Brady Tkachuk decries White House’s AI video of him insulting Canadians after US gold

• Player is captain of NHL’s Ottawa Senators

• Tkachuk expresses regret over Trump joke

US ice hockey star Brady Tkachuk has said he does not appreciate an AI video released by the White House that shows him insulting Canadians.

Tkachuk played in the Americans’ victory over Canada at the Winter Olympics on Sunday, which secured the US men their first gold medal since 1980. In the wake of that win, the White House’s TikTok account published video of Tkachuk saying: “They booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup eating fuckers a lesson.”

Published: February 26, 2026, 7:39 pm

The Indiana Bears? Why an interstate move for a cherished NFL team may work out

An exit from Soldier Field could lead the Bears across state lines. But it could help revive a once thriving area and the team would still be in most fans’ orbit

You think you’re locked out of the housing market? The Chicago Bears have been renting since Warren G Harding was president.

They started out in the NFL as tenants at Wrigley Field, sharing the baseball cathedral with the Cubs for 50 seasons before the league insisted all teams play in a stadium with a capacity of at least 50,000. So in 1971, the Bears decamped to Soldier Field, where they’ve been ever since – save for a season-long “road trip” in 2002 to the University of Illinois’ Memorial Stadium during renovations. Soldier Field is prime football real estate: neoclassical, on the downtown lakefront, with sweeping views of one of America’s most sumptuous skylines. But the lease terms are crazy, the city park district (which owns the stadium) is a borderline slumlord, and the Bears – star-crossed to play in the league’s oldest and smallest stadium while representing its third-largest market – have outgrown the place.

Published: February 26, 2026, 12:08 pm

Golfer Andrea Pavan ‘thankful to be alive’ after reportedly falling down lift shaft

• Italian reportedly fell three floors in South Africa

• Golfer ‘in good spirits’ according to his former coach

Italian golfer Andrea Pavan is “thankful to be alive” after reportedly falling three floors down a lift shaft.

The 36-year-old, a two-time European Tour winner, was scheduled to be playing in this week’s South African Open Championship at Stellenbosch Golf Club but was forced to withdraw after the incident on Wednesday.

Published: February 26, 2026, 7:38 pm

The most noteworthy NWSL kits of 2026: Disco, a Lady Liberty fever dream and more

This year’s crop of tops draw on Venus flytraps, cherry blossoms and classic soccer jersey designs – to varying degrees of success

The 2026 NWSL season is upon us, and so are its kits.

All 16 of the league’s clubs got new kits ahead of this season, and for the first time the league gave select clubs the opportunity to design third kits. The resulting collection, which includes initial home and away looks for debutants Boston Legacy and Denver Summit, is a mixed bag.

Published: February 26, 2026, 5:59 pm

Norway’s all-conquering Winter Olympians have a message for us all – and it’s not what you think | Cath Bishop

How did a small Nordic country dominate the Games? By making sport fun and not something for kids to suffer

Norway’s Olympians stormed the mountains of Milano Cortina and left the rest of the world wondering how a nation of 5.6 million people regularly tops the Winter Olympics medal table, this year winning 18 gold medals and 41 medals overall.

They’re not bad at the Summer Olympics either, despite not playing to their obvious national geographical strengths, winning four gold medals and a total of eight medals in Paris 2024. But all this talk of medals detracts from looking more closely at what the Norwegians do to create one of the best and most sustainable sports systems in the world.

Published: February 26, 2026, 8:00 am

Nottingham Forest v Fenerbahce: Europa League knockout round playoff, second leg – live

⚽ Europa League updates from the 8pm GMT kick-off
⚽ Live scores | Read today’s Football Daily | Mail Daniel

On the telly, they’ve just been discussing James McAtee, and I’m looking forward to seeing how he does tonight. City are now in that spot United were under Alex Ferguson, where clubs buy their players because they know the standard can be too high for good ones to make it and respect the managers who keep them around. He’s got a lovely touch and decent vision, but does he have the ability to impose that? We don’t yet know.

