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Uefa’s new Champions League is less about greater jeopardy, than its growing desire to supplant sporting integrity with the confected thrills of the TV game show

Once more, with seeding. Uefa’s new Champions League group-stage format is known as the “Swiss system”, and frankly you can write your own jokes there. It’s full of holes. It’s totally unaccountable and its inner workings largely impenetrable to outsiders. It’s a handy conduit for sequestering and laundering the money of some of the world’s worst people. It’s a complex and morally contested way of putting people to sleep for long periods of time. Take your pick.

Perhaps fittingly, it is in Switzerland that the first strides into this bold new era take place, with Young Boys v Aston Villa selected as the early Tuesday kick-off, alongside Juventus v PSV. And of course this is an emblematic choice for other reasons, too. The Berne-based club may be competition outsiders, having secured their spot in a playoff against Galatasaray last month. But domestically they have been an insuperable force, claiming their sixth Swiss title in the past seven years despite a season marred by internal wrangling and insipid route-one football.

Unaware of the power they wield, football supporters remain reluctant to stage visible acts of dissent against clubs that routinely exploit them

If the powers that be at Aston Villa were remotely concerned their decision to charge extortionately high prices for tickets to Champions League home games this season might lead to repercussions in the form of any sort of meaningful fan protest, they were sent a very clear message on Saturday night. The pointed refusal by the Villa Park crowd to get behind a very minor, but arguably important, act of dissent planned by one supporters’ group let them know in no uncertain terms that the denizens of Villa Park have reached peak meek subservience.

Their unwillingness even to rock the boat gently in the face of grotesque exploitation at the hands of their club let the hierarchy know they could almost certainly have gone full Oasis, sanctioned dynamic pricing and got away with charging them an awful lot more for tickets. It should be added that the relationship between Villa and their fanbase is far from unique in this regard, but as the club prepare to pull up a chair to Europe’s top table for the first time in 41 years when they take on Young Boys in Berne on Tuesday night, it happens to be the one making headlines.

• Jorginho insists watching City ‘doesn’t get to our head’
• Norwegian closing on 100th goal for Pep Guardiola’s side

Arsenal’s players are simply laughing at Erling Haaland’s run of form, according to the London club’s midfielder Jorginho. Haaland made the difference again for Manchester City in the 2-1 win against Brentford on Saturday, scoring both their goals to bring his Premier League tally to nine from four matches this season.

Arsenal responded with a 1-0 win at Tottenham on Sunday to keep them second, two points behind City before their trip to the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. It is fun to imagine – rather like the fantasy football manager who has not picked Haaland – how the Arsenal squad have reacted as news of the striker’s latest contribution has reached them; whether it is laughter or tears. Jorginho said it was the former but he insisted Haaland was not about to unsettle them in what will be an early season title race pointer.

Last season’s runners-up are desperate to make up for missing out on the WSL crown, with the arrival of Vivianne Miedema giving them a huge boost

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 2nd (NB: this is not necessarily Tom Garry’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 2nd

• Former striker sustained head injury this month
• Shaw was European Young Player of the Year in 1982

Gary Shaw, one of Aston Villa’s 1982 European Cup heroes, has died aged 63. The former striker fell seriously ill this month after being hospitalised with a head injury.

Shaw was part of a revered Villa side that enjoyed extraordinary and unparalleled success in the early 80s, winning the First Division in 1981 under Ron Saunders and in 1982 the European Cup and the European Super Cup.

• Right-winger ‘has to get over’ rivals in his position
• Brazilian in queue to start Carabao Cup tie against Barnsley

Erik ten Hag has stated that despite Antony being Manchester United’s second most expensive player it is the “law” that he has to fight against the academy products Amad Diallo and Alejandro Garnacho to regain his place.

Since signing for £86m in summer 2022 Antony has disappointed, with 11 goals and five assists in 83 appearances. This season Ten Hag has fielded the right-winger once, as an 89th-minute replacement in the 2-1 defeat at Brighton last month.

Tom Brady enjoyed bragging rights over Wrexham’s Hollywood owners as two goals from big-money summer signing Jay Stansfield earned Birmingham a 3-1 victory at St Andrew’s.

Joining seven-time Super Bowl champion and Blues minority owner Brady and Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney in the stands was the former England captain David Beckham and his son Romeo, who saw Jack Marriott’s early opener silence the home supporters before Stansfield fired home a rebound to level on his first league start in front of 27,980 fans.

• Lord Pannick KC to lead legal team at London’s IDRC
• Hearing to last 10 weeks, verdict expected in new year

Manchester City’s lawyers arrived at London’s International Dispute Resolution Centre (IDRC) on Monday as a hearing to examine 115 Premier League charges issued against the club began.

Lord Pannick KC from Blackstone Chambers, who is leading City’s legal team, was pictured arriving at the IDRC, close to St Paul’s Cathedral in central London. The hearing is reported to have been scheduled for 10 weeks, with the independent commission’s verdict not expected until the new year.

Just a week after much-loved manager’s brief return, Nuri Sahin’s side played like it was 2012 all over again

It was heartwarming – and not just the part with Jakub Blaszczykowski, Lukasz Piszczek and Nuri Sahin playing on the Signal Iduna Park pitch against a hundred young children, which has smothered social media in the last week. The farewell match that filled international weekend didn’t just allow Borussia Dortmund to pay homage to their two Polish stalwarts, but to a whole generation whose achievements grow in stature with every passing year.

