The two competitions are currently held every four years but the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) put forward a proposal for a study of the impact of switching to every two years. FIFA president Gianni Infantino called it an "eloquent and detailed proposal" with 166 national federations voting in favour with 22 voting against.
* Relentless Hideki Matsuyama shows no signs of a Masters hangover, only two strokes from the halfway lead at the PGA Championship. Despite a bogey at the tough 18th hole, Matsuyama matched the day's best score, a four-under-par 68 in punishing winds at Kiawah Island, to finish the second round tied for fourth at three-under 141 on Friday.
* Ducati tester Michele Pirro will stand in for injured Pramac rider Jorge Martin at next week's Italian Grand Prix, the team said on Friday. Spanish rookie and former Moto3 champion Martin fractured his right hand and ankle in a big crash in Portugal in April and doctors advised him against returning at Mugello after an assessment on Thursday.
* Team GB athletes and staff travelling to the Olympic and Paralympic Games will receive COVID-19 vaccine shots before they travel to Tokyo, the British Olympic Association said on Friday.
* Centre Johan Goosen finished off an excellent team try as French side Montpellier overcame a forward pounding to edge Leicester Tigers from England 18-17 in the final of the European Challenge Cup at Twickenham on Friday.
* Three times MotoGP championship runner-up Andrea Dovizioso will test for Aprilia through 2021 ahead of a possible return to the grid next year.
* European champion Giacomo Nizzolo won his maiden Giro d'Italia stage on Friday when the Qhubeka Assos rider clinched victory with a fine sprint to the finish on stage 13, a 198-kilometre ride from Ravenna to Verona. Italian Nizzolo, who topped the points classification in 2015 and 2016 without a single stage win, beat Edoardo Affini (Jumbo-Visma) and Slovakia's Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) who came second and third, respectively.
* Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane has ruled out moving abroad if he leaves the north London club at the end of the season. Kane still has three years left on his Tottenham contract but in an interview with former Manchester United defender Gary Neville on The Overlap YouTube channel, the 27-year-old said he wanted a conversation with chairman Daniel Levy about his future.
* Manchester United defender Harry Maguire could miss the Europa League final later this month as he has not yet fully recovered from his ankle ligament injury, manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said on Friday. England international Maguire, who had been ever-present in United's defence, starting 34 of the second-placed team's Premier League games this season, suffered the problem in the 3-1 victory at Aston Villa earlier this month.
* Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Nuno Espirito Santo is to leave at the end of the season, the club said on Friday. The 47-year-old has been in charge since 2017, guiding Wolves back to the Premier League in his first season at the helm and then enjoyed consecutive seventh-placed finishes.
* The 2023 women's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand will be held from July 20-Aug. 20, global soccer governing body FIFA said. The new inter-confederation playoffs, which will decide the last three qualification spots, would be held from Feb. 17-23 the same year.
* A report by European soccer's governing body UEFA said the continent's top-flight clubs are expected to suffer losses of more than 8 billion euros (US$9.78 billion) due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report showed 4 billion euros were lost in gate receipts, 2.7 billion euros in sponsorship and 1.4 billion euros in broadcast revenue.
* Lionel Messi has been given permission by Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman to miss this weekend's final La Liga match of the season against Eibar and take holiday, the club confirmed on Friday, meaning he may have played his last game for Catalan side. The Argentine's contract expires at the end of June and there has been no announcement on an extension.
