Live Football

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/68274?ns=guardianpageName=Football%3A+New+moves+to+control+teenage+transfersch=Footballc3=The+Guardianc4=Football%2CSportc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Matt+Scottc7=2008_12_05c8=1129280c9=articlec10=GUc11=Footballc12=c13=c14=h2=GU%2FFootball%2F” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpFifa has drawn up a new set of controls limiting the transfer of teenagers. From January 1 all international transfers involving players under the age of 18 would first require the approval of a committee that will investigate the circumstances of the move./ppExisting rules state that players may only move in the event of their families relocating for non-football reasons but clubs are getting round the regulations with job offers for parents, something the committee will seek to stamp out. With several unauthorised academies springing up in African and Asian territories, which have in effect set up a market in the traffic of youngsters, Fifa has also taken steps to bring them under its jurisdiction by requiring them to register as clubs within football-association structures. “An awareness campaign director at minors’ countries of origin will [also] be launched, to draw the attention of public authorities, parents and minors to the social dangers posed by the issue of minors in football today,” said the Fifa directive./ppFurther discussion will also be held with the international players’ union, Fifpro, over the introduction of an obligation for 16-year-olds to sign contracts lasting five years, 17-year-olds four years and 18-year-olds three years. That would ensure developing clubs retain transfer rights over their players for longer./ph2A whole new ball game/h2pThe Premier League has advertised its invitation to tender for the next domestic broadcast-rights deal, from season 2010-11 to 2012-13. The league hopes interest from the US broadcast giant ESPN will help retain competition for domestic rights, which achieved pound;2.1bn from Sky and Setanta for the current deal. Its late withdrawal from the bidding process for Bundesliga rights might suggest a pooling of resources for a fresh Premier League bid. The tender will allow broadcasters to show football on new broadband products. Sky launched yesterday access to its Sky Player internet service to subscribers who do not have satellite dishes and ESPN has invested in its internet presence./ph2Gold at a price/h2pGordon Brown’s commitment to the so-called “golden decade” of sport will meet its sternest test as the International Rugby Board seeks pound;80m in financial guarantees to underwrite England’s bid for the 2015 Rugby World Cup. The IRB’s chief executive, Mike Miller, told the sports minister, Gerry Sutcliffe, and the Rugby Football Union’s chief executive, Francis Baron, at a meeting on Wednesday that it has such government guarantees - an insurance policy for ticket sales - from South Africa, Italy and Russia. Some 2.25m tickets were sold in 2007 in France and England’s hosting would be similarly popular. However, one conundrum facing the government would be that, with live bids for the 2018 World Cup of football and the 2019 Cricket World Cup, other sports’ governing bodies might seek similar or more expensive guarantees if it meets the IRB’s demand./ph2Blowing the whistle/h2pBrian Mawhinney has evicted the British National Party’s publications offshoot from its rented offices. Lord Mawhinney, the Football League chairman, discovered that the BNP had been trading for two months under the name Excalibur in premises belonging to Evans Easyspace, one of the companies he serves as a director, and immediately turned them out. “When it was discovered that it was just a cover for the BNP the lease was terminated,” said Mawhinney./pa href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a
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Original post by Matt Scott

