Drones displayed against the Manhattan skyline before the Club World Cup final in 2025.
“A World Cup that Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, billed at the draw last December as ‘the greatest event that humanity has ever seen” will certainly be the most lucrative competition in sporting history. Fifa has spent the last few years upgrading its revenue projections, with the most recent financial report stating that the world governing body will make $13bn (£9.6bn) from the four-year cycle culminating in this summer’s tournament, almost $9bn of which will be brought in this year. By way of contrast, the most recent edition of the original Greatest Show on Earth, the Paris 2024 Olympics, generated €4.48bn ($5.24bn). The financial importance of the World Cup will be spelt out further on Thursday when Infantino will provide further details of Fifa’s draft budget for 2027 to 2030 at its annual congress in Vancouver, with another big increase expected. …”
Guardian
The $13bn World Cup: how the numbers stack up on Fifa’s 2026 balance sheet
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“After the final whistle of Rayo Vallecano’s 3-0 Conference League quarter-final first leg win over AEK Athens on April 9, almost the entire crowd of 14,000 stayed behind in the stands for over 15 minutes to sing and celebrate together. Rayo’s players and coaches remained on the pitch to share a joyful connection with fans whose support had helped the team overwhelm their Greek opponents. Most of those present eventually headed home, or to the many neighbourhood bars in the working-class Madrid suburb of Vallecas that gives the club its name. But others stayed behind to form queues outside the stadium, with some fans camping out overnight to secure a ticket for the second leg. …”
“Welcome to the latest edition of The Alternative Premier League Table, where each week, The Athletic analyses the entire division through a specific lens. The Premier League title race will likely see plenty more changes at the top before and potentially during the final matchday of the season on May 24. Arsenal are top — as they regularly have been since 2022-23 — but Manchester City hold a game in hand, with goal difference another factor. A couple of spots below them, Aston Villa are fifth, eight points ahead of sixth-placed Brighton & Hove Albion. It is unlikely another side will break into the top five with just four games left but multiple teams have jumped in and out of those Champions League spots since August. …”
“IT’s always entertaining to watch Diego Simeone on the touchline at an Atlético Madrid game; he’s a human jack-in-the-box, a black-clad octopus who resembles a rabid director of inner-city traffic. For 15 years, Simeone has been the driving force behind the club’s graduation from Real Madrid and Barcelona’s wing men to contenders for silverware. In his time, they have won two league titles, the Copa del Rey and two Europa Leagues, not to mention reaching two Champions League finals. In 14 seasons, Atlético have never finished below fifth and that was in Simeone’s first half-season in charge. …”
“Atletico Madrid and Arsenal are meeting in this season’s Champions League semi-finals. A place in the final in Budapest at the end of May is at stake, of course, but so too is making history for both sides. Atletico and Arsenal, who play their first leg in Madrid tonight (Wednesday), are arguably the two biggest clubs never to have won the Champions League or its forerunner, the European Cup. Atletico have been finalists three times, Arsenal once, and both will envy the likes of Crvena Zvezda, PSV and Steaua Bucharest, who have all claimed the continental title. Each of those three would be considered ‘smaller’ clubs than Atletico or Arsenal, as would two-time winners Porto. But Porto and, for example, Hamburg and Feyenoord, could retort that their size can be measured by their trophy cabinet. …”
Franz Beckenbauer (left) shakes hands with Abelardo of Atletico Madrid ahead of the European Cup final replay in Brussels
“… That statement was completely illogical yet also made perfect sense, and therefore proved a fitting appraisal of a truly logic-defying game in Paris on Tuesday. This first leg of a Champions League semi-final was unquestionably the best match of the European season, probably the best of the decade so far and presumably the best many people watching it around the world have ever seen. Football is not generally a sport where you need to check the scoreboard to understand the state of play. Here, with so much going on, sometimes you needed to double-check: yes, it really was 
“It wasn’t the nine goals we were treated to on Tuesday, but this week’s second Champions League semi-final was not short of drama, with two penalties given and one controversially overturned. Atletico Madrid’s spot kick was similar to the one Paris Saint-Germain received against Bayern Munich on Tuesday, with the ball striking Ben White’s hand. Arsenal’s came when David Hancko bundled over Viktor Gyokeres. But the most controversial was the third, originally awarded after Eberechi Eze was caught by Hancko, but then overturned when the referee went to the VAR screen. Just down the touchline, Atletico manager Diego Simeone was making his feelings known. …”
Scissors Kick 