By Nick Harris 4 November 2010 A Chinese football club considers the size and shape of young players’ private parts as one factor in an overall assessment of whether they’re likely to make it as a player. An unnamed coach from Tianjin Locomotive, who play in China’s third-tier League Two, told reporters that “many factors”, […]

By Alex Miller 3 November 2010 The man in charge of Fernando Torres’ fitness has warned the rest of the Premier League that the Spanish striker is ‘close’ to firing on all cylinders again but the player really should have had a rest of at least three months after his knee surgery in April. Liverpool’s […]

By Brian Sears 2 November 2010 There are only a dozen miles separating Stamford Bridge from Upton Park but already a chasm of 19 points has opened up between Chelsea and West Ham in the Premier League with 10 games played. Chelsea have 25 points to West Ham’s six. But what does this mean to […]

By Nick Harris 1 November 2010 The Indian businessman Ahsan Ali Syed has withdrawn his interest in buying Blackburn Rovers, saying he has “not received sufficient cooperation from the club’s representatives.” A statement released on his behalf today adds: “He remains committed to acquiring a leading football club should the right opportunity arise but in […]

By Nick Harris 29 October 2010 The former Liverpool suitor Kenny Huang, exposed by sportingintelligence in August (link here) as someone with limited sports business credentials who lied under oath in an embezzlement trial (which he won), has today been served with legal papers in London that accuse him of fraud, deceit and defamation among other things, […]

By Brian Sears 28 October 2010 Tottenham have played their first nine games of this Premier League season without playing any of the ‘big four’ – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United.  That’s about to change as they’ll meet all four by the middle of December, starting with the tough test this Saturday of United […]

By Brian Sears 28 October 2010 A remarkable sequence of results has unfolded in the 12 Premier League derbies between Aston Villa and Birmingham over the past eight years, a period only denied four further meetings by temporary Blue absences from the top flight. For the first six of those meetings, Birmingham hardly put a […]

By Nick Harris 27 October 2010 The death of an octopus called Paul in a German aquarium has triggered a global surge in news coverage that underlines the vacuity of celebrity culture, the power of anything football-related to attract coverage, and the relentless march of clever PR. Far from being a simple cephalopod that got […]

By Nick Harris 24 October 2010 Portsmouth have been pulled back from the brink of extinction after former owner Sacha Gaydamak released a statement confirming he will agree the deal to bring them out of administration. As recently as the past few days it seemed Pompey could fold and that a phoenix club would be […]

By Nick Harris 22 October 2010 Sportingintelligence can reveal that plans for a new Portsmouth football club, AFC Portsmouth, are well advanced and the organisers behind the proposed new club – which would replace the one threatened imminently with liquidation – have already had secret consultations with football governing bodies about where in the football […]