Two weeks to go to Advantage All Global Forum

Two Weeks to Go!

Join us and the International Tennis Federation on Monday 14th November for the Advantage All Global Forum where we will be deep diving into how we can increase the visibility and improve the portrayal of women’s sport across the media, as well as how we can all contribute to growing and commercialising women’s sport.

With game-changers from the likes of Twitter, European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Getty Images and visionaries Billie Jean King & Ilana Kloss joining to share their insights, with more leaders to be announced, it’s one not to be missed.

Register to join us live or to be sent the replay here:

Twitter aims to make broadcasters part of sports conversations

iSportConnect’s Editor-in-Chief Jay Stuart caught up with Twitter’s Róisín O’Shea at Sportel last week.

With Twitter all over the headlines and rampant speculation on possible shifts of direction under new owner Elon Musk, one thing unlikely to change is the platform’s commitment to sports content.

London-based sports partnerships exec Róisín O’Shea was at Sportel for the first time last week meeting with attendees from many of the sports that depend on Twitter for reaching the global audience on mobile devices.

Her responsibilities include events sports based in the UK that operate globally as well as UK events. One of her key roles is managing Formula 1’s presence on Twitter.

“There is a lot of media attention on Twitter as platform for expressing opinions, but the reality is that we are basically factual,” she said in Monaco. “Twitter is always first with news, scores, everything that happens.”

The big benefit for sports broadcasters in particular is Twitter’s status as the second screen par excellence. “While people watch, they tweet. Sports broadcasters know how to produce clips. What we can do is make them more relevant to the event. ITV, for example, will be showing the World Cup next
month. We can help them so that when people are watching and using Twitter they are tweeting not just about the World Cup but making ITV part of the conversation.”

One of her aims is to develop greater integration of social media and broadcasting. “Why can’t we integrate Twitter into the live broadcast? We could add a gamification element that would generate increased engagement.”

Of course Twitter is the number one place for sharing opinions and that brings challenges in sports.

O’Shea is part of the Football Online Hate Working Group launched after the outburst of abuse against some England players after the final of the Men’s Euro 2020 last year. Other members include representatives from other social media companies and, among others, the FA, the EPL, Women in Football and the police.

“At Twitter we have made adjustments to how we treat behaviours. There is now a button to report abusive tweets. There is a drop-down menu with various categories and our internal team then triages the problem.”

The focus is on the potential impact of a tweet and that is evaluated in terms of the size of the following that sees it. The real problem is when public personalities or organisations make negative comments on Twitter and their followers amplify them in a ‘pile-on’ of abuse.

A former agent for athletes both male and female, Róisín O’Shea will be a panellist in a session on eliminating gender bias at the International Tennis Federation’s Advantage-All Forum in Glasgow on November 14.

Sign up to the Forum here.

RealFevr raises $10 million from Global Investors

The Web3 startup that has Bruno Fernandes, Manchester United player, as a global ambassador and shareholder is boosting the Sports GameFi & NFT space through product and market innovation, including solving the speculative and utility issues in the digital collectibles industry.

Since 2021, RealFevr has launched the world’s first soccer video NFT marketplace, has released its token ($FEVR), announced IP partnerships with international sports properties such as Liga Portugal, Portuguese Football Federation, Torino FC and Beach Soccer Worldwide, and signed multiple world-class athletes as official ambassadors and investors. Bolstered by its active global community, RealFevr’s pack drops have continued to be a hot commodity despite the recent crypto market downturn. All NFT collection pack drops to date have sold out in less than 24 hours, with over 145,000 packs sold.

The investment will further accelerate RealFevr’s international expansion, acquisition of new intellectual property rights, and launch the world’s first Trading Moments Game: FEVR Battle Arena, set to be released in the coming weeks.

Digital collectibles currently available on the platform include moments featuring superstars like Bruno Fernandes, who is RealFevr’s global ambassador and shareholder, Cristiano Ronaldo, Iker Casillas, Zlatan Ibrahimović, Ángel Di María, Ronaldinho, Eric Cantona, Totti, Rúben Dias, and many others.

Through a combination of partnerships, blockchain and gaming expertise, RealFevr’s daring vision is to become a new type of NFT platform that provides things we’ve only dreamed about.

IMMAF partner with Cellular Fitness

Global MMA governing body IMMAF and sports nutritionists and scientists at Cellular FitnessTM are launching a partnership in an MMA-first initiative to boost athlete health and performance in the world’s fastest-growing sport.

