Football's finances were under the microscope again this week and the results point to a bleak future for some of Britain's top clubs.

Firstly, British footballs rich list was unveiled showing that Roman Abramovich is no longer the country's richest football club owner. Instead he is now third behind Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Man City and Lakshmi Mittal of QPR. The Russian oligarch is estimated to have lost billions of pounds during the recent economic crisis and as a result he has already started making cutbacks at Chelsea (even the players' allocation of complimentary match tickets was slashed by half in order to cut costs). Before then the Londoners seemed untouchable in the money stakes, whoever they wanted they got, and a period of sustained success seemed inevitable. But the world of finance can be as hard to predict as the football results so the two merged together was always going to be a a volatile mix.

I believe Abramovich's toppling off the summit of footballs rich list may become as symbolic and significant as the day he first swept into Stamford Bridge to bail out the then heavily indebted London club.

This is because his arrival in 2003 opened the door to a number of rich foreign investors eager to spend their billions (not millions) and make a quick buck out of the world's most popular League. For the clubs it must have been like all their Christmases had come at once. With their creditors at their door and the fear of what's now become known as  'doing a Leeds'  becoming a grim reality, these rich sugar daddies offered them a get out of jail free card, wiping out their debts and giving their eager managers seemingly endless amounts of cash for the manager to spend. True Championship Manager type stuff. For the owners it was a way of beating the football odds and buying instant success.

I've no doubt that when John Terry lifted the Premier League title Chelsea fans didn't really care where all their clubs money came from, but in the cold light of day, I'm sure even the most ardent of Blues fan would admit there was something slightly wrong about their team becoming a rich mans play thing. Don't forget Chelsea are currently indebted to the tune of £730million, around £578million of which is in the form of an 'interest free loan' from Abramovich. Should Abramovich choose to call in the loan, the club would have just 18 months to find the money.

Manchester United, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Portsmouth, West Ham and Man City (twice) all fell into the hands of foreign owners following Abramovich's lead. Like a rich parent paying their child's credit card bill after they maxed it out at University, some football clubs were not paying the price for their earlier irresponsible spending.

But with the sport now firmly plugged into the cycle of the world economy the economic crisis that snowballed throughout 2008 changed the football landscape and could have some catastrophic consequences. Football is no longer a safe investment for owners, and even for those who want to invest, the credit just isn't there anymore. For Abramovich it could be a case of first in first out if the rumours that he is wiling to sell up are true.

Evidence of belt tightening has been shown by the quiet start to the transfer window - cash rich Man City aside. City will have noticed that they've got precious little competition from other clubs when bidding for players. The main problem for them is dealing with the selling clubs who, eager to get some Arab money of their own, double the asking price for any player City take a fancy to - and who can blame them?

Keith Harris, the merchant banker who has brokered the foreign takeovers of a number of Premier League clubs, said the current economic climate was the "toughest anybody has endured in a lifetime," and that means we are "unlikely to see much activity on the takeover scene."

This means that the football club's last line of defence against insolvency has been pulled away from under their feet. Harris has been instructed to find buyers (so far without success) for Newcastle and Everton, two clubs with a mountain of debt and desperate to find the money to break into the top four. Portsmouth and West Ham have being selling players to appease their creditors and have been put up for sale by their credit crunched foreign owners. Meanwhile David Gillett and Tom Hicks of Liverpool had to ask more time from the bank to repay a £350 million loan.

While the clubs are suffering financially the players appear to be as rich as ever, giving us a clue as to where a lot of the money has gone. Alongside the football owners rich list the countries richest players were also revealed this week. It would come to no surprise that David Beckham was number one with an estimated fortune of £125 million, over three times that of second placed Michael Owen. Now I realise much of the top players fortunes come from marketing and advertising deals but they are still paid obscenely high wages by the clubs. These enormous wage levels were never going to be sustainable and much of the money poured into the game over the last decade has, instead of being re-invested, flowed out in a sea of fast cars, mansions and expensive clothes.

Also revealed this week was the credit rating of each Premier League club, complied by credit information firm Equifax. The results showed that half of the 20 clubs are technically insolvent and would struggle to repay their debts if all their creditors requested their money back at once.

Now that scenario is unlikely, but with no billionaire knight in shining armour to act as a last line of defence football clubs are teetering on the edge of a financial precipice. In the long term the end of irresponsible spending can only be of benefit, but how many football clubs will go the way of Woolworths before we get there?

How will the credit crunch affect the title race? Bet on the Premier League here at Betfair.

After Manny Pacquiao comprehensively beat the aging superstar Oscar de la Hoya it looked as if a fight against Manchester's Ricky Hatton was all but a certainty, it now seems as if this fight could be in jeopardy.

Floyd Mayweather jnr is apparently looking to come out of retirement and scupper those plans, he wants a fight with either Hatton or Pacquiao which could derail plans for a match up between the pair.

There is no doubting Mayweather's quality of course, he defeated Hatton inside ten rounds and retired undefeated as Ring Magazine's best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.  Anyone who watched the Hatton Vs Mayweather fight over a year ago will remember that perhaps the most influential figure in the ring that day was the American referee Joe Cortez, whose every decision seemed to favour his compatriot Mayweather.  He stopped Hatton getting in close, allowing Mayweather to make the most of his long range shots before Hatton could get anywhere near him.  As much as I'd love to see a re-match between the two, I can't help but feel that the 'hitman' against the 'pacman' would be a better spectacle.

Ricky Hatton frankly embarrassed Pauli Malignaggi in his last outing, while Manny Pacquiao made light work of de la Hoya. Pacquiao's speed and reflexes were particularly impressive, even if it was against Oscar de la Hoya whose record of late has been poor and that defeat surely marked the end of his career as a top-class fighter.  Mayweather hasn't fought since beating Hatton and when boxers make 'comebacks' they generally don't pick up where they left off. Mayweather would still be a threat and could probably beat both Pacquiao and Hatton, but his fight against Hatton was not the greatest spectacle and that is surely what boxing enthusiasts and punters looking for boxing betting odds are looking for.

Unfortunately in the boxing industry it is money that talks, I think Ricky Hatton fighting Manny Pacquiao would be good enough for the Pacquiao camp but I'm sure the fight that would draw the biggest crowd from Hatton's perspective would be the Mayweather re-match. A lot of Hatton fans were disappointed with the outcome of the Mayweather fight and would love to see their hero pitted against the American again.  It is my own view that Hatton against Pacquiao would prove the best contest for the spectator and for punters looking to make some money with online boxing betting.