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/38253?ns=guardianpageName=Football%3A+Backstreet+borrowing+and+a+fall-back+for+clubsch=Footballc3=The+Guardianc4=Premier+League+%28Football%29%2CFootball%2CSportc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CPremier+Leaguec6=Matt+Scottc7=2008_12_04c8=1128458c9=articlec10=GUc11=Footballc12=Premier+Leaguec13=c14=h2=GU%2FFootball%2FPremier+League” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpPremier League clubs have been “reminded of their obligations to each other” in a circular letter demanding that transfer debts are honoured in full./ppIn a microcosm of the mistrust that led to the credit crunch among banks, the memo could spark panic among clubs who suspect each other of being unable to pay up what they owe. /ppThe league said yesterday the letter had been issued to its members in a “proactive stance”. The league claims it is being pre-emptive in case “difficult economic times” lead to some pleading poverty and failing to pay their bills./ppBut some clubs believe the league has been asked to act by one of its members. “It is implicit in the contract and terms of participation in the league that you honour your debts,” said one insider. “It looks like there have been complaints.”/ppSeveral clubs have been relying on niche lenders, backed by private equity or hedge funds, to finance their transfer activity. By paying only a proportion of a transfer fee in cash, the balance has been made up by borrowing from the backstreet lender. Whether lenders will survive the financial crisis is unclear - if they don’t, football clubs are in trouble. /ppBut the league is likely to avert a January transfer crunch with central guarantees. If clubs appeal in the case of defaults, the league will ensure debts are honoured by paying up out of the indebted club’s central revenues./ph2Johnson safe bet for bid/h2pThe position of strength from which the World Cup 2018 bid’s acting chief operating officer, Simon Johnson, is working will become even clearer next week. Johnson, who is expected to be confirmed in the role after interviewing candidates for other positions this week, will travel to Japan with David Triesman, the Football Association and bid-company chairman. /ppSo trusted is he, despite the messy row with Jamaica’s football federation he was involved in, that he will take in Manchester United’s participation in the World Club Cup. The new 2018 bid chief executive, Andy Anson, will be unavailable while he works his notice with the Association of Tennis Professionals./ph2Ticket touts’ 2012 pay day/h2pSports fans may have to seek out touts to get a look-in for tickets at London 2012, following the International Olympic Committee’s failure to investigate the source of thousands of tickets that reached the black market in Beijing. /ppAn abiding memory of Beijing was the swaths of empty seats after the Chinese authorities clamped down on the scalpers. The IOC’s executive director, Gilbert Felli, admitted “a risk” that tickets given to National Olympic Committees had reached the black market. But when twice pressed by this column Felli refused even to discuss holding internal investigations of the easily traceable provenance of tickets. /ph2Doping data under fire/h2pAlthough Michel Platini’s plans gained the most attention from last week’s sports ministers’ meeting in Biarritz, he was politely listened to and then broadly ignored. The man who received the most attention was the World Anti-Doping Agency’s president, John Fahey. /ppThe ministers were highly exercised by their opposition to Wada’s data-protection protocols, feeling they do not come close to European standards - hardly surprising when Scott MacLeod’s name was dragged through the mud for failing a testosterone test, despite being innocent./ph2Test duck out/h2pThe England and Wales Cricket Board has been told by its insurers there is no requirement even to increase premiums for the India tour since the security advice for travel has changed only for Mumbai as a result of the recent terrorist strikes. /ppHowever, England’s reportedly vacillating cricketers cannot be obliged to commit to the Test element of the India tour under the terms of their central contract. That is because the central agreement for future Tests has not been signed amid difficulties in agreeing kit manufacturers’ rights. /ppAt a particularly sensitive time for Anglo-Indian relations the ECB insists that the players’ participation in the Indian Premier League has not been a paradoxical obstacle to the negotiations. But whatever the case, the players will not suffer long-term contractual difficulties if they refuse to travel. Due to the inconclusive negotiations they would be engaged on a pro-rata, Test-by-Test basis./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/premierleague”Premier League/a/li/ul/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a
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Original post by Matt Scott

