Everything you will see at the Women’s World Cup the players had to fight for.
To be allowed to play football. To be able to compete at a FIFA event. And to be paid to be able to dedicate themselves to the sport.
The next month in Australia and New Zealand will undoubtedly be the biggest stage yet for the women’s game with an expanded 32-team festival of football.
And England will be feeling the pressure. As European champions, Sarina Wiegman’s side should be challenging for a first World Cup – despite injuries to key players.
The commitment of the co-hosts promoting the tournament should provide the buzz lacking across much of France in 2019 when England finished fourth under Phil Neville.
And globally the increased profile of players and their teams – and improved media coverage – should generate unprecedented interest.
Little wonder FIFA President Gianni Infantino declared this week in Auckland that “you’ll hear from me only positive things” until after the final.
That does chime in part with the message from the England camp about putting their internal dispute over team bonuses on hold until after the tournament.
But as veteran defender Lucy Bronze said of their collective activism: “It’s a very empowered player group.”
And across women’s football – empowerment is the watchword.
Why are players being guaranteed minimum pay from FIFA for the first time? Because of pressure exerted on Mr Infantino by players and their global union, FIFPRO.
“It just shows what happens when players come together united behind very clear principles for change for themselves, but also a legacy for players to come,” said Sarah Gregorius, a former New Zealand player now leading FIFPRO on women’s football.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:11
Sky’s Nicole Johnston explains everything you need to know.
The stadium in Lyon boomed to chants of “equal pay” four years ago as the Americans lifted the World Cup.
That is yet to be achieved. Far from it.
England collected $17m (£13m) for the men reaching the quarter-finals at the Qatar World Cup last year, while champions Argentina banked $42m (£32.5m).
The country that collects the Women’s World Cup in Sydney on 20 August will only bank $4.3m (£3.3m).
FIFA has effectively blamed rights-holder broadcasters for maintaining disparities by not paying enough to show the games.
But this is a governing body with $4bn (£3.1bn) in cash reserves.
That makes it harder to justify a prize pool of $440m (£340m) for the 32 men’s teams in Qatar and $209m (£161.7m) for the clubs of players when that total is only $152m (£117.6m) for the Women’s World Cup.
FIFA will point to the rise from $30m (£23.2m) from the France 2019 prize fund – but eight more finalists have also been added.
And then there is the guaranteed squad pay now – from $30,000 (£23,200) for players who exit in the group stage to $270,000 (£208,800) for each of the champions.
It is a significant commitment – secured by FIFPRO – given that FIFA’s last published research showed the average global salary for female professional players is only $14,000 (£10,800) and many countries still lack professional women’s leagues.
But the cash will still go to the national football associations rather than the players directly – another barrier that might have to be overcome.
And the players are still feeling marginalised by FIFA beyond pay.
Captains, including England captain Millie Bright, have been banned – just like the men in Qatar – from being allowed to wear “One Love” multicoloured armbands featuring a heart.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
9:59
Lioness stars Beth Mead and Leah Williamson are out of the England women’s football team with ACL injuries, but they’re not alone.
They would have obliquely referenced LGBT+ rights at a tournament with so many out gay players, including Australia captain Sam Kerr, who said: “Obviously, we would have liked to have worn it, but I’m not going to put this team at risk.”
While there is an armband very similar to the One Love armband among the approved options, FIFA made a point of telling the media that the colours should not be considered a rainbow or representing LGBT+ pride.
Perhaps FIFA was unwilling to cave in again having dropped Visit Saudi as a tournament sponsor under pressure from Australia and New Zealand, as well as the players, over the kingdom’s anti-gay laws.
That lobbying made clear the players won’t be silenced on a platform they were denied for so long.
While the men’s World Cup started in 1930, FIFA only sanctioned a women’s world championship in 1991 and then allowed the World Cup brand to be used later.
And while Mr Infantino wants a purely positive focus for the next month, so many players are determined the World Cup spotlight won’t just be used to showcase their skills.
There are battles for equality still to be won with FIFA and in their home countries. Playing at the World Cup will only embolden them to fight for the parity deserved – and earned.
The man who served 14 years in jail for the murder of schoolboy Jimmy Mizen has been recalled to prison for breaching his licence conditions.
It follows reporting in The Sun newspaper that Jake Fahri, 35, was a drill rapper releasing music under the name TEN, who conceals his identity with a balaclava, and was played on BBC 1Xtra.
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with Jimmy Mizen’s family who deserve better than to see their son’s murderer shamelessly boasting about his violent crime.”
Jimmy’s father Barry told Sky News: “We’re not gloating or anything, in a way it’s quite sad.”
His son bled to death after Fahri threw an oven dish at him in a south London bakery on 10 May 2008.
The dish shattered on his chin and severed an artery in the schoolboy’s neck.
