Category: Football (Soccer)

• Summer window will open early from 1-10 June
• It will then reopen on 16 June and close on 1 September

The Premier League has confirmed it will have two transfer windows this summer due to “exceptional” circumstances surrounding the Club World Cup.

The first transfer window will open early, and run between Sunday 1 June and Tuesday 10 June. It will then close briefly before reopening on Monday 16 June. The second transfer window will run as normal before closing on Monday 1 September.

• Chelsea Supporters’ Trust urges Premier League to act
• Club co-owner is director and investor in Vivid Seats

The Chelsea Supporters’ Trust has written to the Premier League chief executive, Richard Masters, calling for an investigation into the connections of the club’s co-owner Todd Boehly with the ticket exchange and resale company Vivid Seats.

Boehly is a director and investor in Vivid Seats, an American site that allows users outside the United Kingdom to buy and sell tickets to concerts and sporting events, often at huge mark-ups. British fans cannot use the site or others like it because it is illegal to resell football tickets in this way in the UK. The Premier League lists Vivid Seats as an “unauthorised ticket website”.

Jordan Henderson is a great English leader. But he has been encouraged and applauded for the very same acts for which minority ethnic players are castigated and stigmatised

How shall I lead thee? Let me count the ways. I lead thee by stepping up and being vocal, around the dressing room, setting standards in training. I lead thee quietly by example, you know, the not-much-of-a-shouter‑and-a-screamer-but-when-he-speaks-people-listen kind. I lead thee by having been there, done that, won everything in the game. I lead thee by never backing down from a challenge. I lead thee by sheer gravitas.

By any of these measures, Jordan Henderson is a leader. He was a leader for Liverpool, raising standards and setting the tone for 12 golden years. He was a leader for the NHS and the LGBTQ+ community off the field. He was still a leader when he left Liverpool and moved to Saudi Arabia in an attempt to create – in his words – “positive change” in the country for his beloved LGBTQ+ constituents.

From Brentford to the NBA, experts highlight tackling ‘unhealthy habits’ around sleep for athletes to reach their peak

When it comes to optimal performance, football clubs analyse diet, physiology and a plethora of minute details to ensure players have the best chance of peaking at the right time. One area that may merit greater focus is sleep.

Insomnia and other sleep issues are prevalent across British society. It is estimated that 30% of the population do not enjoy good quality rest but in elite athletes that figure rises to more than 50%.

Dash for cash runs risks of damage to atmosphere and core local support the Premier League prides itself on

It is the time of year when season-ticket holders receive an email from their club spelling out how much it will cost to follow them through thick and thin once again. The email often lands without warning of an increase, that bit saved for lower down after explaining the financial challenges and how the owner wants to invest to bring success. Generally it will say it was a “tough but necessary decision” to charge for loyalty. For many fans this is becoming harder and harder to swallow.

In the Premier League, with increased TV and prize money, chiselling extra out of those who almost feel obliged to attend seems unnecessary. The owners and directors who do this are well aware that fans, on the whole, will keep coming back. Football is such an integral part of many people’s lives that they cannot imagine not making every possible trip to a place they regard as a second home and are willing to cut back elsewhere to prove their commitment.

Arne Slot’s team will almost certainly win the Premier League this season but there are welcome signs that talent in England may be becoming more dispersed

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It wasn’t supposed to be that straightforward. Newcastle United have suffered so much disappointment at Wembley that the assumption had been that the end of a domestic trophy drought that stretched back to 1955 would be fraught, that they’d have to drag themselves over the line, nails bitten to the quick, the countdown to the final whistle having to be earned second by painful second.

As it was, although there was some anxiety after Federico Chiesa’s injury-time effort for Liverpool was ruled onside by VAR, Newcastle seemed to have the game under control from the start, and never really looked like surrendering the advantage given them by Dan Burn’s magnificent header. His story, the local lad rejected at the age of 11 by the club he supported, losing a finger, transforming himself from goalkeeper to defender, touring the country before returning aged 30 to Newcastle and then, a few days after he had been called to the England squad for the first time, scoring the winner with the sort of header, neck muscles thrusting, that wouldn’t have looked out of place when Newcastle last won at Wembley, is almost too perfect. Enough, certainly, to make people believe in the myth of football as a stage for dreams and fairytales, of heroes and emotion and yearning and fulfilment, and to forget, at least for a moment, how the whole sorry business is funded.