Shout! Issue 4 - Clubs Chasing Unreachable Goals

Apologies for Shout being late this month. SportTrades is currently going through a dramatic change in structure and operational procedures. We are also close to announcing agreements with high profile clubs and organisations. We will soon be welcoming new National Account Managers to the team, we will introduce them once the ink has dried on their incredibly lucrative deals. It is a very exciting time for SportTrades, with opportunities to compete at the highest level with a team full of quality, commitment and professionalism.

The issues of Sunday Newspapers are decreasing as we head fast towards the World Cup Kick off in South Africa. Fabio will then no longer read about our stars private lives, but instead can look forward to debate about his final squad selection. The areas of concern have been highlighted by all experts and the certainty is the only men who will be 100% happy are those involved with selection.

We are after all a Nation of Football Managers. So money where my mouth is and here goes. SportTrades England World Cup Squad:

GK David James, Robert Green and Joe Hart

Def: Glen Johnson, Ashley Cole*, John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown, Joleon Lescott, Matthew Upson and Stephen Warnock
• If Cole fails to recover from injury, replaced by Leighton Baines.

MID: James Milner, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Gareth Barry, Joe Cole, Michael Carrick, Aaron Lennon*, Stuart Downing
• If Lennon fails to recover from injury replaced with Shaun Wright – Philips

Att: Wayne Rooney, Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch and Emile Heskey

What would be your squad for your World Cup?

* The original squad included David Beckham, who has subsequently being ruled out of the World Cup with a torn Achilles. Good luck Becks on your recovery.

The last month has been a poignant month for English Football Clubs. The well documented troubles at Portsmouth, the court battles of Cardiff City and Southend United. Clubs have succumbed to the pressure of the financial plight; Chester City and Farsley Celtic are no longer able to compete in their respective leagues. Both clubs hope to be reformed in leagues lower down the football pyramid, and we wish them success. For different reasons, although financial management is an issue, the Red Knights are reported to be preparing for a take over at Manchester United and dissatisfaction is widely reported at Liverpool with their owners.

The core to the problem is finance, clubs over stretching to compete in or reach the top. Many clubs do not have the correct financial structure or catchment area to achieve their dreams, for others it is simply mismanagement. The only solution to sustain the current level of investment and wages is unbearable and will rip the heritage from our clubs and sport. The Premier League, to become franchised and regionalised, with no promotion or relegation but licenses been awarded, and renewed on a regular basis. The Premier League being reduced to 18 clubs, the top 3 qualifying for the Champions League with the F.A.Cup winners claiming the 4th place, if they meet the restrictions of the competition. I almost feel sick writing it. One alternative is salary quotas, equal for each team. You can pay a player as much as you want within the set quota. Youth team players, who have been brought through that particular clubs system from a pre-agreed age and born within an agreed area from the club base, will not be added to the salary quota for the first 3 years of their professional contract. The benefits, the league will become more competitive and the development of our young players greatly increased. The quota will have to be realistic for each League. This is a very simplistic idea, and a more detailed structure would have to be built in, but not to complex. I would be interested to here your thoughts. I am afraid to save our clubs financial and operational restriction have to be in place. By all means pay a player a huge salary, but you will be unable to have a squad full of high earners, you can still have a squad packed with talent.

Let us be realistic, there are Club owners and Directors who are responsible in their actions and are more than familiar with the clubs heritage and passion within the community. There are international owners of our clubs, who are more than aware of the history, Mr Randy Lerner being one. We are only too aware of those who are not and sympathise with fans whose clubs are currently been torn apart by owners out to make quick profit and other agenda's. So the F.A. should be encouraged to follow the fitness test for club ownership that it has created but urged to be more stringent and equal for all in the process.

There are systems and procedures in place that allows for the vast sums of money received by the F.A, for image rights and broadcasting etc, to help fund the rest of footballs pyramid and its development in ALL areas. Remember talent does not just come from deprived areas, although I agree more intense assistance is needed for social as well as sporting reasons in those cases, but help is needed at clubs across our society. The procedure of funds filtered down from the Premier League and other sources of income should be even more accessible to grassroots of our sport. The fund, boosted by proceeds received for Football League competitions and private funding, will continue to help football grow, Total Football. Total administration. Again, structures for the process will need to be reviewed, made more efficient and affective and managed so that help is received at all levels.

The question of a play-off place for the 4th Champions League place has been floated and disappeared, probably never to be seen again. I mentioned the F.A.Cup in a moment of madness above, how is this for an idea? The winners of the F.A.Cup gain the 4th Champions League spot, as long as they finish the season within the top 16 of the Premier League, if not it reverts back to 4th place.

