In elite football, competitive advantage is pursued relentlessly. Big clubs invest heavily in performance data and tactical analysis in the pursuit of marginal gains.

Yet that desperate search for gains has now led to one club, Southampton FC, suffering an enormous loss. Southampton admitted to spying on their opponent’s training session and were charged by the English Football League. They have been expelled from a match that could have seen them win promotion to the Premier League.

That match, the Championship playoff final, is often described as the most lucrative in football. Promotion to the Premier League is worth around £200 million in increased revenue.

Hull and Middlesbrough (the club Southampton spied on) will now fight for that prize. Whether or not you agree with the punishment, the episode highlights the high financial stakes of English football. In an environment where a single result can materially alter a club’s economic trajectory, the pursuit of competitive advantage can take increasingly aggressive forms.

Beyond the specific case of Southampton and “spygate”, there is a bigger issue facing football and the incentives which drive it.

English football’s financial infrastructure does not simply reward success – it also amplifies the consequences of failure. Our research on the economics of English football has shown how the game’s financial structures can reduce competitive balance. The wealthiest sides dominate competitions and leagues. In this environment, clubs can often perceive promotion as transformational – and failure as existential.

This helps to explain why clubs sometimes behave the way they do. Decades of research into the finances of football show a strong relationship between spending and performance. Essentially, the more a team spends (particularly on players’ wages), the better it performs on the pitch.

Because of this, promotion to a higher league becomes more than a financial windfall. It creates a strategic imperative to invest quickly in the hope of staying in that league.

None of this can be used to excuse poor conduct. But it does help explain the environment in which these controversies emerge. Clubs are responding to the incentives the system creates.

And Southampton understands the reality of this system all too well.

Their 2022-23 season in the Premier League brought in revenue of £145.8 million. Immediate relegation back to the Championship reduced that figure to £85 million the following year, and promotion to the Premier League again in 2024-25 pushed it back up to £158.4 million.

Relegation means reduced revenues, strategic uncertainty and operational adjustment. Promotion offers relief and revenue, but not necessarily stability.

If anything, reaching the Premier League often introduces a different kind of pressure. There is an expectation to spend big, recruit aggressively and remain competitive. Any hint of under performance can be punished immediately.

The regulators

English football has repeatedly produced examples of clubs hunting competitive advantage, though normally through aggressive spending. This is a predictable consequence of a model that places extraordinary financial value on relatively narrow sporting outcomes.

This is precisely why regulation is becoming such a central issue in the game. Profit and Sustainability rules (PSR), ongoing debates around spending controls, and the emergence of an independent football regulator all point to a recognition that football’s economic model requires stronger governance.

But regulation alone cannot solve the deeper issue if the underlying incentives remain distorted. If the difference between success and failure continues to be measured in hundreds of millions of pounds, clubs will continue to seek every possible edge.

Seen through that lens, Southampton’s spygate story is more than football controversy. It is a case study in how financial incentives shape organisational behaviour. When there is money to be made, people will continue to break the rules. Perhaps that explains why the penalty of expulsion – which will affect fans, commercial partners and sponsors – was so severe.

Unfortunately, the football world often treats these episodes as isolated ethical failings, when they are actually symptoms of a wider structural problem. The Premier League’s commercial success has made English football richer than ever, but also more financially unforgiving.

The sport has become subject to economic conditions that make marginal advantage extremely valuable. The Southampton case is not just about sporting or non-sporting behaviour. It is about the business model that dominates and shapes modern football.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Matthew Perry paid Kenneth Iwamasa $150,000 a year to be his live-in personal assistant. His role for the “Friends” star would expand to drug messenger, addiction enabler and de facto doctor, according to court filings.

Iwamasa injected Perry with the doses of ketamine that would prove fatal on Oct. 28, 2023, and then left the actor to run errands. He returned to find Perry dead in the Jacuzzi.

The ex-assistant became the first to reach a plea deal of five people indicted in connection with Perry’s death. On Wednesday, he’ll become the last to be sentenced. Prosecutors are asking for a prison term of three years and five months. That’s more than the 2 1/2-year sentence of the doctor who sold Iwamasa ketamine and taught him to inject it into Perry, but far less than the 15-year sentence of the admitted drug dealer who sold Iwamasa the final doses.

Iwamasa, 60, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death and became the case’s most important witness in the indictments of his four co-defendants. That is virtually certain to lead to a lighter sentence.

Family members blame the assistant above all others

“I have no sympathy for Kenny Iwamasa,” Perry’s younger sister Caitlin Morrison wrote in a letter to the judge. “I wasn’t there the night my brother died. I cannot read Kenny’s thoughts. I will never know if the lethal dose of ketamine was only lethal by accident. But I know that when Kenny left the house, he was doing one of two things. He was either escaping from something he knew he had done or he was willfully abandoning a vulnerable person in a dangerous situation.”

