Andrew Butler

Acting Deputy Sports Editor at The Observer

Deputy sports editor (acting) @ObserverUK, @leytonorientfc hypeman on @LOFCLive

Articles

Here come the disruptors

1 week ago | observer.co.uk | Rory Smith |Andrew Butler

Sport is being reinvented for the digital age. In a special report, we explore how they are coping with the change. Micah Richards did not feel any need to sugarcoat the news. He had been exchanging messages with his old friend Mario Balotelli over the possibility of them working together again.
Moses Swaibu tries to write h...

3 weeks ago | observer.co.uk | Andrew Butler

If you were passing by a certain Chinese takeaway in Dalston, East London, in August 2013, you’d have found the footballer Moses Swaibu stuffing a bag of cash into the back of his Mercedes SLK 250 CDI before driving it home to south London. Two years later, you’d have found him in prison. Swaibu, a former scholar of the year at Crystal Palace, was sentenced to 16 months for conspiracy to commit bribery for his part in a match-fixing scandal while he was playing at non-league club Bromley.
Zhao Xintong - Don't call it a comeback

1 month ago | observer.co.uk | Andrew Butler

On June 6 2023 a verdict was handed down that threatened to tear apart the sport of snooker. In the 58-page document, ten Chinese players were handed bans ranging from 20 months to life for match fixing. One of them, Zhao Xintong, was given a 20-month suspension from the sport after admitting to ‘agreeing or making an effort to agree to contrive the outcome of the match’ of two of his close friend Yan Bingtao’s matches against Ricky Walden and Oliver Lines in March 2022.
Premier League plays second fiddle to a YouTuber football match

Mar 7, 2025 | tortoisemedia.com | Andrew Butler

The most watched game of football this weekend won’t be Arsenal v Manchester United or Liverpool v Southampton. It will be Sidemen v YouTube Allstars, a sold-out charity match in front of 90,000 people at a packed out Wembley and millions more online. Now in its sixth year, the amateur fixture was set up by a group of British YouTubers and shows boxing isn’t the only sport in which influencers are getting more attention.
Unwanted Premier League record set to be broken

Feb 25, 2025 | tortoisemedia.com | Andrew Butler

The Premier League’s bottom three clubs are on course to break the record for the combined lowest points tally for relegated clubs in the league’s history. Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton have together gained just 43 points in total after 26 matches. All three clubs were promoted from the Championship last season and have struggled to keep pace in England’s top tier.
Erik ten Hag sacked as Manchester United manager

Oct 28, 2024 | tortoisemedia.com | Andrew Butler

Erik ten Hag has been sacked by Manchester United following the club’s abject start to the 2024/25 season. The Red Devils’ 2-1 defeat to West Ham on Sunday afternoon left them 14th in the Premier League table on 11 points – their second-lowest points tally after nine games of a Premier League season.
Aram-no: women’s footballers call on Fifa to drop Saudi oil sponsorship

Oct 21, 2024 | tortoisemedia.com | Andrew Butler

More than 100 professional women’s footballers have called on the sport’s governing body to drop Saudi oil giant Aramco as a sponsor. Fifa signed a four-year deal in April, thought to be worth £400 million, which gives the company sponsorship rights to the 2026 men’s World Cup and the 2027 women’s World Cup. An open letter, signed by 106 players from 24 countries, said the deal was “worse than an own goal” and that Fifa “might as well pour oil on the pitch and set it alight”.
Joe Root: England cricket’s record-breaking Test run-scorer's career by the numbers

Oct 10, 2024 | tortoisemedia.com | Andrew Butler

Joe Root has become England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer after scoring 262 in the first Test against Pakistan in Multan. His career total of 12,664 runs took him past Sir Alastair Cook’s record, and puts him fifth on the all-time list of Test run-scorers. He needs 714 more runs to reach second place on the list, and 3,257 more to rise to the summit recorded by the Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar. “His currency is runs,” former England batter Nasser Hussain said on Thursday morning.
Out! Wimbledon calls time on tennis judges

Oct 9, 2024 | tortoisemedia.com | Andrew Butler

Wimbledon will replace human line judges with an automated system from next year. For the first time in the tennis tournament’s 147-year history, all 18 courts will be fitted with electronic line calling, meaning the additional match officials roles will be made redundant. The Hawk-Eye Live system has been used since 2007, but its use had been based on players calling for a review of a line judge’s call.
Hampshire usher in new era for English cricket

Sep 30, 2024 | tortoisemedia.com | Andrew Butler

The 161-year-old club said GMR had acquired a majority stake and will complete a full acquisition over the next two years. The purchase will help Hampshire with its debts of £60 million, and bolt it to an influential investor in world cricket. GMR Group has run the Delhi Capitals Indian Premier League team since its launch in 2008 and it owns stakes in teams in South Africa, Dubai and the US. But those waiting for a wholesale revamp of county cricket with foreign cash may be disappointed.