The Qatar women’s national team featured in the country’s bid for the 2022 men’s World Cup but has not played a game since 2014, the New York Times reported.

Founded in 2009, the squad played its first game in 2010, just before FIFA announced Qatar as the host of the 2022 World Cup. In its bid for the tournament, Qatar said it would commit to the “promotion of women’s football, including creation of special facilities.”

Yet the women’s national team last played an official match in April 2014 at the West Asian Football Federation Women’s Championship. It does not feature in the FIFA women’s ranking or on the Qatar Football Association website.

When asked by the New York Times about whether Qatar has followed through on its commitment to women’s football, FIFA responded: “We do not comment on the status of football development in individual countries or the situation of specific member associations.”

Qatar’s women’s soccer team, a squad that featured in the host nation’s bid to host the World Cup in 2010, hasn’t played a game in eight years. @atmccann went in search of its players, and the answer to a question: What happened? https://t.co/eeBNw0cWoF

— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) December 10, 2022

Qatar has slated one of its World Cup stadiums for women’s soccer, and several players from the national team visited New York City and San Francisco earlier this year.

Abeer Ahmed al-Kuwari, the manager of the team, is moving the women’s national team under the umbrella of the Qatar Football Association, she told the New York Times. She has requested a new coach, training staff and more.

But for now, the women’s national team is stuck in a holding pattern, several players told the New York Times.

“We took time off to train, to play only friendlies and stay out of the media,” team captain Suaad Salim al-Hashimi said. “But I think something backfired, something happened that they stopped everything.”

Hagar Nader Nessim Aziz Saleh, another player on the team, is banking on the men’s World Cup to serve as a rising tide for all football in the country.

“We are waiting for the legacy of the World Cup to bring us up,” she said. “That’s our only hope.”

Unrivaled Basketball is on the up and up, with the 3×3 league announcing expansion plans for its second season on Wednesday, growing from six to eight teams in 2026 following the venture's successful round of funding earlier this week.

Joining the offseason upstart in Miami next year will be Breeze Basketball Club and Hive Basketball Club.

The two new teams create 12 more roster spots, while another six will comprise the league's development pool — raising the total athletes on Unrivaled's payroll from 36 in its inaugural season to 54 in 2026.

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Unrivaled is also adding a fourth night of games each week to accommodate the incoming clubs, a move that will eliminate back-to-back matchups though each team will still play two games per week.

After nearly breaking even in their debut season, co-founders Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier are growing Unrivaled ahead of schedule, moving expansion to 2026 from the league's original 2027 target.

"We outperformed every goal we set for the league in year one, and with the incredible talent we have returning paired with the influx of new stars, it was a no brainer to add two more clubs this season," Unrivaled president of basketball Luke Cooper said in the league's Wednesday announcement.

Unrivaled currently has more than 90% of its 2026 roster confirmed — including Dallas Wings rookie superstar Paige Bueckers — with plans to release the full second-season lineup by the end of September.

The NWSL salary cap has become a hot topic in recent weeks, with big-name — and big-money — transfers like Angel City forward Alyssa Thompson's overseas move to Chelsea and North Carolina Courage striker Jaedyn Shaw's reportedly imminent trade to Gotham raising concerns about the league's financial edge.

While Shaw's reported league-record $1.25 million trade proves that US teams are willing to pay a premium for top talent, the disparity between flashy transfer fees and salary limitations could be holding the NWSL back.

"I know that in the NWSL there are ambitious clubs that want to be able to compete with the likes of a Chelsea, with the likes of a Barcelona," retired USWNT star Tobin Heath said on last week's episode of The RE—CAP Show. "These teams are capped out, they can't compete. They're going to lose their best players."

The league's most recent collective bargaining agreement sets each NWSL club's current salary cap at $3.3 million, which will titrate up to $5.1 million by 2030 while also adding potential revenue sharing options.

In 2024, the average league salary was $117,000. However, with 22- to 26-player rosters, teams often low-ball some athletes in order to afford to pay out for superstars.

