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IS THE PREMIERSHIP BORING? – 12/5/08

The end of the football season has brought renewed discussion of the dominance of the Big Four clubs and suggestions that the Premiership is so predictable that it is boring. Nevertheless, plenty of armchair fans were attracted by the championship and relegation struggle on the last day. One of the biggest factors changing the state of the game is the Champions League with entry worth £30m a season to the top four. The average earnings of the top four clubs is triple the amount for the little sixteen, although some analysts would make a distinction between a middle group of clubs that have some hope of a Uefa cup place and the bottom tier engaged in a relegation struggle. One newspaper expressed this as the difference between platinum class, business and economy. It's not so long ago (between 1995 and 1998) that Newcastle were England's second richest club while in 1994-5 Jack Walker effectively 'bought' the title for Blackburn by spending £23.5m on what was then England's most expensive squad.

Sports economist Stefan Szymanski reckons that 'Competitive imbalance is a fact of life in any sport. It exists in the US, where they go to great lengths to create equality of opportunity. English football is achieving record popularity and those who think it would draw more supporters if smaller teams had more of a chance ignore the fact that bigger clubs would shrink. Look at France where money is more equally divided. Their best players go abroad and their league has a lousy standard of play.' Szymanski asks, 'Why should we bothered?' Sepp Blatter certainly is. The Fifa president wants a quota system imposed on the number of foreign players, despite legal advice that this would be illegal within the European Union. Blatter is proposing the so-called 6 plus 5 rule for every team to field six players eligible for the team of the country. This would have a devastating impact on Premiership clubs. As few as 37 per cent of the starting line-ups on a match day this season have been made up of Englishmen.

Premiership chief executive Richard Scudamore is suspicious of Blatter's motives: 'There is a lot of envy out there of English football. Envy because of our success and because English football is the most watched in the world.' The Premiership may be hit by the new immigration points system. It requires immigrants from outside the EU to meet quite stringent English language standards which may be difficult for some players.

WOUNDED STAGS – 11/5/08

Mansfield Town's relegation into the Blue Square Premier (also known as the Conference) is accompanied by serious off the pitch problems which many fans feel contributed to this year's poor performance. Feelings ran so high that after the final home game that some supporters managed to battle past stewards and police and get into the boardroom to assault owner Keith Haslam who later required hospital treatment. The fans' main quarrel with Haslam is what they see as his chronic lack of investment in the club while taking large sums of money out of funds for himself. Initially, relations were much better. The early days of his 14-year tenure saw him buy the club for a pound, put it on a proper business footing and, with the aid of grants, modernise the ground by building three new stands. To put a buffer between himself and his critics, Haslam stepped down as chairman and appointed a succession of people as club figurehead. One of these, James Derry, headed up a consortium that almost succeded in a bid to buy the club in the summer. But Haslam's crippling rent demands and consortium members getting cold feet halted hopes.

The Conference is not an easy division to get out of for a former League club, as the recent collapse of Halifax Town testifies. There is only one automatic promotion place for the champions and Torquay United lost out in the play offs this year. The final will be between two former league clubs, Cambridge United and Exeter City. Mansfield have been in the Football League for 77 years, so the blow of relegation is a hard one. The only bid on the table at the moment is from John Batchelor who took York City into the Conference where they still languish. He has already made a national laughing stock of Mansfield by threatening to change their name to Harchester United after the fictional Sky TV Dream Team. Stags at bay indeed.

THE REALITIES OF LIFE IN LEAGUE 1 – 11/5/08

Oldham Athletic lost £380,000 in their last financial year and there was a long battle to get a £80m redevelopment scheme at Boundary Park approved by local planners. But what is even more of a problem is to get people to pay up. There are the 'fans' who sneak into the ground without paying, the cheats who took credit from the club and did not meet their payments ('too many to list' according to the chairman, Simon Blitz) and the companies who promised sponsorship for dinners and corporate hospitality but refused to pay after attending. The Oldham chairman said, 'We had to issue court proceedings ... but next year we will just name and shame.' To top it all, last week two shoplifters were caught in the club shop. One puzzle is why Oldham don't ask sponsors to pay in advance which has been the practice in any club I have dealt with.

HALIFAX GOES BUST – 11/5/08

Former Football League club Halifax Town has gone bust and faces a challenge to re-form at a lower level next season. Halifax collapsed on Friday with debts totalling more than £2m. Administrators offered a settlement of 2.5 p in the £ but creditors refused and the club will now be liquidated just three years short of its 100th anniversary. The final straw came when it was emerged that the taxman was owed more than £800,000 - far more than initial estimates and a sum administrators described as 'insurmountable'. Halifax Town will now cease to exist in their current form and the only option is to start a new club from scratch further down the non-league pyramid. It is not know whether David Bosomworth - the man behind the consortium that was engaged in a protracted bid to buy Halifax - would back a reformed club, but the Supporters Trust have already discussed the idea of setting up a fans club on the lines of AFC Wimbledon. However, it would be very difficult to start such a club in time for next seasoon. One challenge for them, or any re-formed club, would be where they would play.

FA rules state that any reformed club must start a minimum of two divisions lower, as was the case with Barrow and Telford, who both joined the Unibond League after going bust in the Conference. A worst-case scenario would be that which befell Scarborough - forced to reform in the Northern Counties League a full five divisions below the Conference. Barrow have just returned to the Conference nine years after they went into liquidation, so the road back could be a long one. Brian Keen, who rescued the club, told the Non-League Paper, 'The fixtures are already frightening me for next season and we are going to need at least 1,500 fans every home game to break even.'

ARSENAL WILL PAY TOP DOLLAR FOR NEW SUPREMO – 4/5/08

Arsenal are prepared to make their new managing director the highest paid chief executive in football, exceeding the £1 million plus salaries of Manchester United's David Gill and Chelsea's Peter Kenyon. They are looking for someone who can take the weight off the shoulders of Arsene Wenger on the football side. Ousted supremo Keith Edelman had some notable commercial successes at the club. He pulled off a numner of eye-catching sponsorship deals including a 10-year agreement with Nike for £130m and the naming rights of the Emirates Stadium for £100m. The club's explanation in a statement to the Stock Exchange was that Mr Edelman was leaving to seek 'a fresh challenge'. However, it appears that he was told by director Danny Fiszman that he was no longer required because Arsenal needed a managing director who would 'spend 30 per cent of his time on the football side rather than 5 per cent.' It was felt among board members that the club 'almost runs itself' on the business side. The news was not taken well by Arsenal's biggest shareholder, Alisher Usmanov, who sought a further explanation. He was assured by the club that Mr Edelman's departure was not a prelude to giving greater influence to US sports franchise owner Stan Kroenke.

HOW POSSIBLE SPURS DEAL LOOKS FROM CANADA – 4/5/08

Having just returned from a trip to Canada, it was interesting to see how the Canadian press was handling interest from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment in acquiring Spurs. The Globe and Mail noted, 'Though foreign ownership in the Premiership has become nearly as commonplace as foreign players and managers, it is still met with a degree of ambivalence which can easily swing towards the hostile and xenophobic if things go sour. Supporters well understand the cash equation of the game - only reach teams prosper, so having an insanely wealthy sugar daddy, no matter what his passport, can be a very good thing indeed.' The newspaper made a not altogether flattering comparison between Spurs and the (Toronto) Maple Leaf hockey team: 'Spurs are long on history, long on trafition, long on name recognition, they were one of the best sides in the world in the early 1960s, they were quite good about 25 years ago, they're a big short on recent accomplishments and tend to cling to moral victories. They are - almost - the Leafs.' Perhaps it's a partnership made in heaven. At least it would give the Premiership its first Canadian owned team.

PROFITS AND INTEREST COSTS RISE FOR GLAZERS – 4/5/08

The holding company that owns Manchester United saw both its interest costs and pre-tax profits rise last year, according to results the owners said represented a more stable financial footing. Red Football Joint Venture's interest on bank loans and overdrafts it refinanced in August 2006 was £42m for the 12 months to 30 June last year, compared with £27.2m for the previous 14 months. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose from £36.3m to £75.4m. Operating profit moved into the black reaching £7.1m following a loss of £37.2m. The overall loss for 2006-7 was £57.8m, smaller than the previous period's £135m. Net debt for the company owned by the Glazer Family rose from £603m to £666m. But that includes one-off costs for redeeming high-interest loans. However, had earnings been the same as 2006, the company would have fallen £6m short of covering its interest payment. A spokesman for the Glazers rejected suggestions this showed a vulnerability for a company reliant on the team's on-field success, which although it is currently being maintained, cannot be guaranteed.

Confidence was partly based on the sponsorship deal with AIG worth £18m a year over five years and another with Nike that will bring in £303m in the next 13 years. Gate receipts from the expanded stadium rose 28 per cent to £96.2m. Receipts from television and other media rose from £46m to £61.5m.

