Wimbledon will replace line judges with automated electronic line calling (ELC) from 2025, marking the end of a 147-year tradition at the All England Club (AELTC).

In a statement on Wednesday, the AELTC said: “The decision to adopt Live ELC was made following the successful completion of extensive testing during this year’s Championships and builds on the existing ball tracking and line calling technology that has been in place for many years.”

Wimbledon has made the decision after being convinced of ELC’s greater efficiency, compared to its extant system, in which line judges are supported by a challenge system using Hawk-Eye technology.

ELC, powered by artificial intelligence, has become more prominent at tennis tournaments since its introduction at the 2020 U.S. Open. Then, its primary intention was to reduce the number of people on court during the Covid-19 pandemic, but it has since been adopted as a more efficient and statistically accurate system of calling lines.

ELC is in use at the U.S. Open and Australian Open, and from next year will be in use at all ATP events on the main tour. It is generally preferred by players, who can ordinarily rely on the technology without having to be involved in the officiating of their matches — or worrying about the need to return a marginal ball over the net.

At last year’s Wimbledon, Andy Murray was on the wrong end of a call in the closing stages of his second-round match against Stefanos Tsitsipas. Had ELC been in place, Murray’s return of the Greek’s serve would have been called in at 15-30, 4-4. Murray, who had dragged Tsitsipas wide, would have had a chance to win the point and move to 15-40, with two break points to then serve at 5-4 up in the final set. Instead the shot was called out, he did not challenge and lost the game and then the match soon after.

“Right now I obviously would rather it was done automatically,” Murray said when it was revealed to him that his shot had been wrongly called out. “It’s a hard one because I probably prefer having the lines judges on the court.

“It feels nicer to me. I think the crowd quite like the challenges. I think for TV, they probably quite like it. But when mistakes are getting made in important moments, obviously as a player you don’t want that.”

This was the dilemma Wimbledon faced. They were desperate not to have to part with the 300 line judges they use each year and felt that the distinctly-dressed staff were an important part of the on-court aesthetic.

Ultimately the belief that ELC would make for a superior product won out. There is no doubt that the use of Hawk-Eye at Wimbledon since 2007 has been a big success and led to better officiating.

“The decision to introduce Live Electronic Line Calling at The Championships was made following a significant period of consideration and consultation,” said the AELTC chief executive Sally Bolton.

Wimbledon had used line judges for 147 years. (Simon Bruty / Anychance via Getty Images)

“Having reviewed the results of the testing undertaken at The Championships this year, we consider the technology to be sufficiently robust and the time is right to take this important step in seeking maximum accuracy in our officiating. For the players, it will offer them the same conditions they have played under at a number of other events on tour.

“We take our responsibility to balance tradition and innovation at Wimbledon very seriously. Line umpires have played a central role in our officiating set-up at The Championships for many decades and we recognise their valuable contribution and thank them for their commitment and service.”

The decision comes at a pertinent time, with a number of arguments taking place between players and umpires at the Shanghai Masters which is taking place this week. Frances Tiafoe, Alexander Zverev and Stefanos Tsitsipas have all berated umpires over what they felt were incorrect calls over the last 24 hours — though none of these were to do with calls of in or out that ELC deals with.

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In another break from tradition, the AELTC revealed on Wednesday that from next year the women’s and men’s finals will take place at 4 p.m. rather than 2 p.m. Both will be preceded by a doubles final at 1 p.m.

“The doubles players competing in the finals will have increased certainty over their schedule and fans will enjoy each day’s play as it builds towards the crescendo of the ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles finals, with our champions being crowned in front of the largest possible worldwide audience,” Bolton said.

(Top photo: Sebastien Bozon / AFP via Getty Images)

As Liverpool’s manager, Jurgen Klopp did not like long meetings. Rather than sitting around, poring over the latest big decision, he would regularly have important conversations in the canteen of the training ground while eating his lunch. 

Klopp was anything but formal, yet Mike Gordon — the president of Liverpool’s owner, Fenway Sports Group, a man who also operates with the sort of casual confidence you normally get from a dot com entrepreneur — placed the German on the same level as a corporate leader. He was, according to Gordon, “someone you would choose to run your company”, as he told Raphael Honigstein in his book, Bring the Noise.

Klopp’s new role as Red Bull’s global head of soccer, which he starts at the beginning of next year, potentially offers that kind of overarching responsibility. As a statement from Red Bull explained, the day-to-day running of the five clubs it owns, sponsors or has a minority stake in will not concern him but he will be helping sporting directors, scouting departments and coaches, ensuring Red Bull’s “philosophy” runs through each of its interests.

