Many people (the majority of them Manchester United supporters) have quickly come to the assumption that Manchester City's takeover by the mega-rich Abu Dhabi United Group will lead to the "death" of competition in football.

It won't.

While City have already tabled and been successful in audatious bids for certain players, chief among them Brazilian star Robinho from Real Madrid, it is going to prove difficult for City to attract star players, and even more difficult to make those star players act as a cohesive unit as Real Madrid and Chelsea have found out in the past.

If Mark Hughes is intelligent he'll encourge the new owners to invest in City's recently effective youth scheme, which has produced players such as Micah Richards, Michael Johnson, Kasper Schmeichel, Ched Evans, and Nedum Onuoha. A strong youth system is what has helped Manchester United to dominate the Premier League.

City will certainly become competitive in the league now, which is good for football, not bad for it. In the 90's and early 00's the Premiership was very much a two horse race out with Blackburn's blaze of glory funded by the late Jack Walker's millions. With Chelsea and Liverpool finding recent success it has become more of a competition, adding City to the mix will only make that more interesting.

Premier League club Aston Villa recently announced a sponsorship deal for the 2008/2009 season. The deal is with local children's hospice Acorns and Villa will carry the charity's logo for free this season.

AVFC has had a relationship with Acorns since 2006 and offered the shirt sponsorship after being informed that Acorns needed to care for 1,000 more children. In making the deal Villa have passed up a rumored £2 million offer from an internet gaming company.

Club owner Randy Lerner and manager Martin O'Neill have been instumental in the club's relationship with Acorns and have expressed their pride over the sponsorship arrangment.

The deal certainly deserves praise at a time when clubs are known to pinch every penny. Villa, like Barcelona's deal with UNICEF, have shown that there are more important things than money and deserve a round of applause for their efforts.

It's the time of year where two extreme emotions take the headlines. For some the specter of relegation causes nightmares and agony, while for others the thought of promotion sends them into a state of euphoria.

Following Arsenal's spectacular meltdown the title race is between Manchester United and Chelsea. After Chelsea's recent victory over Man Utd the race is proving to be a tight one with the two sides equal on points headed into this weekend. However, Chelsea must check the rear view mirror as they could still be caught by Arsenal for the valuable automatic Champions League spot.

With Derby already down the race for safety in England is proving to be an exciting one. A solitary point separates Fulham, Reading and Birminham with Bolton three points ahead of Fulham and Reading not yet mathematically safe. The momentum is firmly with Fulham who seemed to receive new life with the return of former American international Brian McBride following his long injury layoff. The striker's work rate has inspired teammates to lift their game in recent weeks and may be enough to see Fulham continue in the Premiership next season.

Meanwhile in the Championship it's West Brom and Stoke City who are celebrating promotion to England's lucrative top flight. Though it wasn't easy, it took until the final week of a topsy-turvy season to determine who would finish where, who would go up, who would be in the playoffs, and who would go down. In the end it was Leicester who would be forced endure the drop to the third tier for the first time in the club's 124-year history. Leicester's relegation was confirmed after their draw with second place Stoke saw them hoping for Southampton to drop points, it didn't happen as the Saints dispatched Sheffield United 3-2 despiting having Stern John sent off late. The playoffs will see Hull City, Bristol City, Crystal Palace and Watford compete for the third and final promotion place as Mick McCarthy's Wolves barely missed out. Watford will be hoping to return to the Premier League at the first attempt while yo-yo club Palace will be hoping to go up and get it right this time. Bristol City, after facing financial ruin in the 80's, will look to return to the top flight after a long, tumultuous absence. Third place Hull have matched their best ever finish in the league, having finished third in the old second division during the 1904 season. The club have never played top flight football and will be looking to bring that honor to a city which has been starved for so long.

