Business

ANKARA - Broadcaster beIN SPORTS has taken legal action to stop Fenerbahçe players wearing doctored versions of the company logo as part of the Turkish soccer club's protests against what it says is beIN's biased coverage of its matches.

Two beIN sources said the company launched the legal action on Wednesday at a Turkish intellectual property court to stop the club using the protest logo "beFAIR”. One of the sources said further legal action was being prepared.

TikTok will be the global sponsor for the rescheduled Euro 2020 soccer tournament set to begin in June this year, the sport's European governing body UEFA announced on Thursday.

The popular Chinese short video app, the first digital entertainment platform to sponsor a major international tournament for UEFA, also has broadcast sponsorship rights as part of the deal.

Just when you thought Barcelona had turned the corner with four straight league wins and a place in the quarterfinals of the Copa del Rey, here comes that nasty debt of $1.42 billion and the ugly realization that the greatest footballer of all-time is headed out the back door again! (Along with another Luis Suárez brace for Atlético.) 

Japan's three-times Grand Slam tennis champion Naomi Osaka has invested in National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team North Carolina Courage to become a team owner, the U.S. top-flight club said on Thursday.

"The women who have invested in me growing up made me who I am today, I don't know where I would be without them," Osaka, the world number three, wrote on Twitter. "Throughout my career I've always received so much love from my fellow female athletes so that's why I am proud to share that I am now an owner of the NC Courage."

If you’re FC Barcelona, do you want the good news first, or bad news? The good news is that, according to Deloitte’s annual report for the world's richest soccer teams 2021, Barcelona was the highest-earning club in 2020! The bad news is that total revenue was decreased by nearly $153 million, a precipitous fall of 15 percent from 2019’s earnings. Oh, and you’re also $1.46 billion in debt.

World soccer's governing body FIFA says players who feature in any breakaway European Super League would be banned from playing in FIFA competitions, including the World Cup.

In a joint statement with European governing body UEFA and the other five continental confederations on Thursday, FIFA said they would not recognize any such breakaway.

Bayern Munich CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has said UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin is weighing up whether to stage the European Championship in one country this year rather than across the continent as planned due to COVID-19 concerns.

However, UEFA responded by saying it was continuing to work on existing plans for 12 countries to host the tournament. The 24-nation event, a major revenue generator for European football's governing body and the national federations, was postponed by 12 months due to the pandemic.

Montreal's MLS club bid adieu to the Impact nickname Thursday and rebranded as Club de Foot Montreal, or CF Montreal for short.

The club made the announcement and unveiled a new logo during a virtual press conference.

One of the most fascinating storylines in Europe right now is the direction of Paris Saint-Germain under new manager Mauricio Pochettino. If it all goes well, PSG could be looking at a Champions League title and a potential Kylian Mbappé contract extension. If Pochettino and his charges don’t see eye-to-eye, that will only expedite Mbappé’s long-rumored move to Real Madrid (“Project Mbappé”), Liverpool or Manchester City.