Beckham takes £39m dividend as World Cup deals drive record profits
David Beckham has taken a $51m (£39m) dividend from his business empire fuelled by a series of deals with brands for the Fifa World Cup.
Beckham appeared in about a dozen ad campaigns across this summer’s tournament in the US, working with brands including Lenovo, McDonald’s, Bank of America, Verizon and PepsiCo’s crisps brand Lay’s.
The World Cup work helped to fuel a record year for DRJB Holdings, the commercial company for Beckham’s brands business, where revenues surged by a fifth to $110.5m last year, from $92.3m in 2024.
Pre-tax profits also climbed to a record $65.7m, a 46% increase on 2024.
Full story:
Absolutely HUGE David Beckham news incoming…
Updated
Havertz returns to Arsenal for treatment after suffering injnury on Germany duty
Kai Havertz will return to Arsenal for treatment after he sustained a “muscle sprain” while on Germany duty.
Havertz was forced off in the 30th minute of the nation’s 1-1 draw with the Netherlands due to a hamstring problem.
The German FA confirmed a subsequent scan had identified that the 27-year-old had suffered a sprain and he has now left Jurgen Klopp’s squad.
Havertz was sidelined for nearly five months with a knee injury last season, but he has started all five of Arsenal’s Premier League games so far, preferred to Viktor Gyokeres by manager Mikel Arteta.
The Premier League champions are hopeful Havertz’s latest setback is not serious.
Arsenal will next be in action when they host Leeds at the Emirates Stadium on 10 October. Press Association
Updated
Bellamy: ‘Koumas belongs on international stage’
Craig Bellamy said the Liverpool forward Lewis Koumas deserves to perform on the biggest stages after defeat to Portugal and promised to make changes for Sunday’s visit to Denmark.
Wales, who fly to Copenhagen on Saturday, lost their Nations League opener after Joao Felix scored the only goal in Lisbon. Koumas, who started the game on the left flank, spurned a golden chance to equalise late on but Bellamy was impressed by the 21-year-old. “I was looking at him and I thought he was outstanding,” Bellamy said. “I was thinking: he belongs here, he belongs here. There’s your headline.”
Koumas has also made a big impression on Andoni Iraola and his staff, featuring in five of Liverpool’s seven matches this season. When it was put to Bellamy that Koumas, who spent last season on loan at Birmingham and Hull, decided to stay at Liverpool this season to prove himself, Bellamy interrupted: “No, they kept him on at Anfield. You don’t get the choice to stay. If they want to keep you, they keep you. They thought he was too good, he ain’t going [anywhere].”
Bellamy acknowledged Wales expended a lot of energy in defeat at Jose Alvalade Stadium, where Cristiano Ronaldo won his 234th cap. “We are going to need to change players,” he said. “The turnaround is so quick, so demanding, we need to change players and we will do.
“They’re running machines [Portugal], that’s why they’re at this level. You don’t always pick up on the intensity – if you pay £140m for a player, you’re paying for his running level as well as his ability. A lot of these players are game-ready and they have a ridiculous intensity to match.”
Thanks Sarah, to get things rolling for my stint on the blog, I have an update from Ben Fisher in Lisbon…
I’m going to take a break for a few hours but I leave you in the company of Tom Bassam.
More on that Infantino news from earlier here:
“It’s a very good comparison,” James Garner says, and he is not kidding. It came from Thomas Tuchel in March after the England manager had watched the Everton midfielder impress on his international debut against Uruguay. He was up against Federico Valverde and Tuchel went big with his praise. Garner was a “mini Valverde”, he said after the 1-1 draw at Wembley.
It was surely too much, despite the prefix that Tuchel attached, yet it was possible to see where he was coming from. Like Valverde, Garner wants to operate in central midfield but he can play at right-back or on the wing. And like Valverde, who they called El Pajarito – or the Little Bird – when he was a kid, Garner can sometimes fly a bit under the radar.
The Spain manager Luis de la Fuente has sent an ominious message to the rest of world football: what they did at the World Cup isn’t enough to keep them winning. The coach said:
This team won’t stop; it wants more and more, to be the best. I will tell them that too. What we did at the World Cup is not enough to keep us winning games or to beat England. You have to be better. That’s our culture and our mentality, our attitude, so I have no doubts and no worries.
Read more here:
US men’s national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino says he regrets not being “more involved” in the situation surrounding US forward Folarin Balogun at this summer’s World Cup.
Balogun was given a red card after a challenge against Bosnia and Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemović, which by rule is accompanied with a one-game suspension. Balogun’s ban for the next game against Belgium was suspended after the US Soccer Federation and US president Donald Trump lobbied Fifa, with Trump saying that he personally placed a call to Fifa president Gianni Infantino to ask the ruling be reviewed. Infantino maintains that the decision to reinstate Balogun was made independently by Fifa’s disciplinary committee.
The entire affair cast a pall over what had been an otherwise positive tournament for the US to that point. Belgium’s players and coaches said in the wake of it that it provided extra motivation ahead of the match. Balogun himself later spoke of having felt uncomfortable with the attention the situation placed upon him.
Wrexham have confirmed that Humphrey Ker is stepping down from the club’s board and as a trustee. Ker was a key part of Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac buying the club five years ago and has continued to play a role during their promotion successes.
Ker, who was a part of the Disney documentary about the club, said:
Working for and representing Wrexham AFC and the wider town has been the greatest honour of my life.
I am proud of the part I have played in the Club’s remarkable journey, both on and off the field.
