Category Sports News

In the final week of the revamped Women’s Champions League, holders Arsenal will take on record-eight-time champions Lyon.

After winning the Champions League twice in 2007, Arsenal defeated Barcelona in the final of last year’s final to claim the title.

Real Madrid and Twente will also be welcomed by the Gunners, along with visits to Benfica, Leuven, and Bayern Munich.

Manchester United debutants, who advanced through four qualifying rounds to the main draw, can also get ready for a home match against Lyon, where Paris FC and Norwegian side Valerenga are both scheduled to play.

Wolfsburg, Juventus, and Atletico Madrid will be the hosts of Marc Skinner’s side.

After losing 8-2 on aggregate in the semi-finals of last year, Chelsea will have a chance to retaliate when they play again against Barcelona.

In the expanded league phase format this year, there are 18 teams, up from 16 in the previous four groups of 2024 to 2025, with each club facing six opponents.

The eight teams ranked between fifth and twelveth automatically advance to the quarter-finals, while the top four also advance to the knockout phase play-off round.

The final will take place at Oslo’s Ullevaal Stadion on May 22, 2026, with a date set for confirmation between that time.

The final round of games will begin on December 17 and will start on October 8 with matchday one scheduled for October 8 and 8.

To help pay for their summer transfer expenses, Manchester United added an additional £105 million to their unsecured debt, totaling almost £1.1 billion.

On September 17, United made club accounts available as of June 30th, 2025.

On September 18, the club briefly outlined some of their operations after the initial reporting deadline, which provided more detailed information to the New York Stock Exchange.

After June 30, United claim to have spent 167.8 million on signing players. They signed Senne Lammens from Royal Antwerp on September 1st, Senne Lammens from Brentford on July 21, and Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig on August 21. In June, Wolves had already signed Brazil international Matheus Cunha for £62,5 million.

The club confirmed that their debt, which was $637 million as of June 30, 2025, was confirmed in the most recent financial statement. Revolving credit, which they have recently increased by £50 million, is included in this as well as the historic senior secured notes and secured term loan facility, which were legacy of the Glazer takeover in 2005. Revolving credit is also available if needed.

However, they also list four additional drawdowns of the revolving credit facility that total £105 million between July 7 and September 11, taking the total amount accessed from this sum to £265 million. This brings the total debt to £742 million.

Add in the £447m in transfer fees United claim they owe, of which £205m is due after a year. United also confirm that they owe £102. 61 million.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a minority shareholder, has put in place cost-cutting strategies that have reduced United’s losses from £113. 2 million to £33 million.

However, the pitch’s lack of success prevents further improvement.

United’s Europa League final run ended in the last season’s winnings with a winning total of $43.7 million.

They anticipate that their overall revenue will be between £640 million and £660 million in the coming season when they won’t make any money in Europe.

Ruben Amorim’s team has won just one game this season despite the additions.

On Thursday, Ratcliffe flew to the Carrington training facility to attend a number of planned meetings, including one with the under-pressure head coach.

Shaun Harvey, the club’s non-executive director, described some of the speculation surrounding Phil Parkinson’s future as “absolutely disgrace.”

According to a report, talks were held with the Championship club’s hierarchy over the 57-year-old manager’s situation as a result of Wrexham’s subpar 2025-26 season.

Harvey refuted those assertions, adding that Parkinson enjoys the full support of the Stok Cae Ras’s key decision-makers.

Harvey described the speculation surrounding Parkinson’s future as “absolutely disgusting.”

However, Harvey assured that Wrexham would not become in a panic as they tried to turn things around.

Phil added, “The club has full support from everyone.” Before someone starts writing headlines, I’m aware that “Hauer gives Parkinson the confidence vote.” That does not constitute a vote of confidence.

He has our full support, I’m saying. When you’ve actually discussed the future, you can only give someone a vote of confidence. It hasn’t even been discussed in any way.

Therefore, a decision must be made if that day arrives. However, Phil is our hero.

Wrexham signed 13 players for their first second-tier season since 1981-82 after winning three successive promotions during the summer transfer window.

Harvey contends that given the club’s dramatic ascendancy in the football hierarchy, a substantial squad overhaul was necessary.

What we did was seismic, Harvey said.

On a number of levels, Sunderland’s promotion to the Premier League this summer was impressive.

In his first season of English football, a Regis Le Bris head coach defied the idea that a significant amount of time would be required to adapt to the Championship’s fundamentals.

A club who had only returned to the second tier in 2022, without parachute payments to boost spending on transfer fees and wages.

However, the team’s incredibly young starting age, which was the division’s youngest, and the consistent core of academy graduates, all contribute to this. Their average starting age was 23 years and 316 days.

With Brighton &amp, Hove Albion having previously agreed a £10 million deal for him, goalkeeper Anthony Patterson, midfielders Chris Rigg, and Dan Neil all made over 40 league appearances, while forward Tommy Watson scored the winning goal in the play-off final.

The quartet have helped set a template for which the English Football League (EFL) hopes other clubs can follow, or the very least take notice of as a proof of concept.

At the conclusion of EFL Youth Development Week, Darren Wassall, head of youth development, said, “There were many clubs that were entering the play-offs and getting promoted that were the epitome of youth development.”

His responsibilities are varied, but they essentially consist of leading a group of 12 regional managers who assist clubs in adhering to the rules and standards set out in the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP) for general academie management.

It’s all part of an overarching desire to grow a culture of investing in youth development, not just at the early stages, but all the way through to senior level.

With Bath schoolmates Max O’Leary and Zak Vyner playing every match of the last season, Bristol City won their first play-off spot since 2008. This is a squad that was partially funded by the previous sales of academy graduates Alex Scott, Lloyd Kelly, and Antoine Semenyo, who were also paid by Bournemouth.

