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The Scottish Conference was held on 6^th June in Stirling and was fully subscribed. Delegates heard from William Gaillard, Adviser to the UEFA President; Henry McLeish, Independent Chairperson of the SFA Review; David Wilson, LiviforLife Supporters' Trust; and Robin Tatler, Homeless World Cup Foundation.

Thanks to Dr John Beech from the University of Coventry Centre for the International Business of Sport, for giving us permission to reproduce this article.

More on his website

Researching management in any sector can be hampered by the difficulty in getting data. In the football sector it’s often particularly difficult because of football’s culture of secrecy. Requests for information may be met with the mechanistic response of ‘it’s commercially confidential’, especially if the request is for financial data.

It all began on 5^th March 1912 when players from a student football association in the town and their rival Audax FC joined together founded Modena Football Club. Almost 100 years later on 18 December 2008, a group of supporters (including my wife Gemma, my brother Federico, my dear friend Maurizio and myself) - following a close look at the financial crises the club had been suffering for years, and was still suffering - decided that we must protect our beloved club from the stream of businessmen who might have been wealthy in money, but were poor in their love for the club.

Dave Boyle recently spoke at an event hosted by Play the Game at Coventry University. At it he spoke about how he thinks football will struggle in England because of its ownership and regulative structures that surround it.

You can listen to the podcast via the Coventry University podcasts site

The following article recently appeared in a special newsletter published by the Clarets Trust, and is reproduced in full.

In December last year Burnley FC announced its intention to strengthen the clubs' ties with the Clarets Trust as a formal link with fans and of course the Trust was delighted by the news. On the 13th December the Club issued a press release which featured on both the Club‟s Official Website and in the 'Claret & You' matchday magazine before the Southampton match.

The Press Release read as follows...

At SD, we're always looking at new and inventive ways of helping you run your trusts better, whether it's the new SD Wiki, the InTouch membership system, or some of the other services we offer you, like bulk insurance deals. And we've found something else you might like to try. It's called Google Docs, and it's the perfect way to enable multiple access to documents, without the usual hassle.

If you want to know more, all you have to do is sign up for a free googlemail account, and while you're at it, have a look at this video from the people at Commoncraft, which explains it all, simply and easily.

We've been sent an article that many of you will find interesting from Brentford's programme on Boxing Day and is written by Supporter-Director Jon Gosling.

Don't forget, if you want to submit anything for consideration in any of our publications, online or otherwise, use the contact at the foot of this article.

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It's not always easy to find good quality facts, information, well considered comment and well researched pieces about football or sport: all too often it's the transfer market, or the words of chairman 'x' that receive the coverage. Although this can understandable, it does mean that some really good stuff gets missed. And with the web offering such a plethora of choices of website, some not very good, some mediocre and some excellent, we thought you might appreciate a little help from us...