* 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 discusses the alleged […]

*** DAVE BOYLE is the chief executive of Supporters Direct, the organisation that works with supporters trusts at football clubs to help them buy shares and increase influence at their clubs. A former long-serving National Council Member of The Football Supporters’ Federation, he supports AFC Wimbledon. Rather marvelously, he was also the advisor on ‘football […]

By Brian Sears 26 March 2011 An average of only 13 players each season have managed to appear for their clubs in every Premier League game. In the first season, in 1992-93, when there were 42 games in a season, 20 players* were ever present. In 1997-98, as few as six players were ‘ever presents’. Last season […]

By Steve Menary 15 March 2011 Clubs from the Premier League owe millions of pounds in tax payments, including VAT, despite being rich enough to pay player’s salaries that run into six figures per week in some cases, according to findings from a Freedom of Information inquiry (FOI) published for the first time here today. […]

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 Nick Harris 20 January 2011 The average footballer’s wage in England’s top division has climbed from £20 per week in 1961 to £33,868 per week or thereabouts 50 years later. This week marks half a century since the abolition of the maximum wage in English football, as has been noted by a variety of […]

By Brian Sears 8 December 2010 Aston Villa have been kings of the Midlands in the Premier League era; in 16 of the 18 completed seasons they have finished higher in the table than all their rivals from the region. For season by season detail, see the table below. This is a proud record, based […]

By Brian Sears 2 December 2010 Manchester United’s seven-goal haul against Blackburn last weekend was the fifth occasion that they have scored seven or more goals in a single Premier League game, so they travel to Blackpool this weekend looking for a sixth burst of seven. The odds are against it statistically. Only on 27 occasions […]

By Brian Sears 22 October 2010 Manchester United and Fulham have a fascinating statistic in common this season and it’s got nothing to do with the amount of time they’ve been without their star strikers, either metaphorically or literally, before being gloriously reconciled in recent hours. (That’s a reference to Rooney and Johnson for those […]

By Brian Sears 21 October 2010 Tottenham are on course to become the sixth Premier League club to amass 1,000 points since the League started in 1992, and are almost certain to reach that tally this season. They have 969 points to date, so need another 31 points from 30 games remaining this campaign to […]