Articles by subject

Scudamore Defiant On 39th Game Plan - 24/02/2008
The Premiership remains defiant over its controversial proposal to introduce an 'international round' of fixtures, despite being told by the FA board that the plan is not sustainable in its present format...

Is Playing Abroad Plan Finished? - 17/02/2008
Everyone has been piling in during the past week to condemn the Premiership's plan to play one extra game abroad each season. Mohamed bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation - where some of the most lucrative markets are located - opposed the idea,...

Playing Abroad Scheme Is Controversial - 08/02/2008
The Premiership's scheme to play additional matches outside the UK has caused considerable controversy. Ten extra games would be played at five different venues, with cities bidding for the right to stage them...

Do Authorities Want To Cut Back Number Of Clubs? - 06/01/2008
Luton manager Kevin Blackwell has suggested that the football authorities may want to reduce the number of clubs. Of course, in any other industry exit and merger is a normal mechanism, but football clubs are different because they are often a core part of a fan's personal identity...

Fans Website Takes Over Club - 13/11/2007
Fans' community website MyFootballClub has agreed a deal to take over Blue Square Premier outfit Ebbsfleet United (formerly Gravesend and Northfleet)...

Agents Threaten To Sue FA - 14/10/2007
Football agents have threatened to sue the Football Association unless it waters down new regulations aimed at eliminating corruption from the game...

Blatter Renews Call For Quota On Foreign Players - 30/09/2007
Fifa president Sepp Blatter is ready to challenge the European Union to get a quota for foreign players within European teams....

Scudamore Defends Role of Business in Football - 30/09/2007
There is plenty of complaining about the way in which football has been commercialised, but it is rare for someone to make a robust defence of business involvement in the game but Premiership chief executive Richard Scudamore has done so in response...

Italian Clubs Play Behind Closed Doors - 11/02/2007
Most Italian clubs had to play behind closed doors this weekend after a government decree ruled that grounds that did not meet new safety standards could not admit spectators...

Fanchester Dream May Come Real - 22/07/2007
The dream (or nightmare) of a real club in which fans make all the decisions is not far off fruition. Will Brooks' website myfootballclub.co.uk is not far off raising the £1.375m it needs to buy a football club...

Police Raid Three Clubs In Corruption Probe - 17/07/2007
The Economic Crime Unit of the City of London Police has raided three football clubs as part of an investigation into alleged corruption in football...

Trust Route Is Full Of Pain - 03/07/2007
Supporters' trusts are often seen as the way out when clubs have run into financial difficulty. The club can be taken back into the control of the community rather than being operated for the benefit of business investors. However, a football club has to be run on business lines if it is to survive and succeed...

Seventeen Problematic Transfers Found In 'Bung' Inquiry - 18/06/2007
Lord Stevens' report into an alleged 'bung' culture in the English Premiership has listed 17 problematic transfers involving 15 football agents and five clubs...

Gang Of Four Likely To Fail In Court Challenge - 11/05/2007
Sports lawyers think that the 'Gang of Four' relegation threatened clubs are likely to fail in any court action against the Premiership for its failure to deduct points from West Ham for breaking regulations over the registration of Carlos Tévez...

Bottom Clubs Threaten To Sue Premiership - 05/05/2007
Four relegation threatened clubs are threatening to sue the Premiership over its controversial decision not to deduct points from West Ham over the transfers of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano...

FA Backs Down In Row With Agents - 02/05/2007
A row between football agents, the Football Association and the Government has led to the FA temporarily backing down, although they have insisted that they are determined to press ahead with rules governing the conduct of agents...

When A Minnow Is Not A Minnow - 17/04/2007
Today I was rung by BBC Channel Islands Television and asked if I could do an interview on the fact that the Jersey 'national' side has received a three yearsponsorship deal of £100k...

More Managers Face Sack Says Allardyce - 15/04/2007
Bolton Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce has forecast that there could be mass sackings in the Barclays Premiership next season...

Dispute On Shareholder Rights At Galatasary - 18/02/2007
Several investors in the merchandising arm of leading Turkish football club Galatasaray are locked in a dispute with the club's owner over minority shareholding rights...

Platini Victory Is Also One For Blatter - 04/02/2007
The election of former French international Michel Platini by the narrow margin of 27 votes to 23 as Uefa president is as much a victory for Fifa president Sepp Blatter...

Platini May Have His Work Cut Out - 29/01/2007
New Uefa president and former French international Michel Platini may not find it so easy to take away England's fourth Champions League place as he has promised...

Incomes and Goals Slump - A Threat To The English Premier League? - 29/12/2006
A complaint increasingly heard from fans is that clubs outside the top four of the Premiership are increasingly focused on survival because of the increasing costs of relegation and that this leads to negative and boring football...

Stevens Criticises FA Over Transfer Deals - 22/12/2006
Lord Stevens has criticised the way that the FA handles transfer deals, but has been unable to find evidence of wrongdoing that would stand up in a court of law...

Dundalk Fan Invades FAI Headquarters And Threatens Self Immolation - 15/12/2006
Such is the passion for football in Ireland that a Dundalk fan invaded the FAI offices in Dublin, doused the place (and later himself) in petrol and demanded a meeting with FAI Chief Executive John Delay...

Should Chelsea 'B' Play In The Championship? - 10/12/2006
Chelsea's José Mourinho is no stranger to controversy. Is his suggestion that Chelsea B should be allowed to play in the Championship just another arrogant wind up or a stimulus to a needed debate about the future of reserve football in England?...