They were all there for what has become known as Tschüssikowski; Lucas Barrios, Kevin Grosskreutz, Marcel Schmelzer and the most important of them all. Jürgen Klopp was back coaching at Westfalen, the famous “Pöhler” (local slang roughly meaning “street baller”) cap atop his head. A day of celebration for Blaszczykowski and Piszczek reminded everybody what BVB had achieved in 2011 and 2012, only a handful of years on from financial near-ruin, with little money by elite-level standards and little experience of mixing it with the top bracket. The excitement that Klopp and his young players brought here in those years was palpable all over again.

Manager’s red card reminiscent of predecessor and after winless start to season some are asking if he is an upgrade

Was this what Francesco Totti meant when he suggested Daniele De Rossi was at risk of becoming the new José Mourinho? Roma’s match at Genoa had just tipped into second-half injury time when the manager was sent off for clamouring against the referee’s decisions.

It was the first red card of De Rossi’s managerial career. Mourinho received seven during his two-and-a-half seasons in charge of the Giallorossi. The Italian has a way to catch up yet, but eight months into his tenure he is starting to face questions about whether he is truly improving on his predecessor’s work.

Midfielder is the first Englishman to score for the club in 101 years but that is only part of the reason why he is admired

The first Englishman to score for Atlético Madrid in 101 years was “buzzing” on Sunday night, supporters singing his name and his coach calling him the player they needed. “It was really special,” Conor Gallagher said after his first start at the Metropolitano, where 61,752 fans who are now his fans watched him guide the ball past Giorgi Mamardashvili to set Atlético on course for a 3-0 victory against Valencia. Thousands more watching on TV voted him La Liga’s man of the match. “He’s going to be good for us,” the goalkeeper Jan Oblak said, speaking for everyone. “He makes us better,” Diego Simeone said.

Gallagher completed a neat move five minutes before half-time, slipping into the area and collecting Rodrigo De Paul’s gorgeous ball through Cristhian Mosquera’s legs to deliver a smooth finish. In his third game since a €42m (£35.5m) move from Chelsea that was done, undone and then done again, he had his first goal. No Englishman had scored for Atlético since someone called Drinkwater, whose first name time forgot, hit three against Ferroviária in the semi-final of the Copa Federación Centro in 1923. Kieran Trippier is the only Englishman to play for them since, and he didn’t score. He did, though, win the league.

Tottenham have picked up 44 points from their last 32 league games and troubling patterns from last season have carried over to the new campaign

• Sign up to Soccer with Jonathan Wilson here

It was, as everybody pointed out, inevitable that the north London derby would be decided by a set play, Gabriel heading the only goal in the second half as Tottenham in general, and Cristian Romero in particular, switched off. It was a win that kept Arsenal within touching distance of Manchester City – and that it’s not absurd to think in such terms even at this early stage of the season suggests just how City’s relentless excellence has affected the perspective – but it also raised further doubts about Ange Postecoglou.

The heady start to last season, in which Spurs took 26 points from their first 10 games under the Australian, feels a long time ago. It was inevitable there would be some sort of regression to the mean but 44 points from their subsequent 32 games is a poor enough record to raise concerns. Extrapolate that over a season and you get 52, which is what West Ham got last season in finishing ninth. For Tottenham, with their expenditure and their stadium, that would be far from acceptable. Cherrypicking isolated parts of a season is never entirely fair, but 32 games is a hefty sample size.

End is near for the 38-year-old but he defied his dodgy hip to score winner at troubled club where every day hurts

Jesús Navas can’t walk but he carries Sevilla. He’s nearly 39, he’s played 963 professional games and he has an arthritic hip. Every day for the last four years, it has hurt. It hurts when he turns up to training each morning at the ground named after him and it hurts when he plays. It hurt when he won the Europa League and it hurt when he won the European Championship, the last man standing somehow. Some days, it hurts so much even he has to stop; soon, too soon but later than he probably should have done, he will stop for good. Every few days, it hurts so much it scares him.

Thursday was one of those days, worse even than before. Never mind playing in primera, he couldn’t play with his kids. He hadn’t slept all night and couldn’t move. The doctor called the coach worried about him and so the next morning … well, the next morning he was back in Montequinto, where he first started going a quarter of a century ago and where the mini stadium by the dressing room is now called the Jesús Navas, looking for the manager García Pimienta. “Míster,” he said, “I can help.” So he did, which hurt too.

From Manchester City’s move for Vivianne Miedema to Brighton’s comings and goings, it has been a busy time before the new season

Jonas Eidevall has certainly added quality in the World Cup winner and Ballon d’Or nominee Mariona Caldentey, the Netherlands goalkeeper Daphne van Domselaar and the highly regarded midfielder Rosa Kafaji but that would all have been overshadowed if the world record bid for Keira Walsh had been accepted at the end of the window. However, Barcelona turned down what is believed to have been an offer worth more than £900,000. There have been several outgoings but the first team largely remains intact. Only the departure of Vivianne Miedema leaving for Manchester City raised eyebrows on a free. Overall, a good window. SW

If they continue on their alarming trajectory, Montpellier won’t be a Ligue 1 side for much longer

By Luke Entwistle for Get French Football News

Montpellier’s Stade de la Mosson is a metaphor for a club that has been allowed to drift into a state of dereliction. The stadium, renovated back in 1997, hosted knockout games at the 1998 World Cup, but now lies in a decrepit state, unable to withstand the elements, and as leaky as the defence that has conceded 13 goals in their first four Ligue 1 games.

In the space of 12 years, the time that has elapsed since they were crowned Ligue 1 champions, Montpellier’s decline has been slow but sure. Ambition has seeped away; pessimism has crept in. “Let’s be happy just to be in Ligue 1 … in a world where we don’t have big financial means, being in Ligue 1 is exceptional in itself. People should be aware of that and be happy to support us,” said the club president Laurent Nicollin earlier this month.