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), like all contact sports, carries a risk of injury. IMMAF has already worked relentlessly to bring in governance and regulations to improve health and safety in the sport. This new partnership with Cellular FitnessTM takes that commitment further by recognising that fighters also need to understand the crucial benefits of good hydration in lowering risk of injury and improving performance. 

Cellular FitnessTM scientists and researchers have developed a nutrition protocol around the significance and gravity of the need for complete hydration for athletes. An MMA fighter, or any other athlete, who is dehydrated, has less cerebral fluid around the brain. If there is a blow to the head, there is therefore less cushioning to protect the brain from injury. Dehydration also leads to muscle fatigue, which increases the chance of physical injury too.

The partnership aims to raise awareness among MMA fighters of the need for proper hydration, to mitigate the risks involved in the sport. Dehydration has historically underpinned injury in the sport particularly through poor weight-cutting practices, which have been highlighted by IMMAF in its technical seminar programmes. IMMAF and Cellular FitnessTM want to increase awareness, coaching and guidance, to continue to improve the reputation of MMA and make it safer for athletes at all levels of the sport.

In line with IMMAF’s Anti-Doping Policy, as a signatory to the WADA code, every batch of Cell Nutrition’s products Hydrate 78, Hydrate 78 Night and Optimise is approved by quality assurance provider, Informed Sport, which independently tests for sports nutrition products for the presence of banned supplements.

IMMAF President Kerrith Brown commented: “IMMAF takes athlete health and Anti-doping education extremely seriously and therefore is proud to partner with Cell Nutrition, as a company that shares our values. We look forward to a fruitful partnership focussed on optimising athlete wellbeing and performance, as part of IMMAF’s broader development infrastructure.”

FIFA partner with vivo for 2022 Qatar World Cup

vivo, has been announced as the Official Smartphone and the only Official Sponsor in the smartphone industry of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM.

The company’s new foldable device the X Fold+, which was launched in mainland China in conjunction with FIFA’s 118th anniversary, is the first official foldable smartphone and it will appear in Qatar 2022 matches to provide support for the preparation and staging of the event. As the exclusive official smartphone sponsor of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, vivo will connect international football fans, who are as passionate about the beautiful game as vivo is, through its industry-leading smartphone technology.

vivo signed a six-year sponsorship agreement with FIFA in 2017, and this year’s event in Qatar will be the second World Cup vivo has sponsored after having done the FIFA Confederations Cup 2017TM, the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018TM and the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2021TM. For football events, vivo also sponsored the UEFA EURO 2020™. vivo remains committed to supporting the development of football through its various football sponsorships.

As one of the oldest sports, football is hugely popular around the world. It embodies teamwork and pursuing the same outcome to achieve one goal. Regardless of race, gender, and age, football always has the power to bring people from different cultural backgrounds together to build strong connections and break barriers.

vivo started its globalization journey in 2014 and now covers more than 60 countries and regions across the globe. vivo has always adhered to consumer orientation and is committed to using innovative technology to provide excellent smartphones and other products for users around the world. Together, with FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™’s expected global audience of 5 billion and over 400 million active vivo users worldwide, vivo and FIFA are looking forward to connecting with audiences worldwide through the shared passion of football.

vivo believes that the development of sports and technology shares a similar philosophy – empowering people to live a better life through continuous breakthroughs and innovations. Through its sponsorship, vivo will play an integral role in helping FIFA host an open and inclusive event for all people around the world. As the only Official Sponsor of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM in the smartphone industry, vivo would like to invite global users and football fans to record wonderful moments that will spread the happiness among family and friends.

“Football has the power to bring people together. vivo believes that innovation can help football fans build a community and share exciting World Cup experiences with everyone across the globe, whether they are watching the games at a football stadium or enjoying the experience from afar,” said Spark Ni, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at vivo.

During the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, vivo will provide industry-leading flagship smartphones to FIFA World Cup staff to help them complete their preparations with cutting-edge technologies, and boost the hosting of a successful event.  

vivo will also launch the #vivogiveitashot campaign during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ to celebrate the event. Through this campaign, vivo hopes to recreate those beautiful and impressive moments and also show the courage of people who tackle challenges head-on. It’s believed this campaign will give people across the globe the power to express themselves through their love of football and the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™.

ECB announce increase in funding for Women’s Cricket

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have announced a £3.5m increase in funding for the women’s regional game to run until the end of 2024.

