Spurs, Chelsea and Leicester re-enter the football finance chat

“Long-term growth”, “profit and sustainability’, “investment for the future”, “rising costs of goods and services”: the language of modern football has become interchangeable with the halting guff coughed out by UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt in Wednesday’s budget. Indeed, football finance is such big news that recent years have witnessed the growth of a new subset, the “football finance expert”. It can be a broad church, from Gianni Infantino rolling in Saudi money, to Big Sir Jim’s Manchester United revolution, via more parochial stuff like the running costs of Neasden FC since Buffy Cohen flounced out. It can be a vital service, as spreadsheets, balance sheets and profit and loss accounts strain the eyes of those not blessed with accountant-standard numeracy.

As growth industries go, this season has been something of a bull market (yes, Football Daily watched Trading Places recently), with an understanding of the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules becoming a requirement. Everton’s 10-point penalty, reduced to six, was just the dry run. The Ev’s accountants have further explaining to do, and another penalty may ensue. Then there’s Nottingham Forest, awaiting a ruling on a recruitment process best caricatured as Brewster’s Millions on beast mode. Then there’s the Big Daddy, Manchester City’s 115 charges, as long in the making and probably set to be as disappointing as the Roses’ Second Coming. Others are entering the chat. Leicester may be riding high in the Championship, but the EFL’s finance bods have them on course to break financial rules this season. The final Premier League and Championship tables may both yet be wreathed in asterisks, though Leicester, for their part, say the EFL is out of its goddamned jurisdiction because the money was lost when in the Premier League.

Awaiting entry to the chat: Chelsea. There’s a further subset of the subset of football finance experts, the partisan football finance expert twitching curtains while waiting for other clubs’ financial results to show their club is run perfectly sensibly, actually. For them, Chelsea are the mother lode. And they won’t be disappointed: on Wednesday, Chelsea reported a pre-tax loss of £90.1m after £121.4m the previous year. The rules state they are allowed to lose a maximum of £105m over three years, not one. The club “continues to comply with Uefa and Premier League financial regulations”, droned a statement.

Whoops. Hurrah! Arf! And yet: how can clubs stay within the rules? Stop lavishing silly money on rubbish players while enriching Mr and Mrs 15%s? Yes, perhaps, but there are other, more captive revenue streams. Tottenham have announced a six per cent hike in ticket prices, including a change – increase – to the pricing for seniors. “These changes pull the rug out from under the feet of pensioners after years of loyal support,” railed the supporters’ trust. The club meanwhile tooted about increases in “utilities, rates and consumables, along with the need to continue to operate on a sustainable basis”, leaving fans to find words rhyming with the chancellor.

It’s a big night in Big Vase and John Brewin will have MBM coverage of Roma 2-1 Brighton, while Simon Burnton will cover Sparta Prague 0-3 Liverpool (both 5.45pm GMT), before we mop up the 8pm kick-offs in Will Unwin’s clockwatch.

“Many of the women we spoke to shared their passion and love for coaching but also talked about the exhaustion that came from being regularly undermined, questioned and overlooked in the coaching environment” – Kick It Out’s Hollie Varney on the results of its study which found 80% of UK-based female respondents had experienced sexism in a coaching environment.

As a Jane-come-lately to the world of tribal support, I’m utterly delighted by yesterday’s Football Daily on the Championship. I have no erudite analysis and neither do I want to win a prize, but well done for championing the Championship. Love from a relatively recent Leicester supporter” – Krystyna Findley.

