"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
Rapper Jay-Z, real name Shawn Carter, would like to buy Arsenal. He is one of the richest musicians in the United States and is a genuine Arsenal fan so arguably he is a better prospect than some of the people who have shown an interest in the club. Where he would get a stake from is another matter, although the shares of Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith are available.
The Australian Football Federation may not continue to bail out the financially troubled Newcastle Jets. They provided a short-term financial lifeline in the form of $A300,000 of aid, but further funding may not be available and the club could fold.
Non-League day on September 5th saw the total number watching games in Steps 1 to 4 of the pyramid up almost 12 per cent up on the corresponding day last year with 5,965 extra attendees at 128 matches. This gave a total of 56,678 compared to 50,607 at 128 games last year. Perhaps a better comparison is with the last Saturday a full Step 1 to 4 non-league programme was played on August 22nd when 130 matches were attended by a total of 54,653. This suggests that the number of extra fans brought in was around 4,000.
The most probable national champions in Europe’s five top leagues in 2011 will be Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Internazionale Milano and LOSC Lille Métropole. These are the findings of a new statistical model developed by the Professional Football Players Observatory (PFPO), which combines academic research with the data-collecting expertise and vast database of RunningBall, claimed to be the leading player in the real-time sports information sector.
David Sullivan has talked at length about the debt mountain he inherited at West Ham. The debt inherited from the previous regime was around £110m and this is now down to about £90-£95m. About half of this is made up of bank loans and half other forms of debt. However, the new owners keep being hit by claims for money owed by their predecessors. With West Ham currently rooted at the bottom of the table, the size of the debt adds to the club’s other worries.
Coca-Cola may be the first corporate sponsor to drop Wayne Rooney after the revelations about his private life. The London office of the firm is resisting moves from the Atlanta headquarters to get rid of Rooney, arguing that he was signed up to attract young men to the brand rather than bolster its family image. In particular he has been used to boost Coke Zero, sometimes called ‘bloke coke’ because it targets young men.
The future for Ilkeston Town looks bleak after they were wound up last week over a 50k tax debt. Their match against Redditch yesterday did not go ahead and the receiver has not had any offers for the club as a going concern. Fans are talking of forming a phoenix club.
Mansfield Town FC have been put up for sale. They are in their third season outside the Football League and enjoyed the fourth biggest crowds outside the Football League last season. Chairman Andrew Perry was voted off the board in July, with remaining directors alleging he had reneged on a written obligation in joining them in punpinng £125,000 each into the club.
The extent to which Royal Bank of Scotland is losing patience with Liverpool is emphasised by the revelation that it is placing the club’s debts in its Global Restructuring Division which is its home for toxic assets. It takes a much more ruthless approach than the corporate banking department. It increasingly looks as if Tom Hicks and George Gillett will be out of the door on 6th October when their pe
Barcelona and Real Madrid are the two most popular football clubs in Europe according to a survey conducted by German sports consultancy Sports + Markt. They interviewed 10,200 fans acrooss Europe who were asked to name their favourite club or clubs. They were allowed multiple answers.