TOKYO (AP) — Japanese referee Yoshimi Yamashita agrees with Pelé or whoever it was decades ago that first described soccer as the “beautiful game.”
Yamashita is one of three women picked by FIFA to be referees at the men's World Cup in Qatar, which opens on Nov.
GENEVA (AP) — FIFA has approved bigger 26-man squads for the World Cup in Qatar, deciding Thursday to extend soccer’s relaxation of rules that help coaches and players during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bans on transgender women in international swimming and rugby this week opened the door for track and field to consider following suit in what could turn into a wave of policy changes in Olympic sports.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Recent meetings with the IOC have led U.S. officials to believe all signs point toward Salt Lake City bidding for the 2034 Winter Olympics, though they say Utah's capital will be ready if asked to host the 2030 Games, too.
CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) — Commissioner Jay Monahan says the PGA Tour can't win an “arms race” against Saudi-funded LIV Golf when the weapon is money. His response Wednesday was to boost prize money in eight elite events and rely on loyalty and legacy among his players.
CROMWELL, Conn. (AP) — Brooks Koepka, one of the first players to denounce a rival league for only 48 players, is the latest PGA Tour player to sign on with the Saudi-funded LIV Golf series, The Associated Press has learned.
CHICAGO (AP) — The United States will play Japan and Saudia Arabia in its last two World Cup warmups.
The 15th-ranked Americans will play No. 23 Japan in an exhibition on Sept. 23 at a European site that's yet to be announced, the U.S.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — World swimming’s governing body has effectively banned transgender women from competing in women’s events, starting Monday.
FINA members widely adopted a new “gender inclusion policy” on Sunday that only permits swimmers who transitioned before age 12 to compete in women’s events.
BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP) — The unsettled future of golf was in the surest of hands over the final four tantalizing hours of the U.S. Open.
The sport, almost always at its best when major titles are at stake, went on a wild ride courtesy of Matt Fitzpatrick and Will Zalatoris, two 20-somethings trying to win their first major titles but playing like they'd been doing this for years.
BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP) — A playoff was looming Sunday in the U.S. Open, just like it always does at The Country Club, when Matt Fitzpatrick sized up his shot from a bunker left of the 18th fairway.
He had a one-shot lead over Will Zalatoris and Masters champion Scottie Scheffler.
MONTREAL (AP) — Pierre Gasly is “100% confirmed” to return to AlphaTauri next season, and teams believe Oscar Piastri is ready for a promotion into a Formula One seat.
But Williams expects its lineup to remain unchanged through the end of the year — great news, if true, for Nicholas Latifi — and McLaren boss Zak Brown said his relationship with embattled driver Daniel Ricciardo has never been better.
MÖNCHENGLADBACH, Germany (AP) — The German soccer federation will not take any action against people who displayed a banner calling for a boycott of the World Cup in Qatar during the team’s Nations League match against Italy.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Australia’s win over Peru in the intercontinental playoffs this week guaranteed an unprecedented six teams from the Asian confederation at the World Cup, giving the continent an opportunity to repeat the success of 2002 when it first staged soccer’s marquee event.
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — There were two diametrically different ways Andrew Redmayne stood to be remembered after he sprang into a distracting dance routine across the goal-line during the decisive shootout in Australia’s World Cup playoff against Peru.
Golf is in the early days of a bitter showdown between the established PGA Tour and an upstart series backed by the repressive Saudi regime, which hopes that throwing around billions will help people forget about its appalling human rights record.
BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP) — PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan described the Saudi-funded league that has signed up Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau as a “series of exhibition matches” that spends billions of dollars on players without getting a return on its investment.
GENEVA (AP) — Ecuador kept its place at the World Cup on Friday when a FIFA legal ruling rejected a complaint by Chile about an alleged ineligible player.
FIFA said its disciplinary committee closed the proceedings in the claim that Ecuador defender Byron Castillo, who played in eight qualifying games, was ineligible.
ST. ALBANS, England (AP) — At a distance it looked like a military flypast and Grenadier Guards trumpeting in a royal-style occasion. Only it wasn’t an extension of Queen Elizabeth II's Jubilee celebrations but the launch of the Saudi-funded golf breakaway, attempting to bring a sense of faux regal pageantry to the rebellion splitting the sport.
Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson launched tee shots in the Saudi-funded golf league on Thursday, and it wasn't long before the PGA Tour said its players who took part were no longer welcome, even if they already had resigned.
ST. ALBANS, England (AP) — Out of public view for four months, Phil Mickelson returns to golf under severe scrutiny because of where he’s playing and who is paying him.
Mickelson is a six-time major champion, the most popular golfer this side of Tiger Woods.
AL RAYYAN, Qatar (AP) — A late deflected goal from Ajdin Hrustic secured Australia's 2-1 win over United Arab Emirates in an Asian playoff Tuesday and set up an intercontinental showdown with Peru for a spot at the World Cup in Qatar.
Phil Mickelson, a chief recruiter for a Saudi-funded rival league to the PGA Tour, is ending his four-month hiatus by adding his name to the 48-man field for the LIV Golf Invitational that starts Thursday outside London.
For Australia, it’s a last-ditch double-shot for a place at a fifth straight World Cup. For the United Arab Emirates, it’s a chance to get one match closer to a first World Cup appearance since its debut in 1990.