Do Clubs Know How To Choose A Manager? - 28/11/2006
The revolving door in football management is going round faster and faster and the typical Championship manager lasts little more than a year...

Deal Reached On Wembley - 22/10/2006
Hopes have been raised by a deal struck between the FA and builders Multiplex which avoids a costly and acrimonious court battle over delays to the construction off the stadium...

Bung Probe Identifies Fifty Suspect Transfers - 24/09/2006
About 50 transfers out of 362 involving Premiership clubs investigated by the Stevens inquiry have raised suspicions among investigators...

'I Am A Million Per Cent Innocent' Says 'Arry - 17/09/2006
Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp has responded to speculation that he might be featured in a BBC programme about bungs in football to be screened on Tuesday night by insisting that he is a 'million per cent innocent'...

FIFA Decision Opens Up New Transfer Loophole - 6/09/2006
Discontented players may in future be able to transfer to a club in another country but not in their own country following a decision by Fifa....

Supporters' Trusts Are Not An Easy Solution - 19/07/2006
Supporters' trusts are often seen as the way forward for clubs in the lower leagues. They enable supporters to run their own clubs in a prudent fashion, safeguarding them for the community from developers or businessmen with a dubious past...

Football League Attempts Crackdown On Agents - 17/07/2006
The Football League is attempting a crackdown on the amount of money that flows out of the game into the pockets of the agents...

Ten Years After Bosman - 02/07/2006
Loughborough University staged a workshop on this theme at the weekend with one of the page editors giving a paper on the G-14 group of big clubs...

TV Programme Pinpoints FIFA Bribes Allegations - 13/06/2006
Fifa President Sepp Blatter is being investigated by Swiss police over his role in a secret deal to repay more than £1m worth of bribes pocketed by football officials, BBC Panorama revealed in a programme screened on Sunday 11 June 2006...

Blatter Wants 18 Team Premier League - 10/06/2006
Fifa's Congress has endorsed a proposal for Europe's top leagues to be reduced to a maximum of 18 clubs by the start of the 2007-8 season...

World Cup Should Be Held Every Two Years - 05/06/2006
The World Cup should be held every two years according to a report prepared for the G-14 grouping of top clubs by Hypercube...

UEFA Lead At Half Time In Battle With Clubs - 27/05/2006
A report by a special European Commission task force on the future of football headed by former Portuguese minister José Arnaut...

Italian Football Rocked By Major Scandal - 14/05/2006
Italian football has been rocked by a major scandal centred on top club Juventus with allegations of match fixing...

Female Soccer Fans in Iran - 30/04/2006
Iran is divided over the issue of whether women should be allowed to attend soccer matches. At least six senior ayatollahs, including some of Iran's most senior clerics, have issued rulings condemning a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad to allow women to sit in the stands....

UEFA versus G-14 - 27/03/2006
A controversial and potentially far reaching court case in Belgium raises tensions between UEFA and G-14...

0-0 Draws To Be Banned? - 17/03/2006
It is usually from the United States that we hear complaints that there are two few goals in 'soccer' and that something should be done about it, for example by making the goals bigger...

Is French Football Boring? - 17/03/2006
There are fears, particularly among TV executives, that French football is becoming dangerously dull, and the league have responded by commissioning Michel Hidalgo to draw up a list of proposals to beat the boredom...

Fans Invited To Take Part In EU Football Review - 25/02/2006
Fans were invited to take part in a major review of European football launched by the EU. The dedicated website for the review is at Football Review . Responses were required before March 13 2006...

Wembley; 'Don't Panic; Says FA - 22/12/2005
Despite a statement by the Football Association advising that there is no need for panic, it looks increasingly unlikely that Wembley Stadium will be handed over by the scheduled date of...

UK Initiative To Clean Up Football - 21/11/2005
Britain is using its presidency of the European Union in an initiative to 'clean up football'. Sports ministers from the five top football markets are to meet...

Make Your Mind Up Time For FA On Training Centre Project - 2/10/2005
The Football Association has been criticised for its standards of governance in recent years and one of its most controversial decisions was the attempt to build a national training centre near Burton upon Trent modelled on France's successful Clairefontaine academy...

Saudi Soccer Hit By Fatwa - 10/09/2005
The Saudi daily Al-Watan reported recently that Islamic extremists were inciting Saudi soccer players to quit their teams and wage jihad in Iraq...

Start Of Season Chaos For Serie A - 30/08/2005
The Italian football season is about to get under way accompanied by the usual chaos...

Rise In Policing Costs Could Ruin Some Clubs - 21/08/2005
Clubs in England and Wales are facing the possibility of massive increases in match day policing costs. In a move that could be the final blow for lower league clubs facing administration or financial hardship...

FA Faces Shake Up - 14/08/2005
With the final report from businessman Lord Burns now available, the structure of the FA faces a major shake up, if the opposition of the 'blazer brigade' to modernisation can be overcome...

UEFA's Rules On Homegrown Players Will Have Increasing Impact - 14/08/2005
New Uefa rules on homegrown players are likely to have an increasing impact, with the European governing body hoping that national associations will implement similar rules despite protests from top clubs...

Polish Football Hit By Corruption Scandal - 24/07/2005
Just when Poland's bid to host the 2012 finals together with Ukraine is making progress, Polish football has been hit by a major corruption scandal...

FA Needs 'Substantial Reform' - 11/06/2005
Interim report by former Treasury mandarin Lord Burns charged with reviewing the Football Association has said that its structures need 'substantial reform...

