Sports

Women’s Champions League: FAI formally bids for Dublin to host 2029 final

Published

2 months ago

June 10, 2026

The Football Association of Ireland has formally submitted a bid to host the 2029 Women’s Champions League final at Dublin’s Aviva Stadium.

Dublin was put forward as a potential host city in an expression of interest by the FAI to Uefa in October, with a preliminary bid submitted in February.

With support from the Irish Government and Dublin City Council, the FAI says it wants to continue to build the city’s “reputation for hosting major sporting occasions” after the 2011 and 2024 Europa League finals at Aviva Stadium.

The 51,700-capacity stadium is also set to stage seven games during Euro 2028.

“Irish football has a strong connection to the UEFA Women’s Champions League with four individual winners in Emma Byrne, Ciara Grant, Yvonne Tracy and Katie McCabe, while 11 different Irish clubs have competed in qualifiers since its inception,” said FAI chief executive David Courell.

“Now, we want to bring its showpiece event to Dublin to inspire the current and next generation of girls.”

The FAI says hosting the showpiece game would be a “fantastic opportunity to build on the “phenomenal growth” of women’s football in Ireland.

Along with the Aviva Stadium, the Principality Stadium in Cardiff was one of three other potential bids to host the 2029 decider.

Parc Olympique Lyonnais and St Jakob-Park in Basel declared interest to host either the 2028 or 2029 finals.

Uefa will announce the winning host stadium for the 2028 and 2029 finals in September.

Republic of Ireland captain Katie McCabe helped Arsenal beat Barcelona in the 2025 Champions League final in Lisbon, while Barca hammered Lyon 4-0 in last month’s final at Oslo’s Ullevaal Stadion.

The 2027 final will be held in Warsaw.

Sports

Connections: Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for Aug. 8, 2026, puzzle No. 684

Published

4 minutes ago

August 8, 2026

qasimgillani

Need help with today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle? You’ve come to the right place.

Welcome to Connections: Sports Edition Coach — a spot to gather clues and discuss (and share) scores.

A quick public service announcement before we continue: The bottom of this article includes the answers — and hints — for the four categories. So if you want to solve the board hint-free, we recommend you play before continuing.

You can access today’s game here. And when you’re done, try out our limited-edition Connections: Soccer Edition for an extra challenge.

Today’s difficulty

Game No. 684’s difficulty: 2.5 out of 5

Connections: Sports Edition hints for Aug. 8, 2026

Scroll below for one answer in each of the four categories.

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Yellow: KICKOFF

Green: LITTLE

Blue: VIOLA

Purple: SEMI

Connections: Sports Edition answers for Aug. 8, 2026

Scroll below for the full answers to each of the four categories.

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Yellow

Ways a game begins: FACEOFF, FIRST PITCH, JUMP BALL, KICKOFF

Green

LLWS: LITTLE, LEAGUE, WORLD, SERIES

Blue

AL Cy Young Award winners: BLUE, COLE, COLÓN, VIOLA

Purple

Precedes “final”: QUARTER, SEMI, STANLEY CUP, WORLD CUP

What is Connections: Sports Edition?

Connections: Sports Edition is The Athletic’s first-ever game, a daily puzzle designed for players to find connections between 16 words on the game board.

The game’s objective is to group words or objects into four groups of four based on commonalities within each group as quickly as possible. Find the groups without making four mistakes. Each puzzle has exactly one solution, so watch out for words or items that seem to belong to multiple categories!

Category examples:
Sports ____ : Fan, Car, Bar, Radio
U.S. Summer Olympians: Biles, Phelps, Ledecky, Lyles

Each category group is assigned a color, revealed as you solve, ranging from straightforward (yellow) to medium (green) to challenging (blue) to tricky (purple).

Who creates the puzzles for Connections: Sports Edition?

That’s me! My name is Mark Cooper, and I create Connections: Sports Edition and work as a managing editor for college sports here at The Athletic. I was previously The Athletic’s managing editor for breaking news.

The next puzzle will be available at midnight in your time zone. Thanks for playing — and share your scores in the comments!