The uplift in funding will increase the number of professional women’s players, grow the salary pot and grow the average salary.

From 1 November 2022, the number of professional players funded by ECB will go up to seven players per region, rising again to 10 professional players per region by 1 February 2023.

In 2023 there will be 80 ECB-funded professional women’s domestic cricketers, double the 40 initially contracted in 2020, in addition to the England Women’s Centrally Contracted players.

The salary pot per team from 1 February will rise to £250,000, meaning the average salary for a women’s regional cricketer will be £25,000.

There has also been an increase in staffing salaries and capacity, with a focus on the science and medicine provision at each region.

ECB Interim Chief Executive Officer Clare Connor said: “Everyone within cricket should be immensely proud of the game-changing progress of professional women’s domestic cricket since the implementation of the Transform Women’s and Girls’ Cricket Action Plan began in 2020.

“The significant increase in funding we are announcing today will not only continue to drive the performance standards of our domestic players across England and Wales, giving the women’s game more strength in depth, but critically we are creating a more equitable future for women and girls in our sport. Young girls have a clearer pathway in cricket than ever before, and the belief that they too can aspire to be professional cricketers. 

“As of February there will be nearly 100 professional female cricketers in England and Wales. There were fewer than 20 before we launched the new regional structure in 2020.

“We’re indebted to the hard work of everyone: players, support staff and the administrators who have backed the vision and driven this change – and to the PCA, for the important role they’ve played in supporting this progression with their continued collaboration.

“Combined with the dramatic impact of The Hundred, we are seeing the benefits of professionalisation and collaborative ways of working and cricket is thriving as a result.”

The FA Football Leadership Diversity Report published today

The Football Association [The FA] has today published its annual report on the Football Leadership Diversity Code for the 2021-22 season.

The landmark Code was introduced in October 2020 to ensure English football better represents our modern society, focusing on increasing equality of opportunity to encourage recruitment of diverse talent across senior leadership teams, team operations and coaching setups.

The Code now has over 60 signatories, including all Premier League clubs, 32 EFL clubs, The FA, Premier League, EFL, Barclays Women’s Super League and Barclays Women’s Championship, which are all committed to tackling inequality and embedding greater diversity in the long term.

During the second season of the Code, some progress was made, with football collectively exceeding targets in hiring Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage senior coaches in the men’s game and coaches in women’s football. There was an uplift in the number of recruitment shortlists which had Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage female candidates, while the number of diverse male candidates increased again.

However, while some clubs are showing that positive change is possible, it is clear that more needs to be done across the game to meet the Code’s targets. Disappointingly, the 2021-22 season saw a decrease in the number of senior management hires for both female and Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage candidates. The recruitment of non-senior diverse coaches in the men’s game, as well as female coaches in women’s football, also fell below the targets during the season. 

Some signatories had more success than others, which may be because they have more diverse communities from which to recruit, but it is also likely that variations are due to some clubs having more mature equality, diversity and inclusion [EDI] and recruitment frameworks. With the Premier League’s EDI Standard updated in 2021, and the EFL’sTogether strategy launched this autumn, all clubs should soon have the tools to ensure they are recruiting the best talent from diverse shortlists.

The three governing bodies of English football which are signed up to the Code collectively exceeded seven of the eight targets this season. The full report, which includes updates from all signatories, can be found here. Key highlights from the reporting period of 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022 include:

FA Chief Executive, Mark Bullingham, said: “I would like to thank everybody involved for supporting the Football Leadership Diversity Code, as part of a collective desire to create meaningful change. This year shows some signs of progress, with a shift in recruitment processes that will start to change the game and the three governing bodies exceeding seven out of eight targets. However, while we saw clubs exceeding diversity targets for senior coaches in the men’s game and coaches in the women’s game, there is still a huge amount of work to be done across the game. We understand that substantive change will take time, but a number of clubs have already made progress, and we expect to see more clubs follow that lead in years to come.”

Premier League Chief Executive, Richard Masters, said: “The Premier League fully supports the Football Leadership Diversity Code as we collectively work to achieve greater diversity across all areas of the game. Over the past two years, the Code has represented an important commitment from across football to tackle inequality and create long-term change. We are pleased to be making progress but there is still much more to be done to ensure there are opportunities at all levels of the workforce – this remains a priority for us.”

