Bolton Wanderers have announced that they are poised to change the name of their stadium for the third time in eight years with the help of consultants, Sporting Group International.
The Trotters will be enlisting the help of the Birmingham-based commercial partnerships and recruitment specialist to search for a new naming rights deal as the University of Bolton‘s contract is set to expire.
Colloquially known as the UniBol Stadium since 2018, Bolton’s home had previously been under the moniker of Italian sports brand and current kit sponsor Macron. However, for many, the Greater Manchester ground has always been synonymous with the Reebok Stadium despite their deal ending in 2014.
Nevertheless, Sporting Group International (SGI) is being charged with finding a new stadium partner to whack their name on the front of the 28,732-seater stadium, as reported by Bolton News.
Bolton moved from their original Burnden Park home back in 1997, where they had played their home games since 1895. The ground was the site of the infamous 1946 crush and was also featured in a famous Lowry painting now due to be sold next month.
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"These football matches really captured the essence of what Lowry was trying to get to in his paintings".https://t.co/fAh24Uxksa
The club nearly disappeared entirely when it fell into insolvency along with Bury FC back in 2019 and has been looking to find stability ever since.
While the latter was ultimately expelled from the EFL in 2019 and the supporters’ trust had to purchase their Gigg Lane stadium and trading rights to bring it out of administration – with phoenix club Bury AFC also sprouting from the historic team – Bolton was saved in the eleventh hour by outside investment.
Purchased by Football Ventures just before the deadline, Bolton Wanderers look like they might be starting to find their feet again, having gone from fielding a team featuring 14 and 15-year-olds to sitting fifth in League Two after nine games.
The club’s chief executive Neil Hart said in a statement: “[SGI] has worked with multiple global brands and we see this as an excellent opportunity to work together on the new naming rights agreement for the stadium and securing an excellent new partnership for the club.”
As for SGI themselves, the organisation said they are excited to be working with “one of the finest UK football venues outside of the Premier League”, which hosted everything from Elton John, Coldplay and Oasis concerts to England’s upcoming Rugby World Cup fixtures in October.
Manchester City loanee João Cancelo looks ‘possessed’ in viral post-match interview
Danny Jones
Manchester City loanee João Cancelo has gone viral after countless people online said that he looked “possessed” in a post-match interview over the weekend.
The 29-year-old City star, currently on loan at Barcelona, scored the winner for the Spanish giants in their game against Celta Vigo on Saturday, 23 September.
has already grabbed a couple of goals and an assist this season — one of them being the third in Barca’s 3-2 victory, which came in the 89th minute of the game.
So, naturally, Spanish media wanted to chat with him after full-time and we’d pay good money to know how this particular interviewer reacted after Cancelo suddenly started pulling these extremely weird faces mid-chat:
Seriously wtf is going on with Joao Cancelo in his interview after the game
We’re sure there’s an explanation but Cancelo being possessed by some kind of demon is much more entertaining.
What the hell is going on? We have no idea but it’s certainly amused and intrigued people online.
With many commenting that he looks as though he’s suddenly become “possessed” by some sort of supernatural force and others joking that he must have just “come straight from a rave” to play a quick 90 minutes, people have been genuinely scratching their heads at the bizarre clip.
The video has been viewed over 12 million times on TikTok and reshared by countless other users across various different social media platforms.
Maybe he just had really dry eyes and an even drier mouth? Either that or he was still riding an absolute adrenaline high from this moment:
The ever-dynamic fullback, who regularly floats between the wing and central midfielder, arrived at the Bernabéu this summer after spending half a season on loan at Bayern Munich.
Despite being arguably one of the best players in the Premier League and winning plenty of silverware under Pep Guardiola, the two seemingly fell out sometime last season and Cancelo was ultimately sidelined by the Catalan coach sidelined.
Now playing at Pep’s boyhood club and enjoying regular minutes thus far (after also being out of the Bayern squad earlier this year), it remains to be seen whether the two will mend fences and the Portuguese star will return to the Etihad at some point in the future.
Marcus Rashford gives update after car crash on way home from Manchester United training ground
Emily Sergeant
Marcus Rashford has given a health update after getting into a car crash on his way home from Manchester United’s training ground.
After the Red Devils managed to secure a 1-0 away win over the fellow North West side Burnley in a Premier League clash on Saturday, thanks to a goal in the 45th minute by Portuguese attacker Bruno Fernandes, the players then left for Manchester and made their way back on the team bus to the club’s training facility.
But once the team had arrived at Carrington, and then all departed to make their separate ways home, Marcus Rashford was confirmed to have been involved in a road traffic collision with another vehicle.
According to reports in The Sun newspaper, the Wythenshawe-born winger had just left Carrington in his Rolls Royce – which is believed to be a market value of £700,000 – when the incident happened.
It’s believed some damage was sustained to the luxury vehicle.
Pictures and footage – which showed the extent of the crash damage – began emerging online following the incident, but it’s understood that no ambulance was required at the scene, and the 25-year-old walked away “unhurt”, Sky News reports.
Now, the 25-year-old footballer has now spoken out for the first time on social media following the incident.
Breaking his silence after the horrific crash on Instagram, Rashford assured fans he was okay with the short-but- simple message: “3 points on the road! I’m alright guys, thanks for the messages.”
Although no confirmation on team selection has been revealed, with Rashford having sustained no injuries during the collision, many fans are expecting him to still be in the lineup when Manchester United face Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup tomorrow (26 September).
Danny Jones -
22nd September 2022 