Forest actually did pretty well to keep as many players as they did after last season – and getting £52m+£3m for Anthony Elanga was a remarkable piece of business. I’m not sure Anderson will still be around after the summer, whereas Gibbs-White has a contract – but there surely comes a point at which players don’t trust Marinakis with their careers and just want to up sticks from the upheaval.

Published: February 26, 2026, 8:04 pm

Champions League review: Italian struggles, Mourinho’s bus exile and a jubilant journeyman

The knockout playoffs are complete after a whirlwind round of action. Bodø/Glimt’s fairytale continues while the holders struggled again

Bodø/Glimt’s 2-1 defeat of Inter at San Siro continued this season’s miracle. The post-match discussion between Inter coach Cristian Chivu and his opposite number, Kjetil Knutsen, was one of admiration, an acknowledgment the Norwegian team had been too good for the runaway Serie A leaders. Even though Inter were without Lautaro Martínez, their standard bearer, a comeback seemed likely as they dominated the early stages. But they found no way through, eventually falling victim to the high-quality, high-speed attacking that had left them with a 3-1 deficit to overcome from the first leg.

Published: February 26, 2026, 2:20 pm

Eric Ramsay and Wilfried Nancy’s post-MLS failures were born of context, not competence

MLS coaches’ reputation abroad won’t get any better after two disastrous appointments by desperate clubs

The shipment of Eric Ramsay’s possessions must have hardly made it to the West Midlands in time. After leaving Minnesota United this MLS offseason, his era in charge of West Bromwich Albion lasted just 44 days, during which time the Baggies played nine games, and won none. The club couldn’t afford to be patient – not while perched just one point above the drop zone in the Championship. Ramsay was sacked on Tuesday.

In one sense, this is business as usual in the English second tier. Ramsay is the 11th coach to be sacked, to resign or part by mutual consent since the 2025-26 season commenced, and the league’s 12th midseason change when counting Rob Edwards’s move to Wolves. One level below, League One has seen nine such changes; League Two has undergone seven. As Ramsay himself said a year ago: “getting managers sacked is a bit of a national sport.”

Published: February 26, 2026, 1:00 pm

European countries fear playing in World Cup will mean financial loss

• Costs will increase at extended 2026 tournament

• Around 10 federations want Fifa to tackle problems

A number of European football federations fear they will lose money sending their national teams to the World Cup this summer, with an unusual hike in costs and inconsistencies around tax exemptions among the problems Fifa is being urged to rectify.

Although Fifa approved record prize money of £539m for the tournament last December it may not be enough to prevent losses, or reduced profits, for competitors who would usually expect a World Cup to generate vital funds. An investigation by the Guardian and PA Media found particular concerns among football associations about the consequences of missing out on money that would largely be reinvested in local initiatives.

Published: February 26, 2026, 8:00 am

Chelsea made English record £355m loss in 2024-25 season, Uefa data reveals

• Deficit is the highest ever recorded by an English club

• BlueCo partner Strasbourg also lost £69m in same period

Chelsea made a financial loss of £355m in the 2024-25 season, according to new data released by Uefa, the biggest deficit ever recorded by an English football club.

According to Uefa, Chelsea’s losses were about £186m higher than the second-worst losses in Europe, the £171m figure posted by Lyon. The figures are also about £260m worse than those posted by the Blues in 2023-24.

Published: February 26, 2026, 7:36 pm

Igor Tudor admits Spurs salvage job is biggest challenge and harder than expected

• Interim manager: ‘Now it’s a question of life and death’

• Fulham clash is ‘not time to think about performance’

Igor Tudor says the salvage operation he has taken on at Tottenham is tougher than he envisaged and most likely his hardest job in management.

The interim coach, who is preparing for Sunday’s Premier League trip to Fulham, has worked with his new squad since the beginning of last week, having replaced the sacked Thomas Frank. Tudor lost his first game 4-1 at home to Arsenal on Sunday, which left Spurs four points above the relegation zone.

