Australian Open organizers are planning for players to have two weeks in a biosecure bubble before next year's Grand Slam rather than "be subject to the country's strict hotel quarantine regime." Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said, "We're planning on having a two-week bubble, where the players will be able to move freely between the hotel and the courts. They’re protected, they’re kept safe among themselves and safe from the community as well. And after those two weeks, they’ll come out and be able to compete in the Australian Open in front of crowds." Players, coaches and officials "had to spend 14 days in hotel quarantine after arriving in Australia for the tournament in February." Tiley said that he "hoped Australia would reach its target of vaccinating 80% of adults by November." He added, "That will certainly help the situation for the event in January" (BBC, 8/26).

2nd Bundesliga side Schalke 04 will remain in the League of Legends esports ecosystem following the sale of its League of Legends European Championship (LEC) slot to Team BDS for $31.5M. The organization will continue to compete in Germany’s top competition, the Prime League Pro Division, part of Riot Games’ official European Regional League infrastructure. Several prominent esports organizations that are not represented in the LEC field teams in the Prime League including Berlin Int'l Gaming and mousesports. The ERL system also regularly promotes talent to LEC teams, making them an important part of the European ecosystem. Many of the players that will represent Europe at the upcoming World Championship came up through the ERL system.

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Man City D Benjamin Mendy has been charged with rape, with the club announcing he is "suspended pending an investigation." The 27-year-old has been charged with four counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, Cheshire Police said. The charges "relate to three complainants over the age of 16 and are alleged to have taken place between October 2020 and August this year." Mendy will appear at Chester Magistrates' Court on Friday (BBC, 8/26). Man City said in a statement that it "can confirm that following his being charged by police today, Benjamin Mendy has been suspended pending an investigation. The matter is subject to a legal process and the Club is therefore unable to make further comment until that process is complete" (Man City).

Meanwhile, City Manager Pep Guardiola is likely to leave the club when his contract expires in '23, as he "wants to take a break before venturing into international football," he said on Wednesday. He said, "After seven years at this club, I think I'm going to have a break. I will need to rest after being somewhere so many years and also stop to evaluate what we've done and to try to learn from other coaches." The Spaniard did not say "whether he'd consider any national team other than Spain," but said he did not expect to get hired by "important national teams like Brazil," which typically pick nationals for the job (ESPN.com, 8/26).

F1’s "Drive to Survive" series on Netflix will return for a fourth season in '22. In a short tweet issued on Thursday morning, F1 said the documentary series will be coming back again next year. The Netflix series was first aired in '19 and has been viewed as a "great success story" for Liberty Media, as it has triggered a "boom in interest" amid both young audiences and the U.S. market. The "fly-on-the-wall" nature of the series, with Netflix picking up story lines from each team over the course of the season, has offered some "unique perspectives" on events inside F1 teams. No date has been announced for when Series 4 will be broadcast, but it has traditionally been released in the build-up to the new season. F1's '22 campaign is expected to begin in Bahrain next March (MOTORSPORT, 8/26).

EPL side Leicester City's newly promoted women's club will play the majority of their Women’s Super League home matches this season at King Power Stadium, the home of the men's team. Leicester "won the Women’s Championship title last season to join the WSL for the first time." Their first WSL game at the King Power will be against ManU on Sept. 12. Leicester will not be alone in sharing their ground with their men’s side.League Championship side Reading currently share the Madejski Stadium permanently, while Birmingham City Women will use their men’s team’s St. Andrew’s ground this season while they search for a "long-term venue of their own."

Leicester's women's team took a "significant step forward in terms of facilities last winter when they moved to train at the club’s Belvoir Drive training complex," where their men’s side had been training when they won the Premier League title in '16. The men moved into a new £100M ($137M) training ground on Christmas Eve last year (London TELEGRAPH, 8/25).