END GAME AT WEDNESDAY – 25/4/08

I am not referring here to the prospect of Sheffield Wednesday being relegated: as a Championship team supporter, I hope that doesn't happen as I find Hillsborough one of the most atmospheric grounds in the country (always bearing in mind the sad events that happened there). Supporters' group Wednesdayite are convinced takeover talks between the club and a consortium headed by Lancashire-based businessman Geoff Sheard are nearing completion. Wednesdayite and the Sheffield Wednesday Shareholders Association held talks with Sheard on Monday and remain hopeful that a takeover is near despite lengthy delays. It has been suggested that Russian billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenlov is the financial muscle behind Sheard. There is another consortium in the running to take over the Owls which is understood to be headed by former Darlington chief executive and Boston United chairman Joe Sotnick. The Wednesdayite group has also talked to this consortium, but their chair Darryl Keys commented, 'We have made it clear we do not prefer either consortium. But we will encourage anyone to pursue their interest in Sheffield Wednesday. It's been complicated because only 10 per cent of the club's shares are owned by directors who are still on the board.'

Wednesdayite hold a 10 per cent stake in the club and the Shareholders Association have 12 per cent of the shares. Both potential bidders have given assurances that relegation would not affect their interest. Relations between fans and the existing board have been very strained, in part because of a legal dispute over comments made on a message board. One fan told us. 'We, the fans, are desperate for this takeover to happen. There is no confidence in the current board to turn things around and make us stable, never mind to get us back where we think we belong.' Darryl Keys commented, 'Geoff Sheard seemed relaxed and happy. The other party have told me they are making good progress. Because of what I have been told, I am convinced that ultimately some sort of deal can be done.' Let's hope so.

THE MILLERS' TALE – 24/4/08

The administrator of Rotherham United, Jeremy Bleazard, has announced that he has received five bids from people prepared to take on the tough task of reviving the stricken Millers. The club's current chairman, Denis Coleman, is one of them and he knows what he is up against, having led the club through two difficult years after their last insolvency. Along with high player wages even at League 2 level and the battle to attract fans through the turnstiles, Coleman resents the size of the rent and continuing benefits the club must pay to their former owners, the Booth family, whose scrap metal and recycling business stands next to the Millmoor ground. The Booths owned the club for 17 years but when they sold it in December 2004 they had run up a £3m ovcrdraft, the result of the wage bill they incurred in the Championship and the ITV Digital collapse. They gave the club away for £1 and wrote off the overdraft - but in exchange they took ownership of Millmoor, the Tivoli nightclub in front of it and the Hooton Lodge training ground. The club is understood to pay the Booths just under £200,000 a year in rent and the duty to keep Millmoor in good shape falls on the club.

In late 2006 the club fell behind with the rent and tried to argue in court that the original agreement undervalued the properties and that the lease was onerous, but the case was struck out. In December 2004 a small group of Rotherham supporters led by solicitor Peter Ruchniewicz agreed to take the club on. Ruchniewicz maintains that the Booths gave them a good deal. The Booths lent the new regime £660,000 to start them off. However, the wage bill was a big challenge. Apparently, several players were on over £100,000 a year and one was on £200,000. With the club losing £140,000 a month Coleman, a local builder and property developer, stepped in and agreed a Company Voluntary Arrangement, a deal agreed in May 2006. All 'non-football' creditors accepted a write off of the bulk of their debts except HM Revenue and Customs, which was owed £748,000. Coleman said of his subsequent problems with the club: 'It's Catch-22. If you budget lower and the team does badly the fans don't come and you lose the money anyway.'

Rotherham Borough Council has stated that it is 'in the interests of the economic and social wellbeing of Rotherham' that the club stays in place. Talks have been held with developers about building a community stadium to which the club could move, which would leave the Booths with the land on which Millmoor stands. Supporters' trust director Steve Exley says, 'The town needs it. Where else would you get 4,000 people gathering together. And if it weren't for football, when would anybody hear about Rotherham?' Denis Coleman is preparing to challenge a Football League ruling that he is not a 'fit and proper person' to be involved with a football club. Coleman became the first club director ever to be qualified under the 'fit and proper person test' because the current administration is Rotherham's second insolvency since he became a director. The underlying problem, as we have argued before, is that Rotherham is not the most prosperous of towns and is within easy reach of two Championship clubs in Sheffield. Fans are more fickle than the vision of the dedicated 'supported the same club all my life' fan would suggest.

SWANSEA POST LARGE LOSS – 24/4/08

The cost of securing promotion from the Championship is reflected in Swansea City's latest accounts which show an annual loss of £647,313. This compares with a profit of £447,793 last year. However, the club is confident that it will be more than able to compete in the Championship despite the revenue shortfall. It is thought that the Welsh side who have an impressive new stadium will be able to earn up to £2m in revenue from new sponsorship deals, hospitality packages and money from the pooled broadcast funds. Season ticket sales are also expected to increase from the 8000 current holders. Chairman Huw Jenkons said, 'We are a well-run club and, unlike many clubs in the division we're going into, we're in a stable financial position. There will always be swings and variations from season to season.'

OFF THE PITCH ACTION AT ANFIELD – 22/4/08

Tonight's Champions League fixture between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield may be overshadowed by the latest development in the battle for control of the Merseyside club. Senior officials from Dubai International Capital (DIC), including the chief executive Samir Al-Ansari, will be in the directors' box as the guest of the club's co-owner George Gillett. The American himself will not be there, due to a possibly diplomatic illness, but his son and fellow director, Foster Gillett, will host Al-Ansari and Amanda Staveley, who is DIC's chief negotiator, as they head towards buying Liverpool for around £400m. Tom Hicks, who owns the other 50 per cent of Liverpool, and has become a hate-figure among supporters, is expected to attend after police gave him advice on his safety. If he doesn't turn up, it might be a sign that the sale is going ahead.

Meetings have continued behind the scenes over the last few weeks, including several with former players and people who have influence on the club, as DIC wants to make sure it has the fans' approval, which the company believes is vital. And the fact that both Al-Ansari, who is a lifelong supporter, and Staveley feel emboldened enough to make public appearances at Anfield show how confident they feel. However, yet another twist in the tale is that Sheikh Mohamed has confirmed that his family are keen on buying Roma which could affect their plans for Liverpool. Roma are currently owned by Italpetroli, but a number of investors have been linked with a deal. Sheikh Mohammed told the Gazetta dello Sport, 'I don't follow football a lot, but I know my family want to negotiate for Roma and there have been contacts.'

THE DESCENT FROM GLORY – 22/4/08

Only two years ago Nuneaton Borough were the talk of the land after holding Middlesbrough to a draw in the third round of the FA Cup at their old Manor Park ground. A convoy of more than 60 coaches took thousands of fans to the replay. Today the Blue Square North club is in financial trouble. Nuneaton-born building contractor Ian Neale bought out the shares of Ted Stocker a month ago to become the club's major director. His building company constructed the club's mew Liberty Way stadium. He has brought in professional advisors to carry out a complete review of the club's off-the-field activities. He has not ruled out going into administration, saying it is one of several options open to the club. He said, 'We must stress that the club's financial problems have been inherited from the past. We have stepped in to help save the club but we have been absolutely shocked by the poor standard of administrative and commercial systems'. While these may well have been a contributory factor towards the club's current financial plight, Nuneaton is not in the most prosperous part of Warwickshire and the Birmingham and Coventry teams are easily accessible.

WHAT IS BOLTON WANDERERS FOR? – 20/4/08

That is the question posed by the Financial Times yesterday in an article on the Lancashire side's struggle against relegation from the Premiership which was boosted by an away win at Middlesbrough. The Pink 'Un is not particularly having a go at Bolton, but raising more general questions about modern football. The FT comments about Bolton: 'This is a team that embraced the mundanity of survival all else, and so laid bare what a sham much of modern football has become ... For them the game is only about staying on the merry-go-round another season and collecting another sackful of cash.' As a Charlton fan, I have a particular perspective on the situation of teams like Bolton (who did better than we ever did by qualifying for the Uefa Cup). 7th in the Premiership was as good as it ever got (or is likely to get) for the Addicks, but the man who achieved that (along with the board), Alan Curbishley, was much criticised by the fans for 'mid-table mediocrity'. Well, better that than mid-table mediocrity in the Championship under Alan Pardew. The Premiership is the place to be because the quality of the football is much higher (the gap has widened since we were last in the second level) and at least you get a chance to see the top players live on the pitch rather than on television.

To return to the FT article, it states, 'The sad truth is that, in the modern financial climate, teams such as Bolton have no chance of winning the Premier League. They had no chance of even finishing in the top four. This begs the question of what the point of the club is. Surely, it is more than simply staying up? It's more than admiring a healthy set of accounts and hoping your side can squeak a couple of draws against the big teams and do enough against the rest to go through it all [again] the following year. Surely it's about the possibility of glory?' How can that glory be achieved? The FT sees the cups as the answer. 'Hopefully the upsets of the FA Cup this season will remind the smaller Premier League teams of what is possible. The cups - FA, League and Uefa - all offer the potential for glory, and if the pay-off for stretching for that is an increased risk of relegation, then surely it is a gamble worth taking.'

