A new sporting year, carrying all our hopes for the extraordinary, the unscripted and the new stars with their stories as yet unwritten.
Here are 10 wild hopes of my own for 2025 in sport.
Might just one of them happen? Happy New Year!
1. Man City will accept the verdict
The verdict in the case of 115 charges brought by the Premier League against City will come in the early months of this year.
My understanding is the hearing has revealed the mind-boggling complexity of some of the financial deals between City and state-controlled Abu Dhabi companies.
The verdict in the case of 115 charges brought by the Premier League against City will come in the early months of this year
If an independent panel views those as a deliberate ploy to dodge financial sustainability rules then recent history tells us City’s Abu Dhabi owners will go very hard at the Premier League
It was the same old story before Christmas, when Chelsea’s Mykhailo Mudryk expressed astonishment at having failed a drugs test
If an independent panel views those as a deliberate ploy to dodge financial sustainability rules — which, of course, it may well not — then recent history tells us City’s Abu Dhabi owners will go very hard at the Premier League again.
Privately, Abu Dhabi would view conviction as a huge embarrassment. They bought City in 2008 to burnish their international reputation, not to be accused of deceit.
The adjudication panel has been appointed in the finest traditions of the British adversarial legal system, in which state-owned entities must account for themselves, just like everyone else.
Abu Dhabi signed up to that British system when they bought a British football club. If the result, or any ensuing appeal, does go against them, then let them respect it with class and allow the League, whose financial rules were very clear, to move on.
2. The drugs excuse culture will cease
It was the same old story before Christmas, when Chelsea’s Mykhailo Mudryk expressed astonishment at having failed a drugs test.
We heard the same from Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek when the two tennis players tested positive in 2024. Swiatek was banned for a derisory month by a sport which didn’t even disclose the fact.
These wealthy stars have entire entourages to make sure they comply with the rules. Their whining cuts no ice and they shame the integrity of their sports.
We heard the same from Jannik Sinner when he tested positive in 2024
The Black Bubbles protest at West Ham’s game against Liverpool on Sunday revealed campaigners’ powers of invention
3. Concession tickets to return
The scandal of Manchester United, Tottenham and West Ham withdrawing concession tickets for children and pensioners, with fears that others will follow, has brought a bold backlash from those at the heart of the game.
The Black Bubbles protest at West Ham’s game against Liverpool on Sunday revealed campaigners’ powers of invention.
A reminder to these dismal club executives and owners who picked this fight that when you laugh in the face of loyal fans, there will be consequences.
4. A win for Afghan women’s cricket
The Afghanistan women’s cricket team was beginning to thrive until the Taliban swept back to power in 2021. Players like Firoza Amiri and Benafsha Hashimi then fled their homes for sanctuary across the world because as, ambitious, successful women, their lives were at risk under the Islamist militia’s rule.
From exile, they have asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to recognise them, and support them financially, as a refugee team. The ICC refuse, stating that only the Afghanistan Cricket Board can recognise the women’s team — which the Taliban won’t permit them to do.
Here is a chance for the ICC — an opaque, unaccountable organisation — to heed the pleas of those who love cricket to its soul. Is that really too much to ask?
The Afghanistan women’s cricket team was beginning to thrive until the Taliban swept back to power in 2021
For my grandson’s sake, I hope United can find a way out of the torture which, as a nine-year-old, he’s dealing with commendably well
5. United to thrive…in the Championship
For my grandson’s sake, I hope United can find a way out of the torture which, as a nine-year-old, he’s dealing with commendably well.
It’s going to take something monumental to shake the club out of this slough, get the wasters out of the door, simplify things and start again.
Would relegation really be the worst outcome? After the initial ridicule and the ignominy, United could spend a summer clearing out before a very strong season in the Championship, where the club would be a monumental story, which would build huge confidence to bring back to the Premier League.
There are not relegation clauses in players’ contracts. They simply won’t accept them. So there would be financial consequences that would demand another big raft of Ineos cost-cutting.
I put the argument to the boy at the weekend. He wasn’t impressed.
6. Fixing the FA Cup third round
Amid the FA Cup’s existential crisis — no FA Cup third-round replays from this year as rampant commercialisation eats away at the grand old tournament’s core — it’s finally time to artificially manipulate the way its cards fall.
A seeded third round could ensure that clubs from League One and lower would more often than not get a home tie against a Premier League side. And ensure that the lower-ranked club would take all the receipts and help with staging costs.
Heaven knows they need the money — and the competition would be flooded with colour.
Would relegation really be the worst outcome? After the initial ridicule and the ignominy, United could spend a summer clearing out
It’s finally time to artificially manipulate the way its cards fall in the FA Cup
7. Referees to be seen and heard
As elite football drowns in the VAR swamp, how desperately it needs the live broadcast of what is caught on referees’ mics, supported by bodycam footage.
Rulemakers Fifa and Ifab are currently blocking that but it would offer the clarity that rugby union audiences enjoy and remove the ridiculous notion of refereeing bias.
It might even make footballers think twice about how they conduct themselves.
8. Saudi transparency on missing woman
Enthusiasts for Saudi Arabia’s 2034 World Cup insist that the global spotlight it brings will lead the country towards transparency about the way it treats its people. Its record 330 executions in 2024 — a sharp rise — is apparently insignificant.
So, please let’s now hear from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the whereabouts of Dina Ali Lasloom, who has been neither seen nor heard from since she was intercepted and forcibly returned to Riyadh in 2017, after fleeing a forced marriage and attempting to seek asylum in Australia.
Surely the newly legitimised hosts of sport’s greatest global show owe us a full account of the facts.
9. English rugby’s chief will be removed
In 2024, the RFU’s chief executive Bill Sweeney presided over the biggest deficit the union has suffered, took one of the biggest salaries to an executive in the history of British sport (£1.1million) and sacked 40 staff, while all the time the grassroots and club games struggled.
What an imposter. Will someone show this man the door?
Please let’s now hear from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman about the whereabouts of Dina Ali Lasloom
Sir Lewis Hamilton has bet on Ferrari as he chases a record eighth world title and a first since 2020 — and some story it would be
10. Sir Lewis to be champion again
Sir Lewis Hamilton has bet on Ferrari as he chases a record eighth world title and a first since 2020 — and some story it would be.
Not just his eclipse of Michael Schumacher’s seven titles, but a new chapter in the illustrious history of the sport’s oldest and most iconic team, who count Juan Manuel Fangio, Niki Lauda and Schumacher among their greats but have not added to their record 16 constructors’ and 15 drivers’ championships since 2008.
‘The pinnacle is if you win with Ferrari,’ team principal Fred Vasseur, who has revitalised the team, said a few weeks back. Hamilton would feel the same if he can do it.
