The draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, to be hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico from 11 June to 19 July 2026, was conducted in Washington on Friday, producing 12 groups for the expanded tournament.
In Group A, Mexico will face South Africa, South Korea and a qualifier. Group B pairs Canada with a qualifier, Qatar and Switzerland. Brazil take their place in Group C alongside Morocco, Haiti and Scotland, while hosts United States lead Group D with Paraguay, Australia and a qualifier.
Germany heads Group E with Curaçao, Ivory Coast and Ecuador. The Netherlands will compete in Group F with Japan, Tunisia and a qualifier. Belgium, Egypt, Iran and New Zealand make up Group G. Group H features Spain, Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay.
France are placed in Group I with Senegal, Norway and a qualifier. Argentina will contest Group J with Algeria, Austria and Jordan. Group K includes Portugal, Uzbekistan, Colombia and a qualifier. England lead Group L with Croatia, Ghana and Panama. (Guardian)
United States President Donald Trump received the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize before the draw for the 2026 Fifa World Cup.
The award has been introduced this year by Fifa president Gianni Infantino, designated for a person who has “taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace” and “united people across the world”.
It was widely expected that Trump, who arrived at the ceremony with Infantino and has made several public appearances with him in recent months, would be the winner.
That was confirmed at the ceremony in Washington DC on Friday.
As well as receiving a large golden trophy, Trump was also given a medal and certificate by Infantino before making a speech.
Trump stated he had saved “tens of millions of lives” through diplomatic interventions and had “stopped wars happening just before they started”.
“This is truly one of the great honours of my life,” Trump said, before claiming that the 2026 World Cup has set a new record for ticket sales.
“Gianni has done an incredible job. It is a nice tribute to you and the game of football, or as we call it soccer. It is beyond the numbers we thought were possible,” Trump said.
“The world is a safer place now. The USA was not doing well a year ago; now we are the hottest country in the world right now.”
The 2026 World Cup will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, and will take place between June 11 and July 19.
Trump later returned to the stage alongside Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney to perform the ceremonial opening to the draw.
The three leaders drew the balls of their respective nations, which had already been assigned their groups. Afterwards, the trio posed for a selfie taken by Infantino.
Mexico are in Group A – and will play in the tournament’s opening match – while Canada are in Group B and USA feature in Group D.
Trump, after repeating his comments about ticket sales, joked about the name clash between American football and what Americans generally call soccer.
“We have to find another name for the NFL,” Trump said. “This is football, we call it soccer here in the USA but it is really football. It doesn’t make sense that we call it soccer.” (BBC)
The draw for the 2026 World Cup — the biggest edition of soccer’s global showpiece ever held — takes place in Washington on Friday with U.S. President Donald Trump expected to feature prominently in proceedings.
The expanded 48-team tournament — up from the 32-nation field that competed at the 2022 Qatar World Cup – will be played across the United States, Mexico and Canada from June 11 to July 19 next year.
Trump’s attendance at the Kennedy Center ceremony underscores his rapport with FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, who has made several visits to the White House and even joined Trump at international summits in the years since the joint North American bid was awarded the tournament in 2018.
Infantino’s close relationship with Trump is widely expected to see the U.S. leader be named as the first recipient of a new FIFA Peace Prize, which will be awarded at the draw
Trump has made the World Cup a centerpiece event of both his second presidency and the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence next year.
But he has not hesitated to bring domestic politics into the event, threatening to move World Cup matches from Democratic-run cities if he deems conditions to be “unsafe”.
In a sign of the global tensions surrounding a World Cup which will have 11 of its 16 venues in the United States, Iran said it will boycott the draw because U.S. authorities refused to grant visas to several members of its delegation.
The president of the Iranian soccer federation, Mehdi Taj, said: “We have told the head of FIFA… that it is purely a political position and that FIFA must tell (Washington) to desist from this behavior.”
The pretenders to the title which a Lionel Messi-inspired Argentina won for the third time in 2022 in Qatar will be drawn into 12 groups.
The top seeds are Argentina, the host nations USA, Mexico and Canada, record five-time winners Brazil, two-time champions France, four-time winners Germany as well as Spain, England, Portugal, Netherlands and Belgium.
The evergreen Cristiano Ronaldo, who will be 41 when the tournament kicks off, has said his sixth World Cup finals with Portugal will be his last and he would relish crowning his long career with a first global title for his country.
The enlarged cast list also means an opportunity for a handful of first-time qualifiers, including Cape Verde, Jordan and the tiny Caribbean nation of Curacao.
With six of the field still to be decided in playoffs, the favorites will want to avoid Italy, who won the World Cup as recently as 2006 but have not qualified since 2014.
