The controversial FIFA project involving selling shares of the World Cup, which implies privatizing part of the tournament, has caused great rejection among the majority of football stakeholders. The president of the football entity, Gianni Infantino, remained silent in the face of numerous criticisms until he finally defended himself by stating that it is “a proposal and not an obligation.”
The Community of Madrid filed a complaint this Wednesday with the National Police Corps against Rayo Vallecano for preventing access to the Vallecas Stadium to the personnel who were to begin urgent maintenance work.
Gianni Infantino (56) moves in the shadows.
Karim Adeyemi (Munich, 2002) is already starting to feel like an FC Barcelona player. The 24-year-old German forward speaks to La Vanguardia at St George’s Park one week after signing a five-year contract with the blaugrana club. Charismatic and quiet, he faces his first days as a blaugrana with the excitement of someone who wants to make the most of an opportunity that, to a large extent, bears the mark of Hansi Flick. His new teammates highlight his quick adaptation to the locker room and he, far from hiding behind clichés, presents himself as a player with a strong personality, creative, proud of his roots, and with a very particular way of understanding football and life. Adeyemi, who insists he can play in all three attacking positions, does not hesitate to define Barça as “the greatest club in the world” and promises to repay the trust placed in him on the pitch.
Every return of the Tour de France to Orcières-Merlette brings back memories of that afternoon in 1971 when Luis Ocaña made history. For many, that remains the most important feat in modern cycling. Due to the magnitude of the stage, the differences generated, and above all, the defeated rivals, fundamentally the insurmountable Eddie Merckx. Ocaña broke away when there was still an eternity ahead (60 km) and the minutes fell one after another until the definitive 8m40s. Not even when they hinted from the car that it was enough to wear yellow did he give up continuing to increase his lead. The Spanish champion, a genius with his own ghosts, showed that even the most dominant rider could be defeated, even humiliated. “Luis Ocaña killed us all today, like El Cordobés kills his bulls,” Eddy Merckx acknowledged after the stage, in a phrase reported the next day by La Vanguardia and which perhaps remains the best way to explain what happened in Orcières-Merlette. “A magnificent feat, which Spanish cycling greatly needed,” said Federico Martín Bahamontes for this newspaper that same day.
World champion Pablo Páez ‘Gavi’ has downplayed the incidents after Spain’s victory over Argentina in the World Cup final (1-0) and considered them a “part of football that is a bit more violent”, but that does not deserve suspensions.
Paul Seixas is the new phenomenon of French cycling. At just 19 years old, the rider has become one of the great revelations of the Tour de France and the hope of a country that has been looking for decades for a successor to fight for victory again in the most important race in the world. His talent, his precocity, and his performance in the general classification have skyrocketed expectations around him.
The White House reacted this Tuesday to the cap with the message ‘Make Spain Great Again’ that footballer Ferran Torres wore during the celebration of the 2026 FIFA World Cup title through the streets of Madrid.
After the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has announced the list of players who can be chosen by fans to be part of the tournament’s best eleven. The most notable aspect of the list published by FIFA is that only six Spaniards are candidates to be part of the best eleven, which is surprising considering that Spain is the team that has been crowned champion.
In the mixed zone, from which the Argentine players fled stealthily and treacherously after losing the final, demonstrating their nonexistent greatness in defeat, a Brazilian journalist was summarizing what was seen in the longest World Cup in history: “Football finally won.”