Football league club chairman makes radical suggestion to help non-league teams – and believes it could get majority backing February 6, 2023 English football is facing fresh calls to overhaul promotion and relegation and make it easier for non-league clubs to climb the men’s pyramid. The number of teams promoted from the National League to League Two should increase from two to three, argues Grimsby Town chairman Jason Stockwood. Stockwood, writing in the Guardian, says there may [...]
Full Swing: Golf’s Netflix docuseries lays bare rancour between PGA Tour and LIV Golf, but will it do a Drive to Survive? February 6, 2023 When Netflix weighed up what to call its latest behind-the-scenes sport documentary, this time about life on golf’s PGA Tour, it plumped for the beige Full Swing. It might have been better off choosing Making A Wedge, such is the preoccupation with money that runs through the eight-part series, or Taking Out The Pin, given [...]
Exclusive: Worcester Warriors sale in spotlight over administrator’s email to witness February 5, 2023 The impartiality of Worcester Warriors’ sale process has been called into question after the administrators were accused of pressuring a witness ahead of a parliamentary select committee. A partner at DCMS–appointed administrators Begbies Traynor warned the witness that they could be sued for defamation if they repeated allegations about preferred bidder Jim O’Toole’s Atlas consortium [...]
Standing to be allowed at Wembley cup final for the first time in more than 30 years February 2, 2023 Standing will be permitted at a men’s Wembley football final for the first time in more than 30 years this month when Manchester United play Newcastle United for the Carabao Cup. Both teams will be allocated 867 tickets each for new “safe standing” areas located at either end of the 90,000-capacity national stadium. It continues [...]
‘Robin Hood powers’: Here’s what a football regulator WILL and WON’T be able to do, according to reports February 2, 2023 A new independent football regulator will be given powers to step in and resolve the sport’s financial row, according to a report. The regulator will also oversee a more robust owners’ and directors’ test and introduce a licensing system paid for by clubs to ensure they are being run sustainably, The Sun reported. The newspaper [...]
Roman Ryder Cup could be battleground for future of golf February 2, 2023 Next Thursday sees the 2023 edition of golf’s unironically-sponsored Waste Management Phoenix Open, where last year exuberant beer tossers halted play when celebrating a hole in one. Ever since, it’s the golfers not spectators who’ve been bringing the sport into disrepute. Tantrums and flung tee pegs, meltdowns about Twitter birthday snubs and playground name-calling have [...]
Carry on spending: Why experts believe the Premier League’s record breaking transfer window sprees are here to stay February 1, 2023 Premier League clubs have been tipped to continue raising the bar for spending after smashing all major records in the January transfer window. Chelsea set a new British transfer benchmark last night with the deadline-busting £107m signing of Benfica and Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez. The £275m spent on the final day and total £815m forked [...]
From Andy Carroll to Virgil van Dijk and Mykhailo Mudryk: Here are the five biggest transfer windows in Premier League history February 1, 2023 Premier League clubs took their January transfer window spending to unprecedented levels last month with a combined outlay of more than £550m. Here are the top five busiest January transfer windows in Premier League history, ranked by fees paid. 2023: £550m+ Chelsea led the way in the Premier League’s biggest winter window to date, signing [...]
Chelsea smash British transfer record for Enzo Fernandez as Premier League clubs set new benchmark in January window January 31, 2023 Chelsea set a new British transfer record by agreeing the signing of Enzo Fernandez as Premier League clubs underlined their financial strength on deadline day. The Blues struck an 11th-hour deal worth £107m with Benfica for Argentina midfielder Fernandez, who will arrive in London on Wednesday to begin an eight-and-a-half year contract. It took Premier [...]
Trevor Steven: The method in Chelsea’s transfer madness – and why Todd Boehly is still taking a massive gamble January 31, 2023 Chelsea’s transfer strategy has been fascinating to watch since Todd Boehly’s consortium bought the club from Roman Abramovich last year. From the outside, the signing of more than a dozen new players for an outlay of around half a billion pounds in transfer fees looks like a scattergun approach. But I can’t imagine for one [...]