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da roleta： A European giant are now in talks to sign one of West Ham’s first-team players this month as they look to raid Graham Potter’s side in the winter window.

Potter's West Ham debut ends in defeat

da 888casino： After taking over from Julen Lopetegui with West Ham sitting down in 14th in the Premier League, Potter’s first game ended in defeat as his side were knocked out of the FA Cup by Aston Villa.

Despite that, the new Hammers boss saw plenty of positives from that performance. “Our performance gave me a lot of encouragement, the way the players tried to do what we asked them to do. We’re just disappointed now because we’re out and wanted to go through.

“We just try to get the team into a good shape. The talent is there but it’s just about trying to get the team together as a collective. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

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However, the defeat is set to have longer-term implications for Potter, with Niclas Füllkrug having been substituted off after just 15 minutes through injury, and reports have claimed that he will miss up to three months after scans confirmed the significance of the issue.

That means that West Ham may well be forced into the transfer market, with Michail Antonio also sidelined indefinitely after a car crash last month, while Jarrod Bowen is still recovering from a broken foot, leaving Danny Ings as the only recognised option to lead the line.

But first, they will have to fight off interest in other members of their first team between now and the end of the January transfer window.

European club table bid for West Ham midfielder

Now, according to Fabrizio Romano, AS Monaco have made an offer to sign Mexican midfielder Edson Alvarez on loan this month.

The Ligue 1 side are third in France as things stand, and are looking to bolster their ranks to ensure that they qualify for the Champions League again this season.

To that end, they have made an offer to sign the West Ham man, tabling an initial loan offer for the 27-year-old for the remainder of the campaign.

Unsurprisingly, West Ham have rejected this offer, having signed Alvarez for £35m just 18 months ago and with the Mexican still having three and a half years left to run on his £100,000 a week deal at the London Stadium. He is considered an “important player”, as peer Romano, something that makes a move tricky for the Monegasques.

Handed a start in Potter’s first game in charge, Alvarez has been a regular when fit for the Hammers this season, starting 11 games.

Edson Alvarez in 24/25

Appearances

16

Starts

11

Goals/Assists

0

Yellow Cards

4

He could continue to figure for the new West Ham boss should he remain at the club. However, in news that may concern Hammers fans, Romano adds that talks continue “as Monaco want Alvarez and can offer UCL football”, while West Ham look on course to miss out on European football altogether barring a major turnaround in the second half of the campaign.

أعلن الاتحاد الدولي لكرة القدم، رسميًا، طاقم تحكيم مباراة ريال مدريد وباريس سان جيرمان في نصف نهائي كأس العالم للأندية، المقررة يوم الأربعاء في الولايات المتحدة.

ويعود سيمون مارشينياك، الذي يُعد من أبرز حكام العالم، مجددًا لإدارة مباريات ريال مدريد، بعد أيام فقط من قيادته لقاءهم أمام يوفنتوس في دور الـ16 من نفس البطولة، والذي حسمه ريال مدريد بهدف نظيف.

ويحمل تعيين مارشينياك طابعًا مثيرًا للجدل، إذ إنه الحكم ذاته الذي أدار ركلات الترجيح الشهيرة ضد أتلتيكو مدريد في دوري أبطال أوروبا الماضي، حين ألغى ركلة جزاء مثيرة لصالح جوليان ألفاريز.

اقرأ أيضًا | بشكل مفاجئ.. عملاق أوروبي يتواصل مع رودريجو لضمه من ريال مدريد

مارشينياك بات على موعد مع ثاني مباراة له مع ريال مدريد منذ ذلك الجدل، ما يفتح الباب أمام مراقبة جماهيرية حذرة وتحفز إعلامي لمراقبة قراراته في اللقاء المرتقب ضد باريس سان جيرمان.

حكم القمة النارية أدار 11 مباراة لريال مدريد سابقًا، حقق خلالها الملكي 6 انتصارات وتعادلين، مقابل 3 هزائم، آخرها كانت أمام بايرن ميونخ في نصف نهائي دوري الأبطال الموسم قبل الماضي.

أما بالنسبة لنادي باريس سان جيرمان، فقد أدار مارشينياك 7 مواجهات سابقة، انتهت بـ4 انتصارات وتعادل وخسارتين، وكان آخرها الفوز الكبير على مانشستر سيتي 4-2 في دور المجموعات في الموسم الماضي.

اللافت أن الحكم البولندي أدار أيضًا مباراة إنتر ميامي ضد بالميراس في دور المجموعات، ليصل إلى ثالث ظهور تحكيمي له في هذه النسخة من كأس العالم للأندية.

