Category: 6. Sports

SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – Bosnia and Herzegovina star Dzanan Musa has announced that he will not be able to take part in FIBA EuroBasket 2025 due to health reasons.

The 26-year-old player confirmed the news on his own social media channels:

Musa was one of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s top performers at FIBA EuroBasket 2025 Qualifiers, averaging 22.8 points, 4.8 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game.

He was also the team’s leading scorer at FIBA EuroBasket 2022, where he put up averages of 21.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 4.0 assists per contest.

Musa’s absence is a major blow for Bosnia and Herzegovina, who will compete in Group C in Limassol against Spain, Italy, Greece, Georgia, and hosts Cyprus.

FIBA

The tennis year stepped straight into delightful chaos when Madison Keys — not two-time defending champion and World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka — won the Australian Open. It was the first career Grand Slam title for Keys, who was on the cusp of her 30th birthday.

“My team believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself,” Keys noted, “and helped me every step of the way.”

Likewise, three-time defending Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek lost in the Paris semifinals to Sabalenka. Then, after falling in a first-set tiebreak, Coco Gauff came back to stun Sabalenka and collect her second career major, at the age of 21.

“I didn’t think honestly that I could win,” Gauff said.

A month after the disappointment of losing at Roland Garros, Swiatek won the Wimbledon title on grass, historically her worst surface.

“Pretty surreal,” said Swiatek, the eighth consecutive first-time women’s champion at Wimbledon. “I’m just proud of myself because … who would have expected that?”

And now, as the season’s fourth and final Grand Slam approaches, can there be any doubt it won’t deliver another bouquet of surprises?

In the past decade, four players — Flavia Pennetta (2015), Sloane Stephens (2017), Bianca Andreescu (2019) and Emma Raducanu (2021) — won their first and only major at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Here’s a quick look back at some of the sensational twists and turns we’ve seen already this year:

Teenagers take over

Andreeva goes big back-to-back

Everyone knows that teenagers can be terrors.

Still, no one was prepared for the havoc a 17-year-old wreaked back in late winter. Mirra Andreeva won six matches at the WTA 1000 in Dubai, against such luminaries as No. 2 Swiatek and No. 7 Elena Rybakina before beating Clara Tauson in the final.

It happened again at Indian Wells, as Andreeva won insta-rematches with Swiatek and Rybakina — and then beat World No. 1 Sabalenka in the final, coming back from a set down. That 12-0 run launched her into the Top 10 for what looks like the foreseeable future.

“I would again like to thank myself for fighting until the end,” Andreeva said, quoting Snoop Dogg, “and for always believing in me and for never quitting.”

Next Generation

Tereza Valentova and Iva Jovic, both born in 2007, are the youngest players to break into the Top 100 this year. They both have WTA 125 titles (Jovic in Ilkley, Valentova in Grado and Porto) and Valentova was recently a Prague semifinalist too, losing to eventual champion Marie Bouzkova.

Julieta Pareja became the first player born in 2009 to reach a WTA Tour semifinal in Bogota — she’s the junior No. 1 now and has a wild card at the US Open.

Comebacks and retro sparks

Retro moments

A trio of distinguished players — Belinda Bencic, Marketa Vondrousova and Anastasija Sevastova — all upset Top 10 players while ranked outside the Top 100.

Bencic, returning from pregnancy leave, shocked Rybakina in the semifinals of Abu Dhabi and went on to win the title back in February. Her opponent in the quarterfinals was Vondrousova, who rebounded in June to defeat Sabalenka and Keys on the way to the title in Berlin.

At the age of 35, Sevastova beat Jessica Pegula on the way to the Round of 16 in Montreal.

At the other end of the spectrum …

Veterans Tatjana Maria, Laura Siegemund and Venus Williams all got hot this summer.

Maria, 37 and a mother of two, was a surprise winner at Queen’s Club, beating Rybakina, Keys and Amanda Anisimova. Siegemund, also 37, reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, matching her best showing in a Grand Slam singles draw. Forty-five-year-old Venus Williams won her first match in nearly two years in Washington, D.C.

