With this year’s FIFA World Cup final being played in the U.S., it was probably only a matter of time before football borrowed a page from the NFL playbook and introduced a halftime show. 

FIFA has confirmed Shakira, Madonna, and South Korean boy band BTS will headline the first-ever World Cup final halftime show in New Jersey on July 19. 

Coldplay frontman Chris Martin curated the lineup and revealed it to Elmo from Sesame Street in a post on social media (yep, you read that correctly). 

He said the show is "a chance to show how amazing all different kinds of humans are."

99
The number of consecutive major championships Australian golfer Adam Scott will have played in when the PGA Championship begins in Pennsylvania tonight. Next month’s U.S. Open is set to mark his 100th straight major appearance. Only Jack Nicklaus has recorded a longer streak, competing in 146 consecutive majors between 1962 and 1998. Scott, who won the 2013 Masters, sits well ahead of the next-best active player, Jordan Spieth, who is on 52.

"I deeply regret my behaviour and words and will make every effort to ensure that this doesn't happen again."
Eddie Jones, the Australian head coach of Japan's men's national rugby union team, has been handed a six-week suspension and a pay cut after directing verbal abuse at match officials during the Japan U23 tour of Australia in April. The 66-year-old, who coached the Wallabies as recently as 2023, will miss Japan's next four matches, including their Nations Championship opener against Italy on 4 July.

The first World Cup trophy spent World War II hidden in a shoebox under a bed. Italian football official Ottorino Barassi, FIFA's vice-president at the time, secretly removed the Jules Rimet Trophy from a bank vault in Rome and kept it under his bed for the duration of the war to stop the Nazis from seizing it.

🏉 NSW has the chance to win back-to-back Women's State of Origin titles at Suncorp Stadium tonight after edging Queensland 11-6 in Newcastle a fortnight ago. Halfback Jesse Southwell sealed Game 1 with a late field goal, the first of her professional career. Roosters prop Rima Butler is set to make her NSW debut off the bench in place of the injured Tiana Penitani Gray. Meanwhile, Queensland, led by returning captain Tamika Upton, have lost the only two Women's State of Origin matches played at Suncorp. Kick-off is at 7:45pm AEST.

🎖️Invictus Australia, the charity that supports veterans with injuries and mental ill-health through sport, has had its federal funding discontinued. The organisation received $9 million over three years from the 2022-23 budget, extended last year, but it was not renewed by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Tuesday. CEO Michael Hartung said the move threatened the organisation’s ability to send a team to the next Invictus Games in Birmingham in 2027. The cut comes alongside a $14 billion increase in defence spending and $770 million tied to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.

🚴‍♂️ Spaniard Igor Arrieta won Stage 5 of the Giro d'Italia in Potenza on Wednesday after one of the most chaotic finishes the race has seen. The 24-year-old crashed on a wet descent with 14 kilometres left, took a wrong turn at a road split inside the final two kilometres, then caught Portuguese breakaway companion Afonso Eulálio in the closing metres to win his first professional race. Eulálio still gained enough time to take the pink jersey from the previous race leader, Giulio Ciccone. Race favourite Jonas Vingegaard sits 15th, and 2022 champion Jai Hindley is the best-placed Australian in 18th, both 6 minutes and 22 seconds behind Eulálio.

🎾 Iga Świątek beat American Jessica Pegula (6-1, 6-2) to reach the Italian Open semifinals, ending a six-match losing run against top-10 opponents. It was the longest such streak of her career. The four-time French Open champion had not progressed past the quarterfinals at any tournament this season before Rome, briefly slipping to world No. 4 last month and parting ways with her coach in March. Świątek, who has won the Italian Open three times, faces 2017 and 2018 champion Elina Svitolina in the last four. Roland-Garros begins on 24 May.

