The Archive

Steve Menary reports on the increasing shortage of City investors in football's surviving plcs

Sheffield United’s board must be pretty sure of promotion to the Premiership having turned to the Stock Exchange to raise £10.7 million early last month. A large slice of the cash is earmarked for players’ wages, but the club will plough £2.7m into a redevelopment of the corner stand at Bramall Lane due for completion in May and £1m towards buying a £4m health club in Staines. Chief executive officer Jason Rockett said: “We’re trying to create a new model for a club and produce off-field revenue with the club at the centre. It’s got to be a more sustainable business.”

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Simon Melville reports on the free phenomenom that is live football on the internet

Want to watch live Premiership football but can’t afford Sky? No cable TV in your street? Local watering hole doesn’t show those Egyptian broadcasts of the Premiership you’ve heard pubs in the East End of London have?

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Chris Taylor is confused – he’s a Manchester United fan, or at least he was. Does he now support FC United as well as or instead of the Glazer-owned Old Trafford team?

It’s not easy being a Manchester United fan at the moment. Oh, stop laughing at the back. It really isn’t. I suppose the playing side of things isn’t too bad, you know, relative to everyone else who isn’t Chelsea. But off the pitch, where things are suddenly far more important, things are screwed up good and proper.

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Update on clubs in crisis from Tom Davies

You can tell a club is in trouble if fans protest throughout a 5-1 home win, as Derby’s did during last month’s thrashing of Crewe at Pride Park. Supporter protests against a board of directors presiding over a debt thought to be more than £44 million and the inevitable depletion of playing resources that has entailed have escalated in recent weeks and many fear for the club’s existence, especially if they are relegated. Subsequent embarrassing defeats by Coventry and Colchester will scarcely have improved morale and led to the dismissal of manager Phil Brown late last month.

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After the report was made public, Roger Titford reports on the main points and the amount of people who watch Sky Sports

Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Guardian managed to get Ofcom’s report (can be found here) on the Premier League’s television deal into the public domain. In the debate over the structure of the next deal there had been much alluding to this document as a support for change. In the event the findings by the regulator for the UK communications industries look rather inconclusive – “appear to point to potential demand for greater choice” is as strong as the language gets. But the report is certainly interesting.

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