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College teams are a leading feature of American sports such as basketball and American football. However, in Britain they attract some resentment. This seems to be based on part on the view that they use taxpayers’ money, but in fact all universities have many other sources of income. At Warwick University, the proportion of income that comes from HEFCE funds is now down to 23 per cent. Team Bath managed to get to tier two of the non-league pyramid before they folded.
After Arsenal drew at Burnley, Arsene Wenger blamed the fixtures computer for the congestion it had produced. This is a new entry in the Big Book of Managers’ Excuses, but there is a more serious issue. Football attendances have held up well in the recession, but during these midweek fixtures five Barclays Premier League clubs recorded their lowest league attendances for between two and five seasons in midweek. Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Sunderland and Bolton Wanderers took a hit at the turnstiles as they staged their second home matches in four or five days.
Spurs have given manager Harry Redknapp their ‘full support’ after it was announced that the Inland Revenue were to institute proceedings against him relating to his time as Portsmouth manager. His solicitors said in a statement, ‘Harry Redknapp is extremely surprised and disappointed to have been informed that HMRC intend to institute proceedings against him in the week commencing January 11, 2010. We believe that the decision [will] be shown to have been totally misconceived.’ Spurs consider the matter to be a private tax issue ‘which is not related to football matters.
Notwithstanding yesterday’s 1-1 draw against Chelsea, West Ham remains cash strapped and relegation threatened. Nevertheless, two alternative bids have been made by David Gold and David Sullivan, the former owners of Birmingham City. Gold and Sullivan submitted their formal bid to Rothschild and Standard Bank which has been appointed to handle any offers on behalf of owners CB Holdings. This is the company made up of the Icelandic bank Straumur and other creditors of Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, the former owner of the Hammers.
Whether England’s bid to stage the 2018 World Cup will succeed is doubtful, but the choice of potential venues has already provoked controversy. 15 stadiums were chosen, supposedly on the basis of a stringent list of criteria which focused on the host city as much as the stadium itself. Each bid faced one hour of questioning from the panel. However, there are suspicions that geographical balance came into play, although eight of the 15 chosen stadiums are in London, the North West and the North East.
Notts County chairman Peter Trembling has completed his takeover of the League 2 club, meaning director of football Sven-Goran Eriksson will stay. Trembling bought the club from Munto Finance for a nominal fee, only five months after the mysterious Middle Eastern consortium took over at Meadow Lane. There had been concerns that the owners, registered offshore in the British Virgin Islands, would demand a price of £3m despite having acquired the club for almost nothing.
The FA has agreed a four year television deal with ESPN to broadcast FA Cup ties as the Walt Disney owned broadcaster strengthens its position in the British market. The new contract, which is worth £70m, will run from the next summer to the end of the 2103-14 season and will sit alongside the existing deal held by ITV until 2012. The new contract will fill the void left by the collapse of the British arm of Setanta in June, one year into a four year deal worth £150m, over twice the size of the new arrangement.
Reports are claiming that six Asian billionaires are poised to make a £1 billion pound bid for Manchester United. Variously described as being based in Bangkog or Beijing, they have been working on the project for three months. They think that financial problems at Old Trafford mean that this is a good time to make a bid. United has debts of £699m, the biggest in football’s history, and an annual interest bill of £60m a year. There are fewer season ticket holders at Old Trafford this year with just 55,000 taking up a renewal option after an agreement with the Office of Fair Trading.
Portsmouth FC have emphatically denied reports on supporter websites that they could be the first Premiership club to go into administration. However, the financial crisis at the club is so serious that they could be forced to sell at least two players in the January transfer window. New owner Ali Al-Faraj is urgently seeking to refinance the club’s £60m debts which include around £16m due to football creditors and former owner Sacha Gaydamak by the end of January. The Premier League may divert the Sky television money due to them to pay off football creditors.
Unibond Premier League club King’s Lynn FC face being wound up on Wednesday. The Norfolk club owe the taxman £67,000. A rescue seemed to be on the cards last week after potential investors came forward and the local council pledged support for improvements at the stadium which has faced ground grading problems that have held the club back. An appeal against the winding up order was due to be heard last week but the High Court not hear the case and they were given a seven day reprieve.