Supporters Trusts Formed At Two Clubs - 11/06/2005
Supporters trusts have been formed at two clubs in the last week: Southampton, a relegated club where many fans are angry with club chairman Rupert Lowe and Charlton Athletic where fans have had a supporters' director on the board...

Cole Legal Challenge Could Change Transfer Rules - 06/06/2005
The legal challenge planned by Ashley Cole's lawyers could change the rules relating to the 'tapping up' of players...

Four Points For Away Win in Premiership? - 29/05/2005
The Premiership's Attendances Working Group has suggested that clubs could receive four points for an away win in a bid to make games more entertaining...

Homegrown Quota To Be Kept Out Of Premiership - 06/02/2005
The Premiership will resist any attempt to introduce Uefa's new quota of 'homegrown' players into England's top league. Under the new rules clubs' 25-man squads for the Champions League and Uefa Cup will have to include two players whom they have...

They Also Served: The History of FA Chief Executives - 05/12/2004
One of the problems that surrounds Brian Barwick's role at the FA is that no one is quite sure what it is. But it is also true that many of his predecessors did not seem to know what they were doing...

Chief Executive Appointment Does Not Solve FA Problems - 28/11/2004
Brian Barwick, the controller of ITV sport, has been appointed chief executive of the Football Association, but he inherits a difficult situation at football's governing body...

Top European Clubs Plan To Extend G14 - 28/11/2004
Europe's top clubs are planning to expand their exclusive organisation, G14. They have already expanded the membership from fourteen to eighteen...

Are Academy Programmes Working In The Premiership? - 28/11/2004
Considerable emphasis is placed on Academy programmes in modern football. Thousands of youngsters sign up each year in the hope that one day they will tread the hallowed turf of a great club...

Premiership Introduces 'Fit and Proper' Person Test - 26/08/2004

Sweet FA - 04/08/2004
I am not fan of David Mellor, but he made a good point on Radio 5 on 2nd August when he pointed out that the row at the Football Association is not really about who slept with whom and when (did Sven do a two second tailgate on MP?), but the ability of football's regulatory body to get its own house in order...

New Transfer System Hits Football League - 07/06/2004

Will Protected Status of Football Creditors End? - 30/05/2004

No More Pies As Scottish Clubs Hit The Rocks - 15/02/2004

Fans Back Fergie But Club Admits Damage - 01/02/2004

Who Will Speak For Football In Europe? - 24/12/2003

EU May Veto Italy's 'Saviour' Law - 06/11/2003

Pressure On To Clean Up The Game - 01/02/2003

G14 Wants Players To Be Paid For Internationals - 17/03/2002

New Broadcast Deal For Fizzy Pop Leagues - 11/11/2007
The BBC will screen live Coca-Cola Championship matches for the first time as part of a deal that will double the Football League's income from broadcast rights...

England Problems Could Hit ITV - 21/10/2007
Despite their commercial success with the Rugby World Cup, ITV may lose out if England fail to qualify for the European championships...

Non-League Teams Hope For TV Boost - 22/07/2007
Non-league teams at the top of the pyramid are hoping for an income boost from the new television deal with Setanta...

Virgin and Setanta Team Up To Challenge Sky - 22/07/2007
Setanta have announced a deal for Virgin Media to carry content from six of its channels, including 46 live English Premiership games, on its cable network...

ITV and Setanta Win TV Deal - 30/03/2007
The BBC's and Sky's eight year grip on the rights for FA Cup and England home matches has been ended by a joint bid by ITV and Setanta that is worth £106m more a year...

70,000 Internet Viewers for Sevilla vs Steaua Bucharest - 17/02/2007
The UEFA Cup match between Steaua Bucharest and Seville on Thursday 15th February marked the first time in Spain an entire football match could be followed totally live and free through Internet, mobile telephone and television...

Premiership Doubles Foreign Media Deals - 21/01/2007
The increasing number of foreign players, managers and even owners in English football has helped the Premier League secure a string of international television deals...

FA Hopes To Net £400m In TV Rights Auction - 14/01/2007
An auction for television rights to FA Cup and England home football internationals will kick off next month, amid expectations that the winning bid will easily exceed the existing £80m a year deal...

Viewers Like Uncertainty - 31/12/2006
Imperial College London and media buying group Initiative Sport Futures have examined the way television viewers react to each minute of 248 Premiership matches...

BT Move Into Television Market - 12/12/2006
There could be even more competition for contracts to show football on television in the future with a new service from BT Vision...

Last Minute TV Deal For Italian Soccer - 13/09/2006
Italy's football season has opened after a last-minute broadcasting agreement was reached between Lega Calcio, the organisation that manages the top two leagues, and broadcasters Sky Italia and Sportitalia...

Conference Signs TV Deal - 29/08/2006
The Conference, effectively the fifth division in English football, has signed a television contract with new market entrant Setanta Sports...

Setanta Needs Cash To Finance TV Deal - 02/07/2006
Irish pay-TV broadcaster Setanta Sports needs a £200m injection of funds to help pay for the acquisition of live rights to the English Premiership...

League Win £4 Damages Over ITV Digital Affair - 25/06/2006
The ITV Digital affair, which saw clubs getting into financial trouble after spending money which wasn't then available, has ended with...

German Pay TV Channel Premiere Loses Bundesliga Broadcast Rights - 11/06/2006
Shares in Premiere fell to an all-time low last week after Deutsche Telekom announced it would not use its rights for showing live football via the internet to provide viewing for Premier's pay-TV subscribers...

Pub Chain To Cut Back On Sky - 27/05/2006
Waning interest in Premiership football and surging subscription costs may push brewer and pub chain Wolverhampton and Dudley to nearly halve the number of its managed pubs showing Sky Television...

