What do Manchester United, Chelsea, the IPL and Australia's Olympic team have in common?

By the time this article is published, the English Premier League championship for 2007/08 will have been decided. The winner will be either Red Football Ltd or Millhouse Capital; American real estate or Russian oil. Others may know them as Manchester United or Chelsea - they used to be football clubs, but now they are money-making enterprises.

There is no doubt that the EPL is the finest domestic football competition in the world, but is it really still a domestic competition? It attracts the finest players from around the globe, its teams are dominating European competition and there seems to be an endless stream of squillionaires lining up to buy successful teams. It's a domestic competition in name only.

Meanwhile, in India, the cream of the cricketing world are lined up to defend the interests of Indian businessmen and movie stars in the Indian Premier League. The fans love it, TV audiences seem to love it; who cares if it really isn’t cricket?

On almost the same day, John Coates, the Australian Olympic Committee president, gave voice to something we’ve known for years but have been too polite to discuss. Coates told us that there was a direct link between the Olympic medal tally and the amount of public funding that sport receives. And you thought it had something to do with athletic ability!