Arsenal pays 80 million pounds for Bruno Guimarães as Newcastle falls apart piece by piece

Newcastle and Arsenal have agreed a transfer for Bruno Guimarães worth up to 80 million pounds - 70 million up front and another 10 tied to bonuses. The Brazilian is due to undergo a medical on Monday before the official announcement of a long-term contract. But the figure is not the story. The story is what is left of Newcastle: Anthony Gordon left for Barcelona, Sandro Tonali for Tottenham, and manager Eddie Howe vanished in a shock exit. A club that was the richest on the planet a few years ago is now selling one leader a month because it missed out on Champions League qualification. That is what the Saudi billion is worth - one bad round in spring and everything turns upside down.

FIFA called off the 20-billion sell-off, and Infantino is left without cover

FIFA has cancelled the plan to sell a fifth of a newly formed commercial company - a deal valuing the whole business at around 20 billion dollars and set to bring in 4.2 billion. Television rights, sponsorships, licensing and ticket sales were to be carved out into a separate firm. Then Joshua Kushner's Thrive Capital pulled out, and JP Morgan withdrew from its advisory role. UEFA, according to reports, threatened that its members would boycott FIFA matches if private investors gained ownership of the sport's commercial rights. The Asian confederation and CONCACAF joined the resistance. Gianni Infantino then admitted the project had created divisions outweighing the benefits. The question left hanging is a different one: who allowed one man to get that far at all with the idea of packaging up world football and offering it to an investment fund?

Mudryk cleared after almost two years: the rules changed, the ban evaporated

Mykhailo Mudryk is returning to Chelsea after the English federation lifted his doping suspension with immediate effect. The reasoning is an engineer's sentence: under current scientific testing standards, the sample taken from the 25-year-old Ukrainian would not have been reported as positive. So a man lost almost two years of his career because the threshold was set in one place, and is now set in another. Mudryk insisted throughout that he had never knowingly taken a banned substance and appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. His last match was against Heidenheim in 2024, and he kept himself fit alone, training on the pitch of semi-professional Uxbridge. He is now flying to Hong Kong to join the squad. Will anyone answer for those two lost years?

Mladenovski opened the season with his head: Varaždin brought down Hajduk

Macedonian defender Mario Mladenovski came off the bench and eight minutes later was the highest man in Hajduk's box. A header, 1-0 to Varaždin. Pukštas equalised in the 58th minute, Mamić immediately restored the lead, and in the 90th Hajduk won a penalty - which the experienced Marko Livaja missed. 2-1, the start of the Croatian season with a Macedonian signature. The same weekend, Jugoslav Trenchovski made his debut on the Olimpija Ljubljana bench with a 1-0 win over Aluminij, Urbančič scoring in the third minute of stoppage time, and the Slovenian club finally pulled clear of the bottom. Two Macedonians, two wins abroad, on the same weekend. When our people decide matches in other countries' leagues, that is an excellent indicator - but also a reminder that we watch those results on other people's pitches, not on ours.

Shkëndija flies charter to Scotland, and Hibernian has already stumbled at home

Shkëndija travel to Hibernian on Thursday for the first leg of the third qualifying round of the Conference League, kicking off at 9 pm in Edinburgh. And they are travelling by charter flight - a move reported here as news, which by itself says a lot about the football economy we live in. The hosts, meanwhile, are hardly frightening: Hibernian opened the Scottish Premiership with a 1-2 home defeat to Motherwell, after Martin Boyle equalised from the spot in the 55th minute and the visitors went ahead again in stoppage time. A team with more of the play and no goals - that is exactly the kind of opponent that lures you in. The Macedonian runners-up have a genuine chance, as long as they do not start counting on someone else's weaknesses instead of their own game.