s been many years in the mud,” Cazorla said: they had disappeared down to the second, third and fourth tier, twice they had almost disappeared entirely; here, against Mirandés in the playoff final second leg, the match he called “the biggest of my career”, they had conceded early, two goals down on aggregate, and were taken into extra time, tension tearing at them, even as they knew it was never going to be easy, but now they had actually done it; now they were back. In their centenary year.

Flamengo, Botafogo, Palmeiras and Fluminense are not as rich as European clubs but they have heart and heritage

“The graveyard of football is full of ‘favourites’,” warned Botafogo manager Renato Paiva in what has proven to be this summer’s coldest line in sweltering United States heat. Gritty draws achieved by Palmeiras against Porto and Fluminense against Borussia Dortmund at the Club World Cup were enough to start a conversation. But the underdog heroics of Brazil’s other two clubs have shaken up how we see club football across the world.

For the first time since Corinthians shocked Chelsea in Yokohama in 2012, when some Brazilian fans sold their homes and vehicles to make the trip, the reigning Copa Libertadores champions have beaten the Champions League winners. Igor Jesus, who has been strongly linked to Nottingham Forest, scored the only goal of the game as Botafogo beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, a special setting for Brazilians given it is where they won the World Cup in 1994 and honoured the recently deceased Ayrton Senna.

Tony Bloom has already bought three players this summer and can act quickly thanks to in-depth background research

It may not have been Tony Bloom’s week at Ascot for once but at least the Brighton owner could console himself by securing yet another signing for his football team before the summer solstice arrived.

Confirmation of the Italy Under‑21s defender Diego Coppola’s arrival on the south coast as Lake Forest finished a disappointing fifth in the Queen Anne Stakes took Brighton’s buys to three and the club are expected to announce any day that Olivier Boscagli is joining on a free from PSV Eindhoven. In with Coppola, who has joined from Verona, have come Sunderland’s 19-year-old playoff hero, Tommy Watson, for £10m and the Greece Under-21s striker Charalampos Kostoulas for £30m. Talk about getting your business done early.

With World Cup 2026 on the horizon, the team has been reluctant to weigh in publicly as one of their pillars is politicized

Los Angeles will be in the spotlight during the 2026 World Cup. It’s where the US men’s national team will begin their World Cup campaign, and it’s where they’ll wrap up the group stage. It’s a city in the news lately due to the Trump administration’s deployment of Ice and the national guard, but it’s also a metro area synonymous with diversity. This US men’s national team, more than ever, reflects that diversity.

“It’s not that there’s a record or anything of how many minorities have been on the national team before, but I feel like this has been the most diverse generation of national team,” said center back Chris Richards, who is poised to be a leader along the backline for the US next year.

• Much of squad in hospital after game against Sampdoria

• Double relegation looms after playoff first-leg defeat

Salernitana’s fight for survival has veered into chaos with a bout of food poisoning hospitalising much of the squad halfway through their showdown with Sampdoria.

The Serie B side, fighting to avoid dropping to Italy’s third tier, have requested a postponement of the second leg of their relegation playoff on Friday because players and coaching staff remain too ill to train.

• Europe-based players get a break, except Naomi Girma

• Four new arrivals in squad to play Ireland and Canada

With US coach Emma Hayes giving many of her Europe-based players a break, there were several new faces on the national team Wednesday for a trio of upcoming matches against Ireland and Canada.

Lindsey Heaps, Catarina Macario and Emily Fox were among the players given time off after the European season. One exception was defender Naomi Girma, who is working her way back from a calf injury.

The Belgian remains a superstar despite his age and will be a huge boost to Conte, Lukaku and McTominay

Kevin De Bruyne’s move to Napoli this past week felt understated: one of the finest players of a generation switching clubs for the first time in a decade, to little fanfare. The arranging of his medical in Rome, not Naples, played a part, avoiding the crowds that would have turned out to greet him. A handful of fans still found a way to be there when he arrived at the Villa Stuart clinic, 140 miles from their team’s home ground.

