Suppose Brighton were deducted points?

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Ed Thompson has come up with a new analysis of the financial fair play (now ‘profitability and sustainability’) rules in the Championship as his original one contained a mistake, not surprising given the complexity of the rules and the uncertainty of their application.

Consider this hypothetical scenario.   It has been known for some time that Brighton and Hove Albion have been close to breaching the rules, although how close is difficult to assess on the available data.

Football in resorts: an overview

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This article presents an overview of the work on football and resorts presented in recent postings.  First, a word about methodogy, if such a term can be used for a rather subjective, back of the envelope exercise.

First, not all seaside towns are resorts, e.g., ports have not been counted.   Second, there are inland resorts that derive a substantial proportion of their income from the tourist and conference trade, e.g., Bath, Harrogate, York.

Mascotgate

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The Football Association is to take no action against Watford mascot Harry the Hornet who executed a mocking dive in front of Crystal Palace’s Wilfrid Zaha.   Palace manager Sam Allardyce,already aggrieved that Zaha had been booked for simulation, complained that the mascot was ‘out of order’.

In fact there have been far worse incidents involving mascots.   Robbie the Bobby from Bury was sent off three times in 2001, twice for mooning at opposition fans and once for pulling the ears off the rabbit mascot of Peterborough United.

Has Leeds’ time come at last?

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This site has argued for a long time that Leeds United have been punching below their weight.   The city is a prosperous regional capital and, unlike a number of other northern cities (Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Nottingham) it has only one club.    It is the fourth biggest city in England.

Leeds are now in the play off places and looking more stable.   There are persistent rumours that erratic owner Massimo Cellino, who has been banned for football activity for 18 momths, may be on the verge of selling up.

Football in resorts: the case of Torquay

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Ar first sight Torbay might seem to fit into Type 2 of our resorts categorisation.  Type 1 covered small, select up market resorts.   Type 3 were towns highly dependent on tourism that had fallen on hard times like Skegness.    Type 2 were towns which had diverisified economies in which the resort function sat alongside many others such as Bournemouth.

Morecambe FC plunged into crisis

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Morecambe FC has been plunged into crisis after majority shareholder Mr Diego Lemos failed to deliver on promises of investment.  Ali Abdulrahman Al Hasemi has resigned as co-chairman and director.

Mr Lemos has not been in the country since mid-November and has been difficult to contact.   The Brazilian businessman took over at the club at the beginning of September.

No Yuletide shocks for Championship clubs

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The Championship would normally cast a shadow over Christmas celebrations by announcing which clubs had fallen foul of its financial fair play rules (now called profitability and sustainability rules). However, the Championship has now switched to a three year rule to bring it in line with the Premier League so there will be no bad news over the festive season.