Week in Sportbiz: Formula 1 takes the pain; Budweiser buys NBA rights; watch every PGA Tour shot; World Rugby’s bad timing; squash, the great survivor March 4, 2021 “Our goal was to try and take the pain in 2020,” Greg Maffei, president of Formula 1 owners Liberty Media, told investors this week. Maffei can consider that mission accomplished after Liberty laid bare the devastating effect of the pandemic on F1’s finances last year. F1 slipped from a $17m profit in 2019 to a [...]
RFU: No relegation from Premiership or Championship this season February 12, 2021 The Rugby Football Union has confirmed that there will be no relegation from either the Premiership or Championship at the end of the current season. One team will be promoted from the Championship, meaning next year’s Premiership will consist of 13 teams, and the Championship 11. That team is widely expected to be Saracens, who [...]
Rugby World Cup could have joint hosts in 2027 and 2031, says governing body February 1, 2021 The men’s Rugby World Cup could be shared by joint hosts in 2027 and 2031, the game’s global governing body has said. France is due to stage the 2023 tournament and World Rugby has just officially opened the bidding process for the next two instalments. “We recognise that for some of our members hosting a [...]
Rugby World Cup 2023 draw: England to face Japan and Argentina in pool stage December 14, 2020 England have been drawn to play Japan and Argentina in the pool stage of the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France. It is a relatively kind draw for Eddie Jones’s team, who were runners-up last year and were among the top seeds. Ireland and Scotland face a battle to escape from Pool B alongside holders [...]
NFL poaches World Rugby boss Brett Gosper as it aims to increase its presence in UK and Europe December 2, 2020 World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper will leave the governing body next year to run the NFL in Europe and the UK. Gosper has been in his current role for eight years, during which time he has overseen the staging of two successful World Cups. The Australian has agreed to become head of Europe and [...]
The Week In Sportbiz: Premier League set to axe pay-per-view (for now), Formula E gets cosier with Extreme E, and Gosper gives US his World Cup vote November 6, 2020 Less than a month after its introduction, Premier League clubs are expected to ditch their unpopular pay-per-view service. Since debuting on 17 October, half of all games have been restricted to those willing to pay £14.95 a time. Fans groups protested the extra charges by successfully urging people to donate thousands of pounds to food [...]
Ollie Phillips: England can beat the All Blacks and win World Cup October 24, 2019 This is the big one. Eddie Jones has always said to judge him on this World Cup, and England’s semi-final with New Zealand tomorrow is the biggest match of his tenure. The best two sides in the world meet in Yokohama and if Jones’s team win it will be absolutely enormous for England and for [...]
England require maximum muscle to see off Australia as unlucky George Ford misses out October 17, 2019 For the first time in Rugby World Cup history it is genuinely feasible that any of this weekend’s eight quarter-finalists could reach the semi-finals. We are set for four epic showdowns on Saturday and Sunday, each with their own storyline. And it all starts with England against Australia tomorrow. The big talking point is George [...]
England v Australia: Hooper and Pocock can benefit at breakdown with Jerome Garces as referee October 15, 2019 The sign of a good refereeing performance tends to be that they have gone unnoticed throughout the match. But so far at this Rugby World Cup, officials have been in the spotlight more often than organisers would have desired. Referee Jerome Garces and television match official (TMO) Ben Skeen are two figures to have been [...]
The Rugby World Cup has lessons for business September 27, 2019 After being dumped out of the 2015 Rugby World Cup early, England will be hoping to improve on their performance this time round in Japan. So far, the team has beaten both Tonga and the USA. It’s been a long wait for redemption – four years in the making – and, as well as their [...]