TV Deal Means New Bonanza For Premiership - 07/05/2006
The new television deal running for three years from 2007-8 represents a bonanza for the Premiership, but may be less good for fans...

TV Auction Goes To Second Round - 30/04/2006
The auction of Premiership television rights is unexpectedly going to a second round on Thursday after BSkyB faced stiffer competition than expected from other broadcasters...

Sky Increases Grip On Premiership Contract - 19/04/2006
The Premiership has told ITV and the BBC that they will have to bid 6 per cent more than rival media groups for rights to show live Premiership football. This will make it even harder for the largest free-to-air broadcasters to challenge BSkyB's dominance...

Premiership TV Revenues Likely To Increase - 25/03/2006
With the long competition law dispute between the European Commission and the Premiership finally formally over, the auction for television rights has started...

Final TV Deal Leaves BSkyB In Top Spot - 21/11/2005
The Premiership and the European Commission have finally settled their long battle over the sale of television rights which at one time threatened the top league with a hefty anti-trust fine...

BT Won't Bid For Football Rights - 30/10/2005
BT has ruled out taking on BSkyB and other broadcasters bidding for live rights to Premiership football...

New Oz League Under Way - 29/10/2005
Following a government enquiry into the failure of the National Soccer League which lasted from 1977 to 2004, the Hyundai A-League has been launched in Australia...

Match Fixing Scandal In Germany - 23/10/2005
German football has been rocked by the match fixing scandal involving referee Robert Hoyzer...

Commission Close To Deal With Premiership On TV Rights - 23/10/2005
The European Commission looks like it is close to a deal with the English Premiership on the auction of tv rights. The deal could preserve football's income position but make life more difficult for fans...

Referee Scandal In Brazil - 16/10/2005
Football administration has been known for years to be rotten in Brazil, so it should perhaps be no surprise that the country has been hit by a refereeing scandal...

Commission And Premiership Close To The Brink - 09/10/2005
EU competition commissioner Neelie Kroes has warned that she will charge the Premiership with breaking EU law over its allocation of television rights 'very shortly'. If the Commission determines that competition rules have been violated, it can impose fines up to 10 per cent...

Premiership Boss Steps Up Fight Against Brussels - 26/09/2005
The FA Premiership has denounced a plan by the European Commission to limit the number of games screened by any one broadcaster to fifty per cent...

Premiership To Be Formally Charged - 18/09/2005
The Premier League will soon be formally accused of breaking European law by developing too close a relationship with BSkyB...

Football Broadcasting Rights competition hots up in Germany - 05/09/2005
German pay-TV broadcaster Premiere plans to branch into free-to-air television as part of a deal under which it has secured the German rights to show the Uefa Champions League soccer competition for the next three years...

More Bidders Chase TV Rights - 21/08/2005
Apax, the private equity house advised by former BBC director general Greg Dyke, is the latest contender to throw its hat in the ring in the race for Premiership television rights...

Brussels Steps Up Pressure On Premiership - 18/08/2005
The Premiership is coming under increasing pressure from the European Union for alleged breaches of competition (anti-trust) law. It may now face formal charges for breaking EU competittion law over its television rights deal with BSkyB...

Football League Gets 40% Boost In TV Contract - 12/06/2005
The Football League has signed a new three-year deal with Sky Sports and ITV worth about £110m, a 40 per cent increase on the present contract...

Berlusconi Targets TV Football Market In Italy - 23/01/2005
Mediaset, the media empire of Italian billionaire prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, is launching a new television product that could expand its domination of the television market by transforming the way people watch football...

Premiership Viewing Figures Fall - 12/12/2004
The television audience for Arsenal v. Chelsea today may well exceed the 3,079,000 UK viewers who watched the clash between Manchester United and Arsenal. However, the general trend is for domestic television audiences to fall...

TalkSport Wins Probe Into Beeb - 19/12/2004
The BBC's radio broadcasting rights to FA Cup matches are under investigation after rival station TalkSport complained they breached British and European competition law. Ofcom, the media and communications regulator...

Clash Looms Over Photo Rights - 31/10/2004
If a dispute over press photo rights cannot be resolved, reporters and photographers may be excluded from Premier and Football League matches...

BSkyB Outfoxes Commission - 30/05/2004

TV Deal Leaves Everyone A Winner - 24/12/2003

German TV Row To Go To Commission - 28/06/2003

French Clubs in Secret TV Deal - 10/12/2002

English Football League Loses Court Case - 04/08/2002

Murdoch Scores In Italy - 10/12/2002

Fans Get Shirt Refund - 13/01/2008
A class-action style competition claim over replica football shirts has been settled for less than a top player's weekly wages, damping expectations that the case would lead to a flood of similar actions...

Maximising Stadium Revenue - 06/01/2008
One of the biggest financial challenges for a football club is that they have an expensive fixed asset in the form of their stadium which is used only once or twice a fortnight. Modern stadium designs have tried to get round this problem by...

England's Success Has Big Commercial Implications - 19/11/2007
England's ability to secure a draw with Croatia on Wednesday and qualify for the European Championships has big commercial implications...

Top Clubs Cream Off Best Sponsorships - 18/11/2007
The gap between the rich and poor of English football continues to widen as the top clubs attract the largest sponsorship contracts...

Becks Looks For New Sponsorship Deal - 18/11/2007
David Beckham is looking for two new big sponsorships as the England footballer's earnings from endorsements tumbled by 28 per cent to £11.1m last year...

