Industry Shorts: Rfl, Racing League, EFL
The RFL has announced that it will partner with Leeds Beckett University to launch a pilot research programme to ‘quantify the risk’ of head impact in the sport.
All 12 Betfred Super League clubs will work with the league and the university on the Instrumented Mouthguard Project, which aims to increase understanding of head injury and reduce future risk.
The RFL says the programme is intended to cover more than 1,200 players across 50 teams across all levels – men’s, women’s, academy, and grassroots. The pilots will run from May this year to August in a bid to inform which instrumented mouthguards are selected for the main project, which will begin in November 2021 and run for three years.
The project will align with existing injury surveillance already carried out by the RFL, and will aim to quantify player load profiles, answer how tackle technique and height influences head impacts in the sport, and shed light on the ‘biomechanical mechanisms’ that take place during ‘concussion events’ in Rugby League.
The Racing League – the new team-based horse racing series which will host its inaugural season this summer – has announced a new two-year partnership with sports mental health charity, Sporting Chance, which will become its Official Charity.
The pair will work together on a number of initiatives to raise awareness and money for the Sporting Chance Benevolent Fund, which supports current and retired athletes from a wide range of sports with mental health issues.
Racing League jockeys will also wear the Sporting Chance logo on their shirts throughout the series, while the pair will also work with money giving platform Collection Pot to take donations from fans.
72 clubs in England’s second, third, and fourth tiers of the football pyramid will take part in the EFL’s fifth Day of Action.
Throughout the day, players, managers, and club officials will join their Club Community Organisations to participate in a range of projects to positively impact their local areas.
They will join the help out across a range of initiatives including food bank deliveries, projects to tackle loneliness and mental health, support programmes for refugees and asylum seekers, initiatives for children living in poverty, and disability sport sessions.
West Ham United has partnered with KORE Software in a new deal which will see the company support the club’s future partnership management solutions.
The Premier League side will use KORE Software’s platform to ‘maximise partner rights, manage day-to-day workflow, track tasks and measure performance’, which will bring a ‘new level of sophistication’ to the club’s existing partnerships.
The French Professional Football League (LFP) has partnered with OneFootball which will share the league’s editorial content.
All Ligue1.com news in English will be available to OneFootball users as part of a deal which sees Ligue 1 become the first football league to join the platform. A host of clubs and national federations did so upon OneFootball’s acquisition of Dugout, which was founded by a group of 10 clubs including Manchester City, Real Madrid, and Liverpool.
Content will incorporate the Ligue 1 Uber Eats logo to indicate that it is official and will ‘automatically and simultaneously’ appear on both Ligue1.com and the OneFootball platform.
Clarity Sports has announced a new deal with Par4Sports, a specialist agency founded by former Premier League referee Lee Probert which helps sports teams find training facilities in Europe and the UAE.
Clarity Sports will become the agency’s Official Travel and Business supplier, which works with clubs and associations booking training camps and short breaks for professional teams and players.
