Why? Well it beats me, but it seems tradition has a lot to do with it. But does it really matter whether the ground is called Villa Park or say, the Coca-Cola Stadium, after a cash injection of £100 million?

Money talks and rest assured if a blue-chip company wants to promote their projects in this way, Lerner won't say no.

A number of grounds in the UK have already changed their names though in most cases this is because clubs, like Arsenal, have moved to new surroundings.

Top-selling UK national The Sun produced another of their sit-up-and-take-notice front-page headlines the other day by saying West Ham United could soon be in the hands of a Russian consortium.

"I'm Forever Blowing Roubles" was the front-page message on Saturday after the Hammers had upstaged all their supposedly superior and richer Premiership rivals by signing Argentinian stars Carlitos Tevez and Javier Mascherano,

Iranian tycoon Kia Joorabchian, who retains the ownership and registration rights of both players, is clearly a shrewd operator as the signing of the pair gets his foot in the door at Upton Park, where he is thought to be plotting a £100-million take-over with Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky.

Joorabchian has an executive box at the Emirates but talks have already opened with the Iranian and the Hammers board as the Russians seek to make more inroads into the Premiership with Roman Abramovich already installed at Chelsea and Alexandre Gaydamak at Portsmouth.

West Ham are known to owe the banks £30 million and admit they are involved in exploratory discussions about a take-over.

What would you do if someone blatantly inferred you were a cheat? I know how I would react and Mark Hughes, manager of Blackburn, should be ashamed of himself for suggesting that England and Chelsea captain John Terry is one.

Inferring the word cheat has become so habitual in UK soccer that's its exact meaning is lost among those who use it, but in Hughes' case this was not true when he described Terry's penalty area tumble which led to the Premiership holders taking a 1-0 lead.

"The penalty was a big decision that the referee needs to get right and he hasn't. Terry knew the referee was looking at him, decides to collapse his knees and falls in a heap. Maybe a recent Fifa directive sprang into the ref's mind. Simulation is creeping into our game," roared Hughes.

Well you'll seldom see a clearer case of a penalty than when Andrew Ooijer tangled with Terry in the penalty area. The Chelsea defender desperately tried to avoid falling as he went in search of the loose ball but his balance deserted him as he tumbled over as a result of the Dutchman's pathetic challenge.

John Dee