ENGLAND STARS SEEK END TO FA RIGHTS SAGA

ENGLAND players’ agents want to meet Football Association chiefs ahead of this month’s internationals to finalise the longrunning saga over the squad’s commercial rights deal. Discussions over how to split the earnings from sponsors linked to the national team have been ongoing since before the World Cup but an agreement has yet to be reached. The FA decided last year that their deal with the England team’s management company, 1966 Entertainment, would not be renewed following Russia 2018 and operations would be taken in-house. Negotiations between the FA and agents are said to still be amicable, but time is dragging on. The value of the FA’s deal with kit suppliers Nike — and the bonuses linked to that agreement — are understood to be the key sticking point.