Amid the controversy surrounding the Rugby Championship, governing bodies from Australia and New Zealand may have come to the "dreadful realisation they don’t really understand, or possibly like, each other." Things may have "deteriorated since the departure" of former Rugby Australia CEO Rob Clarke. It could be said the two sides have "a lot of shared history but no current relationship." It "may be a bit crass to say money is keeping" RA and NZ Rugby together, "but it’s not necessarily untrue." RA has been "open about its intentions to secure private equity funding, and in fact admires the structure" NZR is proposing with Silver Lake. Sports consultancy Gemba Group last year "urged Australian Rugby to forget the Kiwis and go it alone." And the "simple truth" may be that they "don’t need the Kiwis in order to rebuild the game in Australia" (THE AGE, 8/26).

The French Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) "delivered its first punishment" for the fan violence during Nice-Marseille last Sunday, with Nice "being forced to play this Saturday's match against Bordeaux behind closed doors." The LFP's disciplinary commission "will determine if additional punishment needs to be handed out" after a meeting on Sept. 8. Until then, the result of Nice's matches provisionally "won't be counted in the standings." Nice's south tribune, the scene of Sunday's violence, "will be closed for three additional matches" after the Bordeaux match in a decision made by city officials on Monday. The LFP also "suspended Marseille trainer Pablo Fernandez" indefinitely for his role Sunday's incidents (LE PARISIEN, 8/26).

Meanwhile, Ligue 1 on Thursday "criticised FIFA for extending the World Cup qualifying window, but stopped short of following" the EPL, LaLiga and Serie A, who have already prohibited clubs from releasing players. The LFP in a statement said it "regrets the total lack of consideration by FIFA of the interests of national championships and clubs as employers of players" (ESPN.com, 8/26).

The Australian Football League's women's season has been "delayed a month until January to provide greater flexibility and the least disruption" due to the ongoing COVID outbreak. Season six of the AFLW was "previously scheduled to start in December" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 8/26).

UEFA has announced a seventh sponsor for its women’s competitions, with Heineken to back the women’s game in a new four-season deal until the end of the '25 season. No value was given for the sponsorship (UEFA).

Fernando Alonso will continue to race with the Alpine F1 team next year after the team confirmed his contract extension (MOTORSPORT, 8/26).

"The FA, as part of the UEFA Working Group on Workers’ Rights in Qatar, should be at the forefront of concerted efforts within FIFA to press Qatar to urgently strengthen migrant worker protections, and to investigate deaths and compensate families" -- Amnesty International UK CEO Sacha Deshmukh, urging the FA to get involved to improve the rights of migrant workers ahead of next year’s World Cup (LONDON TIMES, 8/26).

The London Guardian's Ed Aarons argues that Tottenham F Harry Kane "should never have assumed he could force through a move to Manchester City."

The London Telegraph's Jason Burt writes amid rumors of Cristiano Ronaldo possibly signing with Man City that the player's ego "would challenge Pep Guardiola - but Man City need his killer instinct."

Heroes. Simon Kjær and the medical team that saved Christian Eriksen's life are the 2021 UEFA President's Award winners.#UEFAawards pic.twitter.com/3vdmMSQSS9

— UEFA (@UEFA) August 26, 2021

How anyone can look at those CL groups and the potential fun and still think a SuperLeague makes any sense ...

— kevinwilliams (@kevvwill) August 26, 2021

What a gesture!

We'd like to thank Aston Villa for their generosity after they donated their share of the gate receipts from Tuesday's Carabao Cup tie back to The Bluebirds.

Full story and reaction here now...#BarrowAFChttps://t.co/TSEblCGnZW

— Barrow AFC (@BarrowAFC) August 26, 2021

Commonwealth Games 2022: Peaky Blinders writer to join team creating opening ceremony

Organisers have confirmed a cast of 1,200 volunteers will take part in the ceremony on July 28 next year
at Alexander Stadium.🏅

Read more: https://t.co/s90xqU9Ke3
📸: PA pic.twitter.com/U5tN4l7Fyp

— ITV News Central (@ITVCentral) August 26, 2021

Our 🔥 21/22 @NikeFootball Third Kit is now available to buy. 👇#ItsAChelseaThing #CFC

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 26, 2021