Fifa threatens England with ban on watching Lionesses at 2023 Women’s World Cup May 2, 2023 English football fans could be denied the chance to watch the Lionesses bid to win this year’s Women’s World Cup after Fifa president Gianni Infantino threatened a broadcasting blackout. Infantino said the biggest tournament in women’s football would not be shown in Europe’s “big five” markets unless media companies serving Britain, France, Germany, Italy and [...]
Ed Warner: Sport England data shows activity is falling. We need to make it easier April 27, 2023 As Sport England’s latest Active Lives survey shows that we are exercising less, Ed Warner argues that we need to make participation easier. An elite athlete cadges a lift to skip a couple of kilometres of an ultra race. Tough Mudder turns Finsbury Park into a swamp and is barred from using the venue next [...]
Wrexham’s promotion: ‘Feelgood fairy tale’ or ‘brand-building exercise that sticks in the craw’? Our writers debate April 25, 2023 Wrexham clinched the National League title at the weekend, securing their promotion to the English Football League two years after being bought by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. But is the story, which has been played out in a reality TV series as well as on the pitches of England and Wales, an [...]
Wrexham targeting successive promotions after sealing return to Football League April 24, 2023 Wrexham are targeting another promotion next summer after the Hollywood-owned Welsh club clinched their return to the English Football League on Saturday. The decisive 3-1 win over Boreham Wood came two years after actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took charge at the Racecourse Ground, and executive director Humphrey Ker insists they are just getting [...]
Ed Warner: Demise of UK Athletics is a scandalous situation April 20, 2023 I’ve largely kept my counsel on the shambles at UK Athletics since I left in 2017 but reports that the governing body is at risk of collapse have flipped my switch. Five years encompassing five chairs and six CEOs (some permanent, others interim), unnecessary politicking, pursuit of vanity projects, timidity and simple sloppiness have laid [...]
LIV Golf chief hints at peace talks with PGA Tour ‘sooner rather than later’ April 19, 2023 LIV Golf chief executive Greg Norman has opened the door to peace talks with the PGA Tour on the eve of the upstart circuit’s event in Adelaide this week. More than a year of fighting over access to the game’s top male players appeared to have left relations between the two tours in irreparable condition. [...]
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 [...]