Despite an error-strewn qualification campaign, the Italians can still reach the finals by winning two sudden-death games.
The opening match will be held at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, which also hosted the 1970 and 1986 finals, before the tournament unfolds over nearly six weeks, culminating in the final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Because of the complexity, teams will only learn the full details of their match venues and kickoff times on Saturday, a day after the draw.
Supporters’ groups have warned fans could face eye-watering sums for tickets for the most attractive games due to FIFA’s decision to use dynamic ticket pricing.
Prices on popular secondary market websites in the United States such as Stubhub and Seatgeek have already skyrocketed, with prices for the July 19 World Cup final in New Jersey starting at around $7,000. (JapanToday)
Arsenal edged out Brentford 2-0 to restore their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League on Wednesday as in-form Aston Villa beat Brighton 4-3 to climb up to third in the table.
The Gunners failed to hit top form at the Emirates Stadium but did enough to take another step towards a first league title in 22 years thanks to goals from Mikel Merino and Bukayo Saka.
Mikel Arteta took the chance to use his strength in depth as Saka, Eberechi Eze and Jurrien Timber were rested from the start as captain Martin Odegaard made his first start since early October.
Merino maintained his place up front despite Viktor Gyokeres’ return to fitness and rewarded Arteta with another vital goal.
The Spaniard was picked out perfectly by Ben White’s cross and powered in his 11th goal of the season for club and country.
Brentford boss Keith Andrews also heavily rotated, with top scorer Igor Thiago among those left on the bench.
But the Bees still posed the leaders problems and were only denied an equaliser through Kevin Schade’s header by a brilliant save from David Raya against his former club before half-time.
Saka was introduced on the hour mark and the England winger finally made the points safe in stoppage time as his strike had too much power for Caoimhin Kelleher.
Villa produced a stunning fightback against the Seagulls to continue their fine form with an eighth win in nine league games.
The visitors were their own worst enemies in a dreadful start. Jan Paul van Hecke bundled in from a corner after Villa goalkeeper Marco Bizot failed to collect. Pau Torres then turned past Bizot into his own net from Jack Hinshelwood’s cross.
Ollie Watkins had scored just once in 19 previous appearances this season but turned the game around with a quickfire double before the break.
The England striker forced in Ian Maatsen’s low cross before latching onto Morgan Rogers’ brilliant through ball to slam past Bart Verbruggen.
Amadou Onana completed the comeback with a back-post header from Matty Cash’s corner before Donyell Malen made it 4-2.
Centre-back Van Hecke curled in his second of the night to set up a tense finale, but Brighton succumbed to their first home defeat of the season.
Wolves suffered an eighth consecutive defeat as Igor Jesus’ header earned Nottingham Forest a 1-0 win at Molineux that moved Sean Dyche’s men four points clear of the relegation zone.
Burnley also remain rooted in the bottom three after Daniel Munoz scored the only goal in a 1-0 win that lifted Crystal Palace up to sixth. (JapanToday)
Iran is to boycott next week’s World Cup finals draw in Washington because the United States refused to grant visas to several members of the delegation, the Iranian football federation announced on Friday.
“We have informed FIFA that the decisions taken have nothing to do with sports and the members of the Iranian delegation will not participate in the World Cup draw,” the federation’s spokesperson told state television.
Iranian sports website Varzesh 3 had claimed on Tuesday that the United States had declined to issue visas to several members of the delegation, including the president of the federation, Mehdi Taj.
On Thursday, Taj had denounced the decision as being a political one.
“We have told the head of FIFA mister (Gianni) Infantino, that it is purely a political position and that FIFA must tell them (US) to desist from this behaviour,” added Taj.
According to Varzesh 3, four members of the delegation, including Amir Ghalenoei, the coach, had been granted visas for the draw on December 5.
Iran qualified for the sport’s quadrennial showpiece in March, guaranteeing them a fourth successive appearance and seventh in all.
They have yet to progress to the knockout stages, but there was unconfined joy when in the 1998 finals in France, Iran beat the USA 2-1 in their group match.
The USA avenged that by beating Iran 1-0 in the 2022 edition.
The United States — which is co-hosting the World Cup with Canada and Mexico — and Iran have been at loggerheads for over four decades.
They had, though, been holding high-level nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington that had begun in April, during which the two sides were at odds over Iran’s right to enrich uranium — which Tehran defends as “inalienable”.
However, they ended when, in mid-June, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran, triggering a 12-day war that the United States briefly joined with strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities. (Punch)
Phil Foden spared Manchester City’s blushes with the last-gasp winner after the Premier League title challengers blew a two-goal lead in a dramatic 3-2 win over lowly Leeds on Saturday.
