Qatar interested in buying Manchester United – but bidders won’t be PSG owners Qatar Sports Investments February 9, 2023 The Qatar Investment Authority is interested in buying a stake in Manchester United and has not ruled out a full takeover. QIA, which owns Harrods as well as significant shareholdings in Heathrow Airport and Sainsbury’s, has not made an offer for United yet. But it is one of the Qatari parties mulling an offer to [...]
Ed Warner: Rugby union could learn from the NFL model on Super Bowl LVII weekend February 9, 2023 For all the relentless commercial growth of the Premier League, IPL and F1, the NFL remains the sporting brand to beat. Super Bowl LVII will be watched by more than 200m people worldwide on Sunday. The matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles has its stories, but in truth the identity of [...]
FC Barcelona: Regulators tighten loophole and cut Spanish giants’ spending power February 8, 2023 FC Barcelona are facing a setback to their on-field resurgence in the form of a crackdown on their exploitation of so-called “economic levers”, City A.M. can reveal. The Spanish club, on course to end their four-year wait for another LaLiga title, have attracted the attention of domestic and European regulators with their innovative capital-raising. Last [...]
Manchester City hire £10,000-an-hour Boris Johnson Partygate barrister to fight Premier League charges February 8, 2023 Manchester City have hired the barrister who advised Boris Johnson over Partygate, Lord Pannick KC, to defend them against more than 100 charges brought by the Premier League. Pannick is one of the country’s leading barristers and can command fees of £10,000 an hour – equivalent to City top earner Kevin de Bruyne’s £400,000 salary, [...]
Juventus: Why Italian football’s latest scandal has sent its most successful club tumbling down Serie A – and what it means for Tottenham Hotspur and plans for a European Super League February 7, 2023 While Manchester City are facing claims they systematically broke financial rules, Juventus have already been docked points for their own scandal in Serie A – and it might be about to get worse. Heard the one about the serial domestic champions brought to heel over allegations of systematic abuse of financial regulations? Except this isn’t [...]
Why have Manchester City been charged by the Premier League? What punishment can they face? Will it affect the title race or fellow big-spenders Chelsea? February 6, 2023 The Premier League hit Manchester City with an unprecedented volume of charges for alleged breaches of financial rules on Monday, but what happens next? What punishment could City face if found guilty? And what does it mean for the title race, and other big-spending clubs such as Chelsea? Read on to find out. What has [...]
Football league club chairman makes radical suggestion to help non-league teams – and believes it could get majority backing February 6, 2023 English football is facing fresh calls to overhaul promotion and relegation and make it easier for non-league clubs to climb the men’s pyramid. The number of teams promoted from the National League to League Two should increase from two to three, argues Grimsby Town chairman Jason Stockwood. Stockwood, writing in the Guardian, says there may [...]
Full Swing: Golf’s Netflix docuseries lays bare rancour between PGA Tour and LIV Golf, but will it do a Drive to Survive? February 6, 2023 When Netflix weighed up what to call its latest behind-the-scenes sport documentary, this time about life on golf’s PGA Tour, it plumped for the beige Full Swing. It might have been better off choosing Making A Wedge, such is the preoccupation with money that runs through the eight-part series, or Taking Out The Pin, given [...]
Exclusive: Worcester Warriors sale in spotlight over administrator’s email to witness February 5, 2023 The impartiality of Worcester Warriors’ sale process has been called into question after the administrators were accused of pressuring a witness ahead of a parliamentary select committee. A partner at DCMS–appointed administrators Begbies Traynor warned the witness that they could be sued for defamation if they repeated allegations about preferred bidder Jim O’Toole’s Atlas consortium [...]
Standing to be allowed at Wembley cup final for the first time in more than 30 years February 2, 2023 Standing will be permitted at a men’s Wembley football final for the first time in more than 30 years this month when Manchester United play Newcastle United for the Carabao Cup. Both teams will be allocated 867 tickets each for new “safe standing” areas located at either end of the 90,000-capacity national stadium. It continues [...]