Henry Mance of the FT provides a balanced assessment of the debate about VAR. For me, it confirms that most fans are conservative technophobes at heart. Back in the 1950s many of them opposed the introduction of floodlights. It does need tweaking and Mance has some useful suggestions. Moreover, if the VAR team can't reach a decision in three minutes, the on field decision should stand. But so much is at stake financially in modern football that mistakes by officials can't simply be shrugged off. Here’s some good news about the world in 2026: football refereeing is more accurate than ever. If you don’t believe me, look at the English Premier League’s list of recent wrong decisions. Most of the mistakes are marginal. Thanks to technology, glaring errors are now even rarer than successful Manchester United signings. It is basically impossible that England will be knocked out of this year’s World Cup by an equivalent of Diego Maradona’s 1986 Hand of God (they will ...
Throughout all their ups and downs, Plymouth Argyle have strived to be financially sustainable, so let’s take a look via the Swiss Ramble at the latest accounts to see how they have performed against this objective. Despite relegation, Argyle actually managed to generate a pre-tax profit of £0.3m in 2024/25, following a £2.4m loss the previous season. The club said this was “the result of success in player trading, which overcame significant costs of competing in the Championship”. The main driver of Argyle’s revenue growth was broadcasting, thanks to the new EFL TV rights deal, which led to an increase of £2.3m (22%) from £10.6m to £12.9m. However, there was also good growth elsewhere, as match day rose £0.4m (9%) from £5.5m to £5.9m, while commercial was up £0.4m (5%) from £9.6m to £10.0m. Argyle’s return to profitability was good news, but they have still posted losses six times in the last eight years. That said, Argyle’s losses have been very small compared to the vast...