• Potters stand 13th, after two wins and three losses
• Pelach has worked at Huddersfield and Girona

Stoke City have set their sights on appointing the Norwich first-team coach Narcís Pelach as their manager after being granted permission to hold talks with the Spaniard about succeeding the sacked Steven Schumacher.

Pelach joined Norwich as part of David Wagner’s staff last year and was retained by Johannes Hoff Thorup, who was appointed in May. Pelach previously worked with West Brom’s head coach, Carlos Corberán, at Huddersfield Town, where he twice took interim charge. The 36-year-old has also worked as an assistant at La Liga side Girona.

Gabriel the derby hero, Nketiah embraces new surroundings and Sancho introduces himself to Chelsea

A lot of the focus was on how Nottingham Forest clogged the midfield to frustrate Liverpool before bringing on two wingers to change the game for their first victory at Anfield in 55 years. What might have gone unnoticed were the performances of their full-backs Ola Aina and Àlex Moreno. Neither are household names, the former a free transfer from Torino and the latter on loan after underwhelming at Aston Villa. They were both excellent at Anfield against some of the Premier League’s finest wide players; Aina kept Luis Díaz quiet on the left and Cody Gakpo had no impact after replacing the Colombian, while Mohamed Salah up against Moreno put in one of his most underwhelming performances in a Liverpool shirt. The Forest duo showed the club might be finally losing their reputation for being chaotic when it comes to doing transfer business. Will Unwin

Match report: Liverpool 0-1 Nottingham Forest

Match report: Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal

Match report: Aston Villa 3-2 Everton

Match report: Bournemouth 0-1 Chelsea

Match report: Southampton 0-3 Manchester United

As an independent commission prepares to assess the charges levelled at the club, here’s what it all means

The Premier League has charged the champions with more than 100 breaches of competition rules between the seasons 2009-10 and 2022-23. The charges cover four areas: a failure to give “a true and fair view of the club’s financial position”; a failure to “include full details” of player and manager remuneration; breaches of national and continental financial fair play regulations; and a failure to “cooperate with, and assist, the Premier League in its investigations”. The counts will be heard by a three-person independent commission, starting on Monday, in what is thought to be a London location.

• Teenager sets side on way to 4-1 victory at Girona
• Gallagher and Álvarez score in Atlético’s 3-0 Valencia win

Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal struck twice to help deliver a commanding 4-1 win at Girona on Sunday that extended their perfect start to La Liga with a fifth consecutive win while Conor Gallagher scored his first goal in Atlético Madrid colours.

The Spain winger gave Barça a two-goal lead with strikes in the 30th and 37th minutes while Dani Olmo extended their advantage right after the break with a first-time effort from close range.

If there is a civil war raging in the background, it seems to be suiting Newcastle very well. For all the tension between the manager, Eddie Howe, and the sporting director, Paul Mitchell, they have won three and drawn one of their opening four games of the season, leaving them third on goal difference behind Arsenal in second.

It was not a perfect display from Newcastle, far from it. A lot of the limitations of their squad were clear, but Howe took decisive action with a triple substitution at half-time and had his reward as one of the players he brought on, Harvey Barnes, scored a brilliant winner with 10 minutes remaining, cutting in from the left past Nélson Semedo and smashing a 25-yard drive inside the far post.

Matt Beard’s team broke into the top four last season and smashed the club transfer record for Canada’s Olivia Smith to keep up momentum

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 4th (NB: this is not necessarily Tom Garry’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 4th

New manager Amandine Miquel has brought knowhow and humour into the setup and Leicester will hope to improve on last year’s 10th position

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 7th (NB: this is not necessarily Sophie Downey’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 10th

Brian Sørensen’s low-scoring side have some new faces, despite a lack of funds, and will hope to challenge the top six

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 10th (NB: this is not necessarily Tom Garry’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 8th

There has been a big turnover in the squad since promotion to the WSL and the coach, Laura Kaminski, approaches new season on a game-by-game basis

Guardian writers’ predicted position: 12th (NB: this is not necessarily Sophie Downey’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)

Last season’s position: 1st (Championship)

The Gunners’ set-piece coach Nicolas Jover can now be called the killer in their ranks after Gabriel’s winner

Yes, well, of course that was going to happen. Ange Postecoglou has a particular manner on the touchline, a way of standing in the same spot for long periods of time, fists bunched in his pockets, a little hangdog and sad, like a long‑suffering dad at sports day.

As this slow-burn north London derby ticked down towards its inevitable endgame, as the sight of Arsenal’s set-piece coach leaping up at the edge of Postecoglou’s eyeline became ever more potent and ominous, there was a sense also of a man being chased down by the fates, like the doomed priest in The Omen, fate foretold by the shadow of the church spire sticking out of his back.

More goals are being scored from inside the box because of better pitches and shifts in tactical thinking

Last season, only 11.5% of goals scored in the Premier League came from outside the penalty area, the lowest figure Opta has recorded since the Premiership broke away from the Football League in 1992. That’s not a one-off: there have been fluctuations but the general trend over the past two decades has been a decline in the proportion of goals scored from long range. Which raises the obvious question of why? Is this the most clearcut evidence of the impact of data on football?

Its exact impact on how football is actually played at the highest level is difficult to measure, not least because clubs are so keen to obfuscate any advantage they do derive from analysis to preserve their competitive advantage.

After a first goal in 189 days in the win at Southampton, some players seem to inspire these feelings and mean more

The sun was just trying to break through as Manchester United took their curtain call here: a weak and hazy sunlight, an autumn-adjacent sunlight, sunlight if it had been taught how to press by Ole Gunnar Solskjær. But sunlight all the same. And as perfunctorily routine as this win seemed in retrospect, days like these are actually pretty rare for United, a club where the roof always seems to be leaking, even when it isn’t raining.

