Smart shin guards: the latest weapon in football’s wearable tech arms race November 2, 2021 Football is no stranger to wearables, as evidenced by the ubiquity of GPS vests, but it is about to get a new weapon in the technology arms race: smart shin guards. Italian sports tech and analytics company Soccerment will today launch their pioneering protective gear, which captures data on every run, pass, shot and change [...]
Antonio Conte is a gamble Tottenham Hotspur can’t afford not to take November 1, 2021 “It’s time to stop being so crap,” was Tottenham Hotspur manager-in-waiting Antonio Conte’s rallying cry to the Juventus squad he inherited, according to his former player Andrea Pirlo. A similar sentiment would not be inappropriate at Spurs if, as expected, Conte is named the successor to Nuno Espirito Santo, who was fired after just four [...]
Daniel Kretinksy: Czech billionaire poised to buy stake in West Ham United October 28, 2021 West Ham United are the subject of takeover interest from Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, according to multiple reports. Kretinsky, who co-owns Sparta Prague and holds major stakes in the Royal Mail and Sainsbury’s, is said to be close to buying a 27 per cent stake in the Premier League club. The deal, first reported by [...]
Man Utd owning Glazers outbid in Indian Premier League franchise auction October 25, 2021 Manchester United owners the Glazer family suffered another defeat today when they lost out in an auction for one of two new franchises in cricket’s Indian Premier League (IPL). Avram Glazer’s Lancer Capital made a bid for one of the new teams, which will begin competing next year when the high-profile Twenty20 competition expands to [...]
British and Irish 2030 World Cup bid still on, UK Sport tells MPs October 19, 2021 Great Britain and Ireland’s hopes of staging football’s 2030 World Cup have not been torpedoed by the crowd trouble at this year’s European Championship but the countries do face a battle to mount a credible bid following England’s farcical 2018 effort, MPs were told today. The update on a possible bid came during a Digital, [...]
Premier League clubs block Saudi sponsorship deals with Newcastle United October 19, 2021 Premier League clubs have moved to stop Saudi Arabia flooding Newcastle United with big-money sponsorship deals that would allow them to spend freely on transfers. Eighteen of the 20 top-flight teams approved a block on related-party transactions, in which a company that shares the same owner as a club pays it money via a commercial [...]
Newcastle 2, Tottenham 3: New owners witness false start to Saudi era October 17, 2021 Out with the old, in with the new. That was meant to be the theme as Newcastle United played their first game under Saudi ownership today. In the St James’ Park directors’ box, the club’s new rulers – chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Amanda Staveley, the public face of the £300m takeover – took their seats [...]
Uefa hands clubs power over Champions League rights in joint venture with ECA October 13, 2021 Uefa will take a step into the unknown on Thursday when it formally launches its search for an agency to help it make more money from the men’s Champions League. European football’s governing body has worked hand in glove with its favoured partner, Team Marketing, since the inception of its flagship competition almost 30 years [...]
Delphlyx: The start-up offering football bosses data analytics for dummies October 8, 2021 From Harvard graduates building bespoke programmes for Liverpool to the video analysis tools now available even to Sunday league coaches, 21st century football is awash with data. But what might have been overlooked is that some are drowning in it; while today’s club analysts and scouts may be data-literate, their older superiors frequently are not. [...]
Confirmed: Saudi Arabia-led £300m takeover of Newcastle United completed October 7, 2021 Newcastle United have confirmed that a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has completed its takeover of the football club. The deal, which sees retail mogul Mike Ashley exit the club after 14 years as owner, is reported to be worth around £300m. The new owners said: “An investment group led by the [...]