Latest news with #FifaWorldCup
The Guardian
16 hours ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Las Vegas reportedly set to host 2026 World Cup draw on 5 December
Las Vegas is set to host the 2026 Fifa World Cup draw on 5 December, according to multiple reports, marking the second time the Nevada city will stage the tournament's group-stage ceremony. But despite widespread speculation, the Sphere will not be hosting the event due to a scheduling conflict. Sources told ESPN that Las Vegas was chosen over candidate cities in Canada and Mexico, though Fifa has not yet confirmed either the date or location. The draw will assign the 48 participating nations into 12 groups of four, reflecting the first time the men's tournament will feature an expanded 48-team field and span three host countries: the United States, Canada and Mexico. Las Vegas previously hosted the World Cup draw in 1994, the last time the tournament was held in the United States. That year's ceremony was staged at the Las Vegas Convention Center, a venue that is unavailable this time around. Allegiant Stadium, home to the NFL's Raiders, was also passed over as a World Cup match site during the host city selection process. The 11 US cities selected for 2026 are divided into three geographic regions. New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami and Atlanta comprise the East; Kansas City, Dallas and Houston make up the Central region; and Los Angeles, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay Area represent the West. Mexico's venues include Guadalajara, Monterrey and Mexico City, while Toronto and Vancouver will host matches in Canada. Mexico, Canada and the United States have already been placed in Groups A, B and D respectively. The tournament will conclude on 19 July 2026, with the final set to be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. While early reports pointed to the Sphere – a state-of-the-art, 17,500-seat venue boasting a 54,000-square-meter wraparound LED screen – as the frontrunner to host the draw, sources close to the venue confirmed to the Guardian it is unavailable due to a previously scheduled concert. That, along with the Convention Center being booked, leaves the final venue for the draw still unannounced. Pedro Cedillo, a Pachuca executive involved in World Cup preparations, told ESPN: 'I understand it will be in Las Vegas, and that's where we need to be present.' Fifa has yet to comment on the venue or timing of the event.
Straits Times
17 hours ago
- Sport
- Straits Times
Fifa World Cup draw in Vegas on Dec 5: reports
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The 2026 Fifa World Cup draw is set to take place on Dec 5. LOS ANGELES – Las Vegas will play host to the 2026 World Cup draw on Dec 5, according to multiple reports on July 30. ESPN and TUDN'Mexico said that the desert city of Vegas had been picked for the draw of the expanded 48-team global football event, which will be hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. In all, 12 groups of four nations will be drawn. Mexico (Group A), Canada (Group B) and the United States (Group D) have already been selected for their groups. When the United States played host to the 1994 World Cup, the draw ceremony was also conducted in Las Vegas. Vegas was reportedly selected over cities in Canada and Mexico this time. However, Fifa officials have not officially confirmed the date or site. Pachuca executive Pedro Cedillo, who is campaigning for Mexico to be the site for World Cup training camps, recently told ESPN he expected the draw to take place in Vegas. 'Dec 5, if I'm not mistaken, is precisely the day the draw takes place, or at the beginning of December,' he said. 'I understand it will be in Las Vegas.' ESPN's original report said that The Sphere, a 17,500-seat venue which opened in 2023, was seen as the front runner for the draw site. But Sphere sources confirmed to AFP that the World Cup draw would not take place there, and ESPN later reported that Sphere sources told the sports network it would not be held there. In 1994, the draw was staged in Las Vegas even though it was not a host city for any matches, a situation that is also the case for next year's event. Reuters said that Las Vegas' Allegiant Stadium was rejected as a host venue. Eleven United States cities/venues were selected, along with three in Mexico (Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey) and two in Canada (Toronto and Vancouver). The US sites are divided into three regions. New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami and Atlanta are a part of the Eastern region, Kansas City, Dallas and Houston comprise a part of the Central Region, while Los Angeles, Seattle and the San Francisco Bay area make up three of the four cities in the Western Region. Only 13 teams, including the hosts USA, Mexico and Canada, have qualified for the World Cup so far. The rest are Japan, New Zealand, Iran, Argentina, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Jordan, Australia, Brazil and Ecuador. MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jerset, will host the final match on July 19, 2026. In other news, Fifa last weekend inaugurated a regional office in Morocco – the first in North Africa and fifth in the continent – as the kingdom ramps up preparations for the 2030 World Cup which it will host jointly with Spain and Portugal. 'This is a day that will be written in golden letters in the magnificent history of Fifa, African football, Moroccan football, and world football,' said Fifa president Gianni Infantino at the inauguration ceremony. The inauguration, also attended by the head of the African Football Confederation, Patrice Motsepe, took place before the 2025 Women's Africa Cup of Nations final in Rabat, the capital where Morocco faced Nigeria. The Nigerians won 3-2. Morocco will be the second African nation to host the World Cup in 2030, following South Africa's edition in 2010. This follows five unsuccessful bids by the kingdom. Fifa's other African offices are located in Senegal, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and South Africa. AFP, REUTERS
BBC News
17 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
