Suspense is building around the coming FIA ruling on whether any team violated Formula 1’s $145 million cost cap last year.

The sport’s governing body was planning to release its results on Wednesday, but is delaying until Monday to complete its “ongoing analysis.”

• Sky Sports reported Wednesday that there were minor violations of less than 5% of the cost cap ($7.25 million), but no team will face a severe penalty.
• The FIA gave itself latitude in treating cap violations, including fines, a loss of points, suspensions from future races, and a lower future cap.
• The cap, which dropped to $140 million this year and will be $135 million for the next three years, applies to expenses related to car parts and performance, but not to driver salaries, marketing, travel, and other business expenses.

Round 2

The coming report has caused tension between two top teams: Mercedes and Red Bull.

Previous reports suggested that Red Bull and Aston Martin violated the 2021 cap. Mercedes principal Toto Wolff said that Red Bull’s overspending was “an open secret.” His Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner firmly denied that his team breached the cap and threatened lawsuits against those who claimed otherwise.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton called for “severe” consequences for any team that went over and pointed out instances in which Mercedes had to forgo improvements that would have cost around $500,000.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen secured the driver’s championship over Hamilton in the last lap of the final race of 2021.

Women’s sports continue to grow in popularity — and cities hosting competitions are reaping the benefits.

A study led by Ernst and Young found that the UEFA Women’s Euro 2022 tournament generated $91.1 million in economic activity for the English cities that hosted the matches, with $49.5 million in total spectator spending across game days and trips.

Between domestic and international visitors, more than 552,000 day and overnight trips were made to the host cities, according to the study.

• Match attendance across the tournament totaled 574,875.
• Of that sum, there were 110,555 international spectators from 104 countries.
• The Euro final drew a record 87,192 fans to London’s Wembley Stadium.

Ernst and Young reported that 85% of spectators say they’re likely to attend professional international and domestic women’s soccer events in the future. 

Media Mania 

The study also found that since the last Women’s Euros, there had been a 289% increase in media rights values.

The tournament was the most-watched Women’s Euros ever with a projected viewership of 365 million across all matches. 

Of the event’s spectators, 84% said the tournament improved their perception of women’s soccer, with 88% stating they’re likely to watch a women’s soccer event on TV in the future.

FC Barcelona reported a profit of $111 million behind $1.15 billion in revenue for the year ending June 2022.

The report comes only a year after the La Liga club reported a $1.5 billion debt.

The second-most valuable soccer team in the world — worth $5 billion, per Forbes — benefited from the return of fans to Spotify Camp Nou.

• Tickets and concession revenue hit $148 million in 2022 — up 415% year-over-year.
• Barcelona expects to generate $1.26 billion in revenue during the 2022-23 fiscal year.
• The club projects a profit of $274 million during the same period.

Barcelona has used several “economic levers” to alleviate debt.

In June, the club secured a deal to sell a 10% stake in its TV rights worth up to $278 million. Barcelona doubled down in July, selling an additional 15% of the rights for $326.5 million.

In August, Barcelona agreed to a deal with Socios.com to sell a 24.5% stake in Barca Studios — the club’s media production arm — for $102 million. That same month, it sold another 24.5% stake in Barca Studios to Orpheus Media.

Renewed Call 

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez believes that soccer is losing ground as the world’s most popular sport — and that a resurrected European Super League could boost its status.

Madrid joins Barcelona and Juventus as the only clubs in favor of the breakaway league, which was met with fierce public backlash when initially announced in April 2021.

Financial issues have sunk a top-division rugby club in England.

The Worcester Warriors’ players and staff had their contracts terminated on Wednesday as a result of a court order.

• Worcester reportedly has $6.7 million in unpaid taxes being pursued by the HM Revenue and Customs, the United Kingdom’s tax collection department.
• The Premiership Rugby team went under administration last month after not meeting a deadline to demonstrate to the Rugby Football Union that it was financially sustainable.
• The team has been relegated to the RFU Championship.

The team also owes a reported $16.7 million to the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport as part of a $138.2 million sum lent to Premiership Rugby teams for pandemic relief measures.

Players are free to sign with other clubs, and some have already done so.

Wandering Warriors

“As the club no longer has staff and players on contract, and with many seeking alternative employment, the decision has been made to focus on how the club can be viable over the long term,” the RFU explained.

Begbies Traynor, a firm that specializes in corporate restructuring, is acting as the club’s administrator. The RFU said that the firm is “in discussions with several potential investors.”