The Trillion Token Stadium – Birmingham, crypto and an Ultimo fail

City were supposed to be “the first EFL club in the metaverse,” but the scheme collapsed in less than a month, wiping investors out. And the club continued to promote its partner even after it knew that Ultimo couldn’t deliver what had been announced.

Supercars, missing millions and fit and proper people

The co-owner of Morecambe was barred from acting as a solicitor in May after a blistering report into his conduct, but the EFL refuse to comment on why they were happy for him to remain in charge of the club.

‘Fit and Proper People: The lies and fall of OwnaFC’ out now

In 2019, an app called OwnaFC hit the market offering football fans the chance to buy and run a professional club. For just £49 a person, it claimed it was going to revolutionise football and put supporters in the boardroom. Every aspect of the club, it promised, would be discussed and voted on by those who bought in – the ‘Ownas’.

The reality was very different. Working with disillusioned customers, James Cave – the journalist and lower league football campaigner – and I helped expose the questionable structure, business practices and history of the company. It collapsed shortly after, leaving customers hundreds of thousands of pounds out of pocket.

American Hustle: The Moscow Connection – Project Big Picture and the end of football as we know it

Inside man Rick Parry is planning the sporting heist of the century.

In the mid-90s, when the Premier League was in its infancy, Russian President Boris Yeltsin was in trouble. He was struggling with a stagnant economy which meant poor poll ratings and a dire shortage of funds for his re-election campaign.

Rick Parry briefing EFL clubs on his plans

Shaun Through The Looking Glass – why the EFL’s ‘full strength’ rules are among the strangest in all of football

The Checkatrade Trophy rules oblige league teams to play a ‘full strength’ side. And yet the EFL has revised these rules so as to make them impossible to breach…

Why does the EFL promote a competition where hosting games can lose its members money? It won’t say…

Attendances at Checkatrade Trophy games are sometimes so poor that the EFL has to pay clubs to cover losses they make from hosting games. Yet it won’t admit this – nor explain why it continues to back a format where gate receipts alone don’t always cover costs.

Young Guns II: Going Down in a Blaze of Harvey – Checkatrade Trophy attendances, young English stars and Half Man Half Biscuit

Year two of Shaun Harvey’s B Team revolution is coming to a close. But has it been any more successful than the first?

Sign here to run a football club – a short guide to what’s actually in the Owners and Directors Test

We’re all furious about the Owners and Directors Test (ODT) these days, aren’t we? We know that it’s deeply flawed and hopelessly ill-equipped to prevent wrong-uns from buying clubs. But, have you actually read the ODT? Do you know what’s in it and, crucially, what should be in it? I had a read to check …

For Whom The Chimes Toll – What Portsmouth’s sale tells us about the limits of fan ownership

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Having rescued their club from ruin at the hands of a string of bad owners, Portsmouth was a club that was going to do things right. But that’s easier said than done when everybody else is still playing fast and loose…

The end of the EFL

[This piece was updated on Tuesday 02 May to include a section exploring what the EFL decision to suspend ticket sales to Orient fans tells us about the future of the league.]

Yesterday Leyton Orient fans called the league’s bluff. But it turned out the league wasn’t bluffing, it really does only care about one thing.

Look, no hands! Why sport needs hands-off owners and hands-on administrators

One of sports’ greatest owners, Dan Rooney, has died while one of its worst, Francesco Becchetti, is killing his club.

Harvey Headbanger – the EFL chief presses on even though his plans lie in ruins

The numbers are in: Shaun Harvey and his Checkatrade Trophy have failed. Both must be scrapped.

With just the final left to play, we can begin to measure the success or otherwise of this season’s changes to the Checkatrade Trophy. By bringing in young players from top academies, did it – as promised – revitalise a struggling competition? Did it inject new excitement for fans, new money for clubs and new hope for the future of the England national team?