Premier League NFTs: Sorare aiming to launch digital fantasy football trading cards collection following similar deal with Spain’s LaLiga September 21, 2021 French technology start-up Sorare is hoping to launch a range of NFTs comprising digital fantasy football trading cards with the Premier League. The company, which has raised £500m from investors including SoftBank, has emerged as a major player in sport’s growing blockchain economy and recently struck a deal with Spain’s LaLiga. “We have had conversations, [...]
Legal Q&A: How referees’ pay could be hit by a tax dispute with HMRC and why this could have wide-reaching effects on the gig economy September 21, 2021 Lawyer Kevin Barrow explores the implications of an ongoing case between referees and HMRC. What’s this case about? It’s about whether PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) needs to deduct income tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) from payments it makes to referees whom it has engaged on a self-employed “gig worker” basis to officiate at [...]
Opinion: Why Derby County’s financial woes show that football is broken and needs fundamental change September 20, 2021 The unfolding disaster at Derby County should never have been allowed to happen, but sadly this is just the latest example of a game that has increasingly allowed itself to lose touch with reality. We have seen the collapse of FA Cup winners Bury and the demise of Macclesfield, while others, such as Wigan and [...]
Survey shows that most football fans want World Cup every two years, says Fifa September 16, 2021 Fifa has stepped up its push for biennial World Cups by reporting that most football fans support the controversial proposals. The world governing body cited a survey of 23,000 people in 23 countries undertaken in July as part of a wider feasibility study. Fifa did not reveal any further figures but said it had drawn [...]
Scottish Premiership clubs Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen, Dundee and Dundee United task Deloitte with finding ways to increase league revenues September 15, 2021 Scottish Premiership football clubs have commissioned Deloitte to conduct a review of the league with a view to unlocking new revenue. Aberdeen, Dundee, Dundee United, Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian say they would like to see annual distributions increase from £27m to at least £50m a year by 2026. The five clubs say they will [...]
Barcelona suffer another financial blow with Rakuten set to pull plug on €30m-a-year shirt sponsorship September 9, 2021 Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is to end its €30m-a-year sponsorship of Barcelona at the end of the season, according to reports. The development is another blow for the beleaguered titans of Spanish football, who are more than £1bn in debt and lost star player Lionel Messi this summer. Rakuten has been the main shirt sponsor [...]
Paris Saint-Germain hit back at LaLiga boss Javier Tebas in increasingly bitter war of words with Spanish football league chief September 8, 2021 Paris Saint-Germain have hit back at LaLiga boss Javier Tebas after he labelled them “enemies” and “as dangerous as the European Super League”. The outspoken Spanish league chief, a long-standing critic of the spending of PSG and Manchester City, also derided the French club’s signing of Lionel Messi at the age of 34. In a [...]
Manchester City and Leeds United chiefs hit back at Fifa bid for more frequent World Cups September 8, 2021 Manchester City and Leeds United chiefs have joined the chorus of opposition towards Fifa’s plans to stage the World Cup every other year. City chief executive Ferran Soriano told The Times: “There is no space [in the calendar] for anything. No room at all. The players cannot play more games, for sure.” Leeds chairman Andrea [...]
Financial Fair Play is not about making football more competitive, says one of the executives behind the new rules September 7, 2021 Proposed changes to European football’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules will not address concerns about competitive balance, says one of the executives involved. New regulations involving a salary cap and luxury tax are set to replace the current, 10-year-old framework, which is loosely based on breaking even. Economists and legal experts have warned that the [...]
European Club Association boss Al-Khelaifi promises loan fund for clubs hit by pandemic, Financial Fair Play shake-up and Uefa joint venture September 6, 2021 Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the chairman of the European Club Association, has outlined a series of measures that he says will bring “urgent financial stability” to the game across the continent. Al-Khelaifi, also the president of Paris Saint-Germain and chairman of the beIN Media Group, promised a multi-billion Euro loan facility and new Financial Fair Play rules [...]