i suppose no, i suppose this will be a holiday football. racism continues to mar the game here. russian football authorities fined after france players suffered racial abuse during a friendly in march. for russia, this is a very big moment because relations with the west have soured immeasurably since they were awarded this tournament. they are now trying to carve out a niche for themselves on the world stage and to have, you know, basic levels of racism taking place will mean that their big moment is being tarnished. amid geopolitical and diplomatic tensions, many in the west see this as a vanity project for president putin and he is sure to play a prominent role here at the luzhniki stadium tomorrow when the tournament kicks off. but despite the fact that sport and politics have neverfelt quite so closely linked, on the pitch, russia 2018 has the potential to be a footballing spectacle. the drama's already begun. one of the favourites, spain, remarkably sacking their coach today over his decision to join real madrid. and when the action does start, the first use at a world cup of var,

the video assistant referee, is sure to spark debate. hopefully the system they are using here can be really smooth and everything can go well. obviously, it's good for the game if we get the right decisions because there's so much riding on the decisions. and spare a thought for this man, the coach of russia managing a warm welcome despite his team being the worst ranked in the tournament. the whole team must be good because the people have interest in it, not only our team. lots of pressure on you? not pressure. no? it's a normaljob. the world's best players will now compete for the sport's greatest prize. the countdown almost complete to a world cup that could be as compelling as it is controversial. dan roan, bbc news, moscow. newsnight is coming up on bbc two. here on bbc one, it's time for the news where you are. have a good night. hello and welcome to sportsday.

sealed with a six. england beat australia by three wickets in the first one day international at the oval. united 2026. the world cup will be hosted by the us, canada and mexico in eight years' time. and painfor spain, as they sack their manager just two days before the start of their world cup campaign. hello and welcome to sportsday.

more build up to the start of this year's world cup in just a moment but first, england made heavy work of a run—chase before eventually beating australia by three wickets in the first one—day international at the oval. it's the visitors first international series since the so—called sandpaper scandal — but after taking a 1—0 lead, england weren't rubbing it in, asjoe wilson reports. arriving at the oval, australia post a new captain and leading a new australian ethos but in south ones and everyone remembered south africa. the ball tampering scandal. old en route to the ground, some witty entrepreneur provided a bit sandpaper. just to rub in. is this abuse or is a banter? i think it's

banter. they love dishing it out so they can have it back occasionally. am 0k -- they can have it back occasionally. am ok —— expecting a little bit of banter. australia missing the star batman, suspended for sandpaper, bowling alley to three wickets. tempting but was backing innovation, led to his downfall. 70—4, england spin bowlers excel but, if glenn maxwell could get i should get going, they could still set a decent total with this kind of thing. on 62 maxwell thought another boundary and found jonny bairstow, test match wicketkeeper gloves off here. a studio were all out forjust 214. with such a low total on the board, a studio needed wickets straightaway when they started bawling. so step forward six foot eight, billy sta nley. forward six foot eight, billy stanley. jason bohn for none, and more followed, going straight to a

fielder. it is, jonny bairstow could hardly bear it. then england settled things for a bit, both captains in different formats, both made 50s, but both could only watch the conclusion from the dressing room. we'll remember edinboro, england lost seven wickets before finally hitting the winning runs, a flourish, a relief. joe wilson, bbc news. it's important we get the win early on in the series and particularly when we show characteristics when it's not our day, that we still can't get ourselves over the line so that's very important for us. it's tough being against australia, they are normally a very strong side and today was the case, it was a really competitive game and it was played in the right spirit. when the world cup kicks off tomorrow in russia, the united states national side will be watching it from their living rooms for the first time in more than three decades. but today, americans had reason to celebrate. ajoint bid between the us, canada and mexico was selected to host the 2026 world cup following a ballot in moscow. our sports news correspondent, richard conway, was there. the member associations

of canada, mexico and usa have been selected. . .. united in victory, mexico and the united states and canada can now prepare to host the 2026 world cup, a prize that they insist we'll turbo—charge football in north america and deliver huge revenues to invest in the worldwide growth of the game. a very emotional day for everyone, it has been a long and hard campaign and congratulations to morocco who put it up to the very end but we are gratified by the result. how could you not be? thankful to fifa, the administration, i said in my thank you note today, an impressive job in a relatively short time. and i'm delighted. the north american bid, known as united 2026, will host 48 teams playing 80 games across the three countries. organisers promise a riot of passion and colour. the north american bid has prevailed and the fifa voters have listened to promises of $11 billion

of profits and a relatively headache free build—up to the tournament. the result will also delight the fifa leadership. donald trump who had urged fifa voters, some felt threatened them, to back the bid, was quick to issue his congratulations. meanwhile prior to the vote vladimir putin made an appearance to thank fifa delegates for their support in the build—up to the russian tournament, which starts in just over 24 hours. welcome to russia. thank you very much. the world cup remains a glittering prize for many nations. russia will take its turn starting tomorrow. the us, canada and mexico now have eight years to prepare for theirs. richard conway, moscow. now we've seen plenty of fireworks in russia already, and i'm not talking about the opening ceremony. today, the spanish football

