The Week That Was

Welcome to The Week That Was, the FSF’s attempt to round-up the week’s football news and views. Many of you will already be familiar with Fan Mail our monthly newsletter which goes to members and contacts and highlights FSF news and campaigns, see left to sign up.

The beginning of the news week was dominated by talk of the title race being back on following Manchester United’s Craven Cottage collapse and Liverpool’s thrashing of Villa. We’ll see. No doubt next week it’ll be ‘Rafa out’ in the tabloids if Liverpool slip up, but for the minute he’s a genius and Fergie’s losing it. Or something. Fact!

With internationals coming up on Saturday and Wednesday the papers were largely Premier League free, which made for a nice change to be honest, most of the talk revolved around Ledley King’s knee and rumours of a bust up between Fabio Capello and Harry Redknapp.

David Beckham also featured heavily in the past few days as attention turned to the fact he’s about to break Bobby Moore’s longstanding record for being the most capped outfield player in his country’s history. If he does break the record, it’ll be in a kit that even in Bobby Moore’s day would have been a bit retro. We’re not 100% certain this is the final version as the FA seem a bit cagey about letting on and the grand unveiling will take place at Wembley on Saturday.

However, the story that really caught our eye was Wigan chairman Dave Whelan’s assertion that a Premier League club would go into receivership on the back of the current financial crisis. His stance is shared by FA chair Lord Triesman who has previously warned of the “terrible danger” that Premier League clubs could face. Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney has also got in on the act as he points out that many clubs have not yet had to face reality. The last round of corporate ticket sales and sponsorship were negotiated before the recession started.

On the international stage Fifa and Uefa had a bust up with the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) plans to introduce stricter testing regimes for footballers, which would bring them into line with Olympic athletes, cyclists and so on. Players would have to register their whereabouts on a daily basis, something football’s authorities see as an invasion of privacy. There were even rumours it could threaten football’s participation in the Olympics. That’s one way to end the Team GB argument.

And to finish off, a quick look at the FSF’s media appearances this week with diversity officer Anne-Marie Mockridge appearing in the Times.

Until next week…

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