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Sound the tram bells, unleash the smoke plumes from the Tasty Jerk shack – Crystal Palace have finally won a major trophy

As the final whistle was blown at Wembley there was a moment that seemed to stretch out and become frozen in time. The Crystal Palace players collapsed where they were standing, crumpled across the grass like a battle scene fresco. The colours made it beautiful, red and blue against the deep green, new optics, new names, the unstyled celebrations of players unused to these moments, Jean-Philippe Mateta face down, Will Hughes flat on his back, arms spread like a snow angel.

There was a rush of noise as the clock began to tick again. And that was that. Sound the tram bells, unleash the smoke plumes from the Tasty Jerk shack – 119 years into Crystal Palace’s existence this mercurial club with the clanky corrugated stadium has finally won a major trophy.

• Manager proud after FA Cup win against Manchester City
• ‘You need someone who hugs you, so this is for the fans’

A delighted Oliver Glasner hailed Crystal Palace giving fans “a moment for their life” after Saturday’s historic 1-0 FA Cup win over Manchester City that gave the 119-year-old club a first major trophy, while Pep Guardiola refused to address the controversy over a potential red card for Dean Henderson.

Eberechi Eze’s 16th-minute volley proved Palace’s winner as Glasner’s side sealed the triumph by seeing out 10 minutes of added time at Wembley, leaving the manager delighted. He said: “As football players or managers our biggest achievement is to give the fans a moment for their lives. We had a difficult start to the season [winning none of the first eight league games] – in difficult moments you need someone who hugs, not kicks you, so this is for the fans. The connection with the Crystal Palace players will stay for ever.”

• FA inquiry into Brazil midfielder has lasted over two years
• ‘Stress, pressure, can manifest itself,’ warns manager

Graham Potter has revealed the investigation into whether Lucas Paquetá breached betting rules is taking its toll both mentally and physically on the West Ham player.

The Football Association’s inquiry into allegations Paquetá deliberately got himself booked in four matches, which he denies but which could leads to his being banned for life if found guilty, has lasted more than two years.

• Madrid meet sought-after 20-year-old’s release clause
• Defender had been on radar of a host of top clubs

Real Madrid have completed the signing of the Bournemouth centre-back Dean Huijsen. The 20-year-old defender, who has also been targeted by Chelsea, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Newcastle, will join the Spanish club at the end of the season after they agreed to pay a £50m release clause.

Real tried to sign the Netherlands-born Spain international when he was a youth player at Málaga and have continued to track the former Juventus and Roma defender’s progress. Huijsen’s footballing idol is Sergio Ramos, the former Spain and Madrid defender. After a loan spell at Roma, Huijsen signed for Bournemouth in July 2024.

Former coaches and teammates reflect on the Leicester striker’s singular journey to the pinnacle of the game

Where to start with the wiry teenager turned Premier League icon who once worked 12-hour shifts in a carbon-fibre factory? Perhaps at the beginning of an extraordinary career, his release by Sheffield Wednesday and those days earning £30 a game at Stocksbridge Park Steels hounding defenders in the Northern Premier League. For six months an electronic ankle tag – after he was convicted of assault – meant midweek matches were off-menu and games often saw him being subbed after an hour so he could jump over fences and into his parents’ car to beat his 6pm curfew. By then, his work was usually done.

Word of mouth spread. He signed for Halifax for £15,000 in 2010, then Fleetwood a year later for 10 times that. Ten months on he joined Leicester in the Championship in a £1m deal, a non-league record. The story goes that he first appeared on Nigel Pearson’s radar while scoring 66 goals across 107 Stocksbridge appearances. A friend of the Leicester manager who ran a fish and chip shop in Sheffield mentioned his name, a throwaway comment about a prolific striker in the eighth tier. Soon scouts were flocking to Fleetwood and Leicester beat off competition from Blackpool, Peterborough and Southampton to sign a 25-year-old by the name of Jamie Vardy.

• Dortmund pip Freiburg by beating Holstein Kiel 3-0
• Sporting hold off Benfica to win Portuguese title

Borussia Dortmund cruised past relegated Holstein Kiel 3-0 to finish fourth and snatch the last Champions League spot for next season, in the best comeback of the last seven matchdays in Bundesliga history. Niko Kovac’s Dortmund won six of their last seven matches to climb from 10th to fourth in the standings and finish on 57 points, two ahead of Freiburg, who lost 3-1 at home to third-placed Eintracht Frankfurt and drop into the Europa League.

