Contract shatters idea that sponsoring women’s sport is the cheap option that makes your brand look goodGamechanger can be a little overused, but in the case of Barclays’ eight-figure sponsorship deal over three years of the FA Women’s Super League that is literally what it is. Related: Barclays unveiled as Women’s Super League sponsor in groundbreaking deal Continue reading...
The broadcaster wants to revolutionise televised racing – and is prepared to invest money and resources to do soThere are unlikely to be many mourners when At The Races officially expires at midnight on Monday. After all, and with all due respect to the television channel’s home in Milton Keynes, it is going to a much better place. Just short of its 18th birthday, the adoption papers were signed and approved earlier this year and from Tuesday, it is official. At The Races is part of the Sky Sports “family” now.The “At The Races” name is old enough for a PR executive with political ambitions called David Cameron to have been peripherally involved with the initial launch in 2000, when...
As the club prepare to lift the Premier League trophy with the most expensive squad in football, the vision is coming to fruitionWhen Liverpool went to the Etihad Stadium for their smash-and-grab victory over Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-final second leg it was odd to hear their fans sing the straight version of We Shall Not Be Moved – “just like a team that’s going to win the European Cup”.City fans’ version of that anthem was lyrically adjusted 19 years ago, when supporters who grew up on a team of internationals in the early 1970s found themselves trailing around League One while Manchester United were on their way to the treble. Watching in disbelief defeats that 1998-99 season...
The rebuilt stadium cost £757m in 2007, far less than the £600m on offer, but the proposed deal makes sense - especially for grassroots footballOf all the questions prompted by the Football Association’s announcement that it is considering selling Wembley for about £600m to the car parts and NFL billionaire Shahid Khan, one, bluntly, was whether that is actually enough money. Related: FA promises £600m Wembley windfall will go to grassroots football Related: FA holds talks to sell Wembley to Fulham owner Khan in £900m deal Continue reading...
The fees being paid now are eye‑watering, the wages are unthinkable, the top agents’ fees – often payable to their bases in tax havens – difficult to accept, but most clubs are in fact living within their outsized meansOne way to contemplate the mind-boggling millions Premier League clubs have spent signing footballers in this record-breaking transfer window is to reach for the handy device of the illustrated dictionary. Look up the word inflation now, and it gives you a picture of Kyle Walker. Amid the maelstrom of arrivals and departures as the clubs have repeatedly dipped into their deeper money pots – leaving Paris Saint-Germain’s excesses to one side as a special case – Walker’s fee, £50m, stands as a...