Georgia
Portugal v Republic of Ireland, Spain v Georgia: World Cup 2026 qualifying – live
Key events
Goal! Norway 5-0 Israel (Haaland, 72 hat-trick)
Portugal v Ireland starting teams
Portugal: Diogo Costa; Dalot, Rúben Dias, Inácio, Nuno Mendes; Bernardo Silva, Vitinha, Bruno Fernandes; Rubén Neves, Cristiano Ronaldo, Pedro Neto.
Ireland: Kelleher; O’Brien, O’Shea, Collins; Ogbene, Cullen, Knight, Manning; Ebosele, Molumby; Ferguson.
Goal! Norway 4-0 Israel (Haaland, 63)
Goal! Hungary 1-0 Armenia: (Daniel Lukacs, 56)
From last night.
Your team booking its place at the World Cup is one thing. Paying for tickets is another….
When the first tickets for the 2026 World Cup went on sale last week, millions of fans joined online queues only to discover what Gianni Infantino’s assurance that “the world will be welcome” really means. The cheapest face-value seat for next summer’s final, somewhere in the gods of New Jersey’s 82,500-seat MetLife Stadium where the players are specks and the football’s a rumor, comes at a cost of $2,030 (oxygen tank not included). Most upper-deck seats range from $2,790 to $4,210, according to customers who finally glimpsed the prices that had been closely guarded. The much-touted $60 tickets for group-stage games, propped up by Fifa as evidence of affordability, exist only as comically tiny green smudges on the edge of digital seating maps, little more than mirages of inclusivity.
Huge game for Scotland on Sunday, as they welcome Belarus to Glasgow.
Uefa half-time scores:
England news: Quansah ruled out
Andy Martin
Jarell Quansah will miss England’s World Cup qualifier against Latvia due to injury and the defender – who did not play a part in England’s 3-0 friendly win over Wales at Wembley – will return to his club Bayer Leverkusen. England did not reveal the nature of his injury but the 22-year-old has returned to the Bundesliga club as a precaution.
The former Liverpool defender has been a mainstay in Leverkusen’s defence this season but England said no further squad additions were planned for the qualifier in Riga on Tuesday. Thomas Tuchel’s side top their World Cup qualifying group with a perfect record from five games while Latvia are fourth in the standings.
England could qualify for next year’s World Cup with two matches to spare if they beat Latvia on Tuesday and results elsewhere in Group K go their way.
Preamble
It’s do or die for Ireland, though their chances of reaching North America may already be dead. A familiar face in Cristiano Ronaldo awaits them, and Portugal are top of Group F. At Sporting Club’s stadium, Ireland face a huge task. Our other main focus will be European champion Spain, who have won every game so far in Group E, against Georgia, who have never qualified for a finals and are aiming for the playoffs. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia has been a doubt and Liverpool fans will get a chance to see Giorgi Mamardashvili.
European Qualifying matches – (7.45pm UK time unless stated)
Group K
Latvia 2-2 Andorra FT
Serbia v. Albania
Group E
Bulgaria v. Turkey
Spain v. Georgia
Group F
Hungary v. Armenia (5.00pm)
Portugal v. Rep of Ireland
Group I
Estonia v. Italy
Norway v. Israel (5.00pm)
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USA Today Network
Kirk Fordice-like Rick Jackson is sounding a whole lot like Daniel Kirkwood Fordice as he tries to be elected Georgia’s next governor.
Fordice came out of nowhere — actually, Vicksburg is somewhere but you know what I mean — in 1991 to become a two-term Mississippi governor.
He had money but nothing like Jackson, a billionaire businessman who’s also trying to emerge from nowhere politically to win Georgia’s top office.
“The establishment hated Trump, because they couldn’t control him. They are going to hate me,” Jackson says in an ad for Georgia’s Republican Primary on May 19, sounding like one of my favorite Mississippi governors — Fordice, because of his unpredictable personality (he could vilify or charm you, all in one sentence), not his politics. He died in 2004 of cancer.
I stood by a cafe entrance one morning, waiting to cover a Fordice speech. When he appeared, I stuck out my hand to shake his. “I’m not shaking your damn hand. You’re part of the problem down there (referring to the newspaper),” he told me, smiling and moving on.
Jackson rose to become one of economic giant-Georgia’s wealthiest people. He came from Atlanta’s rough midtown area, ending up in the foster care system. He left college due to poor financial circumstances.
The 71-year-old Jackson wormed his way into the dynamic city’s business scene in the late 1970s, mostly of the healthcare variety with mixed success before starting a workforce staffing and services company and later an antibiotics manufacturing plant. He turned those businesses into billion-dollar enterprises.
“It’s God’s money,” he said in rural Blakely, and he’s been charitable with it.
Jackson doesn’t try to hide his vast wealth. His family lives in a 48,000-square-foot mansion at Cumming, a place of nearly 100,000 people near Atlanta in Forsyth County, which once promoted its almost all-white population as a virtue.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Bill Torpy recently wrote that Jackson will spend a ton of his own money in seeking another mansion, the one occupied by Georgia’s governor. Torpy noted that present Lt. Gov. Burt Jones was once heavily favored to win the primary race, but he’s fallen behind Jackson’s bold money bid.
“The one-time front-runner in the Republican primary (Jones) has been relegated to No. 2, the result of a $100 million Mack truck running him over.
Rick Jackson, a billionaire healthcare tycoon, a man with a sly smile and reptilian gaze, is the guy driving that truck,” Torpy wrote.
The GOP field includes Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, who spurned Trump’s demand to find 11,780 votes that would’ve allowed him to win Georgia in 2020.
Fordice was effective with some bombastic rhetoric during his run for governor, but I don’t remember it reaching the histrionic level employed by Jackson. In a major ad blitz, often referencing (Georgia college student) Laken Riley’s murderer, Jackson promises that unauthorized immigrants committing violent crimes will be “deported or departed … any questions?”
In another ad, Jackson growled, “Like President Trump, I don’t owe anybody anything, and like you, I’m sick of career politicians.”
Fordice spent only $1 million to get himself elected Mississippi’s governor. He somewhat sneaked up on the establishment, riding no escalator to the first floor of his Vicksburg concrete river mats-contracting office to declare his intentions. Who could ever forget his announcement seeking the governorship that ran on page 5 of the Clarion Ledger?
Recent polling ahead of Georgia’s May primaries for governor shows the eventual Republican nominee faces a strong Democrat in the November general election, most likely former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. That’ll require another whole pot of money.
— Mac Gordon, a native of McComb, is a retired Mississippi newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.
Gulfstream recently announced a $5 million investment in Georgia education, welcoming students and leaders to its Savannah headquarters.
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