كل الأنظار الآن تتجه إلى ملعب نصف النهائي، حيث يقود مارشينياك مباراة قد تكون حاسمة في تتويج بطل جديد، وسط ترقب لمواجهة نارية بين كتيبة عثمان ديمبلي وكتيبة كيليان مبابي.

Newcastle United now hold a major advantage in the pursuit of an “extraordinary” defender, according to a report.

Eddie Howe keen to strengthen his backline

Bringing in a new defender is clearly one of Eddie Howe’s priorities this January, having identified Lens’ Abdukodir Khusanov as his top target.

Khusanov is open to a move to St James’ Park, with the Magpies now believed to be shifting their transfer policy towards signing players with potential rather than ready-made stars.

The new policy means Newcastle are also keen on signing players with Premier League experience, potentially making Barcelona’s Eric Garcia an intriguing option given his time with Manchester City.

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Marc Guehi was of interest to Howe back in the summer, but Crystal Palace’s asking price proved to be a major stumbling block. However, a much cheaper option appears to have now been identified.

According to reports from Italy (via Sport Witness), the Magpies are leading the race for Milan defender Fikayo Tomori – and they now hold a major advantage in the race for his signature.

A number of Serie A clubs have also been showing interest in Tomori, with Napoli making contact over a deal, but as per Gazzetta dello Sport, Milan would prefer not to sell him to a direct rival, potentially opening the door for a move to Tyneside.

Encouragement has been handed to Howe’s side in their pursuit of the centre-back, and reports also suggest he could be an affordable option, with the Italian club potentially willing to sanction his departure for a fee in the region of €25m (£21m).

Fixture

Date

Manchester United (a)

December 30th

Tottenham Hotspur (a)

January 4th

Wolverhampton Wanderers (h)

January 15th

AFC Bournemouth (h)

January 18th

Southampton (a)

January 25th

Tomori struggling for game time

Milan may be willing to get Tomori off the books this January as he has fallen down the pecking order considerably at the San Siro, failing to start a Serie A game since the beginning of October.

That said, the 27-year-old has impressed for the Italian club in the past, receiving high praise from former Milan executive Ivan Gazidis back in 2022, who said:

“Fikayo has been extraordinary during this season. He is absolutely one of the pillars of this team, he is one of those players around whom we want to build our team. He has great dedication on and off the pitch.”

Newcastle’s new transfer policy dictates that players with Premier League experience are preferable, and the Canada-born defender ticks this box from his time with Chelsea, albeit never managing to cement himself as a key, long-term player.

Even though Tomori has fallen out of favour with Milan recently, his previous exploits indicate that he could be a solid signing for Newcastle, and it is an added bonus that he may be available for the relatively low fee of £21m.

The promotion of Rehan Ahmed to the Test squad might have seemed a bit last-minute. But a day after Ahmed was informed by head coach Brendon McCullum of his selection for the tour of Pakistan, men’s director of cricket Rob Key revealed that that had been the plan all along.A 15-man Test squad was picked in October without Ahmed’s name, which instead appeared in the Lions squad. A training camp in Dubai, and involvement in the ongoing warm-up match in Abu Dhabi between the Test squad and the Lions, was to be followed by a secondment on the Test tour to continue his development.And while that would not necessarily have prevented Ahmed from being selected, particularly under captain Ben Stokes whose tenure has involved changing the way things used to be done, the fact that his call-up has been made official in this manner, a week out from the first Test, is due to careful, necessary planning.”The plan for Rehan was that we always looked to bring him into the squad,” Key said in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. “This is the best way to aid his development. He is a serious talent, but he might be four or five years off being the finished product. He is nowhere near the finished article at the moment.”But we just hope that being involved with the Test squad, with McCullum and Stokes and the mentality they have … bowling at Joe Root. He becomes a full member of that squad, he’s not just a net bowler. If needed, we believe he can play and do a good job for us with bat and ball. It’s a chance to put him on a path that will get the best out of him.”Credit to the Test set-up, we feel that is the best group of people to aid his development and get him to where we think he can be quicker, by being involved with not just the captain or Brendon, but every one of those players has a part to play in his development.”Having sent down eight wicketless overs for 73 runs as the Test “XI” racked up 501 for seven on day one of this mooted three-day tune-up at the Tolerance Oval, Ahmed helped provide the exclamation mark of the Lions’ reply. His brisk 26 off 10 deliveries included three fours and two sixes, both off Liam Livingstone, who responded in the same over by feigning a run-out at the non-striker’s end, before eventually bringing about his end by more conventional means. It meant that the Lions closed day two on 411 for nine. Haseeb Hameed’s composed 145 and 82 from fellow opener Tom Haines provided the guts of the innings.Ahmed’s innings – bold, care-free, very much what you’d expect from an 18-year-old teeming with confidence – can perhaps be extrapolated to the impression he has made on McCullum, who was understood to be reticent about selecting Ahmed before he had seen or fully interacted with him. He has evidently been impressed over the last 48 hours.Nevertheless, the duty of care towards a kid with just three first-class appearances for Leicestershire, who only turned 18 in August, was always part of the consideration.Rob Key (right) and Brendon McCullum, who has evidently been impressed by Ahmed since his arrival in the UAE•Getty Images