The World Cup winner who quit football to help next generation
It's not every day that a World Cup winner walks into a coffee shop in central there is no crowd, no signing autographs or selfies with fans. Things have turned out differently for Curtis Anderson. Anderson, a former Manchester City goalkeeper who helped England win the Under-17s Fifa World Cup in 2017, is able to sip his flat white in relative peace as he explains why he gave up his dream and became a financial adviser the 21 players who triumphed in India eight years ago, Anderson is the only one who is no longer playing football at any most in his current field, Anderson is using his experiences in the game to help young professional footballers whose shoes he once stood in. Anderson works for an independent financial adviser, where he heads the sports of his time is spent exclusively with athletes - mainly footballers - helping them make informed financial decisions to maximise their earnings from a short career."You can literally change people's lives by taking money stresses away," Anderson tells BBC Sport."People don't understand simple things around finance so making things clearer for people and helping them keeps me motivated."I want to help as many people as possible. I'm so passionate about helping young football players."Not too long ago, the 24-year-old was in the same position as those he now helps. So how did he end up here? 'The spark had gone' On 28 October 2017, Anderson became a world months on from spending England's European Under-17 Championship campaign on the bench, Anderson didn't miss a minute as Steve Cooper's side reached the final of the U17 World Cup in had a squad including future Premier League regulars Phil Foden - who was named player of the tournament - Morgan Gibbs-White, Conor Gallagher, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Marc Guehi, and produced a remarkable comeback to beat Spain 5-2 after trailing 2-0."We were so relaxed and confident, nobody panicked," Anderson recalls."We pulled a goal back then went into half-time thinking 'we've got this'. There was no one getting stressed or going crazy in the dressing room."Anderson was on top of the world but, by his own admission, he became impatient. Anderson sought a move away in search of more minutes, but was still at City when the transfer window closed after a loan move to a Championship club fell few options on the table, Anderson decided to join American side Charlotte Independence of the United Soccer League on a permanent basis in March 2019. It was a decision he came to regret - three months later, the manager who signed Anderson was sacked, and he found himself out of favour."I look back and think, at 18, what was I in a rush for?" says Anderson."I was in such a desperate rush to do everything. I came off the back of the World Cup and expected everything now. I was looking at other young players, what they were doing, and not really valuing the path that I was on."Playing for City and England, my trajectory would have been straight up."After a year on the books at Wycombe Wanderers, Anderson dropped down into non-league before retiring in 2023."The spark of football just wasn't really there," he says."I didn't have the same drive and love for it that I had five years earlier, I was happy to do my day job. The decision to fully stop playing came quite easily." 'Football gave me everything' Like most footballers, Anderson started first taste of football came in his home town of Barrow-in-Furness, where he played both outfield and in goal for the under-six team coached by his long he was scouted by Blackpool, where he played until the two Manchester giants came United and City both wanted the 11-year-old, but he and his family were swayed by the latter's plans for the state-of-the-art City Football from a small town in Cumbria to a new city and an elite club was a daunting experience, but one Anderson feels helped him develop as a person and switch careers years later."Being in a high performance environment every single day, where you try to achieve the highest level, working as hard as you can and being called out if you're not at the level - not many kids are exposed to that," he says."It shapes you as a person. When I look back at my football career, people ask me if I regret it but absolutely not. "Football gave me absolutely everything, in terms of exposure and the opportunity to mature really young." 'I have no regrets' When the coronavirus lockdown left Anderson unable to find a new club, he started wondering how the money he had earned at City had dwindled away."I remember being 17 and not knowing what to do with the money, it was a daunting thing," he passed accountancy and finance exams after contacting the Professional Footballers' Association for decided that path wasn't for him, which led to him shadowing a financial adviser near his parents' house. He's worked in financial planning and advice ever since, turning down several offers to return to the Football League as his heart wasn't in new pursuit provided a level of control and security - as well as purpose - that playing lower-league football could not."At Wycombe, I'd get questions from older players," he says. "I realised there is a lack of education and support about finance in football. "There's not enough education, guidance and support for young people with high earnings."If you're a lower-league player, your immediate priority should be to plan for life after football. If you've got that sorted, you can set yourself and your family up for years."I look at what I know now and feel like I need to help as many people in football as I can."But when he sees his former England team-mates succeeding at the top of the game, does he have any regrets?"I'm proud to see them doing so well, I don't sit there and think I wish I was doing that, or what could have been," he says."I've got no regrets and I'm not envious. I just stopped enjoying it. If you offered to put me in their situations now, playing week-in week-out in the Premier League, I wouldn't trade that for what I'm doing now."When I look at my football career, it gave me the opportunity to do what I do now. There aren't many financial advisers under 25 - or not many good ones anyway!"
