FIFA has set the dates for the first edition of the Women’s Club World Cup.

The first Women's Club World Cup will take place in January-February 2026, with the 16-team tournament held every four years after that, FIFA said in Wednesday's statement. Initial plans to introduce a Women’s Club World Cup were revealed in May 2021 by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who then called it was part of a plan to "revolutionize" the women’s game.

"It’s crucial, after the huge, huge success in Australia and New Zealand at the last [FIFA] Women's World Cup, where we had two million viewers in the stadiums [and] two billion around the world, that we build on that success to create new global competitions, because national team football is obviously based on club football as well," Infantino said following today's FIFA Council meeting, which occurred in advance of the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok.

🔘 Approval of the Women's International Match Calendar 2026-2029
🔘 First edition of FIFA Women's Club World Cup to take place in early 2026
🔘 Mattias Grafström formally appointed as FIFA Secretary General

All the key updates from today’s FIFA Council meeting in Bangkok:

— FIFA (@FIFAcom) May 15, 2024

The council additionally unanimously approved a new international match calendar with a focus on increased opportunities for rest and recovery for both players and coaches. The overloaded calendar in the women’s game has been a growing point of contention for players as the number of injuries — specifically ACL injuries — continue to rise.

Between summer international tournaments and delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, certain European teams had to contend with the possibility of extremely condensed playing demands. That meant balancing workloads between the 2020 Olympics (held in 2021), 2022 European Championships, 2023 Women's World Cup, 2024 Olympics, and another Euros in 2025. 

When England failed to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics in December 2023, captain Leah Williamson told the Telegraph that she and her teammates were actually a bit relieved to have the summer off.

"It's horrendous that one of the first things that popped into my head about the Olympics was, 'at least they'll probably all get another two or three years on their career now, because they'll get a summer off,'" she said. "Everyone needs a rest and now they'll get one.

"Nowadays we get to October and girls are saying, 'I'm tired,' because you're carrying so much from the previous season. We are driving ourselves into the ground with it, so some sort of solution needs to be found soon, in terms of the schedule, otherwise it's not sustainable."

It should be said that the international schedule doesn’t include club responsibilities. The NWSL season kicked off this year with a number of players sidelined due to injuries picked up while playing for their national squads. This was an issue for Gotham FC, whose coach Juan Carlos Amorós called out the international schedule after USWNT forward Midge Purce suffered an ACL tear after competing in the Concacaf Women's Gold Cup.

"We lost Midge during the game which for me is a bittersweet flavor," Amorós told reporters after Purce exited Gotham's March 24th match against Portland. "By the way, it’s another player that came from the Gold Cup. Last week, it was Debinha. We are paying the consequences of a tournament that shouldn’t have happened.

"We’re talking about protecting the players, [who shouldn't] go to play an international competition after one week of preseason. We’ve seen the consequences now. We’ve got Rose, Lynn, last week it was Debinha in Kansas [City] and now we have Midge. From my experience, the clubs are going to keep paying for that competition."

On Wednesday, Infantino said that rectifying the international match calendar is another step in enhancing the level of competition across the board.

"The Women's International Match Calendar and the subsequent amendments to our regulations represent an important milestone in our pledge to take the women's game to the next level by enhancing competitiveness across the world," he said.

"This calendar is such a critical tool to ensure we continue to drive global professionalization of women’s football," added FIFA Chief Women’s Football Officer Dame Sarai Bareman in a statement. "In many parts of the world, international football provides crucial top-flight playing opportunities for female players, and this is particularly the case in nations where domestic leagues are not yet fully professional. This calendar strikes a balance to enable the domestic and international games to grow side by side, while at the same time ensuring players will have more opportunities to rest, recover, and re-train between windows and following major tournaments."

Arsenal captain Leah Williamson is staying in North London, signing a new contract with the club while Barcelona’s Mariona Caldentey has also reportedly accepted the club's offer.

Williamson, who also captains the England women's national football team, has spent the entirety of her pro career at Arsenal, in addition to being a lifelong fan of the Gunners. The defender has made 232 appearances for the club since 2014, stating in a press release that she's "very happy to be staying."

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"Everyone knows what Arsenal means to me, but I think every time I sign a new contract, I feel that love ignite all over again," she said. "This is a place where I can still continue to grow, develop and be challenged."

Williamson last signed a new contract with Arsenal in 2022, before battling her way back from a season-ending ACL tear that kept her out of the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Arsenal teammate Stina Blackstenius has also re-signed with the club, while longtime striker Vivianne Miedema is set to depart. 

And the Gunners appear to have selected Miedema’s replacement, with Barcelona forward Mariona Caldentey reportedly joining the London side next season. The 28-year-old is set to announce the deal in the coming days, having previously been linked to the Washington Spirit. 

