* By Nick Harris 31 January 2011 . Chelsea have this evening announced their latest massive financial losses, £70.9m for the year to June 2010. This year’s comical headline on the official announcement was ‘Chelsea becomes cash positive’, above an article about Chelsea’s confidence at meeting Uefa’s financial fair play criteria. Here is a summary […]

By Nick Harris 31 January 2011 Spending by the 20 clubs of the Premier League has hit a record level for a January transfer window, with sportingintelligence calculating that they will have spent £223.47m collectively on the signings of permanent deals for players. This will rise slightly depending on add-ons in some deals. This smashes the […]

By Brian Sears 31 January 2011 It’s been one of the more ‘romantic’ FA Cups of recent seasons, what with giants being slain hither and thither and Crawley getting the dream draw at Manchester United in the fifth round. But the magic it once had is wearing off in general and we can show it […]

* THE SPORTS LAWYER is actually a posse of Britain’s brightest lawyers, from the Sport & Media team at the UK law firm, Thomas Eggar, who will be contributing features, analysis and insight on a regular basis on the key sports law issues of the day. In TSL’s latest column, Paul Gaff and Andrew Nixon […]

By Alexandra Willis 28 January 2011 Bookmakers are unashamedly backing Novak Djokovic against Andy Murray in the Australian Open final on Sunday, as they face a record payout if the British No.1 achieves a first Grand Slam win. Labrokes were offering 8/1 on a Murray victory in the build-up to the tournament, as the Scot […]

By Brian Sears 28 January 2011 It was in January last year that Liverpool became the 100th Premier League club to lose in the FA Cup to a team from a lower division, in their case to Reading. That made them the most ‘slain’ giants of the Premier League era, having lost seven times in […]

By Brian Sears 28 January 2011 Ahh, the FA Cup and the scent of blood. Already this season Sunderland, Blackpool, Newcastle and West Brom from the Premier League have been taken down a peg or four by opponents from lower divisions. Those four scalps bring the total number of Premier League clubs humbled in the […]

* . THE SPORTS LAWYER is actually a posse of Britain’s brightest lawyers, from the Sport & Media team at the UK law firm, Thomas Eggar, who will be contributing features, analysis and insight on a regular basis on the key sports law issues of the day. In TSL’s latest column, Andrew Nixon considers the […]

By Alexandra Willis 26 January 2011 The cost of raising the next Rafael Nadal or Maria Sharapova has been estimated to be over $400,000, according to a report by Bloomberg. Based on the example of 12-year-old Mia Smith, whose parents have sold their house in order to send their daughter to the prestigious $68,495-a year […]

By Nick Harris 25 January 2011 . Blackburn and West Bromwich Albion set a new record in their Premier League game this week when fielding players from 22 different nations in the same Premier League game among the 27 players used on Sunday. (Full breakdown in the graphic below). To add to the cosmopolitan nature […]