England cricket star Stuart Broad supports social media boycotts as sport takes steps to tackle online abuse April 12, 2021 England cricketer Stuart Broad has become the latest high-profile sporting figure to back a boycott of social media. Football clubs Rangers and Swansea City have temporarily stopped posting on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook in protest at a perceived lack of action against online abuse. “There are great positives to social media but if we have [...]
Back in business: Lord Mayor kickstarts Square Mile reopening April 12, 2021 As the City officially reopened this morning, the Lord Mayor embarked on a tour of the businesses that have opened their doors after months behind shutters. While still noticeably quieter than pre-pandemic, it was heartening to see the City return to some kind of normalcy, with the streets busier than they have been for months. [...]
The uncomfortable question for Tottenham and their manager: What is Jose Mourinho for? April 12, 2021 “He’s a specialist in failure,” Jose Mourinho said of Arsene Wenger in February 2014. In seven years since, Mourinho has won fewer trophies than Wenger – if, as the Tottenham Hotspur manager likes to, you count the Community Shield – and his old adversary left the dugout three seasons ago. For a coach who has [...]
Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 4 catch-up April 9, 2021 *** WARNING: The following review contains spoilers for all current episodes of Falcon and The Winter Soldier *** Last week Falcon and The Winter Soldier introduced us to an old enemy in Daniel Brühl’s Helmut Zemo, helping Sam (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky (Sebastian Stan) track down the leader of the Flag-Smashers, Karli Morgenthau (Erin Kellyman). [...]
Keith Pelley interview: European Tour chief on PGA Tour alliance, why 2021 is even tougher than 2020, and when fans can return to golf April 9, 2021 Since 14 April 2020, Keith Pelley has been getting used to a new way of starting each day. At 7:45am the chief executive of golf’s European Tour dials into a conference call with 14 colleagues to discuss which tournaments are on, which are off and need replacing at short notice, and which hang in the [...]
Week in Sportbiz: Sports give qualified backing to Covid certification plan; US Beijing boycott talks escalates; Masters caught up in vote row April 8, 2021 British sport’s leading governing bodies have backed plans to use Covid certification if it means they can reopen stadiums in full later this summer. But they have called for urgent clarification on how and when social distancing will be relaxed, warning that partially full venues will not stem their financial losses. The Premier League, Football [...]
Lee Isaac Chung’s Oscar hopeful Minari is a well of emotion April 8, 2021 It’s unlikely that any of the Oscar hopefuls will arrive in the traditional way this year. Nomadland will head to Disney+ at the end of April, Netflix’s Best Picture nominees are already available, and last week saw the UK debut of Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari. Partly based on Chung’s own childhood memories, the film takes [...]
Palm Springs is a dark twist on the Groundhog Day formula April 8, 2021 Before the dark times, it’s likely most of us will have been stuck at the wedding of some vague acquaintance or relative we don’t care for. We’ve stared into space through prolonged speeches, and tried to sneak out before the DJ played The Macarena. Well, what if you could never leave? That’s the nightmarish prospect [...]
Sound of Metal – Riz Ahmed deserves his Oscar nom April 8, 2021 The Academy Awards are just a few weeks away, and will belatedly celebrate the most unusual year in cinematic history. While more profitable movies have been moved to a future where they can feasibly be seen in cinemas, a lot of this year’s hopefuls are smaller films that will debut on streaming services. One of [...]
Athletes are driving the acceleration of sports investment – will we see European players follow the US trend for SPACs and NFTs? April 8, 2021 Barely a day goes by without another high-profile athlete being announced as an investor in a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a tech start-up or launching their own non-fungible tokens (NFTs). While the Covid-19 pandemic has created major cash-flow problems for many elite teams and leagues, there is certainly no shortage of liquidity being channelled [...]