Perry’s mother Suzanne Morrison wrote that her son and the family had known Iwamasa for decades, and that relatives were relieved when Perry, who’d had recurring struggles with addiction throughout his life, hired the assistant in 2022.

“Mathew trusted Kenny. We trusted Kenny. Kenny’s most important job — by far — was to be my son’s companion and guardian in his fight against addiction,” she wrote. “We trusted a man without a conscience, and my son paid the price.”

Iwamasa’s lawyers argued that he was an employee doing the bidding of his boss.

In a presentencing filing, they said Iwamasa had “a particular vulnerability to the relationship dynamic which he fell into with the victim. In short, he could not ‘simply say no.’ That inability had tragic consequences.”

Suzanne Morrison said Iwamasa knew he could call any family member should Perry start making drug demands, and his job would be safe.

Family disgusted by Iwamasa’s behavior following Perry’s death

Perry’s mother wrote, “When he had killed my son, he kept a sharp eye on me. He sent me songs, he drew a little map to help me find my way around the cemetery. If he saw a rainbow — one of Matthew’s favorite things — he would call me. He insisted on speaking at Matthew’s funeral. He clung to me and the family as if he was somehow the good guy who tried to save Matthew.”

She said Iwamasa expected a financial payout, and when it was clear he wouldn’t get one, he threatened legal action.

Iwamasa did speak at the funeral, which would later leave the family disgusted.

“The person responsible for my brother’s death stood up and addressed the people who loved him most,” another sister, Madeline Morrison, wrote. “That is like a cruel joke I still struggle with. He didn’t just take my brother’s life — he tainted our final memories of saying goodbye.”

Truth about the ketamine was slow to come out

The LA County Medical Examiner found that ketamine, a surgical anesthetic that has become widely used for other purposes both legal and illegal, was the primary cause of Perry’s death. Drowning was a secondary cause.

On the day of Perry’s death, Iwamasa gave police a list of all the medications Perry was taking, but he left off ketamine and said nothing about the injections, prosecutors said.

After investigators served a search warrant on the house in January 2024, that began to change, and he would slowly admit his role in Perry’s death. Iwamasa said he had been giving Perry six to eight injections of ketamine per day in the last days of his life, and that Perry had told him, “Shoot me up with a big one” on the day he died.

Iwamasa said he had worked with middleman Erik Fleming, who was sentenced to two years in prison May 13, to get drugs from dealer Jasveen Sangha.

In his first text to Fleming, Iwamasa said, “Alfred here batmans butler. He said I can text you directly.”

Madeline Morrison wrote that when the truth emerged, “It felt like my brother died all over again. Everything I believed about the day he died—everything Kenny told us—was a lie. I had to relive Matthew’s death from an entirely new and devastating perspective.”

Iwamasa pleaded guilty in August 2024 before the case became public. Wednesday will be his first court appearance since.

Perry, who died at 54, became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing on “Friends,” NBC’s culture-changing sitcom that ran from 1994 to 2004.

“He was my Matso, my Manew,” his mother wrote. “He was, in spite of all we went through, my heart and my soul.”

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization said Friday that the Ebola outbreak in Congo is “spreading rapidly” and now poses a “very high” risk at the national level.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the U.N. health agency was revising upward to “very high” its assessment of the risk within Congo, which had previously been deemed as high. The risk remains high for regional spread and low at global levels, he told reporters.

The WHO chief noted that 82 cases have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with seven confirmed deaths, “but we know the epidemic in DRC is much larger.”

He said there are now almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths. The situation in neighboring Uganda is “stable” with two cases confirmed in people who had traveled from Congo, with one death.

Earlier on Friday, the United Nations said it released $60 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund to accelerate the response in Congo and in the region. The U.S. has pledged $23 million in funding to bolster the response in Congo and Uganda, and said it would also fund the establishment of up to 50 Ebola treatment clinics in the affected regions of Congo and Uganda.

Ugandan authorities said they were not aware of any treatment centers being set up by the U.S.

Shoppers will be able to choose from a range of breakfast and lunch options for £5.50 as part of a trial at 39 stores across the UK.

Hot food selections include sausage rolls, croissants, and paninis.

As with the existing meal deal, customers can add a drink and a side such as fruit or crisps.

Some of the options include a beechwood smoked bacon brioche-style roll, a sausage, bacon and scrambled egg wrap, and a mozzarella, tomato and pesto panini.

The supermarket chain will also introduce new chilled “breakfast-to-go” items in larger stores.

