"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
Hearts have been hit by new sanctions after they failed to pay bonuses and appearance money to players and coaching staff and also failed to tell the Scottish Premier League (SPL) ‘in a timely manner’ about their latest financial shortcomings. They have been handed a further registration embargo by the SPL.
Premier League clubs are considering a salary cap and sports lawyer Daniel Geey offers a detailed appraisal of the proposals on his blog, including the implications for individual clubs.
Geey notes that one of the main drivers for this proposal is the desire on the part of clubs not to see increased television revenues go straight into the pockets of players. Arsene Wenger has recently noted that high wages are now more of a problem than transfer fees.
How has the demotion of Rangers affected football attendances in Scotland? This is the question football economics guru Stefan Szymanski poses in his excellent blog.
You need to read this blog post for yourself. It’s a witty and erudite piece of football writing. A core argument is that the rise of the social media has transformed football and in particular who controls the narrative about the game: no longer the blazer-clad football elite, but the fans themselves. Not that the writer has a naive belief that everything about the social media represents a change for the better.
We have long taken the view that financial fair play is not so fair as it looks. It offers a means for the current elite clubs to shore up their dominance. We have also expressed doubts about how effectively it can be enforced.
We have been arguing for some time that financial fair play will not be easy to implement and enforce, but it is good to have the president of Juventus make a similar point.
Peter Ridsdale has been a controversial figure in English football. Indeed, the Financial Times describes him this morning as a ‘serial football club chairman’. He is in the news again because he has been barred by the Insolvency Service from serving for seven-and-a-half years as a company director.
The Conference and the Football Association are looking into a possible conflict of interest between Salisbury City and Truro City arising from the deal that saved the Cornish club.
The overdue wages of Truro players were paid by CGA Holdings, the company of the chairman of Salisbury City, William Harrison-Allen. He insisted that he was not investing in Truro City and it was a property deal that had nothing to do with football.
Truro’s ground was bought for £2.28m by Jojo Investments, a company formed in June. It has one shareholder, a London solicitor.
China has put two dozen former football officials, players, coaches and referees behind bars in an attempt to clean up the game which has been rife with corruption. Two former national soccer chiefs and the disgraced national football team captain each got ten and half a years to enjoy the amenities of the country’s prisons.
The fight against match fixing in European football has suffered a further blow with the resignation of Uefa’s anti-corruption supremo only a year after he was appointed. Pierre Cornu will leave his post after the Euro 2012 tournament finishes. His departure follows the resignation earlier this year of the head of security for Fifa.