First football, now padel: US investors take fight to Qatar for future of the racket sport April 18, 2023 Heard the one about the historically European sports property turbo-charged by Middle Eastern sovereign wealth and now in the crosshairs of serial sports investors from the US? This isn’t football, though, but padel, the fast-growing racket sport now at the centre of a tug of war between rival competitions backed by the Qatari owners of [...]
English football wants a piece of the American pie – but it’s not MLS April 15, 2023 From Todd Boehly’s private-equity-backed consortium at Premier League giants Chelsea to former Disney CEO Michael Eisner at Portsmouth in the third tier down to Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney at non-league Wrexham, the flow of football investment between the United States and Britain is well established. But it is not all one-way. Increasingly, [...]
Premier League names date for ban on front-of-shirt gambling advertising April 14, 2023 Premier League clubs have agreed to remove gambling advertising from the front of their match shirts, it has been announced. Teams voluntarily adopted the change, which will be phased over the next year so that no team has a betting brand on the front of their kit by the 2024-25 season. The move is designed [...]
Brits buy more Paris 2024 Olympics tickets than any other overseas nation April 11, 2023 Great Britain is leading the way for ticket purchases outside of France ahead of next year’s Paris 2024 Olympics. The French capital will host the iconic multi-sport extravaganza for the first time in 100 years in what is also set to be the first Olympiad since the Covid-19 pandemic. It also marks a return to [...]
Newcastle United doc from makers of All Or Nothing to put focus on business March 24, 2023 Newcastle United’s transformation under Saudi ownership will be the subject of a new documentary series on Amazon’s Prime Video platform, it has been confirmed. The four-part series will focus on the business side of running the club, through interviews with co-owner Amanda Staveley and other club chiefs as well as behind-the-scenes footage. The show, set [...]
Women’s golf, prize money and the fight for equal pay: Is the sport heading in the right direction? March 16, 2023 As women’s world No1, Lydia Ko is accustomed to breaking new ground and last month was no exception. At Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City, the New Zealander became the first Aramco Saudi Ladies International champion to receive equal prize money to the winner of the equivalent men’s tournament, Abraham [...]
Aramco Team Series 2023: How does the format work, where is it being held and who are the past winners? March 16, 2023 The $5m Aramco Team Series returns for 2023 this week, when dozens of the world’s top women’s golfers will play for individual and team prizes in Singapore. Here is all you need to know about the series. How the Aramco Team Series format works Aramco Team Series events follow a unique format comprising both individual [...]
LIV Golf League’s best kept secret: Why half of the field are at risk of being ditched March 15, 2023 It wasn’t the start to the LIV Golf League that Lee Westwood would have wanted but there were no consequences for the Englishman finishing 41st of a 48-man field in Mexico last month as the big-money tournaments on the upstart circuit famously have no cuts. No cuts, that is, until the end of the season, [...]
Why Fifa’s 2026 World Cup U-turn risks a fresh player welfare row March 14, 2023 Fifa is set to risk a new player welfare row by redesigning the format of the next men’s World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, according to reports. Football’s world governing body had planned to divide the 48 teams at the expanded 2026 tournament into 16 groups of three, in order to allay fears [...]
UK government’s letter to Visa, Deloitte and Allianz prompts rebuke from Olympic chiefs March 14, 2023 Olympic chiefs have issued a rebuke to the UK government over its lobbying of sponsors including Visa, Deloitte and Allianz for Russia to remain banned from sport. The UK has been among the most vocal and active opponents of the International Olympic Committee’s plan to lift the suspension of Russia and its ally Belarus. Culture [...]