25 November 2011 Can you identify the sporting arena? We take an aerial view of a topical ball park, football stadium, marathon course, golf course, Games venue, race track, iconic arena, athletic theatre (some literally theatres), pitch, park, stretch of water or wherever else sport takes place. And we ask you to identify it with the help […]

By Alex Miller  25 November 2011 The beleaguered RFU has received a small measure of relief from its current troubles after major sponsor Nike – the England rugby kit supplier – confirmed to Sportingintelligence that it is “not planning to change anything as a result of the recent RFU activities”. Those ‘activities’ include a shambolic […]

By Brian Sears 24 November 2011 The natural home advantage we expect is slightly diminished this season in the Premier League, with only 56 per cent of all points so far being won by the home teams. This is a 20-year low; last season the figure was 63 per cent. Hence picking up points at […]

By Brian Sears 24 November 2011 As Swansea City’s manager Brendan Rodgers starts talks about a new contract, analysis by Sportingintelligence shows that Swansea and their fellow promoted teams in the Premier League – QPR and Norwich – each have at least a 76 per cent chance of survival this season, based on their decent […]

By Sportingintelligence 23 November 2011 Uefa has welcomed a decision by the Ukrainian authorities to make attempts to prohibit the killing of stray dogs in the country in the run-up to Euro 2012. As the Uefa article linked here says: ‘Uefa has acknowledged the measures announced by the government of Ukraine to immediately stop and […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 23 November 2011 Manchester City’s 2-1 defeat last night at Napoli means their Champions League destiny is no longer in their own hands. Bayern Munich, the current leaders of Group A, visit the Etihad Stadium a fortnight today but City know even if they beat […]

By Sportingintelligence  22 November 2011 Borussia Dortmund’s manager Juergen Klopp has dismissed stories that his brilliant 19-year-old German international attacking midfielder Mario Goetze could be on his way to Arsenal for £30m in January as ‘a media issue’. In an interview with the Sport1 website in his native country, Klopp said: “No one just buys […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 22 November 2011 Manchester City’s accounts for 2010-11, which were published last week and showed a world record annual loss for a football club of £194.9m, also revealed that City had net transfer spend of £53.6m over the summer. That was net outlay on Sergio […]

By Brian Sears 18 November 2011 The Premier League’s long-time elite quartet of Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea are under ongoing threat from Manchester City, Tottenham and even Newcastle (TBC), but ‘Big Four’ games still fascinate. And on Sunday we have the  234th such contest in the Premier League’s history when Chelsea meet Liverpool […]

By Nick Harris  SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 15 November 2011 The untimely death at the weekend of the former cricketer and writer Peter Roebuck, who took his own life by jumping from the sixth floor of a Cape Town hotel on Saturday night, has again prompted debate about the apparently high prevalence of […]