Modric set for Real Madrid exit amid Rangers transfer links
The Croatia captain will depart the Bernabeu after this summer's Club World Cup in the USA.
Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano claims the former Ballon d'Or winner has a medical organised with the Italian side.
He posted on social media: "Luka Modric to undergo medical and complete formal steps of AC Milan move after the Club World Cup.
"No signature/official steps before that as Modric wants to focus on Real Madrid at the best level possible until the end."
Modric has made nearly 600 appearances for Real, winning six Champions League trophies since joining from Tottenham in 2012.
He was linked with a move to Rangers last month, due to Davide Ancelotti being in the running to become the next head coach at Ibrox.
However, the Scottish club offered the position to Russel Martin, who has been in the post for a week.
Ancelotti has re-joined his father's backroom staff at the Brazil national team.
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BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Fifa, the Club World Cup and Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's money appears to be underpinning the revamped Club World why has the country helped to bankroll an event that has struggled to generate interest, drawing criticism for the impact it could have on players, domestic leagues, and the environment?For those wanting to understand the forces at play over the next month of competition in the US, Miami's Hard Rock Stadium on Wednesday would be an ideal place to after all, is where Real Madrid will kick off their Club World Cup campaign, with new signing Trent Alexander-Arnold set to make his fact the Spanish giants were willing to pay Liverpool a reported £8m to secure the defender's early release so he could play in the tournament is testament to the staggering riches on offer. With a prize pot of $1bn (£750m), top European teams are in line to earn up to £97m if they win, leading to concerns such money could distort domestic leagues and skew competitive balance. Real's Saudi opponents - Al-Hilal - highlight another intriguing aspect of the Riyadh club are owned by the kingdom's Public Investment Fund (PIF).But the vast sovereign wealth fund's involvement in this competition does not stop December, sports streaming platform DAZN agreed to pay Fifa - football's world governing body - $1bn for the tournament's global broadcast was not the only surprise, because it also promised to make the live action available for free. This despite Fifa having previously struggled to find broadcast partners, and after DAZN had posted several billion dollars worth of losses over recent years. Then, a few weeks later, a subsidiary of PIF announced it had acquired a minority stake in DAZN for what it has since confirmed was $1bn - explaining at the time it was "an exciting opportunity to build on DAZN's significant successes in recent years by bringing more sports to fans and audiences around the world".Saudi ties with the Club World Cup strengthened further last week, when PIF became an official partner of an event Fifa president Gianni Infantino claims will "make football truly global".In a statement at the time, PIF claimed the sponsorship deal showed it was "at the forefront of growing football", noting the sport "plays a crucial role in the ongoing transformation" of the is there more to it than that? After all, Fifa had initially struggled to attract sponsors, and ticket sales for some games have been sluggish, with the event perhaps hampered by a complicated qualification system that means recently crowned domestic champions including Liverpool and Barcelona are not the event from seven teams to 32 has also sparked a legal complaint from both the international players' union and the body representing European leagues, who - despite Fifa denials - claim their concerns over a congested calendar and player workload have been ignored. 'Deeply flawed' Back in December, just a few days after Fifa announced its "landmark agreement" with DAZN, the governing body confirmed Saudi Arabia as the host of the 2034 World it is not just the timeline that has inevitably led to speculation over a possible connection between Saudi's investment in the expanded Club World Cup and that hugely controversial years of scrutiny over its human rights and environmental record, the Saudi bid for the World Cup was unopposed. Australia - the only other potential candidate - decided not to enter the running, hinting it was futile to do so after being given less than a month by Fifa to mount a stood by a fast-tracked process critics argued lacked transparency, and which it was felt effectively paved the way for the Saudis thanks to a decision that only bids from Asia and Oceania would be considered - even though the World Cup had been staged in the Middle East - in Qatar - as recently as sense of inevitability surrounding Saudi's bid was only reinforced after Fifa's evaluation report awarded it a record high score. Ratification was then confirmed by acclamation - in the form of applause - rather than a traditional vote, with only Norway's football federation abstaining, and criticising the bidding has defended Saudi's hosting of football's 2034 showpiece, insisting it can be a catalyst for social improvements, and Fifa insists it was an open and transparent process. But others remain McGeehan, of football campaign group Fair Square, told BBC Sport the World Cup process effectively acted "to ensure that Saudi Arabia was selected as host"."During this deeply flawed bidding process… Fifa sealed a commercially inexplicable broadcasting deal [for the Club World Cup] said to be worth $1bn with an entity that is now part-owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund."Fifa does not like the fact