Roger Federer is coming back to US Open four years after retirement, set for two blockbuster matches US Open confirmed Roger Federer's return on Sunday, and he will be joined by three other tennis greats Published on: Aug 24, 2026, 13:25:16 IST Written by Aratrick Mondal Prefer HTon Google Share
Nerves cost us against Australia, but I'm proud of the team: women's hockey coach: Marijne Nerves cost us against Australia, but I'm proud of the team: women's hockey coach: Marijne Published on: Aug 24, 2026, 13:09:14 IST PTI Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Amstelveen
After seventh seed Victor Lai fell in three games to ninth seed Alex Lanier at the 2026 BWF World Championships in New Delhi, the former described the Frenchman as a ‘beast’, lauding his physical fitness and tenacity to go the distance and play the long game
India men’s football team will face Panama in a FIFA international friendly in September, ahead of another friendly against five-time FIFA World Cup winners Brazil in Kolkata on October 3. According to a report by The Times of India, the match between India and the North American side is
Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin has ruled himself out of the running to replace Gianni Infantino, but says he expects a candidate to challenge the Fifa president's leadership in March. Infantino has faced calls to step down after he scrapped a controversial plan to sell off stakes in Fifa's
Barcelona began their La Liga title defence with a commanding 5-0 victory over Elche on Sunday, with Raphinha and Fermin Lopez scoring twice each and Anthony Gordon setting up two goals on his debut. The result comea a day after Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid defeated Espanyol 2-1 with a late winner
GCT Grand Finale: Praggnanandhaa beats Keymer to stake his claim for finals GCT Grand Finale: Praggnanandhaa beats Keymer to stake his claim for finals Published on: Aug 24, 2026, 09:43:17 IST PTI Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link St. Louis
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin may have been vocal in his demand for the current FIFA president Gianni Infantino to step down but he has no interest in replacing the under-fire Swiss. Infantino continues to face pressure to leave his position as world football’s governing body chief following
Are fans being turned off multi-club ownership model?
Most Strasbourg fans thought they had it good from the deal which tied them together with Chelsea.
After all, the BlueCo investment has given the French side a team competitive in Ligue 1 and finished top of the Uefa Conference League table last month.
There has been a £157m revamp of their Stade de la Meinau home, improving facilities and increasing capacity.
Then there is their activity in the transfer market.
Before Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital-owned BlueCo took control in 2023 the club's total transfer fees paid out per season were £6.1m, £3.9m and £9.5m.
In the following three seasons Strasbourg have spent £52.6m, £53.6m and £96.5m. They were the biggest-spending club in France last summer, outgunning even Paris St-Germain (£89.2m).
Success on the pitch was underpinned by the attacking and exciting football under Liam Rosenior. Until now.
Last week the Englishman left to take charge of Chelsea. Those who were happy to accept success over a loss of autonomy in a multi-club ownership (MCO) structure now know the trade-off.
There is evidence that opinion appears to be changing as fans find out what it means to be the perceived subservient partner.
Strasbourg-based L'Equipe journalist Cyril Olives-Berthet says BlueCo have "shot themselves in the foot".
"The general opinion is utter shock," he told BBC Sport. "Even people who thought there was some interesting stuff with BlueCo are shocked.
"BlueCo had a relatively good image around France after last season. That is Rosenior, the players and the style of play.
The backlash is harsh, in the media and with football fans.
Gary O'Neil has arrived as Rosenior's successor but Olives-Berthet says there is much scepticism. Supporters feel the 42-year-old lacks the experience for the job, having amassed 100 games during managerial spells at Bournemouth and Wolves.
Some Strasbourg supporters have never accepted BlueCo. The club's ultras stay silent for the first 15 minutes of every match in protest.
For them, Rosenior's move to Stamford Bridge reinforces their stance.
"The fact Rosenior is jumping on the Chelsea bandwagon is a symbol of everything that is wrong with modern football, and especially with multi-club ownership," Alexandre, spokesperson for the Strasbourg supporters' federation, told BBC Sport.
"It is different to legitimate ambition, and we know someone is going to, at some point, leave for a bigger club. No problem with that.
But leaving your team in the middle of a season, that's not OK. That's not a thing you would do.
Alexandre has long been a strong critic and described Strasbourg as a "Chelsea B team".
