Football fans across Afghanistan can watch Watford take on Peterborough United in the England Football League Cup live on Ariana Television Network (ATN) tonight, with coverage beginning at 23:15 Kabul time.

The two sides meet at Vicarage Road on Tuesday in the second round of the EFL Cup, with Watford looking to continue their unbeaten start to the new season.

The Hornets have won two and drawn one of their opening three competitive matches under new head coach Alessio Dionisi. They began their campaign with a 1-0 EFL Cup victory over Crawley Town before beating Southampton 2-1 in their Championship opener. They then drew 1-1 with Wrexham.

Peterborough have also made a positive start, winning two of their first three matches. They beat Bristol Rovers 1-0 in the opening round of the EFL Cup and defeated Mansfield Town by the same score in League One, but lost 2-0 away to Bradford City.

Watford will have home advantage and are being tipped by experts to win.

The clubs last met in 2013, when Peterborough won 3-2 in the Championship. Watford, however, have a strong recent home record against Peterborough and will be hoping to maintain their unbeaten start.

Afghanistan fans can watch Watford vs Peterborough United live tonight on Ariana Television, from 23:15 Kabul time.

The stage is set for the draw for the 2026-27 AFC Champions League Elite, with Saudi Arabian giants Al-Nassr seeded one tier above rivals Al-Hilal ahead of Tuesday’s ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has confirmed the draw mechanism for the expanded league phase, which will feature 32 clubs divided equally between the West and East regions.

In each region, 16 teams will be split into four pots of four. Every club will play eight matches against eight different opponents, with four games at home and four away. Clubs will not face teams from their own national association during the league phase.

Al-Nassr, returning to the competition after missing last season’s edition, have been placed in Pot 2 alongside Uzbekistan’s Neftchi, Iraq’s Air Force Club and UAE side Shabab Al-Ahli.

Al-Hilal, one of the most successful clubs in Asian football, are in Pot 3 alongside Qatar’s Al-Gharafa, Iran’s Tractor and UAE club Al-Wasl.

Defending champions Al-Ahli headline Pot 1, alongside Al-Ain of the UAE, Qatar’s Al-Sadd and Iran’s Esteghlal.

Pot 4 consists of Saudi Arabia’s Al-Qadsiah and Al-Ittihad, Qatar’s Al-Shamal and Uzbekistan’s Pakhtakor.

The draw will use a fixed grid rather than individually selecting eight opponents for each club. Teams will be placed into four columns, with the position determining their home and away opponents.

The AFC has also introduced country-protection measures to ensure clubs from the same national association are not placed in positions that would result in them meeting during the league phase.

The East Region will follow the same format, with clubs including Kashima Antlers, Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, Buriram United, Shanghai Port, Vissel Kobe and Pohang Steelers among the participants.

The top eight teams from each region will advance to the Round of 16, which is scheduled to take place from March 1 to 17, 2027.

The competition will then move to Saudi Arabia for a centralised final stage, with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final scheduled from April 23 to May 1, 2027.

Al-Ahli will begin their title defence seeking to make history by becoming the first club to win the revamped AFC Champions League Elite three times in succession.

The draw takes place on Tuesday, August 18, at AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, with the outcome set to determine the first major matchups of the new Asian club season.

Fan in Afghanistan can meanwhile tune in on Tuesday, August 18, at 12.30pm Kabul time to watch the draw live and exclusively on Ariana Television.

FIFA has released new figures highlighting the enormous logistical and operational effort behind the FIFA World Cup 2026, describing the tournament as the biggest sporting event in history.

The expanded 48-team tournament was staged across Canada, Mexico and the United States over 39 days, featuring 104 matches in 16 Host Cities.

A total of 1,248 players competed before a cumulative stadium attendance of more than 6.8 million spectators.

According to FIFA, delivering the tournament required operations on an unprecedented scale, with 645 official sites across North America and nearly 300,000 accredited personnel supporting every aspect of the competition.

More than 43,000 volunteers, 73,700 accredited security personnel and 2,500 FIFA workforce members from 104 nationalities helped ensure the tournament ran smoothly.

Security operations involved more than one million shifts, while accreditation systems processed over five million scans across tournament venues.

The tournament also presented a major logistical challenge, with teams and officials travelling across three countries.

FIFA recorded 11,337 team movements during the competition, while approximately 300,000 square metres of specially grown sod were used for stadium pitches and training facilities.

The media operation was equally extensive. The International Broadcast Centre in Dallas served as the hub for global television coverage, with production teams using around 5,000 cameras and creating more than 24,000 pieces of content to broadcast every match to audiences worldwide.

FIFA also released figures illustrating the scale of fan services and stadium operations. During the tournament, supporters purchased nearly 675,000 hot dogs, more than 4.6 million soft drinks and bottled waters inside stadiums.

Beyond the match venues, FIFA Fan Festivals attracted more than nine million visitors across North America, while the organisation’s “Know Before You Go” communications programme sent more than 2,300 WhatsApp messages and 7.7 million emails to help fans navigate the tournament.

FIFA said the newly published statistics provide an insight into the scale and complexity of organising the expanded World Cup, noting that the figures are preliminary and that additional facts and operational data will be added to its World Cup Organisation resources in the coming months.