The former Lancashire and England cricketer, turned popular TV personality and presenter – whose real name is Andrew, but is more commonly-known by the nickname of ‘Freddie’ – was understood to have been helping coach the England limited-overs squads in an unpaid consultancy role over the last few months.
But now, the 45-year-old has landed his first full-time gig after officially being named as the new Head Coach of the Men’s Northern Superchargers team.
Founded in 2019, the Northern Superchargers are a Leeds-based franchise 100-ball cricket team that represent the areas of North East England and Yorkshire in The Hundred competition.
The Preston-born sportsman – who is renowned as one of England’s greatest ever cricket players, having played over 200 times for his country as an all-rounder, before retiring in 2009 – has taken over from ex-England wicketkeeper James Foster, who left the Head Coach role earlier this month.
As mentioned, this is one of Flintoff’s first full-time roles since he was involved in a horror crash while filming for Top Gear back in mid December 2022.
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Although the BBC said at the time that his injuries were not life-threatening, sources close to the former England captain revealed he’d been left “psychologically traumatised” following the incident, and said it was likely he would “never return” to Top Gear filming.
He was seen for the first time in the public eye as he sat on the home balcony at England’s opening One Day International match against New Zealand in Cardiff in early September, where he could be seen displaying the ‘serious injuries’ – most notably to his face – he sustained, and then spoke publicly for the first time about “the hardest time” in his life as he presented an England cap to spin bowler Tom Hartley last month.
Freddie Flintoff has been appointed head coach of the Northern Superchargers / Credit: Northern Superchargers
Flintoff says he is “excited” to step into his new role.
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“My time with the England Men’s team has been a reminder of just how special cricket is to me,” Flintoff said in a statement following the appointment, “I’m relishing the opportunity to be back amongst it, helping to guide the Superchargers team to success on the field while making memories off it and helping to take cricket to more people.
“The Superchargers have a great fan base who I cannot wait to meet and bring along with us this season.
“I’m looking forward to making Headingley my new home.”
Featured Image – The Hundred
Sport
Details released of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners while Mayor
Emily Sergeant
Details of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester have been released.
In case you need bringing up to speed on the situation a little first, Manchester City was found guilty back in September all of its charges related to the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and on top of that, was also found guilty of the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.
According to the Premier League, the independent Commission found that Manchester City had arranged so-called ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors.
These were part of a disguised funding scheme – with those sponsors only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
The remainder was then funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.
The Commission also concluded, as quoted by the Premier League, that the club had ‘made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League investigation’.
Within the past week or so, it has since come to light that now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham had dealings with Manchester City during his tenure as Greater Manchester Mayor, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has now issued a public statement, giving details on the matter and what these ‘dealings’ entailed.
A spokesperson for GMCA confirmed that Burnham had a ‘formal meeting’ with Man City Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, back in October 2021.
The statement reads in full: “In October 2021, Andy Burnham, in his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit arranged by the Department for International Trade.
“In his capacity as Mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the Chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.
“Also during his time as Mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of Mayoral international visits.
“This included representatives from Manchester United travelling to Austin and Dublin, Lancashire Cricket Club joining a delegation to India, and Manchester City FC staff supporting visits to China and Japan.”
Featured Image – Lauren Hurley / Number 10 Downing Street (Press Image via Flickr)
Sport
Multiple arrests made for ‘tragedy chanting’ and police officer assault as Man City defeated Liverpool
Emily Sergeant
Multiple people were arrested over the weekend as Manchester City defeated Liverpool in a Premier League clash.
Merseyside Police have confirmed that a total of 10 people were arrested during the policing operation at Liverpool’s home ground of Anfield as they hosted Manchester City on Sunday 11 October.
One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police constable, five were on suspicion of tragedy chanting, one on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, two for affray, and one on suspicion of throwing items onto the pitch.
Police are now appealing to the public, and are particularly looking to speak to witnesses of the assault of the officer.
At around 6:35pm, as fans left the stadium, a police officer sustained a ‘serious facial injury’ during the arrest of a man on Anfield Road, and was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment but is now recovering at home.
Investigating officers are now conducting enquiries, speaking to witnesses, and analysing CCTV and camera phone footage.
Chief Inspector Leanne Hobin said it’s ‘extremely disappointing’ that an officer has sustained a serious injury while carrying out their duty.
“I hope the arrests send a clear message and act as a deterrent to others,” Chief Inspector Hobin continued. “Anyone who engages in this abhorrent behaviour risks ending up in custody and getting a criminal record.
“Despite the actions of a few, the overwhelming majority of the 60,000 fans in attendance behaved well and I want to thank them for their co-operation.”
Manchester City ended up defeated Liverpool 3-0 during the Premier League clash at Anfield.
Emily Sergeant -
15th November 2023 
