News

Crowd Network (Crowd), the home of UK athlete-owned podcasts, has signed Darragh Kelly as Director of Strategic and Commercial Partnerships.

Darragh joins Crowd from Platform Media, where he executed the commercial growth strategy of The Good, The Bad & The Rugby, transforming it into one of the UK’s most commercially successful sports podcasts. There, Darragh was pivotal in spearheading campaigns and working with significant brands.

Prior to Platform Media, Darragh led brand partnerships at Pitch International, Takumi, and was the global strategy manager at Dazn. He has a wealth of experience in evolving monetisation pathways across podcasting, social media, and experiential platforms. Darragh is also passionate about boosting investment in women’s sports and has worked with brands to produce authentic women’s rugby content.

In his new role, Darragh will shape Crowd’s commercial brand partnerships strategy and identify partners that align with its network of shows and talent.

Crowd Network (Crowd), the home of athlete-owned podcasts, is launching new show For The Love Of Cricket with Stuart Broad and Jos Buttler.

Just as fellow Crowd podcast For The Love Of Rugby does for its sport, For The Love Of Cricket will see Stuart and Jos sharing their unique first-hand insights of what it’s really like to play the game at the elite level — in decisive Ashes Tests, in World Cup finals, in England and across the world at the game’s most famous venues. They’ve played with and against the greatest players of the last 20 years, and they’ve been friends all the way through. This is them taking all of us inside the boundary rope.

Stuart Broad Cbe is one of England's greatest ever cricketers. He took 604 wickets in 167 Test matches for the national team, and was Odi and T20I England captain. He was...

Crowd Network (Crowd), one of Europe’s fastest-growing podcast networks, is joining forces with former Lionesses Jill Scott and Karen Carney for Long Story Short. It will be Crowd’s first podcast to be owned by female athletes.

Officially announced today at The Podcast Show, the podcast will be a platform to tell stories from throughout Jill and Karen’s decades-long friendship. With over 300 England caps between them, the pair will podcast together every week, bringing listeners stories from both on and off the pitch.

Jill Scott MBE is expanding her podcasting career; she’s already well-known for her regular appearances on football podcast series The Overlap’s Stick to Football. Since retiring from football in 2022, Jill has also been a regular fixture on television screens. She won reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2022 and is a team captain on sports panel show A League Of Their Own.

Soccer Aid for Unicef 2024, broadcast live from Stamford Bridge, London, last week has raised £15 million, for Unicef’s vital work helping give children around the world happy, healthy, and play-filled childhoods.

Thanks to the generous UK public, Unicef UK supporters, ITV1, Itvx and Stv viewers, this year’s amount sees the current total, raised since 2006 – when Unicef UK Ambassador Robbie Williams founded the concept – hit a record fundraising milestone of over £106 million for children worldwide. This year, with thanks to the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, every donation made up to £4 million was doubled.

The hotly anticipated match took place at the sold-out Stamford Bridge stadium in London – returning for the third time in Soccer Aid for Unicef history and welcoming back over 40,000 fans. The match ended 6-3 to England, with the Three Lions taking the win for the first time in six years. World XI keep the overall...

Soccer Aid for Unicef 2024 will take place on June 9 at Stamford Bridge.

The live show on ITV1, Stv and Itvx will be hosted by Unicef UK Ambassador Dermot O’Leary, who will be joined once again by Unicef UK High Profile Supporter, Alex Scott. Sam Matterface returns as Commentator, with Iain Stirling on Co-Comms duty. A half-time entertainment show will also be announced in due course. Previous performers include Rita Ora, Robbie Williams and Tom Grennan.

England have won five times since the game began in 2006 – but their last victory came in 2018. They trail the Soccer Aid World XI Fc who have won the fixture seven times – and are on a record five-year winning streak.

England will take to the pitch in a specially commissioned Euro ’96 kit. This is ahead of Euro 2024 – the first game of which is just five days after Soccer Aid. The Soccer Aid World XI Fc will...

Soccer Aid for Unicef 2023, broadcast live and exclusively on ITV1, Stv and Itvx last week from Old Trafford, Manchester, has raised £14.6 million for Unicef’s vital work giving children around the world the happy, healthy, play-filled childhoods they are entitled to.

Thanks to the generous support of the UK public, Unicef UK supporters, ITV1, Stv and Itvx viewers, this year’s amount brings the current total raised to date, since Soccer Aid for Unicef was founded by Unicef UK Ambassador Robbie Williams in 2006, to over £90 million for children worldwide.

The hotly anticipated match took place at the sold-out Old Trafford stadium in Manchester – welcoming back over 63,000 fans to the same venue that hosted the very first Soccer Aid for Unicef match in 2006. The match ended 4-2 to Soccer Aid World XI, with the team keeping the overall lead with 7-5 wins since the inaugural 2006 match.

Unicef UK Ambassador, Tom Hiddleston,...

More than 74,000 fans will roar Soccer Aid for Unicef back to Manchester United’s Old Trafford on Sunday 11th June.

Lionesses’ Euro 2022 winner, and Queen of The Jungle, Jill Scott will captain England – the first time a female player has skippered England in the world’s biggest charity football game.

The Three Lions have not won a Soccer Aid for Unicef match since 2018. In an effort to win back the trophy, England have unveiled one of their strongest-ever line-ups. Today, 25 names were revealed – six of which are making their debuts. More names are set to be announced in the coming weeks.

Jill Scott will play alongside fellow debutants including chart-topping DJ Joel Corry, and Manchester-based rapper and actor Bugzy Malone. Paddy McGuinness returns to the game – and will play in goal for the first-time ever as England’s designated celebrity goalkeeper.

England’s ranks are boosted further by three more...

The Late Late Show with James Corden producer Fulwell73 has scored its latest soccer documentary. The company, which is responsible for Netflix’s Sunderland ‘Til I Die and Manchester United doc Class of ’92, is developing a series with Chelsea Fc Women.

The company is working up an eight-part series and comes as the popularity of women’s soccer is growing fast. No broadcaster has been announced.

Filmed over the course of the 2019/20 season with access to the club, dressing room, its grounds and its people, Flying High will chronicle a team looking to claim silverware having endured a tough season last time out.

It will follow the players, coaches and staff from around the world who make up Cfcw–from Germany, the USA, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and the United Kingdom – from pre-season training through to the highs and lows of the football season.

Those...