☕️ Mourinho’s Madrid take centre stage, Infantino backtracks, 5️⃣ stories

At dawn we learned of FIFA’s climbdown on its plans to sell the World Cup, and that news is dominating the headlines today, but there’s more.

These are the five stories we’ve picked to get a very football-filled Saturday underway.

OneFootball Videos

❌ Heavy defeat for Infantino

The FIFA president has cancelled his plans to sell stakes in the World Cup to an investment fund, according to Sky Sports.

BREAKING: FIFA President Gianni Infantino has scrapped plans to sell off a stake in the World Cup. – Friday, 31 July 2026

"It has become clear that the project has created divisions of such a kind that, regardless of the level of support, it no longer serves the objective originally set out," the president said in remarks reported by the same source.

💎 A new diamond at Barça?

Dream debut. Dream performance. IT'S A BRACE FOR HAMZA! ⚽️⚽️🇪🇬 – Friday, 31 July 2026

Hamza Abdelkarim is still very raw, but he has that intangible quality of a natural-born striker.

Yesterday he came up with a brace for Barça in Birmingham out of nowhere. With his anticipation, he won a penalty that he converted himself, and then scored the second by nicking the ball from the opposing goalkeeper’s feet.

📭 Cucurella the postman

A nice little story I saw on Facebook. World Cup winner Marc Cucurella lives in Horsham, a little town in the UK. He let his postman, Gary, wear his World Cup medal today - probably the closest an Englishman has come to one for 60 years! Sounds like Cucurella is a good chap. – Friday, 31 July 2026

Cucurella is like what Infantino thinks FIFA is: the world’s biggest distributor of happiness.

Here we see him lending his world champion’s medal to Gary, the postman from Horsham, the small town in the UK where he used to live before moving to Madrid.

💡 New test for Mourinho’s Madrid

📸 Denis Doyle - 2026 Getty Images

Madrid play Fiorentina today in Austria. Even without Mbappé, Bellingham, Vinicius, Tchouameni and the possible additions of Diomande or Rodri, it will be a good chance to glimpse some features of the new Madrid.

Mou has been setting his team up in a 4-2-3-1 with a starring role for Arda Güler. The partnership between the Turk and Valverde will be key to his approach.

📺 Which matches should you watch today?

10:45 Chelsea-Tottenham
13:30 Manchester City-Inter
15:00 Manchester United-Atlético de Madrid
18:00 Real Madrid-Fiorentina
19:00 Burgos-Athletic Club
19:30 Stoke City-Valencia
20:00 Girona-Arsenal

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.

📸 Denis Doyle - 2026 Getty Images

Real Madrid