When Farsley Celtic went out of business just before the weekend they became the third club in the top three tiers of non-League football to go bust this season.

Kings Lynn and Chester City had already suffered the same fate. Meanwhile, talk of multi-billion takeovers swirls around the Premiership clubs.

Detailed examination of Watford FC's half-yearly report makes interesting reading. Watford were relegated from the Premiership in 2007, and their current financial position gives some insight into the challenges faced by clubs which exist on the fringes of English football's top division.

When a club is relegated from the Premiership, the loss of prize money and TV income combined with the reduction in sponsorship, corporate and match day ticket sales can mean leave a £30m hole in the coffers. But relegated clubs currently get "parachute payments" to ease the pressure.

Pink Floyd have won a court battle with their record company EMI over digital downloads.

The news could have a significant impact on the music business, but according to one leading commentator "it's not the art vs commerce squabble it's being painted as".

Watford Leisure, which owns Watford FC, has posted its first set of financial results under the chairmanship of legendary former manager Graham Taylor. The club came close to administration last December after a major shareholder demanded repayment of outstanding loans.

It's controversial Tory Party chairman Lord Ashcroft, the club's majority shareholder, who loaned the club nearly £5m to stave off administration in December. Taylor's appointment at around the same time helped bring credibility to the club's board in the eyes of the fans.

If businesses in a given sector make an average profit of 10% in a year, does this mean they are in crisis? If that sector is UK regional newspapers, the answer would appear to be 'yes'.

Website Paidcontent:UK says £509.7m was knocked off the value of five leading local newspaper groups in 2009.

Administrators at stricken Premiership football club Portsmouth are investigating "unexplained payments" of £1.5m. The news comes just hours after HMRC dropped its objection to the club going into administration. Another £4m payment to current owner Balram Chainrai has also raised questions.

It seems that at the very time the club was battling for its financial life, significant amounts of money were flowing out of the club. There's no suggestion that anything has been done wrong, but The Daily Telegraph quotes a source as saying, "A number of transactions have been highlighted as unexplained in the process of the club's accounts being reconciled."

In all the tales of football's financial turmoil, the criticism that clubs are trying to 'buy success' is often aired. Spanish giants Real Madrid (goal keeper Iker Casillas pictured) provide proof success is not easily purchased. Last night they failed to reach the Champions League quarter finals for the sixth year in a row, when Lyon knocked them out.

Despite splashing hundreds of millions of Euros over the last decade, Real have only won Europe's top competition once, and the Spanish League four times.

If you're settling down to watch the Champions League tonight, spare a thought for Chester City FC. The 126-year-old club was wound up today over a debt far less than the weekly wage of most of the players in Europe's top tournament - the club owed £26,125 to the Inland Revenue.

What's more extraordinary is that the club's own fans had been actively pushing for its death, something brought closer when the Football Conference, the league in which Chester City played, expelled it last week. The league described its decision as "unparalled in the history of our national sport".

The rumoured supporter takeover of Manchester United stepped up a gear over the weekend with signs of a new publicity front being opened.

'Sources' close to the Red Knights group of wealthy fans claimed team manager Alex Ferguson was not only backing the bid, but prepared to invest his own cash.

Bananas, pineapples and melons are down but profits are up at Fyffes, the tropical fresh produce importers. Results posted for 2009 show a decrease in the volume of the salad of produce mentioned above, but the company still made a healthy €21.2m pre-tax profit, up 33.3% on 2008.

Commenting on the results, Fyffes chairman David McCann said the results were the "best since the change in European banana import regulations in 2005. The Group achieved the necessary increases in selling prices to offset the negative impact of higher costs and adverse exchange movements."