Key events

18m ago Vitalii Mykolenko agrees fresh three-year Everton contract
38m ago Israeli officials free Palestinian footballer following custody
1h ago Norway brands Scotland unprofessional following training match cancellation
6h ago Encouraging news emerges on Christian Eriksen post-incident
6h ago Lamine Yamal may feature for Spain in opening fixture
6h ago Opening remarks

Turning to women's football, Lauren Hemp notes the England group aims to recover strongly from the 4-0 loss to Spain that ended hopes of direct qualification for next summer's World Cup in Brazil.

Vitalii Mykolenko agrees fresh three-year Everton contract

Andy Hunter

Vitalii Mykolenko has agreed a new three-year deal at Everton. The Ukraine defender, with 157 appearances since arriving from Dynamo Kyiv in 2022, neared the end of his prior agreement though the club held an extension option. That option gives way to the updated contract running until June 2029.

Rob Draper examines Harry Kane's prospects for the Ballon d'Or and how the World Cup could prove decisive in earning recognition as the world's top player.

Israeli officials free Palestinian footballer following custody

Israeli officials have freed a member of the Palestinian women's national football squad after six days in detention following a summons by Jerusalem police, according to her mother.

Wissam Halawani reported that authorities released her daughter Rand Halawani, 20, on Sunday under a five-day house arrest condition. She told AFP the family endured tough days during the detention and now feels immense relief with her return.

The Palestinian Football Association marked the release with a late Sunday statement.

"Rand Halawani breathes freedom ... the release of our national women's team player after her arrest last Tuesday," the association posted on social media alongside an image of her in the team's red kit.

Israeli police noted last week that Halawani and an 18-year-old man faced arrest over an alleged incident in Jerusalem involving objects thrown from a balcony toward marchers below. AFP

Notably, eight sets of brothers will appear at the World Cup, though just four sets share a squad.

The four sharing teams are Lucas and Théo Hernández (France), Jurrien Timber and twin Quinten (Netherlands), Laros and Deroy Duarte (Cape Verde) and Leandro Bacuna and Juninho Bacuna (Curaçao).

The four sets playing for separate nations are:

Brian Brobbey (Netherlands) and half-brother Derrick Luckassen (Ghana).
Désiré Doué (France) and Guéla Doué (Ivory Coast). The pair could meet in knockout stages. Guéla Doué scored in a 2-1 warm-up win over France last week, with Désiré an unused substitute.
John Souttar (Scotland) and Harry Souttar (Australia).
Iñaki Williams (Ghana) and Nico Williams (Spain).

Norway brands Scotland unprofessional following training match cancellation

Scotland manager Steve Clarke drew criticism as unprofessional from Norway counterpart Ståle Solbakken. Solbakken spoke out after Scotland withdrew from a training-ground friendly against his squad.

The planned match between the teams, both based in North Carolina, was set for Monday but the Norwegian Football Federation announced Sunday it was scrapped due to injuries in the Scotland camp. Solbakken commented after his side drew 1-1 with Scotland's Group C rivals Morocco.

He told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK: "It was at least as surprising to me, and it is unprofessional of Scotland. It is unprofessional that the coach has not called me, that they use the team manager and call and say it after we have finished training.

"I don't think the injuries they're blaming came from the last training session. That's not the case. It's disappointing. It's unprofessional. But we have to live with that. That's why we adjusted a bit in the game."

Norway team manager Brede Hangeland told NRK: "We have been working on that match for many months. It is embarrassing to cancel it a couple of days before. We can't do anything about it, we just have to forget about it and make the best of it. But there has been a lot of organisation, agreements and gentlemen's agreements and then suddenly they don't want to. I think that was weak, so to speak."

Clarke told BBC Scotland: "It was just going to be a training game for an hour at our training ground. We picked up one or two niggles last week and decided it wasn't worth the risk."

Norway are based at Greensboro, about 90 miles from Scotland's training camp in Charlotte. PA Media

Scotland have reached their World Cup base in Charlotte, North Carolina after their strong 4-0 win over Bolivia in Saturday's warm-up. In fairness to the South Americans, the Sports Illustrated Stadium in New Jersey sits just 11 metres above sea level, whereas La Paz reaches 3,600 metres above sea level.

Here is what Scotland manager Steve Clarke said about the stay so far in the States:

Every experience we've had, training camp in Inter Miami, playing a game in New York, it's surreal really," he told BBC Scotland. "I think the message to the lads is just to try and soak it all in, take it all in. Obviously, the message as the week goes on and it gets closer to the most competitive game will become more serious and more business, but just now it's just about trying to enjoy it, trying to embrace it and I think we're all doing that.
Well, me and some of the boys have been together now for seven years, so we've built a lot to get to this moment. To think of some of the low places that we have been and to be here at a World Cup with this group of players is just fantastic."

And here is what our reporter, Ewan Murray, noted after that win over Bolivia.

If you want to make your own predictions, try our Bracketology game.

If Zohran Mamdani has got time to play it, so do you.

