Player of the Month award winners for April from npower

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npower’s players of the month have been announced for April for the npower Football League. April’s npower League 1 Player of the Month is Neil Mellor, Sheffield Wednesday striker.

Mellor arrived via a loan from Preston North End and in April scored six goals including important strikes against Walsall, Swindon Town and Colchester United.

A member of the npower judging panel for the Football League Player of the Month is Peter Beagrie Sky Sports football expert and he commented that Mellor’s fine scoring has helped the Owls move up the table after they started the month in 17th position just above the drop zone and are now a full 11 points above it.

The npower League 2 award for April’s Player of the Month was given to Bury Striker Ryan Lowe. Lowe, the veteran skipper, scored four times helping lead his team to an automatic promotion.

Emma Collins the npower head of sponsorship commented that his quality of play and experience has been instrumental in the team’s success this season.

“His performances have been of the highest order in recent weeks, and he fully deserves the League 2 award.”

Finally, in the Championship Norwich City striker Simeon Jackson has been named npower Championship Player of the Month for April.

Jackson netted eight times during the month to help the Canaries secure automatic promotion.

His impressive goal haul included hat-tricks against Scunthorpe United and Derby County.

Peter Beagrie added: “After going more than 20 games without a goal, Jackson produced a show of true marksmanship in April.

“He began May in similar style, scoring the most important goal of his career to secure Norwich an automatic promotion spot.”

The judging panel comprises Sky Sports Football League expert Peter Beagrie, Football League head of communications John Nagle, BBC Sport’s Mark Clemmit and Emma Collins, npower head of sponsorship.

About npower:
npower are title sponsors of the Test Match Series in England, Women’s Test Series and the Village Cup, with results appearing on the npower cricket website.

npower are proud sponsors of the npower football league, including The npower Championship, npower League 1 and npower League 2 commencing July 2010.

npower has 6.6 million residential gas and electricity accounts throughout the UK. npower is a market leader in renewable energy and aims to help customers with their energy efficiency. npower juice matches green energy primarily from off-shore wind farms for juice customers at no extra cost.

Overseas TV cash for Premier League clubs

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Overseas TV cash for Premier League clubs The amount of overseas TV rights money that different clubs receive from the Premier League is based on three things:  the team’s performance, the number of times their matches are aired live on domestic television, and equal shares of TV income.  Top teams get more TV money, but this season all the clubs will be getting more than ever before, on average £5m more than last season.

The least successful club will be guaranteed at least £37m, while the best one will get almost twice that, or £57m.  Even so, the distribution of money is much more equitable than in any of the other major European leagues.  In Spain’s La Liga, for example, top clubs earn 19 times more than the smallest clubs, payouts being negotiated on a club-by-club basis.

The Premier League’s payout of approximately £1.2 billion over the next three seasons amounts to about ten times more than German clubs receive, five times more than Italy’s and three times more than clubs in La Liga.

Right now the FA Board is working on its budget for international development, and reports are that they may cut off funds to the poorest African clubs because they feel FIFA is not being recognized as it should for its support of football in general.  The Africans seem to feel it’s because no one voted for England in the bidding for the 2018 World Cup.

St Albans City Football Club find new owners

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Following the FA’s fine on 4 February 2011, troubled Conference League South team St Albans City Football Club has been sold for an undisclosed sum to two local businessmen: Lawrence Levy and John McGowan.

Well known locally for his love of football Lawrence said “We are delighted to have bought St Albans City Football Club from John Gibson and are really looking forward to re-building it with the support of the fans and the local community.  John McGowan and I have big plans for the future and believe that The Saints will once again be the club that St Albans deserves. We would like to thank John Gibson and to pay tribute to him for all his hard work and enthusiasm for the club over the last nine years. We also look forward to drawing a line under the recent history and taking the club forward.”

John McGowan added “Lawrence and I are here for the long term and we are investing in the future of the club. We want to work with the supporters and will be talking to them over the coming weeks and months to ensure that they are happy with the changes. But we will also be talking to schools and local businesses to get them involved.”

The club played in the Conference South league in 2010-2011 Season. For further details on the club see www.sacfc.co.uk.

The FA fined St. Albans £7,500 on 4 February 2011 and deducted 10 league points.

The punishment was in relation to alleged illegal payments to players, described by the FA as financial irregularities, by the club during the 2008-09 season. St. Albans appealed, but the original decision was upheld.

Interpol and Fifa will fight football corruption together

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Interpol and Fifa will fight football corruption together It has been reported that Interpol will join forces with Fifa the world football governing body to combat match fixing and corruption in football. Sepp Blatter Fifa President and Ronald Noble the Secretary General of Interpol will announce their plans after a session on May 9 in Zurich at the headquarters of Fifa. The cost would be about $20 million for the Interpol and Fifa joint scheme.

The Fifa president says he is aware of where international matches were organized and played to benefit betting scams. The monies will be used for pre-emptive measures and not for investigative purposes. The funding by Fifa would allow Interpol to help develop programmes that are pre-emptive for officials, administrators and players to raise awareness of how the fixers employ their methods.

The education of young players is a priority if the fight to eradicate corruption is to be a success. And it is important for the administrators to adequately perform due diligence when reviewing third parties that want to arrange matches. Monitoring and educating match officials are a must since they are pivotal in not allowing the games to be manipulated.

Sir Alan Sugar steps up to save football

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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.