This was – by way of illustration – only their second away win in the Premier League since February, their biggest win on the road since November, their biggest league win against Southampton since 2001, the year they left the Dell. And yes, getting to that stage required half an hour of pure inertia, a saved penalty and a pretty complete implosion from a home side that failed to register a single shot in the last hour of play. But finally, United had carved themselves out a little breathing space.

In the wake of the Lionesses’ success, knee injuries are at epidemic levels in the women’s game. From boots designed for men to unequal training regimes, how much are sexist double standards to blame?

It happened about 10 minutes into a Crystal Palace v Lewes match. There was a hum of excitement in the Dripping Pan, Lewes FC’s football stadium. Ashlee Hincks ran down the wing, received the ball and went to cross it to a teammate. She planted one foot down and prepared to strike the ball with her other foot. But her boot got stuck in the grass; her body kept turning. “Everyone says they hear a pop or a crack. I heard a crack,” she says now. The pain was severe, and Hincks had to be carried off the pitch. She sat in the ambulance praying it was a dislocated kneecap.

It was 8 September 2019. Hincks, then 30, was a striker for Crystal Palace. She had scored more than 25 goals since she had arrived from Millwall Lionesses the year before and had been named player of the season. But now what she dreaded most had happened: she had torn her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

Trailblazing referee on her decision to retire, handling the emotions of the job and what the future holds for officiating

There were 15 minutes left before kick-off at the university fixture at the Maiden Castle sports centre in Durham when Rebecca Welch, trying her hand at refereeing for the first time, was perplexed to see there was no sign of nets, corner flags or even any players. Eventually the teams turned up and – having never wanted to become a referee – she decided to persevere with it “just for a few more games” and see what happened. Fast forward 14 years and Welch found herself in floods of tears in a van in Marseille, heading towards the Stade Vélodrome for an Olympic semi-final between Brazil and Spain last month, because she knew that it was going to be the last match she took charge of after a trailblazing career at the elite end of the profession.

“I couldn’t speak to anybody because I was crying,” Welch says. “It was just the emotion. I thought: ‘This is me finishing and nobody knows.’ That was just for me to know but nobody else to know, and I quite like that because I don’t like the attention around it.”

With the return of the group stage imminent, we cast an eye over eight of the competition’s emerging talents

In 2021 Norwich had high hopes of the Greek striker, signed from Paok Salonika for £8.8m. Tzolis started his Carrow Road career with two goals and a couple of assists in the 6-0 demolition of Bournemouth in the League Cup but rarely started after that. Dismissed as a flop, he was loaned to Fortuna Düsseldorf last summer. The tricky and speedy left-winger flourished, finishing as the 2.Bundesliga’s top scorer with 22 goals and nearly leading his club to promotion. Fortuna didn’t have the funds to keep Tzolis with the £3m buy option but it made sense to activate it in order to resell at a cool profit. Club Brugge were delighted to get him, and Tzolis has started brightly in Belgium .

Gary Shaw was part of a revered Villa side that enjoyed extraordinary and unparalleled success in the early 80s, winning the First Division in 1981 and in 1982 the European Cup and European Super Cup. His performances earned him the accolade of Professional Footballers’ Association Young Player of the Year in 1981 and European Young Player of the Year in 1982. Shaw is regarded one of Villa’s greatest forwards having scored 79 goals in 213 appearances for the club after joining as a 16-year-old apprentice. The former striker fell seriously ill this month and later died after being hospitalised with a head injury.

• Gary Shaw, hero of Aston Villa’s 1982 European Cup triumph, dies aged 63

Arsenal beat Tottenham 1-0 in the north London derby after a tight and heated game that saw seven yellow cards awarded in the first half. Arsenal's Gabriel Magalhães scored the winner with a header in the 64th minute to grab the Gunners their third win in a row at their arch-rivals' stadium. Arsenal had a number of players missing and their manager, Mikel Arteta, said: 'We had to adapt the plan a little bit because of the players that we had available. And I love it because since the day that we have started to get bad news, the team got hungrier and hungrier to play the game. And that's a big compliment to everybody at the club.' Tottenham's manager, Ange Postecoglou, lamented his side's loss, saying they 'wasted some of our good play … we just haven't really had that sort of conviction in the front third to take advantage.'

• Gabriel’s towering header secures derby win for depleted Arsenal at Tottenham

• Set-piece goal part of mania for detail that separates Arsenal from Spurs

• ‘Best in his field’: Arteta lauds Arsenal’s Nicolas Jover for set-piece dominance

The Liverpool manager, Arne Slot, described his side's defeat by Nottingham Forest as a 'big setback' for the team. 'Ball possession was not good enough,' Slot said after Callum Hudson-Odoi came off the bench to secure Forest’s first win at Anfield since 1969 and maintain their unbeaten start to the Premier League season.

• ‘Big setback’: Arne Slot says Liverpool fell below standards in Forest defeat

Manchester United's Erik ten Hag is confident Marcus Rashford will keep the goals flowing this season, after the team secured a 3-0 win at Southampton. Ten Hag responded to the criticism Rashford received following a loss to Liverpool, saying there was 'too much negativity' aimed at him, and that the striker created 'great chances'. The 26-year-old had gone 12 matches in all competitions without scoring but doubled United's lead on the south coast, six minutes after Matthijs de Ligt headed in from a short-corner routine

• Ten Hag hopes Rashford will be like ‘ketchup bottle’ and keep goals flowing

Pep Guardiola claims he knows what “people are expecting” with Manchester City preparing for the hearing into their Premier League financial charges to start on Monday. The manager’s comments came as Javier Tebas, La Liga president, claimed representatives of several Premier League clubs had told him City should be punished. City deny wrongdoing and Guardiola was asked about the case, which will be heard by an independent commission.

