Rugby resists modern marketing but Les Bleus have created a blueprint Sport Business The sport of rugby union can be confusing. I don’t mean the rules – although they are part of the problem – but more how a sport can both thrive and struggle to survive almost simultaneously. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the 2026 men’s Six Nations. It was a tournament many claim [...]
Fifa’s credibility is shot because it can’t decide what it wants to be Sport Business Does Fifa want football to be pure sporting competition floating serenely above politics, or a global force for peace? Its current approach is dumbing down, writes Matt Readman. On 21 June 1998, Iran faced the United States at the Fifa World Cup in what was billed as the most politically charged football match in history. Fifa later declared it the match that “football [...]
Australian Open’s One Point Slam shows that merit still makes the best stories Sport Business The Australian Open officially got under way this week, but the most talked-about moment of the year’s opening tennis slam may already be behind us. Before a ball had been struck in the main draw, a little-known tennis coach from Sydney, Jordan Smith, walked away with A$1m after winning the One Point Slam — a [...]
How sport and athletes can show the realities of neurodiversity December 21, 2025 Sport and athletes like Simone Biles, Lewis Hamilton and Lucy Bronze can play a key role in reframing attitudes on neurodiversity, writes Matt Readman. Earlier this month Wes Streeting announced a review into how the UK is currently diagnosing mental health conditions, jumping on the bandwagon of those questioning whether normal feelings have become “over-pathologised”. [...]
LIV Golf is the clear winner of tussle with PGA Tour – it forced change November 29, 2025 Those who see the convergence between LIV Golf and the PGA Tour as a victory for the old order fundamentally misunderstand how disruption works, writes Matt Readman. “What are we even doing here anymore?” That was the reaction of golf journalist and vlogger Dan Rapaport to the news that LIV Golf was shifting from its [...]
How sport can take tackle Gen Z’s problem with gender polarisation October 21, 2025 Gender is as becoming as divisive as race, politics and economics among but sport can play its part in fixing a growing problem among Gen Z, writes Matt Readman. It’s been 25 years since Nelson Mandela famously said that sport could “unite people in a way that little else does”. While sport has sometimes mirrored social [...]
Gianni Infantino, Jay Shah and the rise of sport’s super-execs August 5, 2025 Infantino at Fifa and Shah at the ICC are styling themselves as super-execs like Musk and Zuckerberg but it won’t end well, warns Matt Readman. In sport, the best referees go unnoticed. They quietly manage the game, letting play flow and leaving the athletes to shine. Occasionally they must enforce the law, but they are [...]
Trump, the Super Bowl, wokery and sport’s shift to the right February 2, 2025 It might be the same man sitting in The Oval Office, but a lot’s changed since Donald J Trump first presided over a Super Bowl eight years ago. In 2017 America was perilously divided, with a newly-elected Trump in the White House and protest marches taking place on the streets outside it. This tension was [...]
Dear sport leaders, drop the slogans if you’re not going to be a force for good November 16, 2024 As the world watched the final votes being counted in the US election, one person in particular should have been nervous about Donald Trump’s victory: Fifa president Gianni Infantino. Infantino had previously claimed that the upcoming 2026 World Cup was “a rallying cry […] a moment when three countries and an entire continent collectively say: [...]
Fans will grow weary if player burnout continues in sport October 21, 2024 With demands on players like nothing seen previously, is potential player burnout also going to have an impact on fans too? It’s a surprising thing that during a cost-of-living crisis, with households struggling and economies straining, I find myself sympathising with Rodrigo Hernández Cascante. The £200,000-a-week Manchester City midfielder, better known as Rodri, last month [...]
