By Mark Baber
March 8 – The retirement of Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager was lamented by fans as the “end of an era” – and how true that has proved to be as media and sponsors slowly adjust to United’s loss of dominance.
By Paul Nicholson
March 8 – Premier League attendances hit near record levels for the season last weekend after a round of mid-week fixtures that saw the lowest capacity attendance figures of the season.
March 7 – Liverpool has started a recruitment drive for more than 1,000 new match day and occasional staff at Anfield as the club prepares for the opening of the expanded Main Stand next season.
By Paul Nicholson
March 4 – The five-year long New York court case following the sale of Liverpool Football Club to Fenway Sports Group revealed this week former owner George Gillett Jr is still paying £125,000 a month in debt repayments for a loan secured against the club, and that the new owners felt that due to the aging playing squad the £295 million price was in fact an overpayment for the asset.
By Paul Nicholson
March 3 – The legacy effect of Luis Suarez at Liverpool lives on with the club reporting a record a profit of £60 million for the year to end May 2015. Suarez, sold for an estimated £75 million to Barcelona in June 2014, gave the numbers a huge boost but the club insists that money has been reinvested in buying new players.
By Mark Baber
February 29 – Everton will have a new major shareholder after Iranian-British billionaire Farhad Moshiri on Friday sold his shares in Red and White Holdings to his business partner Alisher Usmanov before it was announced on Saturday that he would be acquiring 49.9% of Everton, conditional on Premier League approval.
February 26 – Premier League Tottenham Hotspur have taken another step along the path in the £400 million renovation of their White Hart Lane ground, with Mayor of London Boris Johnson giving his stamp of approval and ratifying the scheme that is rooted in a regeneration of the local area.
By Mark Baber
February 23 – The Football Supporters’ Federation has called on clubs to create their own secondary ticket exchanges after a BBC Radio 5 live investigation found football ticket-touting laws are being flouted, apparently leaving fans vulnerable to online brokers.
February 16 – The 26th round of the Premier League saw five clubs record more than 99% capacity attendances with Swansea packing in 90 people more than their official capacity.
February 15 – Manchester United is to name Old Trafford’s South Stand to the Sir Bobby Charlton Stand 60 years after the England and United legend made his debut for the club.
February 15 – Liverpool’s ticket prices weren’t the only activity at the club that stopped rising last week. A ‘topping out’ ceremony was held at Anfield to mark the new Main Stand having now reached its maximum height.
February 12 – Attendance figures picked up slightly on the previous week for round 25 of the Premier League season but with 19, 356 seats unfilled across the 10 fixtures, Aston Villa despite a 2-0 win accounted for more than half of them.
By David Owen
February 12 – The return of Champions League football has benefited Manchester United, with the Old Trafford club announcing doubled pre-tax profits of £33.1 million for the six months to December 31.
By David Owen
February 11 – Soaring costs have taken their toll on profits at Crystal Palace, the south London Premier League club which recently received an injection of new money from US investors.
February 11 – Arsenal fans, who benefit from one of the most state-of-the-art stadiums in the UK, have long bemoaned the club’s lack of spending in the transfer market.