Ed Warner: Is China about to bring Russia and its athletes in from the sporting cold? March 30, 2023 The war in Ukraine doesn’t look like ending any time soon. Just as Russia is recalibrating its geopolitical and industrial relations, so the prospect of a conflict stretching years into the future will necessitate a realignment of its place in the sporting world. Asia’s warmth towards the Kremlin points a way back into the international [...]
Spurs: Fifa ban club’s managing director of football Fabio Paratici March 29, 2023 Tottenham Hotspur’s search for a new manager has been plunged into uncertainty after the club’s managing director of football, Fabio Paratici, was handed a worldwide ban. Fifa confirmed on Wednesday that it had agreed to a request from Italian football chiefs to extend globally a 30-month domestic ban issued to Paratici in January. Paratici was [...]
London Irish confirm players WILL be paid amid uncertainty March 29, 2023 Premiership club London Irish have confirmed that all staff will be paid amid reports of players waiting growing anxious over payday. This comes as a buy-out for the club has reportedly been delayed, according to the Daily Mail. Premiership Rugby are doing “everything possible” to help a takeover of the club with current owner Mick [...]
Premiership Rugby’s Newcastle Falcons deny plan of voluntary relegation March 29, 2023 Newcastle Falcons have denied suggestions that the club’s recent cost-cutting is paving the way to voluntarily drop out of the Premiership next year. City A.M. has learned of a growing belief in English rugby that the Tyneside team could be looking to ease their financial situation by joining the Championship as part of a wider [...]
Premier League chief denies trying to kick football regulator into the long grass March 28, 2023 Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has rebuffed suggestions that the organisation tried to “kick into the long grass” talks over an independent football regulator. Masters was persistently questioned on the point by MPs at a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee hearing on Tuesday. After denying that the expression had been used by anyone [...]
Football regulator: Tracey Crouch MP criticises Premier League’s lack of support March 28, 2023 The Premier League has been criticised for a lack of support for an independent football regulator by Tracey Crouch MP. The former sports minister and author of the fan-led review into English football governance made the comments at a Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee hearing today. Crouch praised the Football Association and English Football [...]
Tottenham Hotspur face a bill of £4m over Conte’s departure from London club March 27, 2023 Antonio Conte will receive around £4m in severance pay after his departure from Tottenham Hotspur was finalised at the weekend. The Italian agreed a settlement with the Premier League club at the weekend after his tenure turned increasingly sour this season. Conte’s contract was due to expire this summer so he is only due the [...]
Football and rugby are still getting head injury wrong. Is this headband the answer? March 27, 2023 It is a dark irony that football and rugby have never been more concerned with head injury and concussion, yet the approaches of both sports remain dangerously misguided. In their attempts to prevent the trickle of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and early-onset dementia cases becoming a torrent, football has experimented with a ban on heading [...]
Chelsea puts £121m loss down to sanctions imposed on ex owner Roman Abramovich March 27, 2023 Chelsea say Government sanctions imposed on former owner Roman Abramovich were a factor in the club posting losses of £121million in 2021-22. Russian billionaire Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK Government in March last year as it sought to freeze the assets of individuals it believed had connections to the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, following [...]
Non-league football contracts row: Should athletes be a special case in employment law? March 27, 2023 Whether it realises it or not, non-league football has raised an age-old legal argument: should sportspeople be treated as a separate case under employment law, given the unique space in which they operate? Reports suggesting that National League players could be prepared to go on strike over upcoming contract changes put forward by the Football [...]