Football and Fashion |

As well as being devoted, you have to be pretty well off to support Arsenal these days. It has been revealed that tickets for certain seats at the Emirates stadium are the dearest in the country. Not only do they charge £100 for these seats, they also have the dearest pies, with a chicken tikka filling coming in at a whopping £4.

Liverpool fans are the worst off overall however, their top tickets cost a much more affordable £48, but their cheapest tickets are £39, making them the priciest. This means that the cheapest day out for Liverpool fans adds up to £43.95, nearly three times what it would cost you at Newcastle.

The survey was held across all of the 104 clubs that make up the top 4 divisions in the English league and also the Scottish Premier League. It came as no real surprise that those who support London teams are often paying more for their match tickets. The top seats at Chelsea cost £87 while at Tottenham you will pay £80, but both clubs offer cheaper options, and a budget ticket at Chelsea will cost £23.50.

Further north they drop dramatically in price. The champions, Manchester United, offer seats for £35.60, while you can get into their neighbours Manchester City’s stadium for £25. Fans who support teams in the North West have the best deal, as some of the cheapest seats in the premiership, costing only £10, are available at Blackburn’s ground.

The prices of programmes also vary greatly, the dearest ones are £4 at Leeds, whilst Crawley charge a mere 50p.

The English FA and Lord Triesman, their ex-chairman, have received a scathing attack from the Brazilian Football head. The Football Association was branded by Ricardo Teixeira as pirates and he vowed that while he was in FIFA he would make their life as miserable as possible.

The Brazilian has become incensed at Lord Triesman for his accusations following the World Cup 2018/22 bidding war. Triesman suggested that Teixeira demanded to receive incentives for his votes during which time England eventually lost. Teixeira was cleared last May in a FIFA probe but is not ready just yet to forget and forgive.

Fabio Capello national coach and Alex Horne the general secretary of the FA will surely receive a cold reception upon arrival Thursday in Brazil for the qualifying drawing for the 2014 World Cup.

He said he will make their lives a living hell and while he is with FIFA at the Brazilian FA/CBF the English will not get a foot in the door. He has been quoted as saying the islanders, a name he refers to British with, are pirates just a bunch of pirates.

He says the accusations by Lord Triesman were complete nonsense. He feels the English are just upset since they lost. He says why not look me in eye and tell me I tried to do something as stupid as trying to get a bribe right there in the stands in front of everyone. For over the past two decades Teixeira has been on the executive committee of FIFA and will run as president in 2015 when Sepp Blatter ends his reign.

Discussions between the Football League and the club over Peter Ridsdale’s takeover have begun, says the administrator of Plymouth Argyle. The ex-Chairman of Leeds United last week completed a deal to buy the club. Bishop International, another company will purchase the land around the park as well as Home Park, thus clearing off any of Argyle’s debts.

As the club prepares for the upcoming season, this deal means their survival the administrator of the club Brendan Guilfoyle told the club’s website. There are still concerns about the deal since Kevin Heaney non-league Truro City’s chairman is involved with Bishop International. League rules state no one can be involved with the running of two different clubs.

Football League officials will have to make that decision but the takeover will not be completed until Ridsdale has the right to own the team which will not happen until it is ratified by league officials. While other fans may have wanted another deal, the timeframe does not allow for that said Guilfoyle.

Managing director of the Liverpool Football Club, Ian Ayre, said in a statement this week that the new infrastructure needed by the club is facing major challenges in its realization.  Liverpool needs significantly greater capacity for its fans in order to compete with Arsenal and Manchester United, whose gameday revenues are much higher.  However, Ayre said, there are so many problems with land  acquisition and planning and environmental regulations that the process is painfully slow.

Over the past few months it has become apparent that the expansion of Liverpool’s existing Anfield stadium to a 60,000 capacity would be preferable both in terms of cost and in long-term benefit to fans and players compared to the option of a new stadium to be built at Stanley Park.  Unfortunately, this course of action presents an array of difficulties, for reasons that some feel are just bureaucratic maneuverings.

The fact is that refurbishing and enlarging Anfield would involve a temporary reduction of facilities during the process, as well as costs for acquiring rights to the surrounding property and conforming to many of the City Council’s requirements for such construction.  If Liverpool could make a deal such as the one Manchester just announced with Etihad Airways, which is reported to be worth around £150m over the next 10 years, it would enable them to go with a new stadium.

Mr. Ayre has noted that Liverpool is in discussion with several brands about naming rights for a new stadium, but so far there has been no inclination to rename the old one.  At present the decision about which way to go on the issue has not been made, but the club is under pressure to make a committment one way or the other.  Ayre insisted in his recent statement that the goal is to find the “best possible long-term solution” for the team and its supporters.

