Opinion: Nigel Wray deserves credit after building Saracens’ dynasty October 5, 2021 Empires fall and dynasties cease, but one thing remains when you’ve done something right or simply left your mark: legacy. Nigel Wray, the outgoing majority stakeholder of Saracens, has ensured that; and rugby, on balance, is better for it. Saracens announced at the weekend that, 26 years after he began backing the north London club, [...]
Claire Harvey: Sport should take lessons from the City on inclusion policy October 4, 2021 British Paralympian and global inclusion expert Claire Harvey calls on sport’s national governing bodies to adopt grassroots diversity targets into their participation drive. Sport has for a long time been a source of inspiration to the masses. It is one of the unifying forces that humanity has to offer, yet – if we’re honest with [...]
Premiership: Five things we’ve learned as the east Midlands rise again October 4, 2021 The east Midlands are on the rugby rise again and more clubs than ever are competing for European places, here are five things we learned from this weekend’s Premiership action. The east Midlands heartlands are back The east Midlands duo of Leicester Tigers and Northampton Saints now occupy the top two Premiership spots. The pair [...]
Why Spain’s LaLiga believes Uefa and other leagues should follow its lead October 1, 2021 Spain has a long and rich tradition of shaping how football is played. It has given us the great Real Madrid sides of the 1950s; Pep Guardiola and his all-conquering Barcelona; the national team who swept all major men’s international tournaments from 2008 to 2012; tiki-taka. Britain may be the birthplace of the game but [...]
Why athletics needs a silver bullet in the form of private investment September 30, 2021 The results are just in, and they don’t make for easy reading. World Athletics posted a small financial surplus in 2020, but only because Russia coughed up a fine for its doping misdemeanours. W hat’s worrying is the long steady decline in the reserves of track and field’s governing body. For the sake of the [...]
Juventus v Chelsea: Fallen Old Lady setting out on road to recovery September 29, 2021 Juventus have endured a more turbulent year than most clubs yet there ought to be some spring back in the step of the Old Lady when they face Chelsea in the Champions League on Wednesday. Over the last few days, the most successful team in the history of Italian football have recorded significant victories off [...]
Paris Saint-Germain boast bigger stars but Man City have found better way to spend their billions September 27, 2021 The subplots will be as numerous as the superstars when Paris Saint-Germain host Manchester City in the Champions League on Tuesday evening. It’s Qatar v Abu Dhabi in the battle of the state-backed modern-day mega-clubs. Mauricio Pochettino v Pep Guardiola. El Cashico, if you absolutely must. Fitness permitting, and perhaps most intriguingly of all, it [...]
Exeter’s chief problem: Why did they start Premiership Rugby season without a main sponsor? September 25, 2021 Last weekend, Exeter Chiefs’ Premiership campaign began with a 34-19 loss at Leicester Tigers. Remove the result, the return of the roaring terraces and professional rugby’s big kick-off, and you may have noticed a commercial anomaly in the away side’s kit: Exeter’s shirt was missing a main sponsor. Little more than a year ago, Chiefs [...]
Emma Raducanu capitalises on US Open success with Tiffany & Co sponsorship deal September 23, 2021 Emma Raducanu has signed the first major sponsorship deal since her breakthrough success at the US Open, with jeweller Tiffany & Co. The 18-year-old British tennis sensation has been tipped to land a swathe of commercial deals after producing one of sport’s most remarkable storylines at the grand slam earlier this month. Raducanu wore Tiffany [...]
Rugby Europe Super Cup: New second-tier competition for clubs from Israel, Belgium and Russia kicks off effort to raise standard in emerging nations September 23, 2021 It largely slipped under the radar here but across the continent last weekend the Rugby Europe Super Cup kicked off its inaugural season. The competition for emerging rugby nations saw teams from the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Russia clash in the opening round. But just what is the Rugby Europe Super Cup, and why [...]