A club's finance director might not agree. But just looking at it in footballing terms, will the domestic cups head the way of foreign competitions where teams put out reserve sides? That already happens in the league cup. FA Cup sides are sometimes weakened and for the top four it surely comes after the Premiership and the Champions League? The media hype up the 'romance of the Cup', and getting to Wembley, even for the semi-finals, is a big thing for fans. But, at the end of the day, the Cup is a lottery and winning it is no indication of relative strength which is why it only gives a place in the Uefa Cup. Whether there are traditional solutions to the challenges of modern media and finance-driven football is a matter for debate.

THE STRANGE WORLD OF THE ADMINISTRATOR – 20/4/08

Over the past decade more than 30 professional football clubs have entered administration. It is rare for there not be to at least one club in administration in the British leagues (currently Gretna and Rotherham). However, the special nature of football as a business means that club administration is far from a routine matter for insolvency practitioners. David Acland, a partner with Begbies Traynor, which has handled a number of football club administrations, told the Financial Times, 'With Wrexham, we have debated for ages whether to accept the appointment because of the effect all the hours spent dealing with media and customer fan enquiries would have on our mainline business. You can't delegate down responsibility for handling such enquiries, no matter how time-consuming they can become.' Given that, why take the business at all? It may be that its high profile means that a successfully completed administration could attract business in other spheres, although I must admit that I am not sure how one selects an administrator for a business in trouble. Certainly, I cannot recall an administrator going bust and some football fans resent the fees involved.

Nevertheless, they are well earned because of the particular challenges that football clubs present. Trade union representation is generally strong and Philip Long, head of corporate recovery at accountancy firm PFK (UK) describes football as 'the last bastion of the trade union movement.' The Football League's insistence that football-related debts such as outstanding player transfer fees and wage arrears are paid in full, meaning that so-called 'football creditors' invariably get the best deal going, especially if the club is sold as a going concern. The league is in a strong position because it decides whether the club can carry on in the competition it was in. Player redundancies are also rare. 'You cannot tinker with the workforce in general terms,' says Mr Acland. 'It is very hard to make redundancies.'

Yet footballers are not the only creditors with bargaining power. Service providers such as the police and the long-suffering St John Ambulance (who are generally owed quite large outstanding bills by clubs in trouble) also have influence since most clubs could not operate without them. 'There is generally little interchangeability in a football club's main suppliers,' says Mr Acland, 'So you have to take pains to offer them a reasonable deal.' Football clubs are also unlike other businesses in that they cannot be sold to a direct competitor. At PFK (UK), Mr Long has yet to detetct any shortage of prospective 'white knights' for struggling clubs. 'There are always people out there who want to get involved in football,' he commented. 'It is usually somebody who has got some strange [sic] connection with the area.' Certainly the 'another bus along in a minute' principle seems to work when a club goes bust. There is always someone willing to turn a large fortune into a small one.

Finding a buyer is not the end of the story for the administrator. It can take a long time to secure regulatory approval for the change of ownership in terms of the 'fit and proper person test'. Mr Long recalled, 'In the case of Oldham Athletic, a buyer "came out of left field" in the shape of three "computer guys" from the American east coast, but the process dragged on. "We got them on the hook to buy it and then we had to trade it [the club] with their co-operation until we could complete the sale."' A final constraint is that because of the 'transfer windows' it is difficult to realise the full value of players. Realising that a 'fire sale' is on, purchasers will ask for a bargain price.

A TALE OF TWO CLUBS – 19/4/08

Football in Scotland's capital city of Edinburgh has always been overshadowed by the economic power of the two 'Old Firm' clubs in Glasgow, Celtic and Rangers. But now a gap is opening up between the two clubs in 'Auld Reekie' in terms of their perceived competence and image. This was exemplified by the bizarre behaviour of Hearts chairman Roman Romanov, the son of the club's majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov, at the annual meeting. He suggested that the Scottish Premier League was 'fixed'. He said, 'For a very long time in this country it is a fixed league where Rangers and Celtic win by 30 points. Ask yourself how many games this season have got screwed by referees? Five games is 15 points.' The latter remark was one of many he made which were not readily understood, but may have been a suggestion that officials only had to influence a few matches to determine the outcome of the league. Someone in the crowd then shouted at Romanov, 'you've made a **** of yourself', and for a time the meeting looked like descending into chaos.

Hearts insist that their ambitious project to deliver a £51m redevelopment of their Tynecastle stadium is still on course, despite fears over their finances that focus on their current debt of £36m. Edinburgh City Council, which is considering the club's planning application for the state-of-the-art 10,000-seater main stand, has yet to give its approval. Hearts admitted that negotiations over moving whisky from bonds situated just behind the Wheatfield Stand, as part of health and safety requirements, had prolonged the process. Senior figures at the City Council are said to have expressed increasing concern about Hears' ability to deliver their side of the redevelopment deal. The club claims that the stadium would mean an extra £2.5m a year in ticket revenue.

The situation at Hearts' rivals Hibernian offers something of a contrast. Hibs is in robust good health, with debt reduced, a £5m training centre about to open and steps being taken to complete the redevelopment of Easter Road with the building of a new East Stand which will take capacity to above 21,000. However, this position was only reached by taking some tough decisions when the club faced up to a record loss of £2.8m some six years ago. Hibs awoke to the reality of the situation ahead of many of their rivals, instigating a 'root and branch' review of all aspects of the club's business aimed at achieving break even. Now the club's finances are rock solid after reporting three successive operating profits.

IT ALL GOES OFF AT LIVERPOOL - AGAIN – 17/4/08

Some newspapers have published complicated diagrams in the last week showing who is out with whom - or still in with whom - at Liverpool Football Club. However, fans probably don't need to consult them for another flare up of the bad feeling between co-owner Tom Hicks and chief executive Rick Parry. Hicks has slammed Parry's tenure at Anfield, labelling it a 'disaster'. Hicks commented, 'We have fallen so far behind the other top clubs. The new stadium should have been built three or four years ago. We have two sponsors, maybe three. We should have 12 or 15. We are not doing anything in Asia the way Manchester United and Barcelona are. We have a tremendous number of fans in Asia. So we have got the top brand in the world of football, but we just don't how to commercialise. Rick needs to resign. You have to be able to work with the manager and Rick has proved he can't do that.' Parry retorted that only the board of the club could request him to resign and they had made no such request.

Hicks confirmed that his relationship with co-owner George Gillett had completely broken down. He stated, 'We started this as friends but 50-50 is a difficult business proposition because you can't do anything without your partner's approval. We had a good honeymoon but, over a period, there have been issues, the stadium being the main one. If George doesn't sell - because I am not going to sell - I guess we stay in the position we are in. I am planning to make [Gillett] a very attractive offer. My goal is to take all the debt off the club except the working capital needed. The fans don't like the fact that we borrowed a lot of money to buy the club but I will fix that.' Hicks also attacked prospective suitors Dubai International Capital: 'They are masters of the British tabloid spin. They want to stir the pot of Liverpool to create dissension.' Some might think that there was quite enough of that already without any intervention from DIC.

Sources close to the Liverpool board told the Financial Times, 'The board always liked [Gillett], he was good to deal with, had a passion, wanted to get things done and seemed to get the issues around the club's history.' The problem, according to one inside souurce, was that long-term planning by the new owners was non-existent. Their due diligence of the club took only a few days. Their interest in Liverpool, it was alleged, had more to do with using the club as collateral agaisnt their sport franchise assets in the US where there are limits on the amount of debt owners can raise to bankroll their teams. Hicks Holdings denies this. There have been unconfirned suggestions that loans Mr Hicks holds against other investments are due in a few weeks' time, although Hicks Holdings says there are no loans on any other assets. It is difficult to forecast how long this incredible saga will continue. We may be in the end game or Liverpool fans may face a continuing stalemate which will eventually affect performance on the pitch.

WILL SPURS BE FOR SALE SOON? – 16/4/08

Joe Lewis, the co-owner of Enic International, which owns 82 per cent of Tottenham Hotspur, suffered a loss thought to be about £500m from the collapse of the Bear Stearns bank in the United States. He may be a billionaire, but he might be interested in cashing in a few assets. Lord Ashcroft, the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, is thought to have had a small stake in Spurs for years but has now increased it to just under 4 per cent. He did not buy his stake from Enic and is thought to have bought it on the open market. Lord Ashcroft holds a 42 per cent stake in the company behind Watford. Spurs shares have risen two-thirds in the past year on the anticipation that Enic might sell its stake. Last year Sir Alan Sugar ended his 16-year association with the North London club when he sold his remaining 12 per cent stake to Enic for £25m.

£100,000 VASE BONANZA FOR LOWESTOFT – 16/4/08

In just under a month's time Ridgeons League Premier Division side Lowestoft Town will be playing at Wembley in the FA Vase final. However, 14 months ago the very existence of the Suffolk seaside club was in doubt. In the winter of 2007 the club was issued with a winding up order over a £13,000 debt to the taxman. Debts of £92,000 also had to be serviced. At an emergency meeting in January 2007 £2,000 was raised in donations and this was followed by a sustained effort to get local businesses involved. By October they had secured the neighbouring social club and by the end of the year Town, one of the best supported clubs at its level, should be out of debt - even without the Vase run. Every other round in the Vase has really only paid for itself, but the final should generate around £60,000-£70,000 in ticket revenue. Sponsorship and advertising is being used to pay for costs such as new suits for the players. The possible payout, which could top £100,000, is beinge earmarked for the future development of the Trawler Boys. Crown Meadow is to be upgraded to make promotion to the Ryman League possible and it is also hoped to set up a Player Development Centre.