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/65384?ns=guardianpageName=Sport%3A+MacLeod+may+sue+UK+Sport+over+drugs+debaclech=Sportc3=The+Guardianc4=Sport%2CRugby+union%2CScotland+rugby+union+team%2CHorse+racing%2CEngland+football+team%2CWorld+Cup+2018+%28Football%29%2CFootball%2COlympic+games+2012+%28News%29%2CUK+news%2CBBC%2CITV%2CChannel+4%2CMediac5=Football+World+Cup%2CRugby+Union%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CMedia+Weekly%2CHorse+Racing%2CTelevision+Media%2COlympic+Gamesc6=Matt+Scottc7=2008_12_03c8=1127847c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sportc12=Rugby+unionc13=c14=h2=GU%2FSport%2FRugby+union” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpWhile UK Sport considers how to apportion its funding for the Olympics in 2012, there could be a new threat to its budget. Advisers for Scott MacLeod, the Scotland rugby union lock, are considering whether to push for legal action against UK Sport if its liability can be established in a drugs-testing fiasco./ppMacLeod was unavailable for the autumn Tests and suspended from playing for his club after tests found he had high levels of testosterone in his system. The results were made public, and MacLeod was out of the game for several weeks. He was, however, entirely innocent of the charges./ppThe test results had been warped by high levels of alcohol in his bloodstream after a night out celebrating his wife’s pregnancy. Despite precedents suggesting that alcohol could have an effect on the outcome of tests, it was not until the second “B” sample was analysed that UK Sport investigated the possible alcohol link. It says it was following the World Anti-Doping Agency’s procedures. But MacLeod’s advisers are seeking counsel as to whether UK Sport can be pursued for damages after his loss of earnings and reputation. UK Sport has insurance against litigation, but without details of any claim is unable to gauge if it would be covered against action from MacLeod./ppSmall wonder, with a new anti-doping code being introduced by Wada next year, that the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne expects more than this year’s record of nearly 300 cases./ph2Jockeying for position/h2pWith both the BBC and ITV seeking heads of sport in the new year it will be musical chairs in the television sports industry at exactly the time the squeeze begins to be applied to sports-rights budgets. The word is that Channel 4 is set to end its coverage of racing after the current contract ends in 2010, effectively closing down its sports department. That has made its head, Andrew Thompson, a prime candidate to take over at the BBC. Setanta’s director of sport, Trevor East, and Geoff Hill, a former ITN News at Ten editor who set up the Setanta Sports News channel, are both in the frame for the ITV role. /ph2Irate of the Caribbean/h2pSimon Johnson, the acting chief operating officer of England’s bid company for the 2018 football World Cup, appears certain to get the job full-time. Johnson was a central figure in the chaos in the Caribbean earlier this year that overshadowed preparations for the 2018 bid. The Jamaica Football Federation understood that Johnson had pledged pound;135,000 of Football Association funds towards a youth-training facility, something the FA later furiously denied. The ensuing transatlantic row required all the diplomacy of the FA chairman, David Triesman, to smooth over yet Johnson has since become a trusted lieutenant in the bid team. Although he has yet to be confirmed in the operating-officer role, Johnson has been part of the four-person panel interviewing candidates for jobs this week./ppstrongWho is the Stig?/strong/ppIn a shameless attempt to boost sales among petrol-heads, the front page of yesterday’s Daily Telegraph used the banner “Boris Johnson: My Top Gear Revelation” with a picture of the London mayor shaking hands with Top Gear’s Stig. Inevitably, Johnson declined to out the Stig, describing him merely as “a mysterious white-uniformed driver whose visor is never lifted”. So, like the Tel, this column will also exploit the Stig’s mystique in a cynical attempt to gain readers. It is widely known that Top Gear parted company with Perry McCarthy, a former minor formula one driver, after he exposed himself, although not in the John Barrowman sense. Ben Collins, a former NASCAR driver, was later revealed by the Health and Safety Executive as Top Gear’s “high-performance driver” in a report into the Richard Hammond crash of 2006. Now Digger has been reliably informed by F1 sources that Heikki Kovalainen, left, took up the role during a Top Gear testing at Renault’s base. Cynical, yes, but it had you reading My Top Gear Revelation./pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion”Rugby union/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/scotlandrugbyunionteam”Scotland rugby union team/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/horseracing”Horse racing/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/england”England/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/worldcup2018″World Cup 2018/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/olympics2012″Olympic games 2012/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/bbc”BBC/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/ITV”ITV/a/lilia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/channel4″Channel 4/a/li/ul/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a
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Original post by Matt Scott

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/73534?ns=guardianpageName=Football%3A+FA%27s+leading+questions+not+answeredch=Footballc3=The+Guardianc4=Football%2CSportc5=Not+commercially+usefulc6=Matt+Scottc7=2008_11_27c8=1124758c9=articlec10=GUc11=Footballc12=c13=c14=h2=GU%2FFootball%2F” width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpLess than six months after unveiling its new staff-structure document Vision 2008-12, the Football Association pointlessly engaged the consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers to deliver a strategy for yet another potential shake-up of the executive team./ppRepresentatives of the world’s largest professional-services firm, which commands thousands of pounds in fees, held a detailed consultation over a number of months, individually interviewing board members for their opinion on how the FA should be led. The process provided three options for board members to approve./ppThey were for Lord Triesman to become an executive chairman alongside a weakened managing director, for an executive chair with chief operating officer or for a non-executive chairman with chief executive - the status quo outlined in V2008-12./ppTriesman protested in August that he has no ambitions to become an all-powerful executive chairman, but he is perceived as operating in precisely that role. Yet the path to that position being formalised was closed after the proposal was voted down 8-2. “If he had any ambitions at all for that he would feel they were totally dispelled on Monday,” said one board member./ppSo the process achieved nothing other than to raise big questions for the future of the highly regarded Alex Horne, appointed chief operating officer prior to the sacking of Brian Barwick. One option would be for Horne to receive his second promotion this year and to be installed as chief executive after applications closed last Friday./ph2Murray finds new track/h2pAlready famed for being a tennis obsessive, poring over stats and figures on his laptop every day, Andy Murray has a new passion. The world No4 has taken up the daily practice of racing 200 laps of the local go-karting track in Surbiton and is said to be every bit as competitive as he is on the court. /ph2Twenty20 sound check/h2pInternational Cricket Council inspectors have been in England this week to run the rule over preparations for the World Twenty20 tournament next year. The second Local Organising Committee takes place today with one item under discussion being the wiring-up of umpires and players. The ICC’s cricket committee is considering the introduction of microphones that have been so popular with viewers in the domestic tournament, although it harbours concerns that mics will be too distracting for players./ph2Tyler proves to be no flop/h2pDorothy Tyler, the only female athlete to win Olympic medals either side of the second world war, yesterday won a Sports Journalists Association award for her contribution to sport. The 88-year-old former high jumper has lost none of the feistiness that made her such a competitive 16-year-old: after pointing out that she would have won gold at London 1948 but for modern judging methods the Briton later called Dick Fosbury, also present and the man who won gold in the high jump at Mexico 1968, a “cheat” for his eponymous flop./ppThe SJA event, meanwhile, proved an even bigger lure for the Princess Royal than the International Olympic Committee’s Beijing debriefing in London. Princess Anne presented Rebecca Adlington, pictured, with her sportswoman of the year award but despite being one of the IOC’s most influential members, the royal has not found the time to attend any of its four-day meeting in London./ph2Too hot to handle/h2pWithnail and I fans may recognise the Whizzinator, but it may cost its inventors their liberty. The device, rather like the one made in the movie by Danny, a London hippy, is a prosthetic penis with an element to warm the urine. It was found to have been produced for the purpose of allowing athletes to dodge drug tests. It has been withdrawn from sale after three years on the market and producers, George Wills and Robert Catalano, have been convicted of two counts of conspiracy and face up to eight years in jail and a $500,000 fine. Heavy, man./pa href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a
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Original post by Matt Scott