New hot meal deal offerings from Tesco:

• Tesco Beechwood Smoked Bacon Brioche Style Roll
• Tesco Cumberland Pork Sausage Brioche Style Roll
• Tesco Sausage, Bacon and Scrambled Eggs Wrap
• Tesco Smoked Ham and Mature Cheddar Croissant
• Tesco Smoked Ham and Mature Cheddar Panini
• Tesco Mozzarella, Tomato and Pesto Panini
• Tesco Tuna, Cheese and Onion Melt Panini

Tesco staff to receive bonus

Tesco recently revealed that 22,000 of its staff, mainly in stores and distribution, are eligible for significant payouts.

Colleagues who cash out are expected to make average profits of between about £5,000 and £8,000 each, it said.

Recommended reading:

Tesco Clubcard offering triple voucher rewards for restaurants

Thousands of Tesco staff in line for £134 million windfall

Tesco says Iran conflict increasing uncertainty over profit outlook

The company, which employs more than 300,000 people across the UK, runs one of the country’s largest save-as-you-earn schemes, with different schemes maturing each year.

This year has seen a particularly strong windfall for employee investors, on the back of gains in Tesco’s share price in recent years.

Shares in the retail giant have risen by almost 25% over the past year.

Which is your favourite supermarket? Let us know in the comments

Her family said in a statement on Friday (May 22) that she died peacefully at home on Thursday (May 21) evening, surrounded by her family, after living with Alzheimer’s in her final years.

They said her health had been declining for some time and that she had become seriously ill in recent weeks, giving the family time to be together with her.

Born in Gatley, Cheshire, she began working for the BBC at just 13, going on to present BBC Radio programmes Family Favourites and Woman’s Hour in the 1960s.

Sorry to hear that the holiday presenter Judith Chalmers has died. She’ll be remembered most for Thames TV’s After Noon Plus and travel show Wish You Were Here? Grampian’s Kay Duncan introduces Judith Chalmers here from 1986. RIP Judith pic.twitter.com/IocRRsK0Xv

— UKPRES (@UKPRES1) May 22, 2026

She later hosted ITV’s daytime magazine show Good Afternoon before going on to present Wish You Were Here…?, an ITV series of 30-minute shows about travel and holidays, in 1974.

Chalmers presented the primetime show until 2003 and was appointed an OBE in 1994.

She leaves behind her husband, former sports commentator Neil Durden-Smith, and their two children.

Fans pay tribute to Judith Chalmers

Plenty of people took to social media to pay tribute to Judith after the news of her death broke.

One person, posting on X, shared: “Very sad…a pioneer of the travel programme”.

Another said: “She encapsulated the holiday and the better times of the 1980s and 1990s.

“Whenever I travel I often think of her reassuringly saying, ‘transfers included’ – which rarely happens in my case.”

The author Malcolm Prince posted: “Farewell lovely lady.

“A great broadcaster.”

Another commented: “Saddened to hear that Judith Chalmers has died.

“Loved her programme ‘Wish you were here!’ in the 1970s/80s.

“May she Rest in Peace.”

What’s your favourite memory of Judith Chalmers? Let us know in the comments.

A group of three rescue divers managed to pull the bodies of five Italians back to the surface after they were found inside a cave complex in a Maldives holiday hotspot

A rescue heroic diver has revealed the inside story of a grim mission to retrieve bodies from a shark-infested cave in the Maldives.

Finnish rescue diver Sami Paakkarinen was part of an effort to retrieve the bodies of four Italians who died after delving into the depths where there are large underwater caves. The bodies of Muriel Oddenino, 31, Federico Gualtieri, also 31, Monia Montefalcone, 52, and her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, were found near the mouth of a third and final chamber of one of the cave.

Their diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, 44, was also found close to the entrance of the same chamber. Despite speculation, Sami said it was impossible the group had been sucked into the shark-infested cave.

READ MORE: Maldives cave divers ‘sucked into cave and unable to swim out before running out of oxygen’READ MORE: Family pay tribute to ‘loving husband and father’ killed in horror shark attack

Speaking to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera said: “It’s a huge cave, but it’s not possible they were sucked in.” The comment was in response to a theory shared by Alfonso Bolognini, the president of the Italian Society of Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine.

He said the group could have been pulled into the cavern’s narrow entrance by a strong current. But Sami said he could only share a comment based on his own diving experience.

He said: “The water moves in one direction for 12 hours and then in the opposite direction for another 12…Continuous currents.” Sami added currents are “very predictable” in coral reefs.

The experienced diver said when he and two others arrived at the cave they felt a “very light current inside it.” He continued: “It’s true that there is a current going in and out of the cave.

“The cave, so to speak, is breathing. But it’s really not very strong. It couldn’t have sucked anyone in.”

The diver said the Dhekunu Kandu cave had “never been mapped” and that going that far underwater required “a different type of equipment and approach.” He also believed it would be near impossible that divers accidentally entered the cave.

He added: “It’s a huge cave…in the Maldives, the sun shines up to 100 meters deep. So at 60 meters it’s still daylight, and when you enter a cave, you know it because it gets dark, you don’t risk accidentally entering a cave.”

