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. [...]
Women’s Super League nets £21m in groundbreaking TV rights deal with Sky and BBC March 22, 2021 Sky and the BBC have agreed a landmark TV rights deal with the Football Association for the Women’s Super League (WSL). Under previous contracts, broadcasters have only paid production costs to show the WSL. The new three-year deal, which starts in September, is worth at least £7m per season, making it the most lucrative of [...]
Women’s rugby has just showed it is streets ahead of the men’s game with new competition WXV March 19, 2021 “It’s not as good as men’s.” That is such an obvious response to any number of women’s sports. As if to evidence such a lowly perception of women’s sport, the recent announcement of the Women’s Six Nations postponement was met with a deluge of misogyny and comments from men who said they simply “don’t care”. Initiated by Stef Evans of Bristol Bears, the women’s rugby community countered in [...]
Week in Sportbiz: Tokyo 2020 Olympics hit by another sexism scandal; World Rugby boosts women’s game; LaLiga brings tiki-taka teachers to East Sussex March 18, 2021 “I would like to show a new direction,” said Seiko Hashimoto upon taking over as president of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the wake of a sexism storm last month. Four weeks later, Hashimoto’s hopes have been torpedoed by revelations that another senior male official for this summer’s Games made derogatory comments about women. Tokyo [...]
The football club of the future? How Lewes FC’s principles have started to pay off – and their aim of becoming the world’s most owned team March 5, 2021 They take pride in doing things differently at Lewes FC, the small football club with big ideas. From the beach huts that act as hospitality boxes at the Dripping Pan, their distinctive ground with the sunken pitch, to the prosecco served at matches and the pop-culture inspired posters that advertise fixtures, the East Sussex outfit [...]
Week in Sportbiz: Formula 1 takes the pain; Budweiser buys NBA rights; watch every PGA Tour shot; World Rugby’s bad timing; squash, the great survivor March 4, 2021 “Our goal was to try and take the pain in 2020,” Greg Maffei, president of Formula 1 owners Liberty Media, told investors this week. Maffei can consider that mission accomplished after Liberty laid bare the devastating effect of the pandemic on F1’s finances last year. F1 slipped from a $17m profit in 2019 to a [...]
Cricket, horse racing, tennis and women’s football set to benefit from £300m summer sport aid package March 3, 2021 Sport is to receive a £300m recovery package as part of the Budget announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak today. Cricket, horse racing, tennis, women’s football and rugby league are expected to be among the sports to benefit from the financial support. It follows similar aid granted to winter sports in November to mitigate the cost [...]
England Netball chief Fran Connolly on the sport’s huge growth, plans to professionalise, and interest from private investors February 20, 2021 Few sports can have had their momentum checked by the pandemic quite like netball in the UK. A decade of extraordinary growth in which participation doubled and exposure at elite level reached unseen heights was jeopardised when Covid-19 hit, forcing a premature end to the Superleague season and halting grassroots netball. Almost a year on, [...]