The Premier League, EFL, FA, and Women’s Super League (WSL) have announced a new code of conduct for gambling-related agreements in football.

The code, which will be implemented at the start of the 2024-25 season, is designed to regulate gambling sponsorships across the professional game, emphasising four key principles: protection, social responsibility, reinvestment, and integrity.

A key aspect of the code is its emphasis on reinvestment. Revenue generated from gambling sponsorships must be redirected into football-related infrastructure and community programmes. This includes improvements to stadiums and training facilities, as well as investments in grassroots football and local community participation.

Under the new code, gambling sponsorships will also be required to target their marketing efforts more carefully to avoid reaching children and individuals at risk of gambling-related harm. Additionally, any gambling-related sponsorship must include educational initiatives and awareness campaigns designed to promote responsible gambling practices.

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‘Some players bet on football – they know it’s breaking the rules but still do it’

The importance of maintaining the integrity of football competitions is also stressed in the code, adding that gambling sponsorships must…

Sir Jim Ratcliffe is expected to attend Manchester United’s men’s FA Cup final against rivals Manchester City this weekend.

United will face City at Wembley Stadium this Saturday in what will be a repeat of last season’s final, where Pep Guardiola’s side emerged as 2-1 winners.

Ratcliffe attended United’s men’s FA Cup semi-final against Coventry City in April after completing the London Marathon, but was criticised for not appearing at the Women’s FA Cup final, where United beat Tottenham Hotspur 4-0.

The 71-year-old was instead in attendance for United’s 1-0 home defeat to Arsenal in the Premier League, alongside Sir Dave Brailsford, while co-owner Avram Glazer was in London to see the women lift the FA Cup for the first time in their history.

The club said that several senior representatives from INEOS, the petrochemicals company which Ratcliffe owns, were at Wembley including chief financial officer (CFO) Roger Bell — who took up the same role at United earlier this month — and directors Tom Crotty, Jill Dolan, Debra Smeeton and Pete Williams. Ratcliffe also sent a message of good luck to the women’s team and manager Marc Skinner ahead of that match.

It is unclear whether any other board members will attend the final on May 25.

United reached the FA Cup…

“I’ve got no idea who crossed it,” said Tottenham Hotspur’s Martha Thomas. “I remember Luana (Buhler) jumping and thinking, ‘She’s going to head this and flick it on’. I just saw the defender looking at it and thought, ‘I’ve got to get in front of that defender’.”

Thomas rose highest, her header looping over the Leicester goalkeeper. She sprinted away, knee-sliding in front of 18,000 fans and Daniel Levy at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Her 118th-minute winner had sent Spurs through to their first Wembley FA Cup final in the club’s history. “She is what Tottenham represents,” said Spurs manager Robert Vilahamn. “To dare is to do.”

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Thomas, who will play her former club Manchester United in the final after they beat Chelsea 2-1, said. “I was just chuffed, honestly so happy. I feel so proud of everybody in the group. It means the world for us to get to Wembley and make history for this club, the girls, the staff, the whole team, the fans, everyone. We’re just over the moon.”

It is another milestone and “evidence”, in Vilahamn’s words, of this team’s journey, which had to rebuild its foundations following the sacking of Rehanne…

Newcastle United are 10th in the 20-team Premier League. For many other clubs in many other seasons, that would represent one giant, “meh” — the very definition of mid-table mediocrity.

Not for head coach Eddie Howe and his team, however. Their 2023-24  has been a compilation of soaring highs and crushing lows, with misfortune a constant companion, often at Newcastle’s invitation.

After two difficult transfer windows, after finding themselves constricted by the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR), after battling against a sapping list of injuries, Sandro Tonali’s long suspension, and with Dan Ashworth, their sporting director, heading to Manchester United, it feels like they are approaching a crossroads, on and off the pitch.

The loss at Chelsea on Monday was deflating and familiar. Last season’s team of front-footed swarmers are routinely making life difficult for themselves and easy for their opponents.

Before Saturday’s daunting trip to Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals — Newcastle’s final tilt at winning silverware this season (for the men’s team, anyway) — The Athletic’s Chris Waugh and George Caulkin assess what has gone wrong since the summer, where things stand and what they expect from the final two months of the…

Where has this Chelsea been for most of the season?

From losing 4-2 at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers and Thiago Silva’s wife criticising manager Mauricio Pochettino, they produced one of their best performances of the season to book a fifth round tie at home to Leeds United.

With Silva dropped, Conor Gallagher and Nicolas Jackson gave them a 2-0 lead at half-time before Enzo Fernandez curled a magnificent free-kick beyond his Argentina team-mate Emiliano Martinez from 30 yards.

Moussa Diaby scored a late consolation but Villa, who had warmed up for the replay with a 5-0 win away to Sheffield United, but were a shadow of the team that has impressed so often under Unai Emery.

The Athletic’s Ed Mackey and Simon Johnson analyse the action.

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Where have Gallagher’s goals been?

It has been a long time since Gallagher got to feel what it is like to see a shot find the back of the net.

You have to go back to Frank Lampard’s only victory as interim head coach at Bournemouth last May for Gallagher’s last goal for Chelsea.
The England international has been one of the first team regulars this season, but he has kept his place because of his hard graft rather than end product.

Gallagher’s lack of output in the final third has given his critics plenty of ammunition that the club should…

Kicked out of the FA Cup and facing a fresh English Football League investigation into allegations of backdated paperwork, Barnsley’s season has been anything but boring.

The South Yorkshire side are pushing for promotion but the overall impression is one of a club distracted and divided by the break-up of the ownership group that took control in 2017 — a situation exacerbated by a dispute between two women at the club last summer.

Co-owner and director Jean Cryne, the 70-year-old widow of former owner Patrick Cryne, allegedly told fellow staff that she thought then-club secretary Eleanor Dobson, 28, flirted with the players and wore inappropriate clothes. Cryne did not deny this when Dobson, who had recently gotten married, later challenged her about them.

This led Dobson, who joined the club in 2022, to make a formal complaint to the then-chief executive Khaled El-Ahmad and their human resources manager, with club chairman Neerav Parekh also informed.

In an attempt to resolve the matter, El-Ahmad arranged a video conference call in early August between the two women during which it is said Dobson accepted an apology from Cryne.

But within weeks of that virtual meeting, the row flared up again when Dobson discovered that her complaint, which was meant to be private, had…

Fans watching Saturday’s FA Cup tie between Sunderland and Newcastle United were left frustrated after a colour blind clash of the two teams’ kits.

With Sunderland in their traditional red and white stripes, against Newcastle’s black and white stripes, there was insufficient contrast in the kits for colour blind viewers to distinguish between the two comfortably.

It was not the first kit clash in this season’s competition, with Charlton Athletic’s red against Cray Paper Valley Mills’ green causing problems in the first round.

There were significant complaints on social media about this weekend’s kit clash, with the match — which Newcastle won 3-0 — broadcast on ITV.

Colour blindness affects one in 12 men and one in 200 women, with red and green the most common problematic colour combination. The Football Association’s (FA) guidance also cites red and black as troublesome.

“It is extremely disappointing that the FA has allowed this combination of kits to be worn, especially in a televised game,” said Kathryn Albany-Ward, founder of Colour Blind Awareness.

“Sunderland and Newcastle both wearing home kits is a notorious clash for people with colour blindness and in fact this combination of kits (red vs black, including striped and patterned kits) is noted as…