"If you want some accessible but informative insight into football then I suggest you couldn't do better than the Political Economy of Football website, which is not only intelligible but comes with the added bonus of being written by Addicks fan Wyn Grant." Ben Hayes - Charlton Athletic programme
Articles about football clubs facing or going into administration.
I developed a serious interest in football in 1953 when I started to go to matches at Charlton with my father. As my knowledge of the game developed, it became apparent that Scottish clubs often did not have obvious geographical names like their English counterparts. Given his Scottish ancestry, my father made sure that I followed football north of the border.
The long drawn out saga at Hearts may be entering its final phase with the possibility being raised that the club might play its last game against St. Mirren on Saturday 17 November. In a letter to fans, the club has said ‘This isn’t a bluff, this isn’t scaremongering, this is reality.’
For the third time in a year the club faces liquidation over unpaid taxes. Revenue & Customs presented a winding-down petition to the Court of Session in Edinburgh on Monday over just under £450,000 in unpaid PAYE and National Insurance.
We have long regarded Stefan Szynmanski, now relocated to the University of Michigan, as the leading football economics guru. What he can do with a multiple regression and outliers (under or over performing clubs) is a wonder to behold.
Now he has started a new blog which promises to deliver informed, in depth analysis of topics on the interface between economics and football. The first topic he tackles is the familiar one of football club insolvencies.
After yet another deadline was missed, Kettering Town FC have been given a further stay of execution by the Southern Premier League. This weekend’s game against Barwell has been called off, but the club has had its transfer embargo lifted so that it can recruit players and field a side.
I have rarely seen as many twists and turns in the saga of a football club in trouble, but Truro City have been saved from expulsion from the Conference at the last minute. An initial 12 noon deadline was extended to 17.00 BST.
In what has rightly been described as a pivotal moment for Portsmouth FC and football generally, Portsmouth Supporters Trust (PST) have been named as preferred bidders to take the club out of administration.
Craig Whyte has set out a defence of his actions at Rangers in an interview with the BBC. In particular, he makes allegations against the administrators, claiming that they knew about the Ticketus season ticket deal which enabled Mr Whyte to buy the club.
Port Vale fans deserve some luck and they may have got it in the shape of Alchemy Investment Group, named today as the preferred bidder to take the Burslem club out of adminstration
The latest issue of Four Four Two has a feature article on Port Vale headlined ‘Britain’s most dysfunctional club.’ There are a few others that might deserve that title, but Vale fans have certainly been to hell in a handcart and back.
Balram Chainrai has brushed aside concerns expressed by the Football League about whether he is a suitable person to run a football club, but the future of Portsmouth FC is once again uncertain.
His Portpin group was thought to be favoured by the administrators to take Portsmouth out of administration. However, the reservations expressed by the football authorities put the Portsmouth Supporters’ Trust in pole position.
Truro City now seem to have been given more reprieves than the average prisoner on an American death row. The latest stay of execution is for one week.
To be fair to the Conference, who held an emergency board meeting to discuss the issue, it’s a case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t. The Conference have been criticised for giving clubs too much rope, but also for doing not enough to help them.