Brighton & Hove Albion have announced the appointment of Dr. Gary Walker as the club’s new head of performance.

Walker, currently director of sports performance at Major League Soccer (MLS) side FC Cincinnati, will begin his new role in time to oversee pre-season ahead of the 2024-25 campaign.

The south coast club confirmed Walker’s appointment along with new head of medicine Dr. Florian Pfab, who will join from Eintracht Frankfurt.

Brighton technical director David Weir said: “After an extensive and thorough search process, we are delighted that Florian and Gary will be joining us this summer.

“Both have excellent experience in their respective professional fields, and what has been clear in the recruitment process is that they share our vision of the performance environment for our men’s and women’s staff and players.

“We have developed a world-class training facility and our aim is to give our men’s and women’s first-team, and academy squads the best possible medical and sports science support.

“We look forward to welcoming Florian and Gary to the club in the summer ahead of the new season.”

Walker spent more than a decade at…

It is that time of year again. Lighter nights, daffodils and the sobering discovery of just how much your football team has handed over to agents.

The Football Association (FA) published its annual figures yesterday and, as is the norm, they were bigger, more gasp-inducing than ever before.

The Premier League’s 20 clubs combined to pay £409million ($509m) in agents’ fees in a 12-month monitoring period that began on February 1, 2023. Include the EFL’s outlays and English clubs handed over close to half a billion to that select group of men and women representing a footballer’s interests.

It was the usual suspects leading the way but the Premier League’s spend continues to rise. This year’s total is markedly up on the £318million of last season and almost twice the amount paid in 2017-18.

The Athletic picks out the key points from the FA’s latest report.

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Chelsea drive spending records… again

An age of excess at Stamford Bridge has seen Chelsea spend like no club has ever spent before. Close to £1billion has funded a lavish overall that is yet to deliver discernible progress under the Todd Boehly-Clearlake-led ownership group and the fees paid out to agents are another marker of their intemperance.

Brace yourself for Chelsea’s full outlay over 12 months:…

Former Wimbledon manager and Tottenham Hotspur defender Joe Kinnear has died at the age of 77.

Kinnear played for Tottenham and Brighton and Hove Albion during an 11-year career as a player, making a combined 212 club appearances.

He also won 26 caps for the Republic of Ireland national team.

Kinnear went on to manage Luton Town, Wimbledon, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United — where he also held the position of director of football.

His passing was confirmed in a statement by Newcastle that read: “Newcastle United is saddened to learn of the passing of Joe Kinnear at the age of 77.

“Joe worked at the club as both Manager and Director of Football.

“The thoughts of everyone at #NUFC are with Joe’s family and friends at this difficult time.”

A statement from Spurs said: “We are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of former player, Joe Kinnear. The thoughts of everyone at the Club are with his family and friends at this incredibly sad time.”

AFC Wimbledon added: “A true legend of the Club, Joe gave us some amazing memories that we treasure.”

Former Premier League striker John Harton, who played under Kinnear at Wimbledon, said: “Sad news hearing that my ex-boss Joe Kinnear has passed away.. My thoughts are with Joe’s wife Bonnie and the Kinnear…

Permanent concussion substitutions will be introduced into the laws of football, the game’s lawmakers have confirmed.

The measure, which has been trialled in a number of competitions such as the Premier League, Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship and FA Cup, will come into effect from July 1, 2024.

Teams will be able to use additional substitutions, outside of their allotted amount, if any player is showing signs of a concussion, regardless of the number of changes they have made already.

However, a trial for temporary concussion substitutions — a measure which has been called for by the Premier League as well as players’ unions — was not approved at the annual general meeting of The International Football Association Board (IFAB) in Scotland on Saturday.

It is understood the Premier League remain of the view that permitting professional leagues to trial temporary concussion substitutes will significantly benefit player welfare and the sport.

Scottish Football Association CEO, Ian Maxwell, said: “Regarding permanent concussion substitutions, the trial we’ve run is effectively concluded and that is now enshrined in the laws of the game.

“It will be for competitions to determine whether they want to use permanent concussion substitutes, as per the…

Last month, The Athletic published the findings of our male fans of women’s football survey. Almost 5,000 men responded, but we wanted to know even more, particularly about how their experiences were linked to men’s football.

Women’s football is at an interesting stage in its development. Often financially reliant on their male counterparts, women’s teams can be boosted by their connections to historic men’s clubs even as they forge their own identities. The ‘one club’ model has accelerated the growth of the women’s professional game, but the ultimate aim is for women’s teams to become profitable and identifiable in their own right. They are well on their way to the latter, but the business model is tending to tie them together, for better or worse. One result has been an influx of fans from the men’s game.

Ninety-one per cent of our survey respondents followed men’s football before they began engaging with women’s football, a statistic that begets a lot of questions. Will women’s football remain secondary in their affections? Did they hold any preconceived ideas? That 74 per cent support the same men’s and women’s team suggests the ‘one club, two teams’ model so central to the Women’s Super League’s (WSL) development is doing its job —…

Welcome to Full Time, The Athletic’s women’s football column, a one-stop shop every Monday to discuss the big issues in the game in the UK and Europe.

