Source: Daily_Mail
Charles Sale: Chelsea face Pitch battle to oust Richard King
Chelsea are favourites to win the Premier League and are playing the attractive football long desired by owner Roman Abramovich.[LNB]But they still have numerous hospitality packages available for thesecond half of the season as Stamford Bridge fails to sell out.[LNB]Staying away: Stamford Bridge is far from full on matchdays[LNB] More from Charles Sale... Charles Sale: Eggert Magnusson will have the write of reply!20/01/10 Charles Sale: Manchester United save face by silencing the twits19/01/10 Charles Sale: LMA chief Richard Bevan calls for bosses to be based at Burton 18/01/10 Charles Sale: Revolt over FA's fat-cat salaries17/01/10 Charles Sale: Micah hoping for super agent of change15/01/10 Charles Sale: Manchester City gaffe leaves United red-faced 14/01/10 Charles Sale: Age mystery over Crystal Palace ace Victor Moses13/01/10 Charles Sale: Cardiff City tax story results in arrest of former IT head13/01/10 VIEW FULL ARCHIVE Chelsea are offering prospective buyers the chance to watch a matchfree if they purchase second-half season tickets in the premium seats.These range from £1,400 in the centenary suite to £4,000 in theexecutive club.[LNB]Some of Chelsea's 14,000 members are still sufficiently concernedabout the club moving ground to have begun a campaign to replacecomputer software magnate Richard King as long-time chairman of theChelsea Pitch Owners, claiming he is too close to the hierarchy.[LNB]Pitch Owners was set up by former chairman Ken Bates to guardagainst property developers taking over. King's opponents claim theyown the title Chelsea FC, which would prevent the club taking the namewith them if they moved.[LNB]King, who says fewer than a handful of fans want him out, insiststhe club own the copyright to trade as Chelsea FC but must receivemajority permission from the Pitch Owners to take the name away fromStamford Bridge.[LNB] The Brazilian Government have invited Olympic Minister Tessa Jowell,who has eight years of top-level experience on the project, to SouthAmerica to help with their initial preparations for the 2016 Games inRio.[LNB]The more immediate question is what happens here with the Olympicbrief if the Tories win the General Election in May. It is understoodshadow sports minister Hugh Robertson would become Minister of Sportand the Olympics, but without the Cabinet status Jowell enjoys. AndJowell's great Olympic knowledge will go to waste just two years beforethe Games unless she loses her seat as an MP at the election, allowingher more flexibility in accepting another 2012 position.[LNB] TalkSport, who have signed Liverpool's knowledgeable Jamie Carragher(right) as a World Cup pundit, are mounting a serious challenge toRadio 5 Live's football monopoly in South Africa this summer andbeyond. [LNB]The UK's only national commercial speech radio station are competingstrongly in the Premier League rights tender for the next three seasons.[LNB] The American influence of Derby chief executive Tom Glick, who iscompeting against Blackpool's Karl Oyston and Sheffield Wednesday'sNick Parker for the vacant Championship representative place on theFootball League board, has resulted for the first time inelection-style campaigning for the post. The candidates are writingletters promoting their claims to all the other clubs in theChampionship before next week's ballot.[LNB] FA chief is over HillThe FA restructuring under lan Watmore will not include finding areplacement for former commercial boss Jonathan Hill, who was the bestpaid head of department at Wembley. Instead, Watmore is expected tohire agency IMG to deal with sponsorship and commercial issues.[LNB]Wembley, meanwhile, went to the trouble of putting on a World Cupsecurity seminar this week to inform the media how to prepare for thepossible dangers facing them in South Africa. Perhaps it was a tadunnecessary for the Safe 2010 brochure prepared by a specialist firm ofex-military and senior police officers to advise cancelling the milk.[LNB] West Ham's fanciful hopes of moving to the Olympic Stadium face theserious obstacle of the authorities from the Government downwards feeling so supportive towards construction billionaire Frank Lowy,leader of Australia's World Cup bid. Lowy gained many influentialbackers by keeping on track his £1billion-plus Westfield shoppingcentre in Stratford, which will result in 8,000 new jobs, despite thedifficulties of the global financial downturn. And it is known Lowydoesn't want shoppers put off going to his mega mall on match days byhordes of football fans.[LNB] [LNB]