IOL News
17 hours ago
- Politics
- IOL News
Chinese, Japanese, does it matter? Of course it does, and all the more so when it's your wife!
Lawyer and political visionary Anton Lembede (1914-1947), and after whom a main street in Durban is named, was the founding President of the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League, formed in 1944 to counteract the 'passivity' of the ANC's older leadership. He was born near Pietermaritzburg on the white-owned farm where his father worked. His mother was a teacher, and she home-schooled him until age 13. On entering formal education, Lembede achieved exceptional results and eventually qualified as a teacher himself. In the 1930s, while stationed in the Orange Free State (and studying through Unisa), he encountered Afrikaner nationalism. Employing his training in philosophy, he espoused a rival modernised African nationalism, which advocated independence from white liberalism and international communism. Lembede's spirit underpinned the ANC's new militancy and the formulation of its 1949 Programme of Action. But Lembede did not live to enjoy the movement's successes of the 1950s (including the Defiance Campaign) – he died in 1947 aged 33 Image: On this day in history, July 30 1870 The diggers on the diamond fields between the Vaal and the Harts Rivers proclaim Klipdrift a republic, with Stafford Parker as first (and only) president. 1930 Uruguay wins the first Fifa World Cup. 1935 The first Penguin book is published, starting the paperback revolution. 1945 A Japanese submarine sinks the USS Indianapolis – which ferried the atomic bomb from the US to an airbase on a Pacific island from where it was loaded on a bomber and dropped on Hiroshima – killing 883 seamen. Most die during over four days; some by sharks, others by dehydration. The loss of the ship is a great embarrassment for the US Navy – it is the greatest loss of life at sea from a single ship in the history of the US Navy which only noticed that the ship was missing three days later. Captain McVay, the ship's commander, is vilified and dies by his own hand. In 2000, Congress passes a resolution, signed by president Bill Clinton, that McVay's record should state that he be exonerated for the loss of Indianapolis. Although several hundred US Navy ships of the were lost in World War II, McVay was the only captain court-martialed for the sinking of his ship. 1947 Anton Lembede, teacher, lawyer, politician, and principal architect of Africanism, dies in Johannesburg, aged 33. He was the first president of the ANC Youth League. His family listed the cause of death as cardiac failure linked to a blocked intestine. However, some speculate he may have been poisoned, but he did have a history of intestinal problems and surgery in 1940 and 1941. 1966 England beat West Germany to win the World Cup at Wembley, after extra time. 1969 An All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 and a Japanese Air Force F-86 fighter collide over Morioka, Japan, killing 162 people. 1975 Mobster Jimmy Hoffa disappears from the parking lot of a Detroit restaurant. 2018 British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt mistakenly calls his Chinese-born wife 'Japanese' in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing. 2024 Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh is assassinated by Israeli secret agents in Iran's capital, Tehran. DAILY NEWS
The Independent
a day ago
- The Independent
The ‘world's best train' to launch new mountain route next summer
A train operator crowned the 'world's best' will roll out a new rail journey through the Canadian mountains next summer. The Rocky Mountaineer will travel between Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper for a 'limited time' in June and July 2026 as part of a new route, named 'Passage to the Peaks'. In July, Travel + Leisure proclaimed the Rocky Mountaineer the world's best train route in its annual awards survey. According to Rocky Mountaineer, the new journey is for travellers who want to immerse themselves in 'evergreen forests, sparkling glacial lakes, and towering mountains.' The package has been introduced for the summer of 2026 to coincide with Fifa World Cup events taking place in Vancouver. Rocky Mountaineer said: 'With the city expected to welcome a significant number of visitors, we're excited to offer an alternative route for those seeking a quieter experience.' Passage to the Peaks is a two-day journey with an overnight stay in a hotel, although packages can be extended for up to nine nights. Rail fans will be set back between £1,670 and £7,193 per person, depending on which of the seven packages customers choose. The route through the Canadian Rockies can be taken westbound or eastbound, passing highlights such as Mount Rundle, Pyramid Falls and Mount Robson. Optional activities include gondola rides to the top of Sulphur Mountain and a ride on an Ice Explorer to the Athabasca Glacier – located on one of the largest ice fields south of the Arctic Circle. The Rocky Mountaineer isn't the only operator trying something new in 2026. A new rail journey from Adventures by Rail will roll travellers around the world in 100 days – if passengers splash out over £100,000 on a ticket. In April, the tour company offered 12 customers the chance to book a mammoth adventure through Europe, Asia and into North America. The flagship 'Around the World by Train in 100 Days' journey departs London on 17 March 2026, and includes iconic rail routes such as Japan's Shinkansen bullet train and an Orient Express-inspired trip through Istanbul. For more travel news and advice, listen to Simon Calder's podcast