As Sarah Rothwell alluded to in yesterday’s Football Daily letters about the travails of my local team, the Colorado Rapids, they stink now. But they were once good and even won the MLS Cup in 2010 when they were led by free-scoring Jamaican forward, Omar Cummings. Since then, they’ve struggled to win, at altitude or at sea level, and I haven’t been so regularly. For a while, I blamed the club’s failings on Stan Kroenke’s ownership, but then his Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup, his Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl and his Denver Nuggets won the NBA title. Then, I started to base my non-attendance on Kroenke’s lack of soccer acumen but, surprisingly, Arsenal became good again and that reason lost relevance. As the new season begins (we have one point through two matches), my current excuse for staying away from the Rapids is, to paraphrase Bajan cricket fans from back in the day: no Cummings, no goings” – R Reisman.

Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … R Reisman.

Racheal Kundananji is the world’s most expensive female footballer. In this extract from the latest edition of our sister newsletter, the Zambia forward talks about the challenges she has faced on her way to reach the top and why she just has to “calm down, focus on my work and continue playing football”.

QPR boss Martí Cifuentes has shown more restraint than most after West Brom defender Cédric Kipré escaped without conceding a penalty and being shown an accompanying red card for making a spectacular save in their 2-2 Championship draw. Trailing 2-1 early in the second half, relegation-threatened Rangers had a penalty saved and should have been awarded another when Field’s header was turned over the bar by Kipré. “I’ve been told that West Brom played with two keepers for a while,” honked Cifuentes. “I’m not here to complain. I’m here to make sure my team is better, so if we need to play against two keepers then we need to practise playing against two keepers. Football is a game with mistakes and unfortunately refs can make mistakes as well. They have a very difficult job – the second most difficult job, after being a manager.” Field would later equalise with his second of the game.

Eighty per cent of young girls feel more confident because of playing team sports and almost half of them feel more confident than other girls their age, according to a new study.

Manchester City are through to the last eight of Big Cup with a 3-1 second-leg win over Copenhagen securing a 6-2 aggregate triumph.

Real Madrid are through to the last eight of Big Cup, a 1-1 second-leg draw with Leipzig securing a 2-1 aggregate triumph.

Arsenal are through to the Continental Cup final, Stina Blackstenius’s first-half hat-trick helping sink Aston Villa 4-0.

USA USA USA are through to the W Gold Cup final, a penalty shootout win over Canada sending them on to face Brazil. Alyssa Naeher was the hero, saving three and even converting one of her own.

Gary O’Neil’s reward for putting his Molineux predecessors to shame will be a new contract in the summer.

Accrington chairman Andy Holt has revealed he sacked long-serving manager John Coleman and assistant Jimmy Bell by WhatsApp, accusing them of dividing the club. “I have worked with John and Jimmy and most of the time it was great, and fun,” sighed Holt. “They performed badly in our relegation season, I didn’t sack them like every other owner would have. They made serious mistakes and despite this I didn’t want it to end. They went public and divided our fanbase probably forever, an action that I did not deserve, having looked after them extremely well in my time at the club.”

And the FA has charged AFC Wimbledon midfielder Harry Pell with misconduct for allegedly hoofing balls into a crowd of MK Dons fans before their 1-0 League Two win last weekend.

Max Rushden on dealing with criticism as a pundit, and sifting the abusive from the fair comment.

Kane crackled, Mbappé marauded, Lunin resisted. John Brewin picks his Big Cup team o’ the week.

Staying with Big Cup, Will Unwin hails the performances of Matheus Nunes and Rico Lewis after Pep Guardiola shuffled his pack expertly against Copenhagen.

And Jacob Steinberg warns that West Ham must make the most of Lucas Paquetá while they can.

To September 1997 and some majestic Big Vase wear from Uefa’s fourth official – listed as “Mr E Poulat” – as he lays down the law to Martin O’Neill during the second leg of Leicester’s tempestuous first-round tie with Atlético Madrid. “Muzzy Izzet went down three or four times for penalties and at least two of them were stonewall penalties, but nothing was given,” recalled Foxes striker Ian Marshall after a 2-0 home defeat ensured their exit 3-1 on aggregate. “We were very, very hard done to: in both legs there were decisions that went to them and ones that didn’t go to us that were a bit questionable.”