After the bodies were recovered, Giorgia’s grieving boyfriend broke his silence and said he shared a message with her moments before she went for the dive. Sami believed that a so-called “sand wall illusion” could have been a cause behind the deaths.

Other divers, working with research organisation Dan Europe, said the group could have taken a wrong turn as they attempted to navigate their way out of “shark cave.”

The next Call Of Duty game will be another Modern Warfare entry, as developer Infinity Ward issues a statement ahead of its official unveiling.

The yearly cycle of Call Of Duty games, combined with the prominence of leakers around the franchise, means the announcement of a new entry is rarely ever a surprise. 

It’s been known for some time that the next entry will be a follow-up to 2023’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, with the story supposedly set in Korea. Beyond that, rumours suggest the 2027 game will be a brand new sub-franchise from Sledgehammer Games. 

Developer Infinity Ward has now confirmed this year’s title will be a Modern Warfare entry, making a statement on social media ahead of an expected reveal next month. 

Writing on the Infinity Ward X account, studio heads Mark Grigsby and Jack O’Hara said: ‘We are Infinity Ward. We build visceral, immersive combat experiences that hit different. 

‘As a new chapter begins for this studio, we’re focused on what defines us: passion, precision, obsession, and an unrelenting drive to make the best entertainment in the industry. Our next game is the result of that mindset.

‘Determined. Bold. Relentless. Built by a team pushing every detail, every system, every moment to its limit. On behalf of everyone at Infinity Ward, we’re proud of what we’ve been building and excited to finally start sharing it with you.’

In a separate post promoting a Q&A podcast with Grigsby and O’Hara, the caption reads: ‘Yes, we are making the definitive Modern Warfare.’

It’s an odd precursor statement, as it doesn’t come with any screenshots or footage from the next entry, but as we discussed earlier this week, that’s just the way things are done nowadays.

The full reveal will presumably take place at either Summer Game Fest on June 5 or the Xbox Games Showcase on June 7. Although it’s also possible there’ll be a separate Call Of Duty livestream.

Call Of Duty is on the backfoot after last year’s Black Ops 7 fell below launch sales expectations following the huge success of Battlefield 6. The game’s failure led to a rare apology from Activision but, considering the rigid annual nature of Call Of Duty titles, any major changes to the formula likely won’t materialise for a few years. 

As such, this puts this year’s Call Of Duty in an awkward position, especially if it largely iterates on past glories without any meaningful change. However, we’ll have to wait and see if Infinity Ward can deliver the ‘definitive’ entry in the series against the odds.

Aside from it being a Modern Warfare title, the only other confirmed detail is that it won’t be coming to PlayStation 4. 

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For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

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People travelling towards London may face major disruption

There is major disruption on trains towards London, affecting some Cambridgeshire routes. Those travelling from Peterborough, Cambridge, and Royston towards London may be affected on the trains throughout Friday (May 22).

Due to damage to overhead electric wires between London and Stevenage, major disruption is expected until the end of the day. The National Rail website said: “Damage to the overhead electric wires in the New Barnet area means that some lines are blocked.

“As a result, trains between London and Stevenage may be cancelled, delayed by up to 60 minutes or revised. Major disruption is expected until the end of the day.”

The train lines affected are:

• Grand Central between London Kings Cross and Bradford Interchange / Sunderland;
• Great Northern between Moorgate and Welwyn Garden City, and also between London Kings Cross and Letchworth Garden City / Royston / Cambridge / Peterborough / Ely / Kings Lynn;
• Hull Trains between London Kings Cross and Hull / Beverley;
• LNER between London Kings Cross and Lincoln / Hull / Leeds / Bradford Forster Square / Harrogate / York / Newcastle / Berwick-upon-Tweed / Edinburgh / Aberdeen / Inverness;
• Lumo between London Kings Cross and Newcastle / Edinburgh / Glasgow Queen Street;
• Thameslink between Brighton and Cambridge, between Horsham and Peterborough, and also between Sevenoaks and Welwyn Garden City.

For Great Northern and Thameslink customers travelling through Cambridgeshire, their train may be cancelled or delayed for at least 45 minutes. People are advised to check their journey before they travel.

Tuchel has announced his England squad for this summer’s World Cup. Several City stars have booked their spot on the plane but Foden, as expected, misses out.

Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford, Dean Henderson, James Trafford

Defenders: Reece James, Jarell Quansah, Ezri Konsa, John Stones, Marc Guehi, Nico O’Reilly, Dan Burn, Tino Livramento, Djed Spence

Midfielders: Declan Rice, Elliot Anderson, Kobbie Mainoo, Jordan Henderson, Morgan Rogers, Eberechi Eze, Jude Bellingham

Forwards: Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Gordon, Harry Kane (C), Ollie Watkins, Ivan Toney