hello. i'm marc edwards from the bbc sport centre. coming up on our programme, it'll be a mania in miami. a momentous move to the mls for the magician that is lionel messi. it's hammer heaven time. a first european trophy for 58 years for west ham, as they beat fiorentina in the europa conference final. iga swiatek sales through to the semifinals of the french open, the defending champion loving the clay of roland garros. i am marc edwards with your sport. we start with the news that lionel messi has agreed to join mls side inter miami, following his departure from the french champions paris st germain. he said to have rejected

a more lucrative offer to major league he said to have rejected a more lucrative offer from the saudi arabian side al halal to move to major league soccer. david beckham's arrival gave florida football freedom to dream, but this is more like a fever dream. lionel messi, one of the game's greatest, who has graced the world's biggest stages, saying farewell to france and moving to miami. not since pele joined the new york cosmos in 1975 has arguably the world's best player plied their trade in north america, and the arrival of messi in miami is similarly seismic. it's an absolutely huge moment. it is a deal that the league has been working on for quite some time, and ever since inter miami came into the league in 2020, they have been links to this particular deal. it's something that they would have loved to get done that they've been working hard to get done, and it always looked like it might be that little bit too far away. so for them to get to the point that they have is absolutely huge, both for inter miami of course, but equally

for mls. between barcelona and paris st germain, messi's entire 833 game career has been spent entirely in europe. now at 35, it is time for a new challenge. miami has glitz and glamour but what they don't have as a manager. they also currently bottom of the eastern conference in major league soccer. even at the tail end of his career he is still one of the very best in the world and that will immediately transfer, i'm sure. what he will find difficult i do believe is the gulf in class between himself and some of the team—mates he will be playing with, but he has the qualities to deal with that. we have seen him win games all on his own, and i think at times you might need to do that, but if anyone can do that in major league soccer it would be lionel messi. so messi mania is heading to miami and mls, the latest chapter in a golden career. it was a day of big transfer news, real madrid have agreed a deal with borussia dortmund to sign the england midfielder jude bellingham for $107

million, or £86 million. the 19—year—old joined dortmund only three years ago from birmingham city and was one of england's top performers at last it was not world cup. england's top performers at last year's world cup. he was also recently voted player of the year in the bundesliga. bellingham has agreed a six—year deal with real madrid and is due to have a medical in the next few days. meanwhile, karim benzema has arrived injeddah, a day after moving to a saudi club. he signed a three—year deal with the saudi champions having spent the last 14 seasons with real madrid. the 35—year—old french international striker scored 354 goals at real madrid, second only to cristiano ronaldo. staying with football, west ham united have won the europa conference league, beating the italian side fiorentina 2—1 in prague to claim their first trophy since claiming the fa cup 43 years ago, and theirfirst european trophy since winning the cup winners�* cup back in 1965.

what a night it has been for the fans of west ham united. their first major trophy for some 43 years secured in dramatic fashion. the first half itself, there wasn't too much goalmouth incident in that, in fact it was rather overshadowed when some west ham supporters through caps overshadowed when some west ham supporters threw cups and missiles onto the pitch. one missile struck cristiano biraghi, the captain of fiorentina. he was bleeding from a wound, he had to be bandaged up. the west ham players had to go and urge their fans to stop throwing missiles, but after the break, west ham struck first, a penalty from saeed benrahma. so west ham were 1—0 up butjust minutes later shearer fiorentina struck back a goal from giacomo bonaventura

making it 1—1, that is how it stayed until the very final minute of the 90, whenjarrod bowen brilliantly put west ham back in front and they held on until the final whistle. west ham's first major european trophy since 1965, and a night theirfans here will certainly never forget. the qatari banker trying to buy manchester united football club has made a fifth and final bid for ownership, and wants an answer by friday. after this point, he says he will no longer engage in the process. the bid is for 100% of the club, and he will clear united's debt and has a separate fund for the club and local community. sirjim ratcliffe �*s ineos group are the other main party trying to buy the premier league side. fifa made false and misleading statements about the reduced environmental impact of the qatar world cup, according to the swiss advertising regulator. the rule was made following complaints made by the uk,

switzerland, france and the netherlands, complaints that related to fifa's marketing claims that the tournament was carbon neutral. the commission advised fifa from making unsubstantiated claims in future. golf now. rory mcilroy says he felt like a sacrificial lamb, and still hated liv golf when he spoke to journalists, after the shock merger between the pga tour, dp world tour and liv golf. he had been one of the biggest critics of the saudi—backed venture that split the professional game, but he added he believes the deal would secure the financial future of the sport. the pif were going to keep spending money in golf, at least the pga tour controls how that money is spent, you know? if you are thinking about one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds in the world, would you rather have them as a partner or an enemy? at the end of the day, money talks and you would rather have them as a partner. it is hard for me to not sit up here and feel somewhat like a sacrificial lamb, and feeling

like i put myself out there, and this is what happens. again, removing myself from the situation, i see how this is better for the game of golf, there's no denying that, but for me as an individual, yeah, i... there is just going to have to be conversations that are had. let's turn our attention now to the french open in paris, where alexander zverev has been tomas martin etcheverry to cap an emotional return to roland garros. the german left the tournament in a wheelchair last year after badly damaging ankle ligaments in his semifinal against rafa nadal, an injury that sidelined him for several months. but he won 6—4, 3—6, 6—4, 6—4, against the unseeded argentine to continue his bid for a maiden grand slam title. i am in the semifinal ofa grand slam, i'm happy to be in the semifinal of the grand slam, any time that i'm there, but of course for me the tournament is not over.