The Price Of An England Shirt - 29/10/2007
Nike's £285m bid for Umbro, a 61 per cent premium to last week's share price, shows how much value the largest sportswear company in the world attaches to the white England shirt...

Football Shirts Attract Nike To Umbro - 21/10/2007
England's defeat in Russia gave shareholders in Umbro cause for gloom as the prospect of selling millions of England shirts in the 2008 European tournament slipped away...

The Decline Of The Football Pools - 15/10/2007
'Doing the pools' was once an integral part of working class life in Britain. Each week the 'coupons' would be completed around the country in the hope of winning a jackpot that would transform a family's life...

Premiership Wants Clamp Down on Copyright Law - 30/09/2007
The Premiership wants a shake-up of copyright law amid concerns that the government needs to do more to protect the increasingly valuable media rights that football's top flight is attracting...

Umbro Hit By Poor Shirt Sales - 08/09/2007
Sportswear brand Umbro has cut sharply its 2008 profit target on fears that retailers such as Mike Ashley's Sports Direct will order fewer England football shirts...

Global Markets Even More Important For English Clubs - 15/07/2007
Foreign markets are becoming even more essential to the economics of English football. It is estimated that Manchester United have 41m supporters in Asia...

Logo Ban Could Hit Shirt Sponsorship - 01/07/2007
Football clubs and gambling companies are predicting a black market in children's replica shirts after the gambling industry reluctantly bowed to government pressure and agreed not to allow their logos on the junior kits of the clubs they sponsor...

British Five-a-Side Football Boom - 04/03/2007
More people may now be playing five-a-side football in Britain than the conventional game...

Fans Ripped Off Buying Shirts Could Get Money Back - 11/02/2007
An attempt to win compensation for football fans who bought England and Manchester United fans at inflated prices is being made by consumer organisation Which?..

Will States Move Revive A Fading Brand? - 15/01/2007
Will David Beckham's move to Los Angeles Galaxy revive a brand that has shown signs of fading?...

Gambling Crackdown Could Hit Sponsored Shirts - 10/12/2006
Four Premiership clubs could have their shirt sponsorship deals threatened after the Gambling Commission announced an investigation into whether links with online gaming companies encouraged children to gamble...

German Fans Willing To Pay €3.7 For Internet Football Match Highlights - 01/12/2006
A survey published by the International Journal of Sports Marketing & Sponsorship shows that football fans are willing to pay an average €3.73 for highlight reports and matches via the internet...

Beckham Sees Fall In Sponsorship Income - 15/11/2006
David Beckham's income from individual merchandising activities declined by 10 per cent last year...

Sponsor Blows Hit Conference - 22/10/2006
The Conference has been dealt a major blow with the news that Nationwide are to quit as sponsors at the end of the season...

Barclays Renew Premiership Deal - 01/10/2006
Barclays have renewed their sponsorship of the Premiership, paying a total of £65.8m for the title rights for the three years up to and including the 2009-10 season...

How Can Spare Tickets Be Sold Fairly? - 17/09/2006
The new online ticket exchange service, Viagogo, that has struck deals with Chelsea and Manchester United, has again come under fire from fans who claim that it is a rip off...

Will Season Ticket Exchange Plans Hit Touts? - 20/08/2006
Chelsea and Manchester United have claimed that a new season ticket exchange scheme will hit ticket touts, but fans are more sceptical...

Becks Brand Will Survive - 05/07/2006
David Beckham's company Footwork Productions earned £10.5m after tax during 2004, the last year for which accounts are available...

World Cup Beer Sales At Record Level - 25/06/2006
Ale sales have soared to record levels with a 50 per cent increase during June according to figures from Carlsberg...

World Cup Boost For Retailers - 29/05/2006
World Cup related purchases are expected to boost total UK consumer spending by an extra 50 per cent to £3 billion during the month of the tournament...

200,000 Fans May Not Renew Season Tickets - 25/05/2006
A survey by Virgin Money of 690,000 season ticket holders claims that 200,000 of them will not renew their season tickets this summer...

Big Shirt Deal For Spurs - 21/05/2006
Spurs have entered the big league of football shirt sponsorship deals with a four year contract worth at least £34m with Mansion...

Shirt Sponsorship Earnings Soar - 07/05/2006
By June 3rd League 2 club Wrexham will have been in administration for 18 months, the maximum allowed under Football League rules...

Manchester United Get Biggest Ever Shirt Deal - 09/04/2006
Manchester United have got the biggest shirt sponsorship deal ever concluded in English football with a four-year £56.5m contract with American International Group...

Becks Tops The Profit League - 09/04/2006
David Beckham's company Footwork Productions has one of the highest profit margins of any British firm...

FA In Sponsor Search - 04/12/2005
The Football Association has begun a search for a new commercial partner after Nationwide, the building society that has been its sponsor for six years, said it would end its contract after next year's World Cup...

Fergie Is Too Famous For His Shirt - 9/10/2005
Sir Alex Ferguson has claimed that his human rights are being abused after he was denied the right to stop people from selling posters bearing his name. The United manager had sought to gain exclusive rights to the use of his own name on...

Are Crisps / Chips A New Way For Clubs To Make Money? - 22/04/2005
They're called crisps in the UK and chips elsewhere in the world, but the often highly salted snack products are popular with consumers, including football fans...

Chinese Market Does Not Bring Quick Cash Rewards - 27/02/2005
There's plenty of interest in football in China, but it's not generating much cash flow for leading clubs. It is estimated that Real Madrid derives just four to five per cent of its revenue from Asia...