Confirmation of his move came first from the Italian club’s owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, who posted a picture to social media of them sitting side-by-side in director’s chairs. “Welcome Kevin!” were the accompanying words.

Football competitions are expanding, overlapping and bleeding into one another, but is a month off too much to ask?

Does it feel too much? Premier League bleeding into the playoffs into the Champions League into the international break … we’re still bleeding … rip off your shirt and make a tourniquet! The European Under-21 and Under‑19 Championships into the Club World Cup, overlapping with the Women’s Euros … oh look the Premier League fixtures for 2025-26 are out and the EFL ones come out next week … and there’s David Prutton paying (excellent) homage to David Mitchell’s pisstake of Sky Sports on Sky Sports: “Catch all of the constantly happening football here it’s all here and it’s all football. Always. It’s impossible to keep track of all the football.”

You start to imagine Billy Joel rewriting We Didn’t Start the Fire … an endless list of footballers and pundits, of owners and streaming services, of controversies and grimness amid the beauty and joy. Will it ever reach breaking point?

It has been an ominous week for the sport in the US but talk of a boycott of next year’s World Cup misses the point

Should we give it a miss? Is it best to stay away from next summer’s Trump-Infantino US World Cup? Depending on your politics the answer may be a resounding no or a bemused shrug. Some will see pure drive-by entertainment. Why would anyone want to boycott a month-long end-of-days Grand Soccer Parade staged by two of the world’s most cinematic egomaniacs?

But it is a question that has been asked, and will be asked a lot more in the next year. Those who intend to travel will need to answer it by action or omission. Would it be better for dissenting media and discomfited football fans to simply no-platform this event?

Bayern Munich legend defined not only a position but an entire way of thinking about the game

It’s 17 years since Thomas Müller made his debut for Bayern. Since then he has played 751 games for the club, scoring 248 goals, while also scoring 45 goals in 131 games for Germany. He has won 13 Bundesliga titles, two Champions Leagues and a World Cup. He will retire at the end of the Club World Cup after a career played entirely at the highest level and yet still nobody has been able to quite work out what he is.

Is he a centre-forward? Is he a false 9? Is he a wide forward, a second striker, an attacking midfielder? Is he all of those things, none of those things or some of those things some of the time? Louis van Gaal loved him; Pep Guardiola never seemed quite so sure.

Across nearly seven years, Frank achieved great things. His switch to Spurs feels like a break-up but we wish him well

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. Thomas Frank is no longer Brentford’s manager and that’s not easy to write. We knew the day was drawing near but it’s still a bitter pill to swallow. It feels like a break-up, a one-sided one where we do not get the chance to ask why and how. And the grief supporters are experiencing is because we were so emotionally invested in a partnership that brought us so much joy in the near seven years we had together.

Rewind to October 2018, when Frank was appointed as Dean Smith’s successor, and not many of us would have thought we would now be looking forward to a fifth campaign in the top flight. There is much to be grateful to Frank and his team for. They brought us the fabled BMW (Saïd Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo and Ollie Watkins); they broke our playoff hoodoo at the 10th time of asking to take us to the Premier League; they set club records and beat some of the best teams in the land. It really has been quite the ride.

Our cartoonist looks back at the opening games and empty seats as Gianni Infantino’s vanity project finally began

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Mykola Lykhovydov is living his sporting dream with Ukraine’s Real Pharma, helped by a haka-like warm-up, local water and naps

Mykola Lykhovydov half-boils a kettle and, pausing slightly for dramatic effect, decants its contents into the waiting glasses. The water comes from an artesian well close to this small, rickety dressing room that doubles as a clubhouse. They say it flows from 80 metres underground and should be consumed just like this, served a little above body temperature and sipped gently so the body’s cells can properly hydrate. Nobody at FK Real Pharma would drink anything else before training and Lykhovydov swears by an extra benefit. “A doctor from Dynamo Kyiv told me this is the best water in Ukraine,” he announces. “It is the secret of eternal youth.”

