Biggest contract in sport history tempts baseball star to join city rivals December 9, 2024 Major League Baseball star Juan Soto has agreed sport’s biggest ever contract, worth $765m (£599m), to join the New York Mets. The Dominican’s 15-year deal eclipses Shohei Ohtani’s $700m contract with the LA Dodgers, signed last year, although that is worth more per season. Soto, a free agent after leaving the New York Yankees, is [...]
Why doesn’t Saudi Arabia sponsor rugby when it invests everywhere else? December 7, 2024 If you were going to have a gander through the list of sports sponsorship deals related – directly or indirectly – to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, you’d be scrolling for a good while. Because research by Play the Game reports that there’s a total of 910 deals between Saudi Arabia or Saudi companies/individuals and [...]
Top footballers spend 87 per cent of time working, study finds December 6, 2024 Fresh concerns have been raised about player burnout ahead of next year’s Club World Cup after a new study found that top professional footballers typically spend 80 per cent of their time working. Drawing on data that it compiled for global players’ union Fifpro, independent consultancy Football Benchmark says that, for some individuals, the number [...]
Show football’s 3pm blackout the red card and women’s game will benefit December 6, 2024 While men’s football works out whether to scrap the 3pm blackout, women’s matches offer a perfect test case, argues Anna Reynolds. Imagine being barred from watching your favourite TV programme at a certain time of the day. That’s the current situation in football, where games scheduled for Saturday at 3pm are restricted from being broadcast [...]
Ed Warner: It’s sports awards season, so here’s my team of the year December 5, 2024 ParalympicsGB are my team of the year – they succeeded where others failed and all without the fanfare they deserved, says Ed Warner. Sports award season is upon us. This of the Year and That of the Year, on red carpets and across multiple platforms with misty eyes and banging showreels. Not a vintage year [...]
Dazn scores exclusive global broadcast deal for Fifa Club World Cup December 4, 2024 Fifa has confirmed that its relaunched Club World Cup will be broadcast for free around the world on Dazn, the dedicated sports streaming platform. The 32-team tournament will take place in its new form for the first time next summer in the US, where Chelsea and Manchester City will be England’s representatives. Dazn said the [...]
Fans group vows to fight plans to scrap football’s 3pm blackout December 3, 2024 The Football Supporters’ Association will resist moves to scrap the 3pm blackout that prevents Saturday afternoon matches being broadcast live in the UK. Following reports that senior figures in the game believe it could be ditched when the next round of TV deals end in 2029, the FSA warned that doing so risked harming clubs [...]
Reading crisis goes on after former chairman’s takeover bid is rejected December 3, 2024 Former Reading chairman Roger Smee says he is “sad” that his takeover bid to prise the club from unpopular owner Dai Yongge has been rejected. City AM revealed last month that the 76-year-old property tycoon, who also played for Reading in the 1960s and 1970s, was putting together a rescue package. Smee also expressed his [...]
FIA under fire amid safety fears over handling of chaotic Qatar Grand Prix December 2, 2024 Formula 1’s embattled governing body the FIA has come in for further criticism for the race stewards’ handling of an incident that led to Lando Norris receiving a 10-second stop-go penalty at the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday. Norris was sanctioned for ignoring yellow flags after the wing mirror of Williams’ Alex Albon fell off [...]
Inside Bernie Ecclestone’s £250m ‘unique’ sale of classic racing cars December 1, 2024 The trove of 69 historic cars includes Ferraris raced by world champions Michael Schumacher, Niki Lauda and Mike Hawthorn.