“How we’ve done it, we wanted it to be more of a soft launch, rather than just announcing him in a squad and away you go, with all the media speculation,” Key revealed. “He has been able to come out here, we have had a look at him. Mo Bobat [ECB performance director and head coach of the Lions] knows him very well and has had a big part in his development since being a young kid. Every one of these young players has come through that pathway with Bobat, David Court [Player ID Lead]. They have a good read on these people, they have been in touch with the families and all that stuff. That was the best way we felt we could have that soft launch, so he was around a bit before he finds out he’s been picked in the squad.”There is another, intriguing element to Ahmed. Even with a century and five-wicket haul with the red ball, both picked up in a County Championship match against Derbyshire at the end of the 2022 season, his white-ball game is clearly a little further developed. So much so, that he had offers for franchise cricket this winter. Had the schedules aligned differently, he would have almost certainly played in England’s ODIs in Australia that immediately followed the T20 World Cup, having trained with the limited-overs squad during the summer.Key cedes Ahmed “is going to have decisions going forward in his career and life”, around which colour ball takes his fancy at various points of the year. And he has no qualms in admitting this exposure to Test cricket can sow a sizeable seed in Ahmed’s head.”He arguably could be thinking about franchise cricket but we’ve given him an offer he can’t refuse really – a chance to be involved in Test cricket as the pinnacle. If you can play this form, you can play anything.”That last bit is a principle Key swears by, and forms the basis of his work so far at the head of the English game, as far as on-field matters are concerned. Even from his days in the commentary box with Sky Sports and others, he has long held a view the old and new worlds can sit comfortably together, with a little give and take along the way.Jofra Archer is a more developed example of this. Having made a return to bowling in a match for the first time since July 2021, he will play in the SA20 franchise competition for MI Cape Town. The stint forms part of the gradual build-up of Archer’s workload – he will then move on to the ODI series in South Africa – and is probably the most open indication of co-operation between two entities with differing priorities, at least on the face of it. And, no doubt, it was set in motion following a chat in the summer between Key and Graeme Smith, commissioner of the SA20.Haseeb Hameed made a century for England Lions in Abu Dhabi•ECB Images

“He’s a wildcard pick,” Key said. “You talk to the franchise owners and you come up with a plan so we are aligned. They want the same thing, which is Jofra Archer not getting injured again for a long period of time. It’s handy that he can bowl four overs in two games for them, then go into the 50-over stuff, so he has competitive cricket and a build-up. The way the world works now, you have to work with these teams and all you have to be aligned and want the same thing, to make sure Jofra can play to his potential for as long as he can. The only way it works is if you all work together.”You could extend all this to include the employment of Luke Wright as England selector. Wright will begin his tenure in March 2023, once he fulfils his contractual obligations with Auckland Aces as their performance and talent coach.At 37, and having just retired from a playing career primarily with Sussex across 20 years as a professional, he is wired into the game, both with contacts and his understanding of an ever-evolving ecosystem. He has experience across the world, in a variety of domestic and franchise competitions. Beyond his undoubted personability, Key will lean on his rare nous.Related

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“Things like shaping central contract decisions, all those things he’ll be involved with, and he understands better than I do because he’s played franchise cricket and knows what it’s like to be a player, and the decisions they’ve got to make because these decisions are coming now for the players. They’re not coming in five years’ time. This is coming now. Which franchise do they want to play for? What format do they want to play? Do they want to play in that series or is it going to collide with something else? Luke Wright’s across all of that.”Of course, a lot of this is a very English luxury, be it guaranteed interests in Test cricket from participants and punters, or simply the finances to ring-fence their assets to a point. Key acknowledges all of that, especially at a time when franchise competitions are only growing in number and pull.”We are so lucky in English cricket but our summer doesn’t get decimated by all of these leagues. You can see why Rahul Dravid said how they can’t let their players play in these franchise leagues, because all these leagues would just decimate the Ranji Trophy.”We’re in a very fortunate position but we’ve got to realise that we’ve got to work these people and put ourselves in the player’s shoes and think about ‘what decision would I make here?’ You’ve got to be fair and make sure everyone benefits. As expected, it’s just come quicker than I thought.”

