UEFA: Europe’s turn to host World Cup in 2030

UEFA says Europe deserves to host the World Cup in 2030, presenting a challenge to Chinese aspirations.

The 2018 tournament is being staged in Russia, but Qatar has the 2022 edition and North America is likely to be awarded the 2026 hosting rights.

UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin says “it is Europe’s turn in 2030 so we will fight for a European host.”

Argentina and Uruguay are also pursuing the centenary tournament in 2030. Uruguay hosted the first tournament.

China is eager to mount a bid for the 2030 World Cup despite current rules effectively blocking another Asian bid before the 2034 edition.

Smartphone and software maker Vivo on Wednesday became the third World Cup sponsor to sign up from China in the last two years.

Chelsea money

Chelsea collected 150.8 million pounds ($195 million) in broadcast revenue and prize money for winning the English Premier League.

That’s almost twothirds more than Leicester banked for winning the previous year’s title, with Chelsea profiting from new television deals.

Sunderland was relegated earlier this month as the last-place team but still earned 93.5 million pounds.

The league’s commercial and international broadcast revenue is split equally, giving each club 39 million pounds each.

Half of the domestic TV revenue is split equally between the 20 clubs, amounting to 35.3 million pounds. A quarter of it is distributed depending on a team’s finishing place and the remaining quarter based on the domestic TV appearances. That explains why Manchester City and Liverpool earned more cash than Tottenham despite finishing directly below the runners-up.

Munich future

Bundesliga team 1860 Munich said its financial backer has made demands that cannot be fulfilled, creating an impasse that threatens the club’s future with a key deadline approaching.

1860, which was relegated from Germany’s second division on Tuesday, faces insolvency and demotion to the fourth or fifth tier unless it can make a payment to the German soccer federation for its third-division license by Friday afternoon.