Good morning,
And it’s a very good morning for Brighton’s coffers, Chelsea paying them €133.5 million for the services of Moisés Caicedo, thereby breaking the British transfer record they set themselves back in January when they bought Enzo Fernández (a snip at €121 million). Their midfield engine room is, then, now worth roughly a quarter of a billion. You’d want to be at least reaching the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup after spending of that magnitude.
Neymar, meanwhile, is heading to Saudi Arabia six years after Paris Saint-Germain paid Barcelona €222 million for the fella. They’re “only” getting €90 million for the Brazilian, but at least they’ll get his €29 million salary off their books. How much will he earn at Al-Hilal? About €3 million … a week.
Golfers must feel hard done by in comparison, the winner of the FedEx Cup, for example, having to settle for a measly $18 million. Philip Reid looks at Rory McIlroy’s prospects of scooping that particular prize after he tied for third at the St Jude Classic, the first of the three-tournament play-offs. The second event takes place this week at the BMW Championship in Chicago.
Your complete guide to all the festive sporting action including TV details
Irish Times Sportswoman of the Year Awards: ‘The greatest collection of women in Irish sport in one place ever assembled’
Two-time Olympic champion Kellie Harrington named Irish Times/Sport Ireland Sportswoman of the Year 2024
Pub staff struggled to keep up with giddy Shamrock Rovers fans who enjoyed every moment of Chelsea trip
In rugby, Owen Doyle talks us through this new-fangled “foul play bunker system”, which will be in operation at the World Cup, it being responsible for Owen Farrell’s yellow card being upgraded to a red for “one of his trademark high shoulders against Wales” on Saturday.
Paul Keane, meanwhile, hears from Hannah Tyrrell after her player of the match performance for Dublin in Sunday’s All Ireland triumph over Kerry, the latest success in a remarkable sporting career that has already seen the 33-year-old collect honours in soccer and rugby.
Also in Gaelic games, Seán Moran brings news that there are unlikely to be any changes to the 2024 football championship format “despite misgivings that emerged during this season’s inaugural staging” — the chief one being about the lack of “jeopardy” in the group stages of the championship. The GAA, though, is keen to give the format another shot.
And in athletics, Ian O’Riordan talks to Louise Shanahan ahead of her appearance in the 800m at the World Championships which start on Saturday in Budapest. She has spent most of the summer in a Cambridge University lab working on her PhD in quantum biophysics. Her deadline is December. “The thesis now has 3,000 words, which is 50-odd thousand short of what it needs,” she says. You fear she’ll have to break the world record to get there in time.
Telly watch: If you weren’t up in time this morning to see the World Cup semi-final battle between Spain and Sweden (RTÉ2 & BBC One, 9am) shame on you — but panic not: RTÉ2 will have highlights this evening (8.30pm).