Dortmund, needing a three-goal win to be guaranteed a top-four finish irrespective of results in the other games, got off to a dream start when Serhou Guirassy converted a third-minute penalty for the lead. Kiel were then left with 10 players when Carl Johansson was sent off with a straight red card but the hosts could not make the extra man count until the break.

• Jimmy Thelin condemns assault on Jack MacKenzie
• Unused substitute needed stitches to head wound

The Aberdeen manager, Jimmy Thelin, has described the head injury to defender Jack MacKenzie from an seat thrown by his own fans after the 2-1 defeat against Dundee United as “totally unacceptable”.

Home fans invaded the pitch at Tannadice after the final-day win clinched fourth spot in the Premiership and a place in Europe, unless Aberdeen beat Celtic in the Scottish Cup final. MacKenzie, an unused substitute, was struck by a seat thrown from the section holding Aberdeen fans and was given lengthy treatment before being taken away in a wheelchair with a bloodied bandage around his head and stitches were required.

Chelsea’s head coach admits first season ‘not perfect’ while Manchester United’s Marc Skinner wants ‘something special’ from defending champions

After 465 matches and 2,445 goals, a record 514 clubs have been whittled down to two. On Sunday Manchester United and Chelsea will face each other in the Women’s FA Cup final for a second time.

Chelsea won 1-0 in 2023 to deny United in what was their maiden FA Cup final appearance, something Marc Skinner’s side avenged last season by beating the Blues in the semi-finals to limit Emma Hayes’ final season trophy haul to one. United went on to beat Tottenham 4-0 in the final to secure their first major trophy following promotion from the Championship. Now they have a chance to demonstrate exactly how far they have come, as they bid to retain their crown against a domestically unbeaten Chelsea looking to land a treble.

Magpies can steal second from the Gunners on Sunday and Eddie Howe says club has ambitions to kick on this summer

Assumptions can be inaccurate, unfair and sometimes downright dangerous. Eddie Howe and Newcastle have had their fair share of often lazy theories – about the manager’s future and the limits of the club’s potential – but they travel to the Emirates Stadium on Sunday having trampled all over assorted hypotheses.

Should Newcastle win, Arsenal will have been beaten an unprecedented four times by one team in a single season and St James’ Park executives should feel sufficiently confident to start sprucing the stadium up for Champions League combat in early autumn.

Manchester City manager lost the mind games battle with Oliver Glasner and made odd tactical choices at Wembley

A vintage FA Cup season had its vintage ending. Perhaps a second half that didn’t live up to the extraordinary drama of the first meant that this wasn’t quite a classic final, but it was one packed with incident and storyline, from Jean-Philippe Mateta’s glorious return after his horror injury at Millwall, to a missed penalty, a heroic goalkeeper inspired by the memory of his late father and a debutant substitute.

And at its heart, well as Crystal Palace played, was Pep Guardiola making a series of decisions so striking they could not but raise the familiar spectre of overthinking.

Opinionated football journalist, who has died aged 93, loved the sport but detested much about the modern game

Brian Glanville, who has died aged 93, was what Groucho Marx might have been had the old master of the one-liner shown any interest in football. I doubt if the greatest soccer scribbler of them all – the London-born son of a Dublin dentist and an Old Carthusian expensively educated in literature and song – met Groucho (Brian knew a host of famous people), but their exchanges would surely have blistered the paint off the walls.

Nobody swore so elegantly as Glanville, who hovered in the press box like Banquo’s ghost, the gathering’s invisible conscience, ready to deliver a scathing observation, relayed, sotto voce, to a nearby colleague like a chorus baritone in one of his favourite operas.

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AFC Wimbledon secured their place in the League Two playoff final thanks to an early strike by Josh Neufville. The Dons will face Walsall at Wembley on 26 May for a place in League One.

With the veteran striker David McGoldrick ruled out because of injury, and Alassana Jatta missing through suspension after being dismissed in the first leg, the Notts County manager, Stuart Maynard, was forced to make changes with Maï Traoré coming in to lead the attack.

• Mikel Arteta: ‘There’s been a transformation in his body’
• Forward could feature against Newcastle on Sunday

Mikel Arteta has said Kai Havertz’s determination to return from a hamstring injury ahead of schedule has led to the forward destroying every physical metric at Arsenal’s training ground.

