Television deals are becoming increasingly important in the modern game. Roger Titford explains the latest agreement that will determine how we view football
More evidence of football’s growing importance as the new national religion arrives: the left-wing, oops sorry, independent, think tank Demos have published a pamphlet arguing that price controls should be imposed on Sky TV by a newly-created Office for Regulating the Broadcasting of Sport (ORBS?).
David Pendleton examines Geoffrey Richmond's unglamorous rags to riches tale
Habitat A self made man. Bought Ronson Lighters when they were insolvent, turned the company around and sold it for £10m plus. Now being the Chairman of Bradford City is his full time occupation, he is always first to enter the building and last to leave. Opens all the mail, occasionally answers the phones and has been known to work in the ticket office. Hands-on is an inadequate term.
Dublin has been mentioned as Wimbledon's next home, but Mike Ticher warns that the club have a lot to lose if they move to Ireland
Jean-Louis Dupont, the lawyer who won the Bosman case, obviously thinks he knows a thing or two. A thing or two more than UEFA, maybe, but it would be foolish to get overly pleased with yourself about that. And the news that he has been hired by Wimbledon to further their bid to move to Dublin has only added to the apparently unstoppable flow of guff eman-ating from the Dons’ corner on their plight.
It may be winter, but Ian Plenderleith points out that the football can continue indoors
There are some things in football as sure to come around every year as Ian Wright’s suspension and Thomas Brolin’s attempt at career rehabilitation. In Germany and Switzerland it is the litany of the coaches moaning about the tough playing schedule when the annual fixture lists are produced, as if they thought perhaps this year they would only be playing their opponents once and that the national cup had been abolished. They carp on about too many “English weeks”, meaning that their poor oppressed players have to some-times turn out on Tuesdays or Wednesdays. And that the summer break is far too short.
Illegal payments are no laughing matter
"Bung" is a comedy word, close to bungling, an activity that generates derision, not to be taken too seriously. Bungs, as the Premier League inquiry established, are passed over in motorway service stations or transport cafes in plastic carrier bags or even, in one case, on an Icelandic trawler. It is a pity that ‘bung’ has become the standard shorthand phrase for corrupt transfer dealings in football because it trivialises an activity that can often involve huge sums of money changing hands.