He was stifled by slower balls, tucked up by short ones and undone by a straight one by which time Royal Challengers were well on their way to losing the game

Alagappan Muthu in Bangalore19-Apr-2015Chris Gayle was 6 off 18 balls at the end of the Powerplay chasing 210. He had been dropped once, would be dropped again, but when he ran and swung blindly outside the line of a relatively straight and flat delivery, he trudged back to the pavilion with 10 to his name. Off 24 balls. At a strike rate of 41.66.And yet it began in much the same template as any of his innings. The shadow practice in the middle of the pitch. A leave outside off, the bat whisked inside the line of the ball, which was then free to thud into the keeper’s gloves. Mitchell McClenaghan liked the carry, and that Gayle wasn’t keen on the shortish length. Full speed ahead.Two bouncers came on cue. One was not bothered with. The other beat Gayle for pace. Neither ball was legal according to the umpire, but it didn’t matter to Mumbai Indians. They knew it was a chink in Gayle’s armour. They knew it has been exploited before, especially by quick bowlers who can will the ball up to his ribs. Tucking him up so that he doesn’t have the room to unfurl his powerful hands through the ball. The eye of the Gayle storm, and Mumbai’s bowlers had found a way to make that their home.As ever Lasith Malinga was the lynchpin. He doesn’t have the pace he used to, and on occasion can be lined up. Gayle is a stand and deliver kind of batsman and his success depends on being able to read a bowler. That tends to get a smidge harder with a slingy action and terrifically disguised slower balls. The contest began with a maiden – five balls off pace, one of them beating Gayle’s lead-footed flailing cut, and one stinging leg-stump yorker. There were two more balls for the blockhole, both only barely handled, and finally the slower ball to finish. Gayle was able to take only two runs off Malinga.No pace to work with. Nothing to get underneath for leverage. No longer quick on the pull, not against balls on leg stump and rising above his stomach. He is too rigid as opposed to still and balanced when he times the ball. He doesn’t flow into the shot. Those big, burly shoulders can’t get moving. The best Gayle can do is nurdle and try to get off strike but midwicket and mid-on do not allow him the luxury. Nor does that notorious back.It has been eight overs and he has been unable to cope. His greatest weapon – power – has been negated by the lack of balls in his half of the pitch. Thirteen of his 24 balls were short or shortish. He wrangled three runs from them. As cool as Gayle seems, he was neck deep in hot water. Something had to give. And it would be the off stump. He was walking back for 10 runs. Off 24 balls.For context, AB de Villiers faced less than half as many and came away with 41 runs to his name – 11 deliveries, eight of them banished to the boundary. There was only one dot ball in the mix. Rohit Sharma faced 15 and sent seven of them to the ropes.Keeping batsmen quiet in T20 is no mean feat. Keeping a batsman like Gayle quiet in T20 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium is like walking on a tightrope across two skyscrapers with greasy feet. You are bound to slip. But Mumbai just did not. At least, not until de Villiers went on a rampage.Royal Challengers had gone into this game with one hand behind their back and the other pumped full of performance enhancers. All four overseas players were batsmen, leaving the bowling attack under the care of Varun Aaron, who has never played an T20 international, David Wiese, who is more a batting allrounder, two uncapped spinners and one uncapped medium pacer. And they had stuck this motley crew into the fire by opting to field. Virat Kohli was gambling here. But one thing he would never have seen coming was this Gayle innings.

Good news, that’s all Arsenal fans wanted, right? This has been a challenging start to the new season and the Gunners are not where they wanted to be at all.

This wasn’t in the script. After two close runs, challenging Manchester City right until the very end, they have fallen behind in 2024/25. Defeats to Bournemouth and Newcastle sandwiched a 2-2 draw with Liverpool that has left them five points behind the Citizens and seven points behind the Reds.

At least Arsenal have the foundations in place at the top of the club to improve. Well, so we thought, anyway.

Far gone are the days of Raul Sanllehi and a lack of transparency from Stan Kroenke. In that regard, the North Londoners are far more organised.

Former club CEO Vinai Venkatesham had done a sterling job with Stan and his son Josh Kroenke, who is seen a great deal more in the public eye. However, since he was thrust more into the limelight there has been a greater sense of clarity at board level.

That has been furthered by the appointment of Mikel Arteta who has been brilliant since being hired by KSE. The same can be said of Edu Gaspar, the club’s Sporting Director who has played a huge hand in transfers and contracts behind the scenes. Sadly, he could be on his way out.

