Missed tackle

I dutifully stayed with Lord Sugar Tackles Football, from the Money Programme team, last night. The production style was nicked from The Apprentice - never have there been so many car journeys in one hour - and the portentous voice-over of Mark Halliley was replaced by the equally portentous David Morrissey.

There were, however, huge gaps in the analysis and possible solutions - no more so than in Lord Sugar's Football Game Plan: Action Point 1.

There followed snippets of Dave Whelan from Wigan, explaining how little clubs and big clubs couldn't agree on a salary cap; Dan Jones from Deloitte pointing out it could only work on a European-wide basis; and Richard Scudamore from the Premier League highlighting the problems of capping salaries as a percentage of turnover - followed by a shot of Sugar looking thoughtful and a little uncomfortable.  There was some discussion of leveraged buy-outs, but no line on clubs that become the playthings of Russian gas billionaires and Arabian sheiks.  A wider analysis of how things work in American Football and Rugby League was needed, and some more analysis of the impact of Platini's three-year rule of balanced books being a condition of Champion's League Entry.