The decision, which arrived suddenly — nine years and a day since his arrival at Liverpool — might, on the face of it, be surprising, given how drained Klopp seemed when he departed Anfield in May. Back then, he said he had run out of energy and needed a total rest from football management.

He had left Borussia Dortmund with a similar message at the end of the 2014-15 season, before quickly landing on Merseyside after a summer largely spent playing tennis.

Klopp finds it hard to sit still for any length of time, but his new job at Red Bull invites a slower and less stressful route back into the game he loves — and, in all likelihood, a precursor to the German national team job he has long coveted, given that reports in the country suggest a get-out clause exists in his contract.

Gordon’s comments about Klopp’s capabilities were made in 2017 and in the years that followed, as Liverpool became more and more successful, his power grew. With that, the support network that had also contributed to Liverpool’s rise was dismantled. Klopp was not running Liverpool because the most important financial decisions were still made by Gordon, yet he was the public face of a multi-national company, and the football department became his. It explains why Liverpool now employs a head coach rather than a manager and the club’s sporting director leads strategic and staffing decisions. It would be good to hear from Klopp on whether he thinks taking on too much contributed to his burnout. 

Perhaps the Red Bull gig gives him the opportunity to understand a world he is curious about. Last year, there was some talk of him enrolling on a sporting directorship course, something his representatives did not confirm or deny. Unlike at Liverpool, he will be able to do his job without the pressures of preparing a team, matches, and press conferences. In an Instagram post on Tuesday, he indicated that this treadmill had stopped him from learning as much as he would like. From here, if he ends up taking charge of Germany, he will surely understand better the responsibilities that come with different stations of leadership.

Klopp is not the first former Liverpool manager to take on this particular title at Red Bull. In 2012, after Gerard Houllier was forced into retirement due to deteriorating health, he met with the founder of the company, Dietrich Mateschitz, who turned up for a meeting in Austria on a motorbike, wearing jeans.

Quite how influential Houllier became depends on the impression of who you speak to. While he would later claim that he played a leading role in the organisation’s attempt to bring Sadio Mane into its fold from Metz in 2012, those closer to its running suggest his responsibilities were closer to that of an ambassador: turning up in various countries, shaking hands with partners, and occasionally whispering advice.

Will Klopp’s duties even be as all-encompassing as they might sound? He is certainly useful for Red Bull’s brand, one which has needed a touch of legitimacy ever since it started investing in football in 2005.

Houllier was eight years out of Liverpool by the point his involvement started, while the Red Bull group had not yet produced a team talented enough to qualify for the group stage of the Champions League. Though its club in Leipzig has since made it through to that round of the competition in seven of the last eight seasons, the tale of a team rising up from the regional divisions has not exactly been met with encouragement in Germany, where the rules lean in favour of fan representation and significant outside investment is treated with suspicion. 

Dortmund fans protest before a game against RB Leipzig in 2017 (TF-Images/TF-Images via Getty Images)

At Dortmund and Liverpool, Klopp harnessed the authenticity of each club’s following, occasionally taking sideswipes at the artificial elements of rivals and other places. Had he been in charge of Dortmund in 2016 when they faced a recently promoted RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga for the first time, it would have been interesting to hear his thoughts on the actions of the Dortmund supporters who boycotted the fixture in protest at their opponents’ ownership model.

“Dortmund makes money, but we do it to play football,” said Jan-Henrik Gruszecki, one of the protest’s organisers, told The Guardian. “But Leipzig plays football to sell a product and a lifestyle. That’s the difference.”

Klopp, therefore, may have chipped his reputation by aligning himself with the fizzy drinks manufacturer — the antithesis of what he once represented. Perhaps this will be determined, particularly in Germany, by how visible he is while on Red Bull duty. 

Klopp will be removed from day-to-day coaching at Red Bull (Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)

Back in England, the company has a minority stake in Leeds United, having taken over as the club’s shirt sponsor. “The ambition to bring Leeds United back to the Premier League and establish themselves in the best football league in the world fits very well with Red Bull,” said Oliver Mintzlaff in May. Mintzlaff, Red Bull’s corporate projects CEO, played a significant role in Klopp’s appointment.

Klopp suggested on his exit from Liverpool in the same month that he would never manage another Premier League club. But it is not too hard to imagine Leeds back in the top flight soon, and if that happens — and Red Bull lends its technical support, as expected — it will be fascinating to see where Klopp, if he remains in the position, fits in. Might he end up helping plot, even in some small way, Liverpool’s downfall come matchday?

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Immediately, many have chortled at the suggestion that one of his first tasks might involve the sacking of Pep Lijnders, his former assistant at Liverpool, whose Red Bull Salzburg team were thrashed by Brest and Sturm Graz in successive games last week.

