Full time

Following recent Diary stories regarding International Marketing Reports (IMR) Football Sponsorship & Commerce report (MW February 24, March 10), IMR manager Simon Rines has contacted the Diary to clarify that, contrary to the impression which may have been given, the report is selling well and no buyer has yet taken the option to return it and receive a full refund.

The second Diary story could also have been seen as implying that IMR had reneged on a financial commitment to Soccer Investor to run inserts in the latter’s UK-focused Centre Circle magazine. Rines asserts that he signed a contract to run inserts in the quarterly magazine Football Business International for three issues, paying for the first one in 2004.

But not content with that, he has to run with the ball, doesn’t he? “We want our inserts to be performing on the international scene, not to be stuck around in the centre circle where they offer little chance of scoring. Our scouts have been out assessing the form of FBI recently and have found it to be stuck on the subs’ bench. We were told originally it would make an appearance in February, but it seems that, deep into injury time, there is still no sign of it stripping off its tracksuit and getting ready for action.”

Full time for this story, the Diary says.