Second Sponsor For Championship - 13/02/2005
Wickes, the DIY chain, has signed a three-year deal to be a second tier sponsor of the Championship. Coca-Cola is paying £5m a year to be title sponsor of the whole Football League...

Umbro Hit By Early End To Chelsea Deal - 23/01/2005
Football kit manufacturer Umbro saw its shares fall by nearly 6 per cent on 20 January after it announced the early end of its sponsorship agreement with Chelsea...

Value of Shirt Sponsorship Falls - 05/12/2004
The value of the shirt sponsorship market in the Barclays Premiership has fallen this year despite the increased exposure of England's top clubs through more live televised games...

Premiership Has Most Expensive Tickets - 26/08/2004
English football supporters are paying four times as much as their counterparts in Europe's other top leagues to watch matches...

Are You Serious? - 10/08/2004
Marketing hype is one of the bugbears of modern life. One of my credit card companies recently sent me a letter saying they were cutting back their cashback from 1.0% to 0.5% as part of their effort to 'improve our service to you'. And, of course, you can't keep it out of football...

Kit Pricing Probe Ends in Fines - 03/08/2003

Arsenal and Spurs Win Kit Trading Cases - 31/01/2003

Non-League Football Costs Money As Well - 27/02/2008
Keeping a semi-professional non-league club going costs money: not the sums required to fund a league club, but still quite substantial sums for an individual to find...

Transfer Window Bonanza - 03/02/2008
Gross transfer spending by Premiership clubs in the January window was £150m according to Deloitte's Sport Business Group...

Owners Ready For Wage Cap Says Rams Boss - 04/01/2008
Derby supremo Adam Pearson believes the growing influx of overseas investment could lead to a salary cap for Premiership players...

Global Investment in English Clubs Looks Set to Increase - 30/12/2007
Alan Switzer, a director in Deloitte Sport Business Group, has forecast: 'We expect to see further investment in English clubs in 2008 as more Premier League and Championship clubs come under the management of investors from around the globe.'

Average Annual Salary Of Top Flight Footballers Tops £1m - 25/11/2007
The average annual salary of a footballer in England's top flight has broken through the £1m ceiling for the first time...

Price Of Arsenal Bonds Slump - 18/11/2007
When Arsenal football club decided last summer to raise finance by using ticket receipts to issue bonds, it created a new fanbase for itself in the City of London. The deal...

Sports Minister Sticks To His Guns - 04/11/2007
Sports minister Gerry Sutcliffe is refusing to withdraw comments about players' wages and ticket prices despite admitting that he got some of his figures wrong and attracting criticism from both Chelsea and Manchester United...

Clubs Could Improve Sponsorship Income - 21/10/2007
A study by International Marketing Reports suggests that some clubs could boost their sponsorship income...

Premiership Transfer Fees Top £500m - 09/09/2007
English football transfer fees rose by two-thirds over the summer, setting a new record of more than £500m compared with the £300m spent in the summer of 2006...

Football Clubs Not Businesslike Enough - 19/08/2007
It is often stated that football clubs these days are run like businesses. But writing in the Financial Times Simon Kuper argues that they are not businesslike enough...

New Stadiums Boost Club Revenues - 14/08/2007
New stadiums are driving an average 66 per cent increase in football clubs' turnover in their first season at their new homes according to research by Deloitte's Sport Business Group...

Terry Tops Rich List - 29/07/2007
A new five-year deal signed by Chelsea and England captain John Terry has made him England's highest paid football player...

League Clubs Try To Cut Out Agents - 27/07/2007
Football League clubs spent £8.6m on agents in 2006/7 compared with £7.7m in 2005/6, but during the past six months spending has been cut...

Top Players Benefit From Tax Loophole - 23/07/2007
Many top Premiership footballers are paying lower rates of tax than the supporters who watch them by making use of a tax loophole...

Why Buy A Football Club? - 10/06/2007
Some financial advisers are now predicting that all twenty Premiership clubs will be under new ownership before the end of the year...

The Political Economy of Football Analysis of 2007 Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance - 02/06/2007
Professor Wyn Grant takes a look at the latest Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance and analyses the key conclusions made in it...

Championship Play-Off Offers Rich Prize - 13/05/2007
This month's Championship play-off final is the richest prize in the world for a single football match. Deloitte estimate the minimum value at £60m...

Footballers Rich List - 25/04/2007
David Beckham remains the world's richest footballer. He and his wife Victoria have increased their wealth by £25m to £112m in the past year...

L'Europe Parle Anglais - 15/04/2007
'Europe Speaks English' was the headline of the French sports newspaper L'Equipe after English sides took three of the four places in the Champions League semi-finals...

International Investors Target Championship Clubs - 11/03/2007
Foreign investors are increasingly targeting Championship clubs with little or no international reputation for acquisition...

Premiership Clubs To Move Up Money Table - 11/02/2007
Even though the latest 2006 Deloitte Football Money League shows the top English clubs slipping down the order, the results are likely to prove a blip...

Spanish Clubs Top Rich League - 11/02/2007
Real Madrid retained its place at the top of the Deloitte Football Money League, the club's second season at the top, while Barcelona moved up four places to second...

Bottom Clubs Most Active In Transfer Market - 04/02/2007
Total spending in the transfer window was over £62m, only £8m short of the record spend in January last year...

Chelsea Hit Back At Real Criticisms - 08/10/2006
Chelsea have hit back at accusations by Real Madrid's president that the club is pushing up European transfer prices...

