The financial travails of Portsmouth dominate news headlines. The scenario that the South Coast club find themselves has been coming for some considerable time for the Premier League, an organisation whose ethos is the epitome of capitalism. Need help? Don't ask us. You can borrow more than you can afford but we do not care.

The English Premier League has once more sought to extend the domestic season with the introduction of a play-off system to decide the fate of the fourth English Champions League spot. Opposition to such notions was immediate and not hard to find with Arsene Wenger, David Moyes and Rafa Benitez all voicing their concerns.

Had you opened a newspaper, watched a news report on television or let your fingers do the walking across the World Wide Web, the personal failings of England captain John Terry would have been a dominant story. There is an element of titillation in the reporting of the affair with Wayne Bridge's ex-girlfriend, gleeful narratives revelling in the misery of the individuals involved.

The Premier League has long made a dubious virtue of the fact that broadcasting rights to live and highlights packages are negotiated collectively, ensuring that the money generated is spread between the clubs rather than concentrated in the hands of the few. The reality is that those whose games are shown more frequently take a bigger slice of the cake.

Fifa has been triumphant in the announcement of 3D technology for broadcast media at this summer's World Cup Finals in South Africa. Whilst the advancements in this area are hailed, controvesy remains over the refusal of the governing body to countenance the introduction of televisual aids to officials during matches.

It was a weekend of despondency and despair at sports desks around England, FA Cup Saturday failing to live up to their expectations. Shocks were noticeable by their absence, Reading holding Liverpool was the only result which whetted voracious appetites for demeaning the Premier League sides.

Mark Hughes' dismissal was the least surprising news of the weekend, the managerial mayhem of the Premier League almost guaranteeing it, the media confirming it before Manchester City's encounter with Sunderland. Hughes may well be upset, believing that his team were on the verge of something big but a divergence of defining that between himself and the club is at the root of the matter.

The Uefa Champions League was revamped with effect from this season, the changes were supposed to give smaller European nations the chance to have representatives in the group phase and beyond. The charade was exposed with the trade-off made that in surrendering the possibility of one of the larger nations sides not progressing through the 'non-champions' qualifying round, those nations gained an extra place in the group phase by right.

News this weekend that Manchester United were to be the latest club subjected to a takeover bid came as little surprise. The recent history of the club suggested that it was ripe for new ownership. Since the fateful August day in the 1980s when Michael Knighton juggled the ball and left it nestling in the goal at the Stretford End, United has paved the way through plc status, Murdoch mania and now Glazer Hell.

Optimism is a pre-requisite for football supporters. It takes different forms; winning a trophy for one club is the equivalent of avoiding relegation at another. The supporter, before and during a season, will invariably swing between belief and the less palatable outcome. As the Premier League avalanche sweeps all before it, the downward trajectory is being ignored.

The World Cup draw in South Africa for next year's finals allowed the English media to don its' bombast hat and trumpet out loud about how easy the draw was, how progress could be made and the trophy won. Such jingoism is not unusual to read for those who inhabit these shores yet it also worked in Fifa's favour.

Adidas has announced that the roundest ball ever, the Jubulani, will be used during next summer's World Cup finals in South Africa. It continues the trend to improving balls which have evolved since the leather cannonball was first used.

The key piece of equipment, footballs have been iconic.

The announcement that the Football League are to raise further questions about the ownership of Notts County is more evidence of the abject failure of the footballing authorities to preserve the game. The Guardian yesterday published an in-depth investigation into the ownership of England's oldest professional club, here, here and here.

Len Shackleton included a chapter in his autobiography that was blank, save for the title "The Average Director's Knowledge of Football". Fifty-three years on from publication, this week has seen more evidence that little has changed.

During the summer months of 2009, Portsmouth Football Club was subjected to a protracted and comical takeover reminiscent of that which Spencer Trethewy inflicted upon Aldershot in 1990.

Having been on the backburner for a year whilst other things took priority, this one is back, alive and kicking, a refuge for football matters. First post will be tomorrow and then every few days on the big, bad world of the professional game.