Why Edu has left Arsenal

Surprising news emerged on Monday morning that Edu was set to leave Arsenal.

The story came courtesy of Sami Mokbel of the Daily Mail who reported that ‘Arteta is to lose a key ally’.

One of football’s leading sporting directors, the news has been described as a ‘major blow’ to Arsenal with the Brazilian having performed some excellent work over the last few years.

He was the man who backed Arteta when he wanted to get rid of Pierre-Emerick Aubayemang, he was key in the arrivals of players like Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard and has been excellent at negotiating new contracts for some of the club’s key performers, notably Bukayo Saka and William Saliba over the last 18 months.

So, why has he left? Well, according to the Athletic’s David Ornstein, he is exiting for a role across Evangelos Marinakis’ clubs.

Marinakis owns Nottingham Forest, Olympiacos and Portuguese side Rio Ave with Edu set to take up a position where he’ll have more control than he did at the Emirates.

Arsenal's potential Edu replacement

Little is known with regard to who could replace Edu at this moment in time but this news will likely have sent shockwaves through the football club.

A number of the game’s best Sporting Directors are already taken with the infamous Monchi working with Unai Emery at Aston Villa, Monaco’s former transfer chief Paul Mitchell now at Newcastle and Dan Ashworth – formerly of Brighton – now at Manchester United.

So, who could they turn to? Well, Bayer Leverkusen’s Simon Rolfes is one name who should be on their shortlist when the time comes to replace Edu.

Together with Xabi Alonso, he has cultivated a phenomenal side in Germany. Alonso gained most of the plaudits but Rolfes was the mastermind behind a project that saw Leverkusen win the Bundesliga unbeaten, reach the Europa League final and win the DFB-Pokal, the German equivalent of the FA Cup.

What makes him such an interesting proposition for Arsenal? Well, there are certainly a few shared beliefs and ideologies.

Although the Gunners have made some mega-money signings over the last few years, there is one key theme; to sign players who are yet to reach their prime.

Some of Edu’s key transfers included William Saliba, the aforementioned Odegaard and more recently young faces like Riccardo Calafiori and Jurrien Timber. That has been a key strategy and one Rolfes has actually replicated at Leverkusen.

As you can see – Edu has very rarely signed players in their prime (typically between 26-30), and instead has preferred the model of buying young and turning players into potential superstars with the help of Arteta.

That strategy has been employed at the BayArena too, notably when Kai Havertz – a “remarkable” talent in the eyes of Rolfes – left Leverkusen for Chelsea. Who did they look at entrusting? Florian Wirtz. He was just 16 at the time but has now become a genuine star, scoring 18 and registering 20 assists last term.

Since becoming Sporting Director at Leverkusen, the average age of Rolfes’ transfer dealings has been just 22.8, even younger than Edu’s average but that clearly hasn’t stopped them from having plenty of success.

Just look at some of the names below; they have recruited exceptionally well. Clearly, Rolfes’ talent ID is phenomenal and that bodes particularly well if Arsenal want to look at him to replace Edu.

Spotting talent isn’t just about players, however, it’s also about coaches. The 42-year-old has triumphed in this area too. He took the gamble of hiring a young Alonso, as Edu did with Arteta and it’s certainly paid off. It’s safe to say the former midfielder hasn’t got a lot wrong since taking on his job at Bayer.

Like Edu, he’s also capable of keeping his best talent at the club. There will come a day when the likes of Alonso and Wirtz do depart but the fact he was able to convince them to remain in Germany after their unbeaten season speaks volumes.

Rolfes is a man who knows what he’s doing, he can spot talent, he listens to what the manager wants and needs, and executes plans superbly well. At 42, he may not have huge experience but the experience he does have is invaluable.

Arsenal target winter move for £90m Trossard & Martinelli upgrade

Arsenal are looking at ways to strengthen their attack over the winter.

1

By
Matt Dawson

Nov 3, 2024

Attendance and TV viewership soared this BBL, and Cricket Australia deserves plenty of credit, but will the new fans stay on?

