A Club in Focus: Govanfrontinvaders

This week: govanfrontinvaders.

Managed by Glasgow Rangers supporter Jim Hisbent.
Stadium Capacity: 22480
Current GW Rank: 198
Youth Rank: 85

Govan were formed November 2008 and are one of the founding members of the WCA. So far govanfrontinvaders have picked up 2 senior trophies; the WCA Cup in season 2 and the Charity Shield in season 3. They were also runners up in the Championship in season 2.

Jim's side are famous for their youth acadamy - which has produced several of there first team players. The player to watch at the moment is young midfielder Sergio Dutra who has broken through to the fringes of the first team. Govans star at the moment though is undoubtedly Bruno Fornaroli a 28 year old stiker with a MV of £1.2 million. Bruno joined the club in season 1 following a successfull trial and a fee of £150,000 was all that was needed to make the move permanent.

Govan aren't big spenders and indeed there record transfer fee is only £675,000 for Juan Pablo Pino. Although Jim has proved to be a savvy manager and has recouped nearly all he has spent with there record incoming fee being £1.3 million for Nico Medina.

WCA News - Edition 10

We're Back! Welcome to edition 10 of the WCA News - back after a season long brake!

1st up - UFFA qualifiers

The WCA representatives in the UFFA Gold Cup are Crimson Fists and LetsTalkAboutCesc. Crimson have been drawn in group with Dueling Dragons, Chester Rats & Athens Utd. LTAC will face Team Kolbotn, 4ytry and Smithson Town.

In the Silver Cup draw the WCA had 3 entrants - Band of Brothers, Matosinhos SC and Davos Utd. Matosinhos will face Athens Eureka Giants, BOR FC and Ajax Trees. Davos are up against Old Avellonians, Mongiat Rovers and Gothia FC whilst Band of Brothers have been drawn in a group with Alcoholics, Mutantes Raivosos and Kop fc.

Finally the 4 entrants in the Cup Winners Cup are Cheechsters who will face Nags Head Rovers, Gobias Industries FC and FC Nueva Casta FC. Alea lacta Est have been drawn against Belesta SV, Rhinokopolous FC and Sacramento Forrest. Unfortunately Papagaios Do Riot and Steinshamn Utd were drawn in the same group and will face Eastlands FC as well as Inter Blues.

The WCA News wishes all participants the best of luck and looks forward to covering there progress in the respective competitions.

Premiership Transfer News

Premiership managers can breathe a sigh of relief as one of the striking greats of the GW has left the WCA. Pavel Pogrebynyok has left Matosinhos SC and signed for Salford Reds for a fee of £500,000. Pogrebynyok was not the only player to leave Matosinhos following him out the door was Joao Moutinho to Athens Eureka Giants for a fee of £1.5 million. Also leaving the WCA is Davos Utd's flying winger Damian Ismodes - rumour has it that Band of Brothers were interested in keeping the winger in the WCA but the two clubs could not come to an agreement. In the end Ismodes moved to Chester Rats for a fee of £1.6 million.

Now if you think that means an easier time for goalkeepers and defenders in the WCA think again.

Matosinhos have reinvested some of there cash in striker Emmanuel Adebayor - £1.5 million to be exact whether he proves to be as successfull as his predecessor Pogrebynyok remains to be seen. Also active in the recruiting front were Band of Brothers - signing Gary Glen from Zen Eagles for a sum of £2.5 million the BoBs will be hoping for Glen to continue to show the predatory instincts he did for Zen. Newly promoted Alea lacta Est have also signed up a new striker - Imed Trabelsi for a fee of £700,000. Finally with all these new strikers popping up we need somebody who'll be able to keep the goals out and Davos Utd have signed possibly the best goal keeper in Clough - Igor Akinfeev for a relatively modest fee of £2 million pounds.

Championship Transfer News

Relegated duo Highbury Utd and Hamilton 1961 have both been active in the transfer market in there quests to be promoted back to the Premiership. Both sides spending £400k - Hamilton on striker Ari and Highbury on midfielder Bryan Arguez. New WCA side Sporting Club Bainy have spent near enough £3 million as they look to win promotion the Premiership at the first attempt - bringing in Nani for a fee of £1.6 million and Aaron Hunt for £595,000 as well as a couple of others.

