Laura McAllister interview: Former Wales captain and Fifa Council candidate on women’s football, greedy clubs and moderniser Infantino April 16, 2021 Wales have come to be a force to be reckoned with in international football. Their men’s team, led by galactico Gareth Bale, have qualified for successive European Championships for the first time, while their women have also continued their steady rise up Fifa’s world rankings. Now Welshwoman Laura McAllister is aiming to make a similar [...]
Week in Sportbiz: Amazon sign Serena Williams and Paul Pogba; Javier Tebas takes up league fight; Japan still cool on Tokyo 2020 with 100 days to go April 15, 2021 Amazon has continued its push into glossy sports documentaries by signing up Serena Williams and Paul Pogba. Both Williams and Pogba have committed to appearing in behind-the-scenes series about their personal and professional lives as part of wider deals with Amazon. Gary Lineker’s Goalhanger Films is among the producers of the currently untitled Serena doc. [...]
Mesut Ozil, Eva Longoria, Kate Upton and US investors in Swansea City form unlikely consortium to buy into Mexican football club Necaxa April 13, 2021 Former Arsenal star Mesut Ozil and actor Eva Longoria are among an eclectic group of investors said to be buying into Mexican football club Necaxa. Model Kate Upton, her Major League Baseball star husband Justin Verlander and two US sports executives involved with Swansea City are also part of the consortium, according to reports. The [...]
Trafalgar Square lined up to host 12,500 football supporters this summer at Euro 2020 fan park April 13, 2021 Trafalgar Square is being lined up to host a Euro 2020 fan park for up to 12,500 football supporters this summer. Big screens at the central London site will show all of the matches being played at Wembley Stadium, including England’s three group games, both semi-finals and the final. The plans have been submitted by [...]
Surrey in talks to host Indian Premier League teams as Mayor of London Sadiq Khan aims to bring IPL to the capital this year April 13, 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) teams could play games at the Kia Oval and Lord’s as soon as this year under plans being pushed by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Surrey cricket chiefs have already held exploratory talks with figures from the IPL and the Indian game’s governing body, the BCCI. A September date has been [...]
Sporting bodies back vaccine passports and Covid tests for return of live events April 9, 2021 The UK’s leading sports bodies have backed the use of vaccine passports and Covid testing as a “credible” means of returning punters to stadiums this summer. In a joint letter to the leaders of the major political parties, the group said it could “see the benefit” of rolling out Covid certifications and rapid testing “in [...]
Keith Pelley interview: European Tour chief on PGA Tour alliance, why 2021 is even tougher than 2020, and when fans can return to golf April 9, 2021 Since 14 April 2020, Keith Pelley has been getting used to a new way of starting each day. At 7:45am the chief executive of golf’s European Tour dials into a conference call with 14 colleagues to discuss which tournaments are on, which are off and need replacing at short notice, and which hang in the [...]
Week in Sportbiz: Sports give qualified backing to Covid certification plan; US Beijing boycott talks escalates; Masters caught up in vote row April 8, 2021 British sport’s leading governing bodies have backed plans to use Covid certification if it means they can reopen stadiums in full later this summer. But they have called for urgent clarification on how and when social distancing will be relaxed, warning that partially full venues will not stem their financial losses. The Premier League, Football [...]
Athletes are driving the acceleration of sports investment – will we see European players follow the US trend for SPACs and NFTs? April 8, 2021 Barely a day goes by without another high-profile athlete being announced as an investor in a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), a tech start-up or launching their own non-fungible tokens (NFTs). While the Covid-19 pandemic has created major cash-flow problems for many elite teams and leagues, there is certainly no shortage of liquidity being channelled [...]
Rugby League World Cup chief Jon Dutton: We’re very optimistic that we’ll have full stadiums April 6, 2021 Organising a major international sporting event is a logistical labyrinth at the best of times. Doing so when your dining room has been your office for the past year, when you haven’t yet met most of your staff, and when it has been impossible to be certain how or even if the event will take [...]