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.

GO DEEPER

‘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…

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…

The Football Association has interviewed more than 40 people in its investigation into the circumstances surrounding Maddy Cusack’s death and her family’s complaints about her former manager at Sheffield United, Jonathan Morgan.

Midfielder Cusack, 27, took her own life last September, leading to her family putting together a seven-page complaint about her last seven months at the Yorkshire club — coinciding with the appointment of Morgan as their women’s team manager in the February.

The family’s complaint, stretching to more than 3,350 words, led to English football’s governing body opening an investigation in January this year to examine the alleged issues between Cusack and Morgan in Sheffield and, before that, when they were player and manager at Leicester City from 2018-19.

As well as interviewing former team-mates of Cusack’s at both those clubs, the FA’s investigation team has spoken to players at Burnley — where Morgan managed the women’s team after leaving Leicester in November 2021 and before joining Sheffield United. A significant number of players and staff from all three clubs have volunteered to take part in the inquiry.

Morgan has always denied any wrongdoing and was cleared by an independent inquiry, commissioned by Sheffield United, that…

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:…

It is probably a mistake to start with a British cultural reference that is nearly 29 years old, but this is a story about misgivings and mistakes, so it feels apt.

In 1995, the late, great comedian Caroline Aherne had a spoof talk show in which she played a character called Mrs Merton, an elderly lady from Manchester who would ask celebrities disingenuously blunt questions.

“So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?” was her famous opener to Debbie McGee, the glamorous assistant and wife of the aforementioned TV magician.

A version of that question had been rattling around my head while I tried to find a common thread between the four case studies we have done this week on men who want to buy football clubs.

So, Chris/Dozy/William/Thomas, what first attracted you to the cash business with property assets that would guarantee weeks, if not months, of positive media coverage and a huge dopamine hit from the gratitude of strangers?

Because when you put it like that, it is not hard to see how bidding for football clubs might be addictive/a good smokescreen/useful advertising/worth a go (delete as applicable).

We picked Chris Kirchner, Dozy Mmobuosi, William Storey and Thomas Zilliacus this time, but if there are any streaming giants reading, we could flesh out…

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…

Jonathan Morgan, the manager at the centre of the Football Association’s Maddy Cusack inquiry, was appointed by Sheffield United despite the club being warned by a senior executive that he “doesn’t have a great reputation” within women’s football.

New evidence shows the club’s head of football administration, Carl Shieber, was made aware of unspecified concerns during the recruitment process that led to Morgan being offered the job in February last year.

The Athletic has also established that Morgan was the subject of two previous complaints at Leicester City, one of his former clubs, relating to his alleged behaviour towards certain players. He denied any misconduct and no findings were made against him.

Morgan is being investigated by the FA after a complaint from Cusack’s parents, David and Deborah, about his alleged behaviour towards their daughter, United’s longest-serving player, before she took her own life, aged 27, last September.

Morgan has always denied any wrongdoing and was cleared in December by an external inquiry, commissioned by the club, of any bullying or inappropriate behaviour.

The club say they are satisfied with their recruitment process even…

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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Main story

On Friday morning, Sheffield United announced they had sacked coach Jonathan Morgan based on “new information (that) came to light about his conduct”. The Athletic revealed that the reason for Morgan’s dismissal was a previous relationship with a teenage player during his time managing Leicester City.

The decision came just weeks after Morgan was cleared of any wrongdoing by an external inquiry — carried out at the request of Sheffield United player Maddy Cusack’s parents following her death at the end of September.

GO DEEPER

How Morgan’s ‘immoral’ relationship with his teenage player led to his sacking

Morgan’s sacking has distinct parallels with the situation of former England manager Mark Sampson, who was dismissed by the Football Association (FA) in 2017. Sampson was also the subject of an inquiry after he was accused by former England forward Eniola Aluko of displaying racist behaviour. He was cleared, but the FA eventually sacked Sampson based on reports of a relationship with a player when he was manager of Bristol Academy (now Bristol City) three years earlier.

In both cases, the alternative…

For almost three years, Jonathan Morgan hid a secret from the rest of his football team and almost everybody else in his life.

Today, though, it can be revealed why the manager at the centre of the Football Association’s Maddy Cusack inquiry was sacked on Friday by Sheffield United’s women’s team — and why the announcement was quickly followed by his management agency terminating its contract to represent him.

His club took the decision after The Athletic presented a portfolio of evidence that Morgan, when manager of Leicester City’s women’s side, had embarked on a secret relationship lasting nearly three years with a teenage player from his own team.

The player in question, who spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity for her family, says she was 17 when the relationship started and that Morgan, then in his late twenties, took advantage of her immaturity.

Her mother also believes she was 17 at the time and has described Morgan’s behaviour as “inappropriate and immoral”.

“He wouldn’t have wanted to keep the relationship a secret unless he knew he was doing something wrong,” she says. “It was her age, more than anything. He was supposed to be in a position of trust.”

Morgan, now 35, insists they are wrong about the girl’s age and says she was 18….