Clarets chairman Barry Kilby believes that England's exit from the World Cup will signal a stepping up in the Football League's campaign against Carlton and Granada.

And he also suspects that the transfer market that has been quieter than ever this summer might start to get moving.

"Last week I met with Alistair Campbell, the Prime Minister's spokesman, and he let me know that our campaign is widely supported," he said. "The majority of MPs are sympathetic to us and Alistair certainly is.

"Seeing him is just one of the things we are doing, getting support from people with a high profile like another Burnley fan John Kettley.

"In an unofficial capacity Alistair was able to give me some advice on the best way to take the campaign forward. That is his sphere of expertise.

"I have also spoken to the League's David Burns and he told me that the campaign will now start to gather pace now that the World Cup is coming to an end. We will start to see it get stronger but I don't know if we don't get a settlement before the court case."

The League is busily negotiating with other possible media partners in the hope of getting a new deal in place ahead of next season and Kilby said: "There is a possibility that there might be an announcement early next month but we will just have to wait and see.

"The irony is that the best partners for us are Carlton and Granada because we can offer them regional audiences with games like Preston v Burnley or Wolves v Coventry."

There have been very few rumours of comings and goings at Turf Moor since the end of the season although Manchester City's Scotland international defender Paul Ritchie was again linked to the Clarets at the weekend.

There has been no knew buzz about Glen Little heading for Aston Villa and Kilby's main concern is the position of last year's player of the season Dean West. He will be out of contract at the end of the week but the chairman is still hoping that he will sign the new deal that has been offered to him by manager Stan Ternent.