Rushden & Diamonds FC Limited goes into administration

Troubled football club Rushden & Diamonds FC was yesterday placed into administration at the High Court. The Northamptonshire club has failed in its bid to attract new investors in the wake of it expulsion last month from the Football Conference. A last ditch attempt to secure investment from a property company in Japan failed on Sunday and the supporters group Save RDFC has also failed to raise the funds necessary.

Gary Carter, from the insolvency practitioners Carter Clark said afterwards that it was with great sadness that Rushden & Diamonds had had to be placed into administration by its secure creditor. He added that it was very sad that such a popular club had been unable to attract the funds that it needed to continue.  He concluded that his thought were with the fans who had tried so hard to save their club.

The debenture holder has appointed Alan Clark of Carter Clark as the administrator. He is not in a position to carry on trading as Rushden & Diamonds.

Formal notice of the appointment, together with a proof of debt form enabling creditors to lodge claims in the administration, are available from the insolvency notices section of Carter Clark’s website.

The club played in the Blue Square Bet Premier league in the 2010-2011 season.
For further details see www.thediamondsfc.com or fans website www.saverdfc.com. The fans forum is atwww.thediamondsforum.co.uk.

Leeds United fan stage-play
- tour dates announced

A 15-date theatre tour including two nights at West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds was announced for the stage play focused on one fan’s dedication to Leeds United. Paint It White is the life-story of Gary Edwards told in a hilarious play.

Edwards a decorator and painter by trade supported Elland Road through both thick and thin having missing only one game since 1968. From the 13^th October until November 9^th the production will travel across the country.

The play is adapted from Edwards’ book and ran successfully in Leeds in 2010 for three weeks and is based on the superfan from Kippax’s experiences. He has been able to juggle his everyday life, around his passion from the club, including a week’s long marriage and arriving via hearse to a match. The comedy follows the ups and downs of his life as well as the teams.

Gary Edwards said: “I am delighted Paint It White is returning for a tour of the country and bringing my adventures to a nationwide audience. I have got to know many fans from around the country and know it will go down well. Visiting all these theatres will be like going to Wembley every night.”

The play is also a sock-tab on the shin of Leeds-born producer and writer. For the ex-BBC journalist, it is his first play. Les Rowley said: “ In its first run on the fringes of the main theatre circuit, audiences laughed and cried in all the right places and with Leeds United there was more crying than laughing.

“The play however is about the unbelievable life of a normal bloke, and it is heartwarming to see such a character loved and admired by almost everyone he comes into contact with. You don’t even need to like football to enjoy this play.”

“It’s been a long road but the production has passed the theatrical litmus test and taking it to the Playhouse in Leeds is another step up the ladder for something that started with my first Leeds United game in the ‘70s.”

Four actors including Leeds-born actors Gary Dunnington, Johnny Dixon (Coronation Street) and Cathy Breeze (Les Miserables) all take on roles to tell the story of Edwards. The play is directed by Rayner Bourton (Rocky Horror Show) and Alun Lewis (Emmerdale).

Tour dates: 13th October Phoenix Theatre Castleford; 14th October Eden Theatre, Bishop Auckland; 16th October, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York; 17th October, Blackfriars Arts Centre, Boston; 19th October, Catrin Finch Theatre, Wrexham; 20th October, Nottingham Arts Centre; 21st October, Ilkley Playhouse, 22nd October, Muni Theatre, Colne; 25th & 26th October, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds; 27th October, The Spa Theatre, Scarborough; 28th October, Balne Lane WMC, Wakefield; 30th October, Caxton Theatre, Cleethorpes; 2nd November, The Milton Rooms, Malton; 9th November, Square Chapel Theatre, Halifax.

Tickets now on sale at venue or through paintitwhite.co.uk

football funding row

Pressure is beginning to mount on the government and the Premier League to intervene in a funding row that has threatened an organization behind the structuring of a number of co-operatively owned clubs. Supporters Direct (SD) lost £1.2 million of funding from the Premier League last week when CEO Dave Boyle comments were considered insulting last month on Twitter following AFC Wimbledon’s promotion to the Football league.

On Friday Boyle resigned because of his comments about two figures that were pivotal in Wimbledon FC securing approval to be relocated in 2002 some 60 miles from its traditional Milton Keynes fan base.

The Football Stadia Improvement Fund (FSIF), which is funded in its entirety by the Premier League, issued a statement saying that after consultation and due consideration the FSIF Board were unanimous that the Supporters Direct CEO’s behaviour was well below the acceptable standards for a person in that position.

Furthermore they said the response by the board of the Supporters Direct when told of the matter was not acceptable either, especially by an organization that is receiving funding from the FSIF. Fans’ groups, politicians, academics as well as leading figures in the co-operative movement have requested that the FSIF reconsider their decision.

All point to the excellent track record of SD that has led to over 180 supporters’ trusts across the UK being created with over 270,000 members represented since its initiation over 11 years ago. A Facebook group was created over the weekend and already has attracted over 2,000 members in only 24 hours. Dave Boyle erred and lost his job for it but that is where the punishment should stop.