Left to right: Osimhen, Salah and Hakimi are three of the biggest names at this season’s Africa Cup of Nations
“The 35th Africa Cup of Nations starts on Sunday when hosts Morocco take on Comoros. This edition of the tournament was originally scheduled for summer 2025, but it got pushed back six months to ensure it did not clash with the inaugural playing of FIFA’s revamped Club World Cup in June and July. Matches will be held at nine stadiums across six cities, including Marrakesh, Casablanca and Tangier. The venue for the opening game and the final is the 68,700-seater Prince Moulay Abdellah stadium in Rabat, Morocco’s capital. AFCON is frequently full of surprises. For example, host nation Ivory Coast won the previous one in early 2024, despite losing two of their three group games. None of the 24 competing teams are making their debut this year, but Botswana and Comoros have qualified for only the second time. …”
NY Times/The Athletic
“The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, also referred to as AFCON 2025, will be the 35th edition of the biennial Africa Cup of Nations tournament organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). It will be the second edition hosted by Morocco, after 1988. Morocco was originally scheduled to host the 2015 edition, but withdrew due to fears stemming from the Western African Ebola virus epidemic. Due to FIFA expanding its Club World Cup competition to 32 teams and having it scheduled for June and July 2025, this edition of the tournament will be played between 21 December 2025 and 18 January 2026. …”
Wikipedia
Everything You Need to Know About the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations, Morocco 2025 (Video)
ESPN: AFCON 2025 team-by-team guide – Key players, predictions, will there be a surprise winner?
YouTube: AFCON 2025 Stadiums: Morocco
“How do you properly assess, evaluate, and explain Manchester United’s 4-4 draw with Bournemouth without descending into well-worn football verbiage (‘Football, bloody hell!’) or frequent repetitions of the word ‘chaotic’? Ruben Amorim’s men entered Old Trafford on Monday on the precipice of change. The upcoming Africa Cup of Nations (which begins on December 21) will see him lose two of his best attackers in Bryan Mbeumo and Amad. Earlier in the day, The Athletic reported the head coach had spent a significant amount of 
“Welcome to the latest edition of Inside Barcelona, our weekly series to follow throughout the 2025-26 La Liga season. Every Monday, we will bring you information and analysis on the biggest talking points, cutting through the noisy world of all things Barca with reporting you can trust. The information contained in this article reflects multiple conversations with various sources at the Spanish champions, all of whom wanted to speak anonymously to protect relationships. …”
“Welcome to The Briefing, where every Monday The Athletic discusses three of the biggest questions posed by the weekend’s 
“Liverpool’s game against Brighton & Hove Albion was always going to be centred around Mohamed Salah. Whether he was going to be involved or not, though, it was unlikely any definitive conclusions were going to be drawn about what happens next. Exclusion from the squad may have pointed towards an exit, but the fact he was included leaves the door for reconciliation open. 
The opening ceremony for the 1994 World Cup took place at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
“‘So many times we are creating more than we concede, but the end result has been far too many times that we lose a game of football,’ Liverpool head coach Arne Slot told BBC’s Match of the Day highlights show after their 1-1 Premier League home draw against Sunderland just over a week ago. Slot has a point. Using 
Mohamed Salah, Unai Emery and Thomas Frank have already experienced highs and lows
“Emiliano Buendia crashed home a stoppage-time winner to stun leaders Arsenal and end their 18-match unbeaten run. Trailing at half-time to Matty Cash’s opener at Villa Park, Arsenal were far from their best but looked set to take a point thanks to substitute Leandro Trossard’s 52nd-minute equaliser. But Villa were not to be denied, with Buendia coming off the bench to hammer a shot beyond David Raya following an almighty scramble. …”
“Paulie Gualtieri wanted to know why Tony Soprano was a quiet and sullen presence at dinner. The goomahs in attendance were having to listen about the good old days, a time when many of them weren’t even born; a beach house booked on the Jersey shore, the summer of ’78, the hippie kid who mysteriously drowned during a party. … On the morning of the World Cup draw on Friday, a photo from the restaurant of the FIFA hotel went viral. It showed the coach of Uzbekistan and Italy’s last World Cup-winning captain, Fabio Cannavaro, sat round a table with Christian Vieri. Behind them were Francesco Totti, the original Ronaldo, Marco Materazzi, Roberto Baggio and Vincent Candela. ‘Once upon a time in Serie A’ should have been the caption. …”
