By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 7 June 2012 WHEN Manchester United announced last week that they had 659 million followers and are thus “the most popular club in the most popular sport in the world”, the figures were met with widespread scepticism, even derision. But I can only speak for […]

By Sportingintelligence 5 June 2012 As this website revealed last month in our annual global sports salaries survey (click here for more), Barcelona are the world’s best paid sports team by average first-team salary, at £5.2m per player per year each. We have also depicted the salary spreads in each of the 14 featured leagues […]

* By Sportingintelligence 31 May 2012 So Brendan Rodgers will succeed Kenny Dalglish as the manager of Liverpool, becoming the 19th different person to hold that job on a permanent basis since 1892. He inherits the reigns at the club in English football with more ‘major’ trophies than any other club: 41 of them. For […]

. By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 29 May 2012 . With 10 days to go until the start of Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, the 16 competing nations confirmed their 23-man squads to Uefa on Tuesday. Links to those squads on the Uefa website are here. Sportingintelligence has analysed […]

By Alex Miller 28 May 2012 The results of new research into every significant injury suffered by every Premier League footballer in the 2011-12 season reveal that Manchester City came out as clear winners in the injury league – suffering fewer major problems than any other side. The data has been compiled by analysts at […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 27 May 2012   An abbreviated version of this feature appeared in the Mail on Sunday (see scan at bottom, online link here).   AT THE end of Roman Abramovich’s nine-year wait for the biggest prize in global club football, Chelsea’s billionaire owner went down […]

By Steve Menary 22 May 2012 It seems almost certain now that the number of Welshman ever to have played Olympic football for Great Britain will double or treble this summer – from two in total at present since 1908 to five, six or even seven. The Welsh have been the worst represented of the […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 21 May 2012 With the start of Euro 2012 less than three weeks away, with a big-match penalty shootout fresh in the memory from the 2012 Champions League final, and with the virtual certainty that one or more matches in Poland and Ukraine will go […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 15 May 2012 Manchester City sealed the 2011-12 Premier League title in the most dramatic fashion on Sunday, and now know the precise financial reward for the season from Premier League central funds: £60,602,289. The massive sums on offer for simply being a member of […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 14 May 2012 Money has helped to fuel success as long as the English football league has existed – so that’s about 124 years. So while saying that Manchester City bought the 2011-12 Premier League title is true (they would not have done it without […]