Up to 10,000 sports fans to be allowed back to stadiums from 17 May, says Prime Minister February 22, 2021 Sports fans will be allowed to return to stadiums from 17 May, with up to 10,000 spectators permitted in the largest venues. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the relaxation of rules today as he laid out his plans for emerging from lockdown. The announcement means that crowds should be in attendance for Euro 2020 matches [...]
Exclusive: beIN Sports takes legal action against Fenerbahce over Turkish club’s ‘beFAIR’ campaign February 22, 2021 Broadcaster beIN Sports is taking legal action against Fenerbahce over the Turkish club’s high-profile campaign against the network. beIN is suing Fenerbahce for breach of intellectual property after they displayed “beFAIR” branding on the team’s apparel and pitchside advertising displays. Fenerbahce and their president Ali Koc have adopted “beFAIR” as the slogan for a public [...]
West Ham and David Moyes have gone from laughing stock to Happy Hammers – at an ideal time for their owners David Sullivan and David Gold February 22, 2021 Hands up who didn’t afford themselves a wry chuckle when David Moyes, on his return as West Ham manager in December 2019, declared: “That’s what I do, I win.” It was a bold claim from a man whose stints at Sunderland, Real Sociedad and Manchester United might generously be described as chequered. Coming as West [...]
Framing Britney Spears: A glimpse of the hell of celebrity February 20, 2021 “Choose your own destiny” reads Britney Spears’ t-shirt on a recent Instagram post. You could be forgiven for thinking she did just that. Britney is the working class girl from Kentwood, Louisiana who found fame as a precocious child in the Disney Club before rising to the summit of the pop world with hits including [...]
England Netball chief Fran Connolly on the sport’s huge growth, plans to professionalise, and interest from private investors February 20, 2021 Few sports can have had their momentum checked by the pandemic quite like netball in the UK. A decade of extraordinary growth in which participation doubled and exposure at elite level reached unseen heights was jeopardised when Covid-19 hit, forcing a premature end to the Superleague season and halting grassroots netball. Almost a year on, [...]
WandaVision episode 7 review – huge twist revealed! February 19, 2021 *** WARNING: This review contains spoilers for all current episodes of Disney+’s WandaVision. *** Welcome back to WandaVision, or this week, just Wanda. The episode takes the form of the 2010s sitcom Modern Family, with Wanda delivering monologues to camera in the confessional style of the hit show. The plot of the episode follows three [...]
The changing face of match-fixing and why integrity mustn’t be allowed to suffer as Covid-19 squeezes budgets February 19, 2021 As sports events continue to take place in unfamiliar surroundings, the integrity of competitions has been thrust into the spotlight as match-fixing grows and evolves. The global pandemic has created many new challenges to the sporting world, none more significant than the way in which criminals have been able to intensify their operations and become [...]
I Care A Lot review – Rosamund Pike’s cold-blooded masterclass February 19, 2021 In these tough times, many of us have turned to movies that lift us up, and remind us that there is some good in the world. Despite its title, I Care A Lot is not one of those films. Rosamund Pike plays Marla Grayson, who makes a living from becoming the legal guardian of elderly [...]
Chris Tremlett: India have stolen the momentum but I’m confident that England can win series February 19, 2021 England may have suffered a disappointing 317-run defeat in the second Test in India but they won’t be panicking. Not many people gave the tourists a chance of winning any matches in this four-Test series. Their victory in the first game is as impressive as any England Test result in history and offered so many [...]
Week in Sportbiz: England Netball weighing up approaches from private investors; plus Manchester City’s humble new partner club and ‘super spikes’ February 18, 2021 Netball’s prodigious growth has not gone unnoticed by the private investors who have embarked on a trolley dash of sporting properties. England Netball successfully launched its Covid-adapted 2021 Superleague season last weekend – another feather in the cap of an organisation that has doubled participation in a decade. The governing has renewed its broadcast deal [...]