عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Sports

NBA to Return to China with Multiyear Deal in Macau

Grant Chum, president and CEO of Sands China, speaks during a press conference to announce NBA pre-season games coming to China in 2025, at the Londoner Hotel in Macau on December 6, 2024. (Photo by Eduardo Leal / AFP)
Grant Chum, president and CEO of Sands China, speaks during a press conference to announce NBA pre-season games coming to China in 2025, at the Londoner Hotel in Macau on December 6, 2024. (Photo by Eduardo Leal / AFP)
TT
TT

NBA to Return to China with Multiyear Deal in Macau

Grant Chum, president and CEO of Sands China, speaks during a press conference to announce NBA pre-season games coming to China in 2025, at the Londoner Hotel in Macau on December 6, 2024. (Photo by Eduardo Leal / AFP)
Grant Chum, president and CEO of Sands China, speaks during a press conference to announce NBA pre-season games coming to China in 2025, at the Londoner Hotel in Macau on December 6, 2024. (Photo by Eduardo Leal / AFP)

The National Basketball Association (NBA) has signed a multiyear deal to play pre-season games in Macau from 2025, marking the league's return to the Chinese market after a years-long absence that followed controversy over the 2019 Hong Kong protests.
Local media quoted NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum as saying the NBA would host two pre-season games annually for the next five years at casino operator Sands China's Venetian arena in Macau, a special administrative region of China. The first games, scheduled for October of next year, will pit the Brooklyn Nets against the Phoenix Suns, Reuters reported.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed the local media reports of the deal. The NBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Although China has recently hosted NBA legends celebrity games, including one scheduled for Saturday at the Venetian property, the pre-season deal will mark a return of regularly scheduled NBA play to China.
The NBA's absence followed a firestorm of controversy around comments five years ago by the Houston Rockets' then-General Manager Daryl Morey, who posted a message on social media in support of anti-government protests in Hong Kong.
Beijing suspended the broadcast of NBA games following that incident, prompting corporate sponsors to flee and the league to suffer what it described at the time as dramatic financial consequences. Pre-season NBA games in China were also scrapped.
In February, Joe Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team and chairman of Chinese tech company Alibaba, said the incident was water under the bridge and that the NBA would love to bring games back to China and Macau.

Most Viewed

 
 
Sports

Iran Threatens to Stop World Cup Games if Faced with Unauthorized Flags or Slogans

Soccer Football - International Friendly - Iran v Gambia - Mardan Sports Complex, Antalya, Türkiye - May 29, 2026 Iran players pose for a team group photo before the match REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
Soccer Football - International Friendly - Iran v Gambia - Mardan Sports Complex, Antalya, Türkiye - May 29, 2026 Iran players pose for a team group photo before the match REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
TT
TT

Iran Threatens to Stop World Cup Games if Faced with Unauthorized Flags or Slogans

Soccer Football - International Friendly - Iran v Gambia - Mardan Sports Complex, Antalya, Türkiye - May 29, 2026 Iran players pose for a team group photo before the match REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
Soccer Football - International Friendly - Iran v Gambia - Mardan Sports Complex, Antalya, Türkiye - May 29, 2026 Iran players pose for a team group photo before the match REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo

Iran threatened to halt its matches at the World Cup if unauthorized flags are displayed or slogans targeting the national team are chanted at stadiums, Iranian media reported, citing Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali, following criticism of the team’s presence at the tournament.

The World Cup begins on Thursday, with Iran opening their Group G campaign against New Zealand in Los Angeles on June 15. They next face Belgium at the same venue on June 21 before taking on Egypt in Seattle on June 26.

"We have informed FIFA that if unofficial flags are brought or slogans against the national team are chanted in the stadiums where Iran plays in the World Cup, the team manager will definitely be responsible for stopping the match," Donyamali said on Tuesday, according to Iranian media, Reuters reported.

"We have been assured that no disruptive incidents will occur in the stadium during the match against Egypt."

In April, protesters gathered outside the FIFA Congress in Vancouver called for Iran to be banned from the tournament, saying the team represents the Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps rather than the Iranian people.

The Iranian team has also faced organizational challenges, with Iran’s football federation saying its ticket allocation was withdrawn days before the tournament, leaving supporters who had already made travel plans unable to attend their team’s matches.

The team, currently training in Tijuana, Mexico, will be able to enter the US the day before each match, the Department of Homeland Security said, amid a conflict that has added a geopolitical dimension to the tournament.

