Visa cardholders to get first shot at tickets for 2026 Fifa World Cup
The football fans across the world, possessing Visa cards will have an exclusive opportunity to apply for the Fifa 2026 World Cup tickets in the first phase through a program named Visa Presale Draw. The program will take place between 10th and 19th September, thanks to FIFA’s Official Payment Technology Partner. To participate in the Visa Presale Draw, Visa cardholders must log in to their FIFA.com/tickets account using their FIFA ID and complete the application form at any time during the ten-day application period to secure their chance to purchase tickets. Following a random selection process, FIFA will notify successful Visa cardholders by email beginning no earlier than 30 September. These Visa cardholders will be assigned a date and time slot in October during which they will be able to visit FIFA.com/tickets to purchase tickets (subject to availability). As FIFA’s exclusive payment provider during the first ticket sales phase, Visa ensures a fast, secure, and seamless checkout experience for sports fans around the world. “Excitement for the FIFA World Cup 26 is building fast, and 10th September is a date every football fan should have marked in their calendar,” said FIFA Chief Business Officer Romy Gai. “We’re delighted to once again partner with Visa to give fans the very first opportunity to secure their place at the greatest show on earth. A ticket to the FIFA World Cup isn’t just a ticket – it’s a gateway to the most inclusive and spectacular tournament in our history. Everyone will want to be part of this moment, so make sure you’ve created your FIFA ID and have your Visa card ready.” “We’re reaching a fever pitch with just months to go until kick-off, and Visa is proud to be leading the charge from midfield – connecting fans to the action and empowering local businesses to play their strongest game,” said Frank Cooper, Chief Marketing Officer at Visa. “This isn’t just about early access to tickets – it’s about unlocking opportunities across North America, fuelling the passion of the global football community and ensuring the economic impact of the tournament reaches far beyond the final whistle.”
Divya Deshmukh calls herself fortunate after winning the FIDE Women’s Chess World Cup!
India’s Divya Deshmukh broke down in tears after stunning Koneru Humpy and clinching the women’s World Cup title on Monday, and she, speaking to FIDE, called herself fortunate! Divya outclassed compatriot Koneru Humpy in the tie-break, winning the second rapid game in a tense rook endgame on Monday in Batumi, Georgia. “I need time to process it. I think it was fate that I got the Grandmaster title this way. Because before this, I didn’t even have one norm, and before this tournament, I was thinking ‘Oh, where can I get my norm,’ and now I’m a Grandmaster,” said Divya in an interview with FIDE right after clinching the title. Divya is now the fourth Indian woman to become a GM, after Humpy, R. Vaishali, and Harika Dronavalli. Despite ending up on the winning side on Monday, Divya believes her endgame skills need further polishing. “I definitely need to learn endgames. I’m pretty sure at some point I messed it up. I’m not sure how. It should have been an easy win. I think I should not allow g4. But I think maybe I should just go rook a3, rook f3, rook g3, and that should be a win,” said the 19-year-old. Divya is also hoping that the World Cup win, the biggest triumph of her young career, will lead to more glories. “It definitely means a lot. But of course, there’s uh there’s a lot more to achieve. So this I’m hoping this is just a start,” added Divya.
China fails to qualify for 2026 World Cup, converts its focus to E-sports!
China’s top football body said on Tuesday it planned to form a national e-sports team, a surprise foray into virtual gaming after a dismal performance saw the country fail to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. The new national e-sports football team will compete in “events organized by FIFA, the Asian Football Confederation and other organizations”, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) said. The CFA last month sacked national coach Branko Ivankovic after a 1-0 defeat to Indonesia, a result that effectively dashed China’s hopes of qualifying for the World Cup. But while China languishes at 94th in FIFA’s world rankings, two places below tiny Luxembourg, to the dismay of its vast fan-base, the country’s e-sports sector is booming. In 2024, the industry boasted approximately 490 million users, generated $38.5 billion in annual revenue, and hosted 124 e-sports competitions. At the 2023 Asian Games, China’s e-sports team secured four out of five gold medals. The CFA’s venture into e-sports sparked mixed reactions among Chinese football fans. “I believe this might actually work,” one Weibo user said. “We have quite a considerable e-sports player base in our country, and the talent selection is relatively fair,” he said. Others were less optimistic. “They have messed up football in real life and now they want to mess up football in e-sports,” wrote another.
