Industry Shorts: Crystal Palace, Paralympic Games, The FA
Crystal Palace has announced that online gaming brand W88 will become the club’s new Shirt Sponsor for the 2020/21 season.
The brand takes over from online gaming rival ManBetX on the club’s shirts, and will join an ‘exclusive group of global brands’ working with the club, which has said more partnerships will be announced in the coming weeks.
The Premier League side says it has also committed to encouraging its fans to gamble safely, highlighting the fact that, in 2018, it became the first club in the top division of England football to agree a partnership with the GambleAware charity, producing ads and promotion materials at Selhurst Park to raise awareness of the risks of gambling.
The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee and the IPC have announced the competition schedule for the postponed Paralympic Games, which will take place in 2021.
539 events will take place across 22 sports and 21 venues across Tokyo from 24th August to 5th September.
The first medals will be awarded on 25th August as the women’s track cycling 3,000m pursuit time trial C1-3, takes place at the Izu Velodrome, while a ‘Golden Sunday’ will take place on 29th August, and will see 63 medal events held, the most of any day during the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
IFAB and the FA have confirmed that referees can administer red cards for players who deliberately cough at opponents or match officials.
The game’s lawmakers have said that the offence would fall under existing rules around “using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures” and that it would be down to the referee to determine whether or not the offence was deliberate.
The FA has also announced the schedule for the early stages of the 2020/21 Emirates FA Cup.
The competition will begin on Tuesday 1st September with the Extra Preliminary Round, where clubs at the ninth and tenth levels of English football begin the tournament.
The FA has announced dates up to and including the Fourth Qualifying Round, which will take place at the end of October, however it has not confirmed the schedule beyond that point, with the schedule for the First Round proper and beyond to be announced at a later date.
The EFL has unveiled the new Mitre ball to be used across the 2020/21 season.
The Mitre Delta Max was unveiled ahead of the Championship Play-Off Final between Fulham and Brentford, which will take place at Wembley on Tuesday 4th August, but will make its competitive debut on the opening weekend of the EFL season, which begins on 12th September.
