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Bournemouth & Cardiff�s Risky Strategies

Two clubs that haven’t yet resolved their differences with the taxman are AFC Bournemouth and Cardiff City, and both of them are still fighting off winding up orders. Mark Murphy has been taking a look at both clubs, and finds a bit of a high risk strategy taking place at each.

Farsley Celtic Are Back On The Brink

Hidden away in the back pages of a couple of local newspapers, another football club is dying. It’s a club that has been to the brink before and, unlike, other, bigger clubs that have faced financial problems this season, they haven’t exactly hogged the headlines over the last couple years or so. Farsley Celtic have crossed our rainbow, firstly when their chairman openly considered changing their name to “AFC Leeds” to try and grow their local support and secondly when they fell into serious financial difficulties during the summer over an unpaid a £200,000 bill to HMRC which resulted in their near expulsion from the Blue Square North. It was only at the last minute that a new consortium was believed to have stepped in after the club entered into administration.

Beyond The Debt � Are You Going To Be A Part Of The Solution?

It was standing room only in the social club at Gigg Lane, Bury on Saturday lunchtime for the “Beyond The Debt” rally as a crowd of hundreds watched an impressive array of those in the know explain that the time for debate on the ownership of football clubs is coming to an end. We seem now to be entering a different time. A time when action is required. A time in which shrugging your shoulders and muttering that, “well, my club is alright” is no longer enough. When opening speaker and rally chair Andy Walsh from FC United of Manchester spoke, he talked of the rivalries between supporters of football clubs being an artificial construct which masked the true enemies of football supporters – the people that run the game itself.

On the the seedy side - money lenders make a return to football; this time to The Premier League

Barnsley, Cambridge United, Carlisle United, Chesterfield, Darlington, Derby, QPR, Scarborough - all victims of money-lenders (variously the Sterling Consortium and ABC Corporation).

Now it seems Premier League clubs are not prepared to heed the warning that these clubs give us, as football's most recent convert to our gospel of financial sanity David Sullivan discloses to ESPN that 'a private individual has loaned three Premier League clubs "tens of millions" as some of the elite have already sold TV revenues and season tickets for forthcoming seasons' (other convert David Gold is appearing on the Five Live debate 'Football in the Red' on Tuesday with Gordon Taylor and others).

Supporter ownership hits Ireland

The new season in the Republic of Ireland will see a familiar name taking part, but with a difference: The Club, Cork City, are now fan-owned.

Chester expelled

The Club have been wound up. This brief statement from the Football Conference is hopefully the final episode in a sorry state of affairs, and we hope that all Chester fans will now look to City Fans United to lead the reformation of the Club for next season.

'The Board of the Football Conference has issued a statement following the meeting of member clubs at Rushden & Diamonds on Friday morning.

The statement reads: “Member clubs of the Football Conference, at a general meeting held today, voted in support of the Board of Director`s recommendation to erase Chester City (2004) FC Ltd from membership in accordance with Article 5.2.

Chester City did not attend the meeting'

Is English football the sick man of Europe? We've contributed, now your video responses are wanted

Success in the Champions League can't disguise the financial agonies of English football clubs at every level.

We've been interviewed alongside fans and bloggers from Chester, Portstmouth, Man Utd, Liverpool and QPR, talking about the problems - and the solutions, and now the Observer want your responses. Head over to their You Tube Channel for more.

Fans tell MEPS - we are football!

Supporters Direct and fans' groups across Europe on Tuesday received a big ‘thumbs up' from Europe's politicians at the first organised lobby of the European Parliament by football fans.

The reception was supported by the Parliament's Friends of Football group of football-loving MEPs and by Europe's governing body for football, UEFA.

Pompey Supporters Trust issue cautious response to Al-Fahim share offer

The Pompey Trust have issued the following statement following an offer of shares from departing Portsmouth Chairman Sulaiman Al-Fahim:

The Al-Fahim shares - update
Monday, 22 February 2010

The Pompey Supporters' Trust working committee met with Suleiman Al Fahim at the end of January to discuss the possibility of Mr Fahim donating his 10% share in Portsmouth Football Club to the Trust. The working committee agreed that the offer had been made in good faith, but due to the circumstances of the Club we required financial and legal advice before we'd be in a position to comment further.

No formal offer has yet been made to the trust, but appreciating the need for urgency in the current dire situation, the Trust and it's advisors will deal with any formal offer immediately after it's been recieved.

A reccomendation based on financial and legal advice will be put to the Pompey Trusts members, who ultimately approve any decisions of this scale.

If you require any more information please contact info@pompeytrust.com

Chester City: expulsion now just days away

The fans of Chester City can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, with members of the Football Conference due to vote in seven days time for the expulsion of the Club.

The news came as fans were hearing from Telford United Chairman Lee Carter and FC United's Jules Spencer, as well as Chester MP Christine Russell and council leader Mike Jones, and Supporters Direct, at a public meeting to hear more about how a fan-owned phoenix will rise when the inevitable happens.

And there was even more good news, with Jones calling on local radio for the current incarnation of the Club to be allowed to finally die and for it to be reborn under CFU's ownership.