There was controversy over the coverage of the Women’s Champions League earlier this week, this is a great piece from Max Rushden on the topic:
Australia and Brazil are playing one another in a friendly with kick-off less than an hour away, you can keep up to date with all of the action here:
Chelsea charged by FA over alleged discriminatory chanting against Fulham
Some breaking news for you, Chelsea have been charged with breaching a Football Association rule in their 3-2 win over Fulham last month. The governing body alleges the club broke rule E21 in the ninth minute of the match where the Blues “failed to ensure its spectators and/or supporters did not behave in an improper, offensive, abusive or insulting way. It’s further alleged that this behaviour was discriminatory in that it included a reference, whether express or implied, to religion or belief”.
Updated
Anthony Gordon has sided with Thomas Tuchel’s assertion that controlling games through possession is not part of English football’s DNA. Although Gordon revealed surprise at being substituted when England were 1-0 up in their World Cup semi-final against Argentina, the winger refused to blame the defeat on Tuchel’s decisions and argued that wider cultural issues influenced the side’s collapse.
England’s perennial struggle to keep the ball when under pressure flared when a place in the final was within touching distance in July, allowing Argentina to fight back and go through with two late goals. The pain has not gone away and there has been intense scrutiny of Tuchel’s role in Atlanta. The head coach’s tactical choices were criticised and he faced a backlash after saying “ball possession” was not in his team’s DNA.
One of the best players in the world right now is Raphinha and Sid Lowe sat down with him about life at Barca, read here:
The Premier League may be on an international break but there are some English domestic games happening this weekend in the Women’s Super League. There are some big matches too with two derbies.
Liverpool host Everton, while Arsenal travel to Chelsea in some tasty fixtures. Here is the full line-up (all times in BST):
-
Charlton Athletic v Manchester City, Saturday, 1.30pm
-
London City Lionesses v Brighton, Saturday, 5pm
-
Manchester United v West Ham, Sunday, 1pm
-
Birmingham City v Crystal Palace, Sunday, 2pm
-
Liverpool v Everton, Sunday, 2pm
-
Tottenham v Aston Villa, Sunday, 2pm
-
Chelsea v Arsenal, Sunday, 4.30pm
The Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A have issued a joint statement calling for reform at Fifa. In a rare coordinated move, the leagues have criticised the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, making reference to his abandoned World Cup sell-off plan – the Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) scheme – and the Folarin Balogun affair.
The four leagues have taken aim at Fifa’s “relentless expansionism” and said leagues, together with national associations, clubs, and players, need a greater role in decision-making.
“Football’s longstanding foundations have, in recent years, been threatened by a fundamental governance problem, whereby Fifa’s president has actively promoted exploitative ideas rather than safeguarding against them,” the statement said. “And while football’s stakeholders ultimately forced the withdrawal of the Fifa Forward Enterprise scheme, the conditions that led to FFE remain.
“The Fifa president has now acknowledged the need for reform, but it is not enough for surface-level, process changes to be explored in the aftermath of FFE – fundamental governance reform is essential to restore clear constitutional boundaries within Fifa, including confidence that individual disciplinary matters remain demonstrably insulated from political interference.”
There was a comic-strip feel to another eventful evening in the kingdom of Cristiano Ronaldo. Where to start? It was the 67th minute when his No 7 went up on the fourth official’s board, the cue to remove the captain’s armband from his left bicep before departing to a universal ovation, but for the pocket of Wales supporters.
The referee, Donatas Rumsas, hurried him off the pitch but Ronaldo, his hair glazed copper, was presumably ruminating on a series of missed chances, a sitter from a few yards at the start of the second half, and his disallowed goal, after skating offside to latch on to a Bruno Fernandes pass. The grandiose “Siu” celebration went to waste, though try telling that to the locals who worship him.
Some news from yesterday’s games:
Some football fans thought they were going to see Dele Alli return to the pitch as Barnet FC teased a post on X that said “We’ve got….”, using Alli’s chant from his time at Spurs. Instead it seems the club were teasing the anniversary of their manager, Dean Brennan, joining the club five years ago. That would have been a generational signing if it were what supporters were thinking.
There were news reports that Alli would train with Barnet but it is not confirmed when that would take place.
Erling Haaland scored seven goals at his first World Cup this past summer and in his first Norway game since that tournament he was on the scoresheet twice in a 3-2 win over Denmark.
The first was a first-touch finish after being set-up by Antonio Nusa and his second saw him turn home the ball from a corner.
Germany drew 1-1 against the Netherlands yesterday but the headline news from the game is Kai Havertz picking up an injury. The Arsenal star came off after 30 minutes with a muscle problem and Jamal Musiala also came off with an injury. The Germany manager Jurgen Klopp said post match:
The negative highlights are obviously the two injuries to Jamal and Kai.
Both are muscular injuries. Jamal’s happened before the game and Kai’s relatively early in the game. At the moment they’re either still having an MRI, on the way there or already finished. But we don’t have any results yet.
Nations League fixtures (all times in BST):
-
Georgia v Northern Ireland, 5pm
-
Armenia v Latvia, 5pm
-
Sweden v Romania, 7.45pm
-
Montenegro v Cyprus, 7.45pm
-
Hungary v Ukraine, 7.45pm
-
Italy v Belgium, 7.45pm
-
Turkiye v France, 7.45pm
-
Poland v Bosnia and Herzegovina, 7.45pm
Preamble
Hello and welcome to today’s football blog which will bring you all the latest news from across the sport, including Nations League build-up.
A full list of fixtures for today’s matches will follow shortly but we will also have preview content for England’s match against the world champions Spain too, that game is happening on Saturday.
If any breaking news drops we will also have you covered and we would also love to hear from you. The Traitors is returning to TV screens soon in both the UK and the US so I would like to know who you think is a traitor in football. Did a player sign for a rival club? Did a star celebrate a goal against a former team? Let me know your thoughts by emailing me.
Right let’s get this show on the road, shall we?