Pep Guardiola’s side were in danger of losing more ground in the title race following a second half collapse at the Etihad Stadium.
Foden and Josko Gvardiol put City two up before the interval, but third-bottom Leeds hit back through Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha.
Foden clinched a nerve-jangling victory that lifted City into second place, four points behind leaders Arsenal, who travel to third-placed Chelsea on Sunday.
It was a much-needed win after consecutive defeats against Newcastle last weekend and Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday.
Guardiola’s decision to make 10 changes against Leverkusen backfired in a 2-0 loss that prompted the furious Spaniard to claim his players “didn’t try”.
Foden, Erling Haaland, Bernardo Silva, Gianluigi Donnarumma were among the stars back in City’s starting line-up for the Leeds clash.
City had made their worst start to a campaign for five years and their second-worst under Guardiola.
But they took just 59 seconds to move in front as Foden fired a close-range strike off the bar after Matheus Nunes’ burst unhinged the Leeds defence.
Leeds had no answer to City’s slick start and Gvardiol looked to have put the hosts in complete control with a tap-in from Nico O’Reilly’s header in the 25th minute. (Vanguard)
One week after losing all their points from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, McLaren threw away a bunch more in an increasingly tense Formula 1 title race by botching a strategy call at the Qatar GP on Sunday.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took full advantage of the unexpected gift to clinch a seventh win this season — his 70th overall — as he closed the gap on championship leader Lando Norris from 24 points at the start of the weekend to 12 points, heading into next Sunday’s title decider in Abu Dhabi.
McLaren still has two drivers in contention, with Oscar Piastri four points behind Verstappen in third, but must stop the slide.
Last Sunday, the two drivers lost a combined 30 points after both were disqualified following the race, won by Verstappen.
At the Qatar GP, Norris would have clinched his first F1 title with a win but finished fourth, with Piastri placing second having started from pole position and looking assured.
But after an early safety car, McLaren’s decision to keep both drivers out backfired badly as Verstappen effectively benefited from a free tire change in a mandatory two-stop race.
“It’s tough, we just have to have faith in the team to make the right decision,” Norris told broadcaster Sky Sports. ”Now it’s the wrong decision, we shouldn’t have done it (and) we didn’t do a good job today.”
Norris leads with 408 points, Verstappen has 396 and Piastri 392. All three title contenders have won seven races. Verstappen is aiming for a fifth straight F1 crown, with Piastri chasing a first title. Norris will become the first British driver to win the championship since Lewis Hamilton clinched his seventh title in 2020 if he finishes at least third in Abu Dhabi even if Verstappen wins the race.
Although Verstappen overtook Norris heading into Turn 1, Piastri made a clean start and took a comfortable lead early on.
Piastri also said McLaren made an error by staying out following the safety car, which came out after Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber was sent spinning off the track on Lap 7 after being clipped by Alpine driver Pierre Gasly.
“Speechless. I don’t know any words,” Piastri said. “It is a little bit tough to swallow at the moment.”
Later, the Australian added: “Clearly we didn’t get it right” and said there would be discussions.
The decision played into Verstappen’s hands and the elated Dutchman climbed out of his car and jumped into the arms of his mechanics and engineers after winning.
“This was an incredible race for us, we made the right call as a team to box under that safety car,” Verstappen said. “Super happy to win here, we stayed in the fight until the end. Incredible.”
The decision to stay out was even more questionable in a race where drivers had to take two pit stops over the 57 laps — a measure imposed on safety grounds due to a high risk of tire degradation at the Lusail International Circuit.
Gambling on holding track position left McLaren at risk later on, unless there was another safety car.
“It wasn’t the correct decision,” McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said.
Because drivers were restricted to a maximum of 25 laps on the Pirelli tires, those who pitted had to change again on Lap 32.
After the McLarens made their first tire changes, Norris was in fifth place behind Piastri in fourth. That left Verstappen out in front and with several laps to build his lead.
McLaren pitted Piastri again on Lap 43 and Norris soon after, but when Norris came back out on Lap 45 he was fifth with Antonelli and Sainz barring his way.
Norris overtook Antonelli right at the end but could not catch Sainz, who finished third.
George Russell was sixth for Mercedes, with Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) and Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) completing the top 10.
Hamilton’s dismal run for Ferrari continued with a 12th-placed finish. Aside from clinching a sprint race in China in March, the 40-year-old has not been on the podium all season.
Desert battles seem to suit Verstappen, who clinched a third straight win in Qatar and has won four of the last five races in Abu Dhabi. Norris may take hope from the fact he won there last year.