EFL Chief Executive, Trevor Birch, said: “Since signing up to the Football Leadership Diversity Code, the EFL has made a number of strategic developments to its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion [EDI] operation, to help make the EFL and its Clubs more reflective and representative of the communities in which we serve. During that period, the EFL has seen a rise in both female and Black, Asian or Mixed Heritage employees recruited. Whilst this is a step in the right direction, the League is committed to further diversifying its staff base, ensuring everyone has the same opportunity to succeed across the EFL. We will also continue to work collaboratively with Clubs and partners to improve our game, together.”

Kick It Out Chair, Sanjay Bhandari, said: “The results on recruitment of Black, Asian and Mixed Heritage coaches in both the men’s and women’s game, and the achievement of targets by the football authorities, are encouraging. There is also plenty of room for improvement in other areas such as senior leadership and the recruitment of female coaches. Two years into the process, now is a good time for pause and reflection across the industry, to share learnings and best practice. Collectively, that will enable us to increase the pace of change.”

In 2021, The FA launched a careers platform to create greater transparency of roles available across English football and to help clubs and organisations reach a more diverse audience of candidates. All signatories of the Code can advertise vacancies on the platform and since its launch, over 2,600 vacancies have been posted, with over 13,500 applications. Of these, 40% of applicants were from a Black, Asian or Mixed Heritage background, while 19% of applications were from females and 100% of candidates said they would recommend the platform to their network. The FA continues to encourage those who want a role within the game to register their profile on the platform to receive alerts and to search for roles relevant to them.

More information on the Football Leadership Diversity Code, including the version which is tailored for the National League System, grassroots game, and women’s pyramid, can be found here.

IMG announce appointment of new Head of Global Football

IMG today announced it has hired Robert Klein as Managing Director, Head of Global Football for IMG Media. Klein has served most recently as Bundesliga International CEO.

Klein, who will start in early January, brings more than 25 years’ experience, most recently in driving the global growth of one of the world’s biggest football leagues. He was responsible for setting up the Deustsche Fusball Liga (DFL), Bundesliga International, in 2017 to market the international media rights to Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 matches across all platforms, as well as global licensing and sponsorship rights. He also built the league’s global communications and marketing teams to engage with fans and digital content partners worldwide.

Adam Kelly, President of IMG Media, said: “Robert will drive our global football business to new levels, working with and expanding our football team to deliver transformative growth for existing and new partners. His stellar reputation, experience and relationships will further bolster the unique set of capabilities, expertise and network that enable us to add value for rightsholders around the world.”

Klein added: “I have been impressed by the first-class team IMG Media has built over recent years, as well as their energy and focus on pioneering new, ground-breaking projects. They have a unique offering that I’m looking forward to further leveraging with the football community. To join IMG at this time and be given the opportunity and backing to build out a world-class football group was too good to resist. The ambition levels are high and I can’t wait to get started in January 2023.”

Prior to Bundesliga International, Klein ran global sports rights for Red Bull Media House.

Member Insights: At Sportel NASCAR gets ready to take to the streets

iSportConnect’s Editor-in-Chief Jay Stuart reports from Sportel.

The NASCAR stand at Sportel was busy as usual this week as the series looks ahead to holding its first-ever street race in 2023 as the showpiece of a two-day downtown festival July 1-2.

The Daytona 500, which kicks off the 65th season next February 18, will be seen in 195 territories around the world.

The pre-season Clash at the Coliseum will take place in Los Angeles on February 5. It’s the second year of the special exhibition event held on a quarter-mile track inside the iconic Olympic stadium. In the first year 70 per cent of attendees had never been to a NASCAR event before.

New TV deals for the coming season are in place for the coming season in Mexico (Fox Sports) and Brazil (Badeirantes).

NASCAR is a distinctly ‘American’ motorsport product but that does not get in the way of its international success. “We don’t dumb it down for the global market,” said Keith D’Alessandro, senior co-ordinating producer. “But we do usually localise the presentation.”

International viewers see the same coverage as U.S. audiences on Fox and NBC, which split rights, except for branding and other elements that are specifically for the domestic market and are masked.

“The world feed is not an afterthought,” D’Alessandro said. “It has its own dedicated production staff to deliver races in real time.” They also produce a 52-minute cutdown of all races for the partners which don’t want to go live.

NASCAR launched its OTT service in 2016. NASCAR Track Pass, available worldwide, carries live coverage of all three series, plus ancillary content. “We don’t see it as a cannibalizing our broadcast distribution,” said Nicholas Skipper, managing director of media strategy. “It’s a complementary offering
that appeals to dedicated fans in particular.”