Freddie Wilde02-Feb-2015Seasons one and two of the Big Bash League were defined by the looming spectre of a new broadcasting deal for the competition. Having signed a seven-year deal for the old KFC Big Bash in 2005, pay-per-view channel Fox Sports owned the rights to the first two seasons of the new incarnation. This gave Cricket Australia and the tournament itself two seasons to create fresh interest among broadcasters. Given the size and depth of CA’s financial investment in the BBL, the new deal would have to be significant for it to justify their commitment to the concept.There was, therefore, something unashamedly and understandably brash about the early years of the BBL. In his talks with the Australian Cricket Board before World Series Cricket in 1977, Kerry Packer told the administrators: “There is a little bit of the whore in all of us, gentlemen, don’t you think?” Thirty-five years on, CA was similarly brazen in its pursuit of popularity. This was, to a sport and a nation historically defined by high-level performance, something of a culture shock. This shameless and arguably cheapening self-promotion was, however, in the eyes of CA, necessary for cricket’s audiences to be expanded, and in this regard they were right.Fundamentally there was very little difference between the old KFC Big Bash and the new BBL, but they looked different, they were marketed differently, and the first season’s results were better than even CA imagined possible. In BBL01, TV viewership rose 83.5% on the old Big Bash (71% higher than was budgeted for), and attendances rose 30% (10% higher than was budgeted for). That the BBL was hidden behind a pay-per-view wall was not an obstacle to its popularity. The 31 matches in the first season were comfortably the 31 highest rated shows on pay-per-view television in Australia through the season’s duration. The highest-rated match of the season was the fourth-most watched programme in Australian pay television history. The revolution had well and truly been televised.Average viewership and attendances fell slightly in season two, with CA making the mistake of scheduling too much of the season before Christmas. CA operations manager Mike McKenna defended the figures claiming that “at the beginning [of the first season] we set our targets for three years and blew them out of the water in year one. So we are still doing better than we originally projected.”Despite the popularity of the BBL, just one team, Melbourne Stars, turned a profit in the first season, and the combined team losses amounted to $1.85 million, with CA itself losing $10 million. McKenna was unperturbed by the financial troubles, however, saying that “based on results from the opening season, we’re confident this investment is a worthwhile one. Any loss needs to be viewed in the context of the significant investment needed to launch a new league and contains a proportion of expenses that relate to establishment costs.”In the second season, despite projections that five teams would make a profit, only two actually did. But these figures, CA maintained, were to be expected. It was the nature of the long-term investment. CA pointed to the imminent broadcasting deal as the endgame for the league’s start-up costs.

It was not until this fourth season that the rest of the world really took notice of the BBL. Average TV viewership rose again, this time from 910,000 to 930,000, but more tangible was the staggering climb in average attendances from 18,778 to 23,548