Brazilian Football Clubs Finances Annual Survey - 28/09/2006
In September 2006, Casual Auditores Independentes S/S released its latest annual survey on the financial situation of Brazilian soccer covering 21 clubs and including expert comment from the analysts...

The Cost Of Being A Fan Is Rising - 17/09/2006
The cost of being a football fan is rising fast. Virgin Money estimates it costs nearly £100,000 to be a fan who supports a club for...

Why Premiership Clubs Are Attractive Buys - 10/09/2006
Explanations of the current interest in buying Premiership clubs has focused on two factors. One is the new television deal that is worth nearly £700 million a year from 2007...

Most Analysts Optimistic About Premiership Football Business - 27/08/2006
With Randy Lerner acquiring a majority stake in Aston Villa, most analysts are optimistic about the future of the Premiership as a business although there are dissenting voices...

Football Back In Vogue With Financiers - 23/08/2006
One year ago a Sunday newspaper ran a story with the headline 'The game that ate itself', but now football is back in vogue as a sector with investors...

Stakes In Footballers Up For Sale - 23/07/2006
Hedge funds and private financiers are planning to invest in Premiership players in the same way that they buy stakes in aircraft and works of art...

Italian Scandal Could Hit Transfer Fees - 25/06/2006
The match fixing scandal that is rocking Italian football could have implications across the rest of Europe...

'Big Five' European Leagues Generated Revenues Over €6 billion - 06/06/2006
The latest annual review of football finance from accountants Deloitte shows that the 'big five' European leagues - the top-tier leagues in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain - generated revenues of €6.3 billion in 2004/5, an impressive 8% growth on the previous year...

Premiership Wage Costs Fall - 04/06/2006
For the first time in the history of the Premiership total wages and salaries costs fell in the 2004-5 season...

English Football In Good Financial Health - 02/06/2006
The publication of the annual Deloitte Review of Football Finance is an event eagerly awaited by those interested in the economics of football. What is clear is that Premiership clubs in particular are in good financial health...

VAT Tribunal Decision May Hit Clubs - 27/05/2006
Clubs facing losing millions of pounds if the result of a landmark case on agents payments goes against Newcastle United...

Top Clubs Get Their Costs Under Control - 23/04/2006
Premiership clubs seem to be getting their costs under control. Excluding Chelsea, the other seventeen Premiership clubs made aggregate profits of more than £75m...

Clubs Told To Sell Off Stadiums - 09/04/2006
Cass Business School has urged football clubs to sell off their stadiums and turn them into flats because they are a drain on resources...

It's All At The Co-Op Now - 19/03/2006
The Co-operative Bank has lent more than £100m to seven clubs over the last decade...

Premiership Credit Ratings - 17/03/2006
ICC Credit, a credit reference agency, has produced an alternative Premiership table to illustrate its credit scores...

Cash Flows Into Non-League Football - 09/03/2006
One occasionally hears fans saying that they often go to non-league football these days because it's less driven by money and greed than the Premiership...

Plan To Get Players To Pay Agents - 20/02/2006
Players may have to reimburse their agents if a plan put forward by Manchester United chief executive David Gill...

Real Madrid Tops Football Club Rich List - 17/02/2006
For the first time Real Madrid has topped the rich list of clubs, as ranked by income, drawn up by accountants Deloitte...

Transfer Window Spending Rises in January 2006 - 04/02/2006
Premiership football clubs spent a record £70m in the January transfer window despite the inactivity of previously big spending Chelsea...

Will Takeover Change Brazilian Football? - 06/12/2005
The takeover of top Brazilian football club Corinthians by British-based Media Sports Investment (MSI) has led to speculation about whether it will initiate a process of change in the organisation of the country's football noted for its corruption and amateurism...

Regulator Decides No Action Needed On Chelsea Village - 2/10/2005
The Financial Services Authority has concluded what is a rather long 26-month investigation into the 'nature and status of certain' shareholdings in Chelsea Village...

Foreign Clubs Benefit From Summer Spending - 11/09/2005
Thanks to £56m of spending by Chelsea and £38m by an increasingly desperate Newcastle United, England's top football clubs have spent 10 per cent more on player transfers this summer compared with last year...

Value of Footballers Questioned - 05/09/2005
Football clubs should write down the value of players on their balance sheets according to new research from accounting academics at Cass Business School...

Football Clubs A Bad Investment - 29/08/2005
Has there ever been a sector where the shares have performed so badly as football clubs? This is the question posed by the Financial Times in a survey of the sector...

The 'Chelsea Effect' On Transfer Market - 09/08/2005
Chelsea's buying power is having an increasing impact on the transfer market in English football...

League Fixture Income At Risk - 17/07/2005
A Court of Appeal verdict against the British Horse Racing Board has placed at risk the lucrative rights the Premier and Football Leagues enjoy from selling the publishing rights to their fixtures...

Top Ten Champions League Money Earners - 14/06/2005
Liverpool, the European champions, topped the Champions League money earners table with television and performance bonuses making the club £20.5 million....

Premiership Has Most Of The Money Whilst Wage Inflation Slows - 09/06/2005
Most of the money in English football is concentrated in the Premiership according to Deloitte's football finance report...

Election Setback For English Football Clubs - 10/04/2005
When an election is called the political parties have to agree what is going to happen to outstanding legislation. Bills not passed usually have to be gutted to make them acceptable to the opposition and this is what has happened to the controversial gambling bill. The number of 'super casinos' permitted has been reduced from eight to one, a blow to football clubs that thought they had identified a new source of revenue...

Fans Invited To Take Part In EU Football Review - 25/02/2005
Fans were invited to take part in a major review of European football launched by the EU. The dedicated website for the review is at Football Review . Responses were required before March 13 2006...

