Little League World Series strike zone is large, in charge.

The Football Association will resist any USA approach for Sarina Wiegman, chief executive Mark Bullingham has said. He also insisted that the ongoing players’ bonuses dispute is now merely a “matter of time” rather than detail, and revealed the FA will also seek to host the Women’s World Cup themselves. Wiegman is now one game away from a history double, as she took a senior English national team to a World Cup final for the first time. That has naturally attracted interest from the USA, whose coach Vlatko Andonovski resigned after a huge underperformance that saw the deposed world champions eliminated in the last 16. Bullingham said the FA would “100 per cent” reject any approach. “It is not about money. We are very, very happy with her and we feel she is happy. I think that is the answer. “We’ve seen lots of rumours and, look, she is a special talent. We’ve got a bit of time because obviously she’s contracted to 2025, and she’ll obviously want to have a decent holiday after this. But all I’ll say is we’re massive fans of her. We believe she’s happy, and we’d love to continue working with her for a long time.” While the US might bank on the possibility that she might want a new challenge if she does win the World Cup with England, there is also the potential ambition of doing a clean sweep with the 2026 Olympics. Bullingham meanwhile said talks still had to take place about the bonuses the players will receive – something their success in Australia has already changed – but claimed the initial delay was down to Fifa announcing new prize money stipulations just before they travelled. “We’re sorting it after the tournament. I think they have a very strong case before, a very strong case after but the reality is, there’s a discussion to be had. There wasn’t a lot of time before the tournament, Fifa announced the prize money very late and a completely different model that led to a different type of discussion so it just means there wasn’t a lot of time. It’s more time being an issue rather than anything else. “It wasn’t an issue on bargaining position, it was more an issue on time and working through this new model, so, I think we’ll get to a good resolution. “Bonuses is always a percentage of prize money, that’s always the model I think there are lots of discussions to be had with them, but we’ve invested in them heavily in them and the women’s game and we want that to continue growing. We’ve got the opportunity to have some really interesting discussions after the tournament.” Sources close to the squad would insist those discussions still have some way to go, as the FA have not moved on their position of having a bonus structure on top of Fifa prize money. The players also feel there was still plenty of time, as illusrated by how senior FA figures did not get involved “until the last minute”. There have been no further discussions during the World Cup, as all have wanted to focus on trying to win the tournament. Bullingham also said it’s a long-term plan to host a Women’s World Cup. The FA may have to wait, however, as Germany-Netherlands-Belgium are the European bid for 2027, and if they do win, it would mean a tournament on another continent in 2031. “In terms of bidding, we’re obviously conscious we’ve had a lot of tournaments,” Bullingham said. “We’ve put a bid in for Euro 2028, and that’s obviously a big commitment. We would love to host Women’s World Cup one day, don’t get any doubt on that, we’d love to do that. If you look at the landscape, you’ve got Germany and Netherlands bidding for 2027. If they’re successful, there wouldn’t be a European bid for 2031 if they aren’t successful so you want to see maybe they go again so that would potentially be the one after that. If you’re asking us whether we would like to host World Cups, of course, we would love to.” Read More ‘Another reason to whinge’: Australian media criticise England after Matildas beaten at Women’s World Cup How England deployed dark arts and cool heads to silence Australian noise Sarina Wiegman v Jorge Vilda – a look at the coaches in Women’s World Cup final FA to build Wembley statue of England’s Lionesses after World Cup Premier League looking into ‘historic’ financial issues at Chelsea Chelsea face Premier League probe over alleged financial breaches – reports

England captain and Tottenham legend Harry Kane has revealed that he opted to join Bayern Munich in order to win trophies.

All of West Ham United, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur are trailing Rennes’ Jeremy Doku, in a race that could go to the end of the window. While Spurs and - above all - City can make persuasive claims about going to clubs that can compete at the very top level, West Ham are able to offer regular first-team football. The east London club are consequently more advanced in their approach, and already have an offer in. That is understood to be less than £50m, though, which is the price currently seen as necessary to get the Belgian international. City aren’t that far along but are confident of doing a deal for Doku and West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta in the next two weeks. Should that happen, it is possible that West Ham do benefit through a loan for City’s Cole Palmer. There is a feeling that whoever doesn’t get Doku will then move for Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace. The Selhurst Park club are currently trying to agree a new deal, though, having already tied down Michael Olise. The search for wide players is currently one of the most competitive in the market.