The sale of not only the BBL broadcasting rights but the international rights – on the market for the first time in 34 years – dominated CA’s thoughts in early 2013. The board hired investment bank Credit Suisse to help guide it through the sale of the rights, and their own negotiating party was headed by Stephanie Beltrame, CA’s general manager of media rights, and Dean Kino, general manager of business and legal affairs. Selling two sets of rights, CA played Nine and Ten off each other, driving the price up. When Nine invoked their right to match any offer made by Ten for international cricket, that left Ten with the BBL. Ten boss Hamish McLennan hailed the five-year, $20-million agreement as “the deal of the century for Cricket Australia and Ten”.The introduction of the BBL on free-to-air television was a watershed moment for the league’s popularity. The league’s official website, bigbash.com.au, claimed research had found that season three was the BBL’s most successful season in “all three key attendance metrics”.Average television viewership rose from 235,000 to a staggering 910,000, meaning close to one million people were watching domestic cricket matches almost every night in December and January. The average attendance also rose massively on the disappointing season two, to 18,778, which was also over 1000 per match more than the excellent first season. The headline statistic for CA, however, was that 42% of attendees were coming to their first BBL game, which was 14% more than in season two, and that 22% of attendees were coming to an elite cricket match for the first time.”BBL attracting new cricket fans” ran the headline on the official website. Closer research found that 50% of attendees were with family, 24% were children (compared to 9% in Tests), and that 51% of women attended their first BBL game. The third season was also a breakthrough one for the finances of individual teams, with seven of the eight sides turning a profit; and the only reason the Hobart Hurricanes failed to do so was because of stadium development”We have unashamedly designed a competition and marketed a competition to attract new people to the game,” CA’s CEO James Sutherland said. “It’s definitely paying off for both us and Channel Ten,” McKenna said during the season. “They put a lot on the line in order to get the rights off Fox Sports for the Big Bash… and we also had a lot at stake.”Yet despite the enormous success of the third season, McKenna revealed in October 2014 that CA was still not making a profit from the BBL. “But that’s a deliberate growth strategy,” he said. “The Big Bash League is about bringing new audiences to the game and about reinvesting money in grassroots cricket.” In a year in which CA’s willingness to not invest in the future of the international game was made evident by its part in the takeover of the ICC, by contrast its confidence in investing and nurturing long-term growth in Australia’s own domestic game provides a poignant and pertinent realisation.It was not until this fourth season that the rest of the world really took notice of the BBL. Average TV viewership rose again, this time from 910,000 to 930,000, but more tangible was the staggering climb in average attendances from 18,778 to 23,548. One semi-final drew over 50,000 spectators. While the first two seasons were defined by the necessity of a new broadcasting deal, the third, and particularly the fourth, have been defined by the match attendances.About 52,633 people watching a domestic cricket match played outside the subcontinent could come to be seen as a seminal moment in the history of the domestic game. Indeed, another mind-warping statistic is that Adelaide Oval saw larger attendances for its first three BBL matches than it did for the entire Australia-India Test match, while it took the Gabba just two BBL matches to do the same. Domestic cricket in Australia is outselling international cricket.Audience participation: a spectator joins in a Perth Scorchers celebration•Getty ImagesThere is little doubt that the BBL being on free-to-air television has boosted the league’s popularity. Dan Migala, who has been sports marketing company PCG’s man on the ground in Australia working with CA has said he sees Network Ten’s role in the BBL’s popularity as “incredibly important”, and that he believes Ten’s viewers are “future attendees of not only the BBL but also other forms of the game”.It is expected that for the first time all eight teams will turn a profit after this year’s fourth season. “Clubs are rapidly becoming more commercially successful,” BBL general manager Anthony Everard claims. “One club generated $1.5 million in sponsorship revenue this year, and another club had gate receipts for one match of $450,000.” While it is planned that the level of central funding of teams by CA will decrease over time as the clubs become more self-sufficient, Everard believes that it is “likely” CA will continue to provide “tagged funding towards specific initiatives such as community engagement, event presentation etc.” Which he believes are “critical to the objective of engaging new fans – families, kids.”Crucial to the popularity of the BBL has been CA’s realisation that it needs to offer more than just cricket to draw young fans to matches, and that has seen a myriad of in-game, extra entertainment provided. “We had to look at the match through the lens of the child,” recalls Migala. “You quickly realise that they have many options for entertainment. Video games. Movies. Soccer. The list can go on and on. This is why the BBL is very much communicated as an entertainment product first that has cricket. The entertainment value will draw in the children but the cricket will keep them there.”However, there are those who doubt this, because for the sport itself popularity and success are not mutually inclusive, and the BBL’s detractors worry that the cricket itself is only an element of the BBL package, and not necessarily a defining one. While there would be no product without the cricket, growing the sport’s popularity necessitates that the cricket is the centrepiece of the event.Migala, something of a new-age sports marketer, who was instrumental in designing the broader entertainment package on offer at the BBL, is not worried about excessive entertainment superseding the sport. “The on-pitch product has to be there, but I’d argue that the fan engagements aren’t ‘extras’ but part of a symphony-like experience for attendees.”Bill Veeck, legendary MLB marketer and team owner, famously said, ‘You can control everything about the fan experience except what happens on the field’, and that’s the foundation of the BBL’s approach to making sure they over-deliver on the experience for every fan each and every time they pay to attend a match.”It is hard to quibble with what Migala says. In an age in which people are seen to have shorter attention spans and more distractions than ever, getting them through the gates of cricket stadiums, by whatever means deserves credit. Whether the thousands of new fans who have been to the BBL then become fans of longer formats is the next great question that will shape the future of cricket in Australia.

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge says Florian Wirtz is "exactly" the player Bayern Munich want, but admits it will be "difficult" to sign him.

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Wirtz starring for LeverkusenWinger "exactly" the player Bayern wantEx-player outlines "difficulty" in signing himFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?

Wirtz has been a target for Bayern for some time now but remains a Bayer Leverkusen player. However, the defending Bundesliga champions may face a tough task holding onto the German international as club CEO Rummenigge says Bayern are determined to sign him. He hailed the 21-year-old as Germany's "best player" but said it won't be easy trying to secure his signature.

AdvertisementGetty ImagesWHAT RUMMENIGGE SAID

Rummenigge, who is now on the Bayern board, told : "[Uli] Hoeness said that Wirtz is his dream – and that was putting it politely. Everyone at FC Bayern agrees that he is exactly the player we want to sign. Not to weaken Leverkusen, but to strengthen us. Wirtz is the best player in Germany.

"It's not the market value that's important, but the amount that would ultimately have to be paid in a transfer. That will undoubtedly be difficult because Wirtz is a very sought-after player."

THE BIGGER PICTURE

Wirtz still has more than two years left on his Leverkusen contract and is rated at around €150 million (£124m/$155m), which the likes of Manchester City and Real Madrid are said to be interested in paying. So as Rummenigge points out, signing him will be very difficult.