It stings for club president Marc Keller, too. He took the club from financial ruin in the fifth tier of French football in 2012 and back to the top flight before selling to BlueCo.
Keller recently rejected suggestions Strasbourg had become Chelsea's "feeder club" in an interview with BBC Sport. That came after it was announced star striker and captain Emmanuel Emegha would join Chelsea at the end of this season.
Rosenior taking the same path appears to weaken his argument.
Keller said he wanted to keep him, but denied reports he had threatened to quit himself if Rosenior went to Chelsea.
"Liam's departure wasn't planned," said Keller, a former midfielder at Strasbourg as well as West Ham, Portsmouth and Blackburn.
"I can understand the surprise, even the disappointment, of some of our supporters.
And do you think I'm happy about it? The situation was neither planned nor desired by anyone at the club. Sometimes, you have to adapt in football.
Keller said Rosenior rejected an offer from another Champions League club, believed to be Bayer Leverkusen, earlier this season but now wanted to be "closer to his family".
Half of the Premier League is now in some form of multi-club ownership (MCO). But those clubs are at the top of the food chain and would not have experience of being the poorer relative.
The City Football Group has Manchester City as its core club, and full control of teams in Italy, France, Brazil, Australia, Uruguay and Belgium. It also owns 47% of Girona in Spain.
Red Bull is a majority owner of teams in Germany, Austria, the United States and Brazil, with minority stakes in other clubs, including Leeds United.
These are major football operations, MCO behemoths. Players and managers will move between entities. It is like an employee getting promoted through a multi-national company.
Head coach Jesse Marsch, for instance, went from New York Red Bulls to Salzburg to Leipzig. But never in the middle of a season.
Other MCOs are set up share ideas and enjoy relative growth, such as Tony Bloom's interest in Brighton, Union Saint-Gilloise, Hearts and Melbourne Victory.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos owns 100% of Nice and Swiss club FC Lausanne-Sport, but only 28.94% of Manchester United. But his decisive influence in football operations at Old Trafford is enough to trigger one of Uefa's indicators of an MCO.
Chelsea and Strasbourg's two-club MCO is "unique", football finance expert Kieran Maguire told BBC Sport.
While most MCOs tend to be football focused, he added BlueCo is more of a hedge-fund strategy. That means bringing in assets that are low value and selling them on high returns.
"Strasbourg are perhaps slightly adrift in the sense they are seen as a holding area of talent that perhaps Chelsea want to bring to the club at a later point," said Maguire.
"You could argue that's the case with Rosenior, to get experience at another part of the Chelsea empire.
BlueCo target younger players, they put them on long-term contracts. The players deliver and the value of the player is locked in.
Strasbourg have the youngest squad in Europe's top five leagues, with Chelsea fourth-youngest.
Strasbourg now have a football team that appears to be going places and that could not have happened without BlueCo.
It has worked the other way, too, in transfer spending.
Strasbourg twice broke their record fee received in 2025. First Sunderland paid £27.3m to sign academy product Habib Diarra. Then Nottingham Forest spent £30.3m on Dilane Bakwa, giving Strasbourg a £27.1m profit on a player who came from Bordeaux as one of the first BlueCo signings.
BlueCo would argue that without its involvement, these players - who are evidence of its strategic model - would be sold sooner, and for less.
Transfers by market forces are part of the game, as Alexandre alluded to, but the inter-MCO transfers have raised eyebrows.
Eleven players have moved between Chelsea and Strasbourg, with the Ligue 1 club largely benefiting from loans and the arrival of England left-back Ben Chilwell in September.
There are strange cases, though, like Ishe Samuels-Smith, who moved to Chelsea from Everton's academy in 2023 and has never played a first-team game. In July, the 19-year-old full-back joined Strasbourg, only to return to Chelsea on transfer deadline day in September and immediately be loaned to Swansea City.
Defender Mamadou Sarr was sold to Chelsea in the summer, but made only one appearance as a substitute at the Fifa Club World Cup and is now back at Strasbourg on loan for this season.
Emegha will become the 12th player in July. With 14 Ligue 1 goals last season and seven in 11 in all competitions this campaign, the Dutch forward's departure is more significant.
Another of BlueCo's initial signings, he had only been made club captain weeks before the announcement. The ultras unfurled banners calling for the player to hand back the armband.
Strasbourg are finding out that things are not always rosy down the food chain.
They are not the only fans to show their displeasure, either.
