Archive June 17, 2025

Cyclist Ben Wiggins, son of five-time Olympic champion and Tour de France winner Sir Bradley, has opened up on the good and bad of being related to a legend of the sport.

The 20-year-old from Ormskirk is currently competing at the Under-23 Giro D’Italia, also known as Giro Next Gen, and has admitted the Wiggins surname carries a hefty weight of expectation.

“I definitely see it partly as an advantage but, trust me, there’s an awful lot of things that come with it that aren’t as easy,” Wiggins told BBC Radio Lancashire.

“There’s a lot of benefits that come with it that people would expect, but then there’s more things that come with it that aren’t as good.

“I’m incredibly proud of him and what he did. Sometimes, when they do team presentations before the race, I’d be brought on stage and introduced as Bradley Wiggins’ son before my name is even mentioned.

“I’m also compared to the standards of a five-time Olympic champion and Tour de France winner.

Wiggins began his cycling career in 2022 when he signed as a junior rider for the Fensham Howes-MAS Design team.

After winning a silver medal at the 2023 World Championships in the men’s junior individual time trial, Wiggins joined United States-based Hagens Berman Jayco, managed by Axel Merckx – the son of five-time Tour de France champion Eddy Merckx.

Wiggins says his and Merckx’s similar stories played a big role in deciding which team to ride for.

“As a junior, I was second in the World Championships in Glasgow and I had the choice of many different places to go,” he explained.

A rugby and football fanatic from an early age, Wiggins says he was 15 before he wanted to become a cyclist, despite his father’s influence on the sport.

“I played rugby and football predominantly up until when Covid hit and we couldn’t play team sports. At school, there was that banter around cycling. It’s not fancy, it’s not cool,” he said.

Wiggins also has his eyes on representing his country at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles but says he has a lot of work to do if he is to follow in his father’s footsteps.

“My ambition is to be an Olympic Champion in LA,” Wiggins added.

“There’s plenty more things on the table for me to achieve but it’s a dream of mine so that’s definitely the mid to long-term goal, on the track or on the road.

The 2025-26 Premier League fixtures are being released on Wednesday – and you can read them on the BBC Sport website and app as soon as they are announced.

It is less than a month since Liverpool lifted the trophy on the last day of the 2024-25 campaign, and the release of the fixtures marks the beginning of the countdown to a new season.

Arne Slot’s side will discover who they begin their title defence against as the Reds bid for a third league title in six years.

Sunderland are back in the top flight for the first time since 2016-17 after earning promotion through the play-offs, while Championship winners Leeds return after a two-year absence.

All 380 fixtures will be released at 09:00 BST on Wednesday, 18 June.

Fans will be able to see who their side face to start the 2025-26 Premier League season, how the festive schedule looks and who they have to contend with during a potentially crucial run-in.

You can get the latest news from your favourite Premier League team sent direct to your device.

The opening day of the 2025-26 season is Saturday, 16 August – by which time 83 days will have passed since there was last any Premier League action.

In previous years, the curtain-raiser has been moved to the Friday night.

Regardless of when the first match is played, no doubt hope and optimism will be in the air as supporters of all 20 clubs dream of what might be in the months to come.

The exact date and time at which individual matches are played during each weekend will be determined at regular intervals throughout the season, based on TV selections made by broadcasters.

In total, the campaign will consist of 33 weekends and five midweek rounds of fixtures.

After three consecutive second-place finishes, Arsenal will be among the sides hoping to dethrone Liverpool.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City will also be aiming to put themselves back in the title picture after a rare trophyless season.

Newcastle and Tottenham ended their trophy droughts in 2025 and both are back in the Champions League, as are Chelsea, and all will hope their squads are up to the challenge of competing on multiple fronts.

The same goes for Europa League qualifiers Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, as well as Nottingham Forest, who are in the Conference League.

A dismal campaign in 2024-25 means Manchester United have not qualified for Europe, so Ruben Amorim will hope the extra time on the training ground proves beneficial.