Getty ImagesWHAT NEXT?

Wirtz, who has scored 15 goals and bagged 13 assists this season, is likely to feature for Leverkusen away to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

A fresh update regarding the future of Wolves boss Gary O’Neil has emerged ahead of his side’s clash with Crystal Palace.

Winless Wolves face relegation rat-race

Wolves bravely battled back from 2-0 down to rescue a point at the AMEX stadium in their most recent Premier League outing, with Matheus Cunha finding the net in stoppage time to complete the comeback after Brighton had squandered a glorious chance to make it 3-1.

After the game, O’Neil held up his hands, admitting that he had got it wrong in the first half.

“I’m a little bit disappointed, with myself really, that I started with five [at the back]. I know we did well with a five-back against Manchester City, and [I thought] the lads deserved another go at it.

“I didn’t think a five-back would fit very well against Brighton today, but at least we were quick enough to change it at half-time.

“At 85 minutes, when Brighton scored their second goal, I thought I was going to be stood here answering some more tough questions.”

However, beyond the short-term jubilation the reality of their situation once more set in for Wolves, who are one of three sides yet to win a game this season and sit 19th in the Premier League almost a quarter of the way into the season. They have just two points and have conceded a mammoth 25 goals, five more than any other side in the division.

Wolves now making early move to sign 36-goal attacker in January

Wolves look to be trying to get a head start for January as they make contact with a transfer target. 

ByBrett Worthington Oct 30, 2024 Gary O'Neil given two games to save his job

Now, a fresh report has claimed that the Wolves boss is under increasing pressure to deliver results at Molineux. So far, there has been an acceptance that Wolves have faced one of the hardest starts to the season of any Premier League season, playing all of the current top five (Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Aston Villa) as well as Newcastle United.

Now though, there is set to be a change of tone, with Football Insider reporting that the next two games are crucial in O’Neil’s future in the Wolves technical area. The Old Gold face 18th placed Crystal Palace in their next game, before a mammoth clash with bottom of the table Southampton ahead of the November international break.

Wolves’ next five games

Crystal Palace (Home)

Southampton (Home)

Fulham (Away)

Bournemouth (Home)

Everton (Away)

And they claim that poor results in those games will “change the mood’” in the Midlands, with the upcoming games “critical” for O’Neil’s future, though it is added that the Wolves boss “still has the backing of the changing room”.

However, failure to pick up points against their direct relegation rivals may prove too much for both the Wolves fans and the board, with the prospect of a drop to the Championship likely to become an increasing reality.

Should Wolves part ways with O’Neil over the international break, any new manager would be the beneficiary of a favourable run of games, with the Old Gold not facing a member of the “top six” again until Boxing Day.

David Beckham’s son Brooklyn and Manchester City icon Sergio Aguero are among the 11 personalities preparing to take on a new adventure in Formula E.

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• Beckham & Aguero getting behind the wheel
• Have six weeks to prepare for race in Miami
• Documentary to be streamed later in 2025

• WHAT HAPPENED?

  The ‘Formula E Evo Sessions’ are giving prominent figures from the worlds of sport, technology and entertainment the “unprecedented opportunity to get behind the wheel of the world’s fastest electric race car – the GEN3 Evo – and understand what it takes to reach the pinnacle of motorsport”.

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• DID YOU KNOW?

  Beckham, Aguero and their fellow racing rookies will be “paired and embedded within Formula E’s elite race teams and drivers” as they spend six weeks getting to grips with life behind the wheel. All of those involved will receive “an intense training programme that includes simulator sessions, physical conditioning, driver coaching, hardware customisation and engineering briefings”.

• THE GOSSIP

  After discovering what it is like to perform at the very top of motorsport, their skills will be put to the test during a track event at the Miami International Autodrome (Hard Rock Stadium) on March 5-6 – as they race electric cars that are capable of doing 0-60mph/100kph in just 1.82 seconds, making them 30 per cent faster than Formula 1 cars.

• Getty
  

  WHAT BROOKLYN BECKHAM SAID

  Brooklyn Beckham, the oldest son of Manchester United legend and current Inter Miami co-owner David, has said of the Formula E experience: “I’ve loved motorsport all my life, so when the opportunity came to be a part of Evo Sessions with Formula E, I jumped at the chance. I love it as a sport, but it’s an incredible opportunity to actually get behind the wheel and experience what it takes to compete at the top level of motorsport. The performance of the cars is insane, so I’m pleased I’ll be learning from the best in how to get the most out of them.”