In this issue

Manchester City guilty on 114 of 115 — and the appeal India’s first individual recurve gold Two squash finals, two defeats Private equity takes Chelsea outright Two India XIs in one day Serie A sells a slice to private equity Editor’s Desk: twenty-one golds, twenty sports

The LeadFootball · Governance · 8 min read

£830 Million, Hidden in Plain Sight

An independent commission has found Manchester City guilty on 114 of 115 charges. The club has appealed and says the verdict is unsafe. No sanction has been set. Four of the clubs who finished behind City have already reserved the right to send a bill.

The Etihad Stadium — THE ETIHAD STADIUM · UNSPLASH — COMMERCIAL USE AND MODIFICATION PERMITTED, NO ATTRIBUTION REQUIRED

114/115CHARGES UPHELD

£900m+MISSTATED ACROSS NINE SEASONS

9SEASONS, 2009–10 TO 2017–18

0SANCTION HEARINGS SCHEDULED

In the 2017–18 season, Manchester City's accounts showed £145.73 million of sponsorship income. The companies named as those sponsors paid £11 million. That one gap, repeated across nine seasons, is the whole case. Everything else is arithmetic and lawyers.

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The verticalsFour stories, two from India and two from the global game

NEERU DHANDA, TRAP · SOURCED FROM INDIAN EXPRESS

PRECISION SPORTS

Equalled Is Not Broken

India's women's compound archery trio beat China 238–234 to defend their title. Several outlets called it a world record. It was not. The score of 238 equalled a mark South Korea set at Incheon in 2014. Equalling a record and setting one are different achievements.

What was genuinely new came on the final day. Kumkum Mohod won the women's individual recurve in a one-arrow shoot-off. Her last arrow was a ten against Korea's eight. That is India's first Asian Games individual recurve gold in any gender. In shooting, Neeru Dhanda became the first Indian woman to win Asian Games trap gold. On Monday, when India had five golds in total, all five came from these two sports.

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ABHAY SINGH, JOSHNA CHINAPPA, VELAVAN SENTHILKUMAR, ANAHAT SINGH · SOURCED FROM DECCAN CHRONICLE

RACQUET SPORTS

Two Finals. Two Defeats.

India had never put two squash players into Asian Games singles finals on the same day. Anahat Singh, eighteen and the reigning world junior champion, and Abhay Singh both got there. Both lost. Both took silver.

Squash added three bronzes: the women's team, the men's team, and Joshna Chinappa with Velavan Senthilkumar in the mixed doubles. Badminton's men's team took bronze. In table tennis, Manush Shah and Diya Chitale beat the world's fourth-ranked pair to reach the mixed doubles semi-final and took bronze. Tennis won mixed doubles gold in 2023 and took nothing here. Across the four racquet sports: seven medals, no gold, against four golds in Hangzhou.

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STAMFORD BRIDGE · UNSPLASH — COMMERCIAL USE AND MODIFICATION PERMITTED, NO ATTRIBUTION REQUIRED

FOOTBALL MONEY

A Private Equity Firm Now Owns Chelsea Outright

In the middle of September, Clearlake Capital bought out the Chelsea stakes held by Todd Boehly and Mark Walter. That is 12.8% each, around a quarter of the club between them. Clearlake already held 61.5%. It now has sole control. The Financial Times reported the price at £950 million. No party has confirmed it, so we are not hardening that figure.

Why it matters here. Indian franchise sport is almost entirely promoter-owned. The consortium is the structure most often reached for when one promoter cannot fund a league alone. Chelsea shows what the consortium does not solve. It spreads the cheque without settling who decides.

Full story in Issue 02

THE TWO INDIA SQUADS, 3 OCTOBER · SOURCED FROM SPORTSKEEDA

CRICKET · STRUCTURE

Two India XIs. Two full internationals. One Saturday.

At ten on Saturday morning in Nisshin, Shreyas Iyer's India beat Pakistan by 19 runs to take the Asian Games gold. India made 211 for 6, Abhishek Sharma hitting 61 off 28. Forty minutes after it finished, three thousand kilometres away at New Chandigarh, Shubman Gill's India began the third ODI against the West Indies.

Thirty men, fifteen in each squad, two coaches, and not one name on both lists. Both matches were full internationals with official caps. So far as we can establish, this is the first time India has played two men's full internationals on the same day. Wisden published that morning calling it the second, counting the 1998 Commonwealth Games. We disagree, and the full piece shows why.

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Short whistlesFour things from the world of sport — every headline links to its source

SERIE A ↗

Ten institutional investors have bid for 10–20% of a new company holding Serie A's international media rights, overseas sponsorship and betting business. Bain, Oaktree, Carlyle, Blackstone and General Atlantic are among them. The valuation is €3–4bn on about €250m of revenue. Domestic TV is deliberately excluded. The deal needs 14 of the 20 clubs, and the vote is expected by November. Oaktree owns Inter Milan and is also one of the bidders.

BIG BASH ↗

Cricket Australia will sell the Melbourne Renegades outright, targeting IPL and Hundred owners as buyers. Hobart, Perth and the Melbourne Stars are also interested. The players say it cannot happen. The Australian Cricketers' Association wants sale proceeds counted as cricket revenue, and its share raised from 27.5% to 33%. Chief executive Paul Marsh has put it bluntly: "Australian cricket cannot proceed with the sale of any teams without the ACA's agreement." Cricket Australia's Todd Greenberg concedes the two sides are "a fair way apart."

KYLIAN MBAPPÉ ↗

Mbappé has left Nike after twenty years for On, the Swiss brand. On does not yet make a football boot. It launches its first in 2027. Terms are undisclosed, but The Athletic reports the deal includes equity in the company — the model On used with Roger Federer. Thierry Henry has joined as director of football. Nike has said nothing, and is still releasing Mbappé player-edition boots.

MLB ↗

Major League Baseball has raised the share of a club a single private equity fund may own from 15% to 20%, aligning with the NBA. Eighteen of thirty clubs already had private equity money in their ownership groups before the change.

India's contingent at the Aichi-Nagoya opening ceremony

From the Editor’s Desk

On Monday they wrote the obituary. India finished with twenty-one golds.

"Five days ago India had five golds and a national conversation about decline. The campaign closed tonight on twenty-one, in twenty sports, with both hockey teams on the top step. It is still a smaller Games than Hangzhou. Both of those things are true, and only one of them got reported …"

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India’s contingent at the Aichi-Nagoya opening ceremony · Sourced from The Hindu

THE LONG WHISTLE

£830 Million, Hidden in Plain Sight

Equalled Is Not Broken

Two Finals. Two Defeats.

A Private Equity Firm Now Owns Chelsea Outright

Two India XIs. Two full internationals. One Saturday.

On Monday they wrote the obituary. India finished with twenty-one golds.

Issue 02 lands next Friday.