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Spurs showcase youth in seven-goal epic

As the wind-battered West Ham United’s home, the Chigwell Construction Stadium in Dagenham, Tottenham Hotspur triumphed in a thriller, ending 4-3, which delivered everything you would want from a Sunday night game under the lights: incredible finishing, unusual defending and a controversial goal.

The goals by Tottenham manager Robert Vilahamn’s side were all created by or scored by players who were 23 or under, showing off the youthful nature of his exciting team.

Tottenham were looking to follow up their first-ever North London derby win against Arsenal (1-0) from before the winter break with another positive result, and despite being pegged back from 1-0 to 1-1 and 3-1 to 3-3, 23-year-old Jessica Naz’s 75th-minute winner secured all three points.

The win and impressive nature of the finishes are evidence of Tottenham’s direction, with Manchester United loanee Grace Clinton in particular being the star of the show. The 20-year-old midfielder has impressed in all aspects of her game this…

Here is a question that will never feature in a Christmas party quiz: which Premier League attendance record was broken this week?

No, Luton Town did not find a way to squeeze a few more in for the visit of the champions Manchester City on Sunday. And we are not referring to the huge crowd that turned up to see Arsenal beat Chelsea at the Emirates, which is a Premier League venue but was hosting a Women’s Super League game.

You are never going to get it, so we will put you out of your misery: Tuesday’s crowd of 30 club representatives was a record attendance for a Premier League shareholders’ meeting at the Brunel Building, the fancy London office block in Paddington, west London, that became the league’s headquarters in 2019. And that does not include the “virtual” crowd, who took part in the meeting working-from-home style.

Well done, boys (and girls). But was it a good process?

Not according to some participants, who agreed to speak to The Athletic under the condition of anonymity in order to protect their relationships.

“Chaos” was one description, “shambles” another. And yet three decisions were made and it was all over by lunchtime. So, it could not have been that bad.

Let’s run through the agenda and you can decide if this bumper crowd witnessed success…

The English FA has said that staff at professional clubs “falls short of reflecting the levels of diversity amongst the playing population”.

This comes after the FA published its third annual report on the Football Leadership Diversity Code. Introduced in 2020, the code is an initiative to prompt the collective effort to address inequality in senior leadership, wider team operations and coaching roles.

Last season among the clubs endorsing the initiative, just nine per cent of senior leaders, 11 per cent of team operations, 16 per cent of coaches and nine per cent of hired senior coaches were individuals of Black, Asian or mixed heritage. Additionally, only 23 per cent of senior leaders and 30 per cent of team operations hires were female.

Within the 53 club signatories, 21 per cent of senior leaders and 29 per cent of team operations are female. Meanwhile, seven per cent of senior leaders and nine per cent of team operations belong to individuals of Black, Asian or mixed heritage. 

In the coaching workforce, 13 per cent of trainers and 11 per cent of senior coaches are from Black, Asian, or mixed heritage backgrounds.

This year marks the first instance where participating clubs have disclosed their actual workforce data, including information on LGBTQ+ and disability,…

Brighton & Hove Albion are pressing ahead with plans for a stadium built specifically for their women’s team, the first of its kind in Europe.

The club have been working for several months on identifying a shortlist of sites, within the city’s boundaries, for a purpose-built ground with a capacity of around 10,000 to give the women’s team a permanent home of their own.

The quest to find a suitable venue is gathering pace following support for the project from Brighton & Hove Council.

Brighton are in their sixth season in the Women’s Super League (WSL). They have shared a ground with neighbours Crawley Town throughout that period, playing the majority of their home matches at the League Two club’s 6,000-capacity Broadfield Stadium.

This will be the first project of its kind in Europe, with Kansas City stadium set to open next year. It’s a 20-mile journey north from the 32,000-seater Amex Stadium, where the men’s team have played since it opened in 2011 and where the women play occasionally as well.

Leicester City and Bristol City are in a minority in staging all of their WSL matches in the same stadium as their male counterparts. Manchester City Women’s ground, the Joie Stadium, is within walking distance of the Etihad — the home of the Premier League champions…

Welcome to Full Time, The Athletic’s new women’s football column — a one-stop shop every Monday to discuss the big issues in the game in the UK and Europe.

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The main story

Liverpool got off to a flying start last season with a surprise victory over eventual Women’s Super League champions Chelsea — and they repeated the trick this time around, away at Arsenal in front of a record WSL crowd. The attendance was announced as 54,155 — although, as ever, the number of empty seats around the Emirates Stadium suggested that was the ‘tickets sold’ figure rather than the attendance.

Liverpool’s game plan was simple — pack central areas and force Arsenal out wide. “Usually they like to go central then swing out wide,” said Liverpool boss Matt Beard afterwards. “We wanted to stop them going central.”

The home side switched play from flank to flank reasonably well but were surprisingly unimaginative out wide, repeatedly launching crosses into the box, none of which found the head of star summer signing Alessia Russo. The closest they came to scoring was with an overhit Katie McCabe cross which goalkeeper Rachael Laws was forced to tip over.

But otherwise, Arsenal lacked combination play. Russo struggled to get involved, Caitlin Foord was wasteful with her final pass…