Where the big boys come to play!

NOT A DAY goes by when money is not at the heart of a football story on these sports pages.

It's been that way for a long time, since the first transfer fee exchanged hands between clubs. With each development in the game, from the end of the players' maximum wage, through ground- breaking shirt sponsorship deals, to TV rights bids and the Bosman ruling, the business of football has played an increasingly prominent part in the fabric of the sport.

Over the next four days football finance will not just be prominent, it will be front and centre as the movers and shakers of the world game gather in Dubai, check in to their seven-star hotels and get down to business at the ninth annual Soccerex conference and exhibition.