Rachel Daly’s former school teacher has hailed the Lioness as a “one-off” player as England aim for World Cup glory on Sunday. Sarina Wiegman’s side reached their first ever World Cup final with a 3-1 win against co-hosts Australia on Wednesday in front of 75,784 in Sydney. Aston Villa forward Daly, the WSL’s top scorer last season, has played a key part in their campaign – often featuring at wing-back for the side and scored in England’s 6-1 victory against China in the group stages. The 31-year-old started her career at Killinghall Nomads in Yorkshire and Michael Sweetman, who was her teacher at Rossett School, admitted her mental and physical attributes stood out from an early age. Mr Sweetman told the PA news agency: “She was a one-off, she was completely different and the attributes she had, those winning attributes, it’s just pure focus on winning the game. “It can in some ways not be great, but on a football pitch it’s ideal, it’s perfect. She’s been a success at every team she’s played in and that’s why I think, but she had the physical attributes as well. “She wasn’t amazingly quick or amazingly fit, but she just played the game. Her touch was amazing, she was strong and nothing fazed her. “She could take a boot, get up and get on with it. She’s skilful, she’d play up front or in midfield for me and she scored two or three a game.” England are aiming to achieve back-to-back success in a major tournament final after their European Championship win at Wembley last year. Daly was part of that Lionesses squad and Mr Sweetman reflected on how far she has come in her England career. “I definitely believed she’d play for England, whether I believed she’d get to a World Cup final I don’t think you could ever comprehend that really,” he added. “You just want your kids to achieve the best they can be, so to get to England is great. “I actually rang the FA when she was 14 and asked them to come down and watch her. They came down to a final at Harrogate Town and we beat a school in York 5-0 I think, she scored two and that was the start of it.” Beginning her domestic career with Leeds, Daly moved over to America to play in college for St John’s University and was selected by the Houston Dash in the 2016 NWSL draft. She spent six seasons in Texas before moving to the Women’s Super League last year to play for Aston Villa, where she instantly made a mark in her debut season by finishing with 22 goals. Those performances earned Daly the Barclays WSL’s Player of the Season award and on Wednesday she was nominated for the PFA Players’ Player of the Year award. Mr Sweetman expressed his pride at her success, adding: “I don’t want to say I feel responsible, because I’m not, I was a small part for five years and basically I just let her play. “The only thing I did differently was that football was just developing at the time. “They were trying to say that there may be careers ahead and if you can keep playing, keep improving on your game maybe you could go to America or you could do this or you could do that. “I never say I was responsible but the only thing I did let her do was let her play football with the boys in PE. “You don’t feel responsible, but there is a sense of pride that one of your kids that you did your best to nurture during those years is playing at the highest level.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Holly Bradshaw makes giant leap to overcome anxiety before World Championships Gus Atkinson feeling ready for World Cup duty after surprise England call-up FA chief Mark Bullingham says Sarina Wiegman could be an England men’s candidate

Lionel Messi has made the shortlist for the UEFA award as the best player in Europe last season

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has said Chelsea target Michael Olise has signed a new four-year deal with the Premier League club. The PA news agency understands Chelsea had agreed to pay the France Under-21 winger’s £35million release clause, but it appears he has now committed his future to the Eagles. Parish tweeted on Thursday: “I’m absolutely delighted to announce @m.olise has decided to commit his future to Crystal Palace and this afternoon signed a new four-year deal with the club.” Olise has been linked with a big money move to Palace's London rivals, a club that the French youth international had spent a prolonged spell at during the early days of his career before moving onto Manchester City and then Reading, where he finally broke into the first team. This will be considered a blow to the Blues who were looking to add Olise to their summer spending spree bringing in the likes or Moises Caicedo, Robert Sanchez, Nicolas Jackson and Christopher Nkunku, to name but a few, for lucrative fees. However, the Palace losing club legend Wilfred Zaha to Turkish giants Galatasaray this window the Eagles have been forced to consolidate their attacking options. The news has been greeted with delirium amongst football fans, many of whom have taken to Twitter/X to poke fun at Chelsea. Safe to say that Chelsea fans weren't exactly ecstatic at the news either. Given this boost Palace will look to build upon their opening weekend win over Sheffield United but face tough opposition in the form of Arsenal. Chelsea on the other hand will be hoping they. can pick up three points away at West Ham having drawn with Liverpool last Sunday. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The FA's CEO Mark Bullingham says that they would reject any offer made by the United States for Sarina Wiegman.

Liverpool have provided fans with an update on the Anfield Road stand redevelopment after the construction company attached to the project went into administration.

World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said Thursday it was "unlikely" that track and field athletes from Russia and Belarus would be welcomed back to competition...

Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs said Wednesday he yearned to be tagged as favourite going into the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, despite it carrying a great weight of expectation...

Michael Olise has rejected interest from Chelsea to sign a new contract with Crystal Palace.