Rashford ready for ‘challenge’ away from Man Utd​​

Super League promoter A22 Sports said on Tuesday that it had submitted a proposal to UEFA and FIFA, asking football’s governing bodies to formally recognise its right to organise a new European competition.

The move follows a ruling by the European Court of Justice in December 2023 — after the Super League sought protection for its plans under EU law — which held that UEFA and FIFA had been “abusing a dominant position,” calling their rules governing new formats “arbitrary.”

UEFA then said it believed rules brought in since the Super League’s attempted launch in April 2021 had ensured it now complied with EU law.

On Tuesday, A22 said it had applied to UEFA and FIFA for “official recognition for its new cross-border European club football competitions,” arguing that the ECJ ruling meant that “any competition where qualification is inclusive and meritocratic, and which complies with the overall match calendar can be officially established.”

A22 said its latest proposal included changes to its model — which was most recently set out hours after the December 2023 ruling — after consulting with football clubs, leagues and other groups.

ESPN has approached UEFA for comment.

“A key feature is a revised qualification system in which club participation is based on annual, domestic league performance,” the A22 statement said.

“Our extensive engagement with key stakeholders revealed a number of pressing challenges facing the sport including increasing subscription costs for fans, an overloaded player calendar, insufficient investment in women’s football, and dissatisfaction with the format and governance of the current pan-European competitions,” A22 CEO Bernd Reichart said. “Our proposal is designed to directly address these challenges.”

A22 has said Super League matches would be broadcast on a new streaming service, Unify, which would offer a free-to-air model supported by advertising.

On Tuesday, the firm said the Super League would now be known as “Unify League” to reflect that.

In December 2023, Reichart said the new format would involve a three-league, 64-club men’s competition and a two-league, 32-club women’s competition — with promotion and relegation between leagues — to replace the UEFA Champions League and Women’s Champions League.

On Tuesday, A22 said the latest plans for the Unify League would see 96 clubs take part in the men’s competition in four leagues. The top two leagues, “Star” and “Gold,” would each include 16 clubs, divided into groups of eight. The “Blue” and “Union” leagues would host 32 clubs each, also in groups of eight.

In the league stage, teams would face the others in their group, home and away, before qualifiers progress to the knockout stage. The semifinals and final would be one-off matches, played at neutral venues. Clubs would qualify based on annual domestic performance, with matches taking place in midweek.

The Super League project was initially backed by 12 member clubs: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, AC Milan, Arsenal, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.

However, the Premier League clubs soon distanced themselves from the plans under pressure from fans and the U.K. government.

After the December 2023 ruling, the Premier League, Bundesliga, LaLiga and Serie A — as well as a number of top clubs and the European Club Association — all reiterated their opposition to the Super League, and their support for competitions organized by UEFA.

LaLiga president Javier Tebas said in a post on X on Tuesday: “Those from @A22Sports are back with a new idea: they produce formats as if they were churros, without analyzing or studying the economic and sporting effects on the competitions. The television model they propose only favors the big clubs, (and they know it…) while endangering the economic stability of the national leagues and their clubs.”

Two-time World Cup winning defender Becky Sauerbrunn, a mainstay with the United States women’s national team for over 15 years, as well as in the NWSL, announced her retirement from professional soccer on Tuesday.

She made the announcement via Instagram as well as through the USWNT.

“I learned early on that we were all just renting our jerseys,” Sauerbrunn said in a statement via US Soccer. “That I got to wear the U.S. Soccer crest once was an honor and privilege for which I’m forever grateful.

“The fact that I got to do it over 200 times is truly humbling. I competed with and learned from some of the greatest players and leaders this sport has ever seen, and I consider myself beyond lucky to have been able to play a small part in this program’s storied history.”

A steady, consistent defender whose reading of the game was made her one of the best in the world, the St. Louis native was part of the victorious U.S. World Cup teams in 2015 and 2019, and also was also in the gold medal-winning squad at the 2012 Olympics.

She finishes with 219 appearances at international level. Overall she played in three Olympic Games and three World Cups. An injury kept her off the 2023 World Cup squad. She captained the USWNT 42 times in her career, fifth most in USWNT history.

Sauerbrunn said on Instagram, “Nothing will compare to the last sixteen years. How could it? The challenge of chasing victory. The bravery to fail. The willingness to suffer. The joy and relief when you achieve it. The drive to go again. Sixteen years ago I woke up dreaming and I haven’t slept since. That makes it sound easy. It was never easy. But even so, I’d run it back.

“Because what a gift.”

In terms of Sauerbrunn’s club career, she made over 200 appearances in the NWSL with Kansas City FC (now the Kansas City Current), the Utah Royals, and most recently the Portland Thorns. She won a pair of NWSL titles with Kansas City in 2014 and 2015, and another with the Portland Thorns in 2022. She was also part of the Thorns sides that won the Community Shield in 2020, as well as a trifecta of titles in 2021 that included the NWSL Challenge Cup, the International Champions Cup, and the NWSL Shield.