There is no plan to remove the Dutch coach, but Klopp does not begin with Red Bull officially until January. Given how close they were at Liverpool, with Lijnders entrusted to lead training sessions, it seems unthinkable that Klopp, if asked, would suggest making a change. Instead, surely Klopp’s arrival at the Red Bull stable increases the chances of him surviving.

For the time being, Klopp is removed from the grind of the daily management, with this role seeming to strike a neat balance of involvement at the elite end through a new challenge, but without the pressure, and scrutiny, that comes from being a manager. Whether Klopp can resist the buzz of the latter in the long term remains to be seen. 

(Top photos: Getty Images)

This article is part of our Origin Stories series, an inside look at the backstories of the clubs, drivers, and people fueling the sport.

En route to Brazil, near the end of the 2022 season, Red Bull Formula One boss Christian Horner stopped off in the United States for a meeting that could be decisive for his team’s future.

Months earlier, talks to enter a partnership with Porsche had broken down. Red Bull was eager to find a new manufacturer partner to support its in-house engine program, Red Bull Powertrains, formed after Honda quit F1 at the end of 2021.

Horner sat in an office at Ford Motor Company’s headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, for an important meeting. Discussions about an F1 project started with Mark Rushbrook, Ford’s motorsport boss, and appeared to be going well.

But this meeting also involved Bill Ford, the company chairman and great-grandson of its legendary founder, Henry Ford, and Jim Farley, its president and CEO. The stakes were that much higher.

Horner’s positive feeling was quickly confirmed. “I thought we were in good shape when Jim walked into the meeting in a Sergio Pérez cap,” he recalled in July this year. “(I thought) ‘OK, we’re looking pretty good here!’”

It paved the way for Red Bull and Ford to agree on a partnership that will start in 2026 when F1’s new engine regulations are introduced. The link-up will bring the American automotive giant back to the F1 grid after more than two decades away. Ford’s most recent involvement ended in 2004 when it sold its Jaguar team to Red Bull.

While 2026 is a couple of years away, the Red Bull Ford partnership is already working at pace, conscious of the significance of the new regulations and the scale of the project.

“Together with Ford, we have to succeed,” Horner said. “We can’t afford for this project not to succeed.”

Controlling its destiny

In October 2020, just 18 months after its first race as Red Bull’s engine partner, Honda announced that it would exit F1 at the end of the 2021 season.

The shock decision, taken to cut costs and shift toward electrification — and ultimately reversed three years later, when it signed a deal with Aston Martin starting in 2026 — left Red Bull at a crossroads. Trying to buy engines from its primary F1 rivals Ferrari or Mercedes would be awkward. Going back to previous partner Renault was not a viable move. Renault’s underperformance since 2014 sparked very public frustration from Red Bull.

So why not go it alone? Red Bull started exploring what it would take to make its own F1 engine. It would be a significant investment, but one that would give Red Bull control over its destiny instead of relying on a partner that, as Honda proved, could dip out of F1 at any moment.

“In the end, we decided that, actually, if we’re going to do it, we may as well do the whole thing,” Horner said.

While successful as an F1 team, Red Bull did not have the technical might or the existing knowledge base of its manufacturer rivals for making power units. Horner said it quickly became clear it was better strategically to partner with a car maker. “Because as an independent manufacturer, you miss out on the advantages that a Ferrari or a Mercedes or a Honda — who changed their mind — technically have.”

Porsche looked set to be Red Bull’s F1 partner of choice. The Volkswagen Group wanted to get the brand back into F1 by 2026, to enhance its rich motorsport heritage, including dominating F1 with McLaren in the mid-1980s. The talks approached a successful conclusion in the summer of 2022, but negotiations eventually broke down. Porsche had sought an ownership stake which Horner said Red Bull concluded “wasn’t the right route for the business.”

It left Red Bull back at square one, looking for a manufacturer partner. Then Horner, who said he is “a great believer in fate,” received an email from Rushbrook that changed everything. Ford wanted to come back to F1. Would Red Bull be interested in a conversation?

“It happened very, very quickly,” Horner said.

Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, Mark Rushbrook of Ford and Max Verstappen talk in the garage prior to the 2023 Miami GP. (Mark Thompson / Getty Images)

Right place, right time

F1’s appeal to manufacturers grew significantly for 2026. Its proposed power unit regulations aligned closer with global automotive trends through a greater focus on electrification and fully sustainable fuels. At the same time, the off-track boom in popularity made its marketing appeal greater than ever.

Mercedes and Ferrari were already on the grid. Honda planned to return with Aston Martin. Audi had announced a 2026 entry. Now, Ford also wanted to join the fray.