Argentina can now play without Messi: Scaloni
Argentina has learned to cope with Lionel Messi’s absences and no longer needs to reorganize the line-up when the Inter Miami forward is not available, manager Lionel Scaloni said before Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier against Columbia. Colombia defeated Argentina 2-1 when the sides met last time in the World Cup qualifiers in September. Since making his senior debut in 2005, Messi has scored 112 goals in 192 appearances for Argentina, winning the World Cup in 2022, two Copa America titles, and a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The 37-year-old captain missed Argentina’s 1-0 win over Uruguay and 4-1 thrashing of rival Brazil in March due to injury, with Scaloni’s side securing its place at the 2026 World Cup during that international break. He returned to the squad for this month’s World Cup qualifiers and made a substitute appearance in Argentina’s 1-0 win over Chile last week. “The team is now in a moment where it can play in the same way with Leo (Messi) or without Leo, which used to be more complex in the past as we had to change some players,” Scaloni told reporters ahead of the match in Buenos Aires. “But now we don’t have this necessity and the team works in the same way, that’s good.” While Argentina has already qualified for the World Cup in North America, Colombia is in the sixth and final automatic qualification spot and will be looking to put some distance between itself and seventh-placed Venezuela with a win. “It’s a great team and with great players, and it has a clear style that can put you in trouble,” Scaloni said. “We’ve analyzed it, we’ve shown the players their strengths and what we want to take advantage of. It’s going to be a nice game, especially because we play at home, so it’s good for our people to see the players.”
Italy fear missing the third straight World Cup!
Italy, who have failed to qualify for the last two FIFA World Cups, seem to be in huge anxiety over the uncertainty of missing the finals of the third straight Fifa World Cup after a 3-0 loss to Norway on Friday night. First-half goals from Alexander Sorloth, Antonio Nusa, and Erling Haaland were enough for Norway to inflict another defeat on Italy, who found themselves in a precarious position, in the European World Cup qualifiers. Italy, yet to earn a point, are fourth in Group I, even though they have played two matches fewer than the teams above them because of their involvement in the Nations League. Norway are the table-toppers with nine points followed by Israel with six and Estonia are placed third with three points. Group winners directly qualify for the 2026 World Cup while the runners-up progress to the play-offs. The defeat has created an unprecedented crisis in the Italian football fraternity as the three-time World Cup champions are on the verge of completing the dubious hat-trick of missing the World Cup, having already missed the 2018 and 2022 editions as well. Leading Italian sports daily, Gazzetta Dello Sport called the situation an ‘unprecedented crisis.’ “Let’s prepare for yet another torture in the playoffs, assuming we grab second place. The national team seen yesterday in Oslo was embarrassing and it is legitimate to doubt everything, to expect the worst of the worst. This is who we are, and we are poor, empty,” the newspaper noted. Italy’s under-fire coach Luciano Spalletti took responsibility for Friday’s defeat and told Sky Sport Italia that it was a ‘difficult moment’. “There are always worries, because after a performance like that, you clearly have to ask yourself questions and realize there are problems, but you have to face them because there is no other possibility,” Spalletti said.
Adriyan Karmakar achieves a feat with a silver in his debut at ISSF Junior World Cup
Adriyan Karmakar opened India’s medal account at the ISSF Junior World Cup on Tuesday with a silver on debut in the 50m rifle prone event, ensuring a positive start for the country in the tournament. The 20-year-old junior 3P national champion aggregated 626.7 after 60 shots and missed out on gold by just 0.3 points to Sweden’s Jesper Johansson. USA’s Griffin Lake won the bronze with 624.6. Adriyan, who has earlier represented India juniors at the world championships but never in a World Cup, shot confidently and was one of the earliest participants to finish. His effort was also a junior national record in the event. Among other Indians in the fray, 15-year-old Rohit Kanyan finished 12th with a score of 620.2, while Vedant Nitin Waghmare shot 614.4 to end in 35th place.
Kaka keen to reunite with Ancelotti as part of Brazil’s coaching staff
FIFA World Cup 2002 winner Kaka has expressed his interest in joining Carlo Ancelotti as part of his staff for the Brazilian national team. The former attacking midfielder played 92 matches for the Selecao, winning the World Cup once and the FIFA Confederations Cup twice. “If the think-tank of the national team feels I can help in some way, I think that, at this moment, I am ready. I am prepared,” Kaká said in an interview with Caze TV. Kaka played under Ancelotti at AC Milan and Real Madrid, winning five major trophies with the Serie A side, while he won the Ballon d’Or during the same stint, in 2007. “I stopped playing in 2017. Since then, I have wanted to prepare myself. I took sports business courses at Harvard in the United States. I also earned a coaching degree at the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation). I have experience with the national team, the World Cup. If the opportunity comes, I am ready to return to serve the Brazilian national team,” the Brazilian added. Brazil, a five-time world champion, has struggled for world dominance in the last decade, failing to reach beyond the quarterfinals in four of the last five editions of the FIFA World Cup. Ancelotti will take charge of the team from 16th May, with his first two matches lined up against Ecuador (5th June) and Paraguay (10th June). Brazil is fourth in the World Cup qualification standings with four more matches to go. The top six teams qualify for the FIFA World Cup 2026.