Havertz was expected to miss the rest of the campaign after tearing a hamstring in February but the German has pushed himself hard during his rehabilitation and could ease Arsenal’s attacking problems by proving his fitness for Sunday’s home game against Newcastle.

In a cacophony of jubilant celebration, the sense of relief inside Stamford Bridge was overwhelming.

Just as Chelsea feared their Champions League dreams fading away, Marc Cucurella nodded the biggest goal of their season and a firecracker in west London ignited. So infectious was the joy that one home supporter even charged on to the pitch before the match was done. Call his solo pitch invasion passion or stupidity; it was just that kind of feeling.

Ange Postecoglou surely felt like crying but at the final whistle emotions appeared to be running highest for Emiliano Martínez. The Aston Villa goalkeeper was visibly moved as he waved to supporters upon leaving the pitch and was in tears as he headed down the tunnel. Afterwards Unai Emery, mindful of the power of those profitability and sustainability calculations, did not exactly extinguish suggestions this could have been Martínez’s final game at Villa Park.

Martínez played his part in a huge win for Villa in their attempt to qualify again for the Champions League, though they may still require favours. Emery checked his phone as he entered his post-match press conference to see confirmation of Chelsea’s win over Manchester United.

As ‘The Grand Old Lady’ prepares to host its last men’s match, Everton fans reveal what the ground means to them

An era lasting 133 years comes to an end this Sunday as Everton’s men’s team play their final game at Goodison Park. In 1892 the team left their former home at Anfield – which Liverpool FC adopted soon after – upping sticks due to an argument over rent, to set up a new home, a short walk across Stanley Park. Goodison Park became the first major football venue built in England and since then no other English football ground has staged more top-level men’s matches.

But it seems the impending bulldozers have performed a welcome U-turn – a deal to have the women’s team playing there has just been announced. Despite the US owners confirming the ground will become the country’s first major stadium to be dedicated to a women’s team, everyone knows it won’t be quite the same place. It seems like there will have to be structural changes including the taking out of seats in the top decks to reduce the capacity. Perhaps Everton will also turn Goodison into some sort of museum, where in 20 or 30 years people will still be wandering in, scratching their heads at the way football used to be watched.

An aerial view of Goodison Park, circa 1965, and flags commemorating the stadium on sale outside the ground in 2025.

When Callum McGregor lifts the Premiership trophy on Saturday, it will be four decades since a team other than Celtic or Rangers won the top flight

This Scottish football season featured a debate surrounding the possibility of reconstruction. Would 10, 14 or 16 be the ideal number of Premiership sides, as opposed to the present dozen? There was, however, a tartan elephant in the room. Scotland has been operating a one, one-and-a-half or two-team league for far longer than is healthy. There is no indication that can change. Distress signals should have been raised long ago.

Celtic’s match against St Mirren on Saturday will precede receipt of the Premiership trophy. For Celtic, this is a 12th title in 13 seasons. The likely defeat of Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final on Saturday week will secure a sixth domestic treble since 2016. Cliche suggests Celtic and Rangers joust for honours, and occasionally they do. This, however, is an unprecedented spell of Celtic dominance.

In a game that now takes itself too seriously, FPL evokes the fun, pain and obsessiveness that once underpinned fan culture

Only two weeks to go. That’s the mantra. Two more weeks to endure the familiar trauma of logging on to the fantasy football app, picking a team, celebrating the wise decisions that have led you to create an unbeatable unit, watching the weekend’s football disabuse you of this notion, then repeating the whole thing again.

It’s supposed to be a game, but Fantasy Premier League (FPL) is more like a lifestyle. Or a second job. Or even exactly like being a professional footballer: the focus, determination and relentless commitment should really be rewarded with a weekly salary, preferably in the five figures. But no, instead we have to make do with a brief appearance of a green arrow next to our team name or, more likely, a red one.

Goodbyes to Goodison and Vardy, Palace and City brace for Wembley and the return of Kai Havertz

Aston Villa could not conceal their anger after their game at home to Tottenham was brought forward 48 hours. Villa’s director of football operations, Damian Vidagany, said shifting the game from Sunday to Friday was “clear prejudice” against the club and Villa objected to Spurs’s request for it to be moved to aid their preparations for Wednesday’s Europa League final. Villa were also privately perplexed at Bournemouth’s game with Manchester City being rearranged for Tuesday, after Saturday’s FA Cup final, which is guaranteed to have implications on whether eighth place qualifies for the Europa Conference League. The flipside to all of this is Villa can get on the front foot, kicking off 45 minutes before Chelsea entertain Manchester United and two days before Nottingham Forest head to West Ham and Arsenal host Newcastle. Victory for Villa could hoist them as high as fourth before a final-day trip to Old Trafford and, psychologically, that could prove a knockout blow. Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Tottenham, Premier League, Friday 7.30pm (all times BST)

Chelsea v Manchester United, Premier League, Friday 8.15pm

Crystal Palace v Manchester City, FA Cup final, Saturday 4.30pm

Winning Sunday’s FA Cup final after an unbeaten WSL season would mean a domestic clean sweep but US international really wants a Champions League

It is a testament to the standard set at Chelsea that an unbeaten Women’s Super League season, a League Cup win and, should they triumph over Manchester United at Wembley in the Women’s FA Cup final on Sunday, a domestic treble will still not leave them satisfied.

“That’s what makes this environment and this team so special,” says Catarina Macario, who was viewed as so prodigious a talent that the London side signed her in June 2023 from Lyon even though she was yet to return from an anterior cruciate ligament injury. “We’re never satisfied with just winning, we want to be dominant in how we play and there’s definitely room for improvement in that. That’s something that we have to take into next season and know that this is what we need to work even harder on to be able to achieve every single one of our goals.”

Final against Dynamo Kyiv had edge, flares and burning Russian flags but some of the enmity has gone; as one fan says: ‘Aggression must stay in the war zone’

Valeriy Bondar vaults a perfunctory metal fence, is handed a flare from somewhere in the melee and waves it around in the night sky. Shakhtar Donetsk have won the Ukrainian Cup, finally beating Dynamo Kyiv on penalties: light and smoke fill the air in Polissya Stadion’s south-west corner but there is something else, too. A trickle of supporters have been allowed back into many of the country’s arenas since February 2024 but more than 5,000 are packed in this time and the scenes are redolent of a different era. There has been no occasion quite like this on Ukraine’s soil for well over three years.

Fireworks have been a theme all day. Ninety minutes before kick-off in Zhytomyr several dozen Shakhtar ultras from different groups convene on a footbridge that dramatically spans the River Teteriv, towards the outskirts of this neat provincial city, and march towards the ground in a pyrotechnic haze. “It’s the first time in years that we’ve all been together in numbers like this,” says one of them, Taras, whose organisation sends equipment to soldiers at the front. About 70% of those present on the bridge are in active service, he estimates.

Senegal forward’s signing last summer was years in the making and his double helped fire Palace to the FA Cup final

Ismaïla Sarr hasn’t had many more memorable weeks. But most remarkable about his match-winning performance for Crystal Palace in the FA Cup semi-final against Aston Villa is that it came after his wife, Fatou, had given birth to twins a few days earlier. “It was a surprise – nobody knew,” said the manager Oliver Glasner after Palace’s thrilling victory at Wembley thanks to two goals from the Senegal forward.

Eberechi Eze said the BBC pundit Alan Shearer had awarded him player of the match “a bit prematurely” before Sarr’s second. “I’ll be giving this to him inside – he’s a top player and he’s helped us so much this season,” the England forward said.

One of the most beloved Italian clubs of the past 40 years now face a long way back to return to glory days

It was not meant to go like this. On a Tuesday evening on the outskirts of Naples, Sampdoria – one of the most beloved Italian clubs of the past 40 years – slipped into Serie C with a whimper – the first time in the club’s history that they have been relegated to Italy’s third tier.

At the final whistle, following a dismal goalless draw at Juve Stabia, Sampdoria’s players wept on the pitch. Back home, fans of the club’s intercity rivals, Genoa, spilled out on to the shared streets in celebration, setting off fireworks, chanting “Sampdoria is no more”. That is not quite the case, but it’s going to be a long way back for Il Doria, who have long been more accustomed to battling with Juventus than Juve Stabia.

• Asencio and three former Madrid youth players accused
• Gran Canaria incident in 2023 involved ‘a female minor’

The Real Madrid defender Raúl Asencio and three former youth players at the club could face trial in connection with the alleged filming and distribution of a sexual video that has left two women, one of them a minor, with symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

In a statement released on Wednesday, a judge on Gran Canaria said he had concluded his preliminary investigation into the recording and distribution of the incident, which is alleged to have taken place in a private area of a beach club on the island on 15 June 2023.