Published: February 26, 2026, 4:04 pm

‘Premflix’ app to screen all Premier League matches live – but only in Singapore

• Premier League to have its own streaming service

• Shock move to sell direct to viewers in place next season

The Premier League is to launch its own streaming service, with live coverage of all 380 matches over a season available directly to fans – but only if you live in Singapore.

Known as Premier League Plus, the new app will be launched before next season and will be the first time match coverage will be sold direct to consumers.

Published: February 26, 2026, 5:30 pm

The third stage: what to expect from Emma Hayes’s USWNT with World Cup in sight?

SheBelieves Cup campaign that starts against Argentina will show coach is now refining rather than experimenting

When the whistle blows to start USA v Argentina on Sunday in Nashville, a new period of the Emma Hayes era will begin in earnest. The team preparing to play La Albiceleste in Tennessee for the 11th SheBelieves Cup, followed by Canada and Colombia, is the first in more than a year to feature no uncapped players.

For a head coach who spent 2025 setting, challenging or matching all-time USWNT records for capping players, that is a notable shift and it marks the next phase of the team’s World Cup preparation.

Published: February 26, 2026, 12:00 pm

Senne Lammens stands tall amid the hurly-burly of United’s ‘war’ games

The Belgian goalkeeper has quickly won over the club’s faithful but admits adapting to the Premier League’s physicality has been a challenge

Senne Lammens revels in the “war” of being Manchester United’s goalkeeper in the hugely physical Premier League yet remains bemused at being applauded when entering a primary school classroom on a Wednesday afternoon.

Clearly the 23-year-old is still adjusting to a rocketing career trajectory. Following his £18m transfer from Royal Antwerp on 1 September, Lammens made his debut in the 2-0 win against Sunderland on 4 October, and established himself as the first choice with a faultless start that featured five clean sheets in 21 league games.

Published: February 26, 2026, 12:06 pm

A Glimt in the eye: if the plucky Norwegians can do it, why can’t we? | Max Rushden

For anyone who supports a club who don’t win anything, the Champions League good guys are delivering the dream

Where will you be when Bodø/ Glimt win the Champions League? OK, they won’t win the Champions League, but they could win the Champions League. Could they? Four wins in a row. Manchester City, Atlético Madrid away, Inter, comprehensively, twice. It’s an astonishing run.

I am generally cynical about anything foisted upon us by the game’s overlords, but after a brilliant couple of nights of football Uefa must be delighted with the drama and excitement these playoffs produced.

Published: February 26, 2026, 11:33 am

‘He’s doing all he can’: England back Buttler to end miserable run of form

• Batter will play in Friday’s match against New Zealand

• Winner of the game will top the group in Super 8s

England have not committed to fielding their strongest side in Friday’s do-not-necessarily-have-to-win T20 World Cup encounter with New ­Zealand but Jos Buttler will be given the chance to turn around his ­miserable run of form, with the team’s coaching staff convinced that a return to familiar lofty standards is imminent.

After six games at the tournament, Buttler’s top score is 26, against Nepal in England’s opener, and in their past four matches he has contributed three, three, seven and two. It is his worst run in international T20s since he followed 13 in his first ever innings with five successive single-digit scores, between February and September 2012.

Published: February 26, 2026, 7:00 pm

India thrash Zimbabwe to revive T20 World Cup hopes and South Africa close on semis

• Sharma and Pandya speed India towards 72-run win

• Proteas’ Markram leads nine-wicket win over West Indies

A rampant India piled up a record total and handed Zimbabwe a 72-run shellacking in a Super 8s contest to revive their Twenty20 World Cup title defence. Sent in, the hosts blasted 256 for four, the tournament’s highest score this year, after Abhishek Sharma and Hardik Pandya struck blistering half-centuries.

It rained 17 sixes and as many fours at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium as India’s top order feasted on a modest Zimbabwean attack made even blunter by their sloppy catching.

