The tournament leaves Saudi Arabia amid sportswashing accusations and ongoing conflict in the Middle East
AS MILLIONS of people wait in a virtual queue to book their booster jab on the NHS website, some are yet to have their first — including a number of athletes at the top level.
It is a personal choice, but with rumours of damaging conspiracy theories circulating around the dressing rooms at elite football clubs, you wonder how this might have been allowed to happen.
How could such misinformation be spread around training grounds where players work closely with doctors and physiotherapists day to day? Even the stadiums they play in almost weekly opened up to the public to help provide mass vaccination.
JAMES NALTON argues that Curtis Jones’s departure leaves Liverpool facing a stark local void as the club’s roots are increasingly swallowed by football’s globalised model
ASIF BURHAN explores why England v Argentina remains football’s most politically and culturally charged fixture in his new book
Pep Guardiola leaving City marks the end of an era of peak modern football, says JAMES NALTON
ALEX HALL is amused at the way the UFOs appear exactly where commercial interests, conspiracies, militarism and right-wing media overlap