In France there is a title race, albeit a slight one, for the first time in years. Lyon have continued their domination of Ligue 1 but not without a challenge from Bordeaux. Under the management of former France international Laurent Blanc, Bordeaux have established themselves as a legitimate challenger to OL's throne. Indeed Bordeaux still sit with an outside chance of pipping Lyon to the title. But Bordeaux's high flying antics have been overshadowed by the hard fall of many of France's most traditional clubs. Auxerre, Monaco, and Lens have found themselves in the bottom half of the table while PSG see themselves in a right mess in the relegation zone. Headed into the final weeks Lens and PSG are both on 39 points with Lens hanging onto a one goal advantage. Lens have the tougher run-in, traveling to sixth place Lille and hosting second place Bordeaux while the Parisians host fifth place Saint-Étienne and travel to 13th place Sochaux. On the promotion front, Nantes will join Ligue 2 champions Le Harve in Ligue 1 next season while Grenoble and Troyes race to decide the final promotion spot. Any of six clubs could still drop to the Championnat National as Stade Reims, Amiens (who host PSG in a French Cup semi-final this week), Châteauroux, Dijon, and Boulogne all seek to avoid falling into the 18th position currently occupied by Niort.

In Italy it's Inter and Roma who will fight it out for the Scudetto in the final weeks with Juventus too far back to present a challenge in their first season back following relegation as punishment for a match-fixing scandal. Milan, Fiorentina, and Sampdoria are locked in a war for the final Champions League spot which currently sees the Rossoneri with the edge over their two less famous rivals. The bottom of the table sees all the relegation spots still up for grabs at the time of this posting, but Livorno will require a miracle to avoid the drop. Though they have a high chance of climbing out it seems that Parma's incredible downfall is showing no signs of slowing down. Currently in 18th, the club are a long way from the halcyon days of the 1990's. Mathematically 13th placed Lazio could still be dragged down but the spotlight will be on Empoli, Parma, Catania, Reggina, Torino and Cagliari to see who survives. A tip of the hat goes to tiny AlbinoLeffe who will join Serie B champions Chievo in Serie A next year. Pisa will join Bologna, Lecce, and Brecisa in the playoffs to see who secures the third promotion spot.

Scotland's relegation was confirmed early as Gretna's dream season quickly turned into a nightmare and they're now concentrating on the survival of the club as an entity. Celtic and Rangers will, as usual, fight it out for the SPL crown while third place Motherwell look to hold off Dundee United and Hibernian for the league's UEFA Cup birth. Hamilton will replace Gretna in the Premier League for next season.

Wow, that was long winded. I'll write about Germany and Spain later as their is still plenty of football to be played.

News broke last week that at least one Premier League match in the last two seasons has been fixed. The player, whose name has not be revealed due to the Sporting Chance clinic's stance on patient anonymity, is alleged to have intentionally gotten himself sent off and persuaded three teammates to get booked in order to pay off large debts that had piled up as a result of his gambling addiction.

The Arsenal boss, Arsene Wenger, is leading the charge to have the player banned for life from football, be it as a player, coach, or any other job within the game. Wenger doesn't believe footballers should be allowed to gamble as the temptation to bet on matches is too great, and I agree wholeheartedly. Some will say that's a violation of players' personal rights, but when you consider they're getting paid upwards of $250,000 a week to do a job most would do for free, it doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice to stay away from the bookie. Wenger has also called for the player to be publicly named and shamed, again, I agree. Working class people work hard to get enough money to go to Premier League stadiums every week, they go without certain things they like in order to watch 90 minutes of football on the weekend, they deserve to know who did this to them because they're the victims. We don't know if that loss may have seen a club relegated, or had a possible domino effect on the league standings and knocked another club out of contention for a European spot.

Americans and Canadians, or any non-North American who follows baseball will be able to tell you about the outrage caused by Pete Rose's allegedly betting on games when he managed the Cincinnati Reds. Rose is currently serving a lifelong ban from the sport of baseball. Like the unnamed player, Rose was said to have bet on his own games in order to pay off the heavy debts he had collected from a severe gambling addiction, there is no reason why the situation should be handled any differently.