Whether marvel or myth, the regimen is serving Lykhovydov well. He turned 59 in January and is, as far as anybody knows, the oldest active professional footballer in the world. At almost a year older than the Japanese great Kazuyoshi Miura he lays convincing claim to the record and has no intention of stopping here. He can still do a job in the Ukrainian third tier. “I was thinking I’d make it to 50,” he says. “But now I’m almost 60 I won’t put limits on myself.”

Changes to the channel come as phone alerts and YouTube have replaced highlight packages and yellow ties

A constant in pubs, gyms and hotel breakfast rooms, almost always with the sound down. Perhaps not since cinema’s silent age have faces been so familiar without the general public knowing their voices. The vibe is more casual than in previous times, shirt sleeves rather than business suits, but the formula remains the same: a carousel of news, clips, quotes, quips, centred around highlights, all framed within a constant flow of results, fixtures and league tables.

Sky Sports News hits 27 years of broadcasting in August, having been launched for the 1998-99 football season by BSkyB. As the domestic football season concluded, news came of changes within the Osterley-based newsroom. Seven members of the broadcast talent team would be leaving, including the long-serving Rob Wotton and the senior football reporter Melissa Reddy, within a process of voluntary redundancies.

Dusting off a pile of matchday gems from the City Ground spanning 50 years reveals a rich seam of cultural and sporting delights

What to do with the pile of vintage Nottingham Forest programmes that came into my possession several years ago? At first, standard protocol was observed for uncategorised piles of paper. The 21 City Ground programmes, spanning 50 years from September 1963 to November 2012, were packed away in a dark cupboard, ignored and unread. But finally taking the time to study them has paid dividends: a rich seam of history leaps off the pages in clear, elegant black-and-white type.

Forest’s presence in the top-flight’s upper echelons evoked the club’s halcyon days and plenty has been written about the Brian Clough-Peter Taylor era. Less attention has focused on Clough’s often entertaining programme notes during his 18-year tenure – while the editions outside Clough’s time are a fascinating way of charting Forest’s trajectory, as well as how profoundly football and wider society have changed.

Wing of the club responsible for developing girls’ pathway programme is celebrating its 40th anniversary

It is 40 years since the establishment of Arsenal in the Community, the wing of the club responsible for founding the women’s team. The announcement that all the side’s Women’s Super League games will be played at the Emirates Stadium next season returns the team to the N5 community that birthed it.

With the players ending an 18-year wait for a second European title by beating Barcelona in the Champions League final in May, it has been a year of full-circle moments for Arsenal. Bringing all league games to the Emirates Stadium “is another step in driving towards the best conditions for our players to be able to perform at their best and towards one of our main objectives, which is to win trophies”, says Arsenal’s director of women’s football, Clare Wheatley. “We also just felt that a connection back to where we began, back to our roots, was warranted.”

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Following the second weekend of Copa Gianni, Fifa were eager to flag up a number of fraternal firsts. In scoring for Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid, Jude and Jobe Bellingham became the first brothers in history to score in the same tournament – “We’re 1-1 now,” honked Jude after his goal – while Francesco Pio Esposito became the first player to replace his brother when he came on for his Inter debut in place of elder sibling Sebastiano in the win over Urawa Red Diamonds. Meanwhile in Atlanta, the United Arab Emirates vice president and Manchester City chief suit, Sheikh Mansour, emerged with family bragging rights after his club’s reserve team trampled Al Ain, who are presided over by his older brother Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, into the dirt.

Coleen is a princess and her parents are queen and king, and Wayne is a warrior. They get together, they split up, she’s broken-hearted and he goes on a quest to find the ring and re-propose to her. The theatre says they’ve never done anything like this before” – Helen Serafinowicz, the writer behind TV hit series Motherland, has announced her next project: ‘The Legend of Rooney’s Ring’, a Game-of-Thrones inspired summer pantomime about Wayne and Coleen Rooney, loosely based on a rumour that the couple once had a big argument in the car which ended with Coleen hurling an engagement ring out of the car, which led to Liverpool locals taking to the streets with metal detectors. Not the theatre we expected, but the theatre we need.

