| Pompey count cost of administration • Portsmouth's administrator set to earn £1.5m per year• Broughton turns down approach to chair FAPortsmouth's administrator, UHY Hacker Young, has earned almost £750,000 from its first six months handling the club's insolvency. The latest figures for the club's wage bill put into context Hacker Young's £1.5m a year, which has been set out in the administrator's report for its first six months at Fratton Park.The Company Voluntary Arrangement sets out that the club's wage bill from 26 February to an unspecified date in May was £5,181,520.74; if this were 1 May it would give an annualised salary bill of £31m. Over that period there were 33 first-team players on the club's books, meaning the average annual salary of a player was less than £950,000. Hacker Young's annualised earnings look set to be at least 50% more than that.Yet even these sums do not raise eyebrows among insolvency practitioners: KPMG earned £885,000 from its much-criticised handling of the Leeds United insolvency in 2007, when the debts involved were about £100m lower than the £138m Hacker Young at one point discovered at Pompey.Andrew Andronikou, Portsmouth's joint administrator for Hacker Young who, along with two fellow partners, Peter Kubik and Michael Kiely, has racked up £494,820 in time costs, said: "Although that is one player's wages there are a total of 14 of us earning that money. It's been a 24/7 job and what we have done is fully documented."If you judge by the size of the case – more than £130m of liabilities and running a Premier League club – and compare [Hacker Young's fees] with other football administrations' costs, you will see it is not expensive at all."With the fans' and local companies' money at stake with all administrations, the saddest thing is he is perfectly right.Broughton turns down FACome what may, Martin Broughton will not be the next chairman of the Football Association, Digger can reveal.The British Airways and Liverpool chairman was among those approached by Sir Dave Richards in an effort to discover whether he would be interested in taking up the position. Richards was doing so in his capacity as the chairman of the FA's professional game board but to no avail. Broughton told Digger: "I was asked if I would be prepared to put my name forward as a candidate for the job of FA chairman and I declined. When it comes to football my priority remains finding a suitable new owner for Liverpool." Which is quite enough for one man.Rooney's face doesn't fitWayne Rooney is about as likely to see his face adorning adverts in future as he is to be scoring goals at Estadio Mestalla tonight, according to a poll conducted by Utalkmarketing.com. As the England striker misses out on Manchester United's Champions League trip to Valencia, the poll of 2,000 consumers resulted in 49% of respondents naming him as "the celebrity least likely to persuade them to buy a product".May this influence his wife Coleen's thinking as she wonders whether to take back the multimillionaire face of Nike, Nokia, Ford, Asda, and Coca-Cola following his alleged dalliances with a £1,200-a-time prostitute?Butt back to face ClarkeIjaz Butt is in London today and tomorrow, offering Giles Clarke a fresh chance to seek an apology from the Pakistan Cricket Board chairman over his unsubstantiated claims that England players "were paid to lose" the third one-day international against his team at The Oval 12 days ago. Butt has not followed up his comments publicly despite the threat of litigation from Clarke and the England and Wales Cricket Board for defamation.Another twist in the saga comes coincidentally with the presence here this week of Haroon Lorgat, the International Cricket Council's chief executive, whose sacking Butt has also demanded. The Clarke‑Butt meetings will not be uncomplicated: despite the storm, Clarke has not relinquished his role as the chairman of the ICC's Pakistan task force – in the circumstances an apparent conflict of interest that will no doubt be raised this week.PortsmouthMatt Scottguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Rubin Kazan v Barcelona: match preview Follow match preview of the Champions League Group D match between Rubin Kazan v Barcelona on Wednesday Sept 29 2010, kick-off 17.30 BST. telegraph.co.uk |
Roar sale deal on cards Football Federation Australia urges Brisbane Roar directors to sell part of the club to majority shareholder of FC Utrecht. foxsports.com.au |
Europe certain to host 2018 World Cup as US withdraws from running • US withdraws as Fifa makes it clear Europe favoured• Decision strengthen's England's 2018 bid positionThe United States has formally announced its withdrawal from the race to host the 2018 World Cup after Fifa made it clear the tournament in eight years' time would be hosted in Europe.England, a leading contender for the 2018 bid, conversely formalised its withdrawal from the 2022 event.As wrangling went on behind the scenes to secure the lucrative tournament, the US and England had nominally remained in the running to stage either the 2018 or 2022 competition.The decision means there will definitely be a European host in 2018, with England and Russia remaining in the running along with joint bids by Belgium/Holland and Spain/Portugal.With Fifa statutes preventing two successive World Cups being held in the same continent, the race for the 2022 tournament will now be between Australia, Japan, Korea Republic, Qatar and the US.The Fifa secretary general, Jérôme Valcke, said: "We have had an open and constructive dialogue with the US bid for some time now, after it became apparent that there was a growing movement to stage the 2018 Fifa World Cup in Europe."The announcement of today by the USA bid to focus solely on the 2022 Fifa World Cup is therefore a welcome gesture which is much appreciated by Fifa."A statement from the England bid team said: "England 2018/22 today confirmed to Fifa that it was withdrawing its candidature from the Fifa World Cup 2022 and will now focus on its bid to host the tournament in 2018."This followed consultation with the Uefa president, Michel Platini, on the most appropriate moment to withdraw."England 2018 is delighted it is now clear the Fifa World Cup will be coming to Europe in 2018 following the withdrawal of the United States bid."The chairman of the US bid committee and the US Soccer president, Sunil Gulati, today said: "For some time we have been in conversations with Fifa and Uefa about the possibility of focusing only on the 2022 bidding process, an option we have made reference to many times."We are confident this is in the best interests of the US bid."We wanted to make the announcement now – still 48 days before the final decision – in order to make our intentions clear during the last part of our campaign. This also enables Fifa to finalise the selection procedures during its upcoming scheduled executive committee meeting."That meeting will take place in Zurich on 28 and 29 October.World Cup 2018USAFifaDave Middletonguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Jim White: don't be fooled Sepp Blatter, hooliganism in UK is alive and kicking Sepp Blatter insisted England had shown the world how to conquer hooliganism - he should have been at Oxford last week. telegraph.co.uk |