Fahri was 19 when he was given a life sentence in 2009 with a minimum term of 14 years and was released on licence in June 2023.
More from UK
His music was played on BBC 1Xtra less than 18 months later, the Sun reported, adding that DJ Theo Johnson named him an “up-and-coming star”.
Jimmy’s father earlier said he and his wife Margaret were “stunned into silence” when they were told about Fahri’s music, which often features violent themes.
In one song, which appears to reference Jimmy’s death, he raps about “sharpening” a blade.
“Judge took a look at me, before the trial even started he already knows he’s gonna throw the book at me,” the lyrics say.
Another track includes the lines: “See a man’s soul fly from his eyes and his breath gone… I wanted more, it made it less wrong. Seeing blood spilled same floor he was left on.”
The BBC has said the artist’s tracks do not feature on any BBC playlists, and that a track which appeared to reference Jimmy’s death had never been played on its channels.
A spokesman for the broadcaster added there were “no further plans to play his music”, adding: “We were not aware of his background and we in no way condone his actions.”
A Probation Service spokesperson said: “All offenders released on licence are subject to strict conditions. As this case shows, we will recall them to prison if they break the rules.”
Jimmy’s parents founded the Mizen Foundation after their son’s death. The charity helps young people in London who are escaping violence.
Mr Mizen said: “It appears that if he’s been recalled to prison, he must’ve breached his licence conditions
The man suspected of abducting Madeleine McCann won’t face any charges in the foreseeable future, a prosecutor has told Sky News.
German drifter Christian B, who cannot be fully identified under his country’s privacy law, is expected to be freed from an unrelated jail sentence this year while police in three countries continue to search for evidence against him.
Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said: “There is currently no prospect of an indictment in the Maddie case.
“As things stand, the accused Christian B’s imprisonment will end in early September.”
Madeleine, aged three, was asleep with her younger twin siblings in the family’s Portuguese rented holiday apartment before mother Kate discovered her missing at around 10pm on 3 May, 2007.
Her parents were dining nearby on the complex with friends and taking turns to check on all their sleeping children every half an hour.
Madeleine’s disappearance has become the world’s most mysterious missing child case.
Philipp Marquort, one of Christian B’s defence lawyers, welcomed the prosecutor’s pessimism about bringing charges.
He said: “This confirms the suspicions that we have repeatedly expressed, namely that there is no reliable evidence against our client.
“We regret that we have not yet been granted access to the investigation files. We have not yet been able to effectively counter the public prejudice arising from statements made by the prosecutor’s office.”
Christian B, 47, is in jail and coming to the end of his sentence for the rape of an elderly American woman in Praia da Luz, the Portuguese resort where Madeleine disappeared.
In October, he was acquitted on a series of rape and indecent assault charges after a non-jury trial in Germany, in which several references were made to his status as the main suspect in the Madeleine case.
The prosecutor said he was awaiting the court’s written judgment before launching an appeal against the acquittal. He believes the trial judges were biased against the prosecution.
If successful, he could apply for a new arrest warrant for Christian B to keep him in custody until a retrial with new judges.
He said: “We hope that the Federal Court of Justice will decide before the end of the accused’s imprisonment. If the Federal Court follows our legal opinion, we could apply for a new arrest warrant for the accused’s offences, so that the accused would then remain in custody beyond September 2025.
Mr Marquort said the defence team would oppose the prosecution’s appeal against the acquittal.
Prosecutor Mr Wolters has said in the past that he believes Madeleine is dead and that Christian B was responsible for her death. The suspect denies any involvement.
The case against Christian B is purely circumstantial; he’s alleged to have confessed to a friend that he abducted Madeleine, he has convictions for sex crimes against children, he was living in the area at the time, his mobile phone was close by when the young girl vanished and he re-registered one of his vehicles the next day.
The prosecutor won’t say what evidence he has to convince him Madeleine is dead, but he admitted he is still trying to find forensic evidence to link Christian B to the girl.
Jim Gamble, former head of the UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre, said he had expected the prosecutor to charge Christian B soon.
“He’s implied the whole way through that he has something more than the public are aware of,” he said.
“He’s made fairly definitive statements about whether Madeleine is alive or dead so you would expect their strategy to have been to charge him sooner rather than later.
“From what he’s said today I wonder if we’re witnessing the re-positioning of something to manage the disappointment that’ll come.”
Mr Wolters, who is based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, is investigating the case with the help of Portuguese police and detectives from Scotland Yard.
An investigation, led by the Surrey and Sussex Police Major Crime Team, is under way and inquiries remain ongoing, police said.
Senior Investigating Officer DCI Kimball Edey said specialist officers “are working around the clock to gather as much information as possible,” and that the force’s “thoughts are with the family and friends of the victims at this unbelievably difficult time”.