Briefs

Chelsea profit reliant on one-off items

Chelsea’s much vaunted first profit of the Roman Abramovich era, from their Champions League-winning year, was only achieved as a result of one-off exceptional items.

When Chelsea unveiled their top-line figures in November, the club said the £1.4 million (€1.7m) profit was the result of their European success, transfers and improved commercial deals. Ron Gourlay, Chelsea’s chief executive, said the figures, which compared with a loss of £67.7 million (€83m) the previous season, showed the club was on course to comply with Uefa’s financial fair play rules.

But the full accounts show the profit stemmed partly from the cancellation of £15 million (€18.4) in shares held by BSkyB in a digital media joint venture that the club took full control of and £3.4 million (€4.1m) of dividends from those shares.

Guardian Service

Liverpool MD Ayre gives his full support to Suarez

Liverpool's managing director Ian Ayre has stressed that Luis Suárez retains the club's full support and insists the striker will not be affected by his latest controversy.

The fall-out continues to rumble on from the Uruguay international's handball for the second goal in the 2-1 FA Cup win at Mansfield. Even a Methodist minister from the Nottinghamshire town has joined the debate, criticising the "evil" of a lack of sportsmanship in football.

But Ayre, who dismissed claims by Mansfield's chairman John Radford that he was embarrassed by the incident ("It's nonsense to say that I was embarrassed"), said the striker had nothing to worry about.

He said: "These things seem to follow Luis around and it's unfortunate, but he has our full support. He's a fantastic player who makes a huge contribution to the club. Knowing Luis, it won't affect him as he's a very strong character."