READING SALE DEVELOPMENTS – 15/4/08

Reading has hired Citigroup to help it find a buyer for its stadium and 'franchise' according to Sports Business Journal. The report claimed that owner John Madejski is seeking up to $200m (£108m) for the club and stadium. Citigroup declined comment on whether it is representing Reading. A spokesperson for the relegated threatend club said Citigroup is one of several parties that have been consulted on a potential sale. Dan Jones from Deloitte and Touche told the Sports Business Journal that Reading is most likely to be sold to a foreign purchaser. Ten of the Premiership teams have been sold within the last five years and only one has been bought by an English buyer. Jones said that Premiership teams generally sell for one to two times their previous season's turnover. A potential buyer may have a choice as reports are circulating once again about a possible sale of Tottenham Hotspur.

MORE PREMIERSHIP CLUBS MAY FACE POLICE QUESTIONING – 12/4/08

More Premiership clubs may face a visit from the City of London Police after the questioning of Birmingham co-owner David Sullivan and managing director Karren Brady signalled new developments in the football corruption probe. Previous raids at Birmingham, Portsmouth, Newcastle and SPL club Rangers were linked to transfers of players which fell within the two-year period investigated by Quest for the Premiership, and which involved Scottish agent Willie McKay. Last week's development suggest that the investigation has a wider scope. There has been speculation that police are following up leads generated by two ongoing inquiries in France. In an anonymous letter which is believed to have led to one of those probes, three more Premiership clubs, yet to be questioned, were named as being involved in suspect deals. The anonymous letter sent to French police and football authorities early in 2004 alleged that a number of past and present Premiership players had received, or been promised, tax-free payments. The letter led to the ongoing Marseille-based investigation into Richard Bettoni, an unlicensed agent.

Birmingham City is far from happy about the way their staff have been handled by the police. They insist that Brady and Sullivan were not arrested, but merely kept a long-standing appointment for questioning. However, presumably if they had not turned up for the five hour meeting at Bishopsgate police station, which ended with their release on bail, the police might have felt impelled to arrest them. The club has insisted that the matter being investigated related to tax and national insurance payments. David Sullivan said that he was upset the arrests could be linked with an inquiry into alleged 'bungs' in football. The pair were arrested over allegations of false accounting and conspiracy to defraud. In an earlier statement the club said there was 'absolutely no allegation' that any director of the company or the club itself had benefited financially from any activity. Mr Sullivan said, 'It's a PAYE matter over two foreign players we signed in 2002. I think the "conspiracy to defraud" puts in the mind of supporters an allegation that someone at the club has had money they are not entitled to. There is no allegation of that nature and I wish the police had made that clear.'

Shares in the relegation threatened club were suspended at the club's request last Thursday morning following the arrests and they resumed several hours later. Reports have suggested that a transfer deal in 2004 betwen Birmingham City and Portsmouth is at the centre of this particular inquiry. The Senegal midfielder, Alou Cisse, moved from Birmingham to Portsmouth for £300,000 in August 2004. It has been claimed that Brady and Sullivan were questioned about the period after Cisse's initial move to England, when he signed for Birmingham from Montpellier for £1.5m in July 2002.

Premiership supremo Richard Scudamore has insisted that these events have not damaged the top league's image. It is certainly the case that rumours, claims and investigations about alleged corruption involving some Premiership clubs have not led to any charges or convictions. However, these matters are necessarily complex and it it may be that someone will eventually be charged, although not necessarily those who have been questioned. Alongside fans' complaints about 'greedy' players, the reputation of the Premiership could sustain damage and these days brand reputation is seen as a golden asset.

HICKS CALLS ON LIVERPOOL CEO TO RESIGN – 12/4/08

Tom Hicks has asked Rick Parry to resign as chief executive of Liverpool as the feud between the American co-owners intensifies. Interviewed by Sky Sports News as he entered Anfield, Parry made it clear that he thought that the call was a distraction from the club's success on the pitch this week, but seemed relatively relaxed about his future, if baffled by the situation. Because Mr Hicks only owns 50 per cent of the club, he cannot force Mr Parry to quit. Mr Hicks is believed to be angry at comments by Mr Parry in which he called on the co-owners to resolve questions about the club's future. Mr Parry was one of the prime movers behind the formation of the Premiership in 1992 and became its first chief executive, but left in 1996 to join the club he supports. The club is now in a situation where Hicks cannot stand co-owner George Gillett, Gillett cannot stand Hicks, Hicks cannot stand Parry and Parry cannot stand Hicks. A complicating factor is a dispute between Gillett and Ian Ayre, the commercial director, who is an ally of Hicks. The relationship between Parry and manager Rafael Benitez is also difficult. Unless these tensions are resolved, it is difficult to see how performance on the pitch can be unaffected.

In response to this latest outbreak of trouble, Dubai International Capital (DIC) have stepped back from the negotiating table, but may yet return to it. They believe that Hicks will be forced to sell if, as it suspects, Merrill Lynch, his latest financial adviser, is unwilling to support him in a bid to raise the capital he needs. DIC chief executive Sameer Al Ansari commented, 'You have two partners who do not see eye to eye. Let them sort out their problems. We will continue to be interested and would love to own he club but we are not going to put ourselves in a difficult situation where we make the investment but we have no control over the destiny of the club and we cannot influence the success of the club. Unfortunately, the terms that have been put on the table do not allow us to do that.' Nevertheless, DIC could well be involved in the club before the start of next season.

RELEGATION CRISIS AT WREXHAM – 9/4/08

Wrexham face likely relegation from the Football League. This would leave only two Welsh clubs in the Football League, cup finalists Cardiff City and Swansea City who are likely to join them in the Championship next year. Both these teams are from South Wales, unlike Wrexham who are from North Wales. At one time there was a fourth Welsh club in the Football League, Newport County, also from the southern coastal area. They now play in an English non-league competition, as do Merthyr Tydfil. Other teams compete in the Welsh League, but attendances are generally quite small in a country where rugby is the game that arouses the greatest passions. Swansea City already have a splendid new stadium and Cardiff City are hoping to have one soon.

The future looks a lot bleaker at Wrexham. Fans would like to buy a stake in the club but look set to reject an appeal from the club's co-owner for a non-strings donation of the £300,000 war chest they have built up over a six year period. Businessman Geoff Moss, who has just sold his Chester-based holiday company to Thomas Cook in a multi-million pound deal, offered to match pound for pound any cash injection from the Wrexham Supporters' Trust. £600,000 would amount to around 25 per cent of the current annual turnover with the club's finances likely to be hit as it faces up to life outside the Football League for the first time in more than 80 years. WST chairman Rob Griffiths said that they were delighted by the offer for their trust president to sit on the club's board: 'But we have to question why the appointment has been linked to a request for us to make a £300,000 donation to the club. I think it extremely unlikely that our members would be prepared to donate £300,000 to what is a privately-owned business unless we receive shares in return.'

MARKET LISTINGS GO OUT OF FASHION – 7/4/08

Eleven British football clubs floated on the Stock Exchange's main market or on Aim between June 1996 and August 1997 in the wake of the television agreement with Rupert Murdoch's Sky. Today, there are no clubs left on the main board, with just seven on Aim and two on Plus Markets, the junior exchange formerly known as Ofex. Moreover, all of the remaining quoted clubs are private companies in all but name, as they are controlled by a single owner or group of investors. So what happened? Football analysts believed that there was serious money to be made from the Premiership. One company even floated a specialist unit trust dealing in football shares. Dave Pope, a leisure analyst at stockbrokers Brewin Dolphin, explained 'The stock market likes to buy into growth stories and the Sky Premiership package generated lots of money for clubs.' Unfortunately, the money went into the pockets of players rather than investors. One of the best current performers on the market is Tottenham Hotspur, one of the first to float. Its shares have soared over the past 12 months on hopes that improving on pitch performances and plans for a new stadium could make it a takeover target.

Sheffield United is the latest club to consider de-listing from Aim. Given the role of rumour in the world of football, it is not easy to live up to the levels of disclosure required of public companies. Sheffield United finance director Simon Capper commented. 'Because people talk so much, you have to be quite quick about putting out stock market announcements. But we can't comment on all the speculation or we'd be putting out an announcement every day.' While de-listing reduces the regulatory burden and can save a substantial sum of money, the views of fans have to be considered. All the listed clubs have large numbers of fans who hold small numbers of shares, more out of identification with the club than as an investment. When Charlton announced that they were de-listing and that shares would be harder to trade, I sold my shares. However, fashions may change. Dan Jones from the sports business group at Deloitte commented, 'If the new generation of owners [from Newcastle's Mike Ashley to Aston Villa's Randy Lerner] start making proper profits, you could easily see stock market listings come back into fashion. These guys are financial buyers and they will eventually want to exit.'

