Sheikh Jassim aims to win Manchester United takeover battle with extra $1bn May 1, 2023 The Qatari bid for Manchester United, led by Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani, hopes to swing the takeover battle in its favour with the promise of an extra $1bn set aside for investment in the club. The $1bn (£800m) is additional to Sheikh Jassim’s offer for the club, which values United at around £5bn, [...]
Ed Warner: Sport England data shows activity is falling. We need to make it easier April 27, 2023 As Sport England’s latest Active Lives survey shows that we are exercising less, Ed Warner argues that we need to make participation easier. An elite athlete cadges a lift to skip a couple of kilometres of an ultra race. Tough Mudder turns Finsbury Park into a swamp and is barred from using the venue next [...]
‘Players will be rightly angry’: Football at loggerheads over plans for a salary cap April 26, 2023 Plans to implement a salary cap in European football have received an immediate backlash, with unions accusing the game’s governing bodies of ignoring the views of players. Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin revealed this week that talks had begun on introduce a cap in order to stabilise club finances and improve competition, and that “everybody agrees”. [...]
Manchester United sale: Will bidders call the Glazers’ bluff? April 25, 2023 Five months after Manchester United’s owners, the Glazers, fired the starting pistol on a potential sale, bidding is finally expected to draw to a close on Friday. The Glazers’ bankers, the Raine Group, surprised some earlier this month by extending the process to a third round of offers for the 20-time English champions. It has [...]
Wrexham’s promotion: ‘Feelgood fairy tale’ or ‘brand-building exercise that sticks in the craw’? Our writers debate April 25, 2023 Wrexham clinched the National League title at the weekend, securing their promotion to the English Football League two years after being bought by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. But is the story, which has been played out in a reality TV series as well as on the pitches of England and Wales, an [...]
Wrexham targeting successive promotions after sealing return to Football League April 24, 2023 Wrexham are targeting another promotion next summer after the Hollywood-owned Welsh club clinched their return to the English Football League on Saturday. The decisive 3-1 win over Boreham Wood came two years after actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took charge at the Racecourse Ground, and executive director Humphrey Ker insists they are just getting [...]
Three charts that show the chasm between Manchester United and Brighton’s spending April 22, 2023 Manchester United’s vast financial advantage over Brighton is illustrated by analysis of both clubs’ spending over the last decade as they prepare to meet in Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final. When Manchester United last met Brighton and Hove Albion at Wembley Stadium in the 1983 FA Cup final replay, it was already a financial mismatch. Although [...]
Ed Warner: Demise of UK Athletics is a scandalous situation April 20, 2023 I’ve largely kept my counsel on the shambles at UK Athletics since I left in 2017 but reports that the governing body is at risk of collapse have flipped my switch. Five years encompassing five chairs and six CEOs (some permanent, others interim), unnecessary politicking, pursuit of vanity projects, timidity and simple sloppiness have laid [...]
LIV Golf chief hints at peace talks with PGA Tour ‘sooner rather than later’ April 19, 2023 LIV Golf chief executive Greg Norman has opened the door to peace talks with the PGA Tour on the eve of the upstart circuit’s event in Adelaide this week. More than a year of fighting over access to the game’s top male players appeared to have left relations between the two tours in irreparable condition. [...]
Premier League ‘shutting the door on those below’ by ‘distorting competition’ April 19, 2023 MPs have accused the Premier League of “shutting the door on those below” with the parachute payments system of financial redistribution to relegated football clubs. Julian Knight, chairman of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee, urged England’s leading clubs to find a “fairer solution” that doesn’t have a “distorting effect on competition”. [...]