He said (not in reference to Tebas or his remarks): “I’m happy it starts on Monday and I know there will be more rumours about the sentences that come up and we’re going to see. I know what people are looking for, I know what they are expecting – I know it because I have read it for many years – but I’ve said everyone is innocent until guilt is proven. So we will see. It starts soon and hopefully finishes soon. An independent panel will decide. I’m looking forward to the decision.”

• People are ‘expecting’ Manchester City to be found guilty, says Pep Guardiola

• Guardiola insists Manchester City will accept verdict on alleged rule breaches

The former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has been laid to rest in his home town of Torsby, Sweden. The funeral was attended by around 600 mourners, including friends, family and his partner, Yaniseth del Carmen Bravo Mendoza. David Beckham, who captained England under Eriksson, and the Swede's former partner Nancy Dell'Olio were among those in attendance at Fryksande church.

Eriksson, who also had spells with Benfica, Lazio, Manchester City and many other clubs and national teams during a 42-year managerial career, passed away at the age of 76 after losing a battle with pancreatic cancer at the end of August

• Sven-Göran Eriksson obituary

• ‘A true gentleman’: Beckham leads tributes to Eriksson

• Sven, the strange power of football and maybe even the meaning of life

After defeat at home to Italy and a win over Belgium, the overarching ethos remains the same: substance over style

By Raphaël Jucobin for Get French Football News

The crowd in Lyon was in an unforgiving mood. Just under 24 hours after the country closed out an unforgettable summer of sport, the unwavering home support that had carried French athletes in Paris since the end of July largely dissipated as the men’s football team lined up in Lyon to face Belgium.

All of Didier Deschamps, Kylian Mbappé, Mattéo Guendouzi and Bradley Barcola were booed by sections of the home support when their names were announced in the lineups. The most hostile reception was reserved for Barcola’s introduction in the second half, with the player’s departure for Paris Saint-Germain more than a year ago still leaving a bitter taste for locals.

• Former internationals among those banned
• Move relates to match-fixing and gambling

The Chinese Football Association has banned 38 players and five club officials for life after a two-year investigation into match-fixing and gambling. The investigation, part of a crackdown on corruption in the sport, found that 120 matches had been fixed, with 41 clubs involved, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The report did not say whether all the matches were in China.

The former China internationals Jin Jingdao and Gu Chao and the South Korea midfielder Son Jun-ho were among those banned for life, according to findings made public on Tuesday.

• World Cup winner retires after victories on and off pitch
• Forward scored 123 goals for US women’s national team

Fighting back tears, Alex Morgan waved to the crowd and walked off the field for the last time on Sunday as she capped a remarkable career.

The two-time Women’s World Cup winner announced on Thursday she is pregnant with her second child and retiring from the game at the age of 35.

• European champions win 4-1 despite Le Normand red
• Croatia beat Poland; Northern Ireland lose in Bulgaria

The newly crowned European champions Spain romped to a 4-1 away win against Switzerland in Nations League Group A4, despite being down to 10 men after just 20 minutes.

Luis de la Fuente’s side had been held to a 0-0 draw by Serbia in their pool opener but raced into a 2-0 lead in Geneva with goals from Joselu and Fabián Ruiz after only 13 minutes, before Robin Le Normand was shown a red card for a foul on Breel Embolo. Switzerland’s Zeki Amdouni halved the deficit before the break but as the Swiss pressed for an equaliser late in the second half, Ruiz netted his second and substitute Ferran Torres also got on the scoresheet as Spain hit the hosts with lightning counterattacks.

A stomp towards the delirious crowd followed by an impish grin and the I-remain-the-man pout of celebration: on 88 minutes Cristiano Ronaldo saluted his 901st goal after sliding home and shred the narrative of a point won bravely by Scotland. Until then, Steve Clarke appeared heading to replenish the goodwill he had been draining from the Tartan Army.

The manager may still, of course. And afterwards, Clarke, whose team were knocked out of Euro 2024 at the group stage, was careful to talk his side up. “Disappointed to lose the game especially for the players, for all the effort they put in,” he said.

• Players criticised after missed chances in 0-0 draw with Indonesia
• ‘It’s been a common theme for over a year,’ says coach

Under pressure amid months of middling form, Socceroos coach Graham Arnold did something unusual following the scoreless draw against Indonesia in Jakarta on Tuesday night that leaves Australia languishing in World Cup qualifying Group C.

The famed man-manager – who has built a reputation on maintaining strong rapport with his dressing room – was critical of his players.

AAP contributed to this report

• Brazil 1-0 Ecuador; Díaz rescues Colombia in Peru
• Uruguay held by Paraguay in Suárez farewell

Rodrygo scored in the first half as Brazil defeated Ecuador 1-0 in Curitiba to end a four-game winless streak in World Cup 2026 qualifying.

The 23-year-old Real Madrid winger scored with a shot from outside the box in the 30th minute, which was deflected by a defender and went in off the right-hand post. Victory boosted the Seleção’s qualifying campaign after they had lost to Uruguay, Colombia and Argentina at the end of 2023 after a 1-1 home draw with Venezuela.

Seeking an early goal to settle their nerves, the hosts almost got it when Vinícius Júnior closed down the goalkeeper Hernán Galíndez, whose clearance ricocheted off the forward and into the side-netting. After the goal, Moisés Caicedo was denied a leveller, first by Alisson’s save and then by Gabriel Magalhães, who cleared his follow-up shot off the line.

• Morgan to end playing career after weekend’s match
• US forward: ‘I don’t think coaching is in my future’

Alex Morgan said that her role after football is still to be determined but that her future lies “in investing in women’s sports”, after announcing that she is pregnant and will end her professional playing career after Sunday’s game against North Carolina Courage.