MILLWALL IN ROW WITH LARGEST SHAREHOLDER – 7/4/08

Last week Millwall chairman John Berylson had to inject £3m into the cash strapped club to keep it going. Now the relegation threatened League 1 club is involved in a row with its largest shareholder. Property developer Graham Ferguson Lacey, who owns 28.9 per cent of Millwall, wants shareholders to be given a bigger say over the club's ambitious plans to regenerate The New Den which is located in an unfashionable part of South London. Lacey has called for an extraordinary general meeting and suggested a number of resolutions which would stop the board making decisions about their property assets without consulting shareholders. But the move is being strongly resisted by the club's board, who are attempting to use new powers under the Companies Act in a bid to block Lacey's plans. Millwall chief executive Heather Rabbatts said: 'The motions Mr Lacey is proposing would make it impossible to manage this club. This is completely unworkable and one has to question his motives in trying to impose such restrictions on us.' The loss-making club, whose turnover is £5m, estimate that each EGM could cost £50,000 to stage. Lacey, a business associate of former Millwall chairman Peter De Savary, began buying into Millwall in March 2007 but has so far declined a seat on the board and is said to have attended only two games.

KROENKE CONCLUDES ARSENAL DEAL – 6/4/08

ITV is expected to finalise in the next few days a long-awaited deal to sell its stake in a broadband joint venture with Arsenal to the American sports investor Stan Kroenke. He already has a 12 per cent stake in the North London team and is perceived as a relatively friendly investor by the Arsenal board, particularly given earlier arrangements between Arsenal and his MSL franchise. Kroenke had provisionally agreed to buy the broadband stake when he bought ITV's shares in Arsenal a year ago but negotiations have dragged on since then. Kroenke will have to pay £15m to ITV, having put down a non-refundable £7.5m deposit last year. He spent £42m on ITV's 9.9 per cent stake in Arsenal which he then topped up with other purchases of shares. ITV originally got involved with Arsenal when it was thought that the future was in television companies become directly involved in football clubs, but that era effectively came to an end with the failure of the BSkyB bid to acquire Manchester United.

HUNTLY AIM FOR GRETNA PLACE – 5/4/08

The eventual fate of Gretna remains uncertain (one of its players has fetched up in the MSL playing for Real Salt Lake). However, Highland League Huntly are indicating an interest in the vacancy should one occur. For those who do not know Huntly, it is an attractive town on the A96 road from Aberdeen to Inverness. Aberdeen is the nearest SPL club. Other former Highland League club on the A96 Elgin City joined the Scottish League when it was enlarged, but have enjoyed relatively low attendances. Huntly, who took five back-to-back Highland League titles in the 1990s, failed to buy Clydebank and take a place in the Scottish Football League six years ago. That allowed Gretna to take the vacant league position. Huntly are currently mid-table in the Highland League, but chief executive Robin Dunseath insists that the Tigers are better set up financially than Gretna: 'It was perfectly obvious to everyone that Gretna was going to implode sooner or later because they depended on the finance and goodwill of one person. We have a very broad base of financial support. We would never ever go down the Gretna route and be totally dependent on one person.' If Huntly did join the league, they could face a long away journey to Stranraer (if the Galloway club are not promoted).

WHO CAN ASPIRE TO LEAGUE STATUS? – 5/4/08

Two pieces of recent news raise the broader question of who can reasonably aspire to league status. Kettering Town have now won the Blue Square North and will be promoted to the Conference next season. Worcester City are mid-table in the Blue Square North but have finally sold their ground and proceeding with their locally controversial development of a new stadium on the outskirts of the city near the M5 motorway. Let's consider the case of Kettering first. They attracted an attendance of 2,520 to their match against AFC Telford yesterday. This was better than three home attendances in League 2. Moreover, Kettering is a 'stand alone' town with the nearest league clubs some distance away (Northampton, Peterborough, Leicester) although there is a rail connection to London. However, Kettering's case is not as straightforward as it might seem. They only have a five year lease left on their stadium and might be obliged to share at some point with their rivals, Rushden and Diamonds, at their Nene Park stadium in nearby Irthlingborough (population around 5,000).

Rushden and Diamonds were formed from a merger of Rushden Town and Irthlingborough Diamonds by benefactor Max Griggs who built them a stadium good enough for League 1 football, a level they achieved for one season. Now Rushden are surviving as a mid-table Conference club, attracting smaller crowds (1,500 or less) than the Poppies at Kettering. Indeed, I know from anecdotal evidence that some casual Diamond fans have switched to Kettering at 'Rockinghorse Road' as the Rushden fanzine calls it. There is more 'churn' among fans in football than is generally acknowledged and success is a big attraction. However, Rushden always suffered from a 'lack of chimney pots' given that this part of Northamptonshire is made up of small industrial towns formerly based on the 'boot and shoe' industry but now facing harder times and some rather attractive villages. Quite a lot of fans came from nearby Wellingborough and others from Milton Keynes before the MK Dons got under way. The Nene Park stadium is now sadly under used with one stand closed off for most matches. A rational economist would suggest a ground share between Rushden and Kettering, if not a merger. But no one should underestimate the depths of the rivalries in Northamptonshire. Can the area even support two Conference clubs?

Wembley-based Careys New Homes have bought Worcester City's St.George's Lane ground, the club's home base for the last 102 years. They have purchased the 4.25 acre ground for a substantial unreleased figure, including a significant sponsorship deal. This deal will eanble City to release funds to progress the development of a new 6,000-capacity stadium, to be built by St.Modwen Properties at Nunnery Way. City hope to make the move to Nunnery Way for the start of the 2010/11 season, although there have been local objections to the overall scheme on the grounds that it erodes the buffer space between the city and the M5 Motorway. City have faced considerable financial problems and attracted only 635 to their game on Saturday. Even if they got to the Conference, could they fill even one third of a 6,000 capacity stadium, given the ease of access to the Birmingham conurbation clubs in the Premiership and Championship? Whilst they would need the capacity for the Football League, is their dream sustainable? Probably less easily to realise than in Kettering which is a less fashionable location than the cathedral city of Worcester.

LOWE LAUNCHES BID TO REGAIN CONTROL OF SAINTS – 5/4/08

Former Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe has launched a bid to regain control of the relegation threatened club which is likely to succeed. However, the current board has criticised the timing of the move with the team so perilously close to being relegated from the Championship. Lowe, who accused the club of 'poor leadership and weak management', and Michael Wilde head a group of shareholders who have called an EGM to remove all but one of the board. The only board member who would remain under their plan is finance director David Jones who previously served under Lowe. Jones was the only member of the pro-Lowe regime who was kept on by Michael Wilde following the takeover in June 2006. With 42.38 per cent of the vote already secured, it is almost beyond doubt that Lowe and Wilde will win the EGM. The current board could stand down immediately, as they are faced with inevitable defeat, but they are understood to be prepared to tough it out for a few more weeks. They have 21 days in which to set a date for the EGM, which must be held within 28 days. This means that they could hold off until May 19th, 15 days after the end of the season. However, it is thought that the most likely scenario is that they will stand aside before any EGM, but only after the end of the season.

JUST HOW MUCH ADMINISTRATION CAN COST THE COMMUNITY – 5/4/08

When a football club goes into administration, it leaves a string of large and small creditors behind including the taxpayer. The potential extent of the damage is illustrated by the case of AFC Bournemouth. The club went into administration owing £5.8m to a total of 320 creditors. The Inland Revenue is owed £629,122.23 and Customs and Excise £344,295.41. Bournemouth Borough Council is said to be owed £242,204.31 and Dorset Police Authority £59,218.49. The largest portion of the sum owed to the council is £216,853.25, which is the remainder of a £250,000 council loan towards the building of a new stadium. But this debt is being disputed as councillors converted this loan to a grant more than a year ago. Bournemouth Council will be represented at the creditors' meeting, but Dorest Police have not yet made a decision whether to attend or vote. If the meeting on April 7th agrees to sell the club to current chairman Jeff Mostyn for £1m, all creditors will receive just over 10 per cent of what they are owed.

ENGLISH TEST MAY HIT TOP CLUBS – 31/3/08

From the end of this year new signings from outside the EU will have to sit an English test to qualify for a work permit. What is more so will their wives and girl friends. They will have to prove their proficiency in reading, writing, speaking and listening. Although the majority of 'foreign' players come from inside the EU, Africa and Latin America are important sources for top clubs. £12.7m Brazilian striker Alfonso Alves barely spoke a word of English when he joined Middlesbrough. Other stars said to have struggled with English include two other Brazilians, Juliano Belletti of Chelsea and Elano Blumer of Manchester City. It is the latest blow for foreign footballers who are also being hit by the Treasury crackdown on 'non-dom' earners. The government has decided to tax foreign sports stars on money earned in this country at UK rates. While some will be able to claim rebates from their home countries, others fear they will face double taxation.

LEAVE MY TEAM ALONE! – 31/3/08

The dream of a real life Championship Manager in which fans get the chance to pick an actual team has run into trouble. Ebbsfleet United supremo Liam Daish has pleaded with MyFootballClub not to meddle with his team until the end of the season. He reckons they may have a chance of reaching the Conference play offs or the FA Trophy final. This is not quite what subscribers expected when they forked out their £35. As things stand the 29,000 members can only use the on-line 'dummy selector' that has no influence on the final 11. No date has been set for the full team selection service to go live. One of the main reasons for the delay is a lack of participation in the dummy selector with less than two per cent of all members using it to pick the side on a weekly basis.