divimg alt=”" src=”http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/19279?ns=guardianpageName=Sport%3A+Fifa+confusion+casts+doubt+over+World+Cup+bidsch=Sportc3=The+Guardianc4=Football%2CWorld+Cup+2018+%28Football%29%2CSportc5=Football+World+Cup%2CNot+commercially+usefulc6=Matt+Scottc7=2008_11_13c8=1117003c9=articlec10=GUc11=Sportc12=World+Cup+2018c13=c14=h2=GU%2FSport%2FWorld+Cup+2018″ width=”1″ height=”1″ //divpA senior Fifa executive yesterday admitted that even the world governing body does not know its terms of reference for the World Cup 2018 bid campaign./ppWhile England’s Football Association has been assembling its World Cup bid company executive, significant doubts were cast over Fifa’s plans for the bidding process at its executive committee meeting last month. Fifa had informed candidate nations that it intended to hold a dual tender for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments./ppBut with the vote set for March 2011, a quarter of the 24 executive committee members dissented against that itinerary, saying that to decide the destination of a tournament 11 years in advance was unjustifiable. Hans Klaus, Fifa’s public affairs director, said yesterday: “We will examine this very carefully. You have to have within Fifa two years for a proper briefing for the World Cup.”/ppOver the past two years the preparations have been for a double bid; it still might be, but no one knows for sure until a vote in Tokyo next month at the earliest. Even then it might be too soon: Fifa insiders warned that although it intends an official launch in Tokyo, the terms of reference might still not be ready until the new year./ppThat would put bidding nations’ strategies and political deals into disarray. A 2018 bid from the US would be expected to fail since Brazil is holding the 2014 tournament, similarly European nations will not win consecutive tournaments. But until nations know what they are bidding for there will be stalemate./ph2Political football/h2pAlthough Fifa mandarins are still getting their 2018 act together, one confederation president has made it fairly clear that the same old cloak-and-dagger processes will endure. “It doesn’t matter how bad your bid is, as long as you can convince 13 of 24 ex-co [executive committee] members to vote for you,” the powerbroker told this column, on condition of anonymity. Put that way, the question of how England’s 2018 bid board politicos (five of the eight declared directors are serving politicians) will open doors becomes critical. Final interviews will be held today and tomorrow for candidates to be the chief executive of the 2018 bid company. The FA hopes to announce its appointment before the month is out. /ph2Hans across the ocean/h2pThe CV of Fifa’s new communications chief, Hans Klaus, makes interesting reading. He led Swissair’s crisis-management team at the time of a plane crash over Halifax, Canada, set the public-affairs strategy for a tobacco conglomerate and previously ran the communications department of the Swiss director of prosecutions. With a Swiss court case ongoing into alleged corruption at its former media partner, ISL, could Klaus’s new employers be anticipating a crisis? When asked about the case yesterday, Klaus declined to comment./ph2Cash benefits/h2pFormula one paid $229.6m (pound;154m) in interest to service $2.4bn of bank loans last year. But although the sport’s holding company, Delta 3 (UK) Ltd, is heavily in debt, paradoxically the credit crunch on either side of the Atlantic could work in its favour. That is because the two banks who led the syndicate that provided the private-equity fund CVC Capital with the finance to take over formula one were the now part-nationalised Royal Bank of Scotland and the now-defunct Lehman Brothers. With the debt repackaged and sold on, administrators for Lehman admitted at the weekend that they do not yet know who owes what to whom. Formula one, the sport run by Bernie Ecclestone might find its obligations to the banks being reduced if the amount owed directly to Lehman can never be established. RBS sources have privately confirmed that after selling on much of this debt, the bank is left with pound;100m in loans to Delta 3. And as one RBS banker said: “If you owe your bank pound;100,000 you’re in trouble. If you owe it pound;100m it’s in trouble.”/pdiv style=”float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;”ullia href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/worldcup2018″World Cup 2018/a/li/ul/diva href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk”guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href=”http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html”Terms Conditions/a | a href=”http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html”More Feeds/a

Original post by Matt Scott

Anti-corruption investigations involving sports are suffering from a lack of expertise and effort, according to senior compliance officials.