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Caldentey had been with Barcelona since 2014, making 194 appearances and scoring 70 goals with the Spanish club. She's fresh off of winning a third Champions League trophy with Barcelona, and is also coming off of a Women's World Cup win with Spain last summer.

While Barcelona appeared to have confirmed Caldentey's move Tuesday afternoon, Arsenal has yet to release an official statement.

2024 WNBA Draft No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark continues to improve, dropping a professional career-high 30 points in Indiana’s 88-82 loss to Los Angeles on Tuesday. 

She also had six assists and five rebounds alongside three steals and three blocks. Clark is the first rookie to record 30 points, three blocks, and three steals in a game in WNBA history. She’s just the fourth player overall to register the stat line. 

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Clark's 30-point game is also the third-most points by a rookie in Fever history behind Tamika Catchings, who twice scored 32 points in her rookie season. Clark has now become the fastest rookie in league history to record 100 points and 50 assists. 

"I think I just played with an aggressive mindset," Clark said after the game. "I think that was the biggest thing — to play downhill the best I could. We did some good things and then we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot."

But even Clark’s numbers weren't enough, as the Fever went on to their seventh out of eight games. However, the team has played eight games in 14 days and there hasn’t been much time to rest. Despite signs of growth since the beginning of the season, Clark recorded seven turnovers — a game high. 

"The biggest thing for me is, when I get in there, I still get a little indecisive — and that’s honestly where a lot of my turnovers are still coming from," Clark explained. "Just a little indecision when I do get my feet in the paint, but I think I’ve done a better job of probing and finding people open or finishing at the rim. I think I’ve done a better job as well of understanding who’s guarding me.

"That will continue to get a lot better, [I’ll] continue to take care of the ball a little bit better and find people, not be a little indecisive – I’ve got to make decisions a little bit faster once I do get my feet in the paint."

Down at the half, Indiana fought back to take the lead in the third quarter. But a 28-8 run from Los Angeles left the Fever unable to recover, with the Sparks ultimately prevailing 88-82.

After earning two league MVP awards and back-to-back WNBA championships in the last four years, Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson has witnessed the WNBA’s recent glow-up firsthand — along with all the growing pains that come with it.

"Even after 2020, it was kind of like ‘Oh make me a sandwich, get back in the kitchen, this isn't a real sport,’" she told Just Women’s Sports last week. "Now we get the barbershop talk, we get the rivals, we get the talks, and I feel like that is when we see really true growth."

Growth in the WNBA can take a lot of different forms: There are the sold-out crowds, the record TV numbers, the overwhelming spike in merchandise sales, and a wealth of other data points that tell the story of a league ready for its time in the sun amid the larger sports landscape. 

Much of the league’s growing popularity can be attributed to a shining rookie class bringing more eyes to the sport, with off-court murmurings revolving around young stars getting attention from big brands as both pros and at the college level via NIL deals. But Wilson is quick to mention that generations of talented players have been pushing the sport forward for decades, and she sees her own recent opportunities as a piece of that evolving puzzle. 

The 27-year-old’s WNBA accolades are many, but she is also an Olympic gold medalist hoping for her second this summer, a best-selling author, and a worthy face of a still-growing league. She announced her first signature shoe with longtime sponsor Nike just before the 2024 WNBA season tipped off, and her latest venture has her joining Gatorade’s elite athlete roster.

Wilson is one of the stars of Gatorade’s newest campaigns, a slate of ads that put women athletes directly into conversation with the superstars of men’s sports past and present. The throughline from Michael Jordan to players like A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark has never been more obvious than it is now, a narrative the brand hopes to represent visually — through beads of sweat.

"I feel like it's just one of those full circle moments," Wilson said about the campaign. "As a kid, it's something that I've always been drinking — juice wasn't a thing, it was like, ‘Pass me the Gatorade.’"

Nostalgic affinity aside, Wilson also noted that in order for public opinion of the WNBA to continue to move forward, more players needed to be included in the daily discourse that surrounds all sports, which includes TV commercials and magazine spreads. Visibility leads to curiosity about how WNBA players excel on the court day in and day out, and she feels the league is ready to show off.

"I think that's the best thing that we can ever ask for," she said. "Learn about us, know that we're deeper than basketball players, know that we've been doing this for a minute, and we've been true to this, not new to this."

Yet working to be seen can sometimes be in danger of eclipsing the very thing a player wants to be seen for: playing championship basketball. Wilson says that while sometimes she feels like she "is on a plane more than walking the Earth," she never loses sight of the most important thing in her career. "I love having my voice being heard. I love meeting everybody and connecting with different people. But at the end of the day, the ball must go in the hoop," she said with a laugh.