association announced it had sacked their manager julen lopetegui, just two days before their opening match against portugal. spanish football chiefs said they were unhappy not to be involved in his negotiations to become real madrid boss. i don't feel betrayed during the time he's worked with the national team, julian has done an impeccable job. this is about the way things have been done. i don't mean by him but by the people who have done things without communicating with the spanish football federation while he was an employee here. that's something that we just can't let past. we were forced to sack him what i've always said the best person to guide the national team is lupin. what i can guarantee is that the players and he new technical staff are going to do everything possible to guide the national team as far as possible. it's a very

difficult situation, it's very complicated. well earlier, i spoke to the spanish footballjournalist ernest macia, who told me the whole country has been shocked by the decision. it's really one of the worst decisions i've seen in the world of spanish football and as far as i know, at this moment the new coach, is still surprise, he was a very good coach and apparently the players were happy at how he was working with the team and now it's an improvisation. everything will be an improvisation. everything will be a surprise and i presume that spain will start the games losing by 1—0 before the kick—off. well, england of course arrived in russia yesterday, with their first match against tunisia on monday. there's been lots of talk about how the players will spend their time away from training and matches. tottenham midfielder eric dier says boredom won't be an issue. it's got a nice little basketball nets set up. we've got golf

simulators. we've got uno cards and we will play a lot of uno. just general cards, snooker, we are spoiled, we have but everything really. there's no reason not to be bored. the world cup isn't the only big sporting event starting on thursday. the second major of the men's golfing calendar gets under way with the us open starting at shinnecock hills in new york. 14—time major winner tiger woods is playing at the championship for the first time since 2015. the 42—year—old hasn't finished inside the top ten at this event since he tied fourth at pebble beach in 2010. fellow american phil mickelson, needs only the us open to finish a careergrand slam. four—time major winner, rory mcilroy, admits if he wasn't playing himself, he'd like to see mickelson win it. ifi if i was not playing and just purely

asafan if i was not playing and just purely as a fan of golf i would love to see phil wins this week because it's great for the game. it's a huge story in the game of golf and as someone story in the game of golf and as someone involved in the game i think he would be really cool for that to happen. c is as i'm playing in the tournament out rather beat him and if it is not me that's wins this week he would be a great story if there was the wind. roger federer made his long awaited return to tennis this afternoon after nearly three months out of the game and despite losing his first set to mischa zverev at the stuttgart cup, the former world number one shook off the rust to win 3—6, 6—4, 6—2. federer has dropped to second in the world rankings, behind rafa nadal, but will regain top spot if he reaches the final in germany. as for rafa nadal, well he's withdrawn from next week's championships at queen's club. the french open champion says he needs time to recover after playing 27 matches on clay in the last two months. plenty more build up to the opening game of the world cup tomorrow, when the hosts russia

take on saudi arabia. follow all the build up on the bbc sport website. but for now that's all from sportsday. coming up in a moment, the papers. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are the political strategist, jo tanner, and the broadcaster, david davies. thank you for being with us. many of tomorrow's front pages are already in. today's events in the commons leads the i — following the walkout by snp mps as well as labour resignations over brexit. meanwhile the times reports that jeremy corbyn suffered the biggest rebellion of his leadership today with 90 mps breaking the party line on brexit. the metro carries the same story with mps refusing to abstain from a crucial vote this evening. while the mail reports that tory rebel dominic grieve was spotted going to a meeting at the european commission's london

office today. while the guardian reports that brexit has caused a setback to the uk space industry. the telegraph marks the first anniversary of the grenfell fire which killed 72 people. the express claims the nhs is in crisis with the story of a pensioner with motor neurone disease being stuck in hospitalfor months. and a picture of commuters in north korea crowding to read the state newspapers following that historic summit between donald trump and kim jong un leads the ft well that chaos in the commons is on many of the front pages tomorrow and the fallout from voting in the commons on amendments to the eu withdrawal bill. that does sort of sum it up to an extent. i think everyone expected this week was going to be interesting because of all these boats that were happening because

what had happened in the house of lords we had a series of amendments that it was expected would be overturned when they arrived at the comments but we had a really interesting event today we're during prime ministers questions, the snp, the leader ian blackford had been very upset about the issue that the devolution, the devolved nations does a subject of evolution had not been properly explored during the debate that had been going on so far and does lots of activity on twitter today about suggestions that the s and p were out talking time yesterday deliberately. there were even some tweets todayjust before this particular event happened. that was suggesting people should be watching bmg was. but is not always happen, people don't always encourage people to watch it. you think it was a premeditated stunt? the interesting thing about this was it could backfire article. this was

all about keeping independence on the agenda and about suggesting that the agenda and about suggesting that the comments aren't given due time to scotland in the effect of brexit on scotland. but actually, he saw the extraordinary side of the leader walking out, the rest of the mps walking out, the rest of the mps walking out, the rest of the mps walking out and actually the very thing they have been wanting to happen was about to be granted this three—hour debate they wanted and