The Gambling Commission was launched as the betting industry’s regulator in 2005 when cheating in sport became a criminal offence. It has 15 employees dedicated to intelligence-gathering and another 10 working in enforcement. Unlike the fight against doping, experience in a sports anti-corruption environment is at a premium - few of those working in the GC’s enforcement and intelligence departments have a sports background. “The GC are struggling for resources in the anti-corruption area,” said one source. Although there is high-profile involvement by the GC in investigations into unusual betting patterns for recent Accrington Stanley v Bury and Norwich City v Derby County matches, expectations of results are low.

Indeed the issue of sports cheating is less of a priority for the GC than money-laundering, and its primary function is to ensure bookmakers operate within licensing conditions. That has led to the majority of investigations into betting being referred back to governing bodies. “The GC still expect sports regulators to deal with their own issues,” said another senior compliance official, even though not all governing bodies have a strong anti-corruption record.

“If there are grounds to suspect an offence under the Gambling Act then the commission is likely to become further involved,” said a GC spokesman. “In such cases the GC will examine whether we have adequate resources or sufficient powers to effectively pursue the matter or if it is more appropriate for the police.”

Racing row rumbles on

Horseracing authorities believe the bookmakers’ arguments during negotiations over the 2009-10 levy will work in the sport’s favour as the dispute about future awards rumbles on. Bookies have demanded more fixtures in the racing calendar, given the centrality of the sport to their business models. But in turn the British Horseracing Authority wants some call on profits from the fixed-odds terminals in betting shops, arguing that racing is the sport that attracts punters into bookmakers in the first place.

The BHA will also seek a share of revenue from overseas racing fixtures and a greater share of betting exchanges’ profits. Bookmakers will plead poverty after being ordered by the courts to pay for the coverage of racing by Turf TV, a channel owned by the courses. Although the layers’ latest payment to the sport was agreed a week ago, Sir Philip Otton is conducting a review of the issues involved in future levy negotiations. The former appeals court judge will offer his advice to the levy board next month.

Don’t rely on prince

For all David Beckham’s allure as a vice-president of the 2018 World Cup bid company, the ace in the pack is Prince William, the president of the bid company and of the Football Association. But at a meeting of the princes’ charity forum at Clarence House last month FA delegates were told not to expect him to become a 2018 globe-trotter. Next year the prince will be in training as a search-and-rescue pilot and is unlikely to be able to commit to any events.

Olympic staff costs rise

Staff costs on the Government Olympic Executive reached £4.67m in the 2007-8 financial year, up from the £3.85m spent over the previous two years, and the head count at the GOE and Olympic Delivery Authority has risen 10% after further recruitment since September.

But in response to a written question from the Liberal Democrats’ culture spokesman, Don Foster, the Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, admitted the government had still found cause to spend another £2.5m over the past three years on external consultancies.

Closer inspection might give rise to questions such as why, when the CV of the ODA’s chief executive, David Higgins, includes constructing the Sydney 2000 Olympic village and aquatics centre, £44,146 of taxpayers’ money should go to the Australian company TFG International for “provision of best-practice advice from the Sydney Olympics”.

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Original post by Matt Scott

Arsenal’s property division intends to pay back £133.5m in loans within eight months but club directors insist that commitment will not affect January transfer budgets.

The Gunners’ title challenge has failed to materialise so far this year and they look in dire need of investment in the squad. Fans looking for succour in the club’s accounts would be alarmed to discover an enormous liability. “Bank loans of £133.5m are categorised as creditors falling due within one year on the basis of their expected repayment profile,” note the accounts to the end of May 2008.

Arsenal’s directors claim the debt is “ring-fenced” from their football-club operation and does not actually need to be repaid in full until January 2010. Instead the repayments will be funded by ongoing sales of the 680 flats at the Highbury Square old-stadium development. Shareholders were told at the club’s AGM last month that 100 of 136 pre-sold flats had reached completion, giving Arsenal’s property division almost £40m of the £133.5m that they intend to repay before the end of May. But, although independent valuers recently confirmed the club’s valuations as reasonable, the property market continues to slide and there are no guarantees that buyers will not walk away from their deposits in the future.