Published: February 26, 2026, 6:38 pm

Cristiano Ronaldo buys 25% stake in Spanish second division club Almería

• No financial details of deal with Saudi-owned club

• Portuguese player already owns share in Al-Nassr

Cristiano Ronaldo announced on Thursday that he had acquired a 25% stake in Saudi-owned Spanish second division club Almería.

“This strategic investment in UD Almería reflects Ronaldo’s long-term commitment to professional football ownership,” read a statement from his new sports holding company, CR7 Sports Investments, which gave no financial details of the deal.

Published: February 26, 2026, 12:32 pm

Championship roundup: Coventry battle back to see off Sheffield United

• Haji Wright and Jack Rudoni seal 2-1 comeback win

• Millwall beat Birmingham to keep up promotion push

Coventry extended their lead at the top of the Championship to five points after coming from behind to win 2-1 at Sheffield United, while Millwall went third by beating Birmingham City 3-0 on Wednesday.

After a run of two wins in eight games caused Frank Lampard’s men to blow a comfortable advantage in the race for promotion to the Premier League, Coventry have bounced back with three consecutive wins.

Published: February 25, 2026, 11:12 pm

‘We are quirky and imaginative’: how Hull KR won the treble and world title

The club’s chief executive, Paul Lakin, explains how they reached the top so quickly and what it will take to stay there

By No Helmets Required

When Hull Kingston Rovers play Leeds Rhinos in Las Vegas on Saturday night, they will do so as domestic treble winners and world club champions. The club’s chief executive, Paul Lakin, explains how they made it this far and what they want to achieve next.

Leeds say they will struggle to break even on Vegas as the Super League teams have to pay all their own costs. So how difficult a decision was it to give up a home game to go? “It was a big decision and one that we didn’t take lightly. Part of our strategy is to constantly raise our profile and when you looked at the results from a marketing and audience perspective for Wigan v Warrington in Vegas last year, the eyeballs on that were incredible. You don’t get given a pot of money: you have to generate your own money through ticket sales. But like Leeds, we felt that we have a big enough fanbase to financially support our ability to go out there. It’s an incredibly tough schedule but to put ourselves on that stage was too big an opportunity to turn down. A year ago we said: ‘What if we won the Grand Final? It’ll be the World Club Challenge and straight into Vegas.’ We just decided to worry about it when it happens. And now it’s happened!”

Published: February 26, 2026, 12:19 pm

US hockey star Hilary Knight responds to Trump’s ‘distasteful joke’ about women’s team

• Captain says controversy overshadows Olympic gold win

• Trump quipped about inviting US women to White House

• Knight says there is respect and support with men’s team

Hilary Knight, the captain of the US women’s ice hockey team, has responded to comments made by Donald Trump after the Americans won gold at the Winter Olympics, calling the president’s quip a “distasteful joke”.

After the US men’s ice hockey team won gold on Sunday, Trump called into the locker-room celebration and invited the players to be his guests at Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

Published: February 25, 2026, 10:00 pm

Scotland fans given all-clear to wear their sporrans at World Cup matches

• Fifa to allow traditional Highland accessory into grounds

• Tournament rules only permit certain types of bags

Scotland fans have been given the all-clear to wear their sporrans at the team’s matches at the 2026 World Cup.

Tournament rules only permitted certain types of bags into stadiums, and the pouch traditionally worn by Scots at the front of their kilt was deemed too large to meet the strict criteria.

Published: February 25, 2026, 3:24 pm

The US men’s hockey team at the State of the Union showed proximity to Trump is never neutral

The newly crowned Olympic champions were warmly greeted by both Republicans and Democrats. They were also used as props by the president

During Tuesday’s State of the Union, Donald Trump welcomed members of the US men’s national hockey team to the House gallery to chants of “U-S-A, U-S-A!”. Trump revealed that Team USA’s goaltender, Connor Hellebuyck, will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “What special champions you are,” Trump told the players, who had beaten Canada on Sunday in the gold medal game of the Winter Olympics.

In Trump’s America, proximity is never neutral.

Published: February 25, 2026, 1:09 pm