Premier League, EFL and FA chiefs to be grilled by MPs over Project Big Picture and bailout impasse November 5, 2020 MPs have demanded to grill Premier League, English Football League and Football Association chiefs over Project Big Picture. A Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee wants to quiz Richard Masters, Rick Parry and Greg Clarke next week. The session is focused on a failure to agree a rescue package for clubs outside the [...]
Marcus Rashford and the new player power: it won’t be long until clubs and sponsors put a price on it November 4, 2020 Just when you think that 2020 can’t throw up any more surprises, Marcus Rashford, a 23-year-old footballer, becomes the government’s loudest source of opposition. At the time of writing there’s been no U-turn on extending the provision of free school meals when faced by Rashford’s campaign. But by generating support and sentiment through his 3.7m [...]
Pride tinged with sadness for devoted AFC Wimbledon fans locked out of Plough Lane homecoming party November 3, 2020 This isn’t how AFC Wimbledon’s long-awaited first match back at Plough Lane was meant to be. The return of football to this corner of Merton on Tuesday evening, when Doncaster Rovers visit the Dons in League One, should have been a huge party for supporters. Instead, the only fans present will be the cardboard cut-outs [...]
Manchester United and Arsenal leave Premier League looking like a one-horse race November 2, 2020 For a moment back then, there was an intoxicating sense of possibility about this Premier League season. Liverpool’s aura of invincibility looked to have been shredded by a seven-goal humiliation at Aston Villa. Villa, like Everton, were riding high and reviving memories of past glories with swashbuckling displays. After three years of duopoly, the league [...]
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink on missing football, black managers getting less time, Frank Lampard’s Chelsea and dabbling in property October 30, 2020 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is bellowing instructions at a plumber amid the chaos of a building site as he answers the phone to City A.M.. The former Chelsea, Leeds and Holland striker and, more recently, promising manager is overseeing works at what will be a new family home for the Hasselbainks. When the 48-year-old is not [...]
The City A.M. Punter Pocast EP:15 Haydock Sprint Weekend October 29, 2020 Trainer Clive Cox discusses the 3 year old Golden Horde’s chances as he takes on older horses once again in the big sprint race of the weekend at Haydock Park, but how will he cope with the expected soft underfoot conditions? Long time owner Julie Wood tells us how she got into racing and how [...]
Champions League trends in six charts: Goals, possession, set-pieces and most effective goalkeepers and forwards October 27, 2020 How many goals per game do you get in the Champions League? How are those goals being scored? And is it all changing? Uefa’s technical report on last season’s Champions League answers all those questions and more. It’s a goldmine of insights that reveals how football is subtly shifting at the very highest level. The [...]
Drop in drama comes at bad time for Premier League’s pay-per-view push October 26, 2020 Who remembers the good old days of a few weeks ago, when the Premier League was all goals and madcap scorelines? Leicester smashing five at Manchester City was soon eclipsed by Tottenham’s six-goal romp at Manchester United and then, giddily, Aston Villa putting seven past champions Liverpool. Gameweek Two had set the tone, ushering in [...]
FC Nordsjaelland: How a Danish club’s global outlook has helped it to weather the Covid crisis October 23, 2020 An Englishman with no experience of running a football club and no track record in Scandinavia was always going to attract scepticism when he took over one of Denmark’s top teams. Throw in a wildly unconventional ownership model and radically idealistic notions of how the sport should be run and it is no surprise Tom [...]
Leeds United owner targets £1bn valuation as club returns to Premier League September 11, 2020 Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani has revealed he wants the football club to be worth as much as £1bn within the next five years and is also willing to sell a minority stake to the right party. The club were promoted to the Premier League last season, but despite having yet to kick a ball [...]