“When we saw what was happening in Formula One with the technical regulations, it was very aligned, giving us more of an opportunity to contribute and learn the innovation and tech transfer part of it,” Rushbrook said. “But certainly also the health of the sport, and the popularity globally and the diversity of the audience.”

It then became a question of how Ford would enter F1. It explored multiple options, including buying a team, as Audi did with Sauber, or developing a power unit division from scratch. Both would be very costly undertakings, and Ford’s previous struggles with owning Jaguar proved running an F1 operation had not been its strong suit. In five seasons, the team scored just two podium finishes before being sold to Red Bull at the end of 2004.

Nor did buying a team fit with Ford’s wider motorsport model.

“Yes, we’re in motorsports, but nowhere do we own or run the team,” Rushbrook said. “We always go with partners, whether it’s Dick Johnson Racing in Australia (Supercars), or Penske in NASCAR, or M-Sport in rally.”

The timing worked perfectly to commence talks with Red Bull. Upon hearing the Porsche deal was off, Rushbrook got a hold of Horner’s email address and sent an email mid-flight, setting the ball rolling toward a swift conclusion.

“We’d been through six months of discussion with Porsche. It didn’t play out,” Horner said. “I think from start to finish, it was literally 12 weeks to signing a contract (with Ford). The initial discussions with Mark, then Jim Farley and Bill Ford, basically there was a decision by the end of ’22 that this was the route forward.”

The new partnership, announced in February 2023 to coincide with Red Bull’s season launch, confirmed Ford’s commitment through the next cycle of power unit regulations, from 2026 to 2030.

The deal works for both sides. Ford returns to F1 after 22 years with a championship-winning team, benefitting from the technology transfer — F1 serves as a high-speed laboratory for future road car innovations — as well as the marketing might of F1, without the liability of a team or a total engine program. It will also be the only American manufacturer on the F1 grid in a boom period for the sport in the United States.

And in Ford, Red Bull would get a partner with the expertise and resources that could help its nascent engine program try to compete with the experience of Ferrari and Mercedes from the outset.

Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Ford’s Jim Farley speak at Red Bull’s 2023 season launch in New York. (Arturo Holmes / Getty Images for Oracle Red Bull Racing)

A partnership already in motion

The first Red Bull Ford powertrain won’t race in F1 for another 18 months, but that has not stopped both sides from accelerating the partnership.

The importance of the 2026 regulation overhaul, when the integration of the power unit into the car should have a huge impact on a team’s performance, means it is already a priority for F1’s manufacturers.

“Whilst ’26, probably to the fans, seems quite a way away, you’re going to be locking in decisions for your race engines within the next months,” Horner said. “For the design teams, it’s literally tomorrow.”

Red Bull Powertrains has been growing rapidly as a result, with a significant recruitment drive, including a number of personnel from rival F1 engine programs, and the construction of two new buildings on its Milton Keynes campus fully dedicated to the 2026 program. The initial Red Bull Ford power unit supply will be for the two Red Bull teams, Red Bull and RB, but the facility is built with the capability to provide a further two customer teams. Besides Ferrari, Red Bull is the only other team in F1 with its team and engine operation on the same site.

Although there isn’t any Ford branding on the Red Bull F1 car — the current engines are still Honda intellectual property, and a technical agreement remains in place until the end of 2025 — their marketing efforts are already underway. Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez have already taken part in demonstration events driving Ford cars. Pérez took the Ford Red Bull SuperVan, an all-electric van producing the equivalent of over 1,400 bhp, up the famous Goodwood hill climb in July. Ford also supports one of Red Bull’s entries to F1 Academy, the all-women support series, and named Chloe Chambers as its driver for 2025 earlier this month. Even the road cars used by Red Bull team members on race weekends are Fords.

The true success of Red Bull and Ford’s partnership will be defined come 2026, when an early engine advantage could be crucial. Mercedes proved that at the start of the V6 hybrid power unit era in 2014 when it went on a record eight-season streak of constructors’ titles and dominated that era of F1.

Horner said he had “no illusions” that Red Bull and Ford will face anything but a big challenge for 2026, noting the “decades of experience” the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari have with their F1 engine projects.

“We’ve got three years of experience,” Horner said. “But we’ve got a huge amount of passion, we’ve got some great people, we’ve got great facilities, we’ve got great partners, and we’ve got all the attitude that has served us so well in the 120 race wins that we’ve achieved so far.

“It’ll be so rewarding when we add to that number with an engine that’s been designed, built, and manufactured here in Milton Keynes.”

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(Top photo of Christian Horner: Seth Wenig / AP)