Designer behind ‘Notre-Dame on fire’ proposal chosen to design Paris 2024 Olympic torch and cauldron February 23, 2023 A designer who proposed rebuilding Notre-Dame cathedral to make it look like it was on fire has been chosen to create the Olympic torch and cauldron for Paris 2024. Mathieu Lehanneur has also created projects for the Pompidou Centre and worked with brands including Veuve Clicquot, Cartier and Nike. Lehanneur, 48, is due to reveal [...]
Watson starts as England name team for Six Nations clash against Wales February 23, 2023 Anthony Watson will start for England for the first time in two years on Saturday after Steve Borthwick named his side to take on Wales this Saturday in the Six Nations. The Leicester Tigers winger replaces the injured Ollie Hassell-Collins and is joined in the back-three by Max Malins and Freddie Steward. This weekend’s crunch [...]
England Rugby chief to hold crunch talks with Stourbridge over Worcester merger February 23, 2023 England Rugby chief Bill Sweeney will tomorrow travel to Stourbridge RFC to hold crunch talks about the club’s potential merger with Worcester Warriors. The chief executive is set to hear the views of a number of clubs in the area before the Rugby Football Union chooses to back or block any plans the Warriors’ new [...]
Former BBC sports commentator John Motson dies, aged 77 February 23, 2023 John Motson, the former BBC commentator who became one of the most recognisable voices in sports broadcasting, has died aged 77. Known affectionately as “Motty”, he combined an encyclopaedic knowledge of football with a palpable love for the sport that was reflected in his work. Motson, who also became synonymous with his trademark sheepskin coat, [...]
LIV Golf 2023: Year zero for LIV’s league format promises new dimension to circuit February 23, 2023 It is easy to forget amid the razzmatazz and rancour that characterised the first season of LIV Golf that its central tenet and primary point of difference to the game’s legacy tours was always that it was to be a US sport-style league featuring permanent franchises battling out over the course of a season for [...]
Drive to Survive review: Is it time Formula 1 docu-series sees red flag? February 23, 2023 In years gone by, Drive to Survive, Formula 1’s fly-on-the-wall series, was added to Netflix viewers’ watchlists weeks if not months before hitting the streaming platform. But a preview of this series, which is released worldwide on Friday, raises the question as to whether it is worth bothering tuning in this year at all. It [...]
The gap between the football brand behemoths and the rest is likely to grow February 23, 2023 The bidders for football club Manchester United are now in a virtual data room, filling their spreadsheets and compiling their questions. The job of the Glazer family’s investment banking advisors, Raine Group, is now to find ways to squeeze every possible dollar out of this football asset. One trick of the bankers’ trade is to [...]
Football regulator may help deliver long-term sustainability for beautiful game February 22, 2023 This paper of free markets and liberal economics may not, you might think, be in favour of a new regulator. But a new referee for the business side of the beautiful game is not one to be dismissed out of hand. In fact, it has plenty going for it. At first principles, the best results [...]
Government publish white paper on plans for football regulator February 22, 2023 The UK government will today publish a long-awaited white paper on its plans for an independent regulator for English football. The policy document will propose the introduction of a regulator tasked with stopping financial failings from occurring lower down in the pyramid, as well as a stronger owners’ and directors’ test. Fans will be given [...]
Premier League: ‘Regulator can’t damage success of competition’ February 22, 2023 Premier League chiefs have warned that the proposed independent regulator for English football must not damage its success. The UK government will today publish its white paper on plans to install a regulator to ensure clubs are financially sound and implement more stringent owners’ and directors’ tests to deter what the government describe as “unscrupulous” [...]