Lineker row offers the BBC a chance to reflect on how it does sport March 16, 2023 National treasuredom isn’t codified. It is a status that creeps up on individuals, usually as they enter their twilight years. It does not reflect universal approbation, but certainly requires dissenters to be in a dwindling minority. Gary Lineker is clearly too divisive a figure to be considered a national treasure just yet, but the past [...]
Aramco Team Series 2023: How does the format work, where is it being held and who are the past winners? March 16, 2023 The $5m Aramco Team Series returns for 2023 this week, when dozens of the world’s top women’s golfers will play for individual and team prizes in Singapore. Here is all you need to know about the series. How the Aramco Team Series format works Aramco Team Series events follow a unique format comprising both individual [...]
Manchester United bidders heading for Old Trafford talks this week March 15, 2023 Sir Jim Ratcliffe, one of Britain’s richest men and a hopeful buyer of Premier League outfit Manchester United, is set to appear at Old Trafford tomorrow to receive a presentation on the potential sale of the club. In addition to Ratcliffe’s appearance tomorrow, representatives of Shaikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani – the man behind [...]
Women in Football will ‘probably’ write to Culture Secretary over White Paper diversity concerns March 15, 2023 Campaign group Women in Football says it is likely to raise concerns with Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer about the White Paper on football governance. Women in Football director Jane Purdon said the blueprint for an incoming football regulator appeared to have “stripped out all mention of diversity” targets for a sport already lagging behind. “I [...]
LIV Golf League’s best kept secret: Why half of the field are at risk of being ditched March 15, 2023 It wasn’t the start to the LIV Golf League that Lee Westwood would have wanted but there were no consequences for the Englishman finishing 41st of a 48-man field in Mexico last month as the big-money tournaments on the upstart circuit famously have no cuts. No cuts, that is, until the end of the season, [...]
Why Fifa’s 2026 World Cup U-turn risks a fresh player welfare row March 14, 2023 Fifa is set to risk a new player welfare row by redesigning the format of the next men’s World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, according to reports. Football’s world governing body had planned to divide the 48 teams at the expanded 2026 tournament into 16 groups of three, in order to allay fears [...]
UK government’s letter to Visa, Deloitte and Allianz prompts rebuke from Olympic chiefs March 14, 2023 Olympic chiefs have issued a rebuke to the UK government over its lobbying of sponsors including Visa, Deloitte and Allianz for Russia to remain banned from sport. The UK has been among the most vocal and active opponents of the International Olympic Committee’s plan to lift the suspension of Russia and its ally Belarus. Culture [...]
World Rugby wades into tackle height debate with new recommendations March 13, 2023 World Rugby has waded into the debate over tackle height by asking national unions to trial “belly tackles” at grass roots level in a bid to make the sport safer. England’s Rugby Football Union provoked a fierce backlash earlier this year when it announced plans to ban tackling above the waist in the community game [...]
Does the BBC’s Gary Lineker row show that the government has a problem with football? March 12, 2023 The weather forecast finished and then suddenly there it was: the BBC’s hurried replacement for Match of the Day following its spectacular bungling of the Gary Lineker row. Shorn of its theme tune, opening title, studio, presenter, pundits, commentators and about an hour of running time, this was bleak and surreal; a sort of post-apocalyptic [...]
UK culture sec urges Olympic partners like Coca-Cola and Visa to back Russia athlete ban March 11, 2023 The UK’s culture secretary has written to sponsors of the Olympics including Coca-Cola and Visa urging them to back a ban on Russian and Belorussian athletes. Lucy Frazer addressed the letter to the CEOs of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Worldwide Partners, which include Coca-Cola, Intel, Samsung and Visa. The letter to CEOs comes after [...]