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Sports

Games, tournaments, and the business of sport.

Page 3

Sports

There Is a Three Week Bicycle Race Going On and This Desk Has Never Once Mentioned It

The Vuelta a Espana runs from 22 August to 13 September, 21 stages and 3,310 kilometres from Monaco to Granada. If you have never followed a grand tour, the thing to understand is that it is not really a race. It is twenty one of them.

Sep 2, 2026/4 min read

The chasing group strung out along a road on stage two of the 2026 Vuelta a Espana, between Esparron-de-Verdon and Greoux-les-Bains

Sports

A Stablecoin Is Going on the Chelsea Shirt, and the Interesting Part Is the Licence

Circle becomes the first crypto financial services firm to take a Premier League club's front of shirt. Two months ago the Financial Conduct Authority warned clubs about exactly this kind of deal. The difference is that Circle is authorised.

Aug 29, 2026/4 min read

The empty interior of Stamford Bridge, Chelsea's stadium in west London, photographed in 2013

Sports

The Draw Needed a Special Rule for England, and Barcelona Is the Club That Paid for It

We wrote on Wednesday that with three English clubs in Pot 1 the draw could not resolve unless every non-English seed took two English ties. Thursday in Monaco produced exactly that, and handed Barcelona the worst possible version of it.

Aug 28, 2026/4 min read

The empty interior of the Camp Nou in Barcelona, seen from the stands, photographed in 2017

Sports

There Are So Many English Clubs in the Champions League That the Draw Needs a Special Rule

Thursday's draw in Monaco has a provision that exists for one reason: with Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester City all in the top pot, every non-English club in that pot must be handed two English ties or the draw cannot be completed.

Aug 26, 2026/4 min read

The Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, where the Champions League league phase draw is held

Sports

Premier League Clubs Have Spent Past a Billion Pounds Again, With Six Days Still to Go

The window shuts at eleven on Tuesday night and English clubs are already through a billion. Tottenham lead on gross spend, ahead of Chelsea. The interesting number is not the total but who is carrying it.

Aug 26, 2026/3 min read

The interior of Wembley Stadium, looking across the pitch to the empty stands

Sports

The World Number One Has Withdrawn and the Defending Champion Has Not Played in Four Months

Jannik Sinner is out of the US Open with a knee injury. Carlos Alcaraz arrives as defending champion with no warm up tournament behind him. The draw is made on 27 August and the men's title is genuinely hard to call.

Aug 24, 2026/3 min read

Hard courts at the US Open site in Flushing Meadows at night, seen through a perimeter fence

Sports

The Saudi Pro League Spent About 230 Million Euros This Summer, and the Biggest Deal Was a Winger From West Ham

The seventieth season began on 13 August. Crysencio Summerville to Al Hilal at 64.5 million euros is the summer's largest move, and the shape of the spending says more about the league's direction than the total does.

Aug 24, 2026/3 min read

Editorial illustration of an empty floodlit football stadium at night

Sports

New Rules Turned Formula One Upside Down: Antonelli Leads, Verstappen Is Sixth, and Two Gulf Races Are Gone

Twelve rounds into the most significant regulation change in a decade, the four time champion is more than a hundred points adrift and a driver in his second season leads by fifty. The war removed two races from the calendar as well.

Aug 24, 2026/4 min read

A Mercedes Formula One car at the 2024 Dutch Grand Prix, under the previous technical regulations

Sports

The Transfer Window Shuts on 2 September, and the Last Six Hours Are Where Clubs Lose Money

Deadline day is not a shopping trip. It is a forced auction with a countdown, in which every buyer's alternatives disappear at the same moment, and the selling club knows it.

Aug 21, 2026/3 min read

An empty floodlit football stadium before a match

Sports

The Women's Super League Adds Two Clubs and Finds Out What Expansion Costs

Fourteen teams instead of twelve, a season running from 4 September to 23 May, and twenty-six league games where there were twenty-two. Growing a league is easier than filling it.

Aug 17, 2026/3 min read

Players contesting the ball during a women's football match

Sports

Europe Shuts Its Transfer Window on 1 September. Saudi Arabia Keeps Buying Until October

The Premier League, La Liga and Serie A close on 1 September. The Saudi Pro League stays open until 12 October. Those six weeks are the most important structural fact in this transfer market.

Aug 17, 2026/4 min read

An empty floodlit football stadium in the evening