🏐 Netball legend Sharelle McMahon has received the Victorian Sport Awards' top honour, the Outstanding Contribution to Victorian Sport Award. McMahon received the award for her playing career and for the work she is doing in her current role as Netball Victoria's General Manager of High Performance and Pathways.The former Australian captain played 118 Tests for the Diamonds across 16 years, winning two Commonwealth Games golds and two World Championship titles. McMahon famously hit the buzzer-beating shot against New Zealand to win the 1999 World Championship final, and another to win the 2002 Commonwealth Games gold.

Following your team interstate – or dreaming about catching a game overseas – adds up fast

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The Sydney Swans have announced they will not play their annual Pride Game against  St Kilda this year, following the fallout from the Lance Collard tribunal case. 

The Round 13 match at the SCG on 7 June was set to be the ninth Pride Game between the two clubs. Last year, the Swans played the game against Essendon, citing a desire to play at home, “which drove the decision to explore another opponent.”

Here's what to know.

Collard, a 21-year-old St Kilda forward, was found guilty in April of using a homophobic slur against an opponent in a VFL match. It was his second such offence, following a six-game ban in 2024. 

His initial nine-game suspension was reduced to four on appeal, with the AFL Appeals Board saying such language was "commonplace" in the game. 

AFL CEO Andrew Dillon publicly disagreed with the decision, and the league later sacked appeal board chair Will Houghton KC.

The Swans have moved their Pride Game to their  Round 17 match against the Western Bulldogs. 

In a statement, Sydney said the change was made in consultation with the Rainbow Swans supporter group, the LGBTQIA+ community, and St Kilda. 

The statement added: "We felt it was appropriate to shift our 2026 Pride Match to ensure the game has the positive impact that is intended.”

In a letter to St Kilda members on Wednesday night, CEO Carl Dilena said: "While we would have preferred to proceed with the Pride Game designation to support inclusion and education, we understand and support the decision given the impact the recent publicity has had on members of the LGBTQIA+ and First Nations communities."

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Australia is returning to the America's Cup for the first time in 25 years, with Sydney's Royal Prince Edward Yacht Club officially entering the 38th edition of the regatta in Naples in 2027. 

The official announcement was made today in Sydney.

Here's what to know.

The America's Cup is the oldest active trophy in international sport, first contested in 1851.

It is an elite sailing competition between the defending yacht club and challengers attempting to win the trophy. Teams race in identical classes of boats –  currently the AC75, a 75-foot foiling monohull capable of speeds above 90km/h. Translation: very fast boats.

Unlike most major sporting events, the America’s Cup is not held on a fixed schedule. Instead, the defending champion and lead challenger negotiate the timing, usually every three to four years. For the 2027 edition, the lead challenger is Britain's Royal Yacht Squadron, led by four-time Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie.

The current holders are the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron, which will defend the trophy in Naples in July 2027.

Australia has not entered the Cup since 2000. 

The country's defining moment in the competition came in 1983, when Australia II beat the United States 4-3, ending the New York Yacht Club's 132-year hold on the trophy. The streak still stands as the longest in any sport.

Skippered by John Bertrand and designed by Ben Lexcen, Australia II became famous for its revolutionary winged keel design, which changed the sport of sailing. 

Australia then hosted the next edition in Fremantle in 1987, before losing the Cup back to the U.S.

The challenge is being backed by businessman John Winning and his family. Winning's son, John "Herman" Winning Jr, skippered supermaxi Andoo Comanche to line honours in the 2022 Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

Team Australia's CEO is Grant Simmer, who was part of the iconic 1983 Australia II crew. 

Two-time World Sailor of the Year and Olympic gold medallist Tom Slingsby has been appointed Head of Sailing, while Glenn Ashby– a three-time Cup winner with New Zealand – will oversee performance and design.

The challenger selection series will begin in the northern hemisphere spring of 2027, with the winner earning the right to race New Zealand in the final match in Naples from 10-18 July 2027. Australia joins challengers from Britain, Italy, Switzerland, France, and the United States.