"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
France’s President Hollande has decided to boost his dismal poll ratings by targeting French football clubs for extra tax payments. He might be better off considering whether allowing the French government to spend 57 per cent of GDP is a good idea when Germany manages to sustain its social model on 45 per cent.
Meteoric rises involving benefactors who then withdraw their support often end in tears and that, sadly, appears to be the story at AFC Totton. Players’ wages have gone unpaid and there was even talk of a strike over Easter.
With the completion of the takeover of loss-making Blue Square by Betfair, the search for a new sponsor for the Football Conference is on. Indeed, the Football League does not have a headline sponsor for next season. Undoubtedly a sponsor will be found in both cases: the real question is how much they are prepared to pay.
Sports lawyer Daniel Geey provides excellent in depth analysis of developments in football and his latest post looks at the efforts of the Premier League to move towards its own financial regulatory framework. He identifies a number of unanswered questions relating to their proposals.
Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov has virtually all his assets and money wiped out after his bank Ukio Bankas was placed into interim administration. Romanov has said that he will sell 51 per cent of the club to supporters’ groups and he doesn’t care about the price. Hearts are currently around £25m in debt.
Much has already been said and written about Paolo di Canio’s appointment as manager at Sunderland. I do not want to add to the controversy about what his political views are and how they should be interpreted.
This is not because I do not have a view: indeed, knowing Italian society and politics quite well, and having written with Italians, I would have a perspective. However, there has already been overkill and people are taking up entrenched positions or jumping on a bandwagon to publicise their own agenda.
We have consistently taken the view that Uefa’s financial fair play (FFP) rules are open to challenge in court. It is therefore interesting to see Belgian lawyer Jean-Louis Dupont, who was part of the team who won the Bosman case in 1995, arguing a similar case in the Wall Street Journal.
One in eight Scottish football clubs are still facing financial distress according to new figures from leading business rescue and recovery specialist Begbies Traynor, but overall progress is being made.
A number of controversies have arisen from the last two matches of the English national side. However, there is increasing concern about the possibility that England might have to qualify for Brazil via the play offs.
The Football Association has reached preliminary agreements to stage what should be lucrative friendly internationals against Germany, and Uruguay or Argentina, at Wembley in November. These would have to be called off if England had to go down the play off route.
Bahrain-based International Investment Bank (IIB) has bought a 10 percent stake in Leeds United from the owners (Gulf Finance House, GFH) who took over the football club three months ago. The price paid has not been revealed.
Dubai-based GFH Capital said the deal was part of its strategy of bringing in additional investors to develop the Championship club. It paid 22 million pounds in December to buy out shareholders including Ken Bates, the former Chelsea owner.