Asked whether she might be considering a coaching career, the San Diego forward said: “I have not taken any coaching licenses. I’ll just say that: I don’t think coaching is in my future.

• Nicko Sensoli’s goal earns historic 1-0 League D victory
• Ronaldo’s 900th career goal helps Portugal beat Croatia

San Marino have beaten Liechtenstein 1-0 in the Nations League’s fourth tier, securing their first-ever competitive victory after 34 years of trying.

Nicko Sensoli scored the only goal of the game in Serravalle, the teenager pouncing on a defensive error and steering the ball past Benjamin Büchel in the 53rd minute. Liechtenstein’s Fabio Luque Notaro had a goal disallowed for offside in the first half and also saw a close-range shot blocked just before Sensoli’s opener.

Branded stadiums turn community hubs into billboards. Memories are still made, but the corporate influence dulls the purity of the experience

The Cleveland Browns held an oddly celebratory press conference last week to announce the sale of the naming rights to their stadium to Huntington Bank, a regional bank headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. For the next 20 years, what was once Cleveland Browns Stadium will be known as Huntington Bank Field. Never mind that Huntington Bank Field is a laughably generic name that does not even attempt to maintain continuity with the arena’s two most recent monikers, both of which labeled it a stadium rather than a field; the real catch is that the Browns haven’t even decided whether to renovate their current home on the shore of Lake Erie or build a new stadium in Cleveland’s southwestern suburbs.

Under the terms of the deal, the Browns’ home will be Huntington Bank Field wherever it ends up: the stadium now has a fixed name but a curious air of ephemerality hangs over its address.

After a draw with Turkey and victory in Montenegro, new manager has got supporters on side with some fresh ideas

Results such as this are the ones that make you glad you bothered, and glad you care. A disorientating but joyful first 149 seconds brought goals from Kieffer Moore and Harry Wilson, leaving Montenegro dumbfounded and the Wales support delirious. A goal was the only thing missing from a very positive Wales performance against Turkey on Friday, but with that assignment ticked off twice within three minutes, Craig Bellamy was given his first victory as manager despite farcical conditions more suited to a medieval re-enactment than an international football match.

The Wales fans in attendance were enthusiastic devotees of Project Bellamy, with a packed away end singing his name throughout. After the match, as gleeful supporters going back to the buses braved rain that felt straight from the Book of Revelation, we tried to remember Bellamy’s promise that his tenure was “going to be fun”.

Interim manager will need support if he is to emulate Gareth Southgate’s navigation of off-field matters

It required a double-take. Was that Lee Carsley, the new England manager, albeit on an interim basis, laying out the cones for a warm-up drill on the Aviva Stadium pitch before his first game in charge against Republic of Ireland on Saturday?

The top man on the coaching staff almost never does this; he delegates to an assistant. But yes, it really was Carsley – doing what he does, setting out as he intends to go on. “Well, I do have my qualifications,” he said with a smile after overseeing a 2-0 victory that offered cause for optimism, even if the paucity of the opposition had to be considered.

Panic on the streets of Islington, panic on the streets of Tottenham. Yes, with apologies to the Manchester band that won’t be surge-pricing any time soon, it’s time for the chippiest derby of all. OK, there’s Celtic v Rangers, who have 17th-century geopolitics and Scottish company law to rage at each other about, and Boca v River seems like it can get pwopah nawty. From experience, Swindon v Oxford is one to swerve if you don’t like foul language and United v City can often resemble a seething mass of anoraks and buzzcuts, a right swagger-off. Liverpool v Everton? Often not a fair fight in recent years, despite Sean Dyche pulling off a heist last season.

We have received explanations about the representation of the names and surnames of the players of the Latvian U-21 national team in the official game programme of Tuesday’s match, as well as an apology from the creators of the programme” – the Latvian FA accept the FIA’s admission that a translation error led to some of their players being listed as “Robert the Liar”’ and “Dario Sh!t” before the Euro 2025 qualifier against Republic of Ireland U-21s.

In reporting that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta had signed a contract extension you mentioned that this was after ‘zero league titles’. Do you mean to suggest that any manager who has failed to win a league title in the past five years is undeserving of a contract? If so please note that besides the currently retired Jürgen Klopp only one man (the bloke at City) has claimed this honour. Might want to consider more realistic standards for retaining a gaffer” – Richard Hourula.

I have to say that I entirely agree with the view of Simon Mazier with regard to the previous day’s letter from Chris Wheal. I have counted the number of words in Chris Wheal’s letter and, following a recount, have reached the conclusion that his assertion regarding long sentences simply doesn’t add up” – Adrian Irving.

Hey, I’ll root for Maurico Pochettino’s team like any other red-blooded whoopin’ USA! USA!! USA!!! supporter (we’ll let you have those exclamation marks – Football Daily Ed). But can we please – please! – bring back the 1950 World Cup kit seen in yesterday’s Memory Lane (full email edition)? For a politically polarised nation, we can surely agree that a jersey with a sash will bring our troubled people back together” – Mike Wilner.

Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin and Jonathan Fadugba to preview the first round of Premier League fixtures after the international break, including the north London derby

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On the podcast today: the game of the weekend is the north London derby. How will Arsenal line up without Declan Rice and Martin Ødegaard available to them? How disastrous is a loss for either side even this early into the season? Our panel answer these questions and more.

Plus: hat-tricks on the losing side, bottom-placed sides winning big and Shay Given’s special bottle

• Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU

“Sorry to lower the tone but curiosity got the better of me: last week in Peru, Sebastian Muñoz was sent off for appearing to urinate at the side of the pitch, while in Sweden in 2016, Adam Lindin Ljungkvist was given a second yellow card for ‘unsportsmanlike’ behaviour when he audibly broke wind. Are there any other examples of players being given their marching orders for bodily functionality?” wonders Dave Payn.

