ON THE ROAD finds Hibernian women just 180 minutes away from 'doing a Leicester' ... but their extraordinary character will endure whether they win title or not
Hibernian 2 Glasgow City 2
So how did it come to this? Hibernian are three hours away from the SPFL title. It is the unlikeliest of success stories and it survived a torrid examination under the sun at Meadowbank on Sunday.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Sky Sports News' golden age at an end as rival platforms turn up the volume
A constant in pubs, gyms and hotel breakfast rooms, almost always with the sound down. Perhaps not since cinema's silent age have faces been so familiar without the general public knowing their voices. The vibe is more casual than in previous times, shirt sleeves rather than business suits, but the formula remains the same: a carousel of news, clips, quotes, quips, centred around highlights, all framed within a constant flow of results, fixtures and league tables. Sky Sports News hits 27 years of broadcasting in August, having been launched for the 1998-99 football season by BSkyB. As the domestic football season concluded, news came of changes within the Osterley-based newsroom. Seven members of the broadcast talent team would be leaving, including the long-serving Rob Wotton and the senior football reporter Melissa Reddy, within a process of voluntary redundancies. Sky sources – not those Sky sources – are keen to state the changes are not a cost-cutting exercise, instead a redress of SSN's place within a changing media environment. Ronan Kemp, the One Show presenter and Celebrity Goggleboxer, is understood to be in discussions to join Sky and despite Wotton's departure, Ref Watch will still be serving those who get their kicks from re-refereeing matches and VAR calls. Rolling news, which became common currency around the time of the initial Gulf war with Iraq is no longer the go-to information environment. Sky News, SSN's sister organisation, is going through similar changes, including the loss of the veteran anchor Kay Burley. The smartphone, where news alerts supplant even social media, takes the strain of keeping the world informed of Micky van de Ven's latest hamstring injury. Desperate to hear even more from Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville? There are podcasts and YouTube channels available at a swipe. In the US, ESPN's SportsCenter and its accompanying ESPNews channel were the progenitors of a medium copied globally and by Sky in launching SSN. SportsCenter is a flagship in marked decline from a golden 1990s era that made American household names of presenters such as Stuart Scott, Keith Olbermann and Dan Patrick. ESPN, an organisation in the process of taking itself to digital platforms as cable TV gets mothballed, closed SportsCenter's Los Angeles studio in March. Linear TV's death will be slow, but it is dying nonetheless as streaming, all bundles and consumer choice, takes hold. Meanwhile, YouTube channels, with production values way below industry standard, amass huge audiences for fan-owned, independent media. The time of viewers tuning in for 10pm highlights voiced over by presenters' catchphrases – Scott's 'boo yah!' being the prime example – has long passed. Social media and YouTube have killed the demand. Though live sports remain the foundation of broadcasting contracts, highlights and analysis can be watched at the time of the viewers' choice. Digital is where the eyeballs go, and what the advertising dollar is attracted to, despite the ubiquity of Go Compare et al. Viewing figures remain healthy but the game is now about far more than ratings. SSN's imperial period was the early millennium days of Dave Clark and Kirsty Gallacher's toothsome double act, to a time when the yellow ticker of breaking news held great sway, though not always delivering on its promise of earthquake journalism (news of Nicky Shorey's Reading contract extension, anyone?). Millie Clode, Di Stewart, Charlotte Jackson, Kelly Cates: a nation turned its lonely eyes to them. Then there was transfer deadline day, more important than the football itself. Long, frantic hours spent hearing Jim White's Glaswegian whine declare anything could happen on this day of days. In the early years it often did, from Peter Odemwingie's mercy dash to Loftus Road to the brandishing of a sex toy in the earhole of reporter Alan Irwin outside Everton's training ground. Another reporter, Andy 'four phones' Burton, labelled the night the 2008 window closed: 'The best day of my life, apart from when my son was born.' Eventually, though, it became too knowing. Not even White's yellow tie, as garish as his hype, accompanied by Natalie Sawyer's yellow dress, could stop the event from becoming desperate hours chasing diminishing returns. Live television is a challenging environment, especially with nothing to feed off. Though many presenters have been lampooned – abused in the more carrion social media age – the difficulty of 'going live' with an earpiece full of instructions and timings should never be underestimated. How does Mike Wedderburn, the channel's first presenter, make it look so easy? When, in a broadcasting-carriage dispute between Virgin and Sky, Setanta Sports News was given brief life in 2007 – 22 months as the Dagmar to Sky's Queen Vic – it was made apparent how hard, and costly, the business can be. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Over-exposure to SSN – as happens when someone works in a newspaper sports department, say – can lead to contempt. The joins can be seen, too. Haven't they done that same gag for the past six hours and each time pretended it was an ad lib? Just what is Gary Cotterill up to this time? Why did Bryan Swanson always use such portentous tones? From morning till night, it would be ever-present. On weekend evenings, when you caught the skilled veteran duo of Julian Waters and the late David Bobin running through the day's events, you knew it was time to leave the office, down that late drink, question your life choices, the pair's clipped tones taking on the effect of a lonely late-night cab ride. SSN is forced to move with the times. As is the case across the industry, journalists have often been supplanted by influencers, as the mythical, perhaps unreachable, 'younger audience' is chased. That is not to say the channel is short of decent reporting. In the aftermath of the 2022 Champions League final in Paris, chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol produced a superb account of the ensuing chaos and danger while others floundered for detail. SSN, like SportsCenter across the Atlantic, is now more a production factory for content being sent across the internet, published to multiple platforms, than it is a rolling news channel. Within press statements around the redundancies there was the word 'agile', a term repurposed – and overused – in the business world, but meaning doing more with less. Next season, as heavily trailed on SSN right now, Sky will have 215 Premier League live matches to show, including every game played on Sundays. That requires the company's shift in focus, for Sky Sports News in particular. Though look up wherever you are and it will still be on in the corner, almost certainly with the sound down.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE 'Sam Allardyce wanted to kick my door down': IAN LADYMAN tells Mark Clattenburg about extraordinary run-in with former Premier League manager on new Mail podcast
