Spurs go on offensive over Olympic Stadium

My original thinking on the Olympic Stadium was that West Ham was likely to move there after 2012, not that all their fans are keen on the idea.   I thought that the Spurs application was something of a diversionary tactic to give them a Plan B and allow them to put some pressure on Haringey council over planning issues.

Uefa financial fair play rules – a looming challenge

This is a special article written for us by Duncan McHardy:


In 2010 Europe’s top clubs were vehemently warned by UEFA that failure to break-even in the near future would result in exclusion from European competitions. In England we have seen the owners of Chelsea and Manchester City swap debt for shares in order to comply with the looming financial fair play (FFP) rules.

Home internationals return

As the original ‘home’ of football (although apparently Sepp Blater thinks it started in China) the UK has four national associations represented in Fifa. Until 1984 this was marked by a series of home internationals between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Another manager falls

Aldershot manager Kevin Dillon is the latest to be shown the door by his club.  That makes 16 sackings in the Football League this season.


Richard Bevan, the chief executive of the League Managers Association  (LMA), has pointed out that the average lifespan of a manager is less than 14 months and in League Two last season it was nine months.  33 clubs out of the 92 in all divisions have had a manager for less than a year, including ten in the Championship.  

FA in a sponsorship fix

The Football Association is about to sign a new sponsorship deal with Vauxhall and it is thought likely to be around the £5m figure it earned from its former deal with Nationwide.  Two years ago the FA thought that with Fabio Capello’s team progressing smoothly to World Cup qualification it could command a premium on its rights.  It therefore rejected an offer from Nationwide to extend its deal.  Then came the catastrophic World Cup performance in South Africa.