“This time, it’s West Germany in 1990. This is remembered as the most negative, defensive World Cup, supported by the lowest goals-per-game figure on record, 2.21. It was so disastrous that FIFA and IFAB felt compelled to improve the spectacle afterwards, largely by clamping down on dangerous tackles and introducing the backpass law — although not, as was floated by some, by increasing the size of the goals. West Germany won the competition in somewhat unglamorous fashion, as their key matches were dominated by penalties and opposition red cards. But in the group stage, they played some good football, and in the knockout stage, they at least attempted to, which was more than most of their opponents could claim. …”
“The cold nights are drawing in, hopes and dreams from those optimistic, innocent, bright summer days are long gone. Reality has bitten. With the Premier League table still tighter than the proverbial camel’s backside in a sandstorm, with just six points separating fifth from 15th (this time last year the gap was 12 points), it’s hard to judge which clubs and which fanbases are happy with what they’ve seen so far. A week of wins can lift you from relegation concerns to a European push, while successive defeats can take you from the Champions League places to looking downwards to the Championship. It’s temperamental. Far more reliable than the actual league table, then, is The Athletic’sHappiness Table, in which we accurately summise each club’s xH (expected happiness) level, but without the xH bit because that’s a bit silly. …”
“This was the weekend when 
“When you are called out by your head coach for the ‘ridiculous’ number of goals the team has conceded so far this season, the ideal response is not to let in another four in the next game. Arne Slot did not mince his words when talking about his Liverpool side’s defensive record this season ahead of the Champions League tie against Dutch visitors PSV on Wednesday. …”
“In an era where football fans implore their club to spend big money on new players, it’s notable that very few of the most expensive footballers in history have been an unqualified success at their new club. Eleven players have been transferred for £100million or more, and there are more flops than clear positives. Antoine Griezmann’s 2017 move from Atletico Madrid to Barcelona (
“Declan Rice took the captain’s armband after Bukayo Saka was substituted, charged down a loose ball and seconds later Arsenal were ahead through Noni Madueke in the 69th minute. Gabriel Martinelli then made it 3-1 seven minutes later, with Bayern Munich cut apart by a through ball and the substitute doing the rest. 
“Liverpool fell to a shock 4-1 loss to PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday night to make it three defeats in a row. After a handball by Virgil van Dijk, Ivan Perisic scored a sixth-minute penalty to put PSV Eindhoven ahead. But the hosts levelled in the 16th minute after Cody Gakpo dribbled down the left before cutting inside on his right foot. His shot was saved, but the ball fell to Dominik Szoboszlai, who fired home to level the game. …”
“Tottenham may have put in a more positive display against PSG than against Arsenal on Sunday, but they came away from Paris defeated in an eight-goal thriller despite twice taking the lead. Richarlison headed in during the first half after a great team move from Spurs before an incredible strike from Vitinha just before half-time drew the hosts level. Randal Kolo Muani, playing against his parent club, put Spurs back in front before Vitinha again drew the teams level with another lovely finish. Two poor goals to concede followed, though, as the early promise from Spurs evaporated. Kolo Muani made it 4-3 before Vitinha completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot after a handball. PSG then had Lucas Hernandez sent off in stoppage time. …”
“As television money has transformed the landscape of European football in the 21st century, the challenge has fallen on big clubs in smaller markets to innovate, or face being left behind. Ajax, the most successful club in the Netherlands, have proven that invention does not require abandoning tradition. In fact, their history has provided the blueprint for continued success. In the early 1970s, legendary coach Rinus Michels built Ajax into the best club team in Europe. In 1973, they became just the second team to win three successive European Cups, with Michels’ 
“Andres Iniesta’s first night at Barcelona’s renowned La Masia youth academy was one of the worst of his life. Aged just 12, and having spent his whole upbringing until then surrounded by family in his small village of Fuentealbilla (population 2,400, in the southern Spanish province of Albacete), he was now alone, hundreds of miles from home. He was fulfilling a dream, but the experience left a mark on him. Iniesta says the ‘traumatic’ change ‘took its toll’ and he believes it may have played a role in the depression he would later suffer at the peak of his career, even if ‘things returned to normal’. …”
