Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal refused to look too far ahead in the Premier League title race despite seeing his side go top after comfortably beating Sunderland 3-0.

Manchester City's 4-1 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur earlier on Saturday enabled United to take top spot for the first time since Van Gaal took charge at the start of last season.

England captain Chris Robshaw said his side had "let a lot of people down" after they suffered a stunning 28-25 loss to Wales in a crunch “Pool of Death” World Cup clash in front of their own fans at a sold-out Twickenham on Saturday.

England twice led by 10 points, with wing Jonny May scoring a fine try.

Goals by Lorenzo Insigne and Gonazalo Higuain saw Napoli to a precious 2-1 win over Juventus on Saturday and compounded the champions' poor start to the season days before a crucial Champions League fixture with Sevilla.

Juventus had earned their only points from a win and two draws in their five opening games before travelling to a Napoli side that had hit 10 goals in their past three outings, including a 5-0 Europa League win over Club Brugge.

Lionel Messi will be out for up to eight weeks with knee ligament damage suffered as Barcelona returned to the top of La Liga table with a 2-1 win over Las Palmas on Saturday.

Luis Suarez struck twice to ensure no more damage was done to Barca's title bid, but the hosts were left hanging on after Jonathan Viera's deflected effort three minutes from time halved the deficit.

Embattled Sepp Blatter was urged to stand down as FIFA president on Saturday after he was placed under a criminal investigation as his heir-apparent Michel Platini also came under scrutiny over a murky multi-million-dollar payment.

In a dramatic escalation of the corruption scandal engulfing world football Swiss investigators accompanied by Swiss police swept into FIFA's headquarters on Friday as their attention turned to Blatter and Platini.

The 2022 World Cup in Qatar will start on Monday, Nov. 21, kicking off a 28-day tournament that will finish on Sunday, Dec. 18.

FIFA's executive committee confirmed the 2022 dates on Friday, six months after picking Dec. 18 — Qatar's national holiday — for the final.

FIFA has canceled a news conference scheduled with President Sepp Blatter without explanation, fueling the sense of turmoil surrounding football's embattled governing body.

Blatter was scheduled to meet international media at FIFA headquarters after a two-day session chairing the executive committee.

Japan's sports minister said Friday he had tendered his resignation over abandoned plans for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics's main stadium which carried a $2.0 billion price tag that angered the public.

Hakubun Shimomura will stay in the job until a cabinet reshuffle expected next month, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has accepted the resignation, Shimomura said.

World champion Lewis Hamilton warned Thursday that the technical problems that forced him to retire from last week's Singapore Grand Prix could yet resurface in this year's title run-in.

Though he still leads the Formula One championship by 41 points with six races remaining, the Briton said in Suzuka that Mercedes needed to stay wise to the dangers after an off-weekend gave Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel a glimmer of hope.

FIFA insisted Thursday they were "committed" to helping any investigation following the suspension of secretary general Jerome Valcke as Swiss prosecutors demanded access to the French official's emails.

Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber has requested access to all Valcke's emails while the former right-hand man of president Sepp Blatter worked at football's world governing body.