Barcelona suffer another financial blow with Rakuten set to pull plug on €30m-a-year shirt sponsorship September 9, 2021 Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten is to end its €30m-a-year sponsorship of Barcelona at the end of the season, according to reports. The development is another blow for the beleaguered titans of Spanish football, who are more than £1bn in debt and lost star player Lionel Messi this summer. Rakuten has been the main shirt sponsor [...]
Usain Bolt: I considered athletics comeback for Tokyo 2020 Olympics but my coach talked me out of it September 9, 2021 World’s fastest man Usain Bolt has revealed that he was talked out of making a comeback at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Bolt, who won the men’s 100m and 200m titles three Games in a row, bowed out from athletics after the 2017 World Championships in London. But the Jamaican says he had second thoughts in [...]
Tickets go on sale for Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games – including track cycling in London September 8, 2021 Tickets for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, the biggest multi-sport event to be held in Britain since the Olympics, have gone on sale today. Prices start at £15 for adults and £8 for children, with more than 1m seats being offered at £22 or less. London’s Lee Valley Velopark is staging the track cycling events [...]
Financial Fair Play is not about making football more competitive, says one of the executives behind the new rules September 7, 2021 Proposed changes to European football’s Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules will not address concerns about competitive balance, says one of the executives involved. New regulations involving a salary cap and luxury tax are set to replace the current, 10-year-old framework, which is loosely based on breaking even. Economists and legal experts have warned that the [...]
European Club Association boss Al-Khelaifi promises loan fund for clubs hit by pandemic, Financial Fair Play shake-up and Uefa joint venture September 6, 2021 Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the chairman of the European Club Association, has outlined a series of measures that he says will bring “urgent financial stability” to the game across the continent. Al-Khelaifi, also the president of Paris Saint-Germain and chairman of the beIN Media Group, promised a multi-billion Euro loan facility and new Financial Fair Play rules [...]
Oarsome: Emma Wiggs paddles to canoe glory as Britain grabs three more gold medals at Tokyo 2020 Paralympics September 3, 2021 Canoeist Emma Wiggs won the first gold of a potential Tokyo 2020 double as Britain passed 100 medals on day 10 of the Paralympics. Wiggs, who won the KL2 kayak event at Rio 2016, landed gold in the first ever women’s VL2 competition at the Paralympics. The 41-year-old, who has nerve damage in her legs, [...]
West Ham United and the London Stadium have been good for each other – legacy chiefs should do a new deal to give the club more control September 2, 2021 This isn’t the article I expected to write; I went back to the London Stadium to bury it not to praise it. Instead, I came away with a deeper understanding of just what a valuable asset West Ham United Football Club has become. Nine years on from London 2012 and four from the World Athletics [...]
Dame Sarah Storey wins 17th gold medal to become Britain’s most successful Paralympian at Tokyo 2020 September 2, 2021 Dame Sarah Storey became the most successful British Paralympian of all time with a hard-fought victory in the C4-5 road race at Tokyo 2020 today. The swimmer-turned-cyclist, who was born without a functioning left hand, won her 17th Paralympic gold medal, and her third of these Games, at Fuji Speedway. “I couldn’t have imagined going [...]
Premier League summer spending falls to 2015 levels as clubs seek value in football’s post-Covid transfer market September 1, 2021 Premier League clubs cut their summer transfer spending to the lowest level since 2015 in response to the pandemic. Gross spending by England’s top-flight teams in the summer window, which closed last night, fell 11 per cent to £1.1bn, according to analysis by Deloitte. Net spending was down 38 per cent to £560m, and both [...]
DAZN to quadruple prices for UK subscribers weeks after luring boxing promoter Matchroom from Sky in £100m deal August 31, 2021 Sports streaming service DAZN has announced a four-fold increase in its monthly subscription fee for UK users. The platform will increase in price to £7.99 per month from the end of September, it told customers today. DAZN, which owns premium boxing rights, launched in the UK at an introductory price of £1.99 eight months ago. [...]