Big Sport Quiz of 2021: How much do you remember? December 20, 2021 From teenagers sweeping to Grand Slam tennis titles to England reaching a major football final, an Olympic Games like no other and the introduction of a brand new cricket competition, it has been a hugely eventful year in sport. Off the field it has been just as transformative, with private equity and, increasingly, cryptocurrency and [...]
Channel 4 to show decisive Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix December 9, 2021 Channel 4 will show live coverage of the decisive final race of the Formula 1 season, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, after striking a deal with rights-holder Sky. Britain’s Lewis Hamilton is bidding to win a record eighth drivers’ championship and see off the challenge of rival Max Verstappen, with whom he is level on [...]
Ed Warner: Soft power and sport – why do they do that? December 9, 2021 To the Guildhall for the launch of EY’s study of soft power and major sporting events, commissioned by the City of London and UK Sport. The publication was timely, coinciding with the findings of the inquiry into the chaos at the Euro 2020 final at Wembley which tarnished Britain’s hosting credentials, as well as the [...]
Academics find fairer format for penalty shootouts, but will football accept it? December 2, 2021 Football took a chance on the ABBA format in the hope of minimising the inherent unfairness of penalty shootouts, but that experiment swiftly met its Waterloo. Now, though, economists at Durham University have devised a new way of ordering penalty kicks that they believe could change the name of the game. They tested a score-dependent [...]
Ed Warner: Crouch review recommendations could drive Premier League away December 2, 2021 I really wanted to embrace the “fan-led” Tracey Crouch review of football governance in England. But with each turn of its 162 pages my heart sank further at the unmistakable sight of the heavy hand of Whitehall. The Crouch review’s recommendations revolve around the creation of an independent regulator for the sport. This displays a [...]
Manchester United owner Avram Glazer buys cricket team in new UAE T20 league December 1, 2021 Manchester United owner Avram Glazer has succeeded in buying a cricket franchise at the second attempt after snapping up a team in the new United Arab Emirates Twenty20 league. Glazer, through his private equity company Lancer Capital, was outbid in an auction for two new franchises in the Indian Premier League, the world’s leading T20 [...]
Ed Warner: Select committees are ultimately toothless November 25, 2021 The political pile-on has been swift. But although they secured detailed testimony on cricket racism under the cloak of parliamentary privilege, MPs show no signs of learning from the futility of their past hearings into sporting crises. It needn’t be so. I’ve had the dubious honour of appearing before three Westminster select committees down the [...]
Channel 4 to broadcast live Betfred Super League November 24, 2021 Live Super League will be broadcast on free-to-air television for the first time in its 26-year history on Channel 4.
Record £3.2bn in private equity deals for sports teams as funds target football, rugby and F1 November 22, 2021 The last twelve months saw a record £3.2bn of sports team acquisitions by private equity funds, almost treble last year’s total, as they targeted football, rugby and Formula 1 teams, according to new data shared with City A.M. this afternoon. Last year saw an all-time high of 11 PE purchases of stakes in sports teams [...]
Premier League on rocky road with plans to regulate sponsorship deals in wake of Newcastle takeover November 18, 2021 The recent takeover of Newcastle United by the Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund created quite a storm – both in the media and, according to reports, the other Premier League clubs. Since the introduction of so-called financial fair play regulations at the start of season 2013-14 – known as the Profitability and Sustainability Rules in [...]