• Fifa ‘under an obligation’ to see ‘human rights are upheld’
• Group including ex-Fifa adviser makes official complaint

A group of leading lawyers has submitted an official complaint to Fifa, alleging the governing body has failed to follow its own human rights rules in relation to the 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia. The 30-page complaint has been filed via Fifa’s official grievance mechanism and calls for immediate action in five areas.

The complaint has been authored by Fifa’s former anti-corruption adviser Mark Pieth, the Swiss lawyer Stefan Wehrenberg and the British barrister Rodney Dixon, who submitted a report to Fifa a year ago warning of the risks of awarding the tournament to the Gulf state.

The club’s success has brought hope, unity and a voice to millions of Azerbaijani- Turks, the largest minority in Iran

The league title was won with games to spare by a coach in his first season, leaving fans in the north-west of the country to wait for the official presentation of the trophy. Jamie Carragher said on Sunday that “Liverpool as a city feels like it is ‘us against the world” but that is nothing when compared to those who follow Tractor SC, a club that brings hope, unity and a voice to millions of Azerbaijani Turks, the largest minority in Iran. Now they have a first Iranian championship to celebrate.

That journey to the very top took 55 years. It started when the state-owned tractor company set up a team for its workers and residents in Tabriz, the biggest city in the Iran’s East Azerbaijan province as a whole, not far from the border with Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The relationship with the club and Tehran has been mixed ever since, especially as Tractor, after not doing much for quite a while, started to become a force on the pitch as well as a focal point off it.

Assistant referees need more scope to use their common sense as opposed to simply relying on VAR

It was an accident waiting to happen. Anyone with an ounce of common sense could see the potential for the International Football Association Board’s offside protocols in the era of the video assistant referee (VAR) system to cause serious injury. Needless collisions are inexcusable. It should not have been allowed to reach the point where we are wondering whether Nottingham Forest’s Taiwo Awoniyi being placed in an induced coma will act as a red flag for the authorities.

Injuries happen. What is not acceptable is the safety of players being compromised as a result of technology warping the game and officials being instructed not to flag for offside if a goalscoring opportunity is on the cards. Thankfully, he was reported to have woken from his coma on Wednesday evening.

Stormy Anfield reaction to news of full-back’s exit on a free gives Liverpool coach a choice to make as trophy lift nears

A large portion of Liverpool’s match‑going support delivered a damning verdict on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s career choice on Sunday and, in one short sentence, Virgil van Dijk explained perfectly why there is no need for an encore when the champions return to Anfield to collect the Premier League trophy on 25 May. “There’s a lot more players that also deserve an amazing day,” the Liverpool captain said. There is no division or dissent on that score.

Arsenal’s visit to Anfield should also have been one long celebration, as well as an opportunity to demonstrate the gulf between the Premier League’s first and second-placed teams this season. The first half played out exactly that way. Arsenal may have produced a reaction that increased Mikel Arteta’s anger before Alexander‑Arnold’s introduction – “I hate reaction, I like action” – but the party was over as soon as the Real Madrid‑bound defender replaced Conor Bradley in the 67th minute.

Murals of McTominay in Naples? Don’t rule that out with the volatile manager who never stays long despite serial success

There’s always a Tottenham exception. Since leaving Siena in 2011, since he got his first break with a club that had a realistic chance of winning trophies, Antonio Conte has won league titles with Juventus, Chelsea and Inter. Going into Sunday’s matches, with three games remaining, his Napoli lead Inter by three points. In a decade and a half he has won a trophy with every club he has managed, apart from Tottenham.

Maybe Tottenham simply aren’t a club that had a realistic chance of winning trophies. Certainly it’s not as familiar to them as it is to Juventus, Chelsea and Inter. Napoli were Serie A title winners the season before last. Conte led Tottenham for 17 months and although he has the fifth-best win record of any Spurs manager, although he took them to fourth in his first season, having replaced Nuno Espírito Santo in the November, and although they were fourth when he left in March 2023, by the end the situation was so toxic as to be unsustainable.

While Fifa’s chief of global development focuses on offside toes and noses, VAR needs a helping hand somewhere else

Five years ago, Fifa’s chief of global development, Arsène Wenger, outlined his bold plans to change the offside law.

