Manchester City’s owners have divided opinion over the years, but the latest incumbents have been welcomed deliriously. David Conn wonders if the fans’ loyalty is being exploited

The takeover of Manchester City was celebrated uproariously by most of the club’s supporters, but it prompted me instead to question the very basis of fans’ loyalty to their clubs. I am talking not about today’s surreal ownership by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, but a deal that looks positively homely by comparison, the 1994 City takeover by Francis Lee.

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Online scouting resource or commercial venture, asks Ian Plenderleith

According to Tom Bower’s book Broken Dreams, Israeli agent Pini Zahavi made £3 million on the transfers of his client Rio Ferdinand from West Ham to Manchester United via Elland Road. Rio’s such a nice bloke that he’s still doing his agent favours, endorsing a new scouting website founded by Zahavi that claims to represent “the world’s biggest ever football database” on players.

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Bruce Wilkinson assesses Blackburn's attempt to gain Asian supporters

Blackburn Rovers are based in a town with a large Muslim population who traditionally have not followed the team. Over the last couple of years, the club has worked hard to attract more Asian supporters. The roll call of contributors to the club’s equality document (then Minister for Sport Richard Caborn, chair of Kick It Out Lord Herman Ouseley and former president of the Lancashire Council of Mosques Lord Adam Patel) shows the level of importance afforded to the issue.

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Scotland's troubles in Macedonia were not just on the pitch, says Kevin Donnelly

Any football fan who regularly travels home and away with their team will have faced the problem of lack of tickets for their respective end. The dilemma is whether to shrug your shoulders and accept it or go in the home section and sit on your hands, a choice made by approximately 1,500 Scotland fans for the game against Macedonia last month. The events around the World Cup qualifier in City Stadium in Skopje on September 6 raise a variety of questions over the official ticket distribution, stewarding of matches and the facilities that ought to be available for ­spectators in 35-degree heat.

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Ant, Dec and Lovejoy Cameron Carter

Charity is a wonderful thing, extremely versatile and nowadays used by the rich as a beautifully packaged experience gift to themselves. Last month’s Soccer Aid, raising funds for UNICEF, was a case in point. Where once upon a time charity meant an old man with skin the texture of pickled suede rattling an Oxfam tin at you, now it can be mani­cured primetime entertainment for all the family. A team of English celebrities and ex-players were raised to challenge their Rest of the World counterparts at Wembley and, through the week before the match, Ant and Dec loitered around the training ground of both squads to build the anticipation, chiefly through the art of synchronised sniggering. 

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