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☆ Everton Stripped of 10 Points in Premier League, Deepening Team’s Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Tariq Panja | More About Tariq Panja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Everton, a founding member of England’s Premier League that has fallen into financial crisis, faced yet more pain on Friday after it was given a 10-point penalty for breaching the league’s economic rules. The punishment sent Everton to the bottom of the league standings and left it facing the threat of relegation from England’s top division at the end of the season. The announcement of a points penalty was not a surprise, since the Premier League had come under pressure to act by rival teams angered by Everton’s rule breaches. An independent league commission hearing the case against Everton for breaching the league’s profit and sustainability rules announced the punishment. At the end of each season, the bottom three teams in the Premier League table are relegated out of the division and into the second-tier Championship.

Organizations: Everton, England’s Premier League, Premier League, Blues, Burnley Locations: England’s

☆ Inside Man: How FIFA Guided the World Cup to Saudi Arabia
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Tariq Panja | More About Tariq Panja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Italian reaction to Mr. Infantino’s suggestion was at first “prudent and within a few hours negative,” said Pietro Benassi, who was the prime minister’s most senior diplomatic adviser. Three years later, Saudi Arabia would get its prize anyway. On Oct. 31, after an expedited process that caught its own members by surprise, FIFA confirmed Saudi Arabia was the sole bidder for the 2034 World Cup. To many in soccer, Mr. Infantino’s advocacy for Saudi Arabia was nothing new. In the years since his visit to Rome, he had also pitched the Saudis’ co-hosting idea to Greece; championed multimillion-dollar Saudi investments in soccer; and helped shepherd rules changes that all but assured the kingdom would wind up with the World Cup.

Persons: Conte, Jamal Khashoggi, Infantino’s, ”, Pietro Benassi, Infantino, ’ Organizations: Saudi, The Washington Post, FIFA Locations: Italy, Egypt, Italian, Cairo, Europe, Saudi Arabia, Rome, Greece, Saudi

☆ Manchester City’s $500 Million Payroll Is Largest in English Soccer History
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-15 | by ( Tariq Panja | More About Tariq Panja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Manchester City, the Premier League’s dominant team for much of the past decade, announced on Wednesday it had spent more on player salaries last season than any team in British soccer history, paying out more than $500 million as it claimed English and European championships. Cup and its first Champions League title — completing a so-called treble that only one English team had previously managed to do. City now trails only Barcelona in how much it pays its players in salaries, but unlike that Spanish superteam City’s expenditure has not resulted in financial crisis. Instead, City also announced record revenues of 712.8 million pounds, or almost $900 million — another British record — for the year through June 2023. The club’s annual statement also boasted a profit of 80 million pounds, double what it reported a year earlier.

Persons: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nayhan, City, Pep Guardiola Organizations: Manchester City, League’s, United Arab Emirates, Premier League Locations: Manchester, Spanish, City, Barcelona

☆ I.O.C. Says It Was Target of Elaborate ‘Fake News’ Campaign
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( Tariq Panja | More About Tariq Panja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

The International Olympic Committee issued an unusual statement on Thursday saying it had been targeted by “fake news posts” that it said contained “defamatory content, a fake narrative and false information.” The elaborate campaign included manufactured quotations from I.O.C. The film remains visible on other platforms, however, including the encrypted messaging and content platform Telegram. It was a separate post on Telegram that appears to have prompted the Olympic committee to issue its statement on Thursday. Text accompanying the fake news report said the I.O.C. included links to its website and all of its official social media channels in its statement on Thursday, and requested that news media members contact it to confirm the authenticity of information circulating about the organization on social media.

Persons: Tom Cruise, Israel —, Mark Adams, Thomas Bach, ” Mr, Bach, “ Organizations: Olympic, YouTube, Telegram, Olympic Committee, State Department, Palestinian Locations: Israel, Palestine, Paris, Ukraine, Russia, Gaza, Iran, China, India, Munich

☆ Saudi Arabia Is Set to Be Sole Bidder for 2034 World Cup
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Tariq Panja | More About Tariq Panja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

FIFA’s move to speed up the bidding for 2034 surprised many, coming 11 years before the scheduled start of the tournament and a full three years before the 2034 host was supposed to be decided. FIFA also said only bidders from Asia and Oceania, two of soccer’s six regional confederations, could be considered for selection. Saudi Arabia, which had for years been public about its desire to host the World Cup, moved fast to secure the tournament after FIFA set the rules this month. In the face of that support, Australian officials concluded they would have been overmatched if they challenged Saudi Arabia to secure the votes of the majority of FIFA’s 211 federations. Saudi Arabia has signed agreements in the past year with scores of FIFA’s member nations, committing millions of dollars to projects across Asia and lavishing attention on Africa, where it signed an agreement with the regional governing body and sponsored a new tournament.

Persons: Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al Khalifa Organizations: FIFA, Saudi Locations: Asia, Oceania, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Australia, Africa, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabian

☆ Everton Sale Stalls Amid Questions About Buyer’s Financials
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-18 | by ( Tariq Panja | More About Tariq Panja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The proposed sale of the Premier League soccer team Everton F.C. to a Miami-based holding company has stalled because the firm, 777 Partners, has failed to provide audited financial statements to a British government regulator that must approve the deal. The regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, delivered its request to 777 Partners this month, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the approval process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. If the company does not provide the requested financials or an acceptable explanation, its proposed takeover of Everton — a deal involving hundreds of millions of dollars in assumed debt and a coveted place in the world’s richest soccer league — could fall apart. The missing documents are the most significant complication to date in the effort by 777 Partners to add Everton to the collection of high-profile but financially troubled teams it has acquired over the past two years.

