Since the announcement on Sunday, that 12 of Europe’s biggest clubs would be coming together to form a new competition called the European Super League (ESL), we have seen an outpouring of anger, criticism, and opposition from the likes of FIFA, UEFA, the Premier League, the Prime Minister of the UK, mainstream media, supporters, and current and former players across the board.
News of the proposed ESL competition has led to widespread condemnation and dominated the headlines across mainstream and social media, with everyone seemingly in agreement that this would spell the end of football as we know it and…
As we are seeing an increased usage of data and analytics to drive decision making and talent identification across a number of sports, there are increasing questions regarding not only data privacy for athletes but also how the use of predictive data models, can be used to exploit athletes.
Sports such as football (soccer) are facing an impending battle regarding the data captured from players during training and matches. While according to some reports, analytics companies are tracking over 5,000 data points per game in the Premier League, to build the most comprehensive and predictive model.
In the current climate, where issues concerning Race, Diversity, and Equality are at the forefront of many conversations, many companies are beginning to look at their Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) policies to see how they reflect the culture and values they want to promote. Companies such as EY have been vocal with their pledge to increase the number of BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic) and female employees within it’s UK & Ireland partnership, by 20% and 40% respectively.
The company I work for are having similar conversations concerning how to address D&I, and recently launched a survey to collect employee…
After binge-watching my way through Netflix, these last five months, I decided to rewatch the film, Queen & Slim, starring British actors, Daniel Kuluuya (Slim) and Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen). Although I had watched this filmed at the cinema when it was first released, lockdown had made this feel like an eternity ago. During a scene where both characters are sitting in a car eating, Slim inquires if Queen is a good lawyer, to which she responds by saying she was excellent. Slim follows this up by asking “Why do Black people always feel the need to be excellent? …
DeSean Jackson is an American football player for the Philadelphia Eagles within the NFL. He has been in the news recently for posting several Anti-Semitic posts on his Instagram stories account. What has made this story so interesting from my perspective, is his response (and the response of another high-profile individual) has shown a complete lack of understanding and awareness towards what Anti-Semitism is and how easy it is to get taken in by fake news.
Basketball fan or not, it has been hard to miss all the comments recently about the ESPN and Netflix docuseries, “The Last Dance” which focuses on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls 1997–1998 NBA season from start to finish. This would ultimately be the last of Jordan’s career with the Bulls and lead to the dismantling of the team.
So, for all those who like myself have just finished watching the final two episodes that aired on Sunday night (Monday on Netflix UK), I have compiled a list of some of my key takeaways from the series. …
Jamal Blades
Jamal is a sports and cultural commentator with a passion for writing about stories that sit within the intersection of Sports, Business, Race and Technology