Members are being polled this week on how much say they would like in team selections. The four substantive options range from the virtual fans picking the team to not being interested in picking the team. The two intermediate options give the manager some flexibility to make changes to the members' selection and the manager considering, but not necessarily following, their choices. It seems some of those behind the scheme favour the latter advisory option. The men behind MyFC are reluctant to force a team selection on Daish that has been chosen by a small minority. A spokesman for the trust board said, 'It is the opinion of the board that the level of interest in picking the team is not sufficient. Three to four people isn't a crowd and if the proper research hasn't been done, it isn't wise either.' So is this another bright idea that isn't going to work out in practice as planned, suggesting that the more traditional way of doing things has some merit?

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE IN STANDARD – 31/3/08

One of the persistent myths of football, fuelled by one off FA Cup shocks, is that there is little difference in standards between different levels of football. Dagenham and Redbridge were promoted to League 2 last year and are currently near the bottom. Their manager John Still, who has extensive league experience, told the Non-League Paper, 'whatever people say, the League is stronger than the Conference. The differences are very small but when you put them together they have a big impact. One on it's own doesn't affect you, but when there are three or four together it does. The teams are a little bit stronger, a little bit sharper and a little bit quicker. You know the best players in the Conference but the best players in the League are just slightly better and the top teams are full of them.'

As we have argued before being a non-league or League 2 club in London is difficult. There is plenty of competition and suburbs are more amorphous and lack the identity of stand alone towns. Dagenham and Redbridge have to survive on a core home support of around 1,600, well below the level of Yeovil who made it from the non-league pyramid to League 1 and have no serious competition for miles around. Still thinks that Aldershot should do reasonably well in League 1 (as have Morecambe): 'They're a former League club, they get decent crowds and they've got decent resources.' However, their economic position is not as good as Yeovil given that the town is within reasonably easy reach of top London clubs.

THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE CHAMPIONSHIP – 30/3/08

Sports journalists in search of a story line sometimes reach for readily available narratives and then bounce them off each other. As Hull press for one of the automatic promotion places from the Championship this season, stand by for a lot of comments about the Humberside city being the largest place in Europe never to have had a top flight team. This overlooks the city's strong rugby tradition and the fact that it is one of the less well off cities in England. Moreover, good motorway links to Manchester have encouraged some football fans to support United rather than the Tigers. A more general issue is the curious state of the Championship this season. As the Financial Times put it yesterday, 'Anybody can beat anybody but, as so often, competitiveness goes hand in hand with mediocrity. There is no Sunderland, Birmingham or Reading with palpably greater resources than anyone else in the division: there are simply a lot of average teams scrapping very hard.' The pink 'un points that the promoted teams are likely to have fewer points than in most previous teams and the relegated teams more.

The FT makes the point that three of the better resourced clubs - Wolves, Sheffield United and Charlton - have been woefully inconsistent. Having watched the Championship this season, I think that the gap between it and the Premiership was far greater than it was. Even with strengthening, it is difficult to see any of the clubs that might be promoted staying up. Statistically, the odds are against them. The 15 completed Premiership seasons have resulted in only 23 of the 44 promoted clubs holding on to their top flight position. If you just take the last five seasons, with the top league getting stronger and stronger on average, only one of the three clubs survived. This season Derby are down already. If promoted teams keep getting relegated, will the Premiership seek to reduce the number of promotion places along with a reduction to a 18 or even 16 club Premiership which many top managers would favour? On the other hand, existing clubs may like the fact that there is ready made relegation fodder.

UK TAX LAW LOSES CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL FOR WEMBLEY – 30/3/08

England has lost out on a bid to stage the 2010 Champions League final at Wembley because European football's governing body has objected to its taxation policy. Uefa president Michael Platini confirmed that the decision not to award the lucrative final to the iconic Wembley stadim was due to the British Government's refusal to waive its long-standing rule that overseas-based players pay tax on their UK earnings. The FA has been lobbying the government to help Wembley's case by easing its tax regulations. Revenue and Customs serves tax returns on all overseas performers, including sports stars, musicians and actors, on earnings made in the UK. Under tax treaties, these can be reclaimed in their home countries, but this may not be a straightforward process. In spite of making an exception for athletes competing at the 2012 Olympics in London, the Treasury says that to exempt players in the Champions League final would set a precedent. The row threatens to undermine Gordon Brown's plan to create a golden decade of sport in the UK. The controversy comes at a time when the FA is cranking up its bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

SECOND HALF LOSS FOR SPURS – 30/3/08

Spurs fell to a loss in the second half of last year, thanks in part to the decision to change its management earlier this season. The club paid £4m to previous coach Martin Jol when he was replaced in October. For the six months to 31 December, the company had a pre-tax loss of £26,000 compared to a profit of £19.7m in the same period last year. Profit before player trading and amortisation was £9,9m, just over 30 per cent lower than the previous like-for-like figure of £14.2m. Revenue at the club was up 14 per cent to £54.5m owing to the increase of income generated by broadcasting, merchandising and sponsorship rights. In the most recent world football money league compiled by Deloitte and Touche Tottenham had climbed four places to 11th after it broke the £100m annual revenue mark for the first time in its history. The club says it remains on course to better its £103.1m figure after the next set of six month results are released. The club is the highest ranked club in Europe that did not feature in the 2006-7 Champions League season.

Spurs have the smallest stadium out of the top 15 clubs in Deloitte's league. Mr Levy announced that the board remains on course to announce its preferred option for the site of Tottenham's proposed new stadium by the end of next season. The current historic White Hart Lane site has a capacity of 36,000. Although it could be expanded, the site is relatively cramped and public transport links are strained. With the side playing in front of capacity or near capacity home crowds at every game, the Tottenham board hope to follow the example of rivals Arsenal and bring in extra revenue through the construction of a new home. For all the importance of television money, match day revenues are still important to top clubs. Arsenal's move to the Emirates has helped to increase match day revenue to £3m, three times the amount earned at Spurs.

BLADES LAND HOTEL DEAL – 30/3/08

Sheffield United has announced that it has obtained funding to build a hotel at its Bramhall Lane ground. The Copthorne Hotel will be built using £13.5m that has been secured in a financial facility from Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS). Club chairman Kevin McCabe said investment was the key to improving the finances of the club and using this to help its bid to regain Premiership status. He said, 'The development of the Blades as a leisure, services and property company with an international portfolio of football brands at is core has progressed, despite the temporary [sic] setback of our current Championship league position.' It is claimed that the new hotel may enjoy the advantage of its location both in terms of its association with the club and the proximity of Bramall Lane to the centre of Sheffield. I would hardly call Bramall Lane a glamorous location or the club itself fashionable and access to central Sheffield is not that easy by public transport (the tram is some way away). However, the Blades are well run as a commercial enterprise and have a long-term strategy. Other clubs that have invested in commercial property developments such as hotels include Bolton, Chelesa, Manchester United and Reading.

LIVERPOOL CO-OWNER ADMITS SPLIT – 29/3/08

Liverpool co-owner George Gillett has admitted what has been widely known for some time: relations with his business partner Tom Hicks are now 'unworkable'. Hicks has blocked a sale of the club to Dubai International Capital (DIC) and that has deepened his unpopularity at Anfield. Gillett told Toronto radio station Fan590, 'The fans do not want him (Hicks) to have any controlling interest in the club - they do not even want him to have any ownership in the club.' Gillett was at one time prepared to sell to Hicks and states that 'We gave our partner a long period of time to try to make arrangements to buy us out. We didn't put pressure on him but he ultimately did not get to the finish line.' Hicks has, however, been threatening to block a sale to DIC. Gillett commented, 'Lord knows DIC have the money; with oil prices going up every day, that's not an issue. They certainly have the history and they are fans. I think they would have been very responsible owners.'

Gillett revealed that he and his family have received death threats by phone in the middle of the night. Nevertheless, he has not ruled out trying to take total control of Liverpool by buying out Hicks. He commented, 'The pieces on the chess board are moving.' The soon the moves end in checkmate the better for Liverpool fans. Manager Rafael Benitez tried to look phlegmatic but ended up looking despairing and beleaguered on television. He insisted that he was trying to concentrate on tomorrow's Merseyside derby with Everton, stating 'There's nothing I can do but concentrate on the game and prepare properly.' True, but it must be unsettling for the management if not the players. And it is certainly upsetting Liverpool's passionate fans.

GLAMOUR KIT DEAL FOR QPR – 28/3/08

It's not what usually happens to mid-table Championship teams, but Queen's Park Rangers have concluded a £20m kit supplier deal with Lotto Sport Italia. Lotto Sport Italia will provide new kits and training gear and develop 'fashionable' QPR-branded shoes and clothes. However, the value of the five year deal is dependent on the Super Hoops gaining promotion to the Premiership. Amit Bhatia, the vice-chairman and son-in-law of billionnaire steel magnate backer Lakshmi Mittal, said the QPR board hoped this would be the first of several deals for the West London club. However, he reinforced the message that the club's wealthy owners would not throw money at the team in an effort to get back in the Premiership. 'The reality is the opposite. The idea is to be very prudent, not to throw money at the club but to spend wisely. The shareholders are successful people and they became successful by spending wisely and prudently.'