“The achievement of these sales may be affected by the current downturn in the UK property market and the difficult conditions in the mortgage lending sector,” said Arsenal’s chairman, Peter Hill-Wood. “The Group is monitoring the position closely.”

Smoke signal for Arnesen

As speculation mounts over the future of Frank Arnesen at Chelsea, perhaps his position would be strengthened if he made clear to his employers that he is now a non-smoker. The club’s owner, Roman Abramovich, has pointed out to senior club colleagues that he disapproves of the habit, to the extent that he even remarked on an old picture of Arnesen in which he was celebrating a triumph with a cigarette that he “liked the trophy but didn’t like the cigarette”. While Chelsea’s chairman, Bruce Buck, has commented that Arnesen likes an early-morning cigarette, the Danish director of football development insisted yesterday that he has given up.

New door opens for BBC

The BBC may have declined to bid for the rights to broadcast England matches but cricket will not be absent from its output for too much longer. The corporation will be able to show England matches while getting round its stormy relationship with the England and Wales Cricket Board by holding negotiations over the ICC World Twenty20 directly with the International Cricket Council’s broadcast partner, ESPN Star Sports (ESS). The tournament is to be held in England next May and the BBC are seen as prime movers in trying to get some coverage of the event. ESS’s syndication in the UK of the Champions Twenty20 League in India next month, a tournament involving England’s T20 champions, Middlesex might prove trickier. One senior broadcast source said it was “asking for too much money” after striking an $850m (£539m), 10-year deal to broadcast the event with its co-owners at the Indian, Australian and South African national cricket boards. Only four weeks remain before the start and no UK broadcaster has yet been signed up. A spokesman for ESS could not be reached yesterday.

Warning hit Charlton bid

Zabeel Investments were frightened away from a takeover of Charlton amid a storm of protest at foreign ownership. Only two days after the Dubai-based investment company announced its “indicative bid” for the club, the Football Association’s chairman, David Triesman, warned that “club owners, whether English or foreign, have to cherish the history of clubs and their unique place in their communities”. Zabeel took this as a deterrent. “All of a sudden it opened up a Pandora’s box,” the company’s executive chairman, Mohammed Al-Hashimi, said yesterday. “We are used to doing things under the radar.”

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Original post by Matt Scott

Chelsea’s decision to “restructure” their scouting network comes less than a month after the club’s chairman, Bruce Buck, told a conference of the game’s executives that scouts are an integral part of a modern football business.

The Premier League leaders have lost 15 of their 35 scouting staff but insisted on Sunday that the move had long been planned and has nothing to do with the credit crunch that has decimated the wealth of most Russian oligarchs. But how does that sit with a presentation at Stamford Bridge last month in which Buck and the director of football development, Frank Arnesen, extolled the virtues of their scouting network?

“[We now have a] scouting network,” said Buck on October 8. “Before that most of the interest was generated by players’ agents and that is definitely not the way to go.”

It is hard to see where Arnesen’s scouts have gone wrong. As he pointed out, on his arrival in 2005 only six of the 50 players on Chelsea’s books aged between 16 and 20 were internationals. Today 40 of the 50 are, and half of them are English. “The recruitment of a scouting network is the most important thing at a club,” he said.

A representative of the club’s owner, Roman Abramovich, insisted that unlike many of his Russian peers he has personally been unaffected by the financial crisis. But on October 9 Buck admitted: “The credit crunch will definitely have an impact on Chelsea, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but we have to keep it in mind.”

Could the “restructuring” just possibly be linked?

A spokesman for Chelsea could not be reached yesterday.

Risky business

If Chelsea face a large payout in bonuses this year - as their ever-more-convincing title challenge suggests they will - then winning trophies could paradoxically end up being more expensive than being the multiple runners-up they were last year. No surprise, then, that in the financial downturn clubs and sports organisations are increasingly turning to a new financial services model to reduce their liability in the event of success. Risk-management companies offer clubs and sports organisations such as football associations the chance to “hedge” their exposure to the multimillion-pound bonus payments players are due in return for on-the-pitch success. A pre-season payment to the risk manager insures the club against success. It is not known if Arsenal have this year wasted their money in this way.

Mapping out the money

Minor sports such as orienteering and waterskiing face losing hundreds of thousands of pounds in financial support from UK Sport as it seeks savings in the downturn. UKS looks like suffering a shortfall of up to £79m in external funding and at a board meeting on December 2 will look at where it can cut costs. No decisions have yet been made but waterskiing’s £220,000 grant and orienteering’s £200,000 appear hard to justify for the Olympic medal-winners’ funding body. So too repeats of the £750,000 paid to host junior rugby world championships in 2007 and 2008.

