The English Premier League is in a mess; a spiralling, marketing monster threatening to implode. It's also the most popular league on the planet.

Therein lies the irony.

The bigger this money-spinning beast becomes, the more unsightly it appears. As a lifelong fan who watched his first match at the age of six on his dad's shoulders at Upton Park, I take no pleasure in saying that.

New tale of Arabian knights

They have deep pockets and lasting power but their motives are suspect

By Mark Rice-Oxley

When Kevin Parker started supporting his local football club in the mid-70s, its owner was a small-time businessman who made his money from renting out television sets.

How times have changed. These days, top English clubs must have foreign billionaire owners or they are nothing. No team have won the Premier League without one since 2004. Nine of the 20 teams are bankrolled by overseas owners.

And so it was that Parker and thousands of other Manchester City fans were celebrating this week when a sheikh, described as the Donald Trump of Abu Dhabi, came up with the most startling deal yet - a ?200 million (S$519million) offer to buy the perennially-troubled club and make it the richest in the world.

India's Ambani to buy Newcastle?

London - Mike Ashley, the embattled owner of Newcastle, could be offered an early opportunity to follow Kevin Keegan out of St James' Park after it emerged that there is fresh interest in the Tyneside club from abroad.
It is becoming increasingly likely that Reliance Communications, the India-based telecoms giant, will seek formal talks with the Premier League club's board with a view to a ?220 million (S$571 million) takeover.

However, of greater significance to those furious Newcastle supporters determined to oust Ashley is the revelation that Anil Ambani, the owner of Reliance, has identified Keegan as the only credible managerial candidate capable of taking the club forward.

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