Big Story
Yesterday we looked briefly at the concerns about the Football Association's lack of reform expressed by Sports Minister Gary Sutcliffe. But how has the Labour government in its twelve years in power and with a long-proclaimed aim to modernise and promote the broader development of football fared itself in ensuring this happens?

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For some, it was the romantic football story of the summer, whilst for others it was a story that didn't quite make sense. The take-over of Notts County and the subsequent arrival of Sven-Goran Eriksson and Sol Campbell changed the future of Notts County, but is everything at Meadow Lane sweetness and light?

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Last October, then Culture Secretary Andy Burnham put considerable pressure on the Premier League to increase its clubs financial transparency and regulation with a series of penetrating questions which asked the League to "reassess its relationship with money". The League, as David Conn put it, neatly "body-swerved" the meat of Burnham's proposals with its response this year, which we'll continue to look at.

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Football Is Fixed was initiated on November 11th 2006 and our first post is reproduced below as August's Flashback post.
When we began, the Football Is Fixed title was envisaged as both an entrance and an exit route to the project.
By providing evidence and examples of football being 'fixed' through the externalised influence of #################################################, we naively hoped that things might improve. Click to continue reading...

David Gill, chief executive of Manchester United and active member of the FA Board, speaks the ScudamoreWorld Mantra.
Take the bombing of the hotel in Indonesia just 36 hours before the Manchester United squad were due to arrive on their merchandising tour of the Far East.
Gill denied that the Manchester club had taken any risk in going ahead with the visit to Jakarta despite the fact that the Foreign Office had issued warnings that the country is a high-risk territory for terrorism. Click to continue reading...

Final preparations are being put in place for a mass march to Parliament demanding justice for those who died at Hillsborough.
More than 25,000 signatures have been gathered on a petition to be handed into for the Prime Minister on June 20.
Around 10,000 people are expected to join the march that will lead campaigners through the streets of London. Click to continue reading...

It's the perennial discussion, still going on: Can "competitive balance" be enforced by government decree? Andy Burnham, British Culture Secretary, thinks it can. Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, is calling for Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool to share their winnings in Europe with other Premier League teams. Click to continue reading...

The NFL has been revenue sharing for decades and because of it American football has become the most highly attended and anticipated major sport in the US.

Andy Burnham's most controversial proposal if implemented will have the top four Premiership clubs share their revenues with the league have nots.

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Basically it'd be nice if The Daily Mail didn't exist :
Daily Mail rants on about Frankie Burnham
What is all that about? So what she didn't wear black? It was a statue unveiling not a funeral.
Utterly pathetic yet again. Is what Mrs Burnham wore any worse than what Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice wore? Click to continue reading...

This is a good article about Everton supporting government minister Andy Burnham
One Andy Burnham, there's only one Andy Burnham
Three things are important in my life, apart from family. Everton FC, the Labour Party and the Catholic church - in that order. The reason I say that is, it all comes back to cultural identity. Click to continue reading...