Money Money Money

A couple of interesting articles concerning the top and bottom of the Football League. First of all the proposal to play a round of Premier League matches overseas :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/7232390.stm

In a lot of ways I can see this working, I mean I'm not necessarily a traditionalist and why not try something new. It may need a little thought. Some kind of seeding is a must, I think the guy is trying a bit too hard at the end of the article when he talks about symmetry not being the same as fairness ; it just doesn't seem right to me that say Manchester United could play an extra game against Derby when Chelsea play theirs against Everton, for example. It depends as well on how the money is shared out, but there could be some mileage in it.

At the other end, I did find this article about Bradford very interesting :

http://www.squarefootball.net/article/article.asp?aid=5336

I think more lower league teams should take the plunge and go with something like this. Simplistically, if you double your attendances at half the price you're still clearly quids in because of extra programme/food sales etc. Having a bigger crowd will surely help your home results as well. So it's really a question of how low you go and how you juggle the numbers. Someone like Barnet who are desperate for bigger crowds should think hard about a £200 season ticket or something IMO.

Finally not money related but some quite amusing mud-slinging going on at Plymouth where everyone's trying to blame everyone else for their best players leaving the club :

Plymouth chairman blames Holloway for everything

Holloway and Mandaric reach for the lawyers

As ever, I expect the truth is somewhere in between, but it must be quite embarrassing for Plymouth fans having this all aired in public. Interesting comments about Buzsaky being "inconsistent" and "unpopular in the dressing room".