Right to Dream founder Tom Vernon to explore buying British football club after securing €100m investment for pioneering project January 20, 2021 The English coach behind Africa’s leading football academy, Right to Dream, has secured a €100m investment to expand the pioneering model and explore the purchase of a British club. The deal sees Egyptian conglomerate the Mansour Group become majority shareholder in Right to Dream, which also owns Danish football club FC Nordsjaelland. Founder Tom Vernon, [...]
Phil Neville tipped to become coach of David Beckham’s Inter Miami after leaving England Women with immediate effect January 18, 2021 Phil Neville is stepping down as England women’s team manager with immediate effect and expected to join David Beckham’s Inter Miami. Neville, 43, has been in talks with the Major League Soccer men’s side, who have a vacancy since sacking manager Diego Alonso this month. The Football Association said it would shortly appoint an interim [...]
Mesut Ozil: Arsenal exit raises questions about player power and at what point clout becomes baggage January 18, 2021 The case of Mesut Ozil – signed to rapture and fanfare, ushered out the door to relief all round – is a very modern transfer tale. After Arsenal pulled off the surprise signing of Ozil in summer 2013, shirt sales increased 12-fold and tickets at Emirates Stadium became even harder to come by. The club [...]
Week in Sportbiz: Amazon and private equity target Serie A; Arsenal pick Garlick; sponsors keep faith; and boosts for electric racing January 14, 2021 Amazon’s foray into broadcasting Premier League matches could be a taste of things to come in Italy. The retail behemoth has held talks about buying the domestic rights to show Serie A on its Prime Video platform, according to multiple reports. Amazon has already secured a foothold in the Italian market, snapping up some Champions [...]
Trevor Steven: It’s time for Manchester United to cut loose and show they deserve to lead the Premier League January 14, 2021 When Liverpool and Manchester United meet it is always a massive fixture for both clubs and their fans. But this Sunday at Anfield the match will have wider significance, due to United and Liverpool being first and second in the Premier League. It’s strange. A few weeks ago, the only discussion around United concerned Ole [...]
Metrica Sports: Meet the tech company which works with FC Barcelona giving away its football analytics software to amateurs January 13, 2021 Barcelona were one of Metrica Sports’ first clients but it was when the video and data analysis provider signed up Stockport County that its founders knew they were really onto something. The company, created in 2013 by three football-mad neuroscience PhD students, proved quick to gain a foothold with a handful of elite clubs thanks [...]
Manchester City owner City Football Group makes Club Bolivar the 11th club in its network January 12, 2021 Manchester City owner City Football Group has added Bolivia’s most successful side, Club Bolivar, to their portfolio of football teams. Bolivar becomes the 11th team in the group but the first to be designated as a “partner club” to City. City Football Group said the tie-up would give Bolivar access to its expertise and proprietary [...]
Premier League rejigs Tottenham, Fulham, Chelsea and Everton fixtures after Aston Villa Covid-19 outbreak postpones Spurs game January 11, 2021 Aston Villa’s scheduled Premier League fixture against Tottenham on Wednesday has been postponed due the Covid-19 outbreak at the club. Tottenham will instead play Fulham in a rearranged match, while other fixtures involving Chelsea and Everton have also been affected. Villa closed their training ground last week and fielded a team of youth players in [...]
French football’s financial crisis: Why Ligue 1’s €3bn deal with Mediapro collapsed and what it means for the Premier League January 8, 2021 Lille OSC are flying high in Ligue 1, into the latter stages of the Europa League — and €125m in debt. This season, financial turmoil off the pitch is tainting the French football club’s on-field success. Last month, Lille’s major creditors JP Morgan and Elliott Management forced the club’s embattled owner Gerard Lopez to sell [...]
England football team chef Omar Meziane on feeding Harry Kane and Co, Joe Hart’s soup strop, and his new business Tweakd January 8, 2021 He might be the England team’s trusted chef now, but Omar Meziane did not expect his first assignment with the country’s best footballers to last long. “It was a rainy Sunday night when I got a call from the FA saying: ‘We’d love you to go to South Korea with the under-20s.’ About a week [...]