For instance, in May 2024 supporters of fellow French club Troyes, part of the City Football Group, protested by throwing flares on to the pitch and getting a match against Valenciennes abandoned.
Troyes had been facing back-to-back relegations to the third tier and were saved only by the bankruptcy of Bordeaux. They are now clear at the top of Ligue 2.
Fans can protest but there appears little football's authorities can do to roll back on MCOs despite genuine concerns over the integrity of competitions.
Technically Fifa could restrict international transfers between the clubs, but that is not on the table.
Fifa does have jurisdiction within its own competitions. It removed Mexico's Club Leon from last summer's Club World Cup due to their association with Pachuca.
Uefa is getting tougher but has the same restrictions. Crystal Palace, Drogheda United and FC DAC 1904 became the first clubs ever to face demotion or removal from a competition this season for being in a multi-club structure.
It just so happened Strasbourg played Palace in the Europa Conference League. The French club's ultras held up banners in solidarity with the Eagles when the two clubs met in November.
Last season Chelsea and Strasbourg could have been in the same European competition, but BlueCo took steps to be compliant with Uefa's rules so both would be admitted. In the end that move was not tested, but it may be needed another time.
Uefa is expected to go further but whether it has the power to do anything which would halt MCOs is debatable.
That ship may have already sailed.
Source: BBC
Related Posts: Sports
The French are known for a lot of things but badminton isn’t one of them. Till Sunday, when the country that has never been considered among the top nations even in Europe created history at the 2026 World championships, in more ways than one
11 hours ago
AITA picked them, the government cut them: Why has India’s Asian Games tennis squad been slashed from 12 to 7? The AITA had originally proposed a 12-member squad for for the Asian Games, which included six women. But the list was slashed down to just seven players. Updated on: Aug 24, 2026
11 hours ago
Ashton Jeanty injury update: Is the Raiders RB out for the season? Doctor reveals possible diagnoses; ‘best case…’ Ashton Jeanty was injured after attempting a catch, prompting a tense silence at the Raiders’ facility before his teammates gathered and knelt in prayer. Updated on: Aug 24
15 hours ago
When Liverpool came to Newcastle last August, there was utter jubilation as Rio Ngumoha scored a remarkable 100th-minute winner. They scored late again this time around, through Dominik Szoboszlai's 99th-minute penalty, but it felt more like a sense of relief than joy as they rescued a point
15 hours ago
'Is Sydney Taylor playing tonight?' Chicago Sky guard's slow start vs Fever sparks injury concerns Sydney Taylor was in Chicago’s starting lineup when the Sky hosted the Indiana Fever on Sunday night. Updated on: Aug 24, 2026, 07:32:12 IST By Ojas Jaiswal Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link
15 hours ago
Yet again, the England men's cricket team is picking through the wreckage of a late-night misdemeanour. The latest stain on the game's reputation is a result of pictures of fast bowler Brydon Carse in handcuffs and surrounded by police officers outside a nightspot in Derby
15 hours ago
Jean-Philippe Mateta is arguing the remainder of his Crystal Palace contract is invalid and has taken his case to Fifa. Multiple sources have told BBC Sport the France international has launched an official challenge over the validity of the final 10 months on his Selhurst Park deal
1 days ago
Bangladesh 64: Starc 6-12 & 95: Shanto 31; Starc 4-39, Cummins 3-10, Lyon 3-25 Mitchell Starc took 10 wickets in the match as Australia bounced back from last week's shock defeat by Bangladesh to win the second Test by an innings and 51 runs and draw the series 1-1. Second Test
1 days ago
Jannik Sinner's absence benefits Carlos Alcaraz: What to expect from the US Open champion after his long injury layoff Jannik Sinner is out, but is it premature to call Carlos Alcaraz the US Open favourite after four months away? Updated on: Aug 23, 2026
1 days ago
US Open leaves Stan Wawrinka out in the cold, denying former champion a wild card for his final Grand Slam The US Open has surprisingly denied Stan Wawrinka a wild card for what could be his final appearance at a Grand Slam. Updated on: Aug 23, 2026
1 days ago
India faced the Netherlands in their Pool E match of the ongoing FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup 2026 on Saturday (August 22) at the Wagener Stadium in Amstelveen but suffered a 1-3 defeat. India conceded one goal in the third quarter and two in the fourth quarter to go down against the hosts