“It is 30 years since Liverpool smashed the British transfer record to sign Stan Collymore, a brilliant, brutally effective centre-forward with the build of a cruiserweight boxer and skills that, on his day, made him almost unplayable. He was the match-winner on his debut against Sheffield Wednesday, conjuring an eye-catching goal out of nothing, and scored another beauty against reigning champions Blackburn Rovers a month later, but, behind the scenes, cracks soon appeared. From an early stage, he felt out of place at Anfield, cold-shouldered in the dressing room and an awkward fit in a team whose commitment to pass-and-move football was at odds with the strengths he had showcased at Nottingham Forest. …”
“The next men’s FIFA World Cup is now 200 days away and 42 nations — including its co-hosts the United States, Canada and Mexico — have secured their places in the expanded 48-team competition. Seventy-five per cent of matches will be played in the U.S. across 11 cities. Mexico will host the opening matchday in Mexico City and Guadalajara, but the involvement of both it and Canada, in terms of venues anyway, will cease after the round of 16, with all games from the quarter-finals onwards to be played in the States, including the final at MetLife Stadium in the state of New Jersey, a few miles west of New York City. …”
“Liverpool’s season goes from bad to worse. A wretched 3-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest, who were entrenched in the relegation zone ahead of kick-off, dealt a further blow to 
“Manchester City missed an opportunity to put pressure on Arsenal in the title race, falling to a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United at St James’ Park. The result leaves Pep Guardiola’s team in third, a point behind Chelsea, and potentially seven points behind Arsenal, should Mikel Arteta’s side beat Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. The game was decided in a dramatic seven second-half minutes. Both sides had missed an abundance of chances before Newcastle opened the scoring in the 64th minute. A smart interchange in midfield between Bruno Guimaraes and Harvey Barnes ended with the latter shooting low and hard past goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. The lead only lasted five minutes, however, as Newcastle struggled to clear from a corner and Ruben Dias equalised, his shot squirming between the legs of Fabian Schar. …”
“The scene was a school in west London, the weather was overcast and, for what felt like the first day of a new term, the mood was horribly tense. It was the Premier League’s official launch event for the 2015-16 Premier League season. Eddie Howe led a contingent from Bournemouth, all of them wide-eyed with excitement on the eve of their first top-flight campaign. The Swansea City lot were happy to be there, too. The delegation from reigning champions Chelsea? Not so much. …”
“The excitement of Jamaica potentially qualifying for just their second World Cup was palpable on the gridlocked streets of Kingston three hours before kick-off. Fans in a variety of yellow shirts, with flicks of green, creating a joyous kaleidoscope of expectation. Wafting through the air was the smell of the jerk chicken and curry goat being cooked outside the city’s National Stadium, while inside dancehall blasted over the speakers. …”
“You might walk past the International Dispute Resolution Centre (IDRC) in central London a hundred times without noticing it. Dwarfed by nearby St Paul’s Cathedral, the smart office building where arbitration rooms can be hired by the day for up to £5,000 ($6,580) seems unassuming. But the IDRC has emerged as a key battleground for some of English football’s most compelling contests over the last 12 months. It is where 
“Arne Slot led Liverpool to a league title in his first season in charge with a defined plan and a team that had a clear identity. After a summer of change involving significant turnover of the squad, the current version of Liverpool, who have lost seven of their last 10 games, could not look and feel more different. Following the 2-2 draw against Arsenal in October 2024, Slot complimented the job their coach Mikel Arteta had done during his time at the club in his post-match press conference: ‘They always play 4-3-3, but the way they position themselves, they can do — I think he said it once himself — 40 different setups.’ …”
“Turkish football was already reeling from the betting scandal that implicated hundreds of their match officials last month. Now, it is the turn of the players to be at the centre of the storm, after 
