Things we learned as sport tried to get back to normal after pandemic years

The danger of positive tests still lurked but this year the biggest impact on the calendar was brought about by the need to stage the World Cup in winter.Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the things we have learned from the sporting year.

England must wait for their momentAnother World Cup yielded yet more frustration for England as Harry Kane missed a late penalty in a 2-1 quarter-final defeat by France.But while there was disappointment after the loss, England hope a new golden generation is on the way.“Maximum Premier League”The enforced sale of Chelsea due to sanctions placed on Russian former owner Roman Abramovich brought a jaw-dropping fee of £4.25billion.Owners across the Premier League quickly recalculated the value of their own assets, and as the year ends the league’s two most revered brands, Manchester United and Liverpool, are both up for sale.Football finance expert Kieran Maguire called it “maximum Premier League” – a sign that owners believe clubs will never be worth more than they are now after the failure of the European Super League and Project Big Picture to concentrate even more power at the top.

English cricket is “running towards the danger”The double act of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum have revitalised the fortunes of an ailing Test team and are pushing the boundaries of what the format can be.Both men are instinctive gamblers and born attackers and have dragged the team’s philosophy in a new and fearless direction.New women’s coach Jon Lewis wants to follow suit, meaning next year’s double Ashes summer should be a genuine spectacle.Rugby in crisisShockwaves were sent through club rugby in October as both Wasps and Worcester went into administration 13 days apart, suspended from England’s top flight and relegated to the Championship.Both clubs cited the pandemic as having hit finances, but the RFU rejected their applications for a ‘no-fault insolvency’, saying other factors were at play. RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney said it showed the current model in English rugby is “broken”.Ronaldo’s undignified exitCristiano Ronaldo has built a stellar career through immense talent and sheer force of will. His colossal ego was both the result and the fuel, a necessary part of the formula that made him one of the greatest to ever play the game.But it is also now behind an undignified exit, first from Manchester United and now seemingly from Portugal too. His bombshell interview with Piers Morgan was effectively a resignation letter to United after he found himself out of Erik ten Hag’s plans.At the World Cup, he found himself benched in favour of Goncalo Ramos amid claims of a bust-up, and Ramos’ hat-trick has surely made the situation permanent.A free agent in search of Champions League football, Ronaldo has found few takers and looks destined to play out his career in the Middle East.Football’s lasting tabooIn May, 17-year-old Blackpool forward Jake Daniels came out as gay, making him the only active male player in the UK to do so. The teenager was widely praised for telling his story, but the very fact that it was remarkable showed how far football still has to go.Many wondered if other players would follow suit, particularly given the focus on the issue ahead of the Qatar World Cup.But, two years after the Justin Fashanu Foundation published a letter from an unnamed Premier League player who said they were too scared to come out because the game has not caught up with society, no others have.Tainted title?Those Formula One fans who were never happy with the way Max Verstappen snatched the 2021 title away from Lewis Hamilton at the end of last season were given another reason to add an asterisk to the result in October when Red Bull were deemed guilty of breaching cost caps last year.Ross Brawn had previously said such offences would cost teams their titles, but with the breach deemed a minor one, Red Bull escaped with a fine and a reduction of wind tunnel testing time.That was not enough to stop the tension in the paddock growing ever more toxic in the final weeks of the season, with the bad feelings seeming unlikely to disappear before next season.Birmingham offers Commonwealth Games a futureWhen the 22nd Commonwealth Games opened in Birmingham in late July, the future of the event was in question. Seen as an historical anachronism, the Games needed to show they could be relevant in the modern world.And over the course of 11 days, Birmingham showed how they could be, embracing the Games like no city before as fans packed the grandstands and delivered a feel-good factor which can mark the event out as distinct from the win-at-all-costs mentality elsewhere.Birmingham did not solve all the problems by any means, but it did point the way forward.