Manchester City completed a PFA Player of the Year double on Tuesday night as midfielder Phil Foden and striker Bunny Shaw were named men’s and women’s winners for 2023-24.

Foden, 24, scored 19 goals and provided eight assists to help City clinch an unprecedented fourth successive Premier League title under Pep Guardiola.

Erling Haaland — who won last season’s crown — was one of six nominees, including City midfielder Rodri, Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard, Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins and Cole Palmer.

Shaw finished the campaign as the top scorer in the Women’s Super League (WSL) with 21 goals in 18 games for the club, despite having her season prematurely ended by a foot injury in late April.

The Jamaica international becomes the first female City player to scoop the award since Lucy Bronze won the accolade in 2016-17.

Shaw’s Man City team-mates Yui Hasegawa and Lauren Hemp were also nominated, alongside Chelsea’s Niamh Charles, Erin Cuthbert and Lauren James.

Having missed out on the evening’s main award, City academy graduate Cole Palmer was crowned the men’s Young Player of the Year after an outstanding debut campaign at…

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…

It is the kind of story you would expect on a Netflix crime documentary: a blackmail plot, a leaked sex video, a family deception and an international footballer who has gone from being the victim to the accused.

That player is on the books of Nottingham Forest and currently in Spain with the rest of head coach Nuno Espirito Santo’s squad, where the Premier League club are preparing for a series of pre-season fixtures.

Hwang Ui-jo, a South Korea international with 62 caps, was charged by prosecutors in his homeland’s capital Seoul last week for allegedly filming sexual encounters with two women without permission on four occasions from June to September 2022. He has been ruled out of contention for selection by the South Korean national team since last November and, if convicted, the offences carry up to a maximum seven years in prison.

“The victim hopes the truth will prevail and that Hwang learns his lesson and realises how much damage his actions have caused,” Lee Eun-eui, the lawyer representing one of the women, has told The Athletic. “To be honest, the victim is in such a state of disbelief and pain she can’t even articulate what she wants to see happen next.”

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UK legal reporting restrictions and why comments are sometimes turned off

Court proceedings…

Dear readers,

The Premier League and Champions League are over for another season but the summer of 2024 is packed full of live action and transfer fun and games — and we’ll cover it all in detail on The Athletic.

From Europe’s major clubs travelling across the world (and to the United States in particular) to all the moves (and nearly moves) of the summer transfer window, plus two major international tournaments, Emma Hayes starting her reign as USWNT head coach and the Olympics, our team of reporters will bring you in-depth coverage of the things you care about.

We’ll be on the ground in Germany for Euro 2024; across the U.S. for Copa America, MLS, NWSL and Premier League pre-season; in Paris, France for the summer Olympic Games’ football action, and everywhere in between — ensuring you don’t miss a thing when it comes to the beautiful game.

The club content you know and love won’t stop either. Our trusted team of reporters will hit the phones to bring you the latest moves in the transfer window as we embark on an ambitious project to cover the summer ins and outs like never before.

And it doesn’t stop there.

You might already follow our NFL, NBA or NHL coverage, but did you know we also cover a range of other sports, including golf, Formula 1 and tennis? Mark out…

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:…

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…

Unless you’re thinking about an oval ball, Australia is probably not the first country that comes to mind when you’re talking about “football”. Maybe if you were eagerly following the drifting careers of Jack Rodwell, Carl Jenkinson or Joe Lolley, the A-League might have been on your radar, but chances are, the “soccer” Down Under would pass you by.

That changed in August 2023 — in Australia with the rise of the Matildas, and in England with the emergence of Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham Hotspur.

Australia is taking soccer seriously. So seriously that the younger generations call it football, not to be confused with ‘footy’, the term usually reserved for one of their national sports, Aussie rules. It is on the rise. Average attendances are up from last year but still not quite what they were pre-pandemic. The women’s game appears to have had a mini boost from the World Cup staged in the country last July and August. Additionally, there was the announcement that a ‘B-League’ would be launched in 2025, creating a second tier that will include Postecoglou’s former side, South Melbourne.

However, with every hurdle cleared, another larger one stops the game’s development in its tracks. The inaugural ‘Unite’ round has just taken place, where every team…

Everton could face a second points deduction this season after being charged with another breach of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).

Nottingham Forest were also charged, meaning both clubs have been referred to an independent commission after reporting losses that exceed the allowed amount over a three-year cycle.

Everton are already appealing against a 10-point deduction for breaches relating to the 2021-22 campaign.

Previously measures like these have often been referred to as FFP — Financial Fair Play — but the Premier League now refers to them as PSR, though the intention is the same: to police how much money clubs are allowed to lose over a given period of time.

Under the Premier League’s PSR rules, clubs are entitled to lose a maximum of £105million ($133m) over three seasons, although certain costs can be deducted, such as infrastructure, women’s football, investment in youth and community work.

But how did England’s top flight agree on the £105million figure and is there an argument that it should be increased in line with inflation?

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Why is it £105m?

The simple answer is that the Premier League followed UEFA’s financial fair play (FFP) rules, which European football’s governing body established in 2009 and introduced at…

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,…