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Birmingham City fans had the disappointment of being knocked out of the Capital One cup by Stoke City on penalties last night in a thrilling match at St. Andrews. Meanwhile, their owner Carson Yeung, seen by many Blues fans as the architect of their current misfortunes, has been standing trial in Hong Kong on money laundering charges.
Coventry City’s owners, hedge fund Sisu, have returned to the High Court to pursue their claim that Coventry City Council’s £14m bailout of the Ricoh Arena was illegal. Their latest move is designed to secure the release of documents they consider to be relevant to the case.
Although Fifa is now going to engage in a period of ‘deep consultation’, it seems inevitable that the 2022 World Cup in Qatar will be rescheduled either to November and December or January and February. Dates later in the spring have been mentioned, but would cause even more disruption to league programmes.
Air conditioning would cost tens of millions of dollars per match if the tournament was held in the summer. It would also be difficult to provide safe conditions for fans.
A challenge to Uefa’s financial fair play rules has now reached the European Union’s Court of First Instance. However, given that legal wheels grind slowly, all that is happening is the establishment of a schedule for a hearing.
The filing of company accounts with Companies House is a legal requirement. It assists transparency as it is possible to access the accounts for a small fee. This is particularly important when companies are mired in controversy.
It is well known that the European Commission has been investigating a number of clubs to see whether they are in breach of the state aid rules established by the Treaty of Rome. Real Madrid and PSV Eindhoven are among the clubs under investigation.
In a recent issue, The Economist confidently asserted, ‘the days of clubs living beyond their means are coming to [an] end. From this season, premier league clubs will be found by two sets of “financial fair play” rules’. The Economist never makes any judgment that it is not a confident assertion, but the reality is more complex than this throwaway line would suggest.
Whatever one thinks about Greg Dyke, he has not had a boring life. He was the man who revived the fortunes of faltering breakfast television by introducing the character Roland Rat who was an instant hit with children.
Now, as head of the Football Association, he is taking on a rather tougher target in the form of the Barclays Premier League. When I say ‘taking on’, Dyke has made it clear that he is more than happy to work with the Premiership. However, his stance may well be seen as a threat to the interests of the Premier League.
For some time I have been suggesting that a club penalised by Uefa’s financial fair play rules would challenge them in court. But now it appears that Michel Platini himself is eager to sue a club to enforce his organisation’s rules.
Public scrutiny heaped on football clubs is forcing their finance directors to pay more attention on corporate governance than if they worked outside the sport, the recent report by BDO has shown.
According to the ‘A New Dawn for Fair Play?’ report, nearly two thirds of the 66 finance directors surveyed said they are more focused on their corporate governance than if they were to work in the same sized business outside of football.