“The most difficult [issue] that people have [with VAR] is the offside rule,” he said. “You have had offsides by a fraction of a centimetre, literally by a nose. It is the time to do this quickly.

Our cartoonist details some notable moments from the 133-year history of one of Britain’s most iconic stadiums

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Elegant player and legendary coach looks back on some of his finest moments at ‘iconic’ Goodison Park

Standing outside a pawnbrokers on Goodison Road, waiting for his dad to emerge through the crowd after the match, a young Colin Harvey could not have imagined what lay in front of him. Standing in the same place today, the great Evertonian would face a statue of himself immortalised alongside fellow members of “The Holy Trinity”, Howard Kendall and Alan Ball. Time has not diminished the 80-year-old’s wonder at his life and legacy at Goodison Park.

“How do you go from being a kid watching Everton from the Boys’ Pen to having a statue on Goodison Road?” he says, with genuine astonishment. “If someone had presented me back then with a history of my life in football I’d have said: ‘Don’t be silly, nothing like that is ever going to happen to me.’ But it did. When I was told the statue was going to be made it was one of my proudest moments. I’ve had a fantastic football life and it amazes me when I look back on it.”

Dan Ndoye’s goal secures a 1-0 win over Milan and sparks scenes of joy in the Piazza Maggiore once again

Vincenzo Italiano knew there was a little bit of poison in the chalice offered to him last summer but accepted it anyway. The opportunity to manage Bologna was a chance to lead a Champions League team for the first time in his career. It was also an invitation to become the public face of a project that had nowhere to go but backwards.

What could he possibly do to improve on the work of the previous manager, Thiago Motta, who led Bologna back into Europe’s top club competition for the first time in 60 years? Italiano would not even have the same group of players to work with. Joshua Zirkzee, the top scorer, was on his way to Manchester United and the newly capped Italy defender Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal. Lewis Ferguson would be out for months with a cruciate ligament tear.

Having waited so long to win his first title, England striker reflects on his journey amid beer-soaked revelry in Munich

It is late in Munich, approaching midnight, when Harry Kane appears. The nondescript, windowless TV interview room below the Allianz Arena could not be more of a contrast to the giddy, beer-soaked, firework-lit riot of celebration going on outside as Bayern Munich savour a 34th league title. There’s also something different about Kane, and it’s not just the gold medal.

The Kane visage that usually accompanies him at the end of a cup final, that little-boy-lost look of overwhelming disappointment, is gone. You cannot help but notice the broad grin, the relaxed body language and the tactile ease in the greeting, a man intoxicated by euphoria. “It’s been a long night,” he says, beaming. “And it’s just the beginning.”

Twenty years after the club’s takeover a look at some of the most striking evaluations during their tenure at Old Trafford

Initial percentage of Manchester United bought by Malcolm Glazer in May 2003 – by the end of the year it stood at 15%.

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It’s been a while since we felt something. The Premier League has barely been about the Premier League of late, all the focus on who qualifies for Bigger Cup, Liverpool’s title secured in the Jurassic Period, relegation sorted when those three teams were promoted from the Championship a year ago. The Women’s Super League was also lacking in jeopardy when it wrapped up last week, the key question being whether Chelsea would remain invincible. This weekend of FA Cup finals arrives in a time of desperate need: give us some of that so-called magic, please.

The annual congress is the single most important body to ensure good governance of international football [and] 210 member associations have traveled from all over the world to participate at this congress here in Paraguay, expecting professional leadership and dialogue at the highest level. I understand the frustration and disappointment from European Fifa members, and we feel sorry for the excellent hosts in Paraguay. We now expect Fifa to explain this situation to its members and ensure that the voices of the member associations are heard and respected going forward” – Norway Football Federation president Lise Klaveness explains why she was among eight European members of the Fifa Council to walk out of congress in protest at the late arrival of Gianni Infantino, who had been schmoozing with Donald Trump in the Middle East amid accusations from Uefa that he was pursuing “private political interests” ahead of responsibilities to football. Well aren’t we just shocked.

With regards to Ajax’s massive implosion and PSV’s hot streak at the end of the Dutch season (yesterday’s Football Daily), I am reminded of the phrase: ‘It’s better to be lucky than good.’ Nothing epitomises that more than the PSV captain, Mr De Jong. No, not Frenkie, Nigel or Siem but Luuk!” – Michael Glogower (and no other mean readers).

