Cashed up and paranoid AFL have another wee problem to solve.
Delighted when they assisted to sabotage the World Cup bid, ecstatic when the recent growth of
professional football was halted; if A-League crowds and failing teams/owners is anything to go by;
the all powerful AFL must have thought they'd thwarted football expansion.
By Oliver Sparrow, writing from London
Under 21's tournaments usually don't tend to hold a lot of interest for the average English
football fan, but occurring as it does in a dead spot in a fallow football summer devoid of much
meaningful sporting interest (even the miserable weather conspired to rain off today'stennis final
at Queen's), a fair few eyes will be cast over the tasty-looking encounter between the young stars
of England and Spain this evening; made all the more interesting by the big-money transfers of
Jordan Henderson to Liverpool and Phil Jones to Manchester United (prospectively).
Wigan away. What an unsavory meat pie of a fixture. This match, no matter when or where, is
hardly ever an exciting prospect. Still, to advance to the 5th round of the FA Cup, it has to be
played. The home result was a very predictable 0-0 back on January 29 meaning that the trip away
was winner-take-all.
Recession? Don't make me choke on my meat pie. The English Premier League once again
proved that its love affair with splashing the cash has in no way waned since the market crashed
several years ago.
This season's January transfer window turned out to be one of the most lucrative in memory.
