The Cheapest ticket on sale for the 2011 Champions League final is £150 which is expensive enough to that you have to add a further £26 administration charge – how on earth does anyone justify such a charge. If your team does manage to qualify for the final then you will be able to buy tickets for just £80 – sick – plus the £26 administration fee! Madness.
Source: The Guardian.
Carlo Ancelotti has expressed uncertainty over his future at Chelsea by claiming he would not “want to train a team that is not in the Champions League”. The club resumes its involvement in the competition on Tuesday with a last-16 tie against FC Copenhagen but, unless they win the final in May, they may not be involved next year given their struggles to secure a qualification place via the Premier League. Sachin Nakrani, The Guardian.
I guess Ancelotti is pre-empting his sacking for failure to qualify for the Champions League. The way it’s going Torres’ might well wish he’d stayed at Liverpool – they might well finish above us if we carry on playing the way we are.
Sky has sacked football presenter Andy Gray after further allegations of his sexist behaviour came to light.
The pundit had already been disciplined for sexist comments made about female referee Sian Massey before Saturday’s match between Wolves and Liverpool.
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Sky Sports said it had sacked Gray “in response to new evidence of unacceptable and offensive behaviour”.
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The new footage, which was recorded in December but only came to light on Monday night, appears to show Gray making a suggestive comment towards colleague Charlotte Jackson, who does not openly react, and he and Keys then burst out laughing. BBC.
What I don’t understand is why Richard Keys hasn’t also been sacked he seems as offensive as Gray in both cases but may be this is the reason:
Mr Gray is just one of a succession of high-profile figures who are pursuing actions against the News of the World. But as Rupert Murdoch seeks to take full control of BSkyB – and possibly build even closer relations between the elements of his British media empire – he could do without the gravelly burr of his most famous British sports commentator criticising his organisation in court. The Independent.
Yes, you can’t help thinking that’s what Gray get’s for upsetting Murdoch.
When Alan Shearer took over at Newcastle he couldn’t save them from relegation and after Liverpool’s loss to Blackpool you have to wonder is Dalglish about to do the same as Liverpool are now just four points from the drop zone.
Wayne Rooney
I’ll kiss it if you pay me £200,000 a week – what’s happened to football? Rooney’s deal is just one example of the greed that’s enveloping the game – the days of player loyalty have long gone.
About 5-years-ago almost every other pub across the country wwas showing live preemier league football on Saturday at 3pm. Landlords did this by subscribing to an overseas service usually somewhere In the EU – what you often got was foreign language pictures and BBC commentary which never seemed to be quite in synch one was always ahead of the other.
Then in June 2006 the Premier League employed Media Protection Services, to crack down on the ever growing number of pubs showing overseas broadcasts. Suddenly the number of pubs showing live matches dropped dramatically.
However not every landlord succumbed and Karen Murphy, landlady of the Red, White and Blue in Southsea has taken her battle all the way to the European Court of Justice. Alongside Murphy’s case, there arecases against four other landlords injuncted and two cases against the importers QC Leisure and AV Station.
Opening arguments were heard, with the legal opinion of the advocate general due to follow on 13 January and final guidance due in March. John Cronin, senior associate at Smithfield Partners, which is acting for QC Leisure, said: “Our client remains confident in its position under both national and European law which we believe was reflected positively in the oral submissions made before the ECJ.”
The Premier League is waiting for the determination of the ECJ before resuming its campaign to stop pubs showing matches on a Saturday afternoon. In most high streets up and down the country fans can currently watch matches on a Saturday afternoon via overseas satellite broadcasts. Owen Gibson, The Guardian.
So if you like watching football on Saturday afternoon’s it might be wise to make-hay-while-the-sun-shines as I wouldn’t bet against Sky, the broadcaster involved winning out.
How much can a bit of turf cost? The one at Wembley costs around £100,000 – what on earth do they use for grass?
Source: The BBC.
Wolverhampton Wanderers have been given a £25,000 suspended fine for fielding a below-strength side in their match against Manchester United at Old Trafford in December.
The manager Mick McCarthy made 10 changes from the side that had won 1-0 at Tottenham Hotspur three days earlier. Wolves then responded by recalling nine of the players that had been in action at White Hart Lane for the next league game, at home to fellow strugglers Burnley – and won 2-0. The under-strength Wolves side lost at Old Trafford, on 15 December, 3-0. John Curtis, The Guardian.
I’m no fan of Mick McCarthy or Wolves – I’m a Chelsea fan – but surely a manger is entitled to select any of the players he has on his books – unlike Manchester United who are out to win the premiership – Wolves aim is to avoid relegation – so I can see why he wanted to avoid injury to his best players for the game against Bolton – which he won – who’s next to be fined? What a ridiculous attitude taken by the Premier League. What happens if my team have won the Premiership with three games to go and the only game we’ve left is the Champions league final will we be fined for fielding a weakened team, our last three games are Stoke, Liverpool and Wigan – two of these games could be important for the relegation and the other for qualification in next year’s European competitions.
Back in May 2005 the Glazer family brought Manchester United for £810m, paying £270m themselves and borrowing the remainder since then the dept they’ve loaded on to United has increased to £700m.
Now imagine how United might look without the Glazer debt. True, as a plc – the Stock Market listing which football executives now agree was a failed experiment, despite defending it zealously at the time – United paid dividends to shareholders. Yet even allowing for the increase in turnover, from £171m to the most recent £278m, the 2004 dividend was £7m, nothing like the mountain of interest, £42m to banks, £25m to hedge funds, with which the Glazers have burdened United.
Had the takeover never happened, how fearsomely United could now be swaggering. Three times Premier League champions and European champions in 2008, with a record income of £278m (although it would probably be lower, because without the Glazers, ticket prices would not be so high), with a £91m operating profit, not plundered to meet the interest. On top of that, £81m from selling Ronaldo.
Would the manager, in those debt-free circumstances, really spend the autumn years of his brilliant career grumbling about the price of players? Can he be pictured allowing Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez to depart, leaving him to admit that United’s thinner strike force is seriously reliant on one player, Wayne Rooney?
For those who still believe that United are untouched by the financial chicanery the Glazers have visited on them, the fullest answer so far is contained in an unlikely place – United’s bond prospectus itself. That piece of work, arguably the most dispiriting document ever produced containing the word football, seeks to persuade investors to buy a piece of the Glazers’ latest debt restructuring. David Conn, The Guardian.
We really have to thank our lucky stars that the Glazier’s are in charge at Man United, if it wasn’t for Alex Ferguson the crisis would have already happened, he’s a brilliant manager and this season without key players there’s every chance of United winning their fourth straight Premiership title.
Your wife has just become pregnant for the third time so how do you celebrate? If your Marlon King the answer is – out on the town sexually assaulting women and when one of them has the temerity to protests you punch her in the face so hard you break her nose – nice. For once a premiership player’s lawyers didn’t get him off – every time I see the video below of Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard I wonder how a not guilty verdict was returned
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