* WHEN GFH Capital, a Dubai arm of Bahrain-based bank GFH, bought Leeds United in December 2012, executives including Salem Patel appeared on national television to assure the fans his company had the funds to take Leeds places. Patel said on the BBC (link here for video): “We wouldn’t have bought this club if we didn’t […]

By Simon Austin 1 February 2014 Prospective Leeds owner Massimo Cellino claims he had “no choice” but to sack manager Brian McDermott. The controversial Italian businessman has placed former Middlesbrough and Portsmouth defender Gianluca Festa in charge for today’s derby at Elland Road against Huddersfield. Cellino, 57, is close to taking a 75 per cent […]

By Duncan Castles 26 November 2013 The managing director of Leeds United, David Haigh, hopes to be named as Tory party candidate for Northampton South at the 2015 General Election, his spokesman has confirmed. The development will raise questions from some Leeds fans over the medium-term intentions of Haigh at Elland Road, and over the […]

By Janine Self 24 October 2012 First, a scene-setter. One jumbo-sized sofa (red), one TV studio, one journalist-broadcaster-author with a vision. Despite Boris Johnson’s nudge-wink post-Olympic speech, the BT Life’s a Pitch sofa tends not to witness too much in the way of paroxysms of tears and joy. But, thanks to Michael Calvin, a whole […]

By Brian Sears 15 August 2012 So the Olympic Games are over and football is facing the inevitable brickbats that will come its way ahead of the new season, which begins in England on Saturday. Of course the beautiful game can learn things from London 2012 and the Olympics as a whole, but let’s not […]

By Brian Sears 17 February 2012  A blank Premier League weekend leaves a statistician with no top-flight matches to get statistically steamed up about. No goals will be scored, and none conceded as England’s top level takes a break for the FA Cup. Don’t get me wrong, I know all too well that football exists outside of […]

By Sportingintelligence 24 August 2011 Any Leeds United fans still upset at their club’s owner, Ken Bates, for calling protestors ‘morons’ last week, won’t be cheered by new research that shows their club has the highest ticket prices in the Championship. As the table below shows, the cheapest regular adult season ticket at Elland Road […]

By Brian Sears 4 August 2011 With a new campaign in the Football League set to start on Friday as Hull host Blackpool, the  season of guessing football league table outcomes is upon us. And according to a sportingintelligence ‘pedigree’ analysis of clubs in the Championship, history says West Ham are favourites to go up, […]

Brought to you in association with the UK Concrete Show (“The whole of the concrete industry under one roof!“) . By Martin Kelner 18 July 2016 I was listening to a ‘phone-in on local radio the other day, the thrust of which was, “Where are you going on your holidays this year?” It’s the kind of […]

By Martin Kelner                   Brought to you in association with concrete! 16 May 2016 The BBC breathed a sigh of relief when the White Paper on its future was published the other day, and instead of the threatened sanctions – Strictly Come Dancing to be scheduled at […]