Sports

When the Austrian women's national ice hockey team took to the ice in the Women's European Cup of Nations in Slovakia last month, they did so without 11 of their top players. Captain Anna Meixner and the rest of her team were frustrated that the Austrian Ice Hockey Association (ÖEHV) still hadn't responded to a list of grievances outlined in a letter to the organization last March.  Meixner stresses that the players only went public with their complaints as something of a last resort. Among the nine complaints on their list of demands were the standard of accommodation, having to change in unheated dressing rooms in the winter and not being paid per diems during training camps and international tournaments. They also said they had to make do with hand-me-down equipment from the men's tea...

When it kicks off in Morocco on July 26, the Women's African Cup of Nations (WAFCON) promises to provide great goals, games and memories as 16 teams compete for the continental title. While the focus will be on the stars on the pitch, there may also be some attention on the fact that very few of the head coaches are female.  Cameroon's appointment of Valentine Nguel just weeks before the tournament, brought the number of WAFCON nations with female coaches to four — along with Zambia, Kenya, and South Africa. Still, the vast majority of coaches are men. Other teams have appointed female assistants in order to comply with a rule passed by FIFA earlier this year, which requires women's teams to have at least one female coach on the bench. Africa may be moving slowly in the right direction w...

The London City Lionesses have existed for less than a decade, have played in England's top flight for just one season and can't play in the Champions League. Yet, having broken the women's transfer record last year, the Lionesses have signed some of the game's biggest stars for the coming season as their ambition becomes ever more apparent. As well as two-time Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas and her Spanish teammate Mapi Leon, England's Euro 2022 winning goalkeeper Mary Earps and French star Kadidiatou Diani, Germany winger Nicole Anyomi is among the new arrivals. Anyomi left Eintracht Frankfurt, where she'd scored 50 goals in 101 Bundesliga games over five years, for what she considers a greater challenge in England. The 'perfect step' "The next step was to go to the league to com...

Argentina legend Lionel Messi announced his international retirement on Monday. The 39-year-old, widely considered the greatest football player of all time, won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar with Argentina, bringing the title back to the country for the first time since 1986. The 2026 World Cup, Messi's last appearance in the world's most well-known footballing competition, ended in disappointment for Argentina after defeat to Spain in the final. Despite being past his prime, the Argentina captain was the second most prolific goalscorer of the 2026 World Cup with eight goals, only being edged out by France's Kylian Mbappe with ten. Messi is also second in the World Cup's all-time goalscorer list, where he is one goal behind Mbappe, with both overtaking Germany striker Miroslav Klose's ...

Former world No.1 Novak Djokovic's US Open has ended with this earliest Grand Slam exit in two decades as he fell to Mariano Navone 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 on Sunday. The defeat scuppered the Serbian tennis legend's latest bid for a 25th Grand Slam title, and ended a streak of 78 Grand Slam first-round victories, which began at the 2006 French Open. Considering the obvious discomfort the 39-year-old Djokovic began feeling early in the match, it was truly impressive that he managed to take Navone, 25, the distance. After battling through more than four and a half hours in the Arthur Ashe Arena, Djokovic gracefully congratulated his opponent. "I don't want to take too much out of his win. Congrats to him. He's a nice guy, a fighter," Djokovic said of the 25-year-old Argentine, curr...

The German Ice Hockey Association (DEB) presented former Germany player Andre Rankel as the new coach of the men's national team at a press conference in Munich on Thursday. Rankel, who spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach with Eisbären Berlin, champions of Germany's top division (the DEL), has never served as a head coach. DEB sport director Christian Künast stressed that he does not see this as a problem. "Andre is here today because he was the best [of the candidates interviewed for the job]. That's the main point," Künast said. "I simply don't see Andre as a rookie coach. I've known him for a long time and I have had a lot of conversations with him about how you lead a team. He is ready to take over the national team and that's the most important thing." Rankel said h...

The nonprofit organization "Fussball kann mehr" (FKM –– Football Can Do More) has released its third report on diversity in professional German football. This time, all 36 teams in the top two divisions took part, and the results reveal a familiar tale of dominance. A revealing 29 of the 36 clubs have an all-male management team. There was a noticeable increase in women in top management positions in the 2025-26 season though, with four of the 18 new appointments to top management positions being women. The previous season, only one of the 19 open positions at the time were filled by a woman. RB Leipzig's Tatjana Haenni, who became the first female CEO in the Bundesliga in late 2025, is one of them. Nicole Kumpis of Eintracht Braunschweig remains the only female president of a club in the...

Venus Williams hasn't won a singles tennis match since July 2025. The seven-time Grand Slam champion and former women's No. 1 is currently 611th in the WTA rankings and 46 year's old, but she is in the main draw of the 2026 US Open, thanks to a wild card. "I get a lot of joy out of being different or unexpected or bucking the system,” she told Vogue earlier this year. "I find that thrilling." Nevertheless, her invitation to play in the women's singles of the US Open raises a fundamental question: How do wild cards work? The power of the organizers A wild card allows a player to participate in a tournament even if their current ranking doesn't warrant it. Organizers can use wild cards to promote young players, facilitate comebacks—or bring in big names. Williams' case is supported by h...

When does the new Bundesliga season start? The 2026-27 Bundesliga season starts on August 28 with defending champions Bayern Munich at home against Stuttgart. Borussia Dortmund host Hamburg, while newcomers Elversberg start at home against Bayer Leverkusen. The Women's Bundesliga began on August 21, as Bayern Munich defeated Union Berlin in the capital. Both Stuttgart and Mainz are new to the league this year, replacing Carl Zeiss Jena and Essen who were relegated. As is custom in Germany, the domestic men's season truly begins for Bundesliga sides with the first round of the German Cup, which started the week before the league season. The biggest upset in the opening round was Heidenheim, who were in the Bundesliga last season, losing to fourth-division team Jeddeloh. Both Bayern and D...