Australian Open 2017 prize money: Earnings boost to lower levels in bid to spread tennis wealth December 21, 2016 More prize money will be up for grabs than ever before at next month's Australian Open, after the Grand Slam increased its fund by 14 per cent to AUS$50m (£29.4m). The winner of the tournament, which starts on 16 January, will receive AUS$3.7m (£2.2m) — AUS$300,000 more than last year's winner Novak Djokovic was paid. The [...]
Meet Tom Vernon, the former Manchester United scout and founder of Africa’s top football academy out to turn the sport on its head December 21, 2016 There is something extraordinary about the union between FC Nordsjaelland, an unremarkable Danish first division football club to the north-west of Copenhagen, and the Right To Dream academy in Ghana. It is not just because the club, from the modest 19,000-person town of Farum, is some 5,000 miles away from Right To Dream’s football-oriented residential [...]
Fifa fines in full: England pay £35,350 for poppy display, but who else got fined by football’s governing body? December 20, 2016 Fifa has raised £1.4m in fines from national football associations in 2016, including £35,350 from England for displaying poppies during November's World Cup qualifiers. Football's governing body has issued punishments for infractions varying from delayed kick-offs, homophobic chants, pitch invasions by dogs and not providing players for post-match interviews. England's Football Association (FA) has appealed against [...]
Exclusive: West Ham transfer boost as club signs up forex and payments provider TransferMate December 20, 2016 West Ham will today announce a deal with global payments company TransferMate that the club believes will give them a significant advantage when buying and selling players. The multi-year agreement sees TransferMate become West Ham’s exclusive foreign currency provider, meaning the club can expect to benefit from better exchange rates and lower bank fees in [...]
Chelsea record largest loss in six years after ditching Adidas for Nike — but record revenue points to long-term health December 17, 2016 Chelsea recorded their biggest loss in six years last season, after agreeing to pay out of their £30m a year Adidas kit deal. The Blues announced a net loss of £70.6m for the year after incurring exceptional costs of £75.3m — which included compensation fees paid to both Adidas and sacked manager Jose Mourinho. Yet the club's [...]
Why Adam Silver and Sir Philip Craven are my sports leadership heroes of the last 12 months December 15, 2016 If politics entered a post-truth era in 2016, sport entered a post-trust era. So much of sport is about trust – from your teammates to the coaches and medical team to the administrators that govern the game. Slowly but surely trust has been seeping out of the sports we love, and 2016 was the climax of [...]
Football’s new arms race: leading clubs looking to sell shirt sleeve sponsorship for £10m a year ahead of Premier League rule change December 14, 2016 They routinely adorn the biceps of Lionel Messi and Neymar and flutter on the jerseys of Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, yet until now they have been forbidden in the Premier League. Sponsors’ logos on football clubs’ shirt sleeves are on their way to England’s top division from next season, however, as teams look to [...]
Le Col: Can this premium cycling brand designed by riders be the next Rapha? December 14, 2016 "I'm convinced that cycling isn't going to go away," says Yanto Barker, a retired British pro cyclist now whose ambitious apparel brand Le Col is currently looking to secure £1m worth of funding from investors via Crowdcube. Le Col is entering the home straight of its crowdfunding campaign with 23 days left for budding investors to join the 117 people who [...]
Wimbledon tops most-attended list as British fans continue to flock to live sport December 14, 2016 Britons snapped up tickets for live sporting events at a rate of more than one for every person in the country this year, according to research published today by Deloitte. Attendances reached 69.8m in 2016 and were only 700,000 down on last year’s figures, despite the lack of a major showpiece event such as the 2015 [...]
Gareth Southgate confirmed as England manager on three-and-a-half-year contract worth £6m November 30, 2016 The Football Association has confirmed the appointment of Gareth Southgate as England manager on a full-time basis following a spell as interim coach. Southgate and the FA agreed a contract believed to be worth around £1.5m a year plus bonuses until summer 2020, with a break option after the 2018 World Cup should he fail [...]