But the McLarens head to Abu Dhabi with a hard-charging Verstappen looking to repeat history by clinching a championship in the last race at Abu Dhabi, having done so when he overtook Hamilton on the final lap after a controversial finish in 2021.
“It’s possible now but we will see,” said Verstappen, who had written off his chances earlier this season. “I don’t really worry about it too much.” (JapanToday)
Mikel Merino salvaged a 1-1 draw for Arsenal at 10-man Chelsea as the race for the Premier League title tightened on Sunday.
Arsenal is five points clear of second-placed Manchester City, with Chelsea a point further back in third.
Mikel Arteta’s team was boosted late in the first half at Stamford Bridge when Moises Caicedo was sent off for a dangerous challenge on Merino. But despite being a man down Chelsea went ahead in the 48th minute through Trevoh Chalobah’s header.
Merino equalized in the 59th, but Arsenal couldn’t make its numerical advantage count and dropped points away from home for the second time in successive matches.
Arsenal beat Bayern Munich midweek in the Champions League and Arteta said it had been a positive week though accepted “we should’ve won the game (Sunday), and we haven’t. That’s a learning point for me.”
The result meant Man City was the big winner of the weekend, following Saturday’s late victory against Leeds, which saw Pep Guardiola’s team climb above Chelsea to second in the standings.
“I think that we showed that we are in the right direction,” Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca told Sky Sports. “We were a much, much better team than them when we were 11 v. 11. Then with 10 players it’s more difficult, but the way they dealt with that situation was outstanding.”
Liverpool got back to winning ways — beating West Ham 2-0 — and Manchester United rallied to a 2-1 win at Crystal Palace.
Aston Villa is fourth after a 1-0 win against last-placed Wolverhampton, and fifth-placed Brighton won 2-0 at Nottingham Forest.
Alexander Isak scored his first Premier League goal for Liverpool to set up a much-needed win for Arne Slot’s team.
On a day when Mohamed Salah was dropped to the bench, British record signing Isak opened the scoring at the London Stadium. Cody Gakpo got the second for Liverpool, which went into the match on a run of six losses in its last seven league games.
“I am aware that it has been a long time coming and I’ve been trying to get back to my best form,” Isak told Sky Sports. “I am still on the way but I am happy to have that goal.”
Isak, a $170 million signing from Newcastle in the summer, had not scored in his five league games for his new club and only had one goal in 10 games in all. But in the absence of Salah, the Sweden international converted with a first-time effort in the box after 60 minutes to open his Premier League account for the season.
Slot’s bold call to leave out the iconic Salah paid off after the Egypt international’s unconvincing form this season. Slot shook up his attack, with Florian Wirtz and Gakpo alongside Isak.
Isak’s clinical finish into the bottom corner put Liverpool in control and West Ham’s chances were dealt another blow when Lucas Paqueta was sent off in the 84th.
Gakpo converted in the second minute of added time to put the game beyond doubt.
“We have to use this win in a good way, but also be humble because we’ve had a tough time, so one win doesn’t necessarily mean we’re back,” said Isak.
Joshua Zirkzee ended a scoring drought of his own with his first league goal in almost a year.
The Dutch striker hadn’t scored in England’s top flight since a double against Everton on Dec. 1 last year, but ended that streak with a stunning strike at Selhurst Park.
A moment of individual brilliance fired United back into the game in the 54th after Jean-Philippe Mateta put Palace ahead from the penalty spot in the first half.
Collecting the ball in the box, Zirkzee spun and scored from a tight angle for only his eighth goal since joining United from Bologna last year and his first this season.
“Scoring is important but it’s not just the goals,” United coach Ruben Amorim said. “They give confidence but Joshua has also improved a lot in how he holds the ball. That should give him a lot of confidence.”
Mason Mount struck the winner from the edge of the box in the 63rd as United ended Palace’s 12-game unbeaten home run in the league.
Mateta had given Palace the lead with a twice-taken penalty in the 36th. The France international was adjudged to have double-kicked his original spot kick and was directed to retake as per the rule clarification that came in after Julian Alvarez’s accidental double touch in a shootout against Real Madrid last season helped to eliminate Atletico Madrid from the Champions League.
Villa’s Boubacar Kamara scored the only goal of the match to settle the Midlands derby against Wolves.
Wolves remains winless at the bottom of the table and nine points from safety.
Goals from Maxim De Cuyper and Stefanos Tzimas earned fifth-placed Brighton victory at Forest. (JapanToday)
Chelsea romped to a dominant 3-0 win at home to 10-man Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday, while Pep Guardiola’s much-changed Manchester City went down to their first defeat of the campaign against Bayer Leverkusen.