THREE QUIT AT WORCESTER CITY – 28/3/08

We reported late last year on the planning controversy surrounding Worcester City's proposed move to a new ground near the M5 motorway. Now three directors of the Level 2 non-league side have quit because of frustration over the sale of the St.George's Lane ground and club finances. Derek Jones, Paul Curtis and David Little are not happy with the way money at the Blue Square North club, who are already around £1m in debt, is being managed. The sale of the current ground and relocation to Nunnery Way is also a major factor in their decision. A deal with developers St. Modwen Properties to build a £8m stadium was announced last October but that is dependent on the Lane being sold. Worcester is a propserous and growing city, home to the legendary 'Worcester Woman' median voter. However, Premiership football is available nearby in Birmingham. Nevertheless, one would think that the cathedral city could sustain a Conference level side at least.

ARE FOOTBALL LEAGUE CLUBS VIABLE? – 27/3/08

This was the central question posed in a recent Radio 5 programme. One argument advanced was that only one division could really be sustained outside the Premiership if one was looking at normal commercial considerations. The fact that so many clubs do survive is down to the presence of a benefactor or benefactors who dig deep into their pockets to keep the club afloat. But such individuals can run out of money or get fed up with turning a large fortune into a small one. Clubs seem to survive through the 'another bus along in a minute' principle in the sense that one can always find someone who is attracted by the 'glamour' of running a football club or who has a deep personal attachment to a particular club. After all, why not pour the money into the club rather than give it to the taxman? The longer-term answer for many clubs would to revert to regional divisions and allow clubs to go part-time. But now most Conference clubs are full time and even some further down the pyramid have full-time players.

Relations with a benefactor can turn sour and that seems to be what has happened at Gillingham with Paul Scally. Chants of 'Scally Out' have been heard from the stands. Gillingham are the only league club in the prosperous county of Kent and they are in its most densely populated part. But they face competition from London clubs, not least from Charlton who have in effect been marketing themselves as the 'Kent club that plays in London'. Fleets of subsidised coaches, popularly known as the 'Rickshaw', pick up fans from across Kent, not least from the Medway Towns. Of course, many of them are Charlton fans who have moved out from the capital, but this only serves to underline the challenge that the Gills face. For his part, Scally accuses the fans of short memories and ingratitude. The club was bust when he bought it in 1995. Former chairman Tony Smith had put in £1.55m but was forced to put the club into receivership. The Priestfield ground had remained largely untouched since the 1920s and was mainly terracing.

Under Scally, three sides of the ground were rebuilt, with corporate boxes in the Medway Stand. All this cost £12m and the club ran out of money before the Brian Moore Stand could be finished. Beleaguered supremo Scally argued, 'We had years of unprecedented success. But when we got relegated in 2005, it all seemed to be my fault.' Even before relegation from the Championship the club was losing money and the £1.8m lost in 2005 was followed by £1m in 2006 and £1.1m last year. The latest accounts for the year to 31 May 2007 show an overdraft of £12.6m and the club only stays alive with the bank's agreement, quite a worrying position to be in at the time of a credit crunch. The ground has been transferred to a company called Priestfield Developments which Scally controls. Scally blames a lot of the club's difficulties on the 2002 collapse of the ITV Digital deal. This did hit Football League clubs hard, particularly when many of them had spent money they hadn't received up front. Now the current financial crisis may find a number of clubs in a very difficult position, given that many of them are not viable without a personal subsidy.

HEARTS DEBT TOPS £37m – 24/3/08

Hearts' accounts for the year ending July 2007 are expected to report debts in the region of £38m, a 30 per cent increase in just 12 months that effectively means the Tynecastle outfit owes more than Celtic and Rangers combined, despite holding only a fraction of the market value of the Old Firm. It is not clear why the debt has risen so sharply. Their £10m wage bill is higher than that of any other club in Scotland apart from the two top Glasgow clubs. Work on planning a new main stand and office development has cost £1m so far. Other causes of the loss are expected to include interest to creditors. Part of the debt will be offset by the sale of goalkeeper Craig Jordan to Sunderland for £9m in August, just outside Hearts' last financial year. A section of the Hearts supporter has lost faith in majority shareholder Vladimir Romanov after a frustrating season on the pitch which may see Hearts finish outside the top six for the first time since the introduction of the SPL late season split in 2001. Others, however, retain faith in the Lithuanian financier, believing that as he has a controlling influence on the club and the Ukio Bankas group, Hearts' debt is really only money that he owes himself. What would happen if he was ever to walk away was another matter.

ALMOST A DONE DEAL AT MANSFIELD – 23/3/08

Would-be owner of relegation threatened League 2 Mansfield, James Derry, has taken effective control of the club. However, his consortium has yet to officially sign a deal to complete the buyout from Keith Haslam. Protest group Stags Fans For Change has long campaigned for the removal of Mr Haslam from the club. Unlike the protracted and ultimately flawed deal last autumn, this time the deal should go ahead. The consortium will buy the football club and rent the Field Mill ground from Mr Haslam, with a hope that they can buy the stadium in the future. Mr Derry told the supporters, 'To all intents and purposes Keith Haslam has disappeared from this football club.' The news comes just a week after the consortium appealed for urgent financial backing of around £250,000 to complete the buyout - which has collapsed twice in recent weeks due to backers pulling out at the last minute. Following the appeal, Andy Sutton joined the consortium. He owns Mansfield firm A. Sutton Pipelines and joins James Derry and another Mansfield businessman, Steve Hyams, in the bid team. The consortium also hopes that fan groups may invest money into the running of the club, in return for a place on the board.

The consortium has invested around £0.5m working capital into the club, a condition set by Mr Haslam before he would agree to a sale. Field Mill will be owned by Mr Haslam, probably through his company Stags Ltd., which will charge an annual rent over a 10 year lease. This will be reduced if the club is relegated and there will be an option to buy the stadium at an agreed price. It is thought that the former training area at Field Mill will not be part of the rental agreement. It is also expected that Mr Haslam will retain land at Becks Lane in Skegby, bought for a yet to be built training academy by Stags Ltd. with a £500,000 loan from the football club. Whether this loan has been repaid or written off is not known. Some fans are concerned that the football club and stadium have been separated for the first time, but the deal seems to be the best way forward for the club.

SPL BAILS OUT GRETNA – 23/3/08

The SPL has granted borders club Gretna a stay of execution. They played their game against Celtic today, broadcast live on Setanta, at Livingston's ground at Almondvale having shifted there from Motherwell's Fir Park ground. The motivation for the SPL is to prevent this year's competition degenerating into farce. It reinforces the well-known observation that football is different from other businesses because it depends on having competitors to play against. The SPL have agreed to foot the players' £41,000-a-week wage bill for the remaining eight games of the campaign. Gretna's longer term future remains shrouded in uncertainity, although there are rumoured to be a number of potential bidders waiting in the wings. Benefactor owner Brooks Mileson is still refusing to break his silence on why he pulled the plug on the Border town club after a life-threatening illness. It is unclear why he suddenly decided to cut off Gretna's life-support system after ploughing so much time and money into his beloved Black and Whites.

BSKYB INCREASES HOLD ON CHAMPIONS LEAGUE GAMES – 23/3/08

BSkyB is competing with the BBC and ITV to receive the largest remnants of European Champions League coverage in the UK after it secured the majority of the games in a £240m three year deal. Although BSKyB is paying 70 per cent more than the £47m a year which it cost to secure its last set of rights from Uefa. it gives the company a bigger package of games. Currently it shares programming with ITV. Under the current deal, BSkyB gets exclusive rights to all matches played on Wednesday nights, while ITV gets first and second picks on Tuesdays. In the new deal BSkyB will get exclusive rights on Tuesdays, with the second pick of Wednesday games. In all, BSkyB will have 130 live matches, including pre-season qualifying matches, instead of 103 now.

The final tranche of matches up for auction was the first pick of Wednesday games. The BBC is eager to buy these games because it recently lost FA Cup and England national matches to a consortium of ITV and the pay TV channel Setanta. ITV, too, will want to ensure some Champions League football, which has increased ratings in earlier years. BSkyB lost one third of Premiership matches in the UK to Setanta this season following an EU ruling that no single broadcaster could own all domestic league football. That does not apply to the Champions League.

ATTENDANCE WORRY FOR MANCHESTER CITY – 23/3/08

Sven-Goran Erikkson and Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra held a lengthy meeting last week during which the pair decided that action is needed to halt a big slump in attendances. Average gates have fallen in each of the four full seasons that City have played at the new City of Manchester Stadium. The former Commonwealth Games stadium is a great advance on the facilities available at Maine Road, but may lack the same atmosphere, particularly when it is not full. Since the move average league crowds have fallen from 46,384 in 2003-4 to 39,997 last season, a drop of nearly 15 per cent and one that led to City sliding from being the third best-supported English club to their present position as sixth. Even though attendances have improved slightly, to 42,068 for this season, Shinawatra has said privately that he has been disappointed that his club are drawing well below the ground's 48,000 capacity at a time when, for much of the campaign, they have been in contention for a top-four finish. This contrasts with sell out crowds at the expanded Old Trafford of rivals Manchester United.