that many people look at these facts and conclude that there must be a linkage between them, but had it run a fair and transparent bidding process in the first place it wouldn't be under this scrutiny."Such sentiments are echoed by Infantino's predecessor Sepp Blatter, who claims the Club World Cup will "over-charge the international calendar".Replying to BBC Sport's questions via his lawyer, Blatter - who remains banned from football until 2028 for breaches of its ethics code - said: "It is obvious that without Saudi's investment, the Club World Cup could not be organised in the US... it's only through financial help of $1bn from Saudi Arabia that the [DAZN] coverage of this competition was possible."There is no more mystery... Saudi Arabia has taken control of international football."In a statement, a Fifa spokesperson rejected the suggestion that investment into the Club World Cup was from one country, saying it now had nine tournament sponsors and that "commercial momentum is strong".They insisted that Fifa has "a duty to develop the game globally and this new competition is in the best interests of football", with all profits redistributed to the clubs through prize money and a $250m 'solidarity' added that the Club World Cup "is not responsible for calendar congestion", noting that it takes place once every four years with a maximum of seven matches for the two finalists."We believe that this new Club World Cup will mark a turning point for club football worldwide…[it] is an event that football needed." 'The most streamed sports event ever' Speaking to BBC Sport from Miami before the Club World Cup's opening match, DAZN's emerging markets chief executive Pete Oliver defended the investment in what he calls "a fantastic competition", insisting it made commercial sense."We've been looking for a big property to take DAZN to the next step," he said. "This is an opportunity to establish ourselves as a global platform for football."Oliver said it was a "very logical deal" for DAZN, insisting the tournament would "take off" and was generating huge interest in regions such as South America."We think this will be the most streamed sports event ever. It will help us build a huge customer database," he added, pointing out DAZN had recouped some of its outlay by regionally sub-licensing rights to some about PIF's subsequent investment in the company, Oliver said: "People always speculate but I can tell you we're not being used as a pawn or anything like that."There was a lot that happened, but these things are not necessarily connected in any way. The investment we had from PIF was around a general investment, but also specifically to establish a partnership for the Middle East and North Africa region."We're an independent company... we're making our own decisions."PIF declined to comment, but sports business expert Callum McCarthy says their investment in DAZN "is expected to result in a Saudi-based sports broadcaster that will rival Qatar's beIN Sports across the Middle East."Saudi Arabia has wanted to own a sports broadcaster for well over a decade and has never really known how to pull it off," he says. "Fifa needed a global broadcaster for this tournament that could fund this thing, and DAZN now has a direct relationship with Fifa. All three parties have got what they wanted out of the equation." 'Marriage of convenience' Speaking on condition of anonymity, one senior FA source told BBC Sport that Saudi's support for the Club World Cup was "a marriage of convenience". The country - they believe - was always likely to stage the 2034 World Cup regardless of the backing of the Club World Cup, thanks to its unprecedented investment in sport, along with the money Fifa believed it could make by returning to the Middle East after Qatar felt Saudi's financial backing of the Club World Cup should be viewed as a "bailout" for Fifa, rather than an agreed plan. Fifa, the source said, would have initially been hoping to attract more interest from broadcasters and sponsors, but may have sought help from the Saudis."Sport in the kingdom is still largely known for boxing and horse racing," they said."With Al-Hilal involved in the Club World Cup, this helps establish the country as a footballing nation ahead of the World Cup in 2034, in a way that Qatar failed to do for 2022."Involvement in the Club World Cup may help tempt some players to join the Saudi Pro League. They'll be hoping it brings football to a wider public in their own country, and helps to tackle low attendances at some games."It is notable that Saudi club Al-Ahli has already booked a place in the 2029 Club World Cup. 'Opportunity for growth' Sources close to the Saudi government told BBC Sport the country's investment is purely based on an opportunity for growth in a new market it can also benefit from, as it develops its own plans to use football to boost the economy, boost tourism and help says it fully concurs with Infantino's recent claim that if the US and Saudi Arabia could develop their football industries, and there was less reliance on European football, the sport's annual GDP could double to more than half a trillion dollars in economic this helps explain why Fifa is reportedly already considering a 48-team Club World Cup in 2029 - in line with the expanded men's and women's World Cups."I think that concept could work, as long as the quality of the teams is high," says DAZN's Oliver."That could be very exciting."That is not how player unions will see such a prospect, as they insist their members are already at breaking point. Environmental campaign groups are also vehemently opposed to a competition that has gone from seven matches in a single city to 63 matches across 11 nothing else, this Club World Cup could reveal just how much more expansion the game is capable of, and willing to accept.
