Iraq’s qualification for the FIFA World Cup 2026 has completed the lineup of 48 nations for the tournament hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States.

The Lions of Mesopotamia edged Bolivia 2-1 on Tuesday to win the second final of the FIFA Playoff tournament in Mexico. In the first final earlier, Democratic Republic of the Congo beat Jamaica 1-0.

In the other games, Turkiye, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sweden and Czechia were the final four teams to complete the European quota of World Cup qualification.

Widely considered the most famous sporting event in the world, the 2026 FIFA World Cup will be its biggest ever. Forty-eight nations will play instead of the usual 32, with 104 matches in 16 venues across the three host nations.

Argentina will look to defend the trophy lifted by iconic captain, Lionel Messi at Qatar 2022. Cape Verde, Curacao, Jordan and Uzbekistan will make their debut.

The World Cup’s first game will be a throwback to 2010 when Mexico take on South Africa on June 11 in Mexico City in a replay of the tournament opener then. Football fans will hope the opening goal this year matches the screamer scored by Lawrence Tshabalala from the South African hosts then.

Mexico in group A – which includes South Korea and Czechia – will be one of the toughest of the 12 groups.

Team USA are alongside Australia, Paraguay and Turkiye.

Canada, too, face the challenging task of making it out of a group comprising Switzerland, Qatar and Bosnia.

Here’s a breakdown of the 48 teams in the 12 groups:

Group A:

• Mexico
• South Korea
• South Africa
• Czechia

Group B:

• Canada
• Switzerland
• Qatar
• Bosnia and Herzegovina

Group C:

• Brazil
• Morocco
• Scotland
• Haiti

Group D:

• USA
• Australia
• Paraguay
• Turkiye

Group E:

• Germany
• Ecuador
• Ivory Coast
• Curacao

Group F:

• Netherlands
• Japan
• Tunisia
• Sweden

Group G:

• Belgium
• Iran
• Egypt
• New Zealand

Group H:

• Spain
• Uruguay
• Saudi Arabia
• Cape Verde

Group I:

• France
• Senegal
• Norway
• Iraq

Group J:

• Argentina
• Austria
• Algeria
• Jordan

Group K:

• Portugal
• Colombia
• Uzbekistan
• DRC

Group L:

• England
• Croatia
• Panama
• Ghana

[Aljazeera]

The head of Italy’s football federation (FIGC) has resigned, falling on his sword after the men’s national team failed to qualify for a World Cup for a third consecutive time.

Gabriele Gravina revealed he would step down as the country’s top football official following a meeting held at the FIGC’s headquarters in Rome on Thursday.

His announcement came a day after Sport Minister Andrea Abodi called on him to resign.

Four-time World Cup winners Italy fell at the playoffs again on Tuesday, this time after a penalty shootout against Bosnia and Herzegovina, and will miss this year’s finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The shock waves of the latest humiliation for one of the world’s most successful football nations forced Gravina, 72, to go back on his initial plans to wait until a FIGC board meeting next week to announce a decision on his future.

The FIGC said in a statement that a vote for a new president would be held on June 22.

Giovanni Malago, the former longtime head of the Italian National Olympic Committee who was president of the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics organisation committee, is reportedly one of the names in the hat.

Before then, head coach Gennaro Gattuso is expected to also step down, while general manager Gianluigi Buffon, the former Italy goalkeeper, announced his resignation on Thursday.

Italy’s failure to reach the first-ever 48-team World Cup – which will feature the likes of Cape Verde and Curacao – led Abodi to release a statement saying: “It’s clear that Italian football needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and that starts with changes at the top of the FIGC.”

[Aljazeera]

Punjab are the Kings of 200 plus chases in the IPL. They’d done it eight times before Friday night, and they did it again as Priyansh Arya and Shreyas Iyer laid waste to the Chennai Super Kings bowling attack. Arya had 33 off 9 when the PBKS fifty came up in the fourth over of their innings. Shreyas was 4 off 5 before accelerating to a 26-ball fifty.

CSK are now winless after two games and what will worry them is that they were outplayed in conditions that enhance their strength. They have a strong top five. Pitches like this one, which allow them to hit through the line, makes them stronger. But the 209 for 5 they put up didn’t cover for the weakness in their bowling.