i'm happy to be here but i know that hopefully i have two more matches ahead and they are not going to get easier. zverev will now face casper ruud, who won the all—scandinavian clash against holger rune. he came through in four sets. the top seed and defending champion iga swiantek is through to the semifinals of the french open. the world number one remains on course to retain the title she won last year after a straight sets win over the sixth seed, coco gauff, the woman she beat in last year's final. winning 6—4, 6—2 injust underan hourand a half. tactically, it was a little bit different, but also, you know, the conditions, because coco i think used the wind a little bit more, and last year i don't think it was windy on the final but i can't really remember. yeah, for sure it was more tight in the first sets i'm pretty happy that in those important moments, i was solid and i could put a bit more pressure on coco.

swiantek will now face beatriz haddad maia, the number 14 seed from brazil who came from a sets down to beat 0ns jabeur, the tunisian who reached two finals last year. she becomes the first brazilian woman to reach the last four of a major since 1968. australia's cricketers are on top against india after the opening day of the world test championship final at the oval in london. they were put into bat after india had won the toss and recovered from 76/3, which included usman khawaja being dismissed for a duck to close the day on 327/3. travis head scoring a sparkling century, his sixth in test matches. he will resume 011146 not out. steve smith is only five runs short of his 31st test century. their unbroken stand is worth 251 so far. i have always said that i do

really enjoy batting with steve, because of how much attention he receives, obviously, one of the world's best, our best, probably our best player. he's our best batter, and unbelievable in these conditions. he received so much attention from the opposition, in term of plans, and how difficult he is to bowl to, so i've always felt like i've always said going out to bat with him you really feel like you're in the shadow of that and you can sort of sneak under the radar and go about your business, because he is drawn so much attention. so it felt like that again today, it felt like he wasn't going to leave anywhere, he wasn't going to go anywhere, he was at the other end, and sort of got into that rhythm, and just went about business. sadly that is all the time we have. you can get the latest sports news on the website. but for me and the rest of the team here at the bbc sport centre, goodbye.

hello. well, our weather's been stuck on repeat a bit over the past few weeks, hasn't it? it's been largely dry and settled, with the best of the sunshine towards the west. but things are changing, as we head through the latter part of the week and into the weekend, the heat and the humidity are going to build, and there's a chance of some thunderstorms, as well. now, heading through the course of the weekend, these are the sort of temperatures we could see — mid—to—high—20s, very small chance, one or two places possibly getting near 30 celsius. but we do have a heat health alert that's been issued by the met office and the uk health and security agency, too. so, high pressure has been in charge of our weather, but cast your eyes down towards the southwest — this is storm oscar, and over the next few days, that low pressure is going to push closer towards the uk — and as it does so, we'll draw in these winds for more of an easterly, or even southeasterly direction, so that is what is bringing us the warmer weather. but for the here and now, still in that cooler air mass

at the moment, so thursday morning dawns with quite a bit of cloud for central and eastern areas, and, like recent days, that cloud will burn back towards the east coast through the day. so lots of strong sunshine — you'll notice the breeze blowing through east anglia, southern england, through the english channel, too — but the warmest spots probably getting up into perhaps the mid—20s, still mid—teens, though, for parts of eastern scotland and northeast england. and grass pollen season will be reaching its peak soon, so very high levels of pollen — you'll notice that across england and wales, if you suffer from hay fever. now, thursday evening and overnight into friday, the cloud rolls back westwards once again, as it has done over previous nights. it's probably a little bit less cold, though, temperatures staying up around about 8 or 9 degrees for most of us into friday, we'll see that subtle change in wind direction. so friday, mostly dry again, still a bit of cloud lingering in the northeast, but not as much as recent days. breeze blowing in from the east or northeast, across the southern half of the uk, but look at those temperatures — more widely, we're getting up to about 211—25 celsius, still a little bit cooler than that again in the northeast. heading into saturday, a few showers start to work in, initially for the far

southwest, they'll creep their way northwards and eastwards — perhaps northern ireland, central parts of england and wales could catch some of those hit—and—miss thundery downpours. so we're looking at temperatures probably warmest for many central and eastern areas on saturday. temperatures above average for all of us, as we head through the next five days or so. chance of some heavy showers — it looks like they ease away for many of us through the course of next week. bye— bye.

live from washington, this is bbc news.