1 days ago
There is an uncanny resemblance between Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa’s bronze-medal run at the 2011 BWF World Championships and Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand’s campaign at the 2026 edition. Jwala and Ashwini faced the second-seeded Cheng Wen-hsing and Chien Yu-chin as early as the
1 days ago
Runs on the board and rival wickets, is the template that Dhananjaya de Silva will chase when the second Test commences at the SSC Ground on Sunday (August 23, 2026). “It’s about putting runs on the board. That’s what India did [at Galle]. For the first two days they batted and got 460 runs
1 days ago
Serena Williams returns to US Open after four years, joins Carlos Alcaraz for mixed doubles Serena Williams will return to the US Open for the first time since 2022, partnering Carlos Alcaraz in mixed doubles after receiving a wildcard. Published on: Aug 23, 2026
1 days ago
Roberto De Zerbi may have spent close to £400m by the time his Tottenham Hotspur rebuild is complete – but it took just his side's first Premier League game of the season to prove all the money in the world is no guaranteed cure for a losing mentality
1 days ago
Manchester United's fans had endured a bad enough day on the banks of the River Humber when Hull City's stadium announcer gleefully piped up midway through the second half. Two trains back to Manchester from the city centre station had been cancelled
1 days ago
From a shy girl to team mentor, Savita Punia says hockey changed her life From a shy girl to team mentor, Savita Punia says hockey changed her life Published on: Aug 22, 2026, 12:08:49 IST PTI Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Amstelveen
2 days ago
Shubhankar makes cut after spectacular ace at Nexo Championship Shubhankar makes cut after spectacular ace at Nexo Championship Published on: Aug 22, 2026, 12:17:58 IST PTI Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Aberdeenshire , Shubhankar Sharma ended his streak of four missed cuts as he made the
2 days ago
Inter Miami's Lionel Messi has been fined for slapping Philadelphia Union's Quinn Sullivan during their side's Major League Soccer (MLS) 2-2 draw on Wednesday. Messi, 39, slapped Sullivan around the back of the head towards the end of the game as he complained the Union player had elbowed him after
2 days ago
Premier League champions Arsenal will start the new season with some of the nightmares of the previous two as their marquee signing, midfielder Bruno Guimarães, is not part of the squad due to an injury. Guimarães signed for £75 million (Rs. 979 crore) from Newcastle United and suffered a knock
2 days ago
Nostalgia may have enveloped Sairaj Bahutule when he entered the SSC Ground. He would have remembered his last Test played at the same venue in 2001, a game India lost. The Indian spin-bowling coach, though, quickly immersed himself in the nets here Friday (August 21, 2026)
2 days ago
Lionel Messi fined for slapping opponent on the head as Inter Miami-Philadelphia clash erupts into late red-card chaos Lionel Messi was fined by MLS after slapping Philadelphia's Quinn Sullivan on the head as Inter Miami's 2-2 draw desecended into stoppage-time chaos. Updated on: Aug 22, 2026
2 days ago
Double Olympic medallist Neeraj Chopra managed to deliver his season’s best performance at the Lausanne Diamond League on Friday but fell agonisingly short of the top spot, as Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage finished first with a throw just nine centimetres more than his
2 days ago
Why did Nick Chubb retire? Net worth in focus as NFL player ends career at 30 Nick Chubb played for eight seasons in NFL that included seven years with the Cleveland Browns and one with the Houston Texans. Updated on: Aug 22, 2026, 09:25:09 IST By Shirin Gupta Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link
2 days ago
Arsenal started last season as nearly men - but now they have the swagger of winners. That much can be seen on the approach to Emirates Stadium. Above the entrance to the ground is new signage, a simple message in gold: 'Champions'. Players and fans alike have taken the confidence of last season's
2 days ago
Liverpool, Man City face questions in new era without Salah, Guardiola Liverpool, Man City face questions in new era without Salah, Guardiola Published on: Aug 22, 2026, 06:32:41 IST AFP Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Mohamed Salah and Pep Guardiola are two of the most iconic figures in
2 days ago
Nakashima knocks out Fritz to reach Cincinnati semi-finals Nakashima knocks out Fritz to reach Cincinnati semi-finals Published on: Aug 22, 2026, 04:36:47 IST AFP Prefer HTon Google Share via Copy link Brandon Nakashima continued his red-hot pace on Friday
2 days ago
