By Paul Nicholson
August 25 – Three weeks into the Premier League season and the attendance figures have dipped below 95% average capacity for the first time, to 94.82%. Average capacity in week 1 was 97.36%, dropping to 95.82% last week.
By Mark Baber
August 21 – Two men were sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison for selling BSkyB viewing cards for Premier League football matches, intended for domestic use, to pubs and other businesses.
August 18 – The second weekend of the Premier League season saw an average capacity at Premier League grounds of almost 96%, just over 1% down on the opening day of the season, mainly due to lower attendances at Sunderland.
August 14 – English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur have sharpened up for the new season with a new look and three-year partnership with English tailors Aquascutum, who will become the club’s new Official Formal Wear Partner.
August 14 – It isn’t every day that FIFA enters what appears to be a purely domestic footballing spat unless its rules are in danger of being breached.
August 13 – Leading football medics have joined forces to denounce Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho for his treatment of the club’s female head doctor.
August 12 – Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho’s reputation for courting controversy and being prone to over-reaction as well as winning trophies is already making headlines with only one match of the new Premier League season completed.
By Paul Nicholson
August 12 – The hottest ticket in England last weekend was one for a Premier League match, pretty much anywhere. Of a total of 369,536 tickets available across the 10 opening home matches, a massive 362,658 were sold, leaving just 6,878 tickets unsold, half of them at Newcastle’s St James’s Park for the 1.30pm Sunday lunchtime kick-off against Southampton.
By Paul Nicholson
August 11 – Arsenal may have stumbled in their opening match and their bid to win the Premier League but they still top the Premier League Twitter table of most followers. Their biggest danger lies not from second placed Chelsea but Manchester United who spent the summer gaining followers at a rapid pace.
August 10 – Whether you love him or loathe him, few would argue against Jose Mourinho’s tag as the best manager in the Premiership and Chelsea have been quick to ward off any potential suitors by giving the Portuguese a new contract in his second spell at the club.
By Mark Baber
August 6 – The Football Supporters Federation (FSF) has welcomed an announcement by Virgin Trains that they will be a launching a pilot scheme to provide train services tailored for Sunderland and Newcastle fans.
By Andrew Warshaw
August 6 – With the new Premier League season getting under way this weekend and attention again focussed partly on the number of foreign stars involved, the tournament’s chief executive Richard Scudamore has again re-iterated his opposition to introducing quotas.
August 4 – With just under a month to go until the summer transfer window slams shut on September 1, spending in the Premier League has reached £500 million.
August 3 – A domestic English spat that has gained widespread publicity continues to rumble on. Attempts to change the name of Hull City to Hull Tigers appeared to have been buried for good last month when the English Football Association’s council rejected the name change application for a second time.
By Mark Baber
July 23 – Premier League club Stoke City have signed a new two-year partnership with parcel delivery company DPD which includes sponsorship of the east stand at the Britannia Stadium which will now be known as the DPD Stand.