Watson sends Sunderland into Premier League with stoppage-time winner at Wembley
LONDON — Substitute Tom Watson scored a stoppage-time winner as Sunderland rallied to beat Sheffield United 2-1 in the Championship playoff final and earn promotion to the Premier League on Saturday.
Watson struck from the edge of the penalty area five minutes into injury time after Kieffer Moore gave the ball away, and then slid on his knees with his jersey off in celebration at Wembley Stadium.
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Forbes
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- Forbes
Manchester City's New Signings Mark New Era In Pep Guardiola's Tenure
Manchester City chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak vowed the club would be 'aggressive' in this summer window after ending last season empty-handed. So far, City has lived up to al-Mubarak's words and then some. In nine days since the transfer window opened, City has already completed the signings of AC Milan and Netherlands midfielder Tijjani Reijnders for £46.3m ($62.7m) and Wolverhampton left-back Rayan Aït-Nouri for £31m ($42m). A deal for Olympique Lyon attacking midfielder Rayan Cherki, meanwhile, has been all but finalized. As per The Athletic, Cherki will move to England for £33.7m ($45.6m). City must register their new signings by 7pm BST (2pm EST) on Tuesday to have them available for the Club World Cup, which begins next week. The significance of City's spending spree is two-fold. First and foremost, it comes with a verdict into alleged breaches of the Premier League's financial rules still hanging over the club. In February 2023, City was formally charged with breaking financial fair play rules between 2009 and 2018 and with failing to co-operate with Premier League investigations into their finances. The club's hearing in the case against the Premier League began on September 16 last year and ran until December 6 in front of a three-person independent commission in London. Back in February, Pep Guardiola admitted he expected the verdict 'within a month'. His forecast has proved to be wide of the mark, with the commission yet to return a judgment six months after the hearing ended. By comparison, it took UEFA just two days to find City guilty of financial manipulation in January 2020, a verdict which was subsequently overturned on appeal. With a judgment still pending, City has wasted no time in reshaping its squad after spending $245m on players in the January transfer window. Omar Marmoush joined from Eintrach Frankfurt, while Savinho and Nico Gonzalez arrived from Troyes and Porto for respectively and centre-back Abdukodir Kushanov signed from Lens. The spending spree was not enough to prevent City from finishing without any silverware for the first time since the 2016-17 season, Guardiola's first campaign in the Premier League. City has won the Premier League six times in the past eight seasons, but finished third 13 points behind eventual champions Liverpool last season and never looked like retaining its crown. The Champions League brought an elimination at the hands of Real Madrid in the Round of 16 and there was heartbreak in the FA Cup final for the second consecutive year with defeat to Cyrstal Palace. In that respect, the arrivals of Reijnders, Aït-Nouri and Chekri point to a clear desire to refresh the squad. Despite the $67.8m arrival of Gonzalez from Porto in January, City's midfield lack of physicality and running power was badly exposed both domestically and in Europe. The issue was exacerbated by the absences of reigning Ballon d'Or winner Rodri, who missed almost the entire season with a knee injury, and Mateo Kovacic. Reijnders' arrival should go some way towards addressing the lack of dynamism in City's engine room. The Dutch international was arguably AC Milan's player of the season, with 10 goals and four assists in Serie A. Among midfielders, only Scott McTominay, had more goal involvements with 16. City's new signing, who turns 27 next month, also ranked fifth for through balls and ninth for forward passes in Serie A last season. Milan signed Reijnders from Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in the summer of 2023 for $22.8m, but he netted only four goals in 50 appearances across all competitions – a figure that should have been much higher. 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Associated Press
2 hours ago
- Associated Press
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
What's going on with falling WSL attendances?
Arsenal's attendances were slightly down but they still played five games in front of more than 35,000 fans [Getty Images] Average attendances in the Women's Super League dropped by 10% last season compared with the previous campaign. According to Deloitte's Sports Business Group, which highlighted the drop in a report released on Monday, "this has been put down to a lack of international football drawing attention to the domestic game". Advertisement BBC research found the 12 WSL clubs in total averaged 7,366 in 2023-24, compared with 6,662 in 2024-25 - an average decrease of 704. So which clubs have been affected the most, which clubs are bucking the trend and what else might be behind the numbers? BBC Sport takes a closer look. Why has there been a drop? One of the main reasons behind the fall in attendances last season was the relegation of Bristol City in 2023-24. 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Manchester United played the same number of WSL games at Old Trafford in both seasons - two - and in 2023-24 those games attracted attendances of 43,615 and 28,737. In 2024-25 it was 8,761 and 31,465, with the former in their opening game against West Ham. However, they also had a fall in attendances at their main stadium, Leigh Sports Village, with an average of 4,562 last season compared with 5,353 the season before. Manchester City had the next biggest decrease of 8% - despite going from one to three matches at their bigger Etihad Stadium - followed by Everton at 5.5% and Arsenal at 4%. Advertisement Arsenal, considered a success story in the league for the way they have managed to attract record numbers to Emirates Stadium, played nine of their 11 home games there last season compared with six the previous one. 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The only other club to hit double figures for percentage growth were Tottenham, who despite finishing second from bottom last season, had their average attendance increase by 24% - from 4,317 to 5,332. They took their tally of matches at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium from two to three. The other clubs to see growth were Leicester (6%), who played all their games at King Power Stadium which they share with the men's team, Brighton (3%), West Ham (1%) and WSL winners Chelsea (1%). Do Lionesses affect WSL crowds? All WSL clubs experienced a significant attendance boost in 2022-23 off the back of Euro 2022, where England lifted their first major women's trophy in front of record crowds. Advertisement The majority of clubs also had increases in 2023-24, which followed England's run to the Women's World Cup final in Australia. But, after Great Britain failed to qualify for the 2024 Olympics, last season was the first time in three years that the WSL campaign did not benefit from following an international tournament where there had been home success. Yet it is also important to look at the competitiveness of the league. Chelsea were odds-on title favourites in 2024-25 from an early stage - after it went down to the wire in 2023-24 - which might have affected the appetite of fans from other top-four clubs, who all faced their own struggles during the campaign. Speaking about attendances on Radio 5 Live's Women's Football Weekly podcast last month, WSL Football chief executive Nikki Doucet said: "I think a lot of times it depends on kick-off times. A lot of times it depends on are we in a men's international break and how are we maximising those moments or not? Advertisement "It depends which clubs are really building that community, and some are on a further journey than others. "Each club, and their fanbase, is sort of unique and I think everyone's testing different things and seeing what works, what doesn't." Head here to get involved