With reference to your comment that Edgeley Park is currently the closest league ground to the River Mersey (yesterday’s News, Bits and Bobs, full email edition), I’ve always preferred the answer when you limit the question to Premier League grounds – the answer being Old Trafford. Obviously, also about to become an ex-fact once Everton move into their new gaff” – Andrew Payton.

While I realise this week marks the last men’s game at Goodison Park so we are newsworthy, I was surprised to see Everton FC mentioned in almost every section of yesterday’s missive! Davy Klaassen’s former employer in the main headline text, Quote of the Day from Colin Harvey, letters, on the edge (breakout section), on Bramley-Moore dock becoming the closest ground to the Mersey, and FA Cup final quiz with Joe Royle as last English manager to win. I respect the commemorative nature of the Toffees’ inclusions – but then in Memory Lane you showed an aerial view of Lens FC’s ground and not Goodison. An opportunity missed! Has anyone outside the top six featured in every section of Football Daily? I am sure The Knowledge knows!” – C Hawtrey.

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Emily Husband, one of only two female coaches in the league, can create history against Melbourne Victory on Sunday

The Central Coast Mariners weren’t supposed to crash the A-League Women grand final, but they face Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park on Sunday.

Two years ago they didn’t even exist. The Mariners’ women’s programme was in its 13th year of inactivity after being mothballed for financial reasons (serious concerns over the ever-impecunious club’s viability still linger). On the field, they made a celebrated return for the 2023–24 season, riding the wave of momentum born from Australia hosting the 2023 Women’s World Cup to stun Victory in an elimination final, before running into the eventual champions Sydney FC in the semi-finals.

Academic study will analyse hormone concentrations from footballers’ blood samples in search of more answers

“I’ve had not one, two, but three ACL tears – all three have been on my period.” Those were the frank words of the double World Cup-winning former United States international Megan Rapinoe, speaking on her podcast A Touch More with Sue Bird & Megan Rapinoe on 8 May, as they expressed their exasperation at how long it has taken for more in-depth research to be conducted regarded the relationship between menstrual cycles and serious knee injuries in female athletes.

Finally, though, something is happening. Trying to help address the issue, with the ultimate aim of reducing instances of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries, is a new, year-long academic study at Kingston University in London, which has received funding from football’s world governing body, Fifa.

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Mikel Arteta has explanations for his team’s shortcomings that may hold water, but ultimately the Gunners simply couldn’t get it done when needed

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The problem is that when the game doesn’t matter, other elements begin to take over. In other circumstances, Arsenal’s 2-2 draw at Liverpool on Sunday would have been an intriguing minor classic; but then, in other circumstances, it might not have gone like that. As it was, with the title won and Arsenal secure in the Champions League qualification slots, a clash between the top two became the stage for discussion of the booing of Trent Alexander-Arnold and a weird confected online fury about whether Myles Lewis-Skelly had applauded Liverpool with sufficient gusto in the guard of honour.

At least, from Arsenal’s point of view, the game followed the opposite pattern to the one with which we’ve become familiar. Arsenal have dropped 21 points from winning positions this season (Liverpool just 13), while Liverpool have gained 22 (Arsenal just 13). If they’d matched each other in those respects, Arsenal would be two points clear at the top of the league; that essentially is the difference between them.

As Crystal Palace and Manchester City prepare to meet at Wembley, how well do you recall the previous 143 finals?

By The Football Mine

Faye Carruthers is joined by Suzy Wrack, Tom Garry and Chris Paouros to dissect a dramatic final WSL day

On the final Women’s Football Weekly of the WSL season, Chelsea cap off an unbeaten campaign with a last-gasp win, Arsenal edge Manchester United in a 4–3 thriller, and the final league table is locked in after 27 goals fly in across six games.

The panel assesses every team’s performance in the season, and Chris Paouros delivers her assessment in true school report style, covering everything from Chelsea’s relentless excellence, Arsenal’s attacking flair, Manchester City missing out on Europe, to Crystal Palace's relegation and Spurs and West Ham's underwhelming campaigns.

In a campaign notable for exciting imports and spectacular goals, there was consensus on the outstanding manager

Phallon Tullis-Joyce looked assured for Manchester United all season, unfazed by the Mary Earps-sized gloves she had to fill. Her command of the goal and her ability to make crucial saves propelled Manchester United up the table. With 13 clean sheets she shares the Golden Glove with Hannah Hampton. Xaymaca Awoyungbo