Let’s start with a bit of housekeeping. We haven’t included spitting, because Rudi Völler has suffered enough, but we have broadened the question to include unpunished acts of biology, partly so we can start with the most famous egestion of all. Gary Lineker didn’t receive a yellow card during his career, never mind a red, not even in England’s opening match of the 1990 World Cup. “I tried to tackle someone, stretched and relaxed myself and erm …” he said in 2010. “You can see myself rubbing the ground like a dog trying to clean it. It was the most horrendous experience of my life.”

Striker grew the game with skills and warmth, while raucous fans watched her like the Beatles were in town

One hundred and twenty-three goals in 224 appearances for the US women’s national team. Two World Cup wins. A gold medal, a bronze medal, a three-time Olympian. A National Women’s Soccer League champion. A relentless advocate for the growth of the game. Alex Morgan retired from professional football this past weekend in San Diego, California as one of the most successful players ever to lace up her boots. She leaves a multifaceted legacy behind her. One of its greatest aspects is the excitement she uniquely inspired, and her ability to leverage it for broader growth.

In a decade when the popularity of women’s football skyrocketed globally, Morgan was often its key name. Stateside, every stadium Morgan played in drew enormous crowds. Upon her arrival, those elated crowds were decked out in Morgan gear, carrying AM13 signs and shrieking with joy at her every movement. It was like watching the Beatles swing through town. Morgan-mania was for real.

Plus: hat-tricks bridging seasons, a rolling roll call of managers and when Harry Redknapp fielded a spectactor

• Mail us your questions or tweet @TheKnowledge_GU

“Last month, the Boston Red Sox catcher Danny Jansen played for both sides during a match against the Toronto Blue Jays. Has something like this ever happened in football?” tweets Dylan Hoekzema.

Jansen was playing for Toronto when their game against Boston was suspended in June. Boston then acquired him in July, with the match resuming in August, so he was an active participant for both sides in the same game.

The defender featured for Port Vale at the Valley on Boxing Day in 1932 in a game that was abandoned due to fog, and subsequently joined the Addicks, lining up for Charlton in their 2-1 triumph in the rearranged fixture in April 1933.

In February 1925, Clapton Orient travelled to a match against a Manchester United side that had just sold its star striker, Bill Henderson, to Preston North End. United manager John Chapman had telephoned the Orient manager Peter Proudfoot before they left London, and the two clubs agreed a fee of £1,070 for Pape. They met up at Manchester Piccadilly station just after noon, and Pape – who was a friend of the United captain, Frank Barson, and had relatives in nearby Bolton – quickly agreed terms.

The details were wired to the Football Association and the Football League at around 1.30pm, and although Pape had been named in Orient’s starting lineup for the match, he was confirmed as a Manchester United player with about an hour left before kick-off. Pape was not only allowed to start the match in the colours of Manchester United, but he also scored the team’s third goal in a 4–2 win over his previous employers, as well as hitting the post with a header late in the game.

Jack Grealish on the comeback trail, Iliman Ndiaye offers Everton hope and Declan Rice appears unruffled

While Mikel Arteta fumed at the perceived injustice in Declan Rice’s sending off against Brighton, there was a far more measured response from the England midfielder. Despite admitting he had been “shocked” to see the referee, Chris Kavanagh, show him a second yellow card for obstructing Joël Veltman from taking a free kick, Rice acknowledged that a first dismissal on his 245th Premier League appearance had cost his team victory as they head into the first international break already playing catchup to Manchester City. “I just wanted to apologise to my teammates, which I’ve done, and to the fans,” he said. “When you get sent off, it’s never nice, you get a sense of guilt over you, and I was lucky that my teammates really helped me out and we didn’t lose the game. I’ll learn from it.” Ed Aarons

Match report: Arsenal 1-1 Brighton

Match report: West Ham 1-3 Manchester City

Match report: Manchester United 0-3 Liverpool

Match report: Newcastle 2-1 Tottenham

Match report: Ipswich 1-1 Fulham

Match report: Everton 2-3 Bournemouth

Match report: Chelsea 1-1 Crystal Palace

Our cartoonist on travel blogger Noni Madueke, Chelsea outcast Conor Gallagher and Erik ten Hag’s seaside trip

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• And you can pre-order his new book, Chaos in the Box

A new wave of owners, players and fans are ensuring women’s football is not just a pale imitation of the men’s game, but celebrates its own unique values

A small wooden beach hut. Not your usual pitch-side corporate hospitality suite. But this is Lewes FC and the four beach huts are its equivalent of glass-encased executive boxes. “You can rent them out,” says Karen Dobres, the club’s special project lead. I have a quick look in one: clean, functional, also chilly, I should think, in winter. But the open shutters give a high vantage point on to the pitch, which is smooth and green and perfect on this warm July day.

I’m here to watch a pre-season women’s match against MK Dons, and Dobres, a local writer and activist, is taking me on a pre-game guided tour. I like football, but even if I didn’t I’d like Lewes FC. Right on and stubborn with it, the club has forged its own identity within the game. There’s the statue of two female pirates; the dedicated areas for breastfeeding; the club’s community garden, set up a couple of years ago by men’s team midfielder, Bradley Pritchard, known as Brad’s Pit. When a player gets player of the match, they are given garden produce: a brace of spring onions, some beetroot, a cauli. At the covered stand, Dobres points out that the seats are padded, rather than just plastic. “We heard they were being removed from Wembley in a refurb, so we asked if we could get them,” she says.

