Thank you, Louis Wigston, NUST member.

Joe Cole's comment that Liverpool are the biggest club in the country provoked a debate on Radio 5 this morning.   There is no one criterion that determines whether a club is big or not.   Attendances and the size of the stadium are certainly part of the picture and honours are also a criterion.   But supposing most of them were won a long time ago?   Does the fact that Nottingham Forest won the European Cup twice make it a big club?   Is Liverpool's claim based largely on the fact that it has won the European competition five times and can claim its own replica trophy?

Simon Chadwick from Coventry University was interviewed about this topic on Radio 5 and he brought in the criterion of global recognition.   On that basis the two biggest clubs in England are Manchester United and Liverpool.   Arsenal and Chelsea are some way behind in the global recognition stakes.

* Virgin Money’s Football Fans’ Inflation Index falls 5.2% in a year

* Clubs cut ticket prices and replica shirt costs

The cost of following football has fallen to a two-year low as clubs across all divisions cut ticket prices and replica shirt costs in a bid to keep fans onside, according to Virgin Money’s authoritative Football Fans’ Index.

In sharp contrast to rising prices in the wider economy where the Consumer Price Index has hit a 17-month high of 3.7%, inflation for football fans has fallen 5.2% in the past year, Virgin Money’s research shows.

And that means the cost of attending a game is now at its lowest level since April 2008 with the price fall mainly attributable to football clubs across the Premiership, Championship and Divisions 1 and 2 cutting back in order to ensure stadiums are still packed.

Serie B side Ancona and 20 teams from the Italian lower divisions were blocked from competing in the coming season because of financial problems.

The Italian football federation said in a statement the decision had come after the country's football finance watchdog deemed the clubs' balance sheets too precarious.

"Serie B side Ancona and 20 Lega Pro clubs will not be readmitted to their championships after the consideration of Covisoc's findings," the statement said.

Italian football has been hit hard by the global economic crisis given smaller clubs were struggling even before the recession.

Fifteen other semi-pro clubs in the lower divisions had already been dropped from their championships because of money woes.

Last Saturday Newcastle United travelled to Cumbria for a low profile friendly against Carlisle, only to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons in certain parts of the media. After canvassing a number of fans who were at the match, it is clear that there were a number of Newcastle fans who took part in bad taste chants relating to Raoul Moat. This was reported with glee by certain sections of the media but what was almost universally omitted was that this involved only a very small minority of supporters who were instantly shouted down by the majority.

We believe that there is no group of fans who take greater pride in being ambassadors for both their Club and City than those of Newcastle United. NUST condemns the actions of the few but also believes that under the banner of fair reporting the real story should have been how the vast majority shouted down the actions of that very small minority.

Experience tells us that we’ll be waiting a long time for this kind of biased reporting to be retracted but it needs to be put on record the truth of what actually happened.

NUST hope that our Football Club will spring to the defence of its loyal travelling supporters and help uphold the good name of Newcastle United.

• Football League chairman sets up working groups on caps

• Groups to report back within two months on feasibility

Greg Clarke is attempting to convince all Football League clubs that the time has come to introduce a salary cap. Clarke's predecessor as League chairman, Lord Mawhinney, held dinners at the House of Lords for all 72 club owners but was unable to gain traction for the idea beyond its introduction in League Two.

Now Clarke, a former chief executive of the then FTSE100 conglomerate Cable & Wireless, has set out the business case for a rule change after a presentation to the Football League AGM in Malta last month. Since then the League has set up a working group in each of its three divisions looking at how to develop workable cost controls by which all 72 clubs can be bound. Persuading the Championship to adopt a salary cap may prove beyond him, but Clarke is tackling the issue head‑on and sits on the Championship task force alongside the League's finance director, Tad Detko, and representatives of four of its 24 clubs including Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United.