 

 

 

Sports

Soccer Offers West Bank Palestinians an Escape as the World Cup Kicks Off

File: Palestinian players leave the field after an Asian Group B World Cup qualifying soccer match against Oman at the King Abdullah II Stadium in Amman, Jordan on June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/John Duerden)
File: Palestinian players leave the field after an Asian Group B World Cup qualifying soccer match against Oman at the King Abdullah II Stadium in Amman, Jordan on June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/John Duerden)
TT
TT

Soccer Offers West Bank Palestinians an Escape as the World Cup Kicks Off

File: Palestinian players leave the field after an Asian Group B World Cup qualifying soccer match against Oman at the King Abdullah II Stadium in Amman, Jordan on June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/John Duerden)
File: Palestinian players leave the field after an Asian Group B World Cup qualifying soccer match against Oman at the King Abdullah II Stadium in Amman, Jordan on June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/John Duerden)

As the FIFA World Cup gets underway on June 11, with Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia among the Arab nations set to compete, soccer remains both a passion and a struggle for many Palestinians in the Israeli- occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian national team came agonizingly close to qualifying for the tournament but fell just short of reaching the 48-team field. Still, the World Cup will be closely watched in the West Bank, where, for many young Palestinians, the game offers both an escape from daily pressures and the realities that surround them.

In the Bedouin village of Umm al-Khair, in the Masafer Yatta region south of Hebron, children play on a small soccer pitch bordered by barbed wire erected by Israeli settlers from the nearby Carmel settlement. During a recent game, a ball kicked toward the goal landed beyond the fence as young settlers passed by. The settlers took the ball away, ending the match.

Residents say such incidents are common. The community has lost dozens of soccer balls. Attempting to retrieve them can risk confrontation with settlers and, at times, Israeli soldiers.

Further north, in Nablus, children and teenagers from a local soccer academy train on a municipal stadium pitch that has fallen into disrepair. Along the sidelines, Palestinians from Gaza who held permits to work in Israel before the war watch the sessions as they hang clothes to dry. Stranded in the West Bank since the war broke out in October 2023, many have created makeshift homes in the stadium’s locker rooms, the facility's manager says, fearing they could be forced to return to Gaza.

The Palestinian Football Federation has halted league matches throughout the war, citing the precarious security situation in the West Bank, where the Israeli military frequently conducts arrest raids and has erected scores of checkpoints. Once-rowdy soccer stadiums are largely empty, with some neglected.

At Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium in Al-Ram, home to the Palestinian national team, amateur players gather for training sessions. In Tulkarem, young players, some wearing national team jerseys, do the same. FIFA offered some funding to the Palestinian Football Association, but moved the national team's “home” matches to other countries, including Jordan, Qatar and Malaysia, due to security concerns.

In the absence of regular league play, training sessions have become one of the few remaining spaces for exercise, social interaction and a sense of normality.

As the world’s attention turns toward soccer’s biggest tournament, the game continues to provide moments of community, resilience and hope for Palestinians across the West Bank.

Sports

Adidas, Real Madrid Extend Partnership for 8 Years

FILE PHOTO: An Adidas logo is seen at the new Futurecraft shoe unveiling event in New York City, New York, US April 6, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Penney/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An Adidas logo is seen at the new Futurecraft shoe unveiling event in New York City, New York, US April 6, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Penney/File Photo
TT
TT

Adidas, Real Madrid Extend Partnership for 8 Years

FILE PHOTO: An Adidas logo is seen at the new Futurecraft shoe unveiling event in New York City, New York, US April 6, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Penney/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An Adidas logo is seen at the new Futurecraft shoe unveiling event in New York City, New York, US April 6, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Penney/File Photo

Germany's Adidas said on Wednesday it signed ⁠an eight-year ⁠extension ⁠of its sponsoring partnership with Real Madrid, covering soccer and basketball.

“First formalized in 1980 and then re-established after a short break from the 1998/1999 season, the Adidas and Real Madrid partnership has seen the club become the most successful on the European stage, delivering eight UEFA MEN’S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE™ trophies in this period while wearing the Three Stripes,” it said in a statement.

“From best-in-class technical performance wear that has supported athletes like Zinedine Zidane, Toni Kroos, David Beckham and Jude Bellingham on the field of play, to culture-wear that enables fans to carry their support through all parts of life, the partnership has created some of the game’s most famous sportswear,” it added.

“The new agreement follows shortly after the release of the new Real Madrid Home jersey, a design that brings the finer details of the club’s crest to the fore with deep green and bold pink details,” the statement said.

“The strategic alliance between Real Madrid and Adidas has helped us, over these three decades, to experience one of the most wonderful periods in our history. It has also enabled us to continue nurturing this universal feeling known as madridismo,” the statement quoted Florentino Pérez, president of Real Madrid, as saying.

Adidas CEO Bjørn Gulden expressed pride that “the Three Stripes will continue to be part of this extraordinary success story.”