Madhura thought of quitting archery! Drushti Academy takes her back to the limelight with three medals
Amravati had a revelation-day on Saturday after Madhura Dhamangaonkar stunned the world archery with a dream comeback. But Friday was a day of nerves in the Dhamangaonkar house. Shailendra Dhamangaonkar, Madhura’s father, revealed while speaking to New Indian Express, “We had tuned in this morning, and all we had was ‘dhak dhak dhak!’ (loud heartbeats),” he said, adding that being a father to someone who has all three medals for the nation in the same day is of “immense pride. As Madhura won three medals in the World Cup in Shanghai, seeing the Indian flag rise high was a special feeling.” Hailing from Amravati, Madhura was earlier under the tutelage of Ganesh Vishwakarma and Pawan Tambade for the past seven years. Sawant first knew Madhura through archer Prathamesh Fuge, with whom the latter trained at Sonipat. “This is where she joined the Drushti Archery Academy in 2023,” he recalled. But things did not go well at all. Even she thought of quitting archery! Cut to May 2025, the compound archer has a gold medal around her neck after winning the final of the Women’s compound event against Carson Krahe of the United States at the Archery World Cup Stage 2 in Shanghai on Saturday. Her coach, Pravin Sawant, felt that it was her ‘gold wala mind’ that propelled her to victory. “Since she’s been with me, she’s always had it in her mind to win gold for the nation,” he told this daily. Madhura is someone who can grasp quickly from her tutors. “That is her biggest strength. She does what she thinks of. She does what she sets her mind on,” he added. Madhura’s story has destiny playing a pivotal part in making her who she is today. Her father, Shailendra, reminisced about the train travel from Kolkata after her sister took part in an Asian level swimming competition in Dhaka back in 2011. At the time, Madhura had taken gymnastics. “We were travelling (back to Nagpur) and when the train stopped at Chandrapur, we happened to see a woman who won a silver medal in the national games. She was a compound archer, we learnt. This was where Madhura shared her aspirations to be an archer with me,” he recalled. The archer was Jayalakshmi Sarikonda, who is now a sports officer. Little did she know that her medal inspired another to go on and clinch gold at the discipline’s premier tournament. Shailendra credited the sporting background of the family for her daughter’s success.” Her sister took part in swimming, and I was also a Kabaddi player in my day. That was conducive and it fed her confidence,” he opined. Three years ago, Madhura made it to the Indian team for the Archery World Cup Stage 4, where she lost in the second round in individual and in the quarterfinal in the women’s team event, where she paired up with Pragati and Shrishti Singh.
India’s men compound team clinch gold in Archery World Cup Stage-2
India’s men’s compound team won gold in the archery stage World Cup stage-2 in Shanghai on Saturday. India’s men’d team comprising Abhishek Verma, Ojas Deotale and young promising archer Rishabh Yadav delivered a perfect performance, defeating Mexico with a score of 232- 228 to ensure the gold medal in a thrilling encounter. In the women’s compound category Indian women, despite exhibiting a spirited show lost to Mexico and had to be content with a silver finally. Meanwhile Indian mixed team despite losing the match for reaching final, bounced back and secured a bronze medal trouncing Malaysia to make a podium finish. India have already won four medals in the Archery stage-1 world cup..
Deepika, Parth reach recurve individual semifinals in World Cup Stage-2
Deepika Kumari and Parth Salunkhe booked their spots in the semifinals of the individual recurve events at the Archery World Cup Stage-2 in Shanghai on Friday. Parth stunned former Olympic and World Champion Mete Gazoz of Turkiye in a shoot-off in the first round. The Indian also defeated Korea’s Kim Je Deok, a three-time Olympic gold medallist in team events, in the third round. His semifinal will be against reigning Olympic Champion Kim Woojin, another Korean, on Sunday. Olympian Deepika took down China’s Li Jiaman, silver medallist in the team event at the Paris Olympics, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Like Parth, Deepika will also face reigning Olympic Champion – Lim Sihyeon of Korea – in Sunday’s final-four battle. In the compound mixed team event, India’s Abhishek Verma and Madhura Dhamangaonkar went down 156-158 to Great Britain in the semifinals. Abhishek and Madhura will play against Malaysia’s Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh and Mohd. Juwaidi Mazuki in Saturday’s bronze medal match. The Indian men’s and women’s compound teams will face Mexico in their respective finals.