The ability to balance a long book tour and a variety of offseason appearances with preparing for the WNBA season is something she attributes to her teams, both personal and within the Aces franchise. Las Vegas is one of the few WNBA teams with their own practice facility, and the investment has paid off in spades.

"It is a game-changer to know that people are invested in you and pouring into you, because it's a lot to play, you pour out a lot," Wilson said. "When you have companies, you have a fan base, and a franchise that is like, ‘No, we're gonna pour into you,’ that's when you get the best out of athletes."

The Aces have needed Wilson at her sharpest to start the 2024 season. WNBA legend Candace Parker retired with immediate effect at the beginning of training camp due to lingering injuries, and the team has been without starting point guard Chelsea Gray since last year’s WNBA Finals (which, of course, the Aces won).

Despite the team’s setbacks — or, perhaps, in light of them — Wilson has responded without missing a beat. She already sits third in the league in points per game, while also leading the league in rebounds and sitting fourth in blocks per game. Her candidacy for a third MVP trophy is well on its way as she helps guide her team through an early bout of adversity on the court. Las Vegas has only suffered one loss thus far, but hasn’t always looked like their dominant selves through sections of games, particularly on defense, but Wilson’s perspective has remained solid.

"The past few years, we would go through this funk maybe post All-Star [break], or right before All-Star, but now it's just a little earlier," Wilson said. "But I love that for us because it really allows us to not be complacent — it really allows us to really dial into what needs to be done.

"Ultimately, if it was too easy, everybody would be going back-to-back."

With the 2023 banners already raised and rings doled out, the 2024 roster is looking to build their own form of chemistry throughout a long season. For Wilson, the biggest goal through what’s expected to be a grueling Olympic year is just to remain healthy — in addition to setting her sights on adding to her trophy case.

"If I'm better than I was last year, that's a check-off for me," she said. "I don't really believe in championship or bust. I don't really like that talk, because it's too long of a season for us, and we have a lot of stuff going on now. Obviously I just want to be a winner in every aspect, and bringing up my teammates with me of course is going to be huge because I cannot do this alone."

Where A’ja Wilson goes, it seems, the larger conversation around the WNBA follows, inching closer to becoming as universally spoken about as professional men’s basketball. "I feel like once people really see and dial into — and I can only speak for the Aces because that's my team — what we do, man, that's when the real talk is coming."

Pro golfer Lexi Thompson is retiring, she announced on Tuesday. This will be her final season on the LPGA Tour.

The 29-year-old has been playing professionally for the past 15 years. The two-time Olympian and six-time Solheim Cup competitor said that she’d been contemplating retirement for a few months, coming to the conclusion that it was time to step away.

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"While it is never easy to say goodbye, it is indeed time," Thompson posted to Instagram. "At the end of 2024, I will be stepping away from a full professional golf schedule. I'm excited to enjoy the remainder of the year as there are still goals I want to accomplish.

"I'm looking forward to the next chapter of my life. Time with family, friends, and my trusted companion Leo. I will always look for ways to contribute to the sport and inspire the next generation of golfers. And of course, I look forward to a little time for myself."

Thompson is set to play at the US Women’s Open in Pennsylvania starting Thursday. Speaking from Lancaster Country Club, Thompson told reporters that she’s currently taking it "day by day."

"I'm not going to say yes or no on how many events I'll play or if I do," she said. "I'm just going to take it day by day and see how I feel, especially going into next year, but I'm very content with this being my last full-time schedule year."

Thompson also cited mental health as a factor in her decision to retire.

"I think we all have our struggles, especially out here," she said. "Unfortunately in golf you lose more than you win, so it's an ongoing battle to continue to put yourself out there in front of the cameras and continuing to work hard and maybe not seeing the results you want and getting criticized for it. So it's hard.

"I will say, yes, I've struggled with it — I don't think there's somebody out here that hasn't. It's just a matter of how well you hide it, which is very sad."

This will be Thompson’s 18th-straight year participating in US Women’s Open. At just 12 years old, she was the youngest golfer to qualify for the 2007 tournament, later making her first cut at the major in 2009 at 14.

Thompson turned pro in 2010 and went on to win 11 LPGA tournaments, capturing her first title in 2011 at the Navistar LPGA Classic. 

The retirement came as a surprise to many, including decorated LPGA standout Nelly Korda. 

"She's had such an amazing career," Korda said Tuesday. "I've gotten to be on the team with her a couple times representing our country. I think she does an amazing job for the Tour. She spends so much time going to each pro-am party. She really dedicated her time to growing the game.

"It's sad to see that she's obviously leaving and not going to be out here with us anymore, but she's had an amazing career, and I wish her the best in this new chapter of her life."