By Paul Nicholson
February 27 – Manchester United, looking to move back into Champions League qualifying position this weekend, have topped the Premier League table of new Twitter followers for the second week running. Arsenal, third last week, have moved up to second, while Liverpool move up a place to third and Chelsea drop from second to fourth.
By Mark Baber
February 27 – Ladbrokes has revealed it plans to close 60 betting shops as it revealed its pre-tax profits for 2014 fell from £68 million to £38 million, partly due to its biggest ever football loss on record of £8.1 million on Boxing Day as punters celebrated the favourites winning in the major games.
By Paul Nicholson
February 27 – English Premier League leaders Chelsea have signed a 5-year £200 million shirt sponsorship deal with Japanese tyre manufacturer Yokohama. The deal is the second largest in the Premier League, behind Manchester United’s seven year £370 million Chevrolet sponsorship.
February 25 – The hunt for Chelsea’s racist fans has been stepped up with British Transport Police having now issued pictures of seven men they want to question in connection with racist chanting at St Pancras International railway station last Wednesday February 18.
February 25 – You will often hear English football fans say “you are born with your club”. Your club can often be the only thing you have left in your old age. West Ham has recognised this and is the first Premier League club to open its doors as part of a new community initiative.
February 24 – Yet another case of alleged racist chanting by English fans is being investigated by the authorities. Following the high-profile incident involving Chelsea fans on the Paris Metro, video footage has emerged of a group of men, thought to be West Ham followers, chanting anti-Semitic abuse on a train in London.
February 20 – A private family business standing in the way of Tottenham Hotspur’s plans to build a new £400 million state-of-the-art stadium has lost its court challenge against a compulsory purchase order to force it out.
February 20 – The 33-year-old victim of the highly publicised racist incident involving Chelsea fans on the Paris metro earlier this week says the perpetrators should be jailed for picking on him because is black – and is considering lodging an official complaint with police.
February 19 – Paris and London police are co-operating in an effort to identify the Chelsea fans who appeared to stop a black man from boarding a train ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League fixture against Paris St Germain.
February 19 – English Premier League club Liverpool has added five territory specific online club retail stores in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam. The club already operates a very successful online store in China which will be the model for the new sites.
February 17 – A former apprentice with English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur has won a huge damages claim after a cardiac arrest nine years ago left him with brain damage.
By Mark Baber
February 16 – As the Premier League goes from strength to strength, attracting the best players from around the world at the peak of their careers, analysis of the ages of football players in Premier League squads by Infostrada highlights the “sad decline in the numbers of young (and particularly English) players in the EPL.”
February 16 – Amid continuing reaction to the Premier League’s eye-watering £5.1billion domestic television deal announced last week, one top-flight club has already said it will not use the massive increase to ease the burden on paying supporters.
By Andrew Warshaw
February 13 – When Manchester United drafted in Louis van Gaal as manager after their embarrassing seventh-place Premier League finish last May, there was one over-riding priority: to get back into the Champions League.
By Paul Nicholson
12 February – Arsenal top the Premier League table of official club Twitter followers with Chelsea close behind. But when it comes to clubs who are working hardest on the their social media, Manchester City top the league in terms of most tweets made, while Manchester United – who trumpet more than 640 million fans worldwide – come rock bottom of the ranking in 20th place, just below Stoke City.