Industry Shorts: Tottenham Hotspur, ECB, EFL

Tottenham Hotspur have become the latest Premier League club to announce fan representation on their Board of Directors.

The news follows an announcement by Chelsea that it would bring three fan advisors onto its Board for some meetings, and has been put in place after the club announced its withdrawal from the ‘breakaway’ European Super League.

Spurs say they will create a ‘Club Advisory Panel’, which will be comprised of elected representatives reflecting the ‘diversity’ of the fanbase. The Chair of the panel will be appointed annually as a full Non-Executive of the Tottenham Hotspur Board.

The ECB has reported a loss of £16.1 million in the last financial year, though the impact of the pandemic on its finances did not hit the ‘worst-case scenario’.

The organisation’s cash reserves were reduced to £2.2 million because of the pandemic, with the wider game of cricket in England and Wales losing more than £100 million across the year.

The worst-case scenario was avoided thanks to the governing body’s efforts to stage a full men’s international programme in bio-secure bubbles throughout the summer, with the West Indies, Ireland, Pakistan and Australia hosted in the men’s game.

Across the women’s game, one series was held, as the West Indies played five T20 internationals in September.

The EFL has won part of its appeal against Derby County over Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules.

The club – which survived relegation from the Championship on the final day of the season – had previously been cleared of breaching FFP regulations. 

The appeal against the decision was heard by an independent tribunal, however, which rules in the EFL’s favour in one part of the case – to do with the club’s accounting policies surrounding player amortisation.

The PDC has teamed up with dart board manufacturer Unicorn to donate dartboards to local pubs across the UK in celebration of the return of indoor socialising.

The pair say the move reflects local pubs as ‘the spiritual home of darts’, and aims to encourage people back to the pub as well as trying their hand at darts.

Both the PDC and Unicorn will invite the public to nominate their local pub to receive a dartboard through social media, with PDC players and ‘darts-enthusiast’ celebrities also invited to gift a board to their favourite pub.

UEFA has appointed investigators to open a ‘disciplinary investigation’ against Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus for ‘potential violation’ of the European football governing body’s legal framework.

The investigation comes after the three clubs were involved in the shelved European Super League project, which saw nine other clubs announce their withdrawal.

UEFA’s investigation comes after the three clubs in question did not join the nine others in leaving the group.

Motorsport Network has agreed a deal to acquire duPont Registry – a platform for connecting ‘affluent buyers’ with high-end and luxury car brands.

Motorsport Network says it will ‘strategically seat’ duPont Registry as the centre of its new Driven Lifestyle division, which features road touring company Canossa Events, Ferrari social platform FerrariChat, and car model company Amalgam Collection.

Once the acquisition of the duPont Registry is completed, Motorsport Network says current CEO and President of duPont Publishing, Steven B Chapman, will retire, while his sons will remain shareholders. William Chapman will take over as CEO, with Steven Chapman Jr taking the role of President. 

The UCI Track Champions League has announced a partnership with Italian brand Santini, who will become the Official Kit Supplier to the series.

Designed to bolster interest in track cycling, the competition announced six Founding Riders earlier this week, and will feature six rounds take place across six weeks this autumn.

As part of the deal, Santini will provide a series of custom skinsuits for riders competing in the League, including leader’s jerseys. The deal also includes production of clothing for event staff with the rights to commercialise UCI Track Champions League merchandise.

With riders selected to compete in the UCI Track Champions League in November based on results in the UCI Track World Championships in October, Santini will need to produce 170 individually personalised skinsuits from scratch in just three weeks leading up to the inaugural event.

Formula E has announced a new talent call for filmmakers with a new competition open to 18-24-year-old residents of the UK and USA. It will invite filmmakers to make a one-minute video of how electric vehicles can ‘accelerate positive change around the world’.

The initiative is Formula E’s second open talent search designed to improve access to the all-electric racing series, after a successful talent call for presenters was held ahead of the start of the current season.

In the latest initiative, one finalist from each market will attend a Formula E race for the final challenge before the winner is selected by independent celebrity judges. The winner will get the chance to join Formula E’s in-house production team at the opening race of Season 8.

Everton have announced a new partnership with fintech brand Sokin, which will become its Official Global Payments Partner.

The multi-year agreement will see the global currency account provider ‘strategically support’ the Premier League side’s FX and payments needs through its international platform. 

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