Breakthrough seasons

Two is (duh!) twice as nice

On grass courts in England, McCartney Kessler and Maya Joint both won their second Hologic WTA Tour singles titles of the year.

Kessler, a 26-year-old American, did it in Nottingham, beating three Top 50 players, and bookending her successful run in Hobart at the beginning of the year. Joint, a 19-year-old who represents Australia, triumphed in Eastbourne, her second title in as many months going back to Rabat, Morocco.

Newcomer of the Year?

The voting for this category in the WTA’s year-end awards could go in any number of directions.

Playing at home in Canada, 18-year-old Victoria Mboko won the Omnium Banque Nationale title earlier this month. It was a magnificent run that featured wins over four different former Grand Slam champions, including Naomi Osaka in the three-set final.

The Philippines’ Alexandra Eala, then 19, raced through to the semifinals at the Miami Open, herself beating three former major champions, including Swiatek and Keys. Lois Boisson, ranked No. 361, tore through to the semifinals at Roland Garros with signature wins over Pegula and Andreeva. And then the 22-year-old backed it up by winning the title in Hamburg and is now inside the Top 50.

 

Italy’s national football team are due to play Israel in two World Cup qualifiers ahead of the 2026 tournament.

The Italian Football Coaches’ Association (AIAC) is pushing for Israel to be suspended from international competition over the war on Gaza.

Ahead of Italy’s crucial World Cup qualifiers against Israel in the next two months, the AIAC says “Israel must stop. Football must also take action.”

The AIAC has written a formal letter to the Italian football federation, to be forwarded to European and world football’s governing bodies, calling for Israel to be suspended.

“The AIAC Board of Directors unanimously believes that, given the daily massacres, which have also resulted in hundreds of deaths among managers, coaches, and athletes … it is legitimate, necessary, indeed a duty, to place at the centre of federation talks the request, to be submitted to UEFA and FIFA, for the temporary exclusion of Israel from sporting competitions,” the letter concludes.

“Because the pain of the past cannot cloud anyone’s conscience and humanity.”

Italy is set to play Israel on neutral turf in Debrecen, Hungary on September 8, before hosting the return match in Udine on October 14.

“We could just focus on playing, looking the other way. But we believe that is not right,” AIAC vice president Giancarlo Camolese said.

The Azzurri also played Israel in Udine last October in a Nations League match that saw protests before and during the game and intense security measures, including snipers on the roof of the stadium.

Since then, the situation has continued to deteriorate, with the Palestinian death toll from the 22-month war passing 62,000 earlier this month.

“The world is in flames. Many people like the Palestinians are suffering,” AIAC vice president Francesco Perondi said. “Indifference is unacceptable.”

German tabloid Bild recently reported that Bundesliga 2 football side Fortuna Dusseldorf pulled out of signing Israel international striker Shon Weissman in response to fan anger about his social media posts on the Gaza war.

The Justice for Players group has brought a court action against FIFA, claiming that previous transfer market rules represented an unlawful restriction on players’ ability to move between different football clubs.

Sports law expert Trevor Watkins of Pinsent Masons said: “This is another example of where the actions of sports governing bodies are being brought under scrutiny, both in terms of their judicial and regulatory function, and claims being brought against them where their decisions made as part of their regulatory function have been deemed to be unlawful.”

The action has been brought in The Netherlands by the campaign group, and initially represents footballers from that country who claim the previous transfer rules hampered their freedom of movement rights and also imposed anti-competitive restrictions that limited the ability of other football clubs to freely recruit them.

Justice for Players, which is being funded in its lawsuit by Deminor, claims as many as 100,000 players could have been affected since 2001, and is looking to argue that affected players have lost around 8% of their career earnings as a result.