Ross before wickets?

BBC Sport’s decision to pour an estimated £2.35m a race in to its coverage of formula one from next year appears good value when compared to 3Jonathan Ross’s nearly £6m-a-year contract. Even when the F1 deal equates to £200m over five years - a figure the BBC disputes, although it refuses to reveal the true amount - the price does not seem too steep when Lewis Hamilton’s traction is considered. ITV yesterday revealed audiences for the Brazilian grand prix at Interlagos, where Hamilton clinched his world title on Sunday, and its figures suggest it has left the sport at the wrong time. A staggering 8.8m viewers watched the entire race, with a peak audience of 13.1m. They were the second-highest sports-viewing figures this year after the Champions League final between Chelsea and Manchester United at 10m-14.6m. ITV sacrificed F1 for Champions League coverage but, Stanford Series notwithstanding, sports fans might think the BBC has miscalculated over cricket. Wossie’s £16.9m, three-year deal would have bought four years of England highlights.

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Original post by Matt Scott

The Football Association chairman, David Triesman, faces a grilling from his own board at Soho Square today over how he intends to deal with the £135,000 debt the FA is owed by the Jamaica Football Federation.

The Guardian revealed last week that a row has broken out between the JFF and the FA over the two-year-old debt, which relates to unpaid fees for match tickets given at cost to Jamaica supporters before their 6-0 defeat by England in June 2006. The row could threaten England’s chances of winning the Caribbean block of votes in its bid to host the 2018 World Cup.

The JFF’s president, Captain Horace Burrell, says he believed the FA would commute the debt into a grant towards a youth-training facility after dialogue with the then director of corporate affairs, Simon Johnson. Negotiations extended as far as the JFF offering Johnson the opportunity to put the FA crest on the facility and an invitation for Triesman to attend the opening ceremony.

Now Sir Dave Richards, chairman of the Premier League and one of the FA’s two vice-chairmen, is set to raise the issue as an extra-agenda item at today’s board meeting. There will be calls for an inquiry into the affair, with board members seeking an explanation as to how Johnson, who is now the acting chief operating officer for the 2018 bid, was permitted to enter into discussions about how the debt would be handled.

Johnson was in Jamaica in March while on a trip to the Caribbean to announce England’s participation in Trinidad & Tobago’s centennial celebrations. The FA board was at no point advised of the discussions Johnson held on the issue, to the frustration of some of its members.

“I’d be very unhappy that that’s gone on,” said one FA board member, who had been unaware that the talks had taken place. “I’d like to know what Lord Triesman has done to resolve the matter,” said another member.

So far Lord Triesman has stood behind Johnson in the dispute. In a statement issued last week, to which the chairman was party, the FA claimed Johnson made no promises to Burrell over the training centre. “Burrell raised the issue with Johnson during a Jamaica v Trinidad fixture while Johnson was in the Concacaf [the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football] region to announce England’s match with Trinidad & Tobago in June,” read the statement.

“At no time did Johnson make any promise that any training facility built in Jamaica would be funded with the outstanding debt. While we acknowledge that the subject was raised by the JFF and discussed, Johnson did make clear that in any event any proposals from the JFF for such a facility would need to be discussed and ratified by the FA board.”

Burrell confirmed to the Guardian that Johnson had said the matter would have to receive boardroom approval but stated that he had added that the proposals “would be signed off at a meeting towards the end of the year and that it was only a matter of protocol”.

The Caribbean will be an influential region in voting for the World Cup bid, where Jack Warner, president of Concacaf, effectively controls three votes. Warner, who is also a Fifa vice-president, is said to be monitoring developments through the JFF, having taken a close interest in the FA’s decision to report its debt to Fifa and force the JFF to repay the £135,000 “in full” without further exploration of the youth-training-centre proposal.

United given timely boost

Manchester United’s commercial team have given some relief to their heavily indebted American owners in the midst of the credit crisis. With uncertainty surrounding the £14m-a-year title sponsorship deal with AIG after the US insurer’s part-nationalisation last month, a multimillion-pound sponsorship unveiled on the Old Trafford pitch last night came as comfort - the Swiss watchmaker Hublot will become the club’s official timekeeper. Most important for the Glazer family will be the £4m which the deal will add to United’s bottom line over the next four years.

Murdoch’s Olympic gain

Rupert Murdoch is set to smash the European Broadcasting Union’s grip on the Olympic Games after two of his News Corporation pay-TV subsidiaries bought the rights to the 2014 and 2016 events. Sky Italia has taken over rights for the winter and summer Olympics on all broadcast and digital platforms in Italy after Rai Uno pulled out of coverage. Fox television has a similar deal in Turkey, meaning two pay-TV outlets have been handed Olympics rights in key European markets. The biggest winner from the deal will be the International Olympic Committee, which after decades of seeking a wider reach for its events through free-to-air television is aiming to maximise broadcast revenues.