This has been dominated by Football this month, next edition we will look at the Super League, BBL and the 6 nations. Look out for the sport of Ringette, Adam will have more details soon. Finally it was with great sadness that we learnt of the death of Keith Alexander. I never had the privilege of meeting Mr Alexander, but from all those who had and those who knew him well, he was one of life’s good men, sadly missed. Our thoughts go to his family and friends and the players, staff and fans at Macclesfield Town FC.

IN MEMORY OF KEITH ALEXANDER.

Shout! Issue 3 - Finances, World Cup and Rugby

Welcome to the third posting of Shout.

I have recently been in conversation with Geoff Brown of the Hull Wasps Basketball Club. He provided me with some startling news as to the amount spent on administration. I had no idea as to the cost of a player’s registration, but if asked to guess would not have been close to the actual price. I am familiar with many of the organisations and schemes that provide funding and assistance for grassroots clubs and I admire the work they do and they are necessary for the development level of sports and participators. In 2012 sport is put into the spotlight. Individual athletes can be funded through UK Sport and similar organisations. Traditional sports are funded at development level and a number of schemes are available to pyramid clubs to develop training, facilities etc. The financial situations can be improved with a greater chance of sponsorship for teams in mainstream sport.

The sports that have less national exposure, including some with strong branding in other parts of the world, seem unable to improve financially when they move through the levels of their sport. We should look after the development of clubs as well as developing general participation. Foundations of any sport must be solid but we must provide funding and support at every level to sustain growth. So why don’t we provide a fund that will assist in administration costs by subsidising player and club registration costs at least? This would give clubs more money to promote their sport and organisation in the local community, still allowing the sports governing organisation to continue to promote the sport nationally.

At the time of writing this post John Terry is in talks with Fabio Capello. I hope the outcome is that John Terry resigns the England Captaincy or at the very least accepts a break. Many have commented on the moral issue, I suspect my thoughts mirror that of the majority of the nation. I have great sympathy with the innocent, Toni Poole, their children and Wayne Bridge and I imagine Mr Terry himself feels a bit of a fool. We must get this back to a football matter for England. The other side of the fall out is now private. Resignation is the best way for John Terry to move forward. He still can go to the World Cup on a years suspension of his captaincy. OK he would still not captain England through the World Cup, but it is an option. It is important for Mr Capello to make the decision as the England football manager on football issues only. Three questions have to be answered. 1) Has or will JT’s form suffer? He is one of Europe's best centre backs after all. 2) Will team morale be affected by his inclusion? 3) Is our cover better at centre back or left back to cope with squad withdrawals. Depending on the answers to these questions I hope Fabio will base his decision on football, which I imagine would be to take John Terry to South Africa.

The Superleague began last week. Crusaders have moved from Bridgeend to Wrexham. They hosted, champions Leeds Rhinos last weekend and kept in touch with them for an hour of the game before losing. The game was a sell out at the Racecourse Ground when 10000 people turned out to see for themselves rugby league in North Wales. I hope that Crusaders grow and advance the growth of rugby league to new areas. The RFL went to long lengths before awarding new licenses. These steps included financial stability to location. So questions have been asked about a breach of conditions just a year after awarding the licences. That said, Crusaders look on course to be a success at their new home. The next round of Superleague licenses is 2012. The RFL is unsure of the club but accept that it would widen the availability of rugby league. It should be giving licenses to compete in the National Championship, affectively becoming Superleague 2. This would give clubs a probation period and time to increase fan base and secure their financial footing.

Football clubs precarious financial situation is still prominent in the news. Crystal Palace reacted to administration with encouraging displays on the pitch, including an F.A.Cup win against Wolves, with a perfect hat trick from right back Danny Butterfield. Notts County have a stay of execution with the best chants coming from Dagenham & Redbridge fans ‘Your grounds been sold to IKEA’ as Sven took his seat. Portsmouth continue to be a soap opera, a new owner just this morning, who already wants to sell it on. I hope it’s sorted soon for Pompey, the fans deserve it. Lack of business before the transfer window must mean Portsmouth have a chance of survival.

Turning to rugby union and Danny Cipriani is turning his back on England heading to the Super15 new boys Melbourne Rebels in October. The deal being clinched on the eve of the 6 Nations. Our predictions are Ireland to retain the championship with France pushing them. No truth in the rumour that, following his handling skills, Thiery Henry will be available for selection at centre for France.

