McLaren interview: North America, NFT’s and Drive to Survive October 22, 2021 Spanning five continents and 17 time zones, Formula 1 is a truly global sport. But with the expansion of the calendar in recent seasons and the increasing presence in the digital and online space, F1 teams are taking special interest in one market in particular: North America. McLaren are a case in point. The English [...]
Lawrence Stroll interview: Aston Martin, bonds and becoming F1 world champions October 21, 2021 Mention of bonds and Aston Martins usually calls to mind the fictitious adventures of 007, but for Lawrence Stroll, the words relate to his very real ambitions to shake and stir Formula 1. Less The World Is Not Enough; more Only The World Championship Will Do. Canadian billionaire Stroll this month launched a retail bond [...]
Ed Warner: Activity vouchers can solve post-Covid sport participation problem October 21, 2021 I addressed a bunch of politicians, advisors and sports industry types at a Westminster Forum this week on the challenges facing sport and the public funding priorities as we come out of the pandemic. The risk on these occasions is that you get caught in an echo chamber, telling the audience what it already thinks [...]
Exclusive: Apex Group replaces Sandals as West Indies sponsor in six-figure deal October 21, 2021 T20 World Cup holders West Indies will today announce a new shirt sponsorship with global financial services provider Apex Group. Apex is replacing holiday company Sandals on the sleeves of the West Indies men’s cricket team, who play England in their first match of this year’s T20 World Cup on Saturday. The three-year partnership, which [...]
British and Irish 2030 World Cup bid still on, UK Sport tells MPs October 19, 2021 Great Britain and Ireland’s hopes of staging football’s 2030 World Cup have not been torpedoed by the crowd trouble at this year’s European Championship but the countries do face a battle to mount a credible bid following England’s farcical 2018 effort, MPs were told today. The update on a possible bid came during a Digital, [...]
Premier League clubs block Saudi sponsorship deals with Newcastle United October 19, 2021 Premier League clubs have moved to stop Saudi Arabia flooding Newcastle United with big-money sponsorship deals that would allow them to spend freely on transfers. Eighteen of the 20 top-flight teams approved a block on related-party transactions, in which a company that shares the same owner as a club pays it money via a commercial [...]
Ed Warner: What I would do if I were in charge of English cricket October 14, 2021 This week, Ed Warner writes an open letter to the ECB, which runs English cricket, as it begins its search for a new chair of the governing body. Dear ECB, I see you’ve parted company with your chair, Ian Watmore, after only a year in the job. I’d like to toss my hat in the [...]
Uefa hands clubs power over Champions League rights in joint venture with ECA October 13, 2021 Uefa will take a step into the unknown on Thursday when it formally launches its search for an agency to help it make more money from the men’s Champions League. European football’s governing body has worked hand in glove with its favoured partner, Team Marketing, since the inception of its flagship competition almost 30 years [...]
Delphlyx: The start-up offering football bosses data analytics for dummies October 8, 2021 From Harvard graduates building bespoke programmes for Liverpool to the video analysis tools now available even to Sunday league coaches, 21st century football is awash with data. But what might have been overlooked is that some are drowning in it; while today’s club analysts and scouts may be data-literate, their older superiors frequently are not. [...]
Confirmed: Saudi Arabia-led £300m takeover of Newcastle United completed October 7, 2021 Newcastle United have confirmed that a consortium led by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund has completed its takeover of the football club. The deal, which sees retail mogul Mike Ashley exit the club after 14 years as owner, is reported to be worth around £300m. The new owners said: “An investment group led by the [...]