BERLIN (AP) — Authorities in Bavaria say they are releasing all previously unpublished files on the attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics following criticism from relatives of the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches who died there.
DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — The first Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational has Dustin Johnson and 12 other PGA Tour members as part of its 48-man field next week outside London. The next move falls to the PGA Tour, which must decide whether to allow them to come back.
DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Australia’s Socceroos have warmed up for next week’s World Cup playoff against United Arab Emirates with a 2-1 comeback win over Jordan.
Mousa Al-Tamari’s powerful strike gave Jordan the lead in the 18th minute of the international friendly before Bailey Wright equalized in the 40th and Awer Mabil put Australia ahead midway through the second half.
DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Jack Nicklaus says he met with a Saudi Arabian group as a courtesy and had “zero interest” in running a rival golf circuit now being led by Greg Norman.
“I don't care what kind of money they would have thrown at me.
DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) — Three months after declaring he was “fully committed” to the PGA Tour, Dustin Johnson is among 42 players in the field for next week's LIV Golf Invitational, which offers a $25 million in prize money that's backed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Veteran midfielder Tom Rogic has withdrawn from Australia’s squad for next week’s World Cup playoff, citing personal reasons, in the wake of a premiership-winning season at Celtic.
TORONTO (AP) — Canada's exhibition against Iran at Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 5 was canceled on Thursday following criticism by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“Over the past week, the untenable geopolitical situation of hosting Iran became significantly divisive, and in response, the match was canceled," the Canada Soccer Association said in a statement Thursday.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Shaun Norris, the last player to be paired with Tiger Woods in the PGA Championship, headed home to South Africa to see his young children, take a short break from traveling and figure out where his world travels should take him.
Nazem Kadri had a powerful response to quiet all the haters.
Refusing to buckle in the face of death threats, racial slurs, a booing St. Louis crowd and a few post-whistle hits, the Avalanche forward scored three times — including the game-winner — in a 6-3 victory over the Blues on Monday night.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — USA Swimming has set the dates for the 2024 Olympic trials, which will be held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
The governing body announced Monday that the competition to determine the team for the Paris Games will run from June 15-23.
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — When Adam Scott won the Masters in 2013, the person he thanked most profusely was a larger-than-life character synonymous with golf in Australia.
“There was one guy who inspired a nation of golfers and that’s Greg Norman,” Scott said shortly after beating Angel Cabrera in a playoff at Augusta.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Phil Mickelson isn't even at Southern Hills and he's still the talk of Tulsa.
Hardly a player could escape the microphone Tuesday without addressing Mickelson's decision to skip the PGA Championship after his incendiary comments about a Saudi-funded rival league he supports in conflict with the PGA Tour.
ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland (AP) — Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says next month's soccer exhibition between his nation and Iran is ill-advised.
Preparing for its first World Cup since 1986, Canada hosts Iran on June 5 at B.C.
LONDON (AP) — Greg Norman's brushing off of Jamal Khashoggi's killing as a “mistake” has been condemned by the fiancee of the late Washington Post columnist.
The former No. 1 golfer is leading a series of Saudi Arabia-funded tournaments in England and has come under criticism for his comments about Khashoggi's gruesome death on Oct.
McKINNEY, Texas (AP) — Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter didn't want to talk about the PGA Tour's decision to deny releases to members who asked to play in the first of a series of Saudi-funded tournaments next month in England.
The PGA Tour is denying releases to golfers who asked to play in the first of a series of Saudi-funded tournaments next month in England, a bold move by Commissioner Jay Monahan in trying to quash Greg Norman’s latest bid to start a lucrative rival league.
ZURICH (AP) — Electronic Arts will stop making its hugely successful FIFA video game in its current name, marking a split in one of soccer’s most successful and lucrative partnerships after the sides failed to strike a new licensing deal.
The Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks will have two preseason matchups at Abu Dhabi in October, marking the NBA’s first games in the United Arab Emirates and the Arabian Gulf.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Anyone anticipating a return to normalcy in the Kentucky Derby got a dose of crazy on Saturday when an 80-1 shot came charging up the rail to win at Churchill Downs.
As favorite Epicenter and Zandon engaged in a duel at the front, Rich Strike stole the show with the second-biggest upset in the Derby’s 148-year history.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — His first day racing around the new Formula One circuit in Miami was absolutely horrible. Then he made a mistake in qualifying that cost him a spot on the front row.
By the time race day rolled around, Max Verstappen had knocked it all out of his system.
FIFA has received 3 million ticket requests for the World Cup final in Qatar and high demand to attend some of its biggest group-stage games, even as issues linger about the tiny Persian Gulf nation's ability to accommodate fans.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — While Japan and South Korea will start fine-tuning for the World Cup with high-profile warm-ups against Brazil next month, there are concerns in Iran that Asia’s top-ranked team has been slow off the mark with its preparations.
SUTTON COLDFIELD, England (AP) — Lee Westwood has requested a release to play the first event of the Saudi-funded LIV Golf Invitational series in Britain next month.
Westwood said he has asked both the European tour and the PGA Tour for the release required to contest the $25 million event at Centurion Club from June 9-11.