Indiana approves plan to lure Bears away from Chicago

• Team have been in Chicago since 1921

• Indiana committed to helping build new stadium

The Chicago Bears’ potential move to Indiana took another step forward on Thursday when a key committee approved a plan to create an agency that would help get a stadium built.

The Indiana House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee passed a bill establishing a Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to finance, construct and lease a stadium by a 24-0 margin. The Bears are looking at a tract of land near Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana.

Published: February 19, 2026, 8:51 pm

Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend

Tottenham’s Tudor age begins with a north London derby, Guardiola ponders Haaland’s role and Wirtz has a chance to flummox Forest

Aston Villa, third in the Premier League, chasing Champions League qualification and the Europa League title, will be expected to beat Leeds on home soil. But Unai Emery’s side have struggled of late in games where the pressure is on and the onus is upon them to be the aggressor. After exiting the FA Cup to Newcastle, Marco Bizot’s moment of madness all but ending their hopes of reaching the fifth round, it is back to league duty. They eked out an ugly win over Brighton, just the kind of result they would be happy with this weekend, but recently they also lost at home to 10-man Brentford and to Everton. Before that they drew at lowly Crystal Palace, though Oliver Glasner’s side have been a bogey team for Villa. This week Bizot apologised for his rush of blood. Which Villa will turn up against Leeds? Ben Fisher

Aston Villa v Leeds, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Brentford v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Chelsea v Burnley, Saturday 3pm

West Ham v Bournemouth, Saturday 5.30pm

Published: February 20, 2026, 12:01 am

‘That was fun’: Keely Hodgkinson smashes world record set on day she was born

• Olympic champion breaks indoor 800m mark in France

• Former record set 24 years ago on Hodgkinson’s birthday

Britain’s Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson obliterated the world indoor 800m record, which has stood since 2002, by nearly a second in a stunning performance in Liévin.

Hodgkinson had made no secret that she believed the record of 1min 55.82sec, set by Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak on the same day Hodgkinson was born – 3 March 2002 – was there for the taking after a prep race at the British championships last week.

Published: February 19, 2026, 11:09 pm

Domenicali pleads for calm over fears new rules will wreck Formula One

• F1 chief executive ‘is listening to drivers’ complaints’

• He admits the rules could change if racing isn’t exciting

Stefano Domenicali, the chief executive of Formula One, has issued an urgent plea for calm after the damning driver criticism of the sport’s new regulations that has emerged during pre-season testing. But the Italian conceded that F1 is prepared to intervene and enforce changes should the racing prove disappointing.

There has been a clamour of discontent over how the new regulations will play out, particularly the role of energy management rather than driving flat-out. Not least from the four-time champion Max Verstappen, who dismissed the new rules as being “anti-racing” and insinuated that he might leave F1 if he no longer enjoyed driving the new cars.

Published: February 20, 2026, 12:01 am

MLBPA replaces chief Tony Clark after inappropriate relationship with sister-in-law

• Bruce Meyer promoted to interim executive director

• New labor deal negotiations with owners looming

Bruce Meyer was promoted to interim executive director of the baseball players’ association on Wednesday, a day after Tony Clark’s forced resignation. It was a move for continuity ahead of the likely start in April of what figures to be contentious collective bargaining with team owners.

Clark is a former All-Star first baseman who had headed the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) since 2013. He resigned on Tuesday, just months ahead of the expected start of bargaining for a new labor contract. The current deal expires on 1 December.

Published: February 19, 2026, 12:56 pm

Alysa Liu wins Winter Olympics gold to end US women’s 24-year figure skating drought

• 20-year-old delivers near-flawless free skate

• Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai win silver and bronze

Alysa Liu completed a stunning comeback to competitive figure skating by winning the first Olympic women’s figure skating gold medal for the United States in 24 years on Thursday night.

The 20-year-old from Clovis, California, who vanished from the sport nearly four years ago uncertain if she’d ever return, delivered a career-best long program to overtake Japanese rivals Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai. Skating in a shimmering gold dress to Donna Summer’s MacArthur Park Suite, Liu cleanly landed all seven of her triple jumps, including three in combination, and drew a standing ovation before finishing with 226.79 points overall.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:35 pm

USA roar back from brink to beat Canada in overtime and claim Olympic women’s ice hockey gold

• Canadians led 1-0 in regulation before late US goal

• Megan Keller clinches title with overtime winner

• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results

Rescued from the brink of defeat by a deft touch from their captain in her final Olympics, the US beat Canada in Milan on Thursday to claim the women’s ice hockey gold medal.

