Ashley tightens grip on Rangers

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Mike Ashley his tightened his grip on Rangers after the club agreed to accept his offer of a £10m loan. They turned down an alternative offer from the so-called Three Bears Consortium.

The club told the Stock Exchange that the terms negotiated with Sports Direct ‘represent the optimum combination of quantum and duration of funding, allowing the company time to arrange permanent capital which can be used for strengthening the playing squad.’

New bidder for Premiership matches

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Bids for Premier League domestic broadcast rights have to be submitted by the end of next week for the blind auction. A potential new bidder has emerged in the form of the Discovery channel which has held talks with Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore.

Discovery is best known for nature documentaries, but it now controls the Eurosport channels and wants to break into Premier League football. This could lead to even more inflation in the cost from £3bn for the last three year deal to around £4bn this time.

The travails of Lens

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RC Lens are facing difficult times.  Such are their problems that they could be expelled from the professional leagues altogether.

Last season they were denied promotion from Ligue 2 to Ligue 1 because of financial irregularities.  The decision was overturned on appeal, but they are having to deal with Ligue 1 with a squad assembled for Ligue 2.   They are also having to play away from their stadium while it is renovated for Euro 2016.

Bradford cash boost from cup run

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Even before yesterday’s spectacular victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Bradford City had already benefitted from their cup run to the tune of £1m.  That has wiped out this year’s deficit, part of which they had hoped to come from a sell on fee had Tom Cleverly’s move to Aston Villa had been made permanent.