"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
An interesting feature can be found here about the decline of football in the Sheffield, not in the sense that it no longer arouses great passions but that Wednesday and United are now both in League 1 but both would aspire to be and have been Premiership sides.
Budweiser is to be the new lead sponsor of the FA Cup. The Football Association has signed a three-year deal with Anheuser-Busch InBev that is worth £8m a year for three years. An attempt is to be made to revive a competition that has declined domestically in recent years in comparison to the Premier League and the Champions League. Whether replacing the traditional early afternoon kick off by a 5.15 start will help remains to be seen.
Marcel Seip has won a case against Blackpool for bonus payments arising from their promotion to the Premier League. He was loaned out from Plymouth Argyle to the Tangerines from September to December 2009.
In Spain football teams negotiate individually with broadcasters for the right to show matches. If that was the case in England, Manchester United and Chelsea could strike their own deals and smaller top flight clubs would lose out.
Last week in Spain the satellite broadcaster Digital Plus concluded a series of football rights deals. Digital Plus is part owned by Telecinco (T5) which is the leading television group in Spain and is controlled by Silvio Berlusconi’s Mediaset.
The authoritative Midlands football correspondent of the BBC has said that moving former Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish to Villa Park could cost owner Randy Lerner around £20m. This includes the cost of paying off Gérard Houllier and his backroom staff; bringing in McLeich’s own backroom staff; and compensation to the Blues (although that will probably be negotiated downwards from the £5m they are asking for).
Billy Davies at Nottingham Forest is the latest league manager to be given the sack after reports of disagreements with the board. However, League 1 managers are more likely to be dismissed than those in the Championship.
Last season there were 58 managerial changes, 40 of them dismisslas, but only seven of them came in the Premier League whereas there were 12 in League 1 according to figures released by the League Managers Association. There were 10 in the Championship and 11 in League 2.
The winding-up order brought against Rushden & Diamonds has been adjourned for 21 days. This will give potential Japanese investors a chance to show their hand. Having spent a long time now observing events of this kind, I am always cautious about mystery investors, but let’s hope for Diamonds fans that it works out.
Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST) have given a cautious welcome to the idea of the club being floated by the Glazers on the Hong Kong stock exchange. They point out that while fans may not like the idea of the Glazers walking away with a big profit, the long-term interests of the club should be paramount.
The Sunday Times Business section provides authoritative coverage of football among other areas of the economy and today’s issue leads with the story ‘Glazers eye Man Utd float in Asia’. The idea of listing the club on the Hong Kong stock exchange is certainly an interesting one with many potential implications.
The future of Supporters Direct is under threat. Leading football journalist David Conn has researched the story and it appears that some indiscreet tweets (here we go again) seem likely to lead to the withdrawal of Premier League funding just as it was about to be granted.