BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION LAUNCH SUICIDE PREVENTION CAMPAIGN

Together Against Suicide ambassador Roman Kemp (right) alongside Dean Gallagher (left) from Samaritans' Brighton & Hove branch. (Image: Paul Hazlewood)

Brighton and Hove Albion have launched a major new mental health campaign.

The club is supporting Together Against Suicide, a season-long initiative led by the Premier League and Samaritans to raise awareness of suicide and promote suicide prevention.

The campaign, launched in collaboration with broadcaster and mental health advocate Roman Kemp, aims to reach those most at risk through the power of football.

Richard Masters, chief executive of the Premier League, said: "Sadly, suicide is an issue that affects people of all ages from all backgrounds.

"We believe football can play a vital role in reducing the stigma around it and connecting fans who are experiencing suicidal thoughts with the support they need."

Albion will formally launch the campaign at their home match against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, September 20.

A specially produced video will be shown at the Amex Stadium as part of matchday activities.

Brighton and Hove has one of the highest suicide rates in the country, with an average of 43 deaths by suicide recorded each year.

As part of the campaign, Albion will work closely with the Brighton and Hove branch of Samaritans, who have long supported the club and its supporters.

The club will offer safe spaces and trained listeners at all men’s and women’s home games, share information on recognising signs of distress, and direct fans to trusted support services, including the Samaritans’ 24/7 helpline.

During the 2025/26 season, the club will also train 1901 club fans and community members in listening skills, with sessions held at the stadium and training ground.

Julie Bentley, chief executive of Samaritans, said: "One in four of us experience suicidal thoughts but suicide is not inevitable.

"A moment of connection can be all it takes to save a life.

"Together Against Suicide is an amazing opportunity to reach thousands of people with the message that it’s okay to talk – and that support is always there."

Roman Kemp, who helped create the campaign, also spoke about its importance.

Mr Kemp said: "As football fans, we are always there for our clubs.

"This initiative flips that around – now clubs can be there for fans when they need it most.

"As someone who has felt the impact of suicide, I know that football’s sense of community can help save lives.

"One conversation really can make the difference."

- The Argus

MAN CITY LEGAL CHALLENGE EXPOSES PREMIER LEAGUE SPLITS ON SPENDING RULES

Reuters 

An escalating legal fight between the Premier League and its dominant champions, Manchester City, has laid bare simmering tensions among football clubs about the rules that limit spending on players in the sport’s richest competition.

City, which is owned by a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family and which has as its main sponsor the emirate’s state-backed airline Etihad, has challenged rules governing associated party transactions — commercial deals between a club and an entity deemed to have links to its owners.

News of the move follows a season in which two Premier League clubs, Everton and Nottingham Forest, were docked points for exceeding permitted losses, while Leicester City faces the prospect of being punished for similar offences when it returns to the division this summer. 

For the growing number of professional investors involved in English football, capped spending is seen as vital to creating a sustainable business model and a thriving competition. Many clubs believe the mechanisms in place are not working but they are deeply divided on what should be done about it. 

Some owners feel that the league’s rules have gone too far and disproportionately penalise ambitious clubs seeking to narrow the gap with the elite. Others argue that without tighter regulation, clubs will keep losing money while state-linked teams such as Manchester City, which recently notched up a record fourth consecutive Premier League title, become ever more unassailable on the pitch.

The split over spending rules adds to a list of challenges facing Premier League chief executive Richard Masters and chair Alison Brittain, who are also dealing with the prospect of a new independent football regulator, pressure to send more money down to lower leagues and a slowdown in the domestic market for broadcast rights that has powered revenue growth for the past 30 years. 

At the league’s annual meeting this week in Harrogate, clubs agreed to trial two new approaches to financial regulation. The squad cost rule will limit spending on players to 85 per cent of revenue, while “anchoring” will link the amount any club can spend to the income of the bottom-ranked team. Both will be tested next season in tandem with existing profit and sustainability regulations. 

This year’s AGM took place two days after news broke that City had launched its legal challenge. The club claims that the current APT rules are anti-competitive and says the system requiring 14 of the league’s 20 clubs to agree on rule changes amounts to a “tyranny of the majority”, according to details of the legal complaint first reported by The Times.

Neither the league nor the club has commented on the matter. 

The move to challenge the rules through an arbitration system, unprecedented since the Premier League was formed more than 30 years ago, comes ahead of a separate hearing in the autumn on 115 charges laid against City by the league last year. Among the accusations is that the club declared inflated sponsorship deals in order to spend more on players. City denies the charges.

In a video interview published on City’s website on Wednesday, chair Khaldoon Al Mubarak said the allegations were “always frustrating”.

“We, as a club, have to respect that there’s a process we have to go through and we are going through it,” he added. “It is taking longer than anyone hoped for, but it is what it is.”

- Josh Noble & Samuel Agini

JÜRGEN KLOPP AIMS DIGS AT MAN CITY, CHELSEA AND MAN UNITED

Jürgen Klopp attended a farewell event in Liverpool on Tuesday that was attended by approximately 11,000 fans. John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images

 Former Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp criticised several of the club's rivals during a "Danke, Jürgen" farewell event on Tuesday, appearing to aim digs at Manchester City's alleged financial rules breaches, Chelsea's owners and Manchester United's handling of Jadon Sancho.

Klopp returned to the city for the send-off event at Liverpool's M&S Bank Arena, nine days after his final match in charge -- a 2-0 victory over Wolves at Anfield.

The 56-year-old won seven major trophies during his nine-year tenure, lifting the Champions League in 2019 and the Premier League title in 2020. But Liverpool were also pipped to the title by a single point by City on two occasions.

City have been charged with 115 breaches of the Premier League's financial rules, with the league's CEO Richard Masters saying on April 26 that the hearing over City's alleged breaches will take place in the "near future."

"You leave this club having won the Premier League once," one of the event's hosts, comedian John Bishop, said. "There could be a court decision that means you've won the Premier League three times..." Klopp interrupted: "If you organise a bus parade, I'm in! How long it takes I don't care."

Klopp also said that he had no regrets over Liverpool not signing star players such as Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland as it is not the "Liverpool way."

"Can you imagine LFC as the club with unlimited money?" Klopp said. "Imagine Kylian Mbappé came here. Imagine Bellingham came here, Haaland. It is not us, it just does not fit. We won what we won and we did it the Liverpool way. We had hard conversations and other clubs didn't do that in the same time."

Klopp said that he felt supported by Liverpool's owners during his time at the club and added that he felt that he would not have been shown as much faith at some other teams.

"We should be really happy that we have these owners and not guys who bought London clubs and other stuff," the German coach said. "I wouldn't have survived a year at Liverpool [with them in charge].

"'Great development but not good enough, sack him!' A year later: 'Sack him.' Then finally they play football where people think they might be back and they sack the manager anyway.

"People always think the grass is greener but we have owners who really feel responsible for the club and work really hard as well to be successful. I felt supported. We did it as good as we could have done and I'm fine with it."

Klopp also appeared to criticise United's treatment of Sancho, who joined the team from Borussia Dortmund in 2021, before falling out with head coach Erik ten Hag and re-joining the German club on loan last summer.

"If the whole world loses trust and faith in the player, the manager has to be the one behind the player," Klopp said.

"I cannot just buy into that, 'he's useless,' like other clubs did by the way, buying a player for £80 million ($102m) and then sending him out on loan."

- ESPN 

CHIEF EXECUTIVE RICHARD MASTERS | NO ROOM FOR RACISM