The Times - UK (2021-12-22)

the times | Wednesday December 22 2021 63

Sport

excited. I couldn’t hear or feel another
horse behind me and Minella Times
was still going forward for me; he
didn’t feel he was tiring up. But it’s not
until you hit the line that you truly
believe it can actually happen.”
The aftermath, she says, “was just
incredible. Even though we didn’t
have the crowd there, everyone who
was there made such an effort to clap
you back in”. It was mid-interview,
when she made eye contact with
Walsh some way off, she says, “that I
definitely started crying”.
From that moment on, she has
been dealing with the piece of history
that she made and the fact that her
name can now be mentioned
alongside the likes of Billie Jean King,
initiator of the women’s tennis tour,
Joan Benoit, the first woman to win
an Olympic marathon, Ellen
MacArthur, the sailor who broke the
world record for fastest solo
circumnavigation of the globe. And so
on. This is not a grouping with which
she feels at ease.
Another who merits a place on that

list is Danica Patrick, the American

motor racing driver. Patrick’s take on

any gender battle was this: “I was

brought up to be the fastest driver,

not the fastest girl.” Blackmore’s head

is in pretty much the same place.

“Yes,” she says, “I’d have thought,

it’d be so cool to win the Grand

National. But not the female thing. It’s

just not something that is ever made a

deal out of in my world. When I

entered the weighing room, Nina and

Katie were in there, they’d ridden

loads of Cheltenham winners and

Irish Grand National winners. It’s just

not something that entered my head.”

Blackmore never set out to be a

pathfinder, she just wanted to be a

jockey; she only ever wanted to be

judged on her performance, not her

gender. That does not make her

unusual; professional athletes, by

definition, are motivated by their

sport, not necessarily by gender

politics.

Yet if it seemed that being “the

first” and all that goes with it is

something that has been thrust upon

her, she says this: “I fully understand

that in the wider media, it’s a massive

deal. And it is a privilege, not a

burden. I surely wouldn’t swap it for

anything.”

So she is a reluctant superstar, yet

one that is coming to embrace the

position in sport that Minella Times

carried her to. As an ambassador for

the Jockey Club, she is a genuine

racing celebrity. Her natural humility

and her competitive appetite,

however, mean that looking ahead

comes far easier than looking back.

“I am not sitting here patting

myself on the back for a great year,”

she says. “I am looking forward to

next year, looking at my upcoming

races. You are constantly looking

forward. As a jockey, it doesn’t really

matter what you did six months ago.”

When she looks ahead to the 2022

Grand National, though, it is now

with a specific thought in mind. One

of the best spin-offs of her triumph on

Minella Times, she said, was an

invitation to the royal box at

Wimbledon. Covid unfortunately

meant that she was unable to accept it

and she is not sure if the invitation

will roll over to 2022.

“We’ll see,” she says. “I might

have to try and win the Grand

National again.”

Blackmore’s wins in 2021

Champion Hurdle Cheltenham

Ryanair Chase Cheltenham

Triumph Hurdle Cheltenham

Grand National Aintree

Irish Champion Hurdle

Leopardstown

Betfair Chase Haydock

Next-best Grand National

finishes by female jockeys

3rd Katie Walsh Seabass, 2012

5th Rosemary Henderson

Fiddlers Pike, 1994

Carrie Ford Forest Gunner, 2005

Bryony Frost Milansbar, 2018

021111

k e’swinsin 2021

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY ORMESHER

tomorrow

Courtney Lawes on year he

became England captain

Interview by Alex Lowe

All club sponsorship over £1m

to get Premier League scrutiny

Every club sponsorship deal worth

more than £1 million a year will have to

be submitted to the Premier League to

be checked that it is not an “associated

party” transaction, according to new

regulations sent to top-flight clubs.

The rules were agreed by the Premier

League clubs last week despite opposi-

tion from Newcastle United and Man-

chester City. If the Premier League’s

board has reasonable grounds to

“suspect” that it is an associated party

deal or “otherwise than at arm’s length”

then an independent firm will deter-

mine whether it is of fair market value

or has been artificially inflated.

The regulations also cover any extra

payments from associated parties to a

club’s senior officials, managers or

players earning more than £1 million a

year.

However, there are concerns among

senior levels of football that even these

new rules — brought in after the take-

over of Newcastle by a consortium led

by Saudi Arabia’s public investment

fund (PIF) — could be legally chal-

lenged. The Premier League approved

the takeover on the basis that it accept-

ed the PIF was separate from the Saudi

state. Newcastle, it is feared, could

legally challenge any attempt to block

large sponsorship deals from Saudi

entities on the grounds that they should

not be viewed as associated parties.

The Times reported last week that

Newcastle had warned the other 19 top-

flight clubs in an email that they might

launch a legal challenge against the

new associated party rules. It is

understood the Premier League

is confident that its new regulations are

legally sound and that it has a very

broad definition of associated parties

that will prevent sponsorship deals

above the market value.

The new regulations state the league

will judge an associated party on “the

substance of the relationship” rather

than only the legal form of the relation-

ship.

This includes “material influence

over the club or an entity in the same

group of companies” and where the

club is “directly or indirectly controlled,

jointly controlled, or materially influ-

enced by the same government, public

or state-funded body or by the same

party”.

It adds: “Where the board deter-

mines that [it] is an associated party

transaction or that it has reasonable

grounds to suspect that it is otherwise

than at arm’s length, it will conduct a

fair market value assessment of it.”

Each club will have to provide finan-

cial details of all sponsorship deals they

have done since 2016 to form a “data-

bank” that will be used to determine fair

market values. Promoted clubs will

have to provide the past five years of

their sponsorship transactions.

The regulations state that the infor-

mation would only be used for the fair

market value assessments and would be

“subject to strict information security

measures agreed by the board and

clubs, including as to access rights, stor-

age, retention and deletion”.

Martyn Ziegler Chief Sports Reporter

Oldham fans are banned for

criticising Moroccan owner

Oldham Athletic have banned at least

three supporters — and involved

Greater Manchester Police — for criti-

cising the struggling club’s ownership.

Oldham are facing the prospect of

losing their 114-year-old Football

League status — they are three points

from safety in League Two — and are

operating under a transfer embargo

and without a full-time manager after

Keith Curle was sacked last month.

The owner, Abdallah Lemsagam,

who has made ten managerial changes

since taking over in 2018 and appointed

his brother Mohamed as sporting

director, is deeply unpopular with sup-

porters, who have staged a number of

high-profile protests against his regime.

Now Oldham’s new general manag-

er, Steven Brown, has written to Brad-

ley Knowles, Nathan Price and Dom

Weiss to ban them “from Boundary

Park and any other ground” where the

first or youth teams are playing.

“You have regularly displayed your

desire to promote your dislike of

Oldham Athletic Football Club, its

management and its progression; and

you are influencing others to do the

same,” Brown wrote. “You are taking

deliberate steps to harm the club and

cause distress. In light of these circum-

stances, I am writing to inform you that

you are officially banned from all first

team and youth team games... for a

minimum period of three years. I will be

forwarding this correspondence to GM

Police and our stadium safety officer.”

Supporters have pleaded with

Lemsagam to sell the club and have

staged a series of protests and boycotts.

Knowles is an elected director of the

Oldham Athletic Supporters’ Founda-

tion, who have a 3 per cent stake in the

club and a seat on the board.

“I don’t know why you can’t say

anything,” Knowles said. “I’ve not said

anything bad about the club. It says I’ve

promoted my dislike of Oldham Athlet-

ic. I worship this club. I’ve not boycott-

ed, I’m a season-ticket holder.

“I make no secret I want Abdallah to

sell. I want Mohamed to go. I’ve been to

three protests, started by 30 of us. I want

change and what’s best for Oldham

Athletic. But I’ve not run on the pitch,

thrown tennis balls. We’ve not been

involved in anything illegal.”

Ian Whittell

Verstappen’s repair bill totals £3.3m

Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton

in another Formula One ranking this

season according to reports — the

highest damages incurred by drivers.

According to estimates carried by Sky

Germany, Verstappen, 24, cost his Red

Bull team about £3.3 million en route to

winning his maiden world drivers’

championship. It is significantly more

than the £1.05 million repair bills for

Hamilton, 36, and Mercedes over the

year.

Verstappen’s damages are only the

third-highest in the table, however,

with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc ahead of

him in second and Mick Schumacher,

of Haas, top. Leclerc’s costs were esti-

mated to be almost £3.45 million while

Schumacher racked up £3.59 million of

repairs in his debut season.

Behind Verstappen in fourth place is

Nicholas Latifi, who spoke yesterday of

the abuse he had received on social

media for his crash in Abu Dhabi which

led to the safety car that Verstappen

took advantage of to win the champion-

ship. His damages totalled £2.66 million.

George Russell incurred only

£1.57 million in damages to finish tenth

in the alternative table, while his fellow

Briton Lando Norris cost McLaren

£1.24 million in 12th place — just ahead

of Hamilton in 13th.

Hamilton said Verstappen’s driving

was “over the limit” at the Saudi Arabi-

an Grand Prix and the pair clashed on

several occasions — most notably when

the Dutchman’s car landed on Hamil-

ton’s head at the Italian Grand Prix. Ver-

stappen was forced into three retire-

ments while Hamilton’s only failure to

finish came after the collision in Monza.

Schumacher’s hefty costs were the

result of a number of heavy crashes.

That prompted public criticism from

the Haas team principal Guenther

Steiner: “Mick in the last five races had

quite a few big ones. It’s a lot of money

and for no good reason. They are get-

ting a little too frequent and too heavy.”

Alpine’s drivers proved the least cost-

ly — Fernando Alonso and Esteban

Ocon were 19th and 20th with damages

of £268,000 and £238,000 respectively.

Formula One

Tomas Hill Lopez-Menchero

Everton eye

Patterson

Paul Joyce

Everton are ready to resurrect their

interest in the Rangers right back

Nathan Patterson when the January

transfer window opens.

The 20-year-old Scotland defender

was the subject of two failed bids from

Everton in the summer as they sought

to bring in competition for Seamus

Coleman.

Patterson is understood to be keen to

make the move having been restricted

to only 11 appearances for Rangers this

season where he is behind the captain,

James Tavernier, in the pecking order.

Everton had a bid of £5 million

rejected in the summer with Rangers

seeking closer to £10 million.

Rafa Benítez, the club’s manager, also

wants to sign the Dynamo Kiev left

back Vitaliy Mykolenko for £17 million

and is seeking to improve his midfield.

He has shown interest in Sean Long-

staff, who is out of contract at Newcas-

tle United in the summer.

Benítez is expected to have Dominic

Calvert-Lewin back for the first time

since suffering a thigh injury in August

for the Boxing Day trip to Burnley.

Amanda Staveley,

Newcastle director,

opposes the rule