Is football a 'public good'?  That is the rather surprising claim made by the chief executive of the Bundesliga in an interview with The Guardian's David Conn.  

Coventry City are planning to play their games at Walsall for three years while a 'Highfield Road 2' is constructed nearer the city centre.   They have been impressed by a similar stadium built by Rotherham United in a town centre location which has a 'modular design' which means that it can be expanded later if required.

In the latest piece of evidence of a continuing trend towards globalisation in football, Manchester City are to acquire a majority share in a Major League Soccer franchise with the New York Yankees baseball term. There is thus 'crossover' both in sports and countries.

City will have a team called New York City FC playing in MLS from the 2015-16 season, with the Yankees, a top global sporting brand, holding a 25 per cent stake. The new club could play in the same sky blue colours as City.

BT Vision are hungry for content in their battle with BSkyB and it looks as if they are close to a £300,000 deal to show Football Conference game as well as stream them online. It is thought that 25-30 live games will be shown in the first season.

For the last three years the Conference has had a deal with Premier Sports which saw home clubs paid £5,000 and visiting clubs £1,000 for each live broadcast. It's a long way from the riches of the Premiership.

Pictures spread through social media yesterday evening suggesting that Coventry's Ricoh Arena, but in fact it was an over enthusiastic rehearsal of a pyrotechnic display for a concert on Wednesday. Even BBC Midlands News had to deny the story, but perhaps it is not surprising that it spread given understandable nervousness about the fate of Coventry City.

Arsenal fans certainly thought so yesterday, even though it was another season without a trophy. They had qualified for the Champions League again at the expense of their North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur. Moreover, one cannot claim that their league position was a shock: they have finished 3rd or 4th every year since 2005.

It's not easy running a football club in an economically challenged small northern town near a bigger city. Stockport County are now playing in the Conference North, having at one time been in what is now the Championship. Bury also played at that level, but have faced serious financial problems.

It's been a good year for Welsh football. Swansea City won the League Cup and established themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the Premiership where they will be joined next season by Cardiff City.

But in many ways the most remarkable story has been that of Newport County, albeit their promotion out of the Conference was achieved at the expense of another Welsh club, fan-run Wrexham. They are back in the Football League after a quarter of a century away.

Whether David Beckham was a good or a great footballer has been debated on Radio 5 this morning, but he was certainly the greatest footballing celebrity of his generation. Having played at two of the greatest clubs in the world, Manchester United and Real Madrid, he then went to the ultimate celebrity destination, Los Angeles, and topped it off with a stay in the home of cosmopolitan chic, Paris.

Paul Appleton, the administrator of Coventry City, is insisting that the Sky Blues are available for sale from today and that this includes the golden share which enables the club to play in the Football League.