Philip Patrick

It will soon be the end of an era at Wimbledon. From 2025, the All England Club has announced that the services of line judges, who ringed the court and were responsible for crying ‘out’ and ‘fault’ on serves, will be dispensed with. From then on, all line calls will be decided entirely by the Hawkeye electronic line calling system (ELC). The move comes in the wake of the Association of Tennis Professionals' (ATP’s) decision to adopt ELC across the men’s tour from 2025, and is thus perfectly logical. But it is not without controversy, and it will not please everybody.

The revamped Champions League kicks off this week with all the gushing hyperbole we have come to expect from this glossy, money-saturated event. Five British football teams will be in action along with a record 31 others for the first-round ‘league’ stage. The difference this year is that the marketing blitz is accompanied by earnest attempts to explain the new format – which is a tad complicated to say the least – and sell it to us.  There is one super-size ‘league’ in which teams play eight of their 35 (!) rivals once We are now getting the ‘Swiss’ system, invented in the late 19th century by Julius Muller, a teacher and chess player from Brugg near Zurich. There is one super-size ‘league’ in which teams play eight of their 35 (!

England’s interim manager Lee Carsley has intimated that he will not be singing the national anthem as his team takes on Ireland in the Nations League in Dublin today – his first game in charge. Carsley is at least being consistent in this, he similarly demurred as a player for Ireland and when he was England’s under-21 coach. This clearly isn’t just an aversion to the admittedly dirge-like ‘God Save the King’. But whether he joins in with his team today is a bit more of an issue.  Is it too much to ask to belt out a few verses of ‘God Save the King’? Carsley has defended his career long anthem-phobia, saying he needs to ‘focus’ on the game ahead, and maintain his concentration.

The Japanese are battening down the hatches – again – as typhoon Shanshan wreaks devastation to the south-west of the country, with worse, possibly much worse, to come for the rest of us further north. Millions of people have been told to flee their homes in the face of what officials are calling one of the strongest storms ever to hit the region. Shanshan may even prove to one of the strongest typhoons in Japanese history – which is some boast.  It is shaping up to be something close to the perfect storm in terms of its power and unpredictability Four people have died so far with 94 injured, but those figures will increase greatly as the hours pass. An ultra-rare ‘special warning’ has been issued in some regions by the meteorological agency.

‘Kanko kankai’ (tourism pollution) is the latest buzz phrase here in Japan as the double-edged samurai sword of the visitor boom continues to cause profit but also pain. The latest problem, along with the overcrowding, poor behaviour, and squeezed out locals, is a shortage of staff at the main attractions and the hotels and restaurants that surround them. Which, given the importance of quality service in Japanese culture, is a veritable crisis. Healthcare, distribution and agriculture are all facing, to varying degrees, serious issues due to a lack of manpower There is nothing especially new in this. Labour shortages have long been a problem as the society ages, the fertility rate remains low and the pool of fit young people shrinks.

Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida has announced he will be stepping down as leader of the Liberal Democratic party next month. This means yet another new leader, the 13th in my quarter century in the country (unless one of the previous incumbents fancies another go) but almost certainly not a radical new direction.  Whoever wins the LDP leadership election will become prime minister, as the party controls both houses of parliament, though no general election need be held until 2025. The announcement has been declared a ‘surprise’, but in truth, the resignation of a Japanese premier is never really that much of a surprise.

Sadiq Khan has suggested that the long rumoured prospect of Premier League fixtures being played in the United States is now inevitable. Khan, a Liverpool supporter (largely an armchair one), told the Sports Agents podcast that he believes a stateside ‘international round’ of Premier League fixtures, similar to the NFL and NBL games played in London, was ‘the way things were going’: ‘They (the big clubs) have big fans in America. Why can’t those fans see a competitive game?... All 32 NFL teams have played in London, all of them have had a great experience. We have some of the top baseball teams playing in London’, Khan explained.