NASCAR is seeing strong interest in its subscription online iRacing simulator product and runs a competition series. Top driver William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports was an iRacing champion as a teenager before progressing to the track.


Sportel Covers All the Bases
News and views from the market floor

One of the most striking things about Sportel in Monaco is just how wide-ranging the event is, with exhibitors and delegates coming from all sectors of the global sports media business.

That has been truer than ever this year as tech in all its many permutations grows in presence. This sampling of the dozens of fascinating conversations that I had at this year’s event should give clear proof of that.

Let me start out with a comment that gave me food for thought. How do you define a ‘tier’ when it comes to sports? I was chatting with a tech supplier who referred to Tier 2 and Tier 3 sports. When I asked for examples, I was surprised to hear one of Europe’s biggest football leagues described as Tier 3.

The person I was talking to explained that from his company’s viewpoint the criterion for being in one tier or another was not about audience or popularity but purely about a sport’s budget and appetite for spending on innovation. By that standard I’m sure many Sportel attendees wish Tier 3 were a bit less crowded…

Melissa Soobratty of World Table Tennis was at Sportel with the first-ever full calendar for the sport. The 2023 WTT Series will have 34 stops. The World Championhips take place in Durban next May. IMG handles production and distribution for the federation… Beach volleyball, 3×3 basketball and 12 other sports will be on the programme of the 2 nd edition of the World Beach Games in Bali from August 5-12, 2023.

The multi-sport event is organised by ANOC (the Association of National Olympic Committees). Robin Mitchell of Fiji as re-elected as ANOC president this month. Sports Tribal is the name of a new FAST (free ad-supported streaming) platform that will feature 50 linear networks available on the app. “We’re free on Samsung right next to DAZN and MLB,” Amory Schwartz said at Sportel.

“FAST is growing so fast that Pluto now has about 1 per cent of all TV viewing, which is amazing when you think about it. Our average viewing session time is 46 minutes.” Most YouTube channels don’t come close to that… Eurosport and IOC alumnus Vincent Chupin’s VC International is working with Paris 2024 and the IPC.

He told me he is seeking to build a real sustainable business in Africa. There was a visionary on the Sportel conference programme who is not often credited as such. Simon Brydon founded Cycling.TV as one of the very first sports OTT channels. When he sold out to NeuLion in 2007 it was still early in the market’s evolution. “Then everybody started focusing on tech instead of content, which never makes sense because technology is a commodity.”

After a stretch at Racing UK he joined Synamedia, for whom he was speaking at Sportel on anti-piracy… ATP Media issued a tender for rights in Europe last month and Alan Bruno was on the stand at Sportel to follow up. Rights are available from 2024. ATP events are on Sinclair’s Tennis Channel in the U.S. and beIN Sports in Australia…

Iggy Jovanovich, who was part of the Australian SportsTech Trade Mission that iSportconnect hosted in London in August, was at Sportel for the first time for his company Gerford AI. “It’s less transactional
than the events I’ve been to in the States,” he said. “There it’s about doing deals. Here you start conversations. It’s a different process.”

Alan Ghanime of anti-piracy provider TMG says the starting point for anti- piracy efforts is locating the issue. The company trawls the internet and detects streams on search engines, P2P networks, internet forums, private networks, community sites and social sites. Not all piracy is really worth fighting. It’s all about the quality of the product. When the pirates are as good as the real thing, that’s bad. If the quality of the real thing is a lot better, it’s a disincentive for people to go pirate…

Iain Adams and Alex Sharp were at Sportel for Amagi, which has flown into the FAST space for the likes of NBC, DAZN and beIN, and will underpin the new ITV X launching with the FIFA World Cup coming up soon. “FAST is a revolution backwards,” Adams said. “Free, advertising-supported TV is the ‘new’ thing, when of course it’s where it all began.”

Veritone, one of the heavyweights in the merging AI market, had a big Sportel stand to market its technology, which is based on an aggregation of about 500 different cognitive AI engines. “We think of what we do as monetization tools,” said David Candler. “The eye is always on monetization.” Clients include the Masters, USTA and USGA…

Sports news and results are at the heart of the PA Media news agency, which had a stand manned by Will Staley at Sportel. At any given time the company has 50-100 editors working at its London HQ…

After Sportel Bali in February, Sportel will be heading back to Miami May 9-10,

Member Insights: The FIA are learning that silence isn’t always golden

David Alexander is Managing Director of Calacus PR, in this member insight piece he looks into the controversy Formula 1 currently finds itself in.