Hilary Knight got engaged this week to the American speed skater, Brittany Bowe, and the 36-year-old now has another reason to celebrate. Out-fought and out-thought by their great rivals for much of this contest, the Americans were poised to lose to a team they had thumped 5-0 in the preliminary round only nine days earlier.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:23 pm

Jordan Stolz’s bid for four speed-skating golds crumbles in 1500m as Ning Zhongyan shines

• American had been hoping for clean sweep in Milan

• Chinese skater sets Olympic record in shock win

On an afternoon when the Olympic record kept falling, Jordan Stolz skated fast enough to win the gold at any other Winter Games. Just not this one.

The 21-year-old American was foiled in his bid for a third gold medal in eight days on Thursday, winning silver in the 1500m in a time of 1:42.75 after lowering the Olympic marks in the 1000m last Wednesday and the 500m on Saturday and threatening to become only the second American to win more than two golds in any sport at a single Winter Games.

Published: February 19, 2026, 6:21 pm

‘An Olympic miracle’: twist in Conan Doyle’s skimo tale as Russian snares silver

• Nikita Filippov wins silver as neutral in sport’s debut

• Switzerland’s Marianne Fatton wins women’s sprint

We can partly thank Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for popularising the Winter Olympics’ newest sport, which made its debut amid an unrelenting snowstorm, a touch of mayhem and no little controversy in Bormio.

In 1894, the year after he had killed off Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls, Conan Doyle wrote about his own perilous 15-mile journey across the 8,000-feet high Maienfelder Furka Pass one that involved skiing and mountaineering.

Published: February 19, 2026, 6:14 pm

Is the World Cup bump real? MLS is going to find out

MLS stakeholders want to turn the interest in this summer’s North American World Cup into ‘rocket fuel’ for the league. Are those realistic expectations?

In 1988, a full eight years before Major League Soccer debuted, it got its first “World Cup bump”.

Fifa had just awarded the 1994 World Cup to the United States, but there was a stipulation. The US could host the tournament, but only if there was a competitive club league in place by the time it rolled around, something that hadn’t been true since the North American Soccer League collapsed in 1985. Tournament organisers missed that 1994 deadline, but two years later, MLS became a reality. Thirty years on, it is still here.

Published: February 19, 2026, 11:00 am

I went back to my alma mater and saw how women’s sports have changed

There’s a basketball renaissance emerging at Columbia, and Megan Griffith’s women are leading it

I’ve been going to Columbia basketball games since I was an undergraduate in the 1960s. As a junior, I did some play-by-play for WKCR, the student-run radio station. There was a time long ago when I went to almost every Lions home game. I’m talking about the men. There wasn’t a women’s basketball team until 1984. For the past few decades, I’ve watched the men play once a year.

When I enrolled at Columbia in September 1963, the Lions’ home games were played in University Hall – an antiquated gym with structural columns that impeded fans’ views and looked as though it had been built during the Age of Pericles. Columbia had suffered through six straight losing seasons. Two more followed.

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. The audio version of his memoir – My Mother And Me – was recently released. The reading is by Hauser’s good friend, Jim Lampley. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:00 am

Football Daily | Arsenal don’t just drop points, they perform theatrical acts of self-sabotage

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Top of the league, Wembley trip booked, sweeping through Europe, and blessed with a cushty FA Cup draw – it’s fair to say the Arsenal garden is in full, radiant bloom. At least, it was until they travelled to a wet and windy Molineux to play a match the Premier League surreptitiously slipped into the schedule like a worm tablet hidden in a dog’s dinner. In Wolves, Mikel Arteta’s side were facing a team who are not only the worst in the top flight by some distance, but one who have only recently begun battling to avoid going down as the most awful of all time. Having taken a two-goal lead, the only logical question centred around how many more Arsenal would spank past their hapless hosts. Instead, logic gave way to the objective hilarity of a collective on and off-field meltdown as the Gunners managed to turn what should have been a stroll into an inexplicable 2-2 draw.

This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

Published: February 19, 2026, 4:56 pm

Nottingham Forest dominate Fenerbahce to give Vítor Pereira perfect start

For Nottingham Forest, and particularly Vítor Pereira and the 1,200 supporters who signed up to this trip, an evening in Istanbul they will not forget in a hurry.