The Herald Scotland
an hour ago
- The Herald Scotland
Eilish McColgan: I've run a marathon, now I feel pressure-free
And secondly, she'll almost certainly never tackle a marathon that challenges her as much as her debut did. McColgan has a stellar record on both the track and the road, but having decided she was going to move up to the marathon, it took her literally years to reach the start line. A number of injuries, including knee surgery in late-2023, served to delay and further delay her marathon debut. But finally, at the London Marathon in April of this year, McColgan ran her first marathon. And from almost the second she crossed the finish line, a wave of relief crashed over McColgan and she's spent the past weeks basking in a pressure-free state that she's never before experienced in the entirety of her decade-long elite career. 'This is the first time in my career I'm in no rush to get back into things. It's nice not to feel that intense pressure or stress because so often, I've been rushing to get ready for the next thing,' the 34-year-old says. 'Last year, I was rushing to get back from knee surgery to make it to the Paris Olympics then almost immediately, I felt like I was constantly fighting against time to be ready for the London Marathon. 'So this is the first time ever that I've felt like okay, I've ticked my box for the year and so if I do another marathon in 2025 then great but if I don't then it doesn't actually matter. "It's now up to me what I want to do for the rest of the year instead of feeling like I'm constantly rushing to get ready for the next championship and running out of time. 'It means I now feel the least pressure I've felt during my whole career, and that's really, really nice.' (Image: PA) From the outside, McColgan's run in London was something close to a dream marathon debut; an eighth-place finish, top British female and a new Scottish record of 2 hours 24 minutes 25 seconds was an impressive performance. And given the way the race panned out - McColgan was forced to run almost the entirety of the 26.2 miles alone - the Dundonian appeared to be coping admirably with her maiden marathon run. Appearances can be deceiving, though, and how she appeared to spectators could not have been more contrasting to how she felt. 'From very early in the race, I felt rough. Literally as soon as I started running, I was concerned about how heavy my legs felt and that's obviously a big worry when you've got 26 miles to go,' she says. 'That feeling didn't ever really go away and if anything, it just gradually got worse so mentally I found that tough. I knew it was going to be a very long slog, and it was made even harder given I was running by myself because I had never visualised doing the whole race solo. 'I definitely had moments of thinking of stopping. From halfway, I had cramp in my right quad so in my head I was just telling myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. 'So I honestly don't think I'll ever run a marathon that feels as hard as that again. 'It wasn't until I got in that last half mile stretch heading on to the Mall that I actually believed I was going to be able to finish.' Despite her struggles throughout the two-and-a-half hours of the race, though, McColgan admits her first marathon experience was something she'll treasure. Despite having raced on the biggest stages of them all - she's a four-time Olympian and produced one of the most memorable moments of the Commonwealth Games in 2022 when she won 10,000m gold - the experience and the atmosphere of her debut marathon was, she admits, unique. 'London was very different from track racing because people were cheering specifically for me. I could hear people shouting 'Go Eilish', people were shouting my mum's name or were shouting Dundee Hawks. It was very different from the Commonwealth Games when it was very noisy but you can't pick out what people are saying. The crowd was the only thing that kept me going.' Eilish McColgan won 10,000m gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games (Image: Steve Christo - Corbis) On seeing her finishing time, McColgan's initial feeling was disappointment. She had bettered Steph Twell's previous Scottish record by over two minutes, and her own mum, Liz's, by two-and-a-half minutes. McColgan was, she thought, in shape to go faster but as the weeks since the race have passed, she's begun to realise that finally making her marathon debut after two heavy disrupted years of injury, and battling to the finishing line feeling far from perfect is a remarkable achievement. 'I've been trying to get on the start line of a marathon for two years and it had never happened so of course there was a little bit of doubt in my own mind wondering if it's going to happen,' she says. 'So, on reflection, I'm really proud of finishing it because it would have been much easier to have called it a day early doors.' There is, unsurprisingly, a number of things McColgan will take from her run in London into her upcoming training, and into future marathons. The Scot will focus almost exclusively on the road going forwards and while she remains uncertain quite when her next marathon appearance will be, she's sure of what she wants to achieve on her hermit outing over 26.2 miles. 'Sub 2 hours 20 minutes is a big goal - that's when you start becoming more competitive and giving yourself a chance of being on the podium at the major marathons,' she says. 'I definitely feel like 2:20 could potentially be the next step for me given how tough London felt so next time, if I could feel normal until halfway, I think that would make a big difference to me and to my time. 'I don't know exactly where my next marathon will be but the great thing is there's a major marathon every few weeks so if I aim for Berlin but amn't quite ready, I can push it back to New York or Chicago or even London next year. 'So I feel like I'm in a great position.'
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Eilish McColgan: I've run a marathon, now I feel pressure-free
Firstly, she can finally call herself a marathon runner. And secondly, she'll almost certainly never tackle a marathon that challenges her as much as her debut did. McColgan has a stellar record on both the track and the road, but having decided she was going to move up to the marathon, it took her literally years to reach the start line. A number of injuries, including knee surgery in late-2023, served to delay and further delay her marathon debut. But finally, at the London Marathon in April of this year, McColgan ran her first marathon. And from almost the second she crossed the finish line, a wave of relief crashed over McColgan and she's spent the past weeks basking in a pressure-free state that she's never before experienced in the entirety of her decade-long elite career. 'This is the first time in my career I'm in no rush to get back into things. It's nice not to feel that intense pressure or stress because so often, I've been rushing to get ready for the next thing,' the 34-year-old says. 'Last year, I was rushing to get back from knee surgery to make it to the Paris Olympics then almost immediately, I felt like I was constantly fighting against time to be ready for the London Marathon. 'So this is the first time ever that I've felt like okay, I've ticked my box for the year and so if I do another marathon in 2025 then great but if I don't then it doesn't actually matter. "It's now up to me what I want to do for the rest of the year instead of feeling like I'm constantly rushing to get ready for the next championship and running out of time. 'It means I now feel the least pressure I've felt during my whole career, and that's really, really nice.' (Image: PA) From the outside, McColgan's run in London was something close to a dream marathon debut; an eighth-place finish, top British female and a new Scottish record of 2 hours 24 minutes 25 seconds was an impressive performance. And given the way the race panned out - McColgan was forced to run almost the entirety of the 26.2 miles alone - the Dundonian appeared to be coping admirably with her maiden marathon run. Appearances can be deceiving, though, and how she appeared to spectators could not have been more contrasting to how she felt. 'From very early in the race, I felt rough. Literally as soon as I started running, I was concerned about how heavy my legs felt and that's obviously a big worry when you've got 26 miles to go,' she says. 'That feeling didn't ever really go away and if anything, it just gradually got worse so mentally I found that tough. I knew it was going to be a very long slog, and it was made even harder given I was running by myself because I had never visualised doing the whole race solo. 'I definitely had moments of thinking of stopping. From halfway, I had cramp in my right quad so in my head I was just telling myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. 'So I honestly don't think I'll ever run a marathon that feels as hard as that again. 'It wasn't until I got in that last half mile stretch heading on to the Mall that I actually believed I was going to be able to finish.' Despite her struggles throughout the two-and-a-half hours of the race, though, McColgan admits her first marathon experience was something she'll treasure. Despite having raced on the biggest stages of them all - she's a four-time Olympian and produced one of the most memorable moments of the Commonwealth Games in 2022 when she won 10,000m gold - the experience and the atmosphere of her debut marathon was, she admits, unique. 'London was very different from track racing because people were cheering specifically for me. I could hear people shouting 'Go Eilish', people were shouting my mum's name or were shouting Dundee Hawks. It was very different from the Commonwealth Games when it was very noisy but you can't pick out what people are saying. The crowd was the only thing that kept me going.' Eilish McColgan won 10,000m gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games (Image: Steve Christo - Corbis) On seeing her finishing time, McColgan's initial feeling was disappointment. She had bettered Steph Twell's previous Scottish record by over two minutes, and her own mum, Liz's, by two-and-a-half minutes. McColgan was, she thought, in shape to go faster but as the weeks since the race have passed, she's begun to realise that finally making her marathon debut after two heavy disrupted years of injury, and battling to the finishing line feeling far from perfect is a remarkable achievement. 'I've been trying to get on the start line of a marathon for two years and it had never happened so of course there was a little bit of doubt in my own mind wondering if it's going to happen,' she says. 'So, on reflection, I'm really proud of finishing it because it would have been much easier to have called it a day early doors.' There is, unsurprisingly, a number of things McColgan will take from her run in London into her upcoming training, and into future marathons. The Scot will focus almost exclusively on the road going forwards and while she remains uncertain quite when her next marathon appearance will be, she's sure of what she wants to achieve on her hermit outing over 26.2 miles. 'Sub 2 hours 20 minutes is a big goal - that's when you start becoming more competitive and giving yourself a chance of being on the podium at the major marathons,' she says. 'I definitely feel like 2:20 could potentially be the next step for me given how tough London felt so next time, if I could feel normal until halfway, I think that would make a big difference to me and to my time. 'I don't know exactly where my next marathon will be but the great thing is there's a major marathon every few weeks so if I aim for Berlin but amn't quite ready, I can push it back to New York or Chicago or even London next year. 'So I feel like I'm in a great position.'
