Bundesliga faces identity crisis as it debates the abolition of its fan ownership model in favour of increased investment March 1, 2018 For as long as football fans in England have complained about sanitised atmospheres, expensive tickets and disastrous owners, Germany has been held up as the exemplar of how much more supporter-friendly our national game could be. Affordable entry prices, safe standing areas and an ingrained respect for fan culture are all cited as examples of [...]
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish: VAR is “incredibly dangerous” for Premier League February 28, 2018 Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has described the potential adoption of video assistant referee (VAR) technology as an “incredibly dangerous road” for football to go down. The Palace part-owner warned that football’s hold on TV audiences could be broken by adding breaks to a game at a time when attention spans are dwindling. “I’m very [...]
Arsenal suffer £23.4m fall in football revenue as Gunners count cost of Champions League exile February 28, 2018 Arsenal have revealed that missing out on Champions League participation for the first time in 21 years led to a £23.4m drop in football revenue in their half-year results. Turnover from football for June to November fell to £167.7m from the 2016 figure of £191.1m, while operating profits from football plummeted to £15.6m from £54.2m. [...]
Manchester United 2, Chelsea 1: Antonio Conte slams players for allowing United comeback and putting club’s Champions League hopes at risk February 25, 2018 Chelsea boss Antonio Conte slated his players for surrendering a lead at top-four rivals Manchester United and warned his side that their hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League is at risk. Substitute Jesse Lingard was the United match-winner with a quarter of an hour remaining after striker Romelu Lukaku registered a quick-fire leveller [...]
BT share price rises as regulators raise wholesale price caps February 23, 2018 BT investors were buoyed this morning by a regulatory announcement on the price it can charge its rivals to use its network. With shares rising almost four per cent, BT was one of the FTSE 100’s biggest gainers. Ofcom said it would not regulate the prices charged by infrastructure arm Openreach on its fastest broadband [...]
West Brom boss Alan Pardew reinstates Jonny Evans as captain ahead of Premier League relegation six-pointer with Huddersfield February 22, 2018 West Brom manager Alan Pardew has reinstated Jonny Evans as captain despite him being disciplined for breaking a curfew during a club trip to Barcelona this month. Evans was among four players accused of stealing a taxi on a night out in the Catalan city and was stripped of the armband for last weekend’s FA [...]
EFL clubs bring forward summer transfer deadline to mirror Premier League February 22, 2018 English Football League (EFL) clubs have followed their Premier League counterparts and voted to bring forward their summer transfer deadline to early September. The 72 clubs in the second, third and fourth tiers have agreed to close this summer’s transfer window at 5pm on Thursday 9 August – the same time as teams in the [...]
Manchester United’s new YouTube channel highlights platform’s influence on football February 22, 2018 Such was the hype surrounding big tech’s supposed interest in acquiring live Premier League broadcast rights that YouTube’s name was inevitably thrown into the mix alongside Sky and BT as a potential bidder in the current auction. Yet Google’s online video behemoth was never interested. Why would they be? As demonstrated by Manchester United’s migration [...]
Chris Tremlett: White ball-only contracts are the future of English cricket February 21, 2018 Alex Hales and Adil Rashid opting to sign white ball-only contracts with their counties has caused a stir but I say fair play to the pair of them – they certainly won’t be the last players to concentrate solely on limited-overs cricket. I understand the fuss, which is accentuated by Hales and Rashid having played [...]
DEBATE: With rising automation, is the Royal Society of Arts right that it’s time for a universal basic income? February 21, 2018 With rising automation, is the Royal Society of Arts right that it’s time for a universal basic income? Dr Lauren Ware, lecturer in philosophy at the School of European Culture and Languages at the University of Kent, says YES. We suffer from a culture of competitive overwork that is unpleasant, unhealthy, and unsustainable. Faced with [...]