SOCCER
Record TV deal for EPL
The English Premier League (EPL) on Monday announced that it had agreed a record ￡6.7 billion (US$8.46 billion) domestic television rights deal for a four-year period starting from the 2025-2026 season. The current deal is reported to be worth about ￡5 billion over a three-year cycle and covers 200 matches per season. Sky Sports and TNT Sports retained their rights to show live matches, with Amazon not part of the next cycle. Sky would screen a minimum of 215 live matches per season, while TNT would broadcast 52. BBC Sport is to broadcast highlights via its Match of the Day program. A Saturday afternoon blackout, designed to protect attendances in the lower leagues, would remain, but for the first time all matches outside of those scheduled for 3pm on Saturday would be screened live.
OLYMPICS
‘No plan B’ after attack
The French government still plans to hold next year’s Paris Olympics opening ceremony on the River Seine, even after a deadly attack in the French capital at the weekend amplified existing security concerns. French Minister of Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games Amelie Oudea-Castera said that the plan could still be adapted, as media reports indicated grave concern within the security forces that the ceremony could be vulnerable to attack. A man known to the authorities as a radical Islamist with mental troubles on Saturday stabbed to death a German tourist close to the Eiffel Tower by the River Seine. “There is no plan B, we have a plan A within which we have several alternatives,” Oudea-Castera told France Inter radio. The “terrorist threat and in particular the Islamist threat exists,” she said. “It is not new and it is neither specific to France nor specific to the Games.”
ICE HOCKEY
Neck guards compulsory
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) on Monday announced that it is making neck guards mandatory for all levels of competition in the tournaments it runs, including the Olympics and men’s and women’s world championships. The mandate would not apply to professional leagues, including the NHL. Any sort of mandate in the NHL would require an agreement between the league and players’ union. The IIHF’s move comes after the death of American Adam Johnson, whose neck was cut by a skate blade during a game in England in October. The exact date for the IIHF neck guard mandate to go into place is still to be determined.
RUGBY UNION
World Cup final ref quits
English referee Tom Foley, who received death threats after acting as television match official at the Rugby World Cup final, is to step away from officiating Test rugby for the foreseeable future. Foley was television match official for October’s final between South Africa and New Zealand in Paris, which the Springboks won 12-11. The 38-year-old said last month that death threats had been aimed at him and his family since the World Cup, and he had to warn his children’s school as a result. “While it is a privilege to be at the heart of some of the sport’s most iconic moments, the increasing levels of vitriol, when the demands and expectation are so high, have led me to this moment,” Foley said in a statement released by the Rugby Football Union on Monday.
Hong Kong-based cricket team Hung See this weekend found success in their matches in Taiwan, even if none of the results went their way. Hung See played the Chairman’s XI on Saturday morning, the Daredevils that afternoon and PCCT yesterday, with all three home teams winning. The team for Chinese players at the Happy Valley-based Craigengower Cricket Club sends teams on tour to “spread the game of cricket.” This weekend was Hung See’s second trip to Taiwan after visiting Tainan in 2016. “The club has been traveling to all parts of the world since 1982 and the annual tradition continues [with the Taiwan
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while Coco Gauff’s dreams of a first women’s singles title in Melbourne were crushed in the quarter-finals by Paula Badosa. World No. 2 Alexander Zverev was ruffled by a stray feather in his men’s singles quarter-final, but he refocused to beat 12th seed Tommy Paul and reach the semi-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in 2 hours, 20 minutes to advance the semi-finals. Hsieh and Ostapenko converted eight of 14 break
The San Francisco Giants signed 18-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Yang Nien-hsi (陽念希) to a contract worth a total of US$500,000 (NT $16.39 million). At a press event in Taipei on Wednesday, Jan. 22, the Giants’ Pacific Rim Area scout Evan Hsueh (薛奕煌) presented Yang with a Giants jersey to celebrate the signing. The deal consisted of a contract worth US$450,000 plus a US$50,000 scholarship bonus. Yang, who stands at 188 centimeters tall and weighs 85 kilograms, is of Indigenous Amis descent. With his fastest pitch clocking in at 150 kilometers per hour, Yang had been on Hsueh’s radar since playing in the HuaNan Cup
HARD TO SAY GOODBYE: After Coco Gauff dispatched Belinda Bencic in the fourth round, she wrote ‘RIP TikTok USA’ and drew a broken heart on a television camera lens Defending champion Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open, while compatriot Chan Hao-ching on Saturday dominated her opponents in the second round, as world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka swept into the quarter-finals. Third seeds Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia toppled Hungary’s Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US 6-4, 6-3, hitting 24 winners and converting three of seven break points in 1 hour, 18 minutes at 1573 Arena. Although rivals at last year’s Australian Open — where Hsieh and Belgium’s Elise Mertens beat Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok 6-1, 7-5
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