The former Ipswich and Spurs player on expectations after becoming the youngest goalscorer in England’s top flight and finding clarity after his mental health spiralled

It turns out that, even 40 years on, there are still Ipswich fans who have not yet stopped Jason Dozzell in the street. He is walking along Portman Road, passing beneath the ageing Cobbold Stand and a display that evokes some of his happiest times, when a grey-haired man diverts from his dog-walking path to instigate conversation. “I was in there when you scored that goal,” he informs Dozzell, who engages as if this is the first time he has heard such recollections. “I just had to tell you. Incredible. Where does the time go?”

That goal. It has followed him everywhere since 4 February 1984 when his smartly hooked finish had the final say in a 3-1 win over Coventry. Dozzell was making his senior debut at 16 years and 57 days old; he became the youngest goalscorer in England’s top flight and it is a record nobody has come particularly close to breaking. He remains a genuine home town hero – the boy who grew up 500 metres from the stadium and watched from the terraces until the moment that changed his life.

The FA’s answer to Luis de la Fuente may look like a hungover Alan Shearer but it would make a lot of sense to give him the job

Enter: the Carsley-verse. Look back just a couple of weeks and the Football Association’s decision to install an internal temporary replacement for the men’s senior manager, thereby delaying any permanent decision while relegitimising the architecture of the existing pathway structure, still felt like an act of such mind-numbing dullness that even reading these words now is likely to induce a form of narcolepsy, insomnia, haunted dreams, night terrors.

Cut back to this weekend and that trial appointment has already achieved one significant thing, specifically lending a mild air of jeopardy and intrigue to an otherwise unwanted back-to-school September international break.

Coach on the road to winning Olympic gold with the US, why her final months at Chelsea were so tough and immersing herself in politics

‘Was there a moment that I knew we were going to win gold? Probably the toe save,” says Emma Hayes, after a pause to think. “After the toe save I was like: ‘Oh, your name’s on it. Your name’s on it.’”

That “toe save” came in the 119th minute of the United States’ Olympic semi-final against Germany, the goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher leaping and flicking away Laura Freigang’s point-blank header to preserve their lead. Four days later, Mallory Swanson’s 57th-minute strike earned the US gold against Brazil, just 73 days after Hayes oversaw her first training session.

Erling Haaland has been voted the best player in the world for 2023 by our 218-strong panel, with Jude Bellingham finishing second

• 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012
• Meet the judges | Best female footballers to launch in January

Aitana Bonmatí, Sam Kerr and Salma Paralluelo top the list of female footballers in the world in 2023 according to our judges

• Putellas tops 2022 list | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | Meet the judges
• Spain and Barcelona lead the way after year of success
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The Norwegian is only 23 but his devastating goal record has seen him voted as the No 1 player in the world by the Guardian’s expert panel

When Pep Guardiola tearfully claimed Manchester City could not replace the departing Sergio Agüero in May 2021, he didn’t just create a meme. Guardiola was soft-launching a global audition for his team’s new attacking talisman. An unsuccessful pursuit of Harry Kane in the summer of 2021 came between two title-winning seasons where Ilkay Gündogan (13) and Kevin De Bruyne (15) were the club’s top league goalscorers. Guardiola’s slick creative machine needed a new front man, and they found him in Erling Haaland.

Like Agüero before him – and in contrast to many of City’s most successful Pep-era signings – Haaland arrived as a bona fide superstar, a plug-and-play addition to an already stellar lineup. Whether he was a bargain is another question. The release clause paid was €60m (£51.2m), but some reports suggest Haaland’s five-year deal could cost the club in the region of £300m. And while there was an ominous logic to the move for City’s rivals, questions remained.

Aitana Bonmatí the clear winner of the Guardian’s best 100 female footballers in the world with 15 Spaniards on the list

• The 100 best female footballers in the world 2023

After Alexia Putellas reigned in 2021 and 2022, her Barcelona and Spain teammate Aitana Bonmatí has been crowned the top female footballer of 2023 by the Guardian’s panel of 112 experts. The World Cup winner triumphed by a clear margin, finishing more than 500 points ahead of second-placed Sam Kerr.

Injuries and a World Cup meant there was a definite changing of the guard feel to this year’s list, sadly emphasised by the fact last year’s top two – Putellas and Beth Mead – missed a large chunk of our 12-month voting period with ACL injuries.

From Warren Zaïre-Emery to Endrick, we select some of the best players born in 2006. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Next Generation 2023: 20 of the best Premier League talents

We pick the best youngsters at each club born between 1 September 2006 and 31 August 2007, an age band known as first-year scholars. Check the progress of our classes of 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 … and look at the editions from further back

• Next Generation 2023: 60 of the best talents around the world

Five years ago we picked 80 of the most talented players in the world to follow their progress in a cut-throat business

It is the time of year when we check in on the Next Generation players we picked in 2018 to follow for five years, to assess their progress amid success, setbacks, injuries, trophies won and transfers made.

Next Generation started in 2014 with the aim of showing the difficulties that even the best prospects in the Premier League (we pick one from each club at first-year scholar age) and the rest of the world (we choose 60 born in a specific calendar year) face on their way towards the top.

A defensively minded midfielder who is incredibly strong (he used to be a wrestler) but with an excellent touch to go with his physicality. Made his debut in the Swedish top flight as a 16-year-old last year and captained Sweden as they reached the quarter-finals of the Euro Under-17 tournament in England this summer. Has taken an unusual path to the top. He left the top-flight side IFK Göteborg for sixth division Angered MBIK as a 14-year-old as he felt that he was not getting the right support for his football education. Another Gothenburg club, Häcken, snapped him up in 2017 and he made his senior debut that season. Has signed a new contract with the club from Hisingen until 2021 despite interest from Real Madrid and Benfica and trials at both Manchester clubs.