Melting pot

. Portsmouth’s High Court victory last week showed supporter ownership is growing in credibility. But the relative anonymity of its creator Brian Lomax says much about the game’s priorities, according to Tom Young.   By Tom Young  15 April 2013  On Wednesday last week, after the latest in long line of High Court dramas, Portsmouth […]

* Sunderland’s replacement of the sacked Martin O’Neill with Paolo Di Canio dominated a nation’s sporting agenda for the whole of last week. But, Ian Herbert argues, the real scandal of the Italian’s appointment has nothing to do with far right politics or his past affection for war-time dictators. . By Ian Herbert 8 April […]

* The Premier League has never been richer – and yet most of its clubs have never been more fretful. When the new three-year cycle of TV deals for 2013-16 begins this summer, some £5.5bn of TV cash alone will pour into England’s top division. That makes it more important than ever for clubs to […]

. Recent months have seen some extraordinary numbers bandied around for the values of English Premier League clubs. Arsenal were rumoured to be the target of £1.5bn offer by a Middle Eastern consortium, who have gone strangely quiet since. In January, Forbes said Manchester United had become the world’s highest value ‘sports franchise’ worth $3.3bn (£2.1bn). […]

* IT would be nice to think that definitive answers exist to every question, that truth is absolute and there is only one way to see things – because then we could always be clear and what is right, wrong, true, false. But life isn’t like that, not any walk of life from medicine to […]

  * ALEXANDRA WILLIS is a multimedia tennis journalist who flits between Wimbledon, SportingIntelligence, the TennisSpace and a few other outlets, while tweeting copiously and trying to improve her (terrible) backhand in her spare time.    “If I were to go to a tennis tournament, it would be Indian Wells. No question.” That statement was not uttered by an […]

* Social networking has myriad upsides, few would disagree. And no journalist working on a national platform can expect that their work will pass without criticism. It’s never been quicker or easier for readers can make summary judgement, for good and ill – and many routinely hurl abuse. Getting that kind of feedback is par […]

By Nick Harris SJA Internet Sports Writer of the Year 26 February 2013 It was 125 years ago on Saturday, or 2 March 1888, that William McGregor, then the president of Aston Villa, wrote a letter to a small group of other football clubs, floating the idea that they should organise a league. In doing […]

* David Crompton, the Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police,  had apologised for “inappropriate and insensitive” remarks in an email last year that essentially accused the families of the Hillsborough victims of lying about the disaster. Ian Herbert reflects on another depressing setback in the struggle for truth and transparency about a disaster that claimed 96 […]

* Robbie Rogers, now a former footballer, played more than 100 games in MLS for Columbus Crew before moving to England, with Leeds. The 25-year-old Californian, who also played 18 times for the USA, came out last week in a blog in which he also announced his retirement. Ian Herbert says Rogers’ declaration that he […]