No patience in 2012 row

London 2012’s chief executive, Paul Deighton, came under fire yesterday over the cost of the Greenwich Park venue for the equestrian events. Deighton, speaking at a General Electric event to promote the 2012 legacy, visibly bridled at a demand from the British Olympic Association advisory-board member Patience Wheatcroft for the dressage and cross-country events to be moved away from the world heritage site. “Do we really need to spend many millions on Greenwich Park when there are perfectly serviceable locations elsewhere?” asked Wheatcroft, a former editor of the Sunday Telegraph. To which Deighton snapped back: “Patience mentioned Greenwich. How much taxpayers’ money is going into that project? None. Thank you.”

Seven steps to London

Deighton lightened up enough to recount to the audience at the legacy meeting a tale he had been told by Sydney 2000’s organisers about the “seven stages” of hosting an Olympics. First, he said, comes the Exhilaration of winning the bid, whereupon Reality sets in. Then comes the Disillusionment, followed by the Search For The Guilty and the Persecution Of The Innocent. Then there is History’s Most Spectacular Olympics and the Glorification Of The Uninvolved. “You cannot imagine how we will break the record on that,” joked Deighton.

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Original post by Matt Scott

Tottenham Hotspur’s appointment of Kevin Bond as assistant manager to Harry Redknapp yesterday is a source of potential embarrassment.

Bond is pursuing a libel action against the BBC for its depiction of him in the Panorama programme Undercover: Football’s Dirty Secrets, broadcast in September 2006. The case is going to court with a two-week trial set for next June at the Queen’s Bench division of the high court.

A secretly recorded conversation between Bond and an undercover reporter when he was Redknapp’s assistant manager at Portsmouth was central to the programme. Within hours of the broadcast Bond’s solicitor announced that he would sue for libel.

At the time of the broadcast Bond was working as Newcastle United’s assistant manager but was soon sacked, leading to a wrongful-dismissal claim for more than £250,000.

Court papers in that case stated Newcastle’s defence that Bond “was recorded in his words [in the Panorama programme] agreeing to consider being a part of a dishonest arrangement with third parties which included the receipt of unlawful payments by him”.

Bond’s claim against Newcastle had been that: “The BBC obtained no evidence that [he] had ever received or solicited any corrupt payment in relation to any transfer or otherwise.”

That claim was settled out of court but details of the settlement have never been disclosed.

A spokesman for Tottenham said Bond’s libel claim was “a private matter”.

Deal or no deal

The £5m compensation clause in the contract, which was the trigger that led to Harry Redknapp, pictured below, switching Fratton for White Hart Lane within 24 hours of the first contact, could be illegal. One senior sports lawyer who is a frequent dealmaker in player and managerial transfers said the courts could construe such buy-out fees as a “penalty” clause, meaning they are “of dubious legality”. But they are commonplace and in cases where both parties want a swift agreement, as was the case this weekend, the arrangement is a useful tool. And for all the legal technicalities, the courts would only intervene if one or other of those involved lodged a complaint.

Lady not for turning

Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith has spoken for the first time about her 15.9% stake in Arsenal, insisting she has “never considered selling it”. Despite the so-called “lock-down agreement” tying the shareholder-directors together, Bracewell-Smith has widely been rumoured as the weak link among a number of smaller shareholders who between them own approaching 50% of the club. At current market prices Bracewell-Smith’s shares would raise about £80m - and in the event of a hostile takeover there could be a significant premium. But apparently the Lady’s not for turning. “We’ve never had a rich benefactor,” she said.

Gillett borrowing time

Liverpool’s American co-owners have come under fire for the huge debt they accrued in their leveraged buyout of the club. But George Gillett told a conference last week there is nothing to prevent the Premier League leaders borrowing more for transfer market activity. He said that “unlike at least two other Premier League clubs” his does not have a banking covenant under its deals with RBS and Wachovia restricting debts for player acquisitions. Gillett did not go as far as to name who those rivals are, though frugal Arsenal, with their £400m of stadium debt, might be suspected. Even so, perhaps Gillett’s post-speech meeting with two representatives of HSBC bank should be seen in the context of his pride at the freedom to keep on borrowing.

Burden’s Foundation role

The Football Association’s Roger Burden will take over as the Football Foundation’s chair for what is hoped to be the only meeting before a permanent successor to the departing Sir Dave Richards is chosen. Peter McCormick, the sports lawyer who has been a regular tribunals panellist for the Premier League, also joins the board alongside Sport England’s Phil Smith.

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Original post by Matt Scott