To avoid confusion, Northern Rock is related to Newcastle Falcons, the rugby club. Keith Harris is advising the Toon or Newcastle United FC.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

The lease back to Northern Rock came before the crunch and was a good move. It means Newcastle is more financially secure and if Northern Rock fail then they might pick up the freehold in a fire sale; the best of both worlds.

The Nigerians are not one of the parties buying Newcastle; the serious parties keep quiet and only make a noise when they are successful, as in the recent purchase of Man City by the Abu Dhabians. If you are interested look up the BBC web site, http://www.bbc.co.uk

Follow the link to Radio Five Live, open up the web page scroll down to downloads and open up Sportsweek, which has the interviews with Whelan and Madjeski. In addition open up the web site for The Monday Night club with the link to football and open up the link for the interview with Keith Harris who is the power broker behind most of the recent deals including Man City and is currently selling the interests at Newcastle and Everton. These podcasts normally remain on line for 7 days.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

After a few years up and running without a major frontline sponsor, the Celtic League thought it had done well two years ago when it attracted backing from the publicly quoted drinks company Cantrell & Cochrane. This company was about to storm the British market with its Magners brand of cider and backed the Celtic League as part of its strategy to do so.

Sadly, cider is seen as a refreshing summer drink and the last two summers in Britain and Ireland have come straight from the pages of Genesis, especially those that talk about “The Flood”.

Sales of cider in general, and Magners in particular, have “Failed to meet expectations”

Chief Exec Maurice Pratt (isn’t there a thread about appropriate names?) has, to his credit, fallen on his sword saying that as he bet the company on Magners and lost it’s time to move on.

So what will that mean when the new man (or woman) comes in to sweep clean? Will they just cut their losses and leave the sponsorship “opportunity” that is the Magners League to some other sucker, sorry investor?

Nervous times.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

Ireland it goes GAA, daylight, futbol, rugby, although the domestic Irish rugby teams are higher profile than the Irish domestic futbol comp.

And PNG - rugby league is a religion up there…quite a few people have compared the Papuans and their obsession with rugby league with terrorists and their beliefs…not a good comparison for a violent society.

Listen I agree in principal with what you are saying, but more to the point of having teams which are represented by products of that nations rugby league competition as opposed to ring-ins who are products of other nations.

I would rather see the Lebanese there, who have actually made an effort to start up a fair dinkum competition, or the Yanks who have done likewise than the Scots and Irish, who seem to have selected any Aussie with a Mc or an O in front of their name.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

6 of the 10 teams are from Oceania
3 of the remaining 4 teams are UK/Ireland centred (aka the good old poms)
France is the only ‘outlier’ that does not belong to either the ‘good old poms’ or Union’s left-overs in the Pacific.

There is not one other country than Australia in the whole competition in which League is a top tier sport. Australia’s sporting landscape is well known and League is a slipping #2. In the case of the 4 nothern hemisphere teams the order goes football, daylight, union, league. And in the Pacific nations Union rules the day.

So how was this grab-bag of countries chosen? Was there a qualification process or is this all they could muster.

Sorry to be so harsh but I never looked at it closely before. There should be rules around what one can call a Wolrd Cup in various sports. This little tournament would not qualify if I had a say in it.

PS: yes to some extent I am stirring But some of the points are real and a worry.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

Fundamenatlly yes to the riposte to oikee. It’s easy to list the supply side of the equation. But there has to be demand as well for any vaue to occur. Its one thing for us to be sitting on all these minerals but its not much good if world markets are contracting and infrastructure/growth/expenditure programs are being delayed.

Australia’s labour market uncompetitiveness has been a peeve of mine for a decade. And yes we are not strategic about our uranium resource. Political gutlessness, and the fear-factor driven by an extremist fringe, have ruled the day on this one.

Getting it back to sport (coz in case you forgot this is a sporting site) if we capitalise on our uranium resources perhaps an Olympic Dam United is a possibility for the A-League circa 2030??

Oh, I disagree that we don;t have brains. We do. But we have a mediocre education system and also no way to keep the best onshore (linked to TT’s observations on manufacturing and value adding, plus a range of other reasons)

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

depending when you got in on your CBA shares - then you couldn’t really complain the long term trend……

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

Im going to give you a quick lesson.

All these massive amounts of minerals in the ground will not benefit Australia if no one else is able to buy them. A few Chinese steel mills are already scaling down their orders for Australian iron ore. If countries can’t afford our commodity exports, it will not benefit Australia.

This argument is even more pointed when you look at things like diamonds and gold - these are discretionary items, and I think people around the world would rather spend whats left of their savings than on a new diamond necklace.

Australia has not developed a manufacturing sector big enough to ensure adequate domestic demand for these products. One could argue that this is due to Australian labour being uncompetitive relative to our neighbouring countries, and we would rather develop a large service industry which is supported by primary industry.

Re: uranium, personally I hope we develop our our nuclear energy system and find a use for it all…I take my hat off to the French here, I think their approach to nuclear energy is far more progressive than our own.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

We also have oil and natural gas, we provide china with gas also. Not to mention the wine or cotton along with the sheep, and grain. The only area we lack is brains, but even thats improving,,,, liked your post millster, there improving.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

I think you added a 0 to Australia’s % of the global economy!

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

Fortunately we are located to address fast-growing markets in the broader Asian region so the fundamentals are ok. But we should not be smug. Our economy is not super-human. And remember that the infrastructure and services growth needed to underpin growth in commodity exports needs to be funded - from those very capital markets that are currently rocking.

