Ease of Red Roses Six Nations run worries me ahead of Rugby World Cup April 26, 2025 England Rugby’s Red Roses have a problem: nobody looks remotely close to beating them in Europe at the moment. But this was the case ahead of the previous two World Cups and, in both instances, England lost in the final. This year, however, there’s no room for error, with the final set to be staged [...]
David Kogan: Media grandee set to chair football regulator April 25, 2025 Media heavyweight David Kogan OBE, a former advisor to the Premier League with links to the Labour party, has been named the government’s preferred candidate to chair the independent football regulator. Kogan, 67, has seen off competition from serial football club executive Christian Purslow, equality campaigner Sanjay Bhandari and former parliamentary expenses watchdog Professor Sir [...]
Bukayo Saka: Arsenal star’s image rights company doubles earnings April 25, 2025 A company set up to manage Arsenal and England forward Bukayo Saka’s image rights more than doubled in value last year. Income at BS7 Rights Limited, which is run by his parents Adenike Saka and Hamed Saka, increased from £2.30m to £4.64m in 2024. The sharp rise came after Saka signed a new contract at [...]
Taking the p***: London Marathon runners’ urine to be recycled April 25, 2025 We’ve heard of big sporting events trumpeting their green credentials but this year the London Marathon is taking the p***. Literally, in fact, as organisers of the world-famous race have teamed up with two pioneering start-ups to recycle runners’ urine and turn it into fertiliser. They hope to collect 1,000 litres of wee and test [...]
Leeds United owners go into business with New Zealand Cricket April 24, 2025 New Zealand Cricket is going into business with the owners of Leeds United, 49ers Enterprises, to launch an expansion team in Major League Cricket. The franchise is set to join the US-based T20 competition in 2027 and will benefit from expertise and personnel – which could include coaches, staff and players – from New Zealand [...]
Economy boosted by record number of adults exercising April 24, 2025 Sport England has revealed that more adults than ever are doing the recommended amount of exercise – and it’s also a shot in the arm for the economy. The organisation’s latest Active Lives report found that 63.7 per cent of adults in England – 30m people – are doing at least 150 minutes of moderate [...]
Aston Villa to boost Villa Park capacity beyond 50,000 by 2027 April 24, 2025 Aston Villa have revealed plans to increase the capacity of Villa Park to more than 50,000 by more than doubling the number of seats in its North Stand. The Premier League club aim to complete the work by late 2027, in time for being one of the host venues for Euro 2028, which is being [...]
London Marathon named world’s strongest marathon brand April 24, 2025 The TCS London Marathon has been named the world’s strongest marathon brand ahead of the 45th edition of the race on Sunday. The iconic race pipped its competitors in New York and Paris, with fellow Majors Berlin and Boston completing the top five in the ranking compiled by Brand Finance. The London Marathon achieved a [...]
21.3bn reasons why TCS partners with the London Marathon April 24, 2025 Partnering with the London Marathon has helped b2b-focused TCS grow its brand value tenfold, says the company’s chief marketing officer Abhinav Kumar. TCS can point to plenty of reasons for partnering with the London Marathon and other endurance races – 21.3 billion of them, in fact. That figure represents the global IT services and consulting [...]
London Marathon has never been more popular so why not make it bigger? April 24, 2025 The ballot for entry to the 2026 London Marathon opens tomorrow and closes next Friday. Over 840,000 entered the draw for this weekend’s race. Strip out places bought for fundraising runners by charities as well as club slots and age-graded, guaranteed entries, and the odds of ballot success were just one in 50. Rarity value [...]