The conclusion reached by owner and manager this week is that City must attempt to land a big-name signing this summer in an effort to attract missing supporters. Eriksson has spent £56m since City became a Thai owned club. However, the majority of his signings have been young players, a conscious decision to build for the long term. This summer his policy will alter somewhat as he seeks out a potential 'crowd pleaser'. The problems may be more fundamental, however. Historically, United did not dominate the Manchester football scene. But now, while one must not jump to the conclusion that all City fans or impoverished or sensitive to an economic downturn, the 'prawn sandwich' brigade from southern England is more in evidence at United.

DONS SPLASH THE CASH – 21/3/08

AFC Wimbledon chairman Erik Samuelson admits the club has spent big this season in a bid win to promotion from the Ryman Premier Division. The Dons' accounts show the club has paid £85,000 more on wages and transfer fees in the six months leading up to December 31 2007 than in the first half of last year - a period which coincided with manager Terry Brown's arrival at the club, But despite the record sums spent on the playing and managerial budget, Samuelson says the Kingsmeadow outfit are in a strong financial position. 'A rise of £85,000 is a substantial one but it is money that was spent thoughtfully.' Samuelson said. 'The club's finances are healthy. We run the business as efficiently as possible so that we can have the best football team we can. Other clubs, particularly in the Premier League, seem to do it the other way round and make sure that they have a good football team first, then worry about the finances. The bottom line in our accounts will usually be the same because we adjust our playing budget to suit whatever finances we have. If we have excess income we'll spend it on players.'

The results to 31 December 2007 saw a profit before depreciation of £78,026 compared to last season's half year profit of £95,351, a fall of £17,325. However, the two periods are not strictly comparable because of the number of games played: the half year profit would have been about £15,000 higher if a tenth game had been played before 31 December. Football losses were £114,118 in the six months, compared to a profit of £4,921. This movement was caused by a combination of a £40,000 drop in income from cup competitions and a total of £85,000 additional spending on management and player wages and transfer fees. However, donations covered this extra spending with a £70k increase from £87,773 to £156,206. It is difficult to think of another club which would have donations as such an important source of income, even FC United. However, it is not a source of income that can be relied on.

The club commented, 'The most significant issue is that if we had not received the donations we would have had to spend less on wages overall this season than we did last season. An issue of critical importance, therefore, is establishing our budgeted profits and other sources of funds for next season, before making any further commitments to players.' Merchandise sales were substantially down from £38,951 to £28,218, mainly due to lower sales in a year in which only one new replica shirt was for sale. Sponsorship and advertising income was substantially up from £44k to £64k, mainly due to two substantial new sponsors. As in any non-league club bar and tea bar sales are important at around £60k.

REPRIEVE FOR CARDIFF – 20/3/08

FA Cup semi-finalists Cardiff City had won a reprieve in a legal battle which, if they had lost it, could have seen them immediately go into administration. Swiss investment bank Langston wanted a £24m loan repaid immediately. Cardiff's former chairman Sam Hammam has been named by the club's barrister as the man behind Langston. The bank had sought 'summary judgment' meaning that the club should pay up now. But this claim was dismissed. As a result, the case could now could go forward to a full trial if both sides cannot resolve the issues within two months. Cardiff supremo Peter Ridsdale said that he was confident of winning the case if it did go to full trial, but would prefer to settle it by negotiation. The club has spent almost £500,000 on the legal battle which is money that could otherwise have been invested in the squad.

LUTON HOLD THEIR HANDS UP – 20/3/08

Luton Town are to plead guilty to FA charges regarding payments to agents and could face a six figure fine. In December the Hatters had denied 17 charges. These related to players to agents for nine specific player negotiations which were allegedly made through parent company Jayten, rather than through the club as required by FA rules. The LTFC 2020 consortium has disclosed the decision in a letter to creditors as they seek to complete their takeover plans.

POLICE SWOOP AT BIRMINGHAM CITY – 20/3/08

Police investigating corruption within professional football have raided Birmingham City. Officers swooped at the club in an 'ongoing investigation into football corruption' according to City of London Police. Apparently the raid was not linked to the Lord Stevens inquiry into transfers and 'bungs' to agents. The club said the raid related to a police inquiry into 'an unconnected third party or third parties.' It said that no one connected with the club had been questioned or arrested.

STADIUM CRISIS AT DONCASTER – 20/3/08

Doncaster Rovers are being asked to more than double their rental payments at the Keepmoat Stadium which cost £32m to build as a flagship community stadium. The stadium, which was intended to make an operating profit, has plunged into debt. Rovers are the stadium's key tenant and it is understood that Doncaster Council is to warn the club that if they don't come up with a substantial increase, the company set up to run the stadium could be in jeopardy. It is likely that the club will be asked to raise its rental payment from a current figure of £251,000 a year to nearly £600,000 in a bid to offset losses that already amount to nearly £2.5m only 18 months after the stadium opened. At present the costs of hosting Rovers, a club backed by multi-millionaire John Ryan, exceed the revenues coming in. Building the stadium was a central plank of directly elected Mayor Martin Winter's successful campaign to return in office in 2005 and councillors are now claiming that they were misled by a business plan that d not add up.

The business plan, drawn up in 2005, forecast break even in 2006-07, a £129,000 profit this year, then rising to a figure around £200,000. However, a revised profit and loss plan has a 'worst case' scenario which puts losses close to £1m for each of the next three years, giving an accumulated loss of just under £5.9m in 2011-12. The 'probable case', which includes the proposed increases in rent for Doncaster Rovers, has the stadium roughly breaking even for the next three years, leaving an accumulated loss of just under £2.4m in 2011-12. Rovers has a 25-year tenancy agreement in place, but has said that it will respond 'sympathetically' to requests for a rent increase.

ROTHERHAM IN ADMINISTRATION AGAIN – 19/3/08

Rotherham United are the second Yorkshire club in a week to go into administration. It is the second time in 18 months that the Millers have been in administration. A County Court judge rejected the club's request to delay the decision by a further two weeks. Chairman Denis Coleman spent Tuesday night in talks with a prospective investor, but failed to reach agreement on the deal needed to avoid administration. Former directors Dino Maccio and Alan Cartledge had already submitted rescue proposals to the club's administrators XL Business Solutions after being snubbed by Coleman. Maccio, who joined forces with Coleman in May 2006 to rescue the Millers from their previous spell in administration, quit seven months later but still owns a 36 per cent stake in the club. Jeremy Bleazard, a spokesman for the administrators said, 'We are hopeful that, in the long run, we can save this historic club. We need people to come forward immediately. The survival of the club depends on finding a purchaser.'

For over 17 years the Millers enjoyed relative financial stability thanks to the support of owner Ken Booth. The club spent four seasons from 2001 to 2005 in the Championship which represented a golden era in the club's 137-year history. But when Booth, now in his 80s, decided it was time to quit three years ago, the club's fortunes began to nosedive and the Millers suffered two relegations in three seasons. Rotherham have gradually slipped back into debt after wiping the slate clean 18 months ago with a Company Voluntary Agreement that paid creditors 1p in the pound. At that stage the Millers owed £3.7m and were faced with a winding-up order from the Inland Revenue. Although details of the club's current debt have yet to be confirmed, it is understood that the taxman is again owed a substantial six figure sum. Coleman has been unhappy with the level of rent charged by Booth, now the club's landlord, for Millmoor and the Horton Lodge training ground and has been unable to boost attendance figures which have slumped below 4,000. Work on reconstruction of the main stand at Millmor was halted last summer as Coleman attempted to persuade the local council to support to move to a new ground.

HALIFAX GO INTO ADMINISTRATION – 16/3/08

Conference outfit Halifax Town have gone into administration for the second time in six years. The decision to enter administration was taken after former chairman Ray Moreland issued a winding-up petition against the club over an unpaid debt of £7,944.86. That in turn resulted in what a club statement called 'other short-term financial demands' being placed on them and ultimately forced the consortium bidding to take control of Halifax to take action in an attempt to prevent the club going out of existence. The move brings to an end 16 months of frustration for the consortium who have pumped in funds but failed to reach the 75 per cent majority shareholding needed to take control. Halifax Town will officially be put up for sale as part of the administration agreement but the consortium led by David Bosomworth and Bobby Ham has already expressed an interest in acquiring it, with outstanding creditors likely to be paid back under a CVA.

The plight of former League outfit Halifax is not untypical of smaller northern clubs. The history of football means that there are a lot of small clubs in northern towns that, in modern conditions, are within easy travelling distance of the leading clubs. If one looks at the area around London, or even the Midlands conurbation, outer ring towns often tend to sustain no more than non-league clubs at or below conference level, e.g., Kidderminster Harriers, Tamworth, Worcester City or, around London, Chelmsford City, St.Albans, Harlow.