Although Sydie Peck started out at Arsenal, he moved on to Sheffield United’s academy at age 17 to form the foundation of their midfield, which would have included Ollie Arblaster if not for injury. Andre Brooks and Femi Seriki were also heavily involved for the Blades.

Rubin Colwill, Ronan Kpakio, and Dylan Lawlor, all members of the club’s academy, have spearheaded the club’s rebuild and revival in League One this term.

One academy player per game for every gameweek is the current average across the league. The hope for Wassall is that number can be doubled – “utopia, from a youth development point of view”.

Wassall continued, “There are clubs that are really doing it well, and there are other clubs we think can improve.”

What’s the point of investing in youth development if you’re not going to use it, according to our principal, “is to try to get the message out to everyone”?

” It’s easier said than done, and we know that if it was that easy everybody would be playing five or six academy graduates every week – but we just know it’s possible. “

In reality, given the demands on EFL managers whose average shelf life in the Championship is just a little over a year, it is decidedly more complicated. In theory, having a constant stream of homegrown talent is a simple idea.

How and why should a manager who is constantly under pressure and needs immediate results have the necessary patience and exhibit youth inconsistencies?

Sunderland may be the example for others to follow, but they are one of 29 clubs in the top four divisions of the English game whose academies have been graded ‘ Cat 1 ‘ – a measure of the work undertaken but also something which requires significant investment in staff and facilities.

Running an academy costs money, with clubs across the pyramid dealing with significant losses as a result of the EFL’s three divisions’ annual expenditures of around £150 million.

” There’s no real correlation between experience and success, or youth and not being successful, “Wassall said”. We are aware of the enormous rewards that come with playing young players if players have the bravery to do so.

“It’s just encouraging more chair people, owners, CEOs, and managers to take that plunge,” the statement reads.

The EPPP was introduced in 2012 in the wake of England’s continued failings in international tournaments, and not just at senior level.

The most obvious result of the initiative is the classification of club institutions from Category 1 to Category 4. It is a long-term plan to essentially modernize and standardize methods of operating academies.

Of the 72 clubs that go from the Championship to League Two, 11 are rated as “Cat 1,” 18 as “Cat 2,” 34 as “Cat 3,” and four as “Cat 4,” while five are -Accrington Stanley, Tranmere Rovers, Crawley Town, Barrow, and Harrogate Town – as having no formal academies.

The EPPP was not without opposition given the scepticism around various Premier League clubs ‘ intentions, but Wassall believes it has been a “watershed” moment.

Wassall continued, “The space is much more regulated and governed than it needed to be.”

Its combination of coaching, performance support, and individual and team analysis has never been better.

Beyond the chance to discover a Rigg or Semenyo that will have a significant influence on the pitch, it makes more sense as a result in the age of profit and sustainability (PSR).

Spending money on youth facilities does allow for some discount in PSR calculations, but also when the opportunity arises to sell a club-developed player, it represents pure profit on the balance sheet.

According to Walsh, “It’s probably your club’s biggest asset value.” The amount of sales profit made is incredible when you see all the successful academies that have developed players and recruited them into their first teams.

“It also saves money long-term on wages because apprentices and first-year pros simply don’t cost as much as the players that you transfer in.

Once you get the right culture, vision, and environment, you can create a path that is truly lucrative, not just for your own academy but also for the game as a whole.

It’s generating a return on investment while also creating the sense of community that’s “one of our own.” It’s cliché, but it’s true and it brings people together, and it inspires.

Do you know what? When Will Hughes made his Derby debut at age 17, all the other academy players were inspired to leave. I had the opportunity to train with him two weeks prior.

It is not just first-team ready players, either, as Brighton and Aston Villa are two Premier League clubs who have been particularly aggressive in supplementing existing academy talent with those acquired from the EFL.

Four years after Bristol Rovers paid a six-figure fee to sign England Under-18 international Bradley Burrows, he made his Villa debut against Crystal Palace in August.

The Premier League always has a big impact because 19 of the 23 players in the England Under-21 squad that won the European Championship had previously played in the EFL, many of whom had been loaned from Premier League teams.

Top-flight clubs continue to use that market in the lower tiers as a finishing school, something which can, in turn, block the pathway of homegrown talent from within.

Wassall said, “It just shows you how important the EFL is in developing the talent. The senior leagues of the Championship, League One and League Two, where those clubs believe their players would be most beneficial, are of enormous value to those clubs.

Rafaela Borggrafe, a Liverpool goalkeeper, is facing disciplinary action from the Football Association for allegedly using racist language against a teammate.

During Liverpool’s pre-season training camp, an alleged racist remark is said to have caused the incident.

Borggrafe is said to have said something about, or to, the unnamed team-mate, but it is unknown what those words were.

The 25-year-old, who played in pre-season friendlies before joining Liverpool from SC Freiburg, has not yet made an appearance.

She made a return to the Liverpool starting lineup for the 1-0 defeat by Leicester on Sunday despite missing out on the first-half defeat by Everton at Anfield.

Following the game against Everton, Everton manager Gareth Taylor informed BBC Sport that Borggrafe had returned to Germany after missing several training sessions.

After participating in a session last week, Borggrafe is now back in Merseyside and is scheduled to start training on Friday.

She will be involved unless otherwise requested by the governing body because the club have adhered to FA regulations.

Liverpool said in a statement from the club that: “LFC is aware of an alleged use of discriminatory language by a LFC Women’s player.

The FA, which is looking into the incident with our full support, has been informed that the club has fully adhered to its protocols, and the club has been doing so.

We oppose discrimination in all forms, saying it is unacceptable in both society and football. While the investigation is pending, we are unable to make further comments.