COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus Blue Jackets will join three other clubs in a partnership with the NHL to broadcast games this season, a source confirmed to The Athletic, replacing FanDuel Sports Network, which went out of business after last season.

The Blue Jackets, Carolina Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues will all be part of the collaboration, the source indicated, which will be made available to fans via some combination of cable, satellite, streaming video and over-the-air television.

It’s possible other clubs could join the collective before this season or in future seasons. The NHL announced the collaboration earlier this morning.

The Blue Jackets, reached Monday evening, declined to comment on their plans in particular, saying there are too many details that need to be finalized before they can be made public, such as where the games will air and how much consumers will pay to watch.

Since late last season, when the demise of FanDuel became imminent, the Blue Jackets have assured fans that their games will still be available on TV. They hope to have an announcement with specifics in the coming weeks, a spokesman said.

One source told The Athletic that Blue Jackets’ team-employed broadcasters — TV play-by-play voice Steve Mears, TV analyst Jody Shelley and radio play-by-play voice Bob McElligott — will all be back for next season.

But the future is less certain for other familiar broadcast figures who were paid by FanDuel, such as studio host Brian Giesenschlag, studio analyst Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre and on-the-glass reporter Dave Maetzold, as well as the many behind-the-scenes producers, engineers and others.

The Blue Jackets are expected to continue to have pre- and post-game shows, but it’s unclear if the format of those shows will remain the same.

In each of the past two seasons, the Blue Jackets have aired select games on over-the-air television, allowing fans without cable or internet streaming service to watch games free of charge.

Those games have aired on CW Columbus (WWHO-TV)  and other Gray Media stations across Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. It has not been determined which local television channel, or channels, would be used for over-the-air broadcasts in this new arrangement.

It’s a new frontier for the Blue Jackets and the other clubs that are partnering with the NHL. The rights fees that franchises once counted on from their regional sports networks have disappeared.

Under this new approach, the Blue Jackets will be responsible for operating the broadcasts as part of their own business, including selling ads, sharing production costs with the NHL and creating their own content, tasks which were handled in the past by FanDuel’s directors and producers.

United States President Donald Trump has declared this the 2026 men’s World Cup “the most spectacular by far” and praised FIFA’s Gianni Infantino for elevating the tournament “to a level that nobody thought was possible.”

Trump, who watched Spain’s 1-0 victory over Argentina in Sunday’s final sitting next to the FIFA president in a suite at MetLife Stadium, also praised Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the World Cup Task Force.

Trump has attended many sporting events throughout his two presidential terms and while campaigning. His appearance at the final in New Jersey was the only match of the World Cup’s 104 games at which he was present.

“The World Cup turned out to be a spectacular success,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “I want to thank all of those involved but, in particular, our great law enforcement. The respect that everyone has for them, together with their love of our country, kept this great championship the safest and most spectacular World Cup in history, BY FAR!

“Thank you also to all others involved and, in particular, to young and dynamic Andrew Giuliani, working for the Government of the United States of America, and the fantastic president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, on a job well done! Few people will ever be able to accomplish what he has done in elevating the World Cup to a level that nobody thought was possible.”

Trump, 80, was booed loudly by fans at the final as he took to the pitch for the post-game trophy ceremony alongside Infantino. The two awarded medals to the Argentine and Spanish players before they jointly carried the trophy to Spain’s Rodri.

After handing over the trophy to the winning captain, Infantino tried to usher Trump out of the picture, but the U.S. president lingered on the podium and stood beside Spain’s players as Rodri lifted the trophy.

Earlier this month, Trump praised Infantino for “another great decision” by enabling Folarin Balogun to have a one-game ban suspended, which followed a call by Trump to the FIFA president about the U.S. striker’s red card and led to a major World Cup controversy.

Infantino has denied being part of the decision to reverse that one-match ban for a last-16 tie against Belgium, with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) — of which Infantino is a member — asked to investigate whether he was involved in that decision.

The request was made by FairSquare, and forms part of a wider complaint from the non-profit organisation alleging Infantino publicly supported Trump on five occasions. The IOC’s charter states that members must act independently of political and commercial interests, and cannot accept “from governments, organisations, or other parties, any mandate or instructions liable to interfere with the freedom of their action and vote.”