Podcast All episodes Mail Football Editor Ian Ladyman told ex-elite referee Mark Clattenburg about a particularly exceptional exchange he had with former Premier League manager Sam Allardyce on the latest episode of the Whistleblowers podcast. Ladyman revealed he had a tense phone call with 'Big' Sam Allardyce during the former Bolton, Newcastle and West Ham boss's early days at Notts County in the late nineties. Allardyce won the Third Division with Notts County in 1998, which led to him being offered the chance to manage relative giants Bolton in the Championship a year later. 'Sam is friend of mine. When I first met him, I was working for a local newspaper', Ladyman said. 'He was the manager of Notts County, and it was my job to cover the club. They had taken a player on trial who had just come back to football after failing a drugs test. Whistleblowers, brought to you by the Mail and Wickes TradePro - is football's most original new podcast - lifting the lid on the parts of the game no one else talks about 'Twenty years ago, that was very rare. So, I rang Sam and told him I was going to write a story. 'Sam said I could write the story - but told me not to mention the drugs ban. I am like, Sam, that is the only reason the story is interesting. 'The fact your signing Joe Bloggs doesn't matter – we have got to mention the drugs ban. He said, you do that – and I will kick your f***ing door down. 'I had only just arrived in Nottingham and was living in a hotel – so I replied, you're not going to be able to do that Sam. 'He said: I will come to that hotel and kick every door down until I find yours.' Whistleblowers is a brand-new football podcast, brought to you by The Mail in association with Wickes TradePro. From what really goes on in the referee's room, to how clubs spin crises and who's pulling the strings behind the scenes - Whistleblowers brings the inside stories only those at the heart of the game can tell. Co-host Mark Clattenburg shared his affection for Sam Allardyce and what it was like referring his 'big character' in the dugout. Listen here Co-host Mark Clattenburg shared his affection for Sam Allardyce and what it was like referring his 'big character' in the dugout. 'I used to love Big Sam as a coach', the official said. 'I miss his character. At Bolton, he used to abuse me and the fourth official all the time and I used to ask him why and he would say – just to get the crowd going. 'I remember one time – we had a big bar bill at St George's Park. West Ham had been playing Aston Villa. It was worth a large sum of money. 'I went to Big Sam and Neil McDonald and said, my God – that bar bill was huge last night. 'They said the club would be launching an investigation and somebody would be sacked. I asked why – they told me they wanted to find out who'd had the coffee.' For more anecdotes from inside the world of football, search for Whistleblowers now, wherever you get your podcasts.
The Independent
6 hours ago
- The Independent
‘Under strain' English football must improve value for fans, report says
The English football system is "under strain," a new report has found, urging regulation to address factors like fan engagement and competitive balance. However, Deloitte's latest Annual Review of Football Finance has found a lack of clarity around future regulations is proving "unhelpful" to potential investors. According to the group's report, Europe's 'Big Five' leagues generated over 20 billion euros (£16.9 billion) in 2023-24, with Premier League clubs reporting aggregate revenue of £6.3 billion. The Football Governance Bill is set to create an independent regulator for England's top five leagues after making its way through Parliament. However, concerns remain, particularly at the top-flight level, regarding the impact of regulation on the league's growth potential and ability to attract new investment. Tim Bridge, the lead partner in the Deloitte Sports Business Group, believes that issues surrounding the competitiveness of the Premier League must also be addressed. 'There can be no doubt that the system in English football is under strain,' he wrote in the foreword to the report published on Thursday. 'Repeated reports of fan unrest at ticket price and accessibility demonstrate the challenge in the modern era of balancing commercial growth with the historic essence of a football club's role and position in society: as a community asset. 'We still await the output of the Independent Football Regulator to fully understand how this may impact the game in England, but it is clear that the way in which the game is governed and the regulation that underpins it needs to seek to drive value, fan engagement (both physical and digital) and competitive balance. 'The two most recent seasons (2023-24 and 2024-25) underscore the challenge, as in each season, all three clubs promoted from the Championship were subsequently relegated after just one season in the Premier League. 'The financial implications of the 'yo-yo effect' on clubs, their spending, and overall competitiveness are major factors to address in order to continue attracting high levels of investment across the system. 'This should though be viewed by all those running the game as an opportunity. The level of interest and the demand to engage with English football remains high and investors still see the opportunity, particularly when there is a strong community link or adjacent investment opportunities, but the lack of clarity over the future regulatory regime is now unhelpful.' Bridge noted that other top leagues are closely observing how the English regulator takes shape, highlighting an economic report by Spain's LaLiga in 2022-23 which welcomed the introduction of a regulator in England to help contain inflationary pressure on wages and other football spending. The Deloitte report again illustrated how far ahead the Premier League is of its 'Big Five' rivals currently, with its aggregate revenue almost double that of the next highest earners LaLiga – whose clubs generated a combined 3.8bn euros (£3.2bn) in 2023-24.