Thanks for the link in Friday’s Football Daily to your article on Eintracht Frankfurt’s hot transfer target, Hugo Ekitike (Still Want More, full email edition). Ever since I watched Monty Python’s Dead Parrot sketch as a kid I’ve been on the lookout for palindromes. Any chance that Ekitike will eschew the bigger European clubs and sign for Ipswich? Or Bolton?” – R Reisman.

Quite how do you propose Milos Kerkez gets straight from the M40 to the M6 on his way from Bournemouth up to Liverpool (Friday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition)? The M42 would be the logical manner, though if it’s particularly busy northbound near Birmingham airport, he could head west to the M5 and then north past West Bromwich” – Matt Hard.

If Marcus Rashford’s Mr 15% really can get him a transfer from the debacle formerly known as Manchester United to Barcelona, we should give him the Ballon D’or (the Mr 15% that is, not Rashford, obviously). No one, not even the great Lamine Yamal, will have put in a better performance this year. And, an extra nod to the agent for subtlety, getting him to do a timely interview with a Spanish YouTuber for no reason in particular” – Noble Francis.

Netherlands midfielder talks about rejoining FC Twente, the club in her heart, and her hopes for the Euros

For Jill Roord, even after winning the Bundesliga title and reaching a Champions League final, eight years on from saying goodbye to FC Twente, there is simply no place like home. The 107-time capped Netherlands midfielder is returning to the club where she began her career and says the opportunity to move back closer to her family and friends was irresistible.

“It had nothing to do with [Manchester] City. My time with City was really good,” says Roord of her decision to leave after two years. “I have been away for eight years playing abroad and it becomes tough being alone for that many years. In the past few years I lost my fun and my happiness in football a little bit because of being away, travelling a lot and not being able to be with family and friends. With busy summers every year I never really got a break. I needed to move back home, enjoy life and enjoy football again.”

Fans’ group will take megaphones, banners and flags to Switzerland to ensure the atmosphere doesn’t fall flat

In some parts of the world, Sweden is often confused with Switzerland. But this summer there will be no mistaking Swedish football fans as they descend on Switzerland for the Women’s European Championship bringing great colour as well as great noise. As ever, Soft Hooligans, a grassroots supporter group, is leading the line but this time there are more logistical issues to think about. “A major concern was how the ‘f’ we were going to get all our stuff down there,” says Caroline Gunnarsson, a Soft Hooligans member who will be driving the group’s campervan to Geneva, one which will be full to the brim with drums, megaphones, banners and flags.

Soft Hooligans was founded in 2017 after Estrid Kjellman returned from the Netherlands where she had watched the Euros with her family. She was impressed with the presence and passion of Dutch fans but was also taken aback by the lack of atmosphere in general. Used to the singing culture at men’s games in Sweden, Kjellman was inspired to change things.

Fifa’s much-hyped Club World Cup and Concacaf’s Gold Cup opened to crowds far short of what organizers might have hoped

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That the two events should coincide was so perfect as to almost feel heavy-handed. Donald Trump’s comically underattended military parade lurched through Washington DC at the exact same time on Saturday as the overwrought opening ceremony unspooled for Fifa’s beleaguered Club World Cup, in a definitely-not-full Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.

Trump’s jingoistic birthday bust contrasted painfully with the multimillion-strong turnout at the “No Kings” anti-Trump rallies that gathered all over the country. The Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, meanwhile – or “Johnny”, as Trump pronounces the name of one of his favorite allies in the sports world – had promised the opening match of the swollen tournament he forced down the soccer world’s throat would be sold out. Instead, attendance between Inter Miami and Al Ahly, a fitting 0-0 stalemate, was announced at a still-better-than-expected 60,927 in the 64,767-seat venue.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, Will Unwin, Lars Sivertsen and Sid Lowe to talk transfers and Premier League fixtures

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On the podcast today; the Club World Cup might have started to entertain? South American sides are enjoying themselves, Nicolas Jackson is not. It is, of course, impossible to forget the numerous off-pitch issues including Donald Trump invited Juventus to the White House, Fifa flip-flopping on anti-racism messaging and players not able to sit on the subs bench in ridiculous heat.