Persons: Everton — Organizations: Premier League soccer, Everton F.C, Financial, Authority, Partners, Everton Locations: Miami, British

☆ Australian TV Deal Has World Cup Viewers Asking: Where Are the Games?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Tariq Panja | More About Tariq Panja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Women’s World Cup is by most estimates the biggest sporting event to be staged in Australia since the Sydney Olympics. But while viewers in Australia could watch all 64 games of the recent men’s World Cup played in Qatar on a free-to-air network, FIFA struck a deal for the broadcast rights to the Women’s World Cup — as it did when the tournament was played in France four years ago — with the cellphone operator Optus, which has placed the bulk of the matches on its pay television network. For viewers in Australia, that has meant the majority of games can only be watched via subscription, making it harder for viewers living in one of the tournament’s host countries to watch the tournament than it has been for fans in places like Europe and the United States. “It’s very disappointing to not have the coverage the women deserve,” said Beth Monkley, who was in Brisbane with her daughter this week to follow Australia’s team. And for some reason Australia has decided not to show all the games free to air.”

Persons: “, ”, Beth Monkley Organizations: Sydney Olympics, FIFA, Optus Locations: Australia, Qatar, France, Europe, United States, Brisbane

☆ From Norway, a Voice Unafraid to Call Out FIFA From the Inside
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-24 | by ( Tariq Panja | More About Tariq Panja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Lise Klaveness was only a few weeks into her post as the president of Norway’s soccer federation last year when she decided to start saying the quiet parts out loud. There had been talk of procedural matters, and updates on the financial details. Klaveness, one of the few women in soccer leadership, had other themes on her mind. Addressing matters that for years had dogged FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, she spoke about ethical questions, about migrant workers, about the rights of women and gay people. By the time Klaveness had finished about five minutes later, she had, in typically direct style, issued a challenge to FIFA itself.

Persons: Lise Klaveness, Klaveness strode, Klaveness Organizations: FIFA Locations: Qatar

Those deals, though, pale into comparison with its most ambitious target yet: Kylian Mbappé. Over the weekend, one of the Saudi Professional League’s more prominent teams, Al Hilal, submitted an offer worth $332 million for the France striker to his current team, Paris St.-Germain. Should the deal go through, it would make Mbappé the most expensive player in the sport’s history by some distance, dwarfing the $263 million P.S.G. On Tuesday, it was reported by some news outlets that P.S.G. for a team in what was most recently ranked as soccer’s 58th strongest domestic league.

Persons: Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Al Hilal, Germain, ’, Nasser Al, Al Hilal’s, Fayza Lamari, Mbappé, Ronaldo, Lionel Messi Organizations: Saudi, France, Mbappé Locations: Saudi, Paris St

☆ Can This Man Fix France’s Women’s Team?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Tariq Panja | More About Tariq Panja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The banner hangs just beneath the central staircase of the elegant hotel that has been taken over by the France women’s national team for the World Cup. The motivational words emblazoned across it are typical of the type of positive messaging teams rally around before major sporting tournaments. But for this French squad, and for Renard, its well-traveled coach, the words carry extra significance after a period many on the team would prefer to forget. “Only team spirit,” it reads, “can make you realize your dreams.”Renard used the phrase the first time he met the French squad earlier this year, only months before the World Cup. “We were missing unity," Renard said in an interview on a sunny terrace in front of the team’s base camp last week.

Persons: Hervé Renard, Renard, “, ” Renard, Corinne Diacre Organizations: France women’s

The cold calls and text messages started arriving on Jan Van Winckel’s phone a couple of months ago, and they have not stopped. They come at a rate of about 10 a day, he said, a steady stream of hope-you’re-wells and long-time-no-speaks from old acquaintances, archived contacts, friends of friends of friends. That is what makes him valuable to agents, brokers and executives pinging his phone, over and over, all asking for the same thing: an introduction to a Saudi club president, a connection to an official at the Saudi Pro League, the phone number of someone, anyone, who might be able to help them stake their claim in soccer’s new gold rush. In the first week of June, Saudi Arabia’s soccer authorities and its sovereign wealth fund announced an audacious plan to transform the game in the kingdom: The Public Investment Fund, they announced, would take control of four of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent teams, and hundreds of millions of dollars would be made available to buy some of the game’s biggest stars. And in that moment, even before the first checks were cut, the Pro League became one of the most appealing destinations in the world.

Persons: Jan Van Winckel’s, Van Winckel Organizations: United Arab, Saudi Pro League, Public Investment Fund, Saudi, Pro League Locations: United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Saudi

☆ P.S.G. Says Mbappé Must Sign a New Deal or Leave the Club
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Tariq Panja | More About Tariq Panja | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It was at the unveiling of yet another new coach that Paris St.-Germain’s president made his first public statement on the future of his team’s best player. Kylian Mbappé, the marquee player for P.S.G. Such a scenario would leave the club in the unenviable situation of losing, without compensation, a player in whom it has invested more than $500 million in transfer fees, bonuses and wages. “We do not want him to leave for free in 2024,” al-Khelaifi said. But he needs to sign a new contract.

Persons: Kylian Mbappé, Nasser al, Khelaifi, Luis Enrique, Mbappé, ”, Kylian Organizations: Paris Locations: France

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