Lower division clubs ask FA for fairer payouts

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Football League clubs are asking the FA to increase the amount of money that it hands out to other divisions. This past Tuesday it was announced that sides from the top flight would be paid as much as £60m over the next four years starting at the 2014 season. However, clubs are asking that the sides do not receive any additional funds.

The 72 Football League clubs met on Wednesday to talk about how payments should be distributed over the next three years. The clubs did not however reach an agreement about how payments should be disbursed and will meet again in May to talk about the matter in more depth.

The Premier League sold the broadcast rights for the next three years to BT and Sky for £3bn which is a very large increase over the past £1.25bn. Overseas rights to air the matches will put that total up to about £5bn. Out of that, parachute payments; which are money that is given to the different sides from top flight and cash that was given to clubs that did not receive parachute money consists about 15% of that total deal.

The Press Association Sport stated that clubs that are a part of the Championship that do not already get parachute payments will given £2.3m each which is more than they would get if they made their own TV deal.

League One Clubs will be given £360,000 and League Two will be given £240,000 which is a 5% to 6% increase. Parachute payments were originally created to help clubs that lost a large amount of revenue when they dropped out of the top division of England.

Even though there has been a lot of debate about solidarity payments and parachute payments the Premier League continues to insist that it does not prevent clubs from eventually being promoted into the Premier League.

Ashley Young forced out of rest of season with injury

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Ashley Young will not be playing for the last five Premier League games of the Manchester United season as an ankle injury has taken the Winger out of the game. Sir Alex Ferguson confirmed this week that Young will have to sit out the rest of the Premier League campaign in order to recuperate.

Young suffered an ankle injury during the Manchester City derby defeat just a fortnight ago. When the injury first occurred Ferguson stated that the winger would have to sit out for a fortnight but further tests have showed that the damage is actually a lot more extensive and will take longer to recover from.

It is not yet known yet if Young will be able to recover before the post season friendlies start between England and Brazil and the Republic of Ireland. However, at the time that these matches occur Young will have had already sat out two months and may be feeling up to playing again.

Ferguson stated that this is a very bad blow to the team as they have already been dealt quite a few blows due to the absence of two significant players. He went on to explain that they thought that Young would be back in just a few weeks but after a meeting with a specialist this past Wednesday in London they found out that the prognosis is not so pleasant.

Instead, Manchester United will have to make do without him for remaining games of their season. The outlook is not great for the team that has lost several of its key players due to injuries over eth long football season that has not been going in their favour.

Scotland teams to vote on the reconstruction of their football league

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When the ballot involving top-flight clubs in Scotland comes up in the following week, St Mirren has threatened to vote against the reconstruction of the league. The proposal will be put in front of a 12 Scottish premier league clubs, and is designed to merge the Scottish football league, and introduce a 12-12-18 structure.

The Paisley Club has stated that after studying the Articles of association, structure and shareholders agreement, The St Mirren Board Members have declined to support the motion set up in the proposal, which will be tabled on Monday.

The joining of the Senior Football League, and the Scottish League, into a single organisation is supported by the Saints Chiefs. Despite their perceived support for this proposal, they have expressed disdain at some of the terms which the SPL leaders want to put into place before the start of the next season.

A case in point is the proposal to split up the two divisions at the top of the league into 3 groups, with eight teams. These concerns are not just shared by the Saints Chiefs, but also by fans and coaching staff, who were included in the deliberations.

Although they support the proposal to have a new league structure, a single governing body, and a new model of distribution is one that is well thought out. But the way that the proposal is presented will not have the desired effect of promoting Scottish football.

The proposal outlays plans to have teams play 22 games before splitting into 3 groups of 8 teams. However, the middle 8 will lose all the points that they had won in the first round, and this will serve to demoralise players, and affect the game. The system has been tried in other countries and rejected for this reason. The fans would also have to get rid of their season tickets, a fact that will not go down well with them.

Argument rumbles on about logos on football shirts

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Football fans have to wear shirts that bear the logo of the sponsor, whether they agree to this principle or not. Many feel that this is an unfair practice given that teams are offered children’s shirts without a logo. A good case study is where the sponsor may be a gambling company.

The absence of the logo may seem to be ethical but it is most probably a means of avoiding hefty fines imposed on company’s that break advertising guidelines. Looking for a sponsor at the start of the season is akin to the frenzied activity that goes on before the transfer period is over. The FA was put in a quandary when, in 1976, the late Derek Dougan secured sponsorship from a company named Kettering Tyres.

The FA put Derek to task over the logo on the shirts, and he, in turn, shrewdly changed the lettering to Kettering “T”; the T standing for both “Tyres”, and “Town”. The following year, the FA had to relax the rules about the logos that go on the T-shirts.

Another Interesting scenario is that surrounding Barcelona’s sponsorship. For 111 years, this team refused all forms of sponsorship logos on their shirts, and only toted the UNICEF logo. In the year 2010, this trend changed and the UNICEF logo was relegated to the back of the shirts, and the logo for the Qatar Foundation was placed on the front. This caused a furour as people took issue with the human rights violations that are experienced in Qatar.

Another team, Sunderland, seemed to embrace positive sponsorship practices when it put the logo “Invest in Africa” on the front of their shirts. This was before it was discovered that the company behind the logo was an oil and gas exploration multinational corporation.

Supporters should be more informed about the ethics behind the logos on the kits that they blindly buy. The office of Fair Trading Investigations is looking at the matter at present.

A grand day out for Coleen Rooney

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Today was the biggest day in the racing calendar, the Grand National, and one of the UK most famous WAGs turned up looking exceptionally stylish, despite being 8 months pregnant. Coleen Rooney stepped out in a clinging, black lycra dress which emphasised her bump and a lace panel over her boobs. She teamed with a killer set of scarlet heels, dismissing the myth that those so close to giving birth have to live in flats.

Coleen is always a head of the game when it comes to fashion, and her maternity outfits never fail to impress either. She has appeared in a series of great outfits since she announced that she was pregnant with the couple’s second son, who is due to make an appearance next month. Accompanying her to Aintree were her mum Colette McLoughlin, herself looking a lot colourful than we are used to in a turquoise dress with with bright yellow handbag and shoes.

Although husband Wayne was at home injured, Coleen did bring along his little mini-me; 3 year old son Kai. The youngest member of the party was looking very stylish in a pale blue and white ensemble with striped pants, and he even brought along his own Buzz Lightyear booster seat to ensure he missed none of the action on the course.

Wayne’s boss was there too but not as a mere spectator, Sir Alex Ferguson had two horses in the starting line up; What a Friend and Harry the Viking. Neither were in it at the finish however, with the surprise winner being the 66-1 shot Aurora’s Encore. Whether any of Coleen’s group won a few quid is unknown, but if there are was a style race Mrs Rooney would have won by a length.