The official 2018 World Cup anthem – Live It Up, by reggaeton star Nicky Jam, dancehall singer Era Istrefi, and polite fast-talker Will Smith – was released at the weekend, and met by the worlds of football and music with thundering indifference ... just as committee-approved pop, designed to Josh Rosen Authentic Jersey please everybody but satisfying no one, always should be. File alongside spirit-sapping…

Surely football’s gods would not deny Aston Villa this time: 26 May was the 36th anniversary of the club’s European Cup victory when the team in claret and blue, against all the odds, beat the bluebloods of Bayern Munich. The number 26 was on the back of Villa’s captain, John Terry, the warrior central defender who would pass his 38th birthday back in the Premier League, taking a couple of days off when his adopted club play Chelsea to whom he said goodbye a year ago in the 26th minute.…

Close to one in the morning, deep in the concrete bowels of the Olympic Stadium, Jürgen Klopp sighed with some feeling and prepared to put away the frazzled but stoically brave face he’d brought to the final post-match press conference of Liverpool’s season.



There were two last questions from local media. Both were essentially expressions of pleasure at Klopp’s presence in Kiev, where he is…

Saturday’s Champions League final in Kiev promises to be that rare event, a meeting of outstanding teams that lives up to its billing, though the television trailer advertising that the contestants have 17 European Cups between them is being ever so slightly economical with the truth.



The figure is correct; it is just that Liverpool’s proud total of five is dwarfed by the Spanish club’s dozen. Not many…

There is a compelling, two-word explanation for why Roman Abramovich is apparently having difficulties renewing his British visa: Vladimir Putin.



According http://www.officialauthenticbillstore.com/womens_doug_flutie_jersey to reports from Moscow, Abramovich was unable to watch his Chelsea team’s 1-0 victory over…

It is the most politically charged World Cup in recent memory: Russia, resurgent under Vladimir Putin, is set to host the 32-team tournament next month amid scandals ranging from sports doping to spy poisonings. Relations between Moscow and London are at their coolest since the cold war and the recent events in Salisbury even led to brief speculation (aided by Boris Johnson) that England could skip the tournament, recalling the Olympics boycotts of the 1980s.…

You’ve been great for us but we’re not prepared to renew your contract for next season.” The words I think every player fears and dreads, so when I heard them from my (now former) manager Chris Hughton, I felt a whole range of emotions. I’m at the stage in my career that I knew what might be coming but at the same time you can never prepare for it. I’ve been released and just like every player who has experienced the scenario there is no way to ready yourself.…

In the summer of 1964, England took part in the Little World Cup in Brazil. It was a simple four-team league involving Portugal, Argentina and the hosts. England finished joint-bottom with Portugal. In their first match they were plugged 5-1 by Brazil in Rio. They commiserated with a night on the town, and were staggering around Copacabana beach the following morning when they were challenged to a game by some local kids.…

Gareth Southgate will have his full squad available for only one pre‑World Cup friendly, against Costa Rica in Leeds on 7 June, with the England manager determined his players should have a week off after the domestic season



Southgate submitted a 35-man provisional squad to Fifa on Monday and will make public his 23-man party for the finals on Wednesday. No major surprises are…