Alan Shearer jokingly offers to fly Harry Kane to Germany himself
Harry Kane’s move to Bayern Munich has got the entire football world talking – including Premier League legend Alan Shearer. After Tottenham Hotspur and Bayern agreed terms on an £86.4m transfer to the German champions, Kane was set to fly out to Munich to undergo a medical and sign a four-year deal where he is set to earn £480,000-a-week. But Friday morning brought a fresh twist in the saga, after it emerged that Spurs had revoked Kane’s permission to fly out to Germany. Sky Sports reported that Kane was on his way to Stansted Airport when he heard the news, and had to turn back to his home until his current employers give him the green light Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The news outlet said Spurs want to make changes to the deal at the last minute, with chairman Daniel Levy currently in the United States. However, Shearer seems particularly keen for the transfer to go ahead. The Newcastle United legend-turned-broadcaster’s Premier League scoring record of 260 goals is firmly in Kane’s sights, and if the England captain stays too much longer he could end up breaking it. Shearer jokingly tweeted a photoshopped image of him dressed as a pilot, captioned: “Come on Harry it’s time to go!” Kane is 47 goals away from matching Shearer’s record, and has openly spoken about his desire to break it. Shearer, too, has predicted that if Kane remains in the Premier League he could break the record. But Kane, who only has 12 months left on his Spurs contract, also seems keen on moving to Germany and finally get the chance to compete for silverware. Spurs stress that Kane is on course to fly over to Munich, despite suggestions the deal could be in limbo. The 30-year-old is set to take the Bayern Munich No.9 shirt, and speculation is mounting that he could even make his debut against RB Leipzig on Saturday should the deal go through in time. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-08-11 19:20
FIFA under fire for all male commentary team at Women’s World Cup
The Women’s World Cup has barely had time to get going, and already organisers at FIFA have managed to drop the ball when it comes to, well, women. FIFA announced its English language commentary team on 18 July, two days before the tournament kicked off, and out of nine commentators it contains exactly zero women. The list of commentators is as follows: Simon Hill, Robbie Thomson, Simon Brotherton, Kevin Keatings, Mark Scott, John Roder, Paul Walker, Chris Wise, Steve Wilson. Not exactly a beacon of gender diversity, eh? Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Unsurprisingly, the announcement left fans fuming, while others could scarcely believe that FIFA had managed to mess up on such an obvious opportunity to spotlight women commentators who often struggle to get a look-in on men’s broadcasts. Sports journalist Manasi Pathak wrote on Twitter: “So you’re telling me FIFA could not hire a single female commentator for what’s expected to be the biggest women’s sporting event?” Sally Freedman, another sports writer, said: “Seriously… are we in 2023 or 1950? It’s the *women’s* World Cup, yet here is our allsinging, all dancing all male commentary team!” Despite the backlash, FIFA also managed to annoy people with its response, which was to appoint a smaller team of women as “co-commentators” the next day. They are Amy Chapman, Melissa Barbieri, Izzy Christiansen, Laura Bassett and Rehanne Skinner. One person suggested FIFA was still discriminating against women. They said: “‘Co-commentators’ aka women, know your place behind the men, okay?” It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time FIFA has faced criticism for somehow managing to discriminate against women even at the Women’s World Cup. It still offers a significantly smaller prize pool for the tournament versus the men’s edition, with prize money standing at only $150m. Men’s World Cup prize money was $440m last year. England’s Lionesses will kick off their campaign against Haiti on Saturday. Also in their group is Denmark and China. Hopefully we’ll get to hear some women’s voices on commentary by then. Is that really too much to ask? Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-07-21 16:52