"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
This interesting article is concerned specifically with the rapid turnover of managers at Norwich City which Paul Lambert looks like ending, but also looks at the phenomenon more generally. There is a table listing the longest serving managers in English football, headed by Sir Alex Ferguson.
Salisbury City are appealing against expulsion from the Blue Square Premiership under the controversial Appendix E rules adopted last year. Some critics think they are too stringent. Salisbury argue that they have paid all football creditors in full. Their only outstanding debt is an admittedly substantial £228,000 to the tax authorities with whom they have an agreement to pay 27p in the pound over three years.
Aliko Dangote, a billionaire Nigerian industrialist, is one of the bidders for the 16 per cent stake in Arsenal being sold by Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith. He certainly has the readies, as Forbes magazine has ranked him among the world’s 500 richest people, with a fortune estimated at £1.7 billion.
I have always been sceptical of the notion that when the Red Knights turn up with a decent offer for Manchester United, the Glazers will roll over and sell up. I think their game plan has always been to make a profit out of capital appreciation on the Old Trafford franchise, although that scenario now looks less realistic in the medium term given the economic situation.
The sight of a dejected Bluebird sitting on his own in a vast expanse of Wembley Stadium said it all. He could not believe what had happened and couldn’t muster the energy to join the other Cardiff fans streaming out of the stadium at the end of yesterday’s play-off final.
At one time there was a unit trust based on football club shares after a number of clubs floated on the stock market. It wasn’t a great success because most football clubs don’t make any money or at least don’t pay dividends to their shareholders so there is no income stream. As far as capital appreciation was concerned, the shares of many clubs tanked. Nowadays there are too few quoted clubs to provide a basis for such a vehicle even if it made financial sense.
The financial condition of Scottish football is such that fans there are bound to look a little enviously south of the border at the rich rewards earned by promotion to the Premiership. However, this interesting article takes a different angle. It points out just how many Scottish players there were in the Blackpool and Cardiff squads and points to beneficial spin offs for the Scottish national team.
Over the past few months we have been boosting Cardiff City as a Premiership prospect on economic grounds, but in football it’s what happens on the pitch that matters, which is as it should be. The Premier League will take on a tangerine hue with the promotion of Blackpool
Who will the Champions League final? A group of academics who work on football think that they have devised a group of statistical indicators that will give them the answer. The story below is based on a statement they sent us.
Real Mallorca is the latest club to apply for the Spanish form of bankruptcy administration, but their troubles are the latest symptom of the problems affecting La Liga clubs outside the big two. Even Real Madrid have faced financial challenges not so long ago, but their clout is such that they were able to find a route out of them.