The Political Economy of Football V2

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire reports the highlights on Bournemouth’s 2023/24 accounts. Revenue was £170m up 19%. Wages £136m up 36%.   Underlying loss was £55m up 155%. Player sale profits just £0.3m.   Pre tax loss £66m. Player purchases £141m. Player sales £2m. Total cost of squad £382m. Original cost of players sold £37m. Borrowings £123m.

Todd Boehly has suggested that divisions among Chelsea’s owners on the future of Stamford Bridge could lead to them splitting. Boehly has an uneasy relationship with Clearlake Capital, the club’s majority shareholder, with it emerging last September that both sides have explored the possibility of buying each other out. The Times understands that Clearlake, jointly owned by Behdad Eghbali and José Feliciano, has no intention of selling its 61.5 per cent stake in the club. Reports earlier this season suggested Boehly and Clearlake did not agree over the best way forward for a new stadium — whether to redevelop Stamford Bridge or move to new site at nearby Earls Court. The US billionaire, who holds a 12.8 per cent stake in Chelsea — the same as allies Mark Walter and Hansjorg Wyss — has now confirmed as much in an interview with Bloomberg. Boehly hinted that the plan is to build a multisport stadium, similar to Tottenham Hotspur’s, which hosts NFL, rugby, boxing and m...

Victoria Park Guernsey FC are facing a relegation battle from the Isthmian League, but they have been able to move into their own purpose built stadium.  The Footes Lane ground was shared with rugby and athletics which affected the condition of the pitch. They will also be able to play and train on the same pitch at Victoria Park and generate their own revenue. The Green Lions have been playing for 12 years. Many of their original players have now aged and they are more reliant on younger players.  They have to subsidise the travel costs of visiting teams. Their model of playing in the non-league pyramid has been adopted by the Jersey Bulls and an Isle of Man team.  Newport (Isle of Wight) are a long established side but are now ground sharing at East Cowes as their ground is redeveloped. Much interest in the Channel Islands focuses on the Murrati Shield and Jersey beat Alderney 2-0 last week at the Arsenal Stadium.   Only two of the Alderney players came from t...

Inverness Caledonian Thistle are in administration and their prospects don't look good:  https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/sport/football/inverness-caledonian-thistle/6719346/paul-third-actions-will-speak-louder-than-words-at-caley-thistle/ Their fate is of some personal interest, as I am directly descended on the male line from