football

The world’s biggest celebrity charity football match has given us some memorable moments over the years; Woody Harrelson scoring a match-winning penalty, Zinedine Zidane nutmegging Damian Lewis, Jose Mourinho stepping onto the pitch from the dugout to foul a counter-attacking Olly Murs and Kasabian’s Serge Pizzorno delightfully dinking David Seaman. Here’s hoping for many more.

Dermot O’Leary and Alex Scott will present the proceedings live from the Etihad Stadium, the home of the recently crowned Premier League Champions, Manchester City.

The Euros is a football tournament like no other before it.

Delayed a year by the pandemic and rerouted to multiple venues around Europe, it will be – at best – problematic, and, in some cases, impossible for fans to follow their teams. The UK broadcasters covering the tournament – with games split between the BBC and ITV – face the same difficulties.

Former England striker turned podcaster Peter Crouch will be joined by Maya Jama and Alex Horne and The Horne section to discuss the postponed Euro 2020 tournament which will now kick off in June 2021.

Each of the ten episodes will be filmed live and the trio will follow England, Scotland and Wales as they make their way through the tournament, each giving their own unique take on the action. 

The series will include post-match reviews and predictions, top celebrity guests and live music.

On 12 March, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta tested positive for coronavirus, sending his team and staff into self-isolation. The following morning, the Premier League threw in the towel – it was obvious that it was no longer possible to play football during the Covid-19 epidemic.

The rest of football and pretty much all sport followed. At a stroke, the schedules of the UK’s specialist sports broadcasters had been emptied.

The nine-part series, directed by Anthony Philipson and produced by 72 Films, will explore the team's first season in their new stadium and the impact of their manager Mauricio Pochettino being replaced by José Mourinho, plus how the club has dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Guided by Tom Hardy’s narration, the documentary will show how the club performs both on and off the pitch during a crucial season.

Welcome to the great British summer of no sport. There will be no Wimbledon, no Euro 2020 football, no Open golf and no Olympics, which leaves the sport broadcasters on the canvas.

Punch drunk they may be, but no one is throwing in the towel. The challenge is to fill the hours of telly set aside for sport this summer and to attract the bumper audiences being enjoyed elsewhere on TV during the lockdown.

Live sport has not disappeared entirely – Taiwanese basketball and baseball anyone? – but there is not much of it about.

A run-of-the-mill English Premier League fixture on a Tuesday evening early next month is set to be one of the most significant football matches to be played in more than two decades.

That is because the game between Crystal Palace and Bournemouth will be the first ever to be broadcast live and exclusively by one of the tech giants.

Amazon, the global digital platform and retailer, is showing this and 19 other Premier League games to UK audiences during December via its subscription service Amazon Prime after paying about £90m for a three-year deal.

Being at the Fifa Women’s World Cup in France as a BBC TV pundit this year was amazing and very different to when I was a player. My job was mostly to provide game analysis at the matches in the tournament where the major teams were playing, especially England and the title holders, the US.

There’s a perfect storm this summer – and it’s taking place on our televisions. The rise of women in sport has been gathering pace for years. Now – thanks to commercial pressure, the push for equality and some incredible momentum provided by the sportswomen themselves – they find themselves in their strongest-­ever position..

Taking place at Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge in London, all money raised will go towards Unicef’s work in providing care and protection for children around the world.

The match will see ex-football legends and celebrities such as Jamie Redknapp, Mark Wright and Ben Shepherd playing for the England team, and going head to head with the Soccer Aid World XI team.

Produced by Initial, part of Endemol Shine UK, the match will be broadcast live on ITV on June 16th and hosted by Dermot O’Leary.