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Newcastle United Supporters Trust have reacted strongly to the banning of leading local newspapers by the club after their coverage of a protest march. It is clear that they are unhappy with the way in which Mike Ashley is running the club.
Carlisle United have posted losses of over £660,000 in their latest set of accounts. This is a substantial loss for a League One club, particularly one that benefits from a lack of competition from other clubs in higher leagues. The results also demonstrate how sensitive financial results are at this level to fluctuations in attendances.
Brazil’s economy may be experiencing sluggish growth, but the country’s football clubs are experiencing boom conditions. It’s largely due to a growth in television revenues according to a study by bank Itaú BBA.
The revenues of Brazil’s top 24 teams grew an average 32 per cent in 2012 to reach a total of almost $1.4bn. Since 2010 club revenue has grown consistently, on average at about 29 per cent a year.
Beleaguered French president Francois Hollande is facing a strike by French footballers over high rates of tax. Condemning the 75 per cent income tax rate as ‘unfair and discriminatory’, Jean-Pierre Louvel, head of the UCPF professional football club union said: ‘We are talking about the death of French football.’
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.
British Sky Broadcasting has teamed up with Twitter to share video highlights of Uefa Champions League football in real time. Sky’s plan to share some of its most valuable sports clips free with social media users is a coup for Twitter.
Starting today with three Champions League games including Barcelona against Milan, the Sky Sports Twitter account will share highlights including instant replays of the best goals and post-match interviews. The aim of the project is to promote Sky’s sports channels and its internet service Now TV.
Two rival bidders are reported to be battling to take control of Sheffield Wednesday with talks near to a conclusion. Both of them are understood to have completed due diligence and are prepared to pay the asking price of £25m.
One is believed to be led by Hong Kong businessman and former Birmingham City director Sammy Yu. He declared his interest on behalf of a Chinese group five months ago. The identity of the second bidder is not known, but there are rumours of interest from the Middle East.
Celtic would be worse off in footballing terms but better off financially if they joined the Premier League according to calculations made by the statisticians at the The Times Fink Tank.
If they joined the Premier League directly, the stattos calculate that they would be in the thick of the relegation battle, but would not necessarily be relegated. However, they would not qualify for the Champions League.
La Liga authorities have defended Real Madrid’s finances after it was revealed that the club’s overall debt was €541m.
Reports had suggested that Los Blancos owe almost half a billion euros – a figure backed up by Carlos Mendoza, President of the Association for Madrid’s Values, economist Jose Maria Gay de Liebana and Placido Rodriguez, the director of the Sports Economics Observatory.
Although BSkyB has taken a hit from its battle with BT, its quarterly results were better than expected. Even so, it has had to spend more on content and marketing. However, the real beneficiaries of the competition are top clubs who are likely to receive even more for televising their matches.