After all three promoted sides went straight back down last year, newly promoted trio Leeds, Burnley and Sunderland will be doing all they can to avoid the same fate.

An increasingly hectic football calendar means this season is bookended by a pair of World Cups – the inaugural 32-team Club World Cup this summer, and the more familiar international tournament in 2026.

As ever, keeping players fit will be crucial for managers across the league and with nine Premier League clubs competing in Europe as well this year, for almost half of them, that will be even more tricky.

“The start date of 16 August allows for the maximum player rest time available – 83 clear days – from the end of the 2024-25 season,” the Premier League said.

“The season end date of 24 May 2026 ensures the Premier League season finishes ahead of the Fifa 2026 World Cup call-up period.”

But not all clubs will get those 83 clear days.

Should Manchester City or Chelsea reach the Club World Cup final, they could be faced with playing the first game of the 2025-26 season just 34 days after ending the 2024-25 one.

Johnny Sexton says he is looking forward to working with Finn Russell on the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia, claiming his comments about the Scotland fly-half were “blown out of proportion”.

Writing in his autobiography last year, Sexton suggested Russell’s status as the “darling of the media” was a factor in head coach Warren Gatland picking the Scot over him for the 2021 Lions tour to South Africa.

In a subsequent newspaper interview while promoting his book in October, Sexton said he would select former England captain Owen Farrell ahead of the “flashy” Russell for this summer’s tour.

“There’s a lot been made of the whole situation, primarily by you guys [the media],” said Sexton, who will work closely with Russell in his role as Lions kicking coach this summer.

“I don’t even think it’s what I wrote in the book, it’s more the comments I said when doing media for the book, but it’s probably been blown out of proportion really.

Sexton said he and Russell shared a “handshake” and a “brief chat” in Lions camp before the Bath out-half returned to his club for what Sexton called an “outstanding” performance in last week’s Premiership final victory over Leicester.

“He was racing off obviously because those guys were in finals, they didn’t stay around too long – they came in, got their kit, did a bit of media and were gone,” added the former Ireland captain.

“I’m looking forward to catching up with him later. What the Lions demands of you is that if there is a rivalry, which there’s not, you leave it at the door. I’m here to help him now, I’m here to give him experiences, to answer questions, I’m not here to force myself or tell him what to do, it’s not that relationship. I’m here to help.”

Sexton also believes his coaching inexperience will not hinder him given the wisdom he gained during the highs and lows of a 17-year professional career.

“I’m an inexperienced coach but I probably have seen it all in terms of rugby. I’ve been bad, I’ve been dropped, I’ve been not picked, I’ve been injured – my career has been like this.

Having spent a year away from rugby following his retirement in 2023, Sexton is part of Andy Farrell’s Lions backroom team despite having only started coaching Ireland on a part-time basis last autumn.

He will take up a full-time role with the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) after the Lions tour, but admits to being daunted by the challenges that come with rising quickly through the coaching ranks.

“As a player, I always would have doubted myself throughout the years. Like when you come into the Irish set-up for the first time or become a Lion for the first time or Leinster, you always have those doubts.

“It’s no different now. You’re going in, you want to prove yourself, you want to show that you can bring value.

“It was something I considered when Andy picked up the phone, you’re going, ‘wow, it’s such an honour’, how can you say no?

“I’ve had boys being caught driving round the stadium with their GPS hanging out the window, claiming they’ve done 5K in 16 minutes.”

Pre-season training isn’t the place for the faint-hearted.

The days of running up and down sand dunes in the mid-1970s may be over. Trips to Largs have since been switched for private jets, Austrian training camps and sports science.

While players are off sunning themselves in some picture-perfect beach club, or perhaps playing Ludo with the kids on a staycation at a midge-infested glamping site, back at base camp there will be some poor sod plotting their return.

Enter stage left, Livingston manager David Martindale.

With the break between the season finishing and preparation for the next shortening by the year, you’d think it would be difficult for players to allow their fitness to slide too much. Right?

