England s Euro 2022-winning defender Demi Stokes respects players from France, Spain and Nigeria for taking a stance on conditions in women s football ahead of the World Cup.

The preparations of several teams for the tournament in Australia and New Zealand – which begins on July 20 – have been impacted by disputes between players and coaches or federations.

Earlier this year, France dismissed head coach Corinne Diacre after a group of players – including captain Wendie Renard – refused to represent Les Bleues under her.

The Lyon skipper has since been recalled by Diacre s successor, two-time Africa Cup of Nations winner Herve Renard.

Meanwhile, 15 players told the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) they would no longer play under Roja boss Jorge …

Duncan Ferguson suffered his first defeat as Everton s interim manager as Leicester City booked their place in the EFL Cup semi-finals with a 4-2 penalty shoot-out victory at Goodison Park.

Carlo Ancelotti is reportedly close to taking over at Everton, who had beat Chelsea and drawn with Manchester United under Ferguson, whose side fought back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 in normal time to set up penalties.

After quickfire goals from James Maddison and Jonny Evans had put Leicester in control, Everton rallied through Tom Davies and Leighton Baines stoppage-time stunner.

But Baines could not repeat his heroics from the spot as he, along with Cenk Tosun, failed to beat Kasper Schmeichel the Premier League s leading scorer Jamie Vardy ensuring Leicester s place in the…

Pep Guardiola would not confirm that Manchester City will be signing Erling Haaland, but he teased that  everybody knows the situation .

Haaland has been linked with a move to the Etihad Stadium from Borussia Dortmund at the end of the season, with City said to be ready to trigger the striker s release clause, believed to be around €75million (£64.2m).

Speaking at a media conference ahead of his team s trip to Wolves in the Premier League, Guardiola explained he could not talk about any transfer, but did say it was because the two clubs involved told him not to.

Everybody knows the situation, Guardiola told reporters.  I shouldn t talk because I don t like to talk about the future or next season.

Dortmund and Man City told me I m not allowed to sa…

Alvaro Morata scored a lethal hat-trick as Real Madrid won a LaLiga thriller 4-2 at Leganes to leapfrog Barcelona and return to the top of LaLiga.

Madrid raced into a three-goal lead, James Rodriguez striking after 15 minutes before Morata followed up with a quickfire double to reach 10 top-flight goals for the first time in his career.

Close-range strikes from Leganes duo Gabriel Pires and Luciano Neves reduced the deficit to one just after the half-hour mark as the hosts battled back.

But Morata became the first Spanish player to score a league hat-trick for Madrid since Raul achieved the feat in 2009, his header from James delivery early in the second half taking a huge deflection off Martin Mantovani and ending the match as a contest.

The victory came…

According to a recent report from Mundo Deportivo, Italian giants Juventus are believed to be interested in entering the race to try and sign Chelsea star Willian. The Brazilian is heavily expected to leave the club during next summer’s transfer window, with his contract talks at Stamford Bridge stalling in recent days. While it was already well known that Barcelona would be making a move to try and sign him, it now appears as if Juve aren’t afraid to dip their toe in the water either. 

While Willian has always been noted for his unique style of play and consistency on the ball, there are some critics who believe it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if he left Chelsea. If nothing else they’d likely receive a sizeable fee for his services, which could go towards …

According to recent reports in France, Marseille made an official approach for Kenny Lala in January. The 27 year old has already been able to rack up eight assists in the French top flight this season, which is equal with Memphis Depay on Lyon. Lala himself admitted that Marseille had made an approach, but for now, he’s staying put with Strasbourg.

Lala, who was born in Paris, has been with his current club since 2017 when he made the jump over from Lens. He hasn’t spent longer than four years at any club since turning professional back in 2010, but even so, he’s been able to make a solid impact across French football in that time.

He seems to be coming into his prime as a defender and he’s certainly suited to the style of play in Ligue 1, which leads us to won…

According to a recent report from AS, Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone wants to see the club sign a striker during the January transfer window. The Spanish giants are going to need reinforcements in their European and domestic push for the remainder of the campaign, especially if Diego Costa completes his anticipated move away from the club. 

Rodrigo Moreno, Andre Belotti, Krzysztof Piatek and Edinson Cavani are all names that have been mentioned in relation to a potential deal, but it certainly appears as if they need to resolve the issue with Costa before making any rash decisions. 

The way in which they’re planning on raising the funds necessary for the move is to sell Thomas Lemar, who hasn’t quite made the impact that many would’ve hoped following h…

According to a recent report from Gazzetta dello Sport, Manchester City defender Danilo has agreed on terms with Inter Milan ahead of a proposed move to the San Siro. The 27 year old has been at the Etihad since back in 2017 when he made the jump over from Real Madrid, with the report stating that this move would allow Cedric Soares to be sent back to Southampton. Danilo has been on the verge of an exit from City for quite some time now, but it finally seems like this summer is going to be the moment for the trigger to be pulled on this deal. The Brazilian international, who made his debut for his country back in 2011, has also played for Porto and Santos in what has been a really strong career up to this point.

Inter will be hoping that he can be the catalyst behind them findi…

Serge Aurier is expected to travel to Spain today (Monday) to undergo a medical ahead of a proposed free transfer to Villarreal, according to Cadena SER. The right-back has been a free agent since his contract with Tottenham Hotspur got terminated on the last day of the summer transfer window.

As revealed by Fabrizio Romano, the final details of his proposed new contract are yet to be ironed out with Villarreal after the medical takes place.

Having played for Lens, Toulouse and Paris Saint-Germain in France, Aurier joined Spurs in the summer of 2017 for a reported fee of €25 million. He went on to make a total of 110 appearances in all competition for the North-London side, scoring eight and assisting 17 goals. He helped them reach the 2019 Champions League final, eve…

Paul Scholes said Manchester United s defending was like under-10s football after they gifted a calamitous goal to Istanbul Basaksehir in the Champions League.

United went forward en masse for an early corner and kept nobody back to guard against their Turkish hosts counter-attacking.

As soon as United lost the ball, Edin Visca pumped a long ball upfield from inside his own penalty area and Demba Ba was able to run unchecked from inside his own half before beating Dean Henderson.

That s completely down to organisation, Scholes said. At a corner you surely always have someone back on the halfway line.

Speaking on BT Sport, former United midfield general Scholes pointed to assistant manager Mike Phelan telling Nemanja Matic that he should have been coveri…