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Soft salary cap overseas lures soccer's top players

In comparison, the UK's WSL and second-tier WSL2 operate with soft caps, recently shifting to a framework that allows teams to spend up to 80% of their revenue plus a capped contribution from club owners on player salaries.

"We have no intent to kind of 'cap' any players' earnings," WSL Football COO Holly Murdoch told The Guardian earlier this month. "We're at the investment stage of women's football, so we don't want to deter investment. We don't want to put in rules that don't make us an attractive investment."

With NWSL top earners Sophia Wilson and Trinity Rodman becoming free agents in 2026, the US league might need to rethink its model to stay competitive in an increasingly aggressive global market.

The final 2025 WNBA regular-season slate tips off on Thursday night, with crucial playoff seeding still on the line for the league's top postseason contenders.

While the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx have the first overall seed on lock, Thursday could see the No. 3 Las Vegas Aces leap the No. 2 Atlanta Dream to claim the second seed with a win over the now-eliminated No. 9 LA Sparks.

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The No. 4 Phoenix Mercury and No. 5 New York Liberty have also settled their seedings, but the No. 7 Golden State Valkyries' Thursday matchup against the Lynx could see them either steal sixth from the No. 6 Indiana Fever with a win, or fall to eighth behind the No. 8 Seattle Storm with a loss.

The Aces' potential rise to No. 2 comes on the wings of a 15-game winning streak dating back to Las Vegas's August 2nd blowout loss to Minnesota — with the hottest team in the league recently receiving a significant boost off the bench.

Veteran forward and recent Aces signee Cheyenne Parker-Tyus returned from maternity leave in style on Tuesday, putting up eight points in eight minutes against the No. 12 Chicago Sky just two months after giving birth.

"It is not easy to get out there," head coach Becky Hammon said of Parker-Tyus's feat. "She was pumping [breast milk] at halftime. It's remarkable for her to be out there right now, almost miraculous."

"Just putting my jersey on, being with my teammates, being able to be in those huddles, it meant the world today," Parker-Tyus said after the 92-61 win.

How to watch the final 2025 WNBA regular-season games

Three of the four final 2025 games will tip off at 8 PM ET on Thursday, with defending champion No. 5 New York taking on No. 12 Chicago on WNBA League Pass while No. 7 Golden State visits No. 1 Minnesota on NBA TV and No. 13 Dallas hosts No. 4 Phoenix — also streaming live on WNBA League Pass.

Capping the season — and settling the seeding for the 2025 WNBA Playoffs — will be No. 3 Las Vegas vs. No. 9 LA at 10 PM ET, airing live on NBA TV.

The 2025 NCAA volleyball season is heating up, with a pair of Top 10 matchups headlining the first annual ACC-SEC "Showdown at the Net" event on Wednesday.

Recent conference realignment has seen the SEC and ACC emerge as volleyball strongholds alongside the Big Ten, with the two Power Four rivals laying claim to seven of the current Top 10 teams.

Putting their reputations to the test, the conferences launched the two-day "Showdown at the Net" series this season, with 14 SEC vs. ACC games taking place at campuses nationwide while the four top contenders face off in the event's two-game spotlight showcase in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Wednesday doubleheader will first pair the SEC's No. 3 Kentucky Wildcats against the ACC's No. 7 Pitt Panthers before their respective conference standouts take the court as the No. 2 Texas Longhorns face the No. 4 Louisville Cardinals.

The battle between the Longhorns and Cardinals — a rematch of the 2022 national championship game — will be particularly tense, as both squads enter the match without a single loss on the young 2025 season.

How to watch "Showdown at the Net" NCAA volleyball tournament

No. 3 Kentucky and No. 7 Pitt will kick off Wednesday's top-tier college volleyball clashes at 6:30 PM ET before No. 2 Texas and No. 4 Louisville square off at 9 PM ET.

Both games will air live on ESPN.