Today’s fluff is embracing rain

The tears seemed very real from Emiliano Martínez after a win over Tottenham last month because his Aston Villa future is not certain. Despite being the world’s best goalkeeper, according to some golden trinket, Villa might need to sell him to please the calculator botherers. Manchester United, where Martínez was gloriously sent off on the final day of the season, are eager to find a goalkeeper who does not make fortnightly errors. Even though United are pretty terrible and Villa set for another European adventure, Martínez is actually quite tempted by a move to Old Trafford. Another man on the Ruben Amorim radar is Fiorentina striker Moise Kean who has a £44.5m release clause.

After missing out on Florian Wirtz and potentially Nico Williams, Bayern Munich are having to look elsewhere for a new attacking threat. One potential option is Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli. The Gunners are potentially looking to clear the decks in an attempt to stop finishing second. If the Bundesliga champions are to lure the Brazilian away from North London, it will cost them more than £50m. Alternatively, Bayern could make a move for Chelsea target Jamie Gittens of Borussia Dortmund.

Plus: goal-difference chasms between league-table neighbours, a rare Welsh feat in defeat, and more

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“During the Liechtenstein v Scotland game there was a reference to Billy Gilmour scoring more goals for Scotland (2) than his various clubs (0). But has a recognised striker ever finished their career with more goals for their country than their clubs?” asks Stuart McLagan.

The structure of women’s football in North America, particularly before the NWSL was founded in 2012, makes it the likeliest source of an answer to this question. There was no league at all in the US between 2003 and 2009, and to this day players sometimes appear more for their country than their club in a calendar year.

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry, and Sophie Downey to unpack a turbulent week for the Lionesses

On this episode of Guardian Women’s Football Weekly, the panel react to a seismic shift in the England camp as three of the team’s most experienced players – Mary Earps, Fran Kirby, and Millie Bright – announce they will not be part of the Euro 2025 campaign.

With Sarina Wiegman naming her squad just five weeks out from the tournament, the panel discusses what this means for England’s hopes, who will step up in their absence, and whether the squad still has the depth to contend.

Best players, best managers, best matches, best goals, biggest flops and biggest gripes: our writers have their say

Mohamed Salah. The numbers don’t lie – 47 goal contributions in the Premier League was an outstanding return from the Egyptian, who seems to be getting better with age. Ed Aarons

Arne Slot’s first season could not have gone any better while Wolves fans drank to Vítor Pereira’s arrival

By winning the league, the Dutchman surprised pretty much everyone. He faced the daunting task of succeeding Jürgen Klopp and inherited the German’s squad, adding only Federico Chiesa, who barely kicked a ball in anger. Not much changed from the previous year, except Ryan Gravenberch became the designated defensive midfielder as Slot’s Liverpool looked to get on the ball as much as possible. Slot was never going to be a personality who generated headlines like Klopp did, keeping his cards close to his chest, but he always comes across as someone who is very personable and has brought the players closer together. Slot made Liverpool an efficient winning machine – rarely thrashing teams, often winning by the odd goal or two – and that allowed them to race to a second Premier League title. No one could compete with the Reds, which was partly down to rivals dropping their standards but most of it can be attributed to the fact Slot made his team superior.

Managers, teams and players who have disappointed over the campaign – including the reigning footballer of the year

Ruben Amorim’s average points tally of a point per league game since arriving at Manchester United in early November puts him just above Malky Mackay’s record at Cardiff and Paul Jewell’s Premier League record with Bradford, Wigan and Derby. While Sporting won the Primeira Liga title without Amorim, United have fallen down the table to 15th since the Portuguese took the reins from the interim coach, Ruud van Nistelrooy. Much of the ire towards United has been directed at the owners but on the pitch Amorim has failed to adapt his squad of expensive, experienced internationals into anything approaching a cohesive unit. The Europa League final defeat by Tottenham showed how much work is left to do.