This month at SportTrades we have secured deals at a number of racecourses, including Cheltenham, Ascot and Kempton Park for sponsorship of individual races or entire cards. You can get more information on our ‘Racing for Success’ campaign by contacting us at info@sporttrades.co.uk. We will be in a position to name the backer for our Girls in Football Premier Sponsorship package very soon, but there is still the Regional and Development packages available. SportTrades are finalising details regarding three new major clients, we will release more details by mid February. SportTrades Report continues to grow, with new features ‘Kevin and Paddy on Rugby League’ and ‘Who let the Dogs out?’. Our F.A.Cup Tracker will feature Fulham v Notts County in the next round, with Accrington Stanley leading the Merit Table with 4 appearances.

And of course we continue to follow the Iceman and his Chieftains team as they head towards the end of season run-in and the countdown to the post-season play-offs.

See you in March.

Rob McAvoy

Since writing this post, John Terry has been stripped of the England Captaincy

Shout! Issue 2 - Happy New Year

Hello and welcome to 2010 and the 2nd posting of Shout. I hope you had a restful break and all the batteries are recharged for the year ahead.

As we enter the new decade, debate featured as to what we will name it, we had the Noughties what will this decade be called? The decade of sport (or the sporties) is upon us, when the worlds greatest sporting events return to our shores. The Olympics are already here in 2012, a rugby World Cup, world championships covering a host of sports and (fingers crossed) the FIFA World Cup in 2018.

Football, will be top of the agenda as the new decade starts with a World Cup. The Stadia being prepared in South Africa look stunning, and the draw in December brings with it a sense of reality. We will hear technical terms for injuries that will after years of obscurity become household names, disappointment when players miss out, opinions from the public of who should go the excitement and debate builds, sport is great.

Shout 2 will concentrate on Football on this posting.

December brought us many talking points, not least Mick McCarthys decision to field a below strength team. My initial belief was that your strongest available team should be selected for each match. That is, however, too simplistic in the modern game. Players energy levels are saved for Premier League and European matches mainly at the expense of early rounds of F.A.Cup and League Cup games. Some Managers in the League Cup at least maintain playing fringe players throughout the competition. I now accept that top clubs at the top level of the League prioritise, their squads are good enough to take them through to latter stages of any tournament by playing fringe players. It benefits the club and also the players, the club get ideas of the players ability and the players get experience. The other end of the League, what is the difference, why was Mick hounded so much. Wolves away to Man U followed by a game with Burnley, save the stronger players for the match against Burnley where you can have reasonable chance of winning all the points. We are at a disadvantage of this being posted the day after Leeds get a fantastic result at Old Trafford, but in truth how often does that happen. Was Mick right, yes, 3 points were gained at Burnley,arguably a more important game than Manchester United.

The Sack Race has begun. Bolton had never warmed to Gary Megson and the position that the Lillywhites are in at present, his sacking could not of surprised any one. Mark Hughes a different matter. His record at Man City has been superb, but that is not the issue, new owners, new agenda the writing was on the wall. The issue is the nature of the sacking. I am not stupid enough to think that clubs don’t approach other managers regarding appointments behind the incumbents back, to have him at the ground for the last game was somewhat of a slap in the face. Then the charades played by the board was just farcical. I am sure that Roberto Manchini will do well at the club, but keep looking over your shoulder Bob.

A message of support for the Portsmouth fans and back room staff. Your club is going through a period of astonishing mismanagement. A club with that tradition and history should not be treated in such a way. Players not being paid is wrong and bad enough, but the back room staff at the club is a disaster, these guys are not on the same wages as the club stars. Play up Pompey, you have our support.

This brings us onto foreign ownership. Notts County, Portsmouth and to Manchester City have had millions pumped into them. City have a financial structure that appears to be secure. Other teams just seem to have the initial hope of escape from the financial doldrums by an injection of cash, only to find the situation worse. Owners Tests by the F.A, I agree with and understand the logic, but where do we go from here. Clubs unable to pay staff, internal spats. Football is now big business and even the teams in the lower leagues appear to be regarded as vehicles of dreams and ego’s. What is the answer? Do we initiate that a percentage of the clubs ownership is held by Supporters trusts as some sort of safety net and a representive elected to the main board, would allowing a Chairman a 3 year term and then elections, with a cap on the number of terms he can serve as Chairman/President, work. Do we cap wages for players or go down the Rugby League model of each club being giving a wage structure to adhere to each season. I hope somebody has the answer, because we will continue to suffer the problems of Portsmouth, the ambiguity of Notts County and the personality clashes of Liverpool. The commodities of each club is not just the players and fittings but also the supporters, tradition and history, that's what makes it unique to own one of our football clubs.

