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 [...]
Saudi Arabia’s takeover of Newcastle United is about far more than football October 7, 2021 After years of speculation, prevarication and consternation, Saudi Arabia has at last sealed the purchase of a Premier League football club, something it has long coveted. With a deal for Newcastle United finally set to be announced, one of the most tumultuous episodes in English football history is apparently drawing to a close. Rumours have [...]
Crystal Palace owner Josh Harris tips Premier League rights to rise in value October 6, 2021 Crystal Palace co-owner Josh Harris has predicted that Premier League media rights will continue to rise in value, defying forecasts that football’s bubble may be about to burst. The league’s domestic broadcast revenues appear to have plateaued for now and the global sports rights market has cooled, in part as a result of the pandemic. [...]
Saudi Arabia’s £300m Newcastle United takeover revived by truce with beIN October 6, 2021 Saudi Arabia has signalled the end of its long-running stand-off with Qatari broadcaster beIN, in a move that could revive its £300m takeover of Newcastle United. The U-turn would involve unblocking beIN’s channels in Saudi Arabia, cracking down on any pirating of the network’s output and settling a $1bn lawsuit, sources close to the talks [...]
Why Spain’s LaLiga believes Uefa and other leagues should follow its lead October 1, 2021 Spain has a long and rich tradition of shaping how football is played. It has given us the great Real Madrid sides of the 1950s; Pep Guardiola and his all-conquering Barcelona; the national team who swept all major men’s international tournaments from 2008 to 2012; tiki-taka. Britain may be the birthplace of the game but [...]