PBKS’ win was their fourth in a row against CSK at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

An 18-year-old who came into a struggling team mid-season last year and emerged as one of their best players might have had reason to believe he had established himself. But with the arrival of Sanju Samson, Ayush Mhatre was bumped down from opener to No. 3. Samson hasn’t been able to get going, falling for two single-digit scores, but the knock-on effect that had on Friday was that Mhatre was out there in the powerplay. And with the field up, he had the liberty to play his shots, and some of them were just so good, including a forehand smash across the line against Vyshak Vijaykumar.

Mhatre was dismissed on the pull shot in the first game of CSK’s season. In the lead-up to this one, Mike Hussey with the whanger kept feeding him short balls and he kept working on the swivel-pull. That work paid off. The third boundary he hit – of three back-to-back – was a confident swivel-pull – and Mhatre deserves more credit for it because the first two were full balls that he had put away over mid-on to engineer that change in length from Xavier Bartlett.

Later, when the field spread and the PBKS bowlers were having success keeping others quiet with wide yorkers – Shivam Dube was 14 off 14 at one point – Mhatre dug one out for a single. That was 10.2. By 10.5, he’d found a solution for a ball the bowler thought was a banker – bringing the bat down as he had done before but this time opening the face to beat short third and backward point to their right and deep point to the left. It was a shot that combined quick thinking with perfect timing.

Mhatre was dropped on 59 and 67 and eventually fell for 73 off 43. At the time, the other end had contributed 38 off 32. The extras chipped in with 12.

Mhatre fell during a period where PBKS picked up three wickets for 20 runs in three overs. In that time, CSK’s projected score slipped from 200 to 185.

CSK’s middle order is a problem with Dewald Brevis recovering from a side injury. But it didn’t feel like a problem while Sarfaraz Khan was at the crease. As a domestic stalwart, he has seen it all and done it all. As one of the IPL’s first teenage stars, when he was sharing a dressing room with Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle, he has always got T20 cricket. Some of his shots were so cool. There was one where it seemed like he’d left a bouncer, the ball going past him before he pushed his bat up at it and sent it for six over the keeper. There were several that he nonchalantly deflected to the deep third boundary and these were off deliveries that the bowler thought he had done well, either going yorker or going into the wicket without giving any room. Sarfaraz’s 32 off 12 balls carried CSK to 209 for 5. It was the first 200-plus score at Chepauk in the IPL since April 2024.

This was a day for breathtaking cameos. Arya topped Sarfaraz’s efforts with 39 off 11 balls. PBKS assistant coach Brad Haddin recalled how Arya had wowed the whole coaching staff when he started batting in the camp ahead of IPL 2025. The bat speed in particular was unbelievable. But what really impressed Haddin was that when Arya joined the team ahead of this season, he had improved on his strengths. He had downed CSK with a century last year. He needed just 11 balls to down them this year. The shots were pure too. There was an on-the-up cover drive for four with zero follow-through that told CSK what they were giving him just wasn’t good enough. PBKS brought up their fifty in the fourth over. They downed more than 30% of the target inside the powerplay.

CSK’s bowlers created a little bit of pressure between the ninth and 12th overs when they were gifted Prabhsimran Singh’s wicket through a run-out and Cooper Connolly’s off a full-toss. At the start of the 13th over, PBKS’ chances of victory, according to the ESPNcricinfo forecaster, was 45%. CSK brought on Rahul Chahar to see if they could push their advantage. Shreyas whacked him for two sixes, moved from 4 off 5 to 19 off 10. PBKS’ chances of winning after those six balls was up at 65%. It didn’t take long for that figure to hit 100. Shreyas helped himself to a 26-ball fifty.

Brief scores:
Punjab Kings 210 for 5 in 18.4 overs  (Priyansh Arya 39, Prabhsimran Singh  43, Cooper Connolly 36, Shreyas Iyer 50, Nehal Wadhera 10, Shashnak Singh 14*;   Anshul Kamboj 2-43, Matt Henry 2-54) beat Chennai Super Kings 209 for 5 in 20 overs (Rutraj Gaikwad 28, Ayush Mhatre 73, Shivam Dube 45, Sarfaraz Khan 32; Xavier Bartlett 1-48, Marco Jansen 1-43, Vijayakumar  Vyshak 2-38, Yuzvendfa Chahal 1-21)  by five wickets

[Cricinfo]