Business

Uefa backs off overseas league fixtures but the struggle for power still goes on | Uefa

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1 day ago

September 14, 2025

Never underestimate the attraction of a good can-kick. That would appear to be the message coming out of Tirana on Thursday when Uefa announced it had not taken the epochal decision on overseas league fixtures that the world of football had anticipated. Instead, the executive committee decided it would embark on a round of consultation, one that would even take in the considerations of supporters to boot.

This is likely a sensible decision. There has been a fair amount of surprise in some quarters that the question of whether and by how much football leagues should be allowed to move from domestic to international is only now being properly debated in the corridors of power. After all, the first writ in this debate was served by the promoter Relevent against the United States Soccer Federation in 2019. Only with the prospect of La Liga staging a fixture between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami as soon as December has the issue come into focus. But to have discussion at all will be regarded by many as better late than never. It is also a break with the current way of doing things.

Fifa’s Club World Cup, the biggest and most disruptive new development in the game for some time, is largely viewed as having come about as the result of one man’s determination to drive change (that man being Gianni Infantino). The process Fifa undertook to establish the tournament has, however, led to legal action and no small amount of rancour over a claimed lack of consultation with competition organisers. (It should be noted there has been less complaint from clubs, some of whom pocketed tens of millions of dollars for taking part.) In this instance, by contrast, Uefa appears to have opted for jaw jaw rather than war war.

The president of Uefa, Aleksander Ceferin, flagged this possible direction in an interview conducted before the Champions League draw in Monaco last month. Asked about the plan for overseas fixtures by Politico, Ceferin said: “We’re not happy but, as much as we checked legally, we don’t have much space here, if the federation agrees, and both federations agreed. But I think that for the future we’ll have to discuss this very seriously, because … fans should watch football at home … We will open this discussion also with Fifa, and with all the federations, because I don’t think it’s a good thing.”

If Uefa’s presumably well-remunerated lawyers weren’t wildly wrong in their calculations then deferral with a chance of dialogue was perhaps the best option Uefa could plump for in the short term. It may best serve its interests in the longer term too. With the contest to control the future of the world’s most popular sport continuing to heat up, it is possible to argue that Uefa is among the most vulnerable to any shift away from the current model of the men’s game. Its tournaments – the European Championship, the Nations League, even the Champions League – are likely to be the first to feel the squeeze should the international calendar take on even more matches in the medium term via changes such as a biennial Club World Cup. Faced with this position, being an organisation that is seen to be listening, and perhaps even collaborative, may well be a good idea.

In the Politico interview Ceferin drew a red line against a biennial Club World Cup, saying: “I wouldn’t agree with that, but I don’t think [Fifa] want to.” That last line goes against much of the reporting on the topic but was of a piece with a more emollient tone as Ceferin rolled back on remarks Uefa had made months before condemning Infantino’s “private political interests” after the Fifa’s president arrived late for his own Congress after touring the Gulf with Donald Trump. Ceferin told Politico the language used had been “a bit overemotional” and that relations with Fifa were “absolutely” in a better place.

Gianni Infantino and Donald Trump at the Club World Cup final in New Jersey. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Again with the conciliation, again another possible sign of where the balance of power lies. But by behaving constructively, by acting less as a rival and more as a facilitator, Uefa will find itself in tune with another player which could yet weigh in on the future of European football (and by extension the game as a whole): Brussels. The European courts are where much of the battles is being played out, with no ruling more consequential than that involving the European Super League, which questioned the ability of sports governing bodies to act as both regulator and competition organiser without the risk of “abusing” their “dominant position”. The European Commission, meanwhile, is taking more and more interest in ensuring the concept of a “European Sports Model” where open competition (ie promotion and relegation) runs alongside financial solidarity from the top to the bottom of the pyramid.

The European commissioner for intergenerational fairness, youth, culture and sport, Glenn Micallef, made the unusual decision to intervene in the debate over international fixtures last week, describing the plans as betraying supporters and putting the European Sports Model at risk. On Thursday, he spoke again, commending Uefa’s decision to pause and discuss. “This is the right and responsible way to do things; through inclusive dialogue and consultation,” he wrote on social media.

The Commission is the body that initiates Europe’s political direction and if it felt it necessary to intervene to protect the European Sports Model, it could. Such an action would likely throw the existing power structures in football up in the air and being on the right side of any such shift would be to any governing body’s advantage. If Ceferin’s remarks on the issue of international fixtures are correct, it may be we see such matches yet. But while it is unfortunate to lose some battles, sometimes they may help you in fighting a war.

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Business

Google Launches AI Accelerator For Pennsylvania Businesses

Published

1 hour ago

September 15, 2025

The Editors

Google, along with Pennsylvania state officials and business groups, announced the AI Accelerator for Pennsylvania small businesses on September 12, 2025.

The program was introduced at the AI Horizons Summit by Google’s Selin Song, Governor Josh Shapiro, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce, and Team Pennsylvania to provide local businesses with free artificial intelligence resources.

What the AI Accelerator program includes

The program is part of Google’s national AI Works for America initiative and offers Pennsylvania businesses several no-cost resources to improve their AI skills and adopt new tools.

Live workshops held across the state for hands-on training.
Self-paced online courses covering AI fundamentals and prompting.
Google Career Certificates for developing skills in high-demand fields.

Hands-on training through local workshops

A central part of the accelerator is a series of interactive workshops conducted throughout Pennsylvania. A designated Pennsylvania AI Coach leads these sessions in partnership with local community organizations.

The first workshop was held on the day of the announcement for 50 small businesses, providing practical training on how to apply AI.

How to access the training resources

Pennsylvania small businesses and their employees can access the online courses and register for career certificate training in fields like cybersecurity, data analytics, and project management. No prior experience is required for the certificate programs.

Registration is available at grow.google/AIWorksforPA.

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Business

Talent, rising costs, AI key concerns for leading Irish businesses – survey

Published

1 hour ago

September 15, 2025

silicon

A survey from Deloitte of businesses participating in Ireland’s Best Managed Companies programme finds two-thirds deploying AI, while one-third see talent and rising costs as key concerns.

Nearly two-thirds of top Irish companies (62pc) have adopted AI technologies to support their operations, according to new research from Deloitte and UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, while unsurprisingly that figure rises to 94pc when it comes to telecoms, media and “ technology-driven sectors”.

Employee support and internal productivity (28pc), operational efficiency and automation (22pc), and sales/marketing and customer engagement (15pc) were cited as the top use cases for AI, while 55pc of companies surveyed said operational process improvements were the leading innovation priority.

Other findings included that rising business costs remain a key concern (33pc), while close to one-third said talent acquisition and retention remained crucial as 28pc of companies said it was their biggest barrier to growth.

The current geopolitical and regulatory challenges also arose as a significant barrier to growth and priority area for respondents. One-in-four companies (25pc) said they were “closely monitoring policy changes and trading dynamics”.

Nearly two-thirds (65pc) of those surveyed said developing new products and services will play a key role in their growth plans over the next five years while some 55pc said they expect to grow their business through mergers and acquisitions (M&A), rising to 76pc for tech and media companies.

International expansion and increasing headcount were each cited by 52pc of companies, rising to 71pc among tech companies.

The findings come from a survey of 115 indigenous, private businesses that are participants in Deloitte’s Ireland’s Best Managed Companies programme, the winner of which will be announced on 25 September. The programme includes some 129 companies in sectors from retail and hospitality to manufacturing and construction with a combined turnover of €15bn and a total of 45,000 staff.

“Innovation is a key theme; and across every industry, launching new products and services is the top growth strategy for the next five years,” said Brian Murphy, Deloitte lead partner for Ireland’s Best Managed Companies awards programme.

“These companies are not just talking the talk, they’re walking the walk, with 62pc already harnessing the power of AI to enhance productivity.

“This survey of Ireland’s Best Managed Companies sends a clear message: we must champion our homegrown businesses, fuel their growth and support their scaling journey to become the next wave of great Irish success stories,” Murphy said, echoing calls in recent weeks from other supporters of indigenous companies ahead of Budget 2026, including Scale Ireland and the IVCA.

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Business

Fresh News: WebHopers Digital Marketing Company in India Unveils the AI-Driven Campaigns by Google Search & LLMs

Published

2 hours ago

September 15, 2025

PTI

In today’s fast-paced world, Digital marketing without AI is like fishing in an empty pond – Lots of effort but few results. From finding a shop to buy a product or anything else, nearly every customer begins their search with an AI-powered platform, shaping the decisions in real time. WebHopers exploits the AI to transform the marketing strategies, consumer behaviour, and analyzes the data to ensure the campaigns are Focused, Custom-made, and strongly influential on users. The reason behind this is AI, where things get interesting. It can analyze data, consumer behaviour in real time and predict what people want. Even businesses are not asking now that they should use AI or not, but the real question is how often they can make it a part of their marketing strategies. AI insights allow brands to create a user-friendly and engaging experience like never before.

From Insights to Results: The Growing Demand for AI in Marketing AI is not just limited to data analysis but also covers a wide area of consumer insights that fuel the unstoppable demand across industries.

• The Artificial Intelligence in marketing has a market size of USD 12.7 billion in 2024 as per Cognitive Market Research.

• As per SEMrush, ChatGPT comes in 5th rank on top websites on a global level, and it has 5.38billion visits in August 2025.

• Artificial Intelligence reduces the 20% time to launch the campaign and increases the personalized audience segment by 30% as per Semrush.

Decoding the Power of AI-Driven Campaigns AI-Driven Campaign is the next-generation strategy to reach the right audience online. This is different from Traditional campaigns in which marketers guess the users and target a broad segment. AI-driven campaigns show the right ad to the specific audience at the right time.

Consider this scenario: An Online marketplace brand that sells home decor and furniture items. In the past, they had to guess what the customer wanted and hoped for, but after the AI integration, it completely changed the way of plan ad campaigns. It can now analyze the real-time customer data and top queries such as “Study chairs for small apartments” or “Slider wardrobe under 6000”, and many more. Once AI tells the user’s needs, LLMs like tools can create an exactly fitted ad that users are looking for.

AI Meets Google Search: Redefining Ad Campaigns with LLMs The best marketing does not feel like marketing until businesses do not show to specific and targeted audiences. For this, it is important to know what people are searching for. Google searches provide the insights for what users are searching for, and Large Language Models convert insights into highly personalized and attractive ad campaigns. Let’s see how Google search & LLMs are used for Ad Campaigns: Keyword Targeting with Google Search Keywords are the main foundation for Google Ad Campaigns. Marketing companies search for words or phrases through Keyword planner tools, such as Google Keyword Planner, that show what their target audience is searching for.

Creating Relevant Ads with LLMs After choosing the related keywords, marketers design an ad copy and visuals by LLM tools that match with keywords and the user’s intent. Clear, engaging and relevant to queries, ads are more likely to reach the right audience.

Targeting a Specific Audience Google Ads allows businesses to create a filter for their ads according to: • Location • Device • Demographics • Time By combining LLMs with Google search, right Ads reach the right audience at the right time, which increases the chance of engagement and conversions.

Search Intent for Custom Strategies Google search and LLM provide the search intent and patterns from real-time data. With that business can strategically run campaign aids. Let’s understand this with an example: Users searching for “Family-friendly resort in Manali” can see an ad related to kid-friendly activities in Manali, “special family packages for Manali,” and many more.

Tracking Performance and Optimizing Campaigns Google search ads also allow marketers to analyze the results by tracking the advertising. It shows: • Click Through Rates • Conversions & Sales • Highly driven Keywords • User behaviour with the ad The Business Advantage of AI-Driven Campaigns AI-driven marketing has changed the way of digital marketing. Now, the small to large business models rely on Human Expertise and AI. This combination truly made the customer experience more engaging for the ad campaigns. Adding real-time data and search queries by AI, while humans add emotions and personalization to it, makes the ad campaigns more beneficial for the business. Here are some of the benefits of using AI for ad campaigns: • Precision Targeting • Personalized Customer Experience • Increase Efficiency and Scalability • Real Time Optimization • Better ROI • Competitive Advantage Future Trends: AI, Google Search, and LLMs in Digital Marketing Digital Marketing is in unstoppable growth, and a Combination of AI, Google Search and LLMs is the new era of innovation. Those businesses that adopt these technologies are likely to gain a high percentage of users. Future trends are evolving digital marketing such as: • Hyper-personalised marketing • Predictive Marketing • Voice & Visual Search Integration • Automation at Scale • Smarter Ad Optimization Final Thought AI-driven campaigns powered by Google Search and LLMs are not just an option but have become the future of personalized and effective digital marketing. By leveraging these technologies, businesses can easily reach their valuable customers. Behind all this process, a trusted and experienced marketing company plays a crucial role, and this is where WebHopers AI-Powered Digital Marketing company in India stands out to deliver the AI-Driven Campaigns with Google Search & LLM Models.

Contact Details Name – WebHopers Infotech PVT LTD Email – info@webhopers.com Phone Number – 9056855559 (Disclaimer: The above press release comes to you under an arrangement with NRDPL and PTI takes no editorial responsibility for the same.). PTI PWR

(This content is sourced from a syndicated feed and is published as received. The Tribune assumes no responsibility or liability for its accuracy, completeness, or content.)

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