Off the field, Sauerbrunn’s was among those at the forefront of the USWNT’s push for equal pay, which culminated in the landmark Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2022 that saw the USWNT achieve equity with their USMNT counterparts. She also was a strong advocate for women’s rights and racial quality, adding to her already considerable legacy of excellence in all manner of endeavors.

Chelsea winger Mykhailo Mudryk has said he is shocked after being notified of a positive drugs test by the Football Association.

Reports in Ukraine on Tuesday suggest a prohibited substance was found in an “A” sample given at the end of October. Those same reports state the “B” sample has not yet been tested but will be in the coming days.

Confirmation that Mudryk has used a banned substance could trigger a lengthy ban from football, potentially up to four years.

A source told ESPN that Mudryk has been provisionally suspended pending the outcome of an investigation but the FA and Chelsea refused to confirm this when contacted by ESPN.

Mudryk, 23, has missed the club’s last five matches with head coach Enzo Maresca citing illness as the reason for his omission.

“I can confirm that I have been notified that a sample I provided to the FA contained a banned substance,” Mudryk wrote on Instagram.

“This has come as a complete shock as I have never knowingly used any banned substances or broken any rules and am working closely with my team to investigate how this could have happened.

“I know that I have not done anything wrong and remain hopeful that I will be back on the pitch soon. I cannot say any more now due to the confidentiality of the process, but I will as soon as I can.”

Chelsea said in a statement: “Chelsea Football Club can confirm the Football Association recently contacted our player Mykhailo Mudryk concerning an adverse finding in a routine urine test.

“Both the club and Mykhailo fully support The FA’s testing programme and all our players, including Mykhailo, are regularly tested. Mykhailo has confirmed categorically that he has never knowingly used any banned substances.

“Both Mykhailo and the club will now work with the relevant authorities to establish what has caused the adverse finding. The club will not be commenting any further.”

FA rules state that a player notified of a positive test result can be provisionally suspended by their club pending a right of reply and subsequent testing of a ‘B’ sample.

Mudryk joined Chelsea from Shakhtar Donetsk in January 2023 for a fee which could potentially rise to £88 million. However, his time in England has been mixed having started just 26 Premier League games and only one this season.

The Ukraine winger has been a regular in the Europa Conference League, where Maresca has made wholesale changes from his regular Premier League line-ups.

Manchester United are set to take steps to help prevent team news leaking out, a source has told ESPN, after Ruben Amorim’s starting XI for Sunday’s Manchester derby was circulated online nearly 24 hours before kick-off.

Amorim admitted it’s “not a good thing” when asked about the team news leak following the 2-1 win over Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

United sources have told ESPN that the Portuguese coach is not overly concerned by the issue, which predates his arrival at Old Trafford.

However, the club are set to take measures to keep team news from becoming public as best they can.

A source has told ESPN that players and staff have, informally, been reminded of their responsibility to keep the information private to prevent opposing teams from gaining a competitive advantage. Team news ahead of Premier League fixtures is usually made public 75 minutes before kick-off.

United, according to a source, do not believe a single player or staff member is responsible for the leaks and that the information is seeping early out in different ways. Amorim usually informs players of his team for the next game following the final session the day before. His starting XI to face City was leaked on social media on Saturday evening, nearly 24 hours before Sunday’s kick-off.

Asked after the game for his response to the team news leak, Amorim said: “I know that story. I don’t know. I think it’s impossible to fix nowadays because you have a lot of people in the club.

“The players talk with agents, you can talk with a friend. So it’s hard to know. It’s not a good thing but let’s move on and go to the next one and see if they find the next starting XI.”

United are next in action against Tottenham in the quarterfinals of Carabao Cup on Thursday.

The NWSL is closing in on Denver as its latest expansion franchise, having entered into exclusive negotiations with an investment group led by IMA Financial Group CEO Rob Cohen, a source told ESPN.

The source, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly on the negotiations, added that the expansion fee will likely be between $105 million and $120 million, which would be a record for the league.

But the source stressed that the deal hasn’t been finalized, adding that the league hopes to have the deal completed sometime in early January. The previous record expansion fee was the $53 million paid by Bay FC in 2023 and Boston earlier this year. An NWSL spokesperson declined to comment.

Sportico was the first to report the news.

Last month, prior to the NWSL Championship final, league commissioner Jessica Berman identified Denver, Cincinnati and Cleveland as the three finalists, but barring a late snag in the deal, Denver is poised to become the league’s 16th team. Boston is set to begin play in 2026.

The investment group includes include an entity called For Denver FC, which is comprised in part of Ben Hubbard, the CEO of insurance company Parsyl, and Tom Dunmore, a former soccer executive with USL side Indy Eleven and until recently the vice president of marketing for Major League Cricket. Phos CEO Nicole Glaros and former NWSL player and soccer broadcaster Jordan Angeli is also involved.

But Cohen is expected to provide the bulk of the financing, and he will serve as controlling owner. Cohen has long been involved in sports endeavors in the Denver area, including as a board member of the Denver Sports Advisory Committee and as a board member of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Foundation, which is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado.