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    Roberto Firmino's Goal Vaults Liverpool Over Tottenham in Premier League

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn SoccerLiverpool Pulls in Front, but Premier League Race Has Far to GoA lineup altered by injury, and supplemented by youth, summons the energy to beat Tottenham at Anfield.Roberto Firmino’s header in the 90th minute gave Liverpool a 2-1 victory over Tottenham at Anfield.Credit…Pool photo by Peter PowellDec. 16, 2020Updated 7:44 p.m. ETLIVERPOOL, England — José Mourinho left one name off his list. The Tottenham manager had been busy using his final news conference before his team’s trip to Liverpool to indulge his taste — and his talent — for sophistry, trying to prove Jürgen Klopp’s squad was not quite as threadbare as has been advertised by reeling off names of all the players that would be available.It is an act that has been polished to precision, but even Mourinho seemed to sense he was pushing his luck just a little. He got through the defense OK, and no manager blanks on Liverpool’s front line, but the midfield was more of a problem.He could not think who might join Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson in Liverpool’s midfield. Nothing sparked — in the end, he could name only 10 players, which definitely proved a point, but not the one he was making — and so he moved on, not letting facts get in the way of a good argument.Next time, he may not make the same mistake. Mohamed Salah might have given Liverpool the lead against Tottenham on Wednesday. Roberto Firmino might have scored the goal that deprived Spurs of a merited point and sent the reigning champion to a 2-1 victory, and to the top of the Premier League table. Henderson might have provided the moment that will boil Mourinho’s blood, his subtle nudge on Eric Dier clearing a path for Firmino to strike.But much of Liverpool’s play ran through the midfielder Mourinho forgot. Curtis Jones signaled his promise, just short of a year ago, with considerable noise: a spectacular, curling shot to give a youthful Liverpool team a derby victory against Everton in an F.A. Cup tie at Anfield. The game — broadcast live on the BBC — attracted an audience of 7.2 million people, two or three times what most Premier League games command.Jones’s rise since then, though, has been curiously quiet, particularly for a locally-reared talent at one of England’s grandest clubs. He started just one Premier League game after soccer’s restart in June; he made just a couple of substitute appearances — offering flashes of his ability, no more — in the opening weeks of this season.More and more players have fallen by the wayside, though, as Klopp’s squad has been stripped by injury — eight senior players were missing against Spurs, with two more available only as substitutes — and Jones has had to step up. He has started four of Liverpool’s last five league games, and four of its six Champions League appointments so far.And yet he has become an established presence in Liverpool’s side almost unnoticed. That is, perhaps, because having one of the Premier League’s academies produce a gifted young player is not quite so rare as it once was. England — all of a sudden — has a glut of talent in its late teens and early twenties, capturing the imagination at even the most demanding clubs.Curtis Jones, 19, held his own against Lucas Moura and everyone else he tangled with in Tottenham’s midfield.Credit…Pool photo by Clive BrunskillManchester City has Phil Foden, Manchester United has Mason Greenwood, Chelsea has Mason Mount. The days when it was rare for a young English player to make the grade, for him to be given a chance in the Premier League, are long gone. It is no longer possible to celebrate each one individually, as it would have been even five years ago. There just is not the time.Jones’s progress, too, is testament to the circumstances in which he has been given his chance. Liverpool’s early season has been defined by injuries: not just the season-ending damage sustained by Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez, but the seemingly endless run of needling, niggling problems that have made Klopp such an ardent advocate for teams to be able to call on more substitutes. A hamstring here, a knee problem there, three weeks out, four weeks out, another game with Liverpool’s resources depleted.It creates a phenomenon in which watching Liverpool is to note that which is absent more than what is present: How will Klopp’s team cope without Van Dijk? Does it have the same aura without any of its senior, specialist central defenders? Is it running out of energy? Has it lost its spark? It has been so powerful that it has been possible not to notice Liverpool’s presence close to, or now at, the summit of the Premier League.But most of all, Jones’s transition into Liverpool’s team has been so smooth because of him. His teammates joke about his self-assurance, his lack of doubt, his iron self-belief. Klopp has found that he is not backward in coming forward, in asserting that he should, perhaps, be in the team ahead of some of the celebrated stars who have conquered both England and Europe with this team.All of that manifests in his play. Jones demands the ball constantly, drifting into space, directing his teammates, dictating the game. He is not cowed by the standards he must meet. His colleagues have responded with the most significant judgment of all: their trust. It is possible not to notice Jones because he looks like he belongs.None of that, though, should diminish what an achievement it is both for him — winning a place in one of Europe’s best teams at age 19 is, after all, no mean feat — and for Liverpool.By the time Firmino scored his goal, the winning goal, Klopp’s players had been running on fumes for some time. The high-tempo, high-intensity style he demands is being pushed to its limits by the relentlessness of this season. Sadio Mané seemed diminished. Salah had drifted out onto the right flank, hoping something might happen, rather than believing that it would.Steven Bergwijn missed two golden chances to put Tottenham ahead in the second half.Credit…Pool photo by Peter PowellHarry Kane drove an open header into the ground. The bounce carried it over the goal.Credit…Pool photo by Peter PowellBut when Firmino rose above Toby Alderweireld and planted his header past Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, he seemed to get a burst of adrenaline. He turned and sprinted along the field, across the halfway line, back toward the Kop, where the 2,000 fans permitted entry were punching the air in delight.He — and they — knew this was a significant step on what remains a long and arduous road. The Premier League table is packed tight. Liverpool is only eight points ahead of Wolves, and Wolves are 10th. Spurs and Chelsea and Leicester, as well as both Manchester clubs, lie menacing.Under the circumstances — given Liverpool’s injury list, whether Mourinho regards it as valid or not — the fact that Klopp has his team ahead of them all, even if only for now, is to his immense credit. But it is to the credit, too, of the players who have stepped into the breach, Jones prime among them. Mourinho, you suspect, will not be the last to learn his name.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    N.F.L. Union Delays Cuts in Disability Payments to Ex-Players

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyDisabled Former N.F.L. Players Get a Reprieve on Benefit CutsA reduction of disability payments, scheduled to start next month, has been delayed for three years, the players union announced.Cleveland Browns center J.C. Tretter is the president of the N.F.L. Players Association. He had promised a re-examination of the plan to cut benefits.Credit…David Richard/Associated PressPublished More

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    Can Any A.F.C. Team Catch the Chiefs?

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storytrend watchCan Any A.F.C. Team Catch the Chiefs?Sure, Kansas City (12-1) is flawed, but its closest challengers have a long way to go to usurp a Super Bowl berth.Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes, left, and receiver Tyreek Hill, with football, usually connect for a few 40-yard touchdowns to compensate for any Chiefs miscues.Credit…Jamie Squire/Getty ImagesDec. 16, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ETThe only real danger to the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs will be the Chiefs themselves.The defending N.F.L. champions have grown bored of terrestrial football lately. The Chiefs (who have already clinched the A.F.C. West) now strive to turn their games into inscrutable performance art installations, allowing inferior opponents to stay close while they execute play concepts that appear to have been found scribbled in the margins of Hunter S. Thompson manuscripts.Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill usually connect for a few 40-yard touchdowns to compensate for their penalties, turnovers and self-indulgent noodling, but the Chiefs’ weekly attempts to commune with the cosmos could eventually result in a playoff upset that allows one of the following pretty good — but far from flawless — challengers to represent the A.F.C. in the Super Bowl.Pittsburgh Steelers (11-2)The Steelers rose to 11-0 by pummeling opponents’ backup quarterbacks while hoping that no one noticed that their offense is built entirely out of screen passes. The Washington Football Team and Buffalo Bills figured out in recent victories over the Steelers that Ben Roethlisberger now throws the football like he’s trying to float a Ping-Pong ball into a red plastic cup. The Steelers’ defense remains dominant, when not dealing with health issues, and the team can find reassurance in the fact that Jimmy Garoppolo and the San Francisco 49ers nearly beat the Chiefs in the Super Bowl last season with the same set of strengths and weaknesses.Buffalo Bills (10-3)Decades in the shadow of the New England Patriots left the Bills with a deep-seated inferiority complex, and they lost important midseason games to the Chiefs and Tennessee Titans after a 4-0 start by playing as if they simply felt unworthy of being counted among the A.F.C. front-runners.The Bills appear to have outgrown their self-doubt in recent victories over the Seattle Seahawks and Steelers, but behavioral conditioning can be hard to break. If quarterback Josh Allen transforms back into an interception-happy Winter Soldier when the Bills visit the Patriots in Week 16, it may mean that the Bills have been irrevocably compromised.Tennessee Titans (9-4)Running back Derrick Henry is an indomitable December force, like a Nor’easter, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” or a holiday shopper stiff-arming store greeters and grandparents en route to an (empty) PlayStation 5 display. Henry rushed for 215 yards and two touchdowns in the Titans’ victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars last week, and he appears determined to stuff the Titans’ traditional smash mouth values down everyone’s throats for the holidays just like he did last year.The Titans’ defense is not nearly as rugged and playoff-ready as their old-fashioned reputation might suggest, but bludgeoning skeptics into quiet acquiescence is also a December tradition, as is post-holiday disappointment.Titans running back Derrick Henry is an indomitable December force, like a Nor’easter or Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Credit…Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesCleveland Browns (9-4)With their balanced offense and dangerous pass rush, the Browns are almost ready to compete for the Super Bowl. But the universe itself is not quite ready for the Browns to compete for the Super Bowl; Lamar Jackson’s recovery from mid-game cramps and fourth-quarter comeback to defeat the Browns in Monday night’s 47-42 thriller may have been reality’s way of repairing a dangerous rift in its own fabric.The Browns are enjoying their first winning season since 2007. Allowing them to enjoy anything more would simply be too much pleasure for anyone to experience in 2020.Indianapolis Colts (9-4)The Colts are kit-bashed together from leftover pieces of the 2010s San Diego/Los Angeles Chargers (Philip Rivers), 2017 Minnesota Vikings (cornerback Xavier Rhodes) and last year’s 49ers (defensive tackle DeForest Buckner), all hot-glued onto the frame of the Andrew Luck-era team. As a result, they look pretty good until you examine closely and realize that they were cobbled together almost purposely so they could lose a playoff game.Miami Dolphins (8-5)The Dolphins are better at making opponents look foolish than at making themselves look like legitimate contenders. They combined takeaways (they’re tied with the Steelers for the N.F.L. lead with 25) with excellent special teams and an ultraconservative offense to upset the Los Angeles Rams, throw a scare into the Chiefs last week and win lots of low-scoring games against the Jets and other bottom-feeders.Like the Bills, the Dolphins may be programmed by decades of hopelessness to self-destruct if they come too close to success. Head coach Brian Flores already benched rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in one loss in what looked like a panicky move, and Flores might be tempted to turn again to Ryan Fitzpatrick when he needs a comeback, not realizing that the real “FitzMagic” is the outsized reputation the journeyman backup has nurtured by almost winning meaningful games.Baltimore Ravens (8-5)With their midseason swoon behind them but with obvious lingering shortcomings on both sides of the ball, the Ravens are barreling toward yet another off-season of “why can’t Lamar Jackson win playoff games?” conversations. Come late January, that may be the only thing fathers-in-law on Facebook have to talk about.Las Vegas Raiders (7-6)The Raiders handed the Chiefs their only loss of the season in November. But asking them to be on the field during the playoffs is a stretch.Credit…David Becker/Associated PressThe Raiders remain mathematically alive but have lost three of their last four games, and they fired defensive coordinator Paul Guenther on Sunday after surrendering 44 points in a loss to the Colts and (more troublingly) 28 points in a near-loss to the Jets.The Raiders upset the Chiefs in Week 5 and lost by just four points in the Week 11 rematch, so they cannot be discounted as a threat if they reach the playoffs. But again: The trick to winning the A.F.C. is to be on the field when the Chiefs decide to beat themselves. The Raiders are the least likely of the A.F.C. playoff hopefuls to position themselves to make that happen.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Decoding José Mourinho's Instagram

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn SoccerWhat Is José Mourinho Telling Us on Instagram?The Tottenham coach’s account is a surprisingly unfiltered window into his personality. It’s revealing a side of him he hasn’t always wanted people to see.CreditDec. 15, 2020Updated 1:18 p.m. ETLONDON — The content itself does not, when you type the words, sound especially fascinating. A 15-second video of a man buffing his shoes. A photograph of that moment he checked his phone in the snow, or that time he sat on a bus, or the day he ate some popcorn.In truth, the execution is not especially polished, either. Often, the angle is a little off. The framing is rarely perfect. Little thought has gone into the lighting. In more than a few shots, an eagle-eyed critic might point out that the subject is not actually in focus.None of those minor flaws, though, have stopped what may be the most unlikely transformation of the year: José Mourinho’s blossoming into a bona fide Instagram sensation.It is no surprise, of course, that in the 10 months since Mourinho, the Tottenham Hotspur manager, restarted his account — and particularly in the six since he seemed to remember that he had it — he has managed to pick up 1.5 million followers. He has, after all, been one of the most famous and most fascinating figures in soccer for almost two decades.But that is not what makes his account stand out. On the surface, Mourinho should not be especially well suited to Instagram. At 57, he is not exactly a digital native. He has never shown a particular interest in social media; indeed, as Paul Pogba discovered when Mourinho coached him at Manchester United, he is more likely to have thought of it as a nuisance, if he thought of it at all.Nor has Mourinho ever given the impression that he wants to offer fans a window into his life, professional or personal. He has admitted that his previous dalliance with Instagram, while he was at United, was entirely designed to placate his sponsors. He stayed on it, casually and reluctantly, for two years before deleting his account in May 2018. Friends said he had grown “bored” with it.In his first year at Spurs, too, he grew to resent the ubiquity of the film crews making the Spurs edition of “All or Nothing,” the Amazon Prime documentary series. “Only when I go to the toilet are they not coming with me,” he once said. He was happy when the cameramen and producers left, he said, because it meant that “things can stay inside, between us, the way I like it.”But for all that, it turns out that Mourinho is something of a natural at Instagram. His early contributions were limited: a half-dozen posts in the first four months since he reactivated his account, all but one of them for the benefit of one or another of his sponsors.Since June, though, he has used it more and more frequently, and to better and better effect. Of his 65 posts through Monday, only 12 appeared to be fulfilling some sort of commercial demand. Eight others are likely to be images taken from professional photographers and repurposed for his account. There are five dedicated to causes close to his heart, particularly the United Nations World Food Program.All the rest — 14 videos, 26 still images — are personal, if not taken by Mourinho then taken at his behest. He will, regularly, hand his phone to whichever member of the Spurs coaching team or club staff is closest at hand and ask that they take a picture for his feed.Though he has conceded that his sponsors asked him to rejoin the site — “They felt that when I closed my account a few years ago we had a few million followers and they weren’t happy” — he has not farmed the work out to an agency. He is also not doing it at the behest of the club.He has come to view it, he said, as a chance to “open our world to the world.” According to one consultant who has previously worked with Mourinho, it was a realization that dawned on him after the Amazon documentary aired: The quotidian reality of his existence was at least as interesting to people as his behavior on the touchline or his tactical decisions.Mourinho is a devoted Formula 1 fan — one early video shows him gathered with his coaching staff, watching a Grand Prix race; they do not look nearly as engaged as he does — and would “love to know how a big team, the drivers, the boss, works,” he said. “People love when they see the inside. They love what they don’t see.”And so Mourinho’s account offers regular glimpses not only into his world — a tracking shot of the inside of his office as he analyzes a training session, a glimpse inside the Spurs changing room, the place regarded by most in soccer as a sort of sanctum sanctorum — but into his mind, too.There are captions praising players — “Top players are team players,” he wrote alongside a shot of striker Harry Kane — and ones criticizing his whole squad — “I hope everyone on this bus is as unhappy as me.” And, of course, Mourinho being Mourinho, there are occasional broadsides at anyone who has incurred his displeasure, including a withering assessment of the Covid-19 protocols during the last international break.He uses Instagram to celebrate and to sulk, to badger and to chide, and he does it all with a stripped back, unfiltered, resolutely honest aesthetic. Whether that is a deliberate, artistic choice or a lack of technical skill — it is entirely possible that Mourinho simply does not know his Amaro from his X-Pro — it works.“Generation Z tends to value creativity and humor,” Lucie Greene, the founder of Light Years, a consultancy that works with brands on digital strategies, said. “For millennials, it is generally an aspirational, lifestyle thing: Instagram as the new Condé Nast. But older influencers tend to be a lot more real, a lot less concerned with polish and presenting their personal brand.“Mourinho comes across as quite stoic. His posts aren’t thirsty. That can be quite strategic, to act like you’re not selling it too much. It’s quite self-deprecating: You can see a corporate P.R. freaking out at some of the posts.”Instagram has grown in popularity with an older generation in general and older men in particular, she said.“To millennials,” Greene said, “Instagram is a consumption machine, but to older users it can be more based on community — a way to connect to an audience and exchange ideas.”Mourinho, it is fair to say, is not in it for the community. He follows only 13 people, mostly the official accounts of his sponsors, as well as a couple of family members, his representative at Creative Artists and — a bit of an outlier, this one — the naturalist David Attenborough. None of the accounts are players, past or present.Instead, his account is a fairly clear example of Instagram as a sort of visual diary, Greene said: an authentic, unadulterated vision into his world. Mourinho does not just post when he is happy; he posts after defeats, too.His feed is not addled with the type of humblebrags best exemplified by a picture of a golden stretch of sand, a gleaming blue sky and the caption “today’s office.” (There is one vacation shot, of Mourinho staring at a disinterested dolphin.) The shots he chooses are not designed to embellish his life; they are there merely to reflect it.Mourinho himself still feels that social media does not come easily. “I am not, in my nature, an Instagram man,” he told Tottenham’s official club channels this season. And yet, in a way, he is.Mourinho has spent the last two decades carefully cultivating a public image of himself through meticulously staged media appearances and strategically chosen, often incendiary, public interventions. Instagram is simply a logical next step, one in which he can tweak that image — make it more rounded, more relatable — as he sees fit.And despite himself, he seems to enjoy it. “You can see that he’s definitely got into it,” Greene said.As she scrolled through his feed, she was surprised to see that friends, colleagues and relatives had liked a succession of posts that, to someone who does not like soccer, made little to no sense. Man eats popcorn and man sulks on bus have little artistic merit; they are not, in any traditional sense, aspirational. But they are undeniably, indisputably Mourinho: Champions League winner, Premier League winner, Instagram influencer.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    French Soccer Faces Financial Crisis After MediaPro Pulls Plug

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }What to WatchBest Movies on NetflixBest of Disney PlusBest of Amazon PrimeHoliday TVBest Netflix DocumentariesAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyFrench Soccer Faces Financial Crisis After Broadcaster Pulls the PlugThe sudden collapse of a billion-dollar television contract has created a serious cash crisis for French clubs as the January transfer window nears.MediaPro paid a record price to broadcast matches in France’s top soccer leagues in 2018. Last week, it walked away from the deal.Credit…Charles Platiau/ReutersDec. 15, 2020, 2:00 a.m. ETThe record-setting television deal was, in hindsight, far too good to be true.The billion euros the upstart media company had promised to pay to televise French soccer matches each year represented an increase of 60 percent on the league’s previous television deal, and much more than any other bidder had offered. It was a sum so large — about $1.2 billion a year — that it led officials from the league and the club executives on its board to ignore obvious warning signs; to brush aside the fact that the company making the offer, MediaPro, had no history in French soccer; and to close an agreement without the type of bank guarantees that might have ensured that all that money would eventually arrive.And then the deal simply vanished.Last week, arbitration talks between the Ligue de Football Professionnel (L.F.P.), the governing body for professional soccer in France, and MediaPro, a Spanish broadcaster now controlled by Chinese interests, ended with the company handing back the four years of rights under its control and less than a third of the more than 300 million euros it owes for games this season.The resolution has left league officials frantically searching for a new television partner, and teams facing a very different financial future.For the clubs, the repercussions may be immediate. Instead of being flush with enough cash to build teams to rival those in Germany and Spain, most French teams are facing restructuring measures, starting with the sale of players when Europe’s player trading window reopens in January.MediaPro’s chief executive, Jaume Roures, had bet billions that he could resell the French soccer rights his company had acquired to other partners.Credit…Franck Fife/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOne team director described the situation as “a total disaster.” The chief executive of another one said the situation — coupled with the continuing financial effects of the coronavirus pandemic — was “hugely damaging.” The president of the French champion Paris St.-Germain, Nasser al-Khelaifi, asked the league’s new leaders to conduct a full investigation into the process that ended in catastrophe for France’s teams. Al-Khelaifi is also chairman of beIN Media Group, a rival to MediaPro for rights.What may hurt most, at least from the teams’ perspective, is that it is a crisis of their own making.The trouble began in the spring. As all of Europe’s major soccer leagues plotted ways to reboot, the French league announced it would be the only one not to complete its suspended campaign.A government decree ended the season early, forcing Ligue 1 to tap a national loan program to ensure its teams did not fall into financial ruin. Only the prospect of record-breaking broadcast revenues, set to take effect with the start of the MediaPro deal this season, softened the blow.The agreement, signed in 2018, had been trumpeted as groundbreaking then, a contract worth more than a billion euros per season (about $1.2 billion) for rights to matches in France’s top two domestic divisions. That symbolic figure was one that team executives had long hoped to realize, and one so large that it led them to part ways with the league’s partner, Canal+.But the financial boost — MediaPro had agreed to pay almost 60 percent more than the previous agreement — also led teams to spend more on recruitment in the last off-season, a decision that many are now regretting.“They had anticipated the higher TV rates, and this comes as a shock for most people,” said the chief executive, who asked not to be identified because talks to stabilize the league’s finances continue. He predicted some clubs would look to foreign investors to bail them out in return for heavily discounted equity or outright sales.The French league includes world-class players like Kylian Mbappé and brands like Paris St.-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais, but many of its clubs struggle to match the spending of rivals in England, Spain and Germany.Credit…Yoan Valat/EPA, via ShutterstockSome of the comfort that led the clubs to spend freely can be traced to ebullient comments made by MediaPro’s chief executive, Jaume Roures, at the height of the pandemic’s first wave in the spring, when global sports had stopped and the French league’s main broadcast partners at the time, Canal+ and beIN Sports, announced they would suspend their rights payments.In April, Roures, in an interview with the sports daily L’Equipe, vowed to take over the broadcast rights to French games early if the season restarted in the summer and the league’s partners, Canal+ and beIN Sports, opted out. “To be a good Samaritan is to pay what you owe,” Roures said at the time.But a closer look at the deal French league officials signed with MediaPro, a company started by Roures and two partners that is now largely controlled and financed by a little-known Chinese group, suggests several red flags were ignored in pursuit of the richest offer.MediaPro would not have been allowed to enter the auction for the French rights, for example, had the league not changed the tender process to allow agencies like MediaPro, which did not have a platform in France to broadcast games, to take part.Then, after the agreement was struck, it took several months for an official contract to be signed, and when it was it did not include the type of bank guarantees that would have proved MediaPro would be able to make good on the payments it had promised.French soccer officials are scrambling to find a new television partner before the end of the year.Credit…Daniel Cole/Associated PressThere were other warning signs, too. Another huge deal signed by MediaPro, the stunning capture of rights to Italy’s Serie A, collapsed around the same time it was in talks about its French acquisition. Part of the reason was the company was unable to provide a guarantee for much of the amount it had promised the league.And four years ago, the company’s business practices came under further scrutiny when a United States affiliate, Imagina Media Audiovisual, was implicated in the FIFA bribery scandal. Earlier this year, Gerard Romy, one of MediaPro’s founders, was charged with wire fraud, money laundering and racketeering conspiracy in connection with the case.Roures had looked to blame the impact of the coronavirus when he called for the French league to renegotiate its MediaPro deal in October. But with stadiums largely off-limits to fans, viewing figures for soccer have remained robust across Europe; in some cases, ratings have soared.Didier Quillot, the L.F.P. chief executive who led the tender process, left his post in September with a payment of about $1.8 million, much of which was based on his negotiating the deal with MediaPro. Quillot in recent days has said he is prepared to repay any bonus he received that was linked to the rights sale.MediaPro’s troubles started when it failed to secure 100 percent of the rights, losing a crucial package that included the first pick of the week’s top game to beIN Sports, a Qatar-backed broadcaster. BeIN sold those rights to Canal+, reducing the need for the network, France’s biggest pay television operator, to make a deal with MediaPro for the other games.Unable to find a home for its matches, MediaPro started a subscription service for them, Téléfoot.Credit…Bertrand Guay/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThat left MediaPro holding expensive rights without the most viable outlet willing to buy them. Seeking a way out, it sought to start its own channel, Téléfoot, which had little to offer subscribers beyond the matches it had bought. Sales of subscriptions offered on other, smaller platforms failed to reach meaningful numbers, though, leaving MediaPro to burn through millions of dollars with little hope of breaking even.Faced with that crisis, MediaPro failed to make a payment of 172 million euros ($208 million) when the French league started its new season in October. It skipped another one for 152.5 million euros this month.MediaPro moved to defend itself from litigation by taking advantage of new laws passed to protect companies during the coronavirus crisis. Unable to insist on recouping what it was owed, the French league was forced into a mediation process that ended last week with MediaPro agreeing to return only 100 million euros ($121 million).“Clubs are desperately in need of cash; that’s why the league has accepted this very bad offer from MediaPro,” said Pierre Maes, a consultant and author of “Le Business des Droits TV du Foot,” a book on the soccer rights market.The league — which has so far kept its teams afloat with bank loans in lieu of the missing broadcast payments — is now scrambling to find a television partner, most likely Canal+, to come to the rescue. One thing is almost certain: The price the league will be forced to accept will not be celebrated in the manner the MediaPro deal was.“Whatever can be done to deliver cash to clubs, they’ll do it,” Maes said. He predicted that any new agreement for the rights now could bring about half of what MediaPro had promised to pay.“Canal+ is today in a position to correct the market,” he said.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Lamar Jackson Returns to Seal Ravens’ Win Over Browns

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyravens 47, browns 42Lamar Jackson Returns to Seal Ravens’ Win Over BrownsThe N.F.L.’s reigning most valuable player was treated for cramps but returned to Monday night’s game to throw a touchdown pass and set up a field-goal drive to beat surging Cleveland.Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson hugged kicker Justin Tucker after Tucker put Baltimore ahead late in the fourth quarter in a win against the Cleveland Browns.Credit…Ron Schwane/Associated PressDec. 15, 2020, 12:23 a.m. ETCLEVELAND — Lamar Jackson emerged from the locker room, saved the game and maybe Baltimore’s season.Back on the field after being sidelined by cramps, Jackson threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Marquise Brown and then set up Justin Tucker’s 55-yard field goal with two seconds left, helping the Ravens to a wild 47-42 win over the Cleveland Browns that helped them stay in the playoff picture.A Monday night game dripping with playoff intensity delivered with endless drama and stunning twists.Tucker, who made 70 straight field goals inside 40 yards before he missed last week, had plenty of distance on his kick to give the Ravens (8-5) a much-needed win.It was a gut punch for the Browns (9-4), who had rallied from a 14-point deficit to take the lead while Jackson was out.The Browns had one last chance after Tucker’s kick, but a series of laterals on the final play ended with a safety that affected gamblers all over the country. The Ravens were favored by three on the opening line.The N.F.L.’s top two rushing teams combined for nine rushing touchdowns, tying a league record set in 1922.Jackson rushed for two touchdowns while rescuing his teammates, who have overcome a Covid-19 outbreak and numerous scheduled changes so far in 2020.With the Ravens down, 42-35, Jackson returned from the locker after backup quarterback Trace McSorley suffered a leg injury when he slipped on a slick FirstEnergy Stadium field that was tough for players to cut on all night.On fourth-and-5, Jackson calmly rolled to his right and found a wide-open Brown in the middle of the field and he easily outran Cleveland’s defenders for the touchdown score.But Cleveland quarterback Baker Mayfield wasn’t going to be denied. He drove the Browns 75 yards, hitting running back Kareem Hunt for a 22-yard touchdown pass with 1:04 left.Jackson then showed why he’s a superstar.The reigning N.F.L. most valuable player completed two straight passes to tight end Mark Andrews for 28 yards and moved the Ravens in range for Tucker, one of the most accurate kickers in league history.Mayfield had shaken off a costly interception and brought the Browns back, scrambling from the pocket and scoring on a run with 6:33 left.Cleveland looked like a different team — like a playoff team.Jackson was playing in his second game since returning from the Covid-19 list. Before he left late in the third quarter with the Ravens leading, 34-20, he had rushed for 124 yards and two touchdowns.The Browns will next make the first of two straight weekend visits to the New York area to play the Giants on Dec. 20 and the winless Jets on Dec. 27.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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    Bills Beat the Steelers, Surging as a Rival Sinks

    AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBills 26, Steelers 15Bills Beat the Steelers, Surging as a Rival SinksBuffalo can clinch the A.F.C. East title on Saturday. Pittsburgh fell behind Kansas City in the race for the top seed in the playoffs.Stefon Diggs had 10 catches for 130 yards, including this 19-yard touchdown early in the third quarter.Credit…Matt Durisko/Associated PressDec. 14, 2020, 8:49 a.m. ETAfter the interception that cemented Buffalo’s standing among the N.F.L. elite, the Bills’ defense assembled and jogged the remaining length of the field together, toward the end zone and the cameras and oceans of blue seats. It was midway through the fourth quarter Sunday on a night at Bills Stadium that begged for fans, dancing in the aisles to “Shout” and swilling their Labatts and celebrating a victory that reverberated far beyond western New York.Buoyed by a defensive touchdown just before halftime and two scores immediately after the break, the Bills toppled the Pittsburgh Steelers, 26-15, with the outcome evoking a pebble skimming across a pond.One wave fanned out from the home locker room, where a most dangerous team continued to gain confidence as it approaches a prize that has eluded it since before its cherished quarterback, Josh Allen, was born: With a two-game lead over Miami, the Bills (10-3), who have the franchise’s best record through 13 games since 1991, could clinch their first A.F.C. East title in 25 years as soon as next week.Another ripple registered throughout the Steelers (11-2), who only a week ago were unbeaten — imperfect but unbeaten. Pittsburgh has lost two straight, and if Buffalo is soaring as the playoffs draw near, then the Steelers are flailing, as if grasping for a light switch in the dark, struggling without an explosive offense.But the biggest ripple of all jostled the A.F.C. landscape, where the Steelers dropped behind the Kansas City Chiefs (12-1), who won in Miami, in the race for the top seed in the playoffs. Even if the Bills’ playoff positioning itself didn’t change, they reasserted their place within that hierarchy.As the N.F.L. has evolved, the best teams are those with dynamic passing offenses and defenses that can slow down the aerial game just enough. Sitting on Ben Roethlisberger’s short throws and blitzing him off the edge, the Bills hounded him into his worst game of the season.“If I don’t play good enough football, then I need to hang it up,” said Roethlisberger, who went 21 of 37 for 187 yards, with two touchdowns and two interceptions. “I still feel like I can do enough things to help this team win football games, and I’ll do everything I can to get us back on track.”Ed Oliver and the Bills defense harassed Ben Roethlisberger into his worst game of the season.Credit…Jeffrey T. Barnes/Associated PressA Pittsburgh defense, meantime, that embellished its bona fides the previous six games against the likes of Garrett Gilbert and Jake Luton and Robert Griffin III was on Sunday exposed by an unfamiliar phenomenon: a formidable passing attack. Missing three starters, including cornerback Joe Haden, the Steelers managed to contain Allen and his cadre of explosive receivers for one half but not two.In that first half, Stefon Diggs caught three passes, and after the Bills took a 9-7 lead just before the break on a 51-yard interception return by Taron Johnson — their first defensive touchdown of the season — they spent halftime sorting out how to unlock an offense that had gained only 102 yards.They did that in two ways, Allen said.One: “I started completing it to the right guys.”Two: “We started throwing it to Stef.”Allen completed his first 11 passes after halftime, a stretch of brilliance that included touchdowns to Diggs and the rookie Gabriel Davis, neither of whom were on the Bills last season.As the Bills sought to mold Allen’s bountiful physical talent into a trustworthy N.F.L. quarterback, they surrounded him with what could be the deepest and most reliable receiving corps in the league. Heading that group is Diggs, who in his first season with Buffalo after being acquired in a trade from Minnesota has caught 100 passes — tying the franchise’s single-season record. Six of those catches on Sunday (for 83 of his 130 receiving yards) came on the two third-quarter scoring drives that capped a string of 23 consecutive points.“Diggs is so special that as I see him play, I just want to rip off my captain’s ‘C’ and throw it on his chest,” offensive tackle Dion Dawkins said.Bills quarterback Josh Allen threw two touchdown passes as the Bills moved within a game of clinching their first A.F.C. East title since 1995.Credit…Bryan M. Bennett/Getty ImagesBefore Sunday, the last time Diggs scored was in Week 10 at Arizona, a late go-ahead touchdown that would only be eclipsed by Kyler Murray’s game-winning Hail Mary. The Bills had won three in a row before that loss, and they have won three in a row since, overcoming the stage fright that doomed them in earlier defeats against two other A.F.C. contenders, Tennessee and Kansas City.The Steelers may not live in their fears, as their coach, Mike Tomlin, likes to say, but they have now laid bare their shortcomings three times in 12 days. After playing what he called “junior varsity” football in a close win over Baltimore, and producing “catastrophic” results on short-yardage failures in a loss to Washington, the Steelers’ performance Sunday was not an aberration or an anomaly but evidence of a trend.Asked if there was enough time before next week’s game against Cincinnati to fix an offense that regained center Maurkice Pouncey and running back James Conner but still averaged 2.8 yards on 17 carries, Tomlin replied with one word: Yes. If he is wrong, Pittsburgh might be wise to start monitoring the Browns, who, if they beat Baltimore on Monday night, would inch within a game of the Steelers in the A.F.C. North. The teams will meet in Week 17 in Cleveland.That division might be unsettled, but the A.F.C. East is not. Long the domain of the New England Patriots, it soon shall belong to the Buffalo Bills, who, week after week in this bizarre season, are making their fans wish they were there to see this ascent for themselves.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More