Manchester United lose £23m as coronavirus cuts revenue by £120m October 21, 2020 Manchester United suffered a £23m loss as revenue plunged by almost 20 per cent for the year ending 30 June. Annual income fell to £509m, from £627m the previous year, as the coronavirus outbreak saw football suspended. All three of Manchester United’s main revenue streams were hit during the fourth quarter, when most games were [...]
Champions League 2020-21: How prize money is calculated and why the winners don’t always get paid the most October 20, 2020 Winning the Champions League is not just about the glory; it also comes with a major prize money windfall of more than €100m for the eventual winner. Last season Bayern Munich earned an estimated €130m for lifting the trophy, while Liverpool pocketed €111m in 2018-19. But precisely how much a run in European football’s top [...]
Top English clubs and JP Morgan ‘in talks’ over $6bn European super league October 20, 2020 US banking giant JP Morgan and top-flight English clubs are said to be in talks over a game-changing $6bn (£4.6bn) plot to launch a new Fifa-backed European football league.
Champions League behind the numbers: Richest clubs, most valuable squads and players 2020-21 October 20, 2020 The Champions League begins again in earnest this week when the cream of European football kick off the group stage. It comes less than two months after Bayern Munich lifted the trophy in a coronavirus-delayed conclusion to last season. Despite that success, the German club do not have the most valuable squad in this year’s [...]
Here’s why sport is still a good bet in a recession October 19, 2020 There has been a re-awakening. Have you felt it? If you haven’t quite felt it, you’ll have certainly seen the force with which live sport returned to our screens as professional leagues worked hard to piece together a schedule to meet fans’ desire for relative normality. And boy was the audience growing impatient for it. [...]
Cast adrift on a sea of hubris, refereeing has lost sight of the spirit of football October 19, 2020 Only three possible explanations exist for both referee Michael Oliver and video assistant referee David Coote failing to designate Jordan Pickford’s crumpling of Virgil van Dijk a red card offence. One: neither thought it worth addressing. Two: neither felt it was in their power to act since Van Dijk had been guilty of the most [...]
The Week in Sportbiz: Uncle Sam is coming for cricket, Nigel Wray bets on fitness and sports reveal trans policies October 16, 2020 Not content with trying to carve up the Premier League, Americans now have another English sacred cow in their sights: cricket. The game’s Stateside governing body today announced ambitious plans to become a major mainstream sport across the Atlantic – and achieve full member status with the International Cricket Council within a decade. USA Cricket [...]
Sport’s governance problem: Scandal beckons without more professionalism and transparency October 15, 2020 As recent headlines attest, serious problems of governance can be found all across the sports sector. Gathering extensive empirical research for our new book on the role of independent directors, we found problems with a lack of accountability, unclear governance and a lack of skills and experience to sort out the mess. We consulted directors [...]
Premier League teams reject controversial Project Big Picture reforms October 14, 2020 Premier League clubs have renounced controversial plans for English football’s biggest shake-up in almost 30 years. ‘Project Big Picture’ proposed reducing the number of teams in the top division and giving the six biggest clubs sweeping powers in exchange for a major package of financial aid for the wider game affected by Covid-19. But clubs [...]
English football clubs ‘will not be allowed to go bust’ due to Covid-19 October 14, 2020 Clubs in the English Football League (EFL) will not be allowed to go bust as a result of the coronavirus crisis, a senior government minister has said. Oliver Dowden, secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, said he had received assurances from both the EFL and the Premier League that they had the [...]