Media Deals Agreed

Media deals for the coming season were announced today, £658 million was shared between the ten federations. For the first time in recent memory the XEFA was not able to secure the best deal for their members, it was the CWA who secured the best deal (worth 1.12m per club) with the PFA second with a deal worth 1.13m per club.

Perhaps alarmingly, membership of the UFFA has dropped 12% from 709 to only 619 member clubs, leading to the closure of the Super Evening Football Association following last season's closure of the Early Evening Football Association. However, the percentage of inactive clubs in the union remains static at 26% of overall membership.

The only federation to see a growth in membership (discounting the merger between the SEFA and PFA) was the SFA, rising from 37 to 42 members. The WCA remained stable at 39 member clubs but every other federation saw a reduction in membership, with the XFA worst affected -- suffering a 20% drop in membership compared to last season.

Federation	Members	Media Deal	Per Club
XEFA	73 (-3)	£81m	£1.11m (-0.02)
PFA	75 (+20)	£84.8m	£1.13m (-0.02)
NFA	20 (-4)	£21.8m	£1.09m (0)
AEFA	74 (-6)	£81.4m	£1.1m (+0.02)
MLFA	26 (-6)	£28.6m	£1.1m (+0.02)
XFA	40 (-10)	£42.4m	£1.06m (+0.01)
CWA	70 (-2)	£78.4m	£1.12m (+0.04)
SFA	42 (+5)	£44.1m	£1.05m (+0.02)
CIFA	160 (-27)	£157.4m	£0.98m (-0.02)
WCA	39 (0)	£38.1m	£0.98m (+0.01)
TOTAL	619 (-90)	£658m	£1.06m (+0.04)

Transfer Roundup

It's been a crazy week in the transfer market. Relegation Fodder manager Dave Parker offloaded star players Keirrison and Marek Hamsik just days after allowing fan favourite Ever Banega to leave the club. Keirrison joins Honka of the AEFA Premiership for a fee of £2m, but Fodder fans were particularly unhappy that Hamsik was allowed to join SFA Premiership title rivals Nottingham Arna, despite a healthy transfer fee of £2.8m. Parker stated "I have full confidence in the ability of the players already at the club to take this team forward".





Big spending Rafa Popovic's King Krimson completed signing of midfielder Romain Blanchard from Cardiff United for a fee of £6.75m, making him the most expensive player in the world post-Crash. The deal has been part funded by the departures of Elvir Filipovic (£3.5m to Aletheia FC) and Luka Modrik (£2.8m to Razorshot FC).



ZenEagles completed the signing of Brazilian midfielder Willian in a player plus cash deal that sees dominant centre-back Gerard Pique and £1.25m head the other way to Inter Blues.





Andy Parkes Dueling Dragons' complete a double deal, bringing in Maor Bozaglo for £2.5m from Strawberry Fields FC on the same day Karim Benzema arrived in an exchange deal with Harlesden Harriers for Javi Martinez, who only signed for the club earlier this season. Questioned on Martinez's short stay at the club manager Parkes responded "I was in the market for a high quality striker and Benzema certainly fitted the bill. It meant parting with Martinez in order to make him a Dragon, but managed to secure the signing of another long term target Bozaglo".

SFA Manager of the Season

The result of the inaugural Social Manager of the Season award was announced by SFA organiser Adam Richardson earlier today. With only 1 vote seperating the top two managers as voted for by their peers:

Some would say that success doesn't translate into the respect of other managers, it all depends on how it is achieved. But in terms of this vote both the top managers have won a few trophies this season, and I can announce that this seasons winner is [dramatic pause] Mr Lenny Bernstein!

"Always up for a good chat, sporting and doesn't gloat too much when he batters your youths."