[Aside to True Tah] While in travels in Asia recently I saw increasing numbers of ads for Malaysian financial institutions positioning themselves as centres of excellence in Islamic finance. I found it very interesting and could be a new dynamic throughout our region, which of course will perhaps touch on sport. Imagine an Islamic Bank leveraging the Lebanese constituency of the Bulldogs and sponsoring that League team for example. No funtamental reason it shouldn’t occur, but I imagine it would nott pass uncommented on…

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

I thought it was Kiwis who rode the sheeps back rather well!!

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

you can’t really compare the Australian and US banking systems, US is far bigger and far less regulated, whereas, the Australian banks were far more regulated and operated in something of a sheltered workshop, which has to date stopped mergers of the Big 4, but for how much longer? I guess the counter argument for this is that having such an approach will never allow an Australian bank to become a global giant to extent of say Citigroup/Wells Fargo.

Ian Noble,

in the light of all this, the Newcastle Falcons recently sold their home ground to Northern Rock and leased it back - do you believe this to be a prudent business move?

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

Just to give you some more facts Ian, 3 england banks are now gone broke, the government has had to buy them out, this is only the tip of the iceburg.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

I thought a Nigerian business interest was looking at purchasing Newcastle United, although the source of the funds are likely to be dubious.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

as someone who is somewhat familar with the debt/equity rules, albeit here in Australia, Abramovich’s loan to Chelski seems to be more like an equity investments, given that its interest free and Mr Abramaovich is not guaranteed any repayment of what he is owed. Personally I would not classify it as debt, but that is the accountant in me picking the fine detail apart!

I had a conversation on the weekend and the whole Islamic finance issue came up and how it has fared well in relation to our traditonal western capitalistic model, therefore it does not surprise me that there is considerable interest in the Middle East to purchase English futbol clubs.

I thought a Nigerian business interest was looking at purchasing Newcastle United, although the source of the funds would need to be dubious.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

Nearly 50% of the overall debt held by English Premier League clubs is with Manchester United and Chelsea. The Glazier debt for financing the purchase is held on the balance sheet and is serviced out of the annual turnover of Man U. The Glaziers are very secretive about their finances and don’t interfere in the running of the club, but if Man U had a poor season probably after Alex Ferguson retires and the dip in income means they can not service the debt, then there could be a problem. Chelsea has an interest free loan from their Abramowitz of £570+M, which will probably have to be repaid, if A lost interest.

Two interesting yardsticks, according to the people handling the sale of Newcastle United there are 6 parties who have been invited to submit bids. The revised asking price is circa £280/£300M, this will realise a profit of nearly £50M to Mike Ashley if achieved. Everton have been approached and negotiations are currently underway to sell Chairman Bill Kenwright, s interest, the party concerned is believed to be from the Middle East. Everton has planning permission for a new ground and Kenwright personal fortune is insufficient to raise the finance for a new stadium and the purchse of new players.

The picture is confused and both the proposed sale of Newcastle and Everton will be a good indicator of the strength of the market, because as shown by the influx of foreign money into the EPL it is a global brand.

However in a radio interview over the weekend both Dave Whelan (Chairman of Wigan) and John Madjeski (Chairman of Reading) expressed concern about the influx of foreign investment as they were concerned about the sole of English football and the danger that clubs would become “boys toys” for the international billionaires and they would drop the clubs when they lost interest. To put it into context Wigan overdraft facility is £22M and they are close to the limit. Dave Whelan confirmed if necessary he would put a few million into the club to meet its debt, very much the tradition approach of the local businessman made good and looking after his club he has supported since he was a boy. However not a bad call as each EPL club is guaranteed £45/50M at the end of each season from the current TV contracts.

Oikee

I wish you would get your facts right, the BBC (FTA) only have the rights for the RL Challenge Cup not SL that is Mr Murdoch’s preserve. In many peoples eye particularly those from Widnes and Leigh the invitation to Celtic Crusaders in Wales to join the SL is a disaster for RL.

By the way, so there is no misunderstanding every household in the UK with a TV pays a license fee currently £130+ per annum, which goes directly to funding the BBC. Those you don’t pay. pay a fine of £1000.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

wasn’t Jason Dunstall out of the Coorparoo club…………he’s an all time goal kicking legend of the game……….

that’s the thing so many people choose to ignore or forget -

NSW for example has provided such legends (on field) as Paul Kelly, Wayne Carey, the Daniher clan, Shane Crawford

QLD has provided J.Dunstall (only a knee injury really stopped him competing with Plugger right to the record number of goals), and Michael Voss & even Aker (he is a brownlow medalist after all)…

not bad for non AFL states.

btw - did you ever hear of Des Hughes - - played 275 games for Coorparoo back in the ’60s. (made the QLD team of the century).

————-

I must commend you on your bridges………….none collapsed whilst we were up there, they seem to be doing their job!!!

The Gabba - certainly struts out, a bit like driving Brunton Ave ‘under’ the MCG…..but I think the Gabba wins for protrusion value.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

Staying in cash produces two problems, virtually zero returns, an unbalanced portfolio and for many, against most funds investment rules of a typical portfolio that has about 5% in cash and 40% in local and international equities.

It will correct itself quicker than we think.

in the meantime, a little tightness is a good thing as it will be a good excuse to remove some of the largess that has resulted from the boom. and just watch the different codes unofficially gang up together!!!!

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown:

To have a simple kick of the footy is still one of life’s great pleasures.

Add a note on why the comment is inappropriate, and click the button below to confirm

Enter the text shown: