If there is one thing the English Premiership doesn’t need it’s more money.

I am sure club chairmen will completely disagree with me, but the English top flight is already the richest league in the world and finance is rapidly becoming its primary, rather than secondary, focus with football coming a distant second.

However, need it or not, more money is coming their way.

From next season, thanks to new overseas television deals, the winner of the Premier League title will receive an extra 50 million pounds. Enough to buy you more than one and half Shevchenkos if you should so wish. Not bad for no extra work.

To show just how much more money this means to the 20 top-flight clubs you need to look further down the league. Next season, the team finishing bottom will receive a minimum of 30 million pounds for doing so. To put that in perspective, that’s the same amount this season’s champions will receive.

Top-level football is going to go from the financial sublime to the ridiculous.

Of course it would be one thing if the extra cash being injected into the game was heading for good causes. Like, for example, if it was going to be used by the Premier League to help out their less fortunate cousins in the lower leagues. Or maybe if the top clubs would use this massive increase in budget to lower ticket prices and make the game more affordable for the fans.

But they won’t. This cash will go towards making the rich even richer. Players will now start demanding even more over-inflated wages safe in the knowledge that their clubs now have extra cash available.

Football, as a sport, is already like one of those annoying people who wins the lottery and instantly forgets about its old friends who kept it going when times were hard – the fans. And I can think of nothing worse than providing this particular lottery winner with another lottery win.

Another consequence of this increase in funding will be to widen the gap between the top flight and the lower divisions still further. How hard will it be for a club to get promoted and stay there when they have been living on financial scraps in their promotion season?

Of course I could be wrong. This extra cash could turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to football.

But something tells me it won’t be. Absolutely not.

Tim Henman

Just out of curiosity, does anybody know what happened to Tim Henman? From what I can tell he isn’t taking part in the Australian Open but I can’t seem to find out why.

Is it because he is injured? Or has he just realised that in order to be really successful at tennis these days it helps not to be pushing middle age? Someone put me out of my misery please!

Muhammad Ali

As legends go, they don’t get much bigger that Muhammad Ali, the king of modern boxing who reached the age of 65 this week.

Despite suffering from advanced Parkinson’s disease, Ali still manages to get around and do his bit for charity, human rights organisations and a variety of other good causes.

Few would disagree that Ali was the best heavyweight boxer who ever lived and, although he boxed before my time, from what I have seen on film he was pretty special.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing for the man originally known as Cassius Clay before converting to Islam and changing his name. Because of his beliefs he refused to go to fight in Vietnam and was subsequently stripped of his world titles in 1967.

However, after a few years fighting in court, Ali was eventually back in the ring and doing what he does best by winning his titles back.

Recently Muhammad Ali was voted sportsperson of the century – a fitting tribute to the man who took his sport to a whole new level of popularity and skill.

One of the things he was most renowned for during his career, apart, of course, for the boxing itself, was being outspoken. Never one to bite his tongue, Ali had a memorable quote for every occasion.

Here are a couple of my favourites.

A not-so-humble moment: “I’m not the greatest, I am the double greatest. Not only do I knock ‘em out, I pick the round.”

A profound moment: “A man who views the world at 50 the same as he viewed it at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life.”

And a funny moment: “Joe Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the US Bureau of Wildlife.”

Whatever your thoughts about boxing in general, you have to hand it to Ali for making sport as a whole a more entertaining place.

Well done for reaching 65 big man. Hopefully you have a few more rounds left in you yet…

Contact James on: [email protected]