FIFA and Trump co-hosted a reception at Trump Tower before Sunday’s final, with the head of world football’s governing body telling Trump they had “exceeded all expectations” with the tournament.

Meanwhile, Sepp Blatter — Infantino’s predecessor as World Cup president and a long-term critic of the 56-year-old — posted on his social media on Tuesday that the World Cup “has lost credibility.”

Blatter said: “Politics must not be allowed to overshadow the game. Now it is up to the fans, players and national associations to reclaim football and bring it back to its roots under new leadership.”

Was the World Cup as much of a success as Trump says?

Let’s start with some positives by engaging on Trump’s level: ratings. It was the best-attended World Cup in history, although that clearly doesn’t mean a huge amount because it had the most matches in World Cup history. But according to FIFA, just over 6.8 million people attended games across 16 stadiums in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, at an average of 65,490 per game: that is the second-best figure in tournament history, behind only the previous World Cup to be hosted in America, in 1994. FIFA also claims a 99.7 per cent occupancy rate at the games, which by any measure is incredibly impressive.

On the pitch, it also produced a string of brilliant storylines and great football, from Lionel Messi’s continued excellence, Kylian Mbappe becoming the first man to reach double figures at a World Cup since Gerd Muller in 1970, to the remarkable underdog story of Cape Verde. The fears that the expanded format, with 48 teams rather than 32, would dilute the quality of the football and spectacle of the tournament, proved unfounded.

This World Cup was the best-attended edition ever (Imagn Images via Reuters/Steven Bisig)

However, the list of negatives is lengthy. Iran were not allowed to compete on an equal footing with anyone else, forced to move their base because of visa issues with some of their travelling party.

Many fans from countries that qualified could not travel to the U.S. due to various travel bans, and the activist group Football Supporters Europe claimed there was “unprecedented exclusion” and that “FIFA walks away from this World Cup with its reputation with supporters totally shattered having opened a void for distrust.”

The World Cup final took the title of the most expensive sporting event ever, which Trump and Infantino might regard as a positive, but it meant all outside the richest people in the world were either excluded from the event or had to spend more than they could reasonably afford to attend it. Ticket prices for matches throughout the tournament were also a constant issue for many fans.

And then there’s the Balogun affair, when Trump called Infantino to ask that the USA striker’s suspension, after he was sent off in their game against Paraguay, be reconsidered, which it duly was. It was the first time since 1962 that a player was sent off at the World Cup, and did not serve a suspension in their next game at the tournament.

So was it a ‘spectacular’ success? No, but you won’t be able to persuade Trump of that.

Nick Miller

Burnham has not shied away from clashing with the Premier League and football’s authorities.

In 2023, he wrote to Premier League insisting that Everton’s 10-point penalty for breaching profit and sustainability rules should be declared “null and void”.

There should be no concerns about the future of the independent football regulator, set up by Nandy and whose powers are just starting to kick in.

In 2020, Burnham was the co-author of a manifesto for change called ‘Saving Our Beautiful Game’.

It laid out a number of recommendations, including “an effective and independent body to oversee the financial regulation of the game”.

Burnham has long been involved with fans’ groups and he founded Supporters Direct, one of the forerunner organisations to the Football Supporters’ Association.

He backs expanding supporter ownership and representation, in 2022 creating a taskforce for fans to buy Oldham Athletic., external

The club was eventually bought by local businessman Frank Rothwell, with the supporters’ foundation taking a 3% shareholding and a seat on the board.

There could be a ban on unlicensed casinos from sponsoring sports teams, too, with Burnham a long-time critic of the negative effects of gambling.

An eight-week consultation has opened, external to consider proposals. Burnham’s Everton have a link to Stake.com, a crypto casino without a licence to operate in the UK.

Burnham was also a staunch supporter of justice for the victims of the Hillsborough disaster.

His work as an MP partly led to the Hillsborough Law, which was passed last week and is intended to prevent cover-ups linked to failures of the state.

When Burham was at the DCMS he ordered the first review of the “crown jewels” sports events in 10 years.

It recommended that the home Ashes cricket series be made free-to-view, but this was shelved when Labour lost power in 2010.

Sir Keir Starmer’s government had recently proposed new legislation to prevent streaming and catch-up rights being put behind a paywall for UK viewers.