“Before getting into the meat and bones of this, it is important to recognise that while everyone has waited two years for a new Football Manager game, they will all be coming to it from a different perspective. I play on PC with a mouse and keyboard, not a laptop or Mac, and came into Football Manager 26’s advanced access beta after most people. It was released on the evening of Thursday, October 23. I was out playing seven-a-side that night, so had to wait until the Friday evening before getting stuck in. In the meantime, I had seen the overwhelming criticism of the game’s new user interface (UI) and bugs on social media. With some people going as far as refunding their purchases after playing for just a couple of hours, I wondered what I would see when I loaded up the game. I’ve since played 18 hours and, for the most part, have not been swept up by the frustration that seems to have dominated the online discourse over the past week. That is not to say this is the perfect Football Manager game, though. So let’s get into it. …”
Tottenham fans have been underwhelmed by their team’s style of play this season
“This was the weekend when 
“There are two reasons you might encounter the four letters ‘doku’ on the back page of your newspaper. The first is when preceded by the letters ‘Su’. The second is when preceded by the word ‘Jeremy’. Sudoku, for those uninitiated, is the Japanese logic game that suddenly exploded in English-language media two decades ago. Players are given a 9×9 grid, which is also divided into nine squares. Some numbers are already written in. The player must complete the grid by entering the numbers 1-9, but each individual number cannot appear twice in any row, column or square. …”
“Illegal streaming of football is on the rise in the UK and most fans want the Saturday 3pm blackout lifted, a new podcast released by The Athletic has revealed. The Underground World of Illegal Streaming — a special episode of 
“There are few neater points of the Premier League season than when the 20 clubs are all 10 games in — 100 matches, 200 results, infinite opinions. At that point in 2025-26, there have been 22 penalties, 268 goals, 801 shots on target, 86,473 passes and one 15-year-old. Far too much to explain in its entirety, but plenty of information to boil down into a statistical vignette of the campaign so far. So let’s do precisely that. …”
“Barcelona came from behind three times against Club Brugge in the Champions League on Wednesday, drawing 3-3 in Belgium in what will surely be one of the games of the season. Sometimes matches take a while to get going, but not this one. Nicolo Tresoldi put the hosts one up after six minutes, only to see Ferran Torres equalise two minutes later. But the home side quickly realised that Barcelona’s defensive line was very much there to be got at, and the excellent Carlos Forbs restored Club Brugge’s lead after 17 minutes thanks to a swift transition. …”
“If 
“Newcastle United have travelled nearly 1,300 miles for a meagre return of three points, two goals and no wins from five Premier League away trips this season. Head coach Eddie Howe was brutally honest after defeat at the London Stadium, where West Ham United recovered from a fourth-minute Jacob Murphy goal to beat Newcastle 3-1. … This week has encapsulated Newcastle of late. A dominant 2-0 victory at home to Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup was followed by a defeat against a West Ham side who had not won at home since late February. …”
“Mohamed Salah scored his 250th Liverpool goal to help Arne Slot’s side end a run of four consecutive Premier League defeats by beating Aston Villa at Anfield. Villa started strongly, with Morgan Rogers striking a post and Matty Cash crashing one against the woodwork, but it was Liverpool who took the lead. 
“In the Premier League, if you are having difficulties in a certain phase of play, the top teams will always punish you. This season, under Thomas Frank, Tottenham Hotspur have been experiencing some issues when progressing the ball up the pitch, leaving them overly dependent on 
“Amid 
“With 100 minutes on the clock, there was still one more opportunity for Liverpool to search for an equaliser in their clash with Brentford last weekend. Alexis Mac Allister received the ball on the left side before opening up his body and whipping in an excellent cross to the far post. Mohamed Salah watched it every step of the way. He even made contact with the ball — but he got his angles all wrong. Rather than attack the cross with an open body shape, Salah decided to contort his frame to make contact with his stronger left foot — sending the ball skyward and somehow keeping it in play from the most unlikely of angles. …”
“A year ago today, Manchester United announced Ruben Amorim as their new head coach on a contract running until summer 2027. Now, after the club’s bumpiest ride for half a century and a 15th-place league finish, things are finally looking like they may be turning a corner. Amorim was not a name United initially considered to replace the sacked Erik ten Hag, but the seeds of his appointment had been sown six months earlier. …”
Scissors Kick 