Hammers’ new shirt deal likely to upset star

Last night, West Ham announced a new shirt sponsorship deal with SBOBET.com, said to be worth around £2m for 18 months. The good news for Hammers fans is that the club will happily exchange the current shirt for the updated one free of charge.

The news probably won’t go down so well with Matthew Etherington - donning the logo of a betting company probably isn’t the most healthy option for a recovering gambling addict.

Global belt tightening brings mixed fortunes to the big four

Manchester Utd’s £14m-a-year- AIG shirt sponsorship looked to be on rocky ground earlier this week, and the future of the deal looked no more certain as the US Federal Reserve rescued the insurance behemoth with a £47bn refinancing package yesterday: rather understandably, they will no longer consider sports sponsorship a ‘core activity’.

According to this morning’s Guardian, however, the frailty of the American International Group should not concern United as much as the intentions of the Glazer family. Malcolm and co have been forced to spend $150bn on ‘PIK‘ loans in recent months, the interest on which is a hefty 14.45 per cent. A Glazer representative insists that “the investment is for the long term,” although the Guardian strongly suspects ex Football League chairman, United fan and major dealmaker Keith Harris is touting