In a battle between the second-placed sides in the Premier League and La Liga, Chelsea emerged emphatic winners thanks to goals from 18-year-old Estevao and Liam Delap after a Jules Kounde own-goal had given the 2021 Champions League winners a first-half lead.
The visitors played just over half the encounter a player down following captain Ronald Araujo’s dismissal for two bookable offences on the stroke of half-time.
After stalling last time out — Chelsea being held 2-2 by Qarabag and Barca drawing three-apiece with Club Brugge — both sides came into the match at Stamford Bridge looking to get their campaigns back on track.
Victory propelled Chelsea to fifth in the league phase standings on 10 points.
“It’s a big win, especially because the other team was Barcelona,” Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said.
After two Enzo Fernandez strikes were disallowed for offside, the hosts finally took the lead on 27 minutes.
A short-corner routine ended with Marc Cucurella firing the ball across the box. Pedro Neto’s attempted flick towards goal had the Barcelona defenders tying themselves in knots before France international Kounde inadvertently knocked it into his own net.
The game took a decisive turn in the 44th minute when Araujo received a second yellow card for a poor challenge on Cucurella.
Much of the pre-match build-up centred on talk around the young starlets on both sides, but it was Chelsea’s Estevao who stole the show over Barcelona’s Spain winger Lamine Yamal.
A moment of magic by the Brazilian teen put the game beyond the Spanish champions as he received the ball on the right before beating two defenders and lashing it into the roof of Joan Garcia’s net five minutes before the hour.
“I don’t really have any words to sum up how I’m feeling right now,” Estevao told Amazon Prime. “It really was the perfect night.”
Substitute Delap then put the game to bed in the 73rd minute.
A second defeat has the Catalans down in 15th spot, but Barcelona coach Hansi Flick insisted he was “really positive” about their chances of automatic qualification to the last 16.
“We’ve got players coming back now and there are three games to play and nine points to win,” the German said.
Guardiola surprisingly rested the majority of his stars at the Etihad, with Erling Haaland, Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Gianluigi Donnarumma all left out of the starting line-up as Man City went down 2-0 to Leverkusen.
A first loss of the campaign for Man City, coming hot on the heels of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Newcastle in the Premier League, leaves the 2023 winners on 10 points.
“I take full responsibility, still I think the players that started were exceptional players but we missed something needed at the highest level,” Guardiola said.
“I think playing every two or three days we need to make changes but seeing the result, maybe it’s too much.”
While defeat shall likely not prove fatal to their hopes of reaching the knockout stages, it was a chastening 100th European match in charge of City for Guardiola.
Slack defending allowed Alex Grimaldo the chance to put the away side in front in the 23rd minute, before Patrik Schick glanced in a second half-an-hour later. (JapanToday)
Ukrainian sumo wrestler Danylo Yavhusishyn said Monday that he had surprised even himself by becoming the first from his country to win a tournament in the ancient Japanese sport.
The 21-year-old, who fled the war in Ukraine three years ago, is set to be promoted to sumo’s second-highest rank this week after winning the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament.
The victory earned Yavhusishyn, who is known by his ring name Aonishiki, his first title in only his 14th tournament.
He did it by beating Mongolian grand champion Hoshoryu on Sunday.
“To be quite honest I wanted to win the tournament but I didn’t really think that I could,” he told reporters in Fukuoka. “I’m really happy.”
Yavhusishyn was born in central Ukraine and took up sumo at the age of seven, becoming a national champion at 17.
His age meant he narrowly avoided Ukraine’s military draft for men aged 18 and older after Russia invaded and he sought refuge in Germany, before moving to Japan.
His parents stayed in Germany and he arrived in Japan knowing nothing of the language.
Yavhusishyn said he spoke to his parents after winning the tournament and that he had also received messages from friends in Ukraine.
“I’ve had lots but I haven’t been able to reply to them all yet,” he said. “It will take time to reply to them all but I’ll start doing them one by one after this.”
Yavhusishyn became the second Ukraine-born professional sumo wrestler when he made his debut in July 2023, following in the footsteps of Serhii Sokolovskyi, better known as Shishi.
Yavhusishyn’s promotion to sumo’s upper divisions was the fifth fastest since the current system of six tournaments a year was introduced in 1958.
He kept his title hopes alive at the Kyushu Grand Sumo Tournament by beating Hoshoryu on the penultimate day, then triumphed over the Mongolian again to clinch the title.
“It was the last tournament of the year, so I wanted to give a good account of myself so that I wouldn’t end the year with any regrets,” said Yavhusishyn. (JapanToday)
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