The question regarding sponsorship when sport stars receive negative publicity has risen again. The Gillette Curse as we will call it has seen high profile stars being doubted. Thiery’s was professional and Tigers, well personal. Tiger seems to be affected more in terms of loss of sponsorship, with many companies dropping him like a hot potato. Does it really affect a brand, set aside the moral issues, do products receive more exposure with the possibility that you might ‘drop your star’ than actually doing so. There is no doubt that errors of judgement have been made and a strong call for those in the public domain to come clean, with immediate effect, at the slightest sign of a true story breaking. The argument is that the face of a brand should be pure, but are their customers? Surely potential clients will be more confident of a product when it is marketed as being for everyone in everyday life, especially the talented and tormented. If you can get that within one person so much the better.

Shout! Issue 1 - Welcome To Shout

Hello and welcome to the first official posting of Shout. We will be publishing this feature on the first Friday of every month from now on. Shout is the opportunity for SportTrades to share opinions on sporting debates from the past month and promote opportunities available at our partners.

At 5pm this evening in Cape Town, the draw for the 2010 World Cup takes place. England has found themselves seeded, so will be drawn from Pot 1. The remaining teams are distributed amongst the other 3 Pots by geographical location. The theory being that each group will contain teams from at least 3 continents. Good so far, simple, what could possibly go wrong? The draw will take hours, to milk as much from sponsorship as possible, and undoubtedly FIFA will find their route to incompetence, which makes for the entertainment. As a Sports Media and Marketing company, I would love to be able to give my clients so much uninterrupted coverage, and understand the lengthy process by FIFA is to accommodate the competitions pay masters. As a sports fan, I find that the organisation that wishes to bring 3G technology into matches, using pots and balls to determine groups in the ‘Greatest show on Earth’ slightly ironic.

We test drove SHOUT after the France vs. Ireland game and covered our opinions on technology. The introduction of technology is inevitable, but we are not convinced. Team sports can be divided into two groups’ momentum and segment. Segment being a game that has natural breaks where plays are restarted in pre determined positions or at the point of breakdown, for example American Football. Technology will not alter the rhythm of these games. Football is within the momentum group. It has irregular natural breaks and the introductions of technology will only slow the game and make it sterile. The vast amount of money at stake is one of the reasons sited for the introduction of technology. Life is a gamble, bonuses in other walks of life are sometimes giving to the people who least deserve it. Why should sport be different, it’s one of its appeals.

Can we rely on Human instinct and senses to officiate sporting occasions? I think we can, look at the recent ATP Tournament in the O2 Centre. When players used their challenges to dispute a call they were more than often wrong. I don’t know if there are any official statistics on this, but it must be very high in favour of the officials. Other sports such as Rugby League can on occasions and with technology, not confirm beyond reasonable doubt that a try has been scored.

A brief moment for the curse of Gillette. Thank goodness for Roger Federer, he only lost in a semi- final, what a close shave.

We move on to the Autumn Internationals. Ireland showed us they were the strongest team from the Northern Hemisphere over the tests. They surely must be installed as favourites for the Six Nations, starting in February. Andy Robinsons Scotland hit the highs with a fantastic win over Australia only to return to square one. Wales and France put in solid performances throughout and will challenge Ireland to the Six Nations crown.

England, what happened? Yes, injuries in key positions were crucial. Games against Australia and New Zealand are difficult without your preferred selection, an uphill struggle. We can never count upon Argentina as a nailed on victory and I’m sure we didn’t set the team up in that frame of mind. We, however, should always have a performance that shows grit, determination and pride no matter where the players are ranked in selection. I, like Martin Johnson - without doubt, want England to win every game, and his hand was forced into changes. This was an ideal opportunity to trial youth along side more experienced players. An opportunity missed, as they spent time sat on the bench. The spotlight has fallen on the amount of games our players are involved in, compared to those in the Celtic League. Central contracts prevent this being even more.

Top Celtic League sides very rarely play their strongest side in that competition until later stages. Concentrating on their provincial team’s progress through European Tournaments. An advantage? Well yes, but England should have a pool of players big enough to cope with this commitment. Should we change the Celtic League format rather than the English or French model to level the playing field, I believe so.