It’s been a tough 12 months for Formula One and the FIA, governing body for motorsport.

After the highly controversial conclusion to the 2021 season, which saw Max Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton in a bizarre interpretation of the rules, Race Director Michael Masi ultimately left his role and the organisation has lurched from one crisis to another ever since.

For starters, Hamilton has been criticised for using his platform for social good and Stefano Domenicali ruled out the prospect of women competing in the sport unless “a meteorite hit the earth.”

With this year’s championships already sewn up, focus has again been on last season’s debacle after it transpired that an investigation was underway into breaches of spending caps.

The FIA did not help themselves by letting others comment and speculate rather than providing a clear picture of their investigation, which ultimately found that Aston Martin were guilty of a procedural breach whilst Red Bull had breached the procedural and minor overspend limits related to the $145m budget cap.

The ‘Minor Overspend Breach’ revelations have caused further friction between Red Bull and Mercedes, whose chief Toto Wolff was clear that the breach could give a team an unfair advantage.

He said: “It is a so-called minor violation, but I believe that the definition is not completely correct. If you spend five million more than the limit, it is still a minor violation, but the impact on the championship is significant.”

No wonder McLaren F1 chief Zak Brown wrote to the FIA suggesting that Red Bull’s budget cap breach “constitutes cheating.”

He commented: “”The overspend breach, and possibly the procedural breaches, constitute cheating by offering a significant advantage across technical, sporting and financial regulations.

“The FIA has run an extremely thorough, collaborative and open process. We have even been given a one-year dress rehearsal (in 2020), with ample opportunity to seek any clarification if details were unclear. So, there is no reason for any team to now say they are surprised.

“The bottom line is any team who has overspent has gained an unfair advantage both in the current and following year’s car development. We don’t feel a financial penalty alone would be a suitable penalty for an overspend breach or a serious procedural breach. There clearly needs to be a sporting penalty in these instances, as determined by the FIA.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has fought back against suggestions of cheating, arguing that other teams are collaborating to put pressure on the FIA to hand out a heavy punishment.

He commented: “For a fellow competitor to be accusing you of cheating, to accuse you of fraudulent activity, is absolutely shocking. What has been tremendously disappointing is the leakage that happened. Suddenly we are tried and subjected to three weeks of effective abuse. And then to be seeing a letter accusing us of cheating and being fraudulent, it is just not right, and this has to stop.

“We have been on trial because of public accusations since Singapore. The rhetoric of cheats, that we’ve had this enormous benefit, numbers have been put out in then media that are miles out of reality. The damage that does to the brand, to pour partners, to our drivers to our workforce.”

That is down in no small part to the FIA and the length of time it has needed to take action, which has put it in an impossible position.

Under its own rules, the FIA is beholden to “publish a summary of the terms of the ABA, detailing the breach, any sanctions, and any enhanced monitoring procedures, omitting any Confidential Information.”

They should have announced immediately how much the overspend actually was and ideally what it was spent on, particularly after such a close-run title last season.

Red Bull’s punishment was delayed following the death of the team’s co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz, who died aged 78 following a long-term illness but had been dragging on before his death.

The silence gave rise to speculation and uncertainty that the sport could do without, with Hamilton aware of the reputational damage that is being done.

He said: “I think we need to continue to have transparency for the fans, for the integrity of the sport. There’s different numbers and different things being said here and there, so I was expecting those results – like you – to come out yesterday.

“I would like to think that if it’s been delayed it’s because it’s been taken very seriously and I trust that Mohammed (Ben Sulayem), is taking it seriously and will do what is right for the sport, I hope. I think it would be bad for the sport if action wasn’t taken if there was a breach.”

The delay since the initial breaches announcement prompted suggestions that a deal was being negotiated to satisfy all parties and when the FIA announced a fine of $7m and a 10% reduction in aerodynamic research, it did not feel particularly punitive.

The rules have been created for a reason – to act as a framework for fair play and act as a deterrent to prevent further rule-breaking in future.

“There is no accusation or evidence that Red Bull has sought at any time to act in bad faith, dishonestly or in a fraudulent manner, nor has it wilfully concealed any information from the Cost Cap Administration,” read an FIA statement, and it remains to be seen how other teams react to the news..

Clearly, Ben Sulayem has plenty of work to do to reassure fans that the integrity of the sport really is secure.
Whether that is possible, remains to be seen.