Well, Martindale is one of many managers who will make sure their players aren’t coming back battling the holiday bulge.

“It’s changed now,” he told BBC Scotland. “The boys will have a two-week programme so when they come back in, they’re not a million miles away from when they left the club.

“They’ll be given 5Ks, they’ll be given 10Ks, they’ll be given some mobility exercises and light gym work.

Footballers are professionals, so let’s go on the notion every single one of them watches what they eat and drink and follows the holiday programme to the letter.

But what happens if that maybe hasn’t happened?

“I’ve had everything,” said Martindale. “But they’re only cheating themselves. You find out very quickly on the first day back if they’ve been telling porkies.

“I remember one player telling me he had an all-inclusive two weeks in Mexico, I said, ‘well, you’re going to have to get out and you’re going to have to go run, you’re going to have to watch what you’re eating slightly, you’re going to have to watch what you’re doing’.

“He came back in, I think his body fat had nearly doubled, and he’d put on about 8kg, and from that moment onwards he was playing catch up. He went out on loan two weeks later…”

Martindale says he’s not all old school when it comes to pre-season training. After the first day tests, the footballs are out and friendlies will soon be played.

Livingston are off to the Netherlands this summer with their boss saying finding the right location for a trip is crucial.

Livingston won’t be the only team heading abroad to get ready for the rigours of the season. Dozens of sides across the UK will be doing the same.

So, what goes into planning such a trip?

“Once the board and the manager determine there’s going to be one, the manager would normally tell me where he would like to go,” Karen Castello, Kilmarnock’s club secretary, explains.

“Once a venue’s available and we have a hotel, then obviously flights or ferries have to be organised. Then we have to also gather everyone’s passport details and ensure they’re all valid within the six months of travel.

“From laundry, dealing with the food that the sports scientists advise, it’s never-ending. Also, within the hotel we also have to arrange meeting rooms, physio rooms, private rooms, private dining…”

While Castello is in charge of the logistics after listening to the manager’s wishlist, clubs can also pull in agents to pull together the perfect trip.

During the jaunt, which is typically around one week, players will also get some down time. And if anyone fancies a round of golf, then you guessed it, Castello has to organise this too.

“It’s also good when you’ve got fresh players coming in as well,” said Castello of the social benefit of going away for pre-season.

“It’s the only time you actually get a chance to actually meet the boys on a daily basis.

So we’ve heard from a manager and a club secretary, but what about those who are being put through their paces?

It may seem a bundle of laughs jetting away to warmer climes. But this is where the hard graft begins and, as Martindale alluded to, there’s nowhere to hide.

“My first full-time pre-season I did the runs on Gullane sands with Livingston. Thankfully that’s long gone, because I don’t think I could have done 17, 18 of them,” said Motherwell midfielder Andy Halliday.

“We’re very lucky to do what we do, but everyone sort of dreads that first day back in pre-season because they know they’re going to be putting in the tough yards.

“But after it’s done you obviously always feel the benefits for it and you know you’re better off for it as a player and obviously as a team as well.”

“We were in Holland last year, I’ve been to Marbella, I’ve been to Portugal so we’re really lucky to be going to nice places with warm weather as we’re not blessed with brilliant weather here in Scotland, so I think it’s always nice to get a bit of sun on your back as well.”

In saying that, Halliday’s pre-season experiences haven’t always gone to plan. He remembers one trip for all the wrong reasons.

“It was either my first or my second season at Hearts, and we played a friendly against a Spanish team and there was a 22-man brawl,” he recalls.

“I’ve had boys being caught driving round the stadium with their GPS hanging out the window, claiming they’ve done 5K in 16 minutes.”

Pre-season training isn’t the place for the faint-hearted.

The days of running up and down sand dunes in the mid-1970s may be over. Long fortnights in Largs have since been switched for private jets, Austrian training camps and sports science.

So, while players are off sunning themselves in some picture-perfect beach club, or perhaps playing Ludo with the kids on a staycation at a midge-infested glamping site, back at base camp there will be some poor sod plotting their return.

