WG

At a time when football fans are mourning the death of the gentleman giant Bobby Robson, it is sad to see the state of Newcastle United. Of 30 clubs relegated since the Premiership was founded in 1992-3, only 13 have rebounded straight back and some like Leeds United have fallen even lower. With their ownership unresolved, the Magpies are not well set up to face the season. Despite the fanaticism of many of their supporters, disillusionment has hit season ticket sales. Now restructuring firms are said to be hovering round the club.

Chester City, relegated from the Football League last year, face a crunch board meeting tomorrow. With the season starting next Saturday, the club lack a licence to play. What’s more the High Court revoked their Company Voluntary Arrangement that allow them to exit administration. The FA have to decide if they will grant Chester mandatory affiliation even though they are in clear breach of insolvency rules. The club have already paid out quarter of a million pounds in wages over the summer and badly need some cash flow.

League 1 club Tranmere Rovers are furious after a company they hired to find a buyer for the Wirral club put them up for sale on e-Bay with a reserve price of £6m. The attention of potential purchasers was drawn to the club’s potential for growth, ‘historic brand’ and the chance to ‘upgrade the fan experience’ (whatever that means). The listing was apparently placed on the site by Dornoch Capital Advisers, a North Carolina-based company appointed this year by Peter Johnson, the Tranmere chairman, to find a buyer for his shares. The club has been on the market since last year.

Newcastle United sources have categorically denied that Mike Ashley will place the club into administration if a buyer does not emerge over the next few weeks. The club has already cost him over £250m. However, it seems likely that the Ashley regime will continue if none of the three bidders for Newcastle who have been in detailed discussions with investment bank Seymour Pierce proceed with a takeover. It is believed that Newcastle is being run on a day-to-day basis through a bank overdraft of £35m or more.

As Michel Platini has become increasingly bullish about his ‘financial fair play’ strategy which many see as targeted at the top English clubs, some fans of those clubs may feel they are justified in being paranoid. Uefa slapped a two match ban on Eduardo for diving: nothing wrong in that, except that many such offences are ignored. Then Fifa imposed a transfer ban on Chelsea for inducing a French player to break his contract and join them. Chelsea do, of course, have previous with Ashley Cole and some fans of other clubs welcomed the move.

Portsmouth could become the second Premiership club to be owned by investors from the United Arab Emirates with the completion of a takeover led by Sulaiman-al-Fahim. The takeover was confirmed after the Premier League announced that Al-Fahim had become the first person to pass their new ‘fit and proper person’ test for club owners. He will become the club chairman, 31 years old, with a MBA and PhD from American business schools, he founded Hydra Properties in 2005. He is ranked 16th on the list of Most Powerful Arabs, playing a Sir Alan Sugar role in an Apprentice style show.