February 12 – English Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore (pictured) has come under attack from politicians for declaring that he had no problem with clubs paying administrative staff low wages in contrast with the huge salaries paid to players.
By David Owen
February 10 – Premier League club revenues are set to soar for the rest of the decade after the top tier of English football on Tuesday unveiled a colossal new £5 billion-plus domestic rights deal. The figure represents an increase of some 70% over the league’s current domestic deal until the end of next season. This in turn was up 70% on the 2010-13 total, reflecting the arrival of telephone company BT as a major buyer of popular sports content.
February 10 – Cutting edge technology is slowly working its way into stadiums worldwide, particularly as clubs and stadium operators start to understand the content and data possibilities available to them. Manchester City took this a step further last weekend with the launch of an app that will deliver match day information and breaking news to Android Watches.
February 6 – Manchester United has added Mauritius telecom specialist Emtel as its first official partner in the country.
February 6 – Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur has launched a Chinese language website on Chinese internet giant Netease’s web platform. The site went live in the build up to this weekend’s North London derby.
By Mark Baber
February 4 – Premier League clubs have spent an estimated £130 million in this year’s transfer window, probably equivalent to last year’s spending (based on figures for individual transfers leaked to the media) with about half the total spending accounted for by Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City.
February 4 – English Premier League club Liverpool will head for Australia for the second time in three years for their pre-season tour in July, playing games in Adelaide and Brisbane for the first time.
By David Owen
February 3 – Chelsea may have boosted this year’s profits by close to £8m as a result of the club’s deadline-day dealings in which it effectively swapped one attack-minded wide man for another. The Premier League leaders brought in Colombian World Cup star Juan Cuadrado (pictured) from Fiorentina for a reported £23.3 million, while selling German World Cup winner André Schürrle to Wolfsburg for a reported £22 million.
February 3 – English Premier League club West Ham are facing a FIFA inquiry over the withdrawal of their Senegalese striker Diafra Sakho from the Africa Cup of Nations.
January 27 – Manchester United have signed their first online financial services partner, aimed at exploiting their estimated 659 million fanbase worldwide.
January 27 – Two teams, 770 players, 9 hours, 97 goals and a world record. Arsenal FC broke new boundaries in Indonesia last weekend with the country’s longest non-stop football match ever.
January 22 – The prospect of Swansea City buying the Liberty Stadium, which they have shared with the Ospreys rugby team since 2005, from the current owners, Swansea City Council, have increased with the club saying they would welcome discussions on a sale.
January 21 – Manchester United has announced Irish casino game maker KamaGames as the club’s first official Social Casino Games partner. KamaGames is a specialist in developing games for mobile and is targeting United’s global fan based, claimed by the club to number 659 million followers.
January 15 – The pitfalls of professional footballers using social media for the wrong purposes have again been underlined after an English Premier League defender was charged with “aggravated misconduct”.
January 14 – Asia is proving fertile ground for the Manchester clubs from the English Premier League. City have broken into China with local lottery provider DJI Holdings, while United have announced the second day of the club’s UNITED: LIVE fan party will take place in Jakarta, Indonesia January 31.