Secretive Sky won’t reveal Joshua ratings
The UK pay-per-view figures for tonight’s world heavyweight title boxing showdown between Anthony Joshua and Wladimir Klitschko will remain a closely guarded secret.
Sky Sports never reveal their PPV numbers and it is rarely in the interests of promoters to have their boxers or rivals knowing details which might affect future negotiations. TV networks would also come under pressure to reveal poor PPV figures if they trumpeted the good ones.
however, Joshua-Klitschko has captured the imagination of the wider public, helped by the lack of trash talk between the fighters, to the extent there could be a record PPV take-up, eclipsing the estimated 1.2m buys for the Ricky hatton-Floyd Mayweather fight in 2007.
Joshua’s promoter eddie hearn has mentioned 1.5m sales is a possibility, while PPV experts are forecasting more than 1m.
BOURNEMOUTH chairman Jeff Mostyn looks to have done well out of the side staying in the Premier League. The South Coast club’s accounts for 2016 show their highest paid director received £1.074m last year, compared to £517,000 in 2015.
IT CAUSED a stir that england football manager Gareth Southgate attended the rugby league clash between Leeds and huddersfield rather than the Manchester derby, but the FA have explained Southgate had an invitation from Rhinos coach Brian Mcdermott to go behind the scenes at headingley. Also, FA analysts can give Southgate footage of every england player on duty in the derby at the click of a button.
Southgate (above) is extending his experience away from football on the UK Sport elite programme, which develops all-round leadership in high-performance sport. he is one of 11 selected — as is Melanie Marshall, the coach of Olympic swimming champion Adam Peaty — in the third intake, who complete the course in 2019.
FIFA’S corruption scandal took a significant turn yesterday when Richard Lai, American citizen and president of the Guam FA who sits on the audit and compliance committee, pleaded guilty in New York to taking around £770,000 in bribes. The 55-year-old admitted some of the money came from a member of the Kuwait FA to advance his interests and to identify other officials who could be bought. Lai’s indictment effectively identified Olympic president Thomas Bach’s close ally, Kuwait’s Sheik Ahmad Al-Sabah, as the co-conspirator.