The Archive

With television rights having a growing effect on the Premier League, the broadcasting companies are battling it out for complete control

Setanta got a record audience figure for the Premier League match between Liverpool and Everton on Monday, January 19. This fact was reported in the following day’s press, although there was not a word about it in the Murdoch-owned papers. At one level this is understandable – commercial rivals can hardly be expected to acknowledge one another’s existence. But even though the match at Anfield had a direct bearing on the title race – Liverpool would have returned to the top if they’d won – there was scarcely a mention of it on Sky Sports News at any point on that Monday night.

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Ian Plenderleith reviews the FA disciplinary website and their take on the Stamford Bridge debacle

Despite all the billions of pages out there on the internet, there are still times when you can’t find what you want. On some sites it can seem like there’s just enough information to tantalise you, while withholding anything that might be of actual interest. Such as the disciplinary page at the official FA website.

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Reform is on the agenda in Scotland – but that’s nothing new. Dianne Millen takes a sceptical look at the latest proposals on restructuring the divisions and introducing promotion from non-League

 In December George Peat, chairman of the Scottish Football Association, announced the “biggest and most thorough investigation yet” into the structure and governance of football in the country. Coming just a few days before the final meeting of the arbitration panel convened to rule on the 2006 proposal for a break­away “SPL2”, the proposals took a low-key tone, with SFA chief executive Gordon Smith explaining: “We’re not necessarily making major changes – we’re just looking to see whether if, when you bring together all the stakeholders that are involved within the game, whether there are ideas that could be put forward.” 

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In May, St Andrew’s and the Madejski were cloaked in relegation doom. Now the hope of automatic promotion – with the play-off anxiety that accompanies that prospect – suffuses the meeting between the teams second and third in the Championship. Are they about to swap places? Roger Titford was there

Only an idiot or a football manager would say this was just another game, just another three points.  It stands like a giant sign post, the opening game of the second half of the Championship season, a potential turning point.  Birmingham City have occupied one of the automatic promotion spots from the off but they are beginning to splutter, trailing Wolves by six points. Reading are now only one behind the Blues. Both clubs were relegated from the Premier League last season and both are desperate to get back up before the parachute money runs out and they fall to parsimonious ignominy with a dull thud. It is second versus third in a three-horse race where only the first two get decent prizes and it is being run at an exceptional pace. We’re all off to witness and feel “momentum shift”. If I just wanted to see what happens I’d be better off at home watching it on Sky with my cough. But I’m making a rare away trip, despite Sky, because Reading will need every voice and body we can get in the stadium.

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Some retired footballers go into management, but for many lazing on the cosy pundits' sofa is irresistible. Harry Pearson observes

Back in the 1960s, commentators such as Kenneth Wolstenholme and Huw Johns effectively spent 90 minutes on Saturday afternoon talking to themselves: “Now I wonder what United can come up with in response to that?” They would probe, before replying, after a brief pause: “This boy Brown looks like he may have half an idea!”

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