Half time to be extended...?

Unfortunately for Mike Ashley, only the sponsors of his Newcastle United team got bailed out by the UK government

Looks like the boardroom cabal is at it again...

"In the week when the Allen Stanford scandal led to widespread accusations of cricket 'selling its soul for cash', football authorities have come under fire for plotting to extend the half-time interval in matches, apparently for commercial reasons."

What they're talking about is adding an additional five minutes to the current half time break, which is 15 minutes long. Doesn't sound like much, but all credit to the fans who see that slippery slope coming, and are at the very least reluctant to let this change happen.

I'm sure a lot of the fears come from comparisons with the bad examples that already exist- namely the fear that top level football will begin to resemble its US namesake, with ad breaks during substitutions and after goals. Remember what happened when ITV tried to sneak in a few ads into the Liverpool-Everton FA Cup match earlier this month (expecting a penalty shootout, no doubt)?

Yep, fans like me are obviously angry about these latest developments... but can anyone really have any illusions about football in this respect? When Man United run on to the pitch with the AIG logo emblazoned across their shirts, when Bolton play a home fixture at the Reebok Stadium, or Celtic gear up for the fourth round of the CIS Insurance cup, does anyone really think that that top-level football in the big commercial leagues like England hasn't already "sold its soul for cash" a long, long time ago?