It is mentioned below that Germany could prove a weakened force this tournament but I think the pessimism around the team is reinforced by how tough their group is: Ivory Coast, Ecuador and Curaçao and the fact that none of the starting attackers have been in top form recently: Leroy Sané, Jamal Musiala, Kai Havertz, Florian Wirtz and Nick Woltemade have all struggled for consistency in recent months, but they are still excellent players that could produce something special at the tournament.

It was only a warm-up match but beating USA on Saturday will have given the Germans encouragement, especially as the only goal they conceded was this wondergoal from Antonee Robinson, which no amount of tactical planning can legislate for.

Hello everyone. Let's start with the latest findings from the University of Reading, obviously, who have - in lieu of any nearby octopuses - trained their supercomputer to predict the winner of the World Cup. Here are said findings:

Lionel Messi's Argentina are the most likely team to win the 2026 World Cup, but no single nation dominates the field the way previous champions have.
That is the verdict of a University of Reading supercomputer created by economist Professor James Reade, who has simulated every match of the 48-team tournament 10,000 times to produce probability estimates for each nation.
The model places Argentina at the top of the rankings, with France and Spain almost inseparable in second and third. Brazil and England are closely matched just behind them. Scotland, making a rare appearance at a World Cup finals, are ranked 27th of the 48 nations in the field.
Professor James Reade said: "Argentina come out on top, but what stands out most from this simulation is how tight it is at the summit. France and Spain are virtually indistinguishable in the model, and England aren't far behind either. It has been 60 years since England last lifted the trophy, and the simulation suggests football could finally be coming home."
"What also jumps out is the contrast between sides. Germany's defensive numbers are notably weaker than in previous cycles, while Portugal have one of the strongest attacking ratings in the whole field.

And here are the full rankings, according to Professor James Reade's supercomputer.

1 Argentina
2 France
3 Spain
4 Brazil
5 England
6 Portugal
7 Colombia
8 Netherlands
9 Germany
10 Uruguay
11 Japan
12 Croatia
13 Morocco
14 Belgium
15 Mexico
16 Ecuador
17 Switzerland
18 USA
19 Iran
20 South Korea
21 Algeria
22 Senegal
23 Canada
24 Australia
25 Turkey
26 Austria
27 Paraguay
28 Norway
29 Egypt
30 Sweden
31 Ivory Coast
32 Uzbekistan
33 Tunisia
34 Czech Republic
35 Panama
36 Scotland
37 Iraq
38 DR Congo
39 South Africa
40 Saudi Arabia
41 Jordan
42 New Zealand
43 Qatar
44 Cape Verde
45 Bosnia-Herzegovina
46 Ghana
47 Haiti
48 Curaçao

Thank you for joining me. Michael Butler is in the hotseat for the next few hours.

Ben Fisher

A bit of Premier League news: it promises to be a summer of change at Bournemouth, Andoni Iraola the headline departure. But now an incoming, with their former winger Matt Ritchie, who won promotion to the top flight with the club in 2015, replacing Simon Francis, also part of that title-winning team under Eddie Howe, as technical director. Ritchie joined third-tier Reading last season but the 36-year-old will now continue his career in the game off the pitch, working in a key recruitment role alongside the president of football operations, Tiago Pinto. The headline in this interview with Matt a year ago was somewhat prophetic:

Want to know more about Algeria? Of course you do.

Anders Vad Bruun emails: "From a Danish perspective, a certain Schmeichel the younger didn't do too badly, and the brothers Laudrup are sons of Finn Laudrup, who played 19 games in red and white and scored six goals from the right wing. And then there's Cesare and Paolo Maldini and Enrico/Federico Chiesa for the Italians... "

Jordan coach Jamal Sellami said his team has achieved the desired technical benefits from their loss against Colombia on Monday, and expressed relief that no players were injured during the friendly that came days before the country's first appearance in a World Cup.

Two goals from Jhon Arias gave Colombia a 2-0 victory in San Diego in both teams' last tune-up match ahead of the tournament.

Sellami told reporters after the game that his side had faced a quality opponent and benefited from the experience by testing several aspects during the match. "The technical staff is working on correcting the mistakes in a way that will help develop the team's performance during the next stage in order to reach the required level of readiness," the Moroccan coach said.

Jordan make their World Cup debut against Austria on June 17 in San Francisco. They will then face Algeria six days later before concluding the group stage against Argentina on June 28 in Dallas. Reuters.

Robert Wyland's depiction of ocean life was covered up for a World Cup promotion - now he wants retribution, writes Pablo Iglesias Maurer.

Wyland learned that his work had been entirely erased to make way for a new mural promoting the upcoming Fifa World Cup. Almost immediately, Wyland's team filed a cease and desist. Days later, they filed a lawsuit against Fifa seeking $25m in damages.

Nick Ames, who I am sure is having the time of his life in Varazdin, has the latest from England's first opponents Croatia.

The best of the rest ...

Fifa has reached a settlement with former France midfielder Lassana Diarra in a player transfer rights case, the global soccer body said on Monday. Diarra had been seeking €65 million (£56m) in damages from Fifa and the Belgian FA after the European Union's top court (CJEU) ruled in October that some world soccer body rules breached EU laws.