After just three training sessions, Pereira’s first match in charge could scarcely have been more impressive than the statement victory Forest recorded at Fenerbahce to put themselves in command to reach the Europa League last 16. By the end, the yellow and navy stronghold had emptied and the Forest fans present savoured every moment. “Can we play you every week?” they sang, and then: “Where’s your famous atmosphere?”

Published: February 19, 2026, 7:46 pm

Chelsea’s Rosenior calls for life bans from football for those found guilty of racism

• ‘When you see a player upset, normally it’s for a reason’

• Head coach reacts to Vinícius Júnior’s racism claims

Liam Rosenior has called for players and coaches found guilty of racism to be banned from football for life and said experiencing abuse on a football pitch “is the worst feeling you can ever possibly imagine”.

The Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior left the pitch after alleging that Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni racially abused him during their Champions League match on Tuesday. Prestianni has denied racist abuse and Benfica have said he was a “victim” of a “smear campaign”. The Argentinian faces a 10-game ban if found guilty by Uefa.

Published: February 19, 2026, 5:30 pm

Celtic face Europa League exit after El Khannouss double sparks Stuttgart rout

It is just as well Martin O’Neill wanted no celebration of his 1,000th game in professional management. ­Stuttgart’s visit became men versus Bhoys and a deflating scene for anybody of Celtic persuasion.

This messiest of Celtic seasons, featuring umpteen managers and a similar number of low points has now featured supporters booing their own goalkeeper. Fans decided Kasper Schmeichel’s failure to keep out Jamie Leweling’s 57th-minute shot was a blunder too far. Schmeichel’s subsequent touches were jeered, albeit there was nothing he could do about the goal from Tiago Tomás in stoppage time that added gloss to Stuttgart’s position. The second leg feels like a fixture O’Neill could very much do without, coming days before a crucial visit to Ibrox.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:04 pm

Controversial Women’s FA Cup plans on hold after pushback from clubs, players and fans

• No change next season and consultation extended

• ‘We have listened to the feedback,’ the FA says

Proposals to make radical changes to the Women’s FA Cup, including seeding the top four teams from the WSL, have been put on hold, the Guardian can reveal, after the Football Association received negative feedback on the controversial ideas.

The FA had also intended to dispense with draw ceremonies after the last 32, introducing a “road to Wembley” bracket akin to a World Cup knockout phase pathway, and review the entry tiers for lower-league sides. But it has put the brakes on its plans after concerns were raised by a significant number of clubs, fan groups and players.

Published: February 19, 2026, 5:36 pm

Clubs frustrated over wait for Fifa to share £185m of Club World Cup money

• Clubs who did not play are to get solidarity payments

• No formula determined for dividing the money

Frustration is growing among clubs globally at the extended wait for £185m of solidarity payments promised by Fifa on the back of last summer’s Club World Cup.

Clubs that did not participate in the tournament were promised a share of the sum, designed to ensure a proportion of the event’s funding was distributed throughout the football pyramid. If shared equally it would amount to about £50,000 for every top-flight club in the world but, more than seven months after the Club World Cup’s conclusion, there is no sign of the money and no timescale for its distribution. The Guardian understands Fifa is yet to determine how the money will be allocated.

Published: February 19, 2026, 2:42 pm

Manchester United sweep aside Atlético to tee up Bayern Munich clash in WCL

Jess Park provided a timely demonstration of her qualities as her superb, long-range goal capped a confident individual performance that helped Manchester United progress to the Women’s Champions League quarter-finals with a resounding win over Atlético Madrid.

The German champions, Bayern Munich, will be Marc Skinner’s team’s quarter-final opponents, between 23 March and 1 April, with United reaching the last eight for the first time. That significant landmark for the club was fittingly accompanied by a special goal from Park, whose curling strike completed a 5-0 aggregate victory and boosted her chances of starting for England in March.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:55 pm

Ismaïla Sarr’s strike earns Crystal Palace Conference League draw at Zrinjski

Crystal Palace’s Conference League hopes hang in the balance after a 1-1 draw against Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Zrinjski Mostar in the first leg of their knockout phase playoff.

Oliver Glasner had reinforced his attacking ranks since their last European outing in December, but it was Ismaïla Sarr, assisted by the January signing Jørgen Strand Larsen, who broke the deadlock on the stroke of half-time.

Published: February 19, 2026, 8:02 pm

Does the Premier League table get you down? Try one of our five alternatives

What if games ended at 90 minutes, set-pieces goals were scrapped, or shots that hit the woodwork counted?

