Manchester United fans, I've got some bad news.
Experts have clambered all over your team's accounts, got their calculators out and decided the whole shebang - the massive debt, the not-too-distant retirement of your inspirational "CEO", and the growing threat from rival brands at home and abroad - is just about sustainable.
So, sorry, you're stuck with the Glazers. They've gone to the well again and .
It gets worse. Those experts didn't give you an unequivocal thumbs-up. They looked at the numbers, winced like car mechanics and said 'yeah, we can fix that, but it will cost you'. And I mean you - the tangible fans at Old Trafford and the intangible fans in Bangalore and beyond.
Read the rest of this entry
If fans of Portsmouth FC have not acquainted themselves with the recent history of King's Lynn FC . The seemingly tenuous links between the two clubs are getting painfully close and the next three weeks could decide if they make the ultimate connection.
became a non-club last month when (HMRC) gained a winding-up order from the High Court. The taxman was tired of IOUs and wanted his unpaid PAYE, NI and VAT - £77,000 of it.
The club, with total debts of more than £200,000, couldn't pay and that was that. 130 years after their formation, the Linnets were no more. It was a cruel end for a relatively well-supported club but it was entirely avoidable.
King's Lynn had been living considerably beyond their means for years. This was compounded by a failure (not entirely their own) to upgrade their stadium. Sound familiar?
Read the rest of this entry
While Sir Alex Ferguson gets on with the job of getting his players ready to face Birmingham City's challenge on Saturday (), far more significant preparations are being made elsewhere in the Manchester United empire.
United's key this month will not be at St Andrew's, the City of Manchester Stadium, the Emirates or even Old Trafford, no matter what clash-of-civilizations hyperbole the footie scribes attribute to those Manchester derbies.
No, the real action will take place over breakfast at or at a long lunch at a City institution (the London kind, not ) - somewhere private, somewhere a dozen business acquaintances can eat, drink and discuss the sale of £600m-worth debt.
The type of players who replace , and Scholes, how much of the can be reinvested, what Fergie does about the and how he closes , all this and more will be decided by blokes (for the most part) in suits over the next week or so. Welcome to British football in 2010.
Read the rest of this entry
Hi, I'm Matt Slater and I try to shed light on what's happening behind the scenes in sport - so everything from football finance to Olympic squabbles. You can also follow me on . 