United Top Rich List - 18/02/2005
Manchester United remain the world's richest club, but Chelsea are closing the gap according to a report from accountants Deloitte. In 2003/04 United's income was £172m and Chelsea, who moved from tenth to fourth spot in the list, made £144m...

ITV Likely To Sell Arsenal And Liverpool Shares - 01/02/2005
ITV is thinking of selling its holdings in Arsenal and Liverpool. A decision will be taken following the completion of a £30m share deal that will see its Arsenal holding rise from 5 per cent to almost...

Top Scottish Clubs Further In Debt - 23/01/2005
Scottish Premier League clubs lost £53m in 2002-3, the most recent year for which figures are available. This was £10m down on the previous year and early accounts for 2003-4 suggest...

Financial Crises Help To Clean Up Clubs - 29/11/2004
The annual State of the Game report from the Football Governance Research Centre at Birkbeck, University of London, sees signs of some positive progress on the corporate governance front...

Premiership is getting less competitive - 11/11/2004
A study by the Football Governance Research Unit at Birkbeck College, London has confirmed what many fans have long believed to be the case: the Premiership has become much less competitive...

Football Pulls Out Of The Stockmarket - 10/10/2004
In 2001 there were twenty football clubs listed on the main Stock Exchange, now there are only nine. In many cases clubs have derived the benefit from a listing and now find the costs of remaining on the main exchange too onerous...

Clubs Get Costs Under Control - 27/08/2004
The latest Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance suggests that clubs are getting their costs under control, but that the gap between the Premiership and Division 1 (or the Championship) is widening...

Premiership in Good Financial Health According to Deloitte - 04/06/2004

The Rising Cost Of Being A Supporter - 07/03/2008
Virgin Money's latest Football Fan inflation index shows that the average British football fan across all divisions spent around £1,080 following their team in 2007...

Ticket Deal Annoys United Fans - 30/09/2007
A record league cup attendance of 74,055 to see United's youngsters get turned over by Championship opponents but this figure has no relationship to who was actually in the stadium...

Some Premiership Clubs Cut Ticket Prices - 04/03/2007
Some Premiership clubs are cutting ticket prices, although their initiatives are unlikely to be copied by the biggest and most successful clubs...

Fall In Away Fans At Premiership Matches - 04/02/2007
Premiership attendances look set top the 13 million mark for the fourth time in the competition's 15-year history, representing a one per cent increase on last season...

Big Boost To Terraces Campaign - 24/01/2007
Many fans have been campaigning for years for the return of standing on terraces to top flight football...

Price Is A Big Influence on Premiership Crowds - 06/11/2006
At a time when there has been a renewed debate about Premiership attendances, some interesting data is presented in a large scale study commissioned by Ofcom...

Premiership Attendances Give Cause For Concern - 27/10/2006
It's a perennial news story every early autumn. Premiership attendances are down. The fans can no longer afford to pay to go and in any case are fed up with overpaid foreign stars. As a result they're all going off to watch the Conference. If that was really a valid argument, everyone would be driving around in clapped out ten year old cars...

Conference Attendances Up - 6/09/2006
Conference football is drawing bigger crowds with attendances for the first five games this season reaching a high of 117,363, an increase of 12,000 from the previous year...

Crowd Numbers Hold Up Well And Stadia Improve - 02/06/2006
Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, points out in their latest annual football finance review, 'Premiership football is more popular than ever...'

Crowds and Viewers Stable - 23/04/2006
Predictions of a fall off of interest in the Premiership seem to be premature if the latest figures on television viewers and crowds are anything to go by...

Crowd Slump Hasn't Happened - 01/01/2006
Eight Premiership clubs are seeing an increase in crowds this season, although admittedly three of these are promoted sides...

More Sofa Fans, Fewer In Grounds - 21/11/2005
The latest television audience and gate figures for the Premiership show that more fans are watching games from the comfort of their sofas while fewer are going to the grounds...

The Missing Element In The Football Crowds Debate - 1/10/2005
The marginal early season decline in football crowds has been attributed to all sorts of factors: price (with good reason); saturation television coverage; predictable outcomes; defensive formations in the Premiership; and awkward days and times for matches. However, one key factor is generally overlooked...

Falling Crowds Row Rumbles On - 25/09/2005
The media continues to pursue the story of falling football crowds: I got asked about it when I appeared on a breakfast radio show this morning. The view that this page has taken is that there is a problem which needs attention, but not a crisis...

How Far Is Live Television Hitting Crowds? - 25/09/2005
>One of the explanations advanced for the decline in football attendances this season is extensive live television coverage of matches. However, the relationship is quite complex and difficult to isolate from other factors...

Drop In Football Crowds Is A Big Story - 18/09/2005
A relatively small drop in football crowds this season has attracted widespread attention...

Football League Crowds Highest Since End of 1950s - 28/05/2005
Crowds in the Football League are at their highest level for forty-five years after a 3 per cent rise during the 2004-5 season...

Premiership Gates Down - 14/05/2005
Aggregate crowds for the Premiership this season are set to fall below the 13m level for the first time since 2000-01...

One Per Cent Fall In Attendances Likely - 03/04/2005
League football in England will show a drop of one per cent in attendances this year forecasts Charlton statto Colin Cameron, an equivalent of 143 fewer people per game...

Premiership Crowds Fall - 23/10/2004
There has been a five per cent year-on-year decline in Premiership attendances in the first quarter of the season...

Cup Attendances Still Lower - 08/03/2004