Enter stage left, Livingston manager David Martindale.

With the break between the season finishing and preparation for the next shortening by the year, you’d think it would be difficult for players to allow their fitness to slide too much. Right?

Well, Martindale is one of many managers who will make sure their players aren’t coming back battling the holiday bulge.

“It’s changed now,” he told BBC Scotland. “The boys will have a two-week programme before they come back into the club, so when they come back in, they’re not a million miles away from when they left the club.

“They’ll be given 5Ks, they’ll be given 10Ks, they’ll be given some mobility exercises and light gym work.

Footballers are professionals, so let’s go on the notion every single one of them watches what they eat and drink and follows the holiday programme to the letter.

But what happens if that maybe hasn’t happened?

“I’ve had everything,” said Martindale. “But they’re only cheating themselves. You find out very quickly on the first day back if they’ve been telling porkies.

“I remember one player telling me he had an all-inclusive two weeks in Mexico, I said, ‘well, you’re going to have to get out and you’re going to have to go run, you’re going to have to watch what you’re eating slightly, you’re going to have to watch what you’re doing’.

“He came back in, I think his body fat had nearly doubled, and he’d put on about 8kg, and from that moment onwards he was playing catch up. He went out on loan two weeks later…”

Martindale says he’s not all old school when it comes to pre-season training. After the first day test, the footballs are out and friendlies will soon be played.

Livingston are off to the Netherlands this summer with their boss saying finding the right location for a trip is crucial.

Livingston won’t be the only team heading abroad to get rid for the rigours of the season. In fact, dozens of sides across the UK will be doing the same.

So, what goes into planning such a trip?

“Once the board and the manager determine there’s going to be one, the manager would normally tell me where he would like to go,” Karen Castello, Kilmarnock’s club secretary, explains.

“Once a venue’s available and we have a hotel, then obviously flights or ferries have to be organised. Then we have to also gather everyone’s passport details and ensure they’re all valid within the six months of travel.

“From laundry, dealing with the food that the sports scientists advise, it’s never-ending. Also, within the hotel we also have to arrange meeting rooms, physio rooms, private rooms, private dining…”

While Castello is in charge of the logistics after listening to the manager’s wishlist, clubs can also pull in agents to pull together the perfect trip.

During the jaunt, which is typically around one week, players will also get some down time. And if anyone fancies a round of golf, then you guessed it, Castello has to organise this too.

“It’s also good when you’ve got fresh players coming in as well,” said Castello of the social benefit of going away for pre-season.

“It’s the only time you actually get a chance to actually meet the boys on a daily basis.

So we’ve heard from a manager and a club secretary, but what about those who are being put through their paces in a bid to ready themselves for the new season?

It may seem a bundle of laughs jetting away. Maybe to Spain, maybe to Portugal, maybe to the United States to get your photo taken with SpongeBob Squarepants like Rangers did back in 2018.

But this is where the hard graft begins and, as Martindale alluded to, there’s nowhere to hide.

“My first full-time pre-season I did the runs on Gullane sands with Livingston. Thankfully that’s long gone, because I don’t think I could have done 17, 18 of them,” said Motherwell midfielder Andy Halliday.

“We’re very lucky to do what we do, but everyone sort of dreads that first day back in pre-season because they know they’re going to be putting in the tough yards.

“But after it’s done you obviously always feel the benefits for it and you know you’re better off for it as a player and obviously as a team as well.”

“We were in Holland last year, I’ve been to Marbella, I’ve been to Portugal so we’re really lucky to be going to nice places with warm weather as we’re not blessed with brilliant weather here in Glasgow and in Scotland, so I think it’s always nice to get a bit of sun on your back as well.”

In saying that, Halliday’s pre-season experiences haven’t always gone to plan. He remembers one trip for all the wrong reasons.

“It was either my first or my second season at Hearts, and we played a friendly against a Spanish team and there was a 22-man brawl,” he recalls.