Let us just rip up the European Cups framework, start again and make it in unison throughout. The Premier European Competition should only select teams from the top 3 Leagues. Guinness Premiership, Top 14 and the Celtic League, including the 2 Italian teams now entering. Top 6 clubs from each league, then 2 further teams chosen from a greater try per game ratio qualify. Then split the teams into four groups of 5 with 8 matches each and the top 2 in each group going through to the Quarter final. The secondary competition also selected from the remaining teams within the three leagues but development teams included to make the numbers up to 24. A level playing field, possibly, some countries within the Celtic league may not have representatives in the premier European competition. So surely the best development of Rugby Union is for each country to have a strong National League to provide teams for exciting European competitions.

SportTrades are proud to announce our partnership with Hull Wasps Basketball club. We will be looking for sponsors in a number of areas of the club, to help them club develop and to increase involvement within the community. We continue to search for partners to promote Women’s Football with Polly Courtney at Girls in Football doing fantastic work. If you are interested in any opportunities in helping secure grassroots sport and beyond please contact us.

Shout will be back in January, however until then I would like to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Rob McAvoy

Drug Abuse, Cheating and Technology. A SHOUT Special

This is a Special Edition of Shout, the main postings for this feature will begin on the 4th December. Rashid Ramzi the Gold Medal holder of the Olympic 1500 will be stripped of his title by the IAAF. The move has been welcomed by the Vice President of the organisation, Lord Coe.

The advancement of technology for testing of drug abuse has been significant. The detection in Mr Ramzi of Cera, a blood booster, was evident when the tests were repeated. Ramzi has been requested to return his medal and the record books accordingly rewritten. Mr Ramzi is currently challenging the decision and has lodged an appeal with The Court of Arbitration in Sport.

This leads us nicely onto Mr Andre Agassi.

Agassi has long passed the time limit when tests can be checked, there were not any in the first place. Mr Agassi has taken the route of guilt and conscience, to declare to the world that he took performance enhancing drugs. Possibly a publicity exercise to increase sales of his book that is just me being cynical. We are unaware of the competitions exactly this cheating took place in, however, why don’t we strip him of all titles during the timescale of his abuse, cheating. He can also return the competition money won and for good measure a life time ban on attendance of future tournaments. I suspect the money will hurt most.

This is flowing smoothly, drug abuse to cheating, we can not let this special posting of Shout be complete without a comment on Mr Thierry Henry and cheating.

Should there be a replay? Well no, not without overturning the injustice of other incidents that took place in previous matches and within the actual finals not just qualifiers. There should be clear guidelines included within the competition rules before any tournament starts, covering evntualities and situations. We would be arguing forever otherwise and be constantly prone to knee jerk reactions. Should we include technology? Why not, football at this level is so soulless and far removed from reality we might as well. Just leave real football (Championship to Grassroots)alone, let us have our debates in pubs, clubs and living rooms. In introducing match technology, I believe the negatives are greater than the positives.

Let us briefly look at the match. Ireland were fantastic throughout. The performances of Liam Lawrence and Sean St Ledger were impressive. Richard Dunne, Shay Given, Kevin Kilbane and John O’Shea produced the consistency almost expected of them. Robbie Keane, for me, was Man of the Match, he was everywhere.Ireland, however, had opportunities to settle the play-off Damien Duff and Robbie Keane missed golden chances in the second half. Let’s fast forward the build up to controversy. The cross that preceded the incident, there was an offside, and then the ball was allowed to bounce by McShane instead of clearing it, then the incident.

The referee was solid, he was confident in his decision making and correct, but then we got to extra time. He perhaps had a restricted view; the ball was also on the blind side of the Assistant. The Official on the Goal line would spot it, but please let’s not go there. So we get down to the human instinct. Put yourself in poor Thierry’s place, what was going through his mind ‘I’ve handled it, Billy has scored, we’re probably through to the finals of the World Cup, the ref didn’t spot it, the President of UEFA is French, Ireland has voted yes in the Lisbon Treaty’. It comes down to the pure act of Sportsmanship, the best a man can get.

Robbie Fowler had it, but the officials still made him take the penalty. Thierry claims he advised the Ref he handled it and immediately confessed in his post match interviews. Should Officials be encouraged to listen to players confessions and act accordingly or do we open up a whole new can of worms. My next statement is not connected to Thierry or any player or official in the France v Ireland match. News is coming out from Germany regarding match fixing, officials reacting on players confessions during matches could alter the outcome and benefit the minority of unscrupulous people within the game. Officials have their hands tied, technology will without question go along way to solve this, but it is such a remote occurrence is it necessary? It will disrupt the flow of a game and eradicate the essential components of post match debate and intrigue. These are as much a part of the game as the playing itself. Ireland has certainly been unlucky and their performance deserved more. Perhaps like Mr Ramzi the FAI can take their appeal to the Court of Arbitration in Sport, but don’t ask Roy Keane to be a character witness

Onwards to South Africa. Fifa will bring in CCTV FA, we will have a team of 8 match officials in striped uniforms and flags and life will be good. Opinions will be redundant because we will know without reasonable doubt; the game will have enough breaks to fit in about 2 adverts while decisions are made. Those of you who watch Super League will know that not every replay is conclusive and even the commentators call video feed back wrong.

People fear that without match technology being made available, there are concerns about future Sponsorship and funding for the game. Sit down and think, your company tag is visible at the point of the incident, it will be shown across the world time after time, or you sponsored the match that had a momentous controversial moment that will be mentioned time after time. Priceless!

This article is full of contradictions, highlighting the difficulties in producing a uniformed formula to police all sports from performance enhancing drugs and cheating. Technology in sport, regarding supporting decision making, is inevitable whatever your beliefs. First, however, it is important that all sports have a framework detailing pre tournament rules and conditions, no matter of the status of the offender within individual sports.

Clear guidelines must be agread before any compettion, covering all posibilities that can occur and the procedure to be followed. It is obviously impossible to predict all situations, so exceptional rulings may be required from time to time. The three incidents mentioned in this article are all far too common and a pre tournament agreement on structure of rules and procedures would be beneficial. So before technology, let sport agree to its terms and conditions, its frameworks and guidelines, let it make clear the punishment for drug enhancement, cheating and other wrongs and adhere to them.

Let us not forget that FIFA allegedly changed the rulings on World Cup play-off seeding for Europe, once the teams involved were confirmed. So before we start this World Cup and other tournaments around the world administrators must make the rules, conditions, and procedures clear, they must punish those who without reasonable doubt cheat or illegally enhance performance. I believe Thierry Henry is not a bad person and a mixture of instinct and the occasion got the better of him, Mr Agassi was pure greed and Rashid Ramzi the pressure of failure. Before technology sport needs to be guided by a framework of substance and clarity, before we call for the heads of officials, coaches and players lets look at the suitability of the administrators.

Shout was written by Rob McAvoy,SportTrades

WELCOME TO SHOUT

Shout is the new feature coming to SportTrades Report. Shout will express our opinions on sporting news from the previous month, to promote opportunities available with the company, publish updated information regarding SportTrades Report features and forthcoming events.

SportTrades Report is edited by Adam Dennehey and his postings will cover a wide range of sports and evoke much discussion and debate. The Ice Man by Pete Lewis will continue to follow the Chelmsford Chieftains season in Ice Hockey. Sol y Futbal by Ian Lanes will report on the fortunes of UD Lanzarote in the Spanish 3rd Division. Our F.A.Cup Tracker feature started with the Barkingside v Bowers & Pitsea tie in the Extra Prelim Round. We followed the winners through each subsequent round created from that starting point. We are now at Stage 7 Accrington Stanley v Salisbury City.

We are developing our prediction game 2012 that will be available for the 2010/2011 season, which will be featured via SportTrades Talk on Twitter and SportTrades Report. We will run a trial of this feature during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and post more details in January.

SportTrades have joined partnerships with a few organisations. We have joined forces with Girls in Football to increase awareness and funding for the grassroots of the women’s game. We are also in negotiations with Teams 4 You to find a partnership that will benefit that charity. Our own campaign ‘Support Your Local’ was put on the back burner for a couple of months due to other commitments. We will be in a position during December, however, to launch this promotion. Our aim will be to encourage season ticket holders of Premiership and League clubs, to go and watch their local ‘Non League’ club if their team are away.

This month has seen the extremes of sport. The dark side, Formula One Drivers instructed to crash, retired tennis legends declaring their drug abuse during winning titles and premiership footballers jailed. The bright side, England qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Jensen Button became world champion and Beth Tweddle produced a fantastic display to also become world champion. So October produced many talking points I’m sure November will do the same.

The Shout postings will be made on the first Friday of each month with the first on 4th December, make a note in you diary. SportTrades Diaries are available for clubs to order. Designed to incorporate a season, they run from July 2010 – June 2011. Your club Logo can be printed on the cover and we can also contain club information pages. Please contact us if interested. There is no minimum order, however, the more you request the cheaper the cost of the individual diary.

SHOUT is coming to SportTrades Report 4th December.