Sir Alan Sugar steps up to save football

by

Sir Alan Sugar steps up to save football Football needs a savior it is in dire straits. The game needs someone who loves the sport but is also an expert in business. A business expert that does not suffer fools gladly, take any nonsense, and wants more that just cautious Carols and steady Eddies. The answer is Sir Alan Sugar.

He is not shy about letting his opinions be known and he has already investigate why the game finds it self up the proverbial creek with no paddle in site. While talking with members of the fraternity of football, he tries to find out what is the cause behind such financial disaster in the world’s most beautiful game.

In 1992 when the English Premier League premiered the chairmen of all the clubs had agreed to a television contract with BSkyB television, part of Rupert Murdoch’s empire for the sum of £300. With all that money coming in the clubs starting handing out large contracts and starting purchasing players from other countries and other clubs and the spending soon spiraled out of control.

Now the Premier League is seen in more than a half a billion homes and Sky is paying more than a billion pounds for the TV rights and the clubs are selling millions of pounds in tickets, merchandising and TV deals. But why are seven out of every 10 clubs in debt. The total debt in the Premier League stands at a whopping £3.3bn which is higher than any other league in the world.

What the general consensus is that the player’s salaries are the culprits. The wage bills for teams have skyrocketed to colossal levels never before seen and are draining the clubs of all their earnings. Many put blame on the money hungry sharks known as agents as well and the overall consensus is that something needs to be fixed quickly.

The oldest set of rules of football up for auction

by

The oldest set of rules of football up for auction Sotheby’s is auctioning in July the oldest set of rules of football as part of an historic group that should bring in over 800,000 quid. The world’s oldest club Sheffield Football Club, is offering the collection that includes, dating from 1858, handwritten original draft rules and the only surviving copy the Sheffield Football Club’s Rules, Regulations & Laws of the Sheffield Football Club published in 1859.

Sotheby senior specialist, Gabriel Heaton stated that the documents were very important to the history of football and form part of what lead to the development of the modern game and much of what the game takes for granted today, came from Sheffield. The sale by Sheffield is to help fund new facilities and to further secure their future as the home of football.

Many of the rules would be familiar to today’s football fans while there are others that may even seem quite liberal in a time when many are complaining about the refereeing. The early years of success by Sheffield was able to encourage other clubs to be developed in the area and to play by the same set of rules that Sheffield had and caused what some consider the growth of the world’s first football culture.

Swansea and Cardiff City blast Football League schedulers

by

Swansea and Cardiff City blast Football League schedulers The Football League schedulers have been blasted by Swansea City and Cardiff City, both chasing promotion, ahead of the Easter Monday, crunch programme today. Both clubs feel that they have been given a very bad disadvantage in their quest to be promoted to the Premier League.

Cardiff is playing at Preston and is upset that Norwich that is one place better than they are has had two days additional rest before struggling Derby visits their stadium. Ipswich should be rested for their match today as the Swansea club seeks victory that will consolidate their playoff place.

After a goalless stalemate against Portsmouth, Swansea all but saw their top two dreams extinguished and their boss Brendan Rodgers said it was ridiculous and tough to play two games in just three days and even more so at the end of a long season.

He continued by saying that they had worked and worked the entire season and had played a high number of games and then to face Ipswich on Monday after they have had three full days to recuperate and because of playing later in the day, they did not have to face the heat that our team did.

Even though Cardiff’s opponents have had more less time to recovery having played later Saturday but what angers their boss is they feel they should have the same amount of time as Norwich to recover, saying it is baffling to him how certain teams get an advantage by getting more time to rest, we should have had the same time as everybody else at this late stage of the league’s season.

Abramovich family investing more in football

by

Abramovich family investing more in football Another Abramovich is starting to make waves in the London business world. Arkadiy, the 20 year old son of Chelsea owner and billionaire, Roman Abramovich, recently invested £3 million in buying 26% of the London-listed company, Crosby Asset Management. The purchase was made through the younger Abromovich’s investment arm, ARA Capital.

Roman Abramovich made his money investing in Russia’s gas and oil industry and he is now valued at more the £7 billion making him the 53rd richest person in the world. His son appears to be following in his father’s footsteps by investing in the Hong Kong based, Crosby Asset Management which also focuses on natural resource investment around the world.

In addition to following his father’s footsteps in the business arena, Arkadiy is also looking to invest in football. His target is the company that owns the Dutch based FC Copenhagen. However, Arkadiy’s interests are not only business oriented and he is rumoured to be staring his university career next year in the United States.

Fellow Crosby investor, Robert Owen, has welcomed the new substantial investor in the company which was originally a stock broking firm established in 1984. Abramovich’s investment was made possible by two previous investors, John McKeon and Ilyas Khan decided to sell some of their assets.

Trevor Brooking comments on swearing-gate

by

Trevor Brooking comments on swearing-gate Sir Trevor Brooking, the director of football development for the FA has insisted that there is no way you can compare Kenny Dalglish’s verbal outburst aimed at Arsene Wenger with the Wayne Rooney swearing incident. It was Brooking who called for action to be against Rooney after he swore into the camera during the clash with West Ham.

The camera also captured Liverpool Manager Dalglish apparently making derisory comments towards Arsenal boss Wenger after their match at the Emirates Stadium ended in a 1-1 draw. Brooking however says it shouldn’t be discussed in the same way as the Rooney tirade.

He said the major difference was that Rooney deliberately went up to the camera and swore at the viewing audience.

There have been calls for action to be taken against Dalglish and while Brooking doesn’t agree with this he says there does need to be rules of clarification introduced so both players and Managers are aware of the consequences their actions could lead too. Brooking says that the first step is getting the LMA and the PFA to sing from the same hymnsheet.

.

He added that players and managers alike were looked on as representatives of the FA and must behave accordingly. Big stars like Rooney are bound to be talked more for their actions than players in the lower leagues and have to be seen to be punished otherwise several cans of worms are jut waiting to be opened.