It was once dubbed the “vampire kangaroo” and accused of “feasting on Britain’s creaking infrastructure” after investing in companies such as Thames Water and avoiding tax through a legal but controversial web of subsidiaries in Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands. But Macquarie Group Limited is a growing influence on English football, underlined on one day last month by Leicester and Wolves extending sizeable loans with the Australian investment bank that are mortgaged against future TV earnings.

Now with a portfolio that also includes Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough, Sheffield United, Southampton, Swansea City, Watford, West Brom and Wolves, a company estimated to manage almost £288bn worth of assets has emerged as the …

The Indiana Pacers are a pretty good team. They’ve been to the playoffs nine of the past 10 seasons, and they played .616 ball last season — a 50-win pace over a full 82-game season. They still finished 11 games behind the Bucks in the Central Division. Can a virtually unchanged Indiana roster challenge Milwaukee for the top spot in the Central? Perhaps the Bucks, even with Giannis Antetokounmpo signed to an extension, struggle to jell with a revamped lineup? Maybe? Something like that? Is there any way to manufacture some drama here? No? Okay. Seriously, the Central might be the dullest division in the NBA, not that divisions even mean that much anymore for anything other than scheduling purposes and the ability to split up responsibilities for season previews at a sports website. …

Chelsea are close to agreeing a deal to re-sign striker Romelu Lukaku from Internazionale. The clubs are in talks over an €115m (£97.5m) fee for the 28-year-old, who spent three years on Chelsea’s books from 2011.

PSG closing in on a deal for Lionel Messi after forward talks to PochettinoRead more

The Belgium international played a key role in Inter winning Serie A last season, scoring 24 goals and registering 11 assists. He pledged his future to them in June but has since been convinced by his former club’s offer.

Chelsea’s determination to sign him is understood to have persuaded the former Manchester United and Everton player that it is time for a new challenge.

Lukaku is set to …

Erik ten Hag and Jürgen Klopp have called for an end to “tragedy chanting” before Sunday’s Premier League meeting of Manchester United and Liverpool at Anfield.

In a heartfelt plea, the rival managers insisted that chants and online abuse about the Munich air crash on the one hand and the Heysel and Hillsborough disasters on the other have to cease. They have urged supporters in a joint statement to “keep the passion and lose the poison”.

Liverpool, Manchester United and a shifting dynamic towards similarity | Jonathan LiewRead more

Ten Hag said: “The rivalry between Manchester United and Liverpool is one of the greatest in world football. We all love the passion of the fans when our teams meet, but ther…

Another year, another trophy for Lionel Messi.

With two goals in a 3-2 win over the defending MLS Cup champions, Columbus Crew, on Wednesday, Inter Miami’s global superstar secured the MLS’s Supporters’ Shield – awarded each year to the team with the best regular season record.

It’s the 39th club trophy in Messi’s cabinet, so the temptation is to mark it as simply business as usual. It may actually be one of his most unexpected club titles to date.

Most of Messi’s big moments in MLS have been triumphs of validation – including of MLS’s own ambition. The league still isn’t very close to its goal of being one of the world’s elite competitions, but Messi’s signing has b…

For those used to the United States women’s national team dominating the globe, this edition of the Women’s World Cup has come as a shock. Those who don’t tune in every four years expected turbulence, but the level of bumps and lumps the Americans have taken in Australia and New Zealand has already exceeded the damage thought possible heading into the knockout rounds. There’s no better diagnosis of how the Stars and Stripes’ plan to win an unprecedented third-straight World Cup has gone off-script than a Round of 16 showdown with fellow world power Sweden. Two of the top three teams in the FIFA rankings are guaranteed not to make the quarterfinals, alongside half of the top eight, at least. The group stage of this World Cup will be best remembered for the parity. Germany defea…

Paul George, who broke his leg a week ago during a Team USA scrimmage, will be given a roster spot no matter what for the 2016 Olympics. Here's what Jerry Colangelo, the managing director of USA basketball, said Thursday: "We've told him we have a spot for him in '16," Colangelo told NBA.com at festivities Thursday in advance of the Friday enshrinement of the Hall of Fame class. … "We thought it's the right thing to do," Colangelo said. "That's it…. We didn't give thought to all the detail. Just that when a guy goes down and all these things, the circumstances, his career passes before him, he's out for a year, a year-plus, he's not able to participate now with us — we wanted to throw that out and say, 'We&#…

We have all manner of business to get to before digging into the Funbag, the most pressing of which is that WHY YOUR TEAM SUCKS begins soon. That means you should send your entries into the email link above, and you should do it sooner rather than later because I’ve been having to close submissions earlier every year to avoid having a panic attack. For those of you new to class, here are the guidelines for your entries: This is about why YOUR team sucks, not some random team you hate. If your Steelers entry starts off, “As a Ravens fan,” I will find you and torch your house. Put “WYTS” and your team name in the subject heading. Use proper spelling, capitalization and punctuation, or else I will skip your entry and then kick you into a river. Personal anecdotes and eviden…