Euro 2024 qualifiers: England goal hungry, France and Mbappe roll on, Swiss stumble
June 20 – England and France made it four straight wins in European Championship qualifying on Monday while Switzerland dropped its first points.
Europe
US player agency CRD Sport buys Bulgaria’s Beroe promising €5, and Ronaldinho
June 20 – American player agency CRD Sport is the new owner of Bulgarian top tier club Beroe Stara Zagora. CRD has acquired 100% of the club’s shares from the ‘Football Support Association – Beroe’.
Courtois denies he walked out of Belgian camp over not being given captaincy
June 20 – Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois (pictured) has denied claims by national team coach Domenico Tedesco that he walked out on the team training camp after being passed over for the captaincy against Austria. Real Madrid’s number one says he has a knee problem.
James Dostoyevsky: Straight talking, misleading reporting
Sometimes you say something and it turns out that the something you’ve said is something you never said … But then this something that you’ve never said finds itself (re-)published in an “independent Indian medium”, as is the case here, in India’s ‘Morning Express’.
Luis de la Fuente says Nations League is the start of new era
June 19 – Spain coach Luis de la Fuente has said his team’s Nations League victory, the first international title in a decade, could prompt more Spain triumphs in the future.
Euro 2024 qualifiers: Scots stun Norway, Belgium draw, England and Portugal roll on
June 19 – Manchester City star Erling Haaland scored on his return to the Norwegian national team but it wasn’t enough as Scotland came back to win 2-1 on Saturday and keep a perfect record in qualifying for next year’s European Championship.
Ceferin tells Saudis that developing domestic players is best route to sustainability
June 19 – UEFA chief Aleksander Ceferin has warned Saudi Arabia that splashing out eye-watering sums of money on ageing superstar players is a mistake in terms of developing the game.
Spain return to top of Europe with penalty shoot out win over Croatia
By Samindra Kunti in Rotterdam
June 19 – Spain won the Nations League for the first time, 5-4 on penalties, to add to their trophy cabinet and break Croatian hearts.
Italians cruise past Dutch for Nations League third place
June 18 – The Netherlands are no match for the European elite. After shipping four goals against Croatia in the last four, the Nations League hosts also lost the third-place match 3-2 against Italy.
Croatia eye-up first major title, Spain hunt return to winning elite
By Samindra Kunti in Rotterdam
June 17 – On Sunday, the third edition of the Nations League will reach its climax with both finalists Spain and Croatia seeking the win the tournament for the first time.
Manchester political blames UEFA for being political over Istanbul travel chaos
June 16 – The mayor of England’s Greater Manchester area, Andy Burnham (pictured), says it was a “disgrace” that Manchester City fans had to walk miles to get to the stadium for last Saturday’s Champions League final in Istanbul.
De la Fuente says the ‘process’ is working as Croatia final nears
June 16 – Luis de la Fuente said he felt vindicated by Spain’s Nations League semi-final win against Italy after a stuttering start to his tenure.
Zinchenko calls for sport-wide ban for all Russian and Belarussian athletes
June 16 – Arsenal’s Ukrainian defender Oleksandr Zinchenko says Russian and Belarusian athletes should all be banned from high-level sport as a result of Russia’s invasion of his country.
UEFA and UNHCR commit to second edition of Euro Unity Cup
June 16 – UEFA and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, will stage the second edition of the Euro Unity Cup June 28-29 in Frankfurt Germany.
Perisic says Croatia’s advantage is they have beaten Spain before
June 18 – Ivan Perisic has said that Croatia have nothing to fear because of their experience against Spain.