Football

By Nick Harris 18 February 2010 Portsmouth’s application today for dispensation to sell players outside the transfer window appears likely to succeed, sportingintelligence understands. The troubled Premier League club, which has debts of £60m and faces the imminent prospect of administration, asked the League for permission to sell players to stave off threat of extinction. […]

By Nick Harris 16 February 2010 The identity of the Premier League football club that has expressed an interest in buying an Indian Premier League cricket franchise will be revealed when the tender process opens next month according to a BBC report, although the IPL’s commissioner, Lalit Modi, has told sportingintelligence by email this afternoon […]

15 February The Premier League is considering introducing a play-off to determine which team is awarded the fourth Champions League slot. As things stand, the top four in the division qualify automatically for the next season’s Champions League. No changes will be made for at least three years: the 2010-13 TV rights have already been […]

By Nick Harris 10 February 2010 Fears that Portsmouth would today become the first Premier League club ever to enter administration while being an active member of English football’s elite have abated, just slightly, after they were given a seven-day stay of execution by the High Court to sort out their financial affairs. The club’s […]

5 February Football’s world governing body, Fifa, has given its reaction to the news that Chelsea and Lens have settled their dispute over the poaching of Gaël Kakuta in 2007. A statement on Fifa’s website says that Fifa “always actively encourages clubs to try to resolve disputes by means of amicable settlements rather than litigation”. […]

4 February 2010 Portsmouth’s farcical season took another twist today with the news that the club has its fourth different owner of the 2009-10 season. That means the number of owners in the current campaign is now equal to the total number of wins in the league. Pompey began the season under the ownership of […]

By Nick Harris 4 February 2010 Chelsea have today been cleared of wrongdoing by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over the 2007 signing of Gaël Kakuta from Lens in France after the clubs reached an unspecified “agreement” over the player’s move. To reach this conclusion and avoid the case dragging on, Chelsea paid an undisclosed […]

By Nick Harris 2 February 2010 Liverpool’s Spirit of Shankly supporters’ union, which has been campaigning to oust the club’s American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, has today released minutes of a meeting with the club’s managing director, Christian Purslow, that are likely to have an incendiary effect at Anfield, that expose the club’s […]

By Nick Harris 1 February 2010 Britain needs a multi-sport anti-corruption unit with wide-ranging powers to tackle the threat of betting-related malpractice, according to a substantial government-commissioned report, published today. The Sports Betting Intelligence Unit, which will be based at the Gambling Commission if it comes to fruition, has been proposed by Rick Parry, the […]

By Nick Harris 31 January 2010 In a development that will have huge positive financial consequences for the elite of European football, including the biggest clubs in the Premier League,  the Champions’ League final has overtaken the Super Bowl as the most popular televised event in global club sport. (NB: club sport). An influential report, […]