On 3 September 2021, The FA announced that Marc Bola (“the Player”), of Middlesbrough FC, had been charged with misconduct for an alleged Aggravated Breach of the FA Rules, 2021/2022 (“the 2022 Rules”), rules E3.1 and E3.2 (“the Charge”). The Charge related to a Tweet the Player posted from his Twitter account on 14 April … Continue Reading
With less than one week to go until the Premier League resumes, English football fans are going to have the opportunity to watch every game for the first time ever. On 3 April 2020 UEFA announced that it had accepted a request from the Premier League to suspend the 3pm blackout rule which has prevented … Continue Reading
Eleven Sports, the global sports provider, has contravened UEFA rules, which prohibit live coverage of football in the UK between 14:45 and 17:15 on Saturdays by broadcasting Barcelona’s La Liga fixture against Athletic Bilbao. This period on a Saturday afternoon is commonly referred to as the football “blackout” as the UK does not broadcast any matches during … Continue Reading
With most footballing eyes firmly on the World Cup, and England’s crunch match with Belgium, the Football Association’s League Committee (FALC) has announced a change in the way the National League System (NLS) is going to be structured going forward in order to create a more consistent system across the country that standardises the movement … Continue Reading
Following earlier coverage on Sports Shorts about the introduction of the offence of “Successful Deception of a Match Referee” and details of the first charge, subsequently upheld by way of a two match ban, against Carlisle United’s Shaun Miller, the Premier League has its first ‘diving’ charge. The recipient is Everton’s Oumar Niasse. An FA … Continue Reading
As readers of Sports Shorts will remember, the FA council approved the retrospective “Successful Deception of a Match Official” offence earlier this year. You can read our thoughts on the subject here. While the offence has been in force since the start of the 2017/18 season, yesterday, Carlisle United’s Shaun Miller became the first player … Continue Reading
In the 77th minute of England’s victory over Slovakia in last night’s World Cup qualifier, Tottenham’s midfield maestro Dele Alli, was unceremoniously body checked by former Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel. Despite going to ground in a promising attacking position, the referee, Clement Turpin, waved play on. Television camera subsequently showed an unhappy Alli making a … Continue Reading
The weekend just passed saw a number of notable sporting successes. Rafael Nadal won a 10th French Open title, the first male tennis player to win 10 series of the same Grand Slam; the English cricket team beat Australia; the English, Scottish and Irish rugby teams beat their opposition on tour; the British and Irish … Continue Reading
In January of this year Sports Shorts wrote about the possibility of the introduction of a retrospective diving ban. At the time of writing it was unclear whether the FA would be able to convince its various stakeholders this was a good idea. Ahead of the culmination of the Premier League season on Sunday, the … Continue Reading
On 6 October 2016, Sport Shorts covered the charge levelled by the Scottish Football Association (the “SFA”) against Joey Barton (then of Glasgow Rangers) in respect of 44 bets he was alleged to have placed on football matches between 1 July and 15 September 2016. Barton later admitted the charges against him. Barton’s gambling-related troubles … Continue Reading
On Monday 3 April, the FA council unanimously approved a “strong package of reforms” put forward by Chairman Greg Clarke, unanimously accepted by the FA board, last month. The announcement comes after pressure on the FA to reform, most recently in light of Sport England and UK Sport’s new Code for Sports Governance and its … Continue Reading
On 14 February 2017, Sports Shorts discussed the then upcoming AGM of the International Football Association Board (“IFAB”), the body that determines the rules of football. That article focused on the issues that were up for discussion at the AGM, in particular the possible introduction of sin-bins at certain levels of the sport. The AGM … Continue Reading
In the week following Valentine’s Day, the much-vaunted romance of the FA Cup appeared to experience something of a rekindling. While the fire in the loins of the world’s oldest football competition was subsequently dampened by “Pie-gate” (as to which, Sports Shorts’ thoughts are here), the FA Cup quarter-finals will see their first non-league representative … Continue Reading
0-0 in the final minutes of a game and a player suspiciously goes down in the box to win a penalty, and ultimately all three points. Replays show no contact was made; the player dived. Controversy explodes. The player, the subject of many headlines, walks away without punishment. Under possible new rules reportedly being mulled … Continue Reading
In October, Sports Shorts covered the release of UK Sport and Sport England’s Governance Code for Sport, which seeks to set the gold standard for sport governance. Subsequently, In the weeks following the Code’s release, we noted that much of the media focus fell on the Code’s gender diversity targets. This focus has continued and, … Continue Reading