By Opta Analyst

A league table is a pretty helpful barometer of each team’s fortunes. That’s why we use it to decide where teams finish at the end of the season. However, league tables do not tell us the whole story. Arsenal are top in reality (just about), but they might not be in all of our alternative Premier League tables.

Published: February 19, 2026, 3:14 pm

Manchester United 2-0 (5-0 on agg) Atlético Madrid: Women’s Champions League playoff – as it happened

Jess Park rockets finishes off clinical tie for Manchester United

A great piece to read before this game begins:

Here is how Arsenal booked their spot in the quarter-finals, where they will play Chelsea:

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:09 pm

Britain’s curlers guarantee a medal as Mouat holds his nerve against Swiss

• Team GB men’s team edge tense semi-final battle 8-5

• They go for gold in Saturday’s final against Canada

Call it the Cortina Comeback. At nine o’clock on Thursday morning, Great Britain’s men’s curling team didn’t even know whether they would be in the Olympic semi-finals. By nine o’clock on Thursday night, they had won themselves a place in Saturday’s final against Canada by beating the undefeated Swiss team 8-5.

The British, who scraped through the round robin only because the Italian team lost their last group stage game to the Swiss on Thursday morning, had promised that they would be an entirely different proposition if they got to the knockout rounds, and they were as good as their word.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:51 pm

Australia’s Indra Brown, 16, soars into Winter Olympics freeski halfpipe final

• Youngest member of team at Milano Cortina qualifies in fourth place

• Brown is Australia’s last realistic shot at a medal at these Games

Australia’s golden Winter Olympics could conclude with a medal-winning flourish after Indra Brown roared into the final of the women’s freeski halfpipe less than a month since she celebrated her 16th birthday.

One of the break-out stars of the winter sport season, the youngest member of the Australian team showed no apparent nerves on her Olympic debut in Livigno on Thursday night (Friday AEDT) as she qualified for Saturday’s final in fourth place.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:34 pm

Fenerbahce 0-3 Nottingham Forest: Europa League playoff, first leg – as it happened

Goals from Murillo, Igor Jesus and Morgan Gibbs-White give Vitor Pereira a winning start as Forest head coach

I was at Dyche’s final game in charge and Omari Hutchinson was underwhelming, to say the least. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to the new regime.

Pereira: “Today is three days working. but working to play in a way to try short communications, be very clear. Today I hope that I see my team play organised with tactical organisation, and be able to express themselves, play with courage and a mentality to win.”

Published: February 19, 2026, 8:06 pm

Itoje warns against ‘corrosive’ social media after racist abuse of Edogbo

• ‘We will see huge amount of damage from social media’

• England captain’s 100th cap in crunch clash with Ireland

The England captain, Maro Itoje, has warned of the corrosive effect of social media on professional athletes and wider society before the crucial Six Nations encounter with Ireland on Saturday.

Itoje will win his 100th England cap at Twickenham in what has become a must-win game for the hosts after last weekend’s deflating defeat by Scotland at Murrayfield. The buildup has been marred by racist abuse on social media of the Ireland second row Edwin Edogbo, after the 23-year-old made his debut from the replacements’ bench in their win against Italy in round two.

Published: February 19, 2026, 6:53 pm

Winter Olympics 2026: GB men win curling semi-final and Alysa Liu’s skating gold – as it happened

GB progress to men’s curling final, USA beat Canada in overtime to win gold in women’s ice hockey and the USA’s Alysa Liu triumphs in figure skating

The cross-country bit gets going at 1pm, and I’m looking forward to that. It’s a scientific fact that here’s no kind of race a human can devise that is uncompelling.

In the Nordic, teams of two both have a go at ski jumping, and Germany have just leapt into the lead; they’ll start the cross-country portion with no time penalty, because Austria have just completed this part of things, and only landed far enough for fifth. Norway are second, Japan third and Finland fourth.

Published: February 19, 2026, 10:04 pm

Winter Olympics women’s ice hockey final: USA beat Canada 2-1 in overtime – as it happened

The US team fought back from a goal down to defeat Canada 2-1 and claim gold, Megan Keller with the decisive goal in overtime

USA 0-0 Canada, first period, 15:13 left: Poulin with the shot. Remember that she was out injured when these teams played earlier in these Games. The USA won’t want to let her have many touches.

USA 0-0 Canada, first period, 15:57 left: To underscore the point, NBC commentator AJ Mleczko, fresh from calling part of yesterday’s men’s game with Snoop Dogg, recalls a year in which her US team lost once – in the Olympic final.

Published: February 19, 2026, 9:17 pm