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
Premflix' and tourist fans - future of football predictions
'Premflix' and tourist fans - future of football predictions
"If this is the future of football, you can stuff it."
A clip from 1994 showing experts making predictions for where football would be in 10 years recently resurfaced on social media, and fans online cannot believe how prescient some of their forecasts proved to be.
Arsenal fanzine editor Mike Collins was part of the trio on the viral clip and - along with the disappearance of fanzines - he predicted credit card entry to stadiums, a decline in "hardcore support" and a rise in "glory hunters".
"I and all other old-style fans want no part of it at all," he said.
While not all predictions have come to fruition, some were on the money.
Neil Duncanson, a former broadcast executive, predicted that, "television will run football completely in the next century".
Meanwhile, Alex Fynn, an author and football consultant, divined that match-going fans would be seen by clubs as "incidental".
"If they are part of the equation, it will only be because television companies want them to provide the spectacular background, so that they can bring their pictures into millions of homes," he said.
These excerpts are taken from Standing Room Only, a BBC football programme that ran between 1991 and 1994.
BBC Sport caught up with Duncanson and Fynn to reflect on their Nostradamus moment - and get their take on where our national game will be 10 years from now.
In 1992, Sky won the rights to broadcast the newly established Premier League in a £304m five-year deal. Two years later, Duncanson predicted that the power broadcasters had over football would proliferate to an extent not yet seen.
"If you think television is too powerful in sport now, in 10 years' time you won't believe the control that they'll have," he said.
Duncanson also speculated that fans in 2004 would watch football through subscription and pay-per-view services.
"He'll watch it on his own local Newcastle cable station because the BBC or ITV won't be able to afford the rights to the game," he said.
"The cable operator will have paid a fortune for it, but he knows he'll get the money back from subscription.
It's probably going to be done on pay-per-view, so you'll put a card and a number on your telephone, tap it in, five quid docked from your account, the game pops up.
More three decades on, subscription-funded broadcasters continue to be the gatekeepers of top-flight English football.
In 2023, the Premier League agreed a record four-year £6.7bn domestic television deal for Sky and TNT to show up to 270 live games a season from 2025-26.
Reflecting on his original predictions, Duncanson said it "wasn't rocket science" to see where things were going "if you followed the money".
"Sky had changed the game by spending so much money on rights because it established them as a major satellite power, and they continue to this day," he said.
Casting his eye towards the future, Duncanson sees the nature of subscription viewing changing.
"We're all going to learn a new acronym: DTC - direct-to-customer," he said.
There is a bit of a push-back now with subscription prices rising, from football fans who say, 'Why do I have to pay so much money? I don't want to watch cricket or rugby or motorsport or whatever. I just want to watch my team play.'
Taking its cue from the NFL, NBA and Formula 1, Duncanson believes the Premier League will increasingly evolve into a rights holder and broadcast platform.
"The Premier League next season are going to start their own channel in Singapore. If that's a success, you can see that being rolled out into other territories," he said.
You'll be watching 'Premflix' or 'Fifa TV' or 'Uefa+', or any of them who have got that level of valuable football.
Fynn, who was involved in the creation of the Premier League through his work as a consultant for the Football Association, believes the increased emphasis on broadcast revenue and international audiences has led top-flight English clubs to deprioritise their traditional fanbases.
"A customer can take his business elsewhere. A fan cannot. The clubs knew that and they exploited it," he said.
In a decade's time, Fynn predicts that spiralling player wages would further impact match-going fans.
He said: "Demand exceeds supply and, on that basis, what clubs have done is to recognise there is more value in eliminating the so-called 'legacy fans' in place of the so-called 'tourist fans' - those who will come, pay a higher entry price, buy merchandise and therefore add to the bottom line.
So long as the players are paid the amounts that they are, fans will have in some way to pick up the cost.
Fynn praised the "enormous contributions" fans in England have made in the past decade, "through the Football Supporters' Association (FSA), Supporters Direct and, most important of all, the fan-led review of football governance".
That review led to the establishment last year of an independent football regulator in England.
"It is the regulator who will be the fans' best hope for producing a system whereby they are not extorted," Fynn said.
He speculated that Uefa's spending caps may eventually influence the Premier League.
England's top-flight clubs voted recently to move to a system called squad cost ratio (SCR), which allows clubs to spend up to 85% of their income on player wages, although this could rise to 115%.
Uefa's SCR spending limit is 70%, which all clubs in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League must adhere to.
Fynn said: "In due course we might have a more even playing field, in the sense that the clubs won't be able to pay the players so much, whereby they won't need to charge the fans so much for their ticket prices.
But of course they will. As long as they can get away with it, they will.
Fynn believes that the devaluing of matchday revenue harms clubs in the lower tiers of English football.
"Ten years ago, matchday was all-important. Today broadcast is all-important," he said.
"But matchday is absolutely vital for the small clubs. And yet, when you look at the leagues, every league - the Premier League, the Championship, League One and League Two - there are average losses for those leagues of millions and millions of pounds.
It's a system that cannot continue like this and if, for example, the owners pulled the plug on the smaller clubs, half of the EFL would go out of business tomorrow, as we've seen with clubs like Sheffield Wednesday.
Wednesday entered administration in October and, having been deducted a total of 18 points, were mathematically relegated from the Championship in February. But a proposed 15-point deduction for next season has now been waived following the completion of a takeover on Saturday.
This month, Chelsea announced the biggest pre-tax loss in Premier League history, with a £262m deficit for the 2024-25 season.
Source: BBC
Related Posts: Sports
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
11 hours ago
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
11 hours ago
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
11 hours ago
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
14 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
14 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
14 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
14 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