Julian Diaz-Rainey, a sports disputes expert with Pinsent Masons, said: “This is an example of the broadening scope of potential class actions from the typical ‘consumer’ type claims into actions brought by sporting professionals. It also shows how third party funders are broadening the scope of the type of claim they are prepared to fund.”

The action comes on the back of former Real Madrid and France international midfielder Lassana Diarra’s successful court case last year.

Diarra was frozen out at Lokomotiv Moscow in 2014, less than a year after joining the club, and when he refused to train or take a salary cut, the club terminated his contract and sought compensation. He was also denied a move to Belgian side Charleroi after FIFA refused to exempt it from any shared liability for the costs, and did not issue him with the certificate needed to complete the move.

A subsequent ruling by the Court of Arbitration in Sport saw Diarra banned from playing for a year and ordered to pay Lokomotiv €10 million in compensation. Diarra eventually joined Marseille, having missed the whole of the 2014-15 season, and launched a legal action against football’s governing body that was finally resolved last year when the CJEU ruled against FIFA over the joint costs restrictions and the transfer certification rules, having found that those rules infringed both EU freedom of movement laws and EU competition law.

FIFA made an interim change to its rules over transfers in the wake of the court’s decision, but now faces this new challenge which could significantly impact the nature of the football transfer market and player contracts.

Paul Williams, competition law expert at Pinsent Masons said: “Competition law is increasingly being used by clubs, players or sponsors to challenge the legal validity of rules imposed by sport governing bodies in various sports, not just football. This growing trend is particularly pronounced within the EU, where high profile court rulings have on several occasions struck down certain rules of sporting bodies. The consequences of finding that a particular sporting rule or provision breaches competition law can be serious, with the risk of fines being imposed by competition regulators. A sporting rule which breaches competition law will be legally unenforceable, and could also lead to damages claims by affected third parties – as in this case.”

Earlier this month the CJEU also found against the Court of Arbitration for Sport, opening the door for players and teams to seek challenges to court rulings within their own jurisdictions rather than being forced to accept the CAS decision with no appeal.

History was made at the Maracana on Tuesday night as Fluminense’s veteran goalkeeper Fabio broke England icon Peter Shilton’s record for the most competitive appearances in world football. The 44-year-old Brazilian reached an astonishing 1,391 official matches when he lined up against America de Cali in the Copa Sudamericana, helping his side to a 2-0 win that only added to the occasion’s magic.

Northern Superchargers thrashed London Spirit by eight wickets, moving above their opponents into second in The Hundred table.

Spirit put in a dismal performance with the bat, struggling to 90-8 at Lord’s.

The Australian pair of Phoebe Litchfield, who hit an unbeaten 55, and Annabel Sutherland, who made 29 not out, put on an unbroken partnership of 76 to seal victory for the Superchargers with 34 balls to spare.

The home side floundered after choosing to bat, slipping to 9-2 in the powerplay with top-order batters Kira Chathli and Cordelia Griffith dismissed for a duck and one respectively.

Spirit can usually rely on the big-hitting Grace Harris to drag them out of trouble, but Nicola Carey had her caught at long-on for just seven, then saw Dani Gibson taken at point from her following delivery.

They continued to steadily lose wickets until Issy Wong and captain Charlie Dean offered a degree of stability, putting on a partnership of 31 for the seventh wicket, but it came from 33 deliveries, with the pair unable to significantly up the tempo.

Sutherland dismissed Dean caught behind in the final set of five deliveries, and had Glenn caught in the covers from the next ball, as Spirit limped to a sub-par total.

Superchargers’ top-order also wobbled, with Alice Davidson-Richards and Davina Perrin both dismissed by Bex Tyson for a golden duck and four respectively.

However, those early wickets brought star batters Phoebe Litchfield and Sutherland to the crease, and the Australian pair made light work of reaching their target.

Litchfield took more of the strike, hitting her second half-century in three matches, and it was the 22-year-old who hit Eva Gray for four to bring the match to an early conclusion.

The result sees Spirit slip to fourth in the standings, behind Superchargers and Manchester Originals on net run-rate.