In a close 2nd place was Mr Dave Parker, this is what our winner had to say about our runner up:

"This has been a breakthrough year for Dave's senior side, who are leading the charge for the Premiership with a lot of homegrown talent. Meanwhile, his youth team has continued to perform well at u21 level and, most significantly they have won the World Youth Cup this season, a great achievement for Dave and for the SFA"

It must be noted that when saying this Lenny was unaware of the result. Honourable mentions go to:

• Joe Nico
• Joe Holloway
• Anthony Case
• Adam Richardson
• Craig Tweej Maclean (since departed)
• Liam Keane
• Rodney "Dave" Trotter

- SFA Organiser, Adam Richardson

Undercover: SI Con-struction

The Cloughite has uncovered financial irregularities in SI Construction's stadium maintenance billing system that has serious implications for all UFFA members. Rather than charging customers a fixed rate per percentage degradation, the company's rates are variable based on the condition of the stadium -- as condition decreases the base cost of repair (ie. the cost to repair 1% degradation) increases, this is clearly a deliberate attempt to take advantage of club's who are not able to perform regular maintenance on their stadium.

Exclusif installed in 2-Tier Ospitalita II:
Capacity: 240
Maintenance cost: x4.0
Degradation: 24%
Repair cost: £448
Cost per 1% degradation: ~ £18.67

Another Exclusif installed in a different 2-Tier Ospitalita II:
Capacity: 240
Maintenance cost: x4.0
Degradation: 12%
Repair cost: £128
Cost per 1% degradation: ~ £10.67

As you can see, the same block type installed in the same stand type costs twice as much per percentage degradation to repair. The Cloughite approached SI Construction with our findings, but at the time of writing has received no response.

This means that the more regularly you repair your stadium the lower your overall running costs will be. In simple terms, as illustrated by the example above, if you switch from a 2 week repair cycle to a weekly schedule you will reduce your daily stadium running costs by half. Ideally you should undertake repairs on a daily basis to minimize costs.

State of the Economy: Season 7

UFFA representative Rob Cooper presented his "State of the Economy" report earlier today, this first report for 2 seasons, and it makes good reading for UFFA members, inflation has gone from a record low of -81% to a more manageable +18%.

The amount of money in the economy has almost doubled from £285m to £438m, seeing the average team's bank balance increase from a little under £600k to just under £1m. Finally, the PPI has risen 30% from two seasons ago's figure of £2.2m.

	Season 7	Season 5
Inflation (28 days)	18.09%	-81.86%
Player Price Index	£3,012,740	£2,186,780
Size of Economy	£438,347,441	£285,539,93
Average Balance	£978,454	£578,016

- Source

Transfer Roundup

Andy Parkes all-conquering Dueling Dragons' team have added to their already potent midfield with the signing of Spanish superstar Javi Martinez from Wizardos for a fee of £2.6m. Speaking after the signing Parkes confessed that the deal have been in the pipeline for some time:

I have long been an admirer of Martinez and have tried to sign him a few times in the past. Worked out a fair deal with Ron over a couple of days and he's fitted in perfectly as a replacement for outgoing Emana

- Andy Parkes, Dueling Dragons FC

Karim Benzema has joined Harlesden Harriers in a player exchange deal with fellow CWA Premiership side Paddington Rovers worth £2.97m. French striker Henri Saivet (£2.75m) and young German centre back Patrick Schmitt (£220k) moved the other way. Benzema's move forms a what is surely the most feared strike partnership in the UFFA, as he links up with Sergio Aguero for Pedro Quieroz's side.



Argentinian forward Gonzalo Higuain signs for Ariadni FC from Anthony Usher's Rain Dogs FC after manager Alexandros Kovis won the transfer auction for the player, paying a fee of over £2.5m.



MK City FC have splashed out club record fee of £1m to bring 26 year old Firenze striker Bello Kofarmata to Manor Fields, eclipsing the £825'000 they paid to sign Kenwyne Jones last season.



Ever Banega has ended his 7 season spell at Relegation Fodder, after nearly 2000 appearances for the SFA Premiership challengers. David Parker and Dimitri Bestazzi agreed terms on a £1.2m deal for the player that Bestazzi has been trailing for over 5 seasons.



This week twenty four youngsters signed professional contracts worth over £10'000 per day. Duncan Debney broke the post-crash record for a first professional contract with the signing of 15 year old Brazilian striker William on a £35k/day (£980k/season) contract for Inner Sanctum.



Elsewhere, CF Barcelona manager Bogdan Butacel completed a quadruple swoop, signing Rica (15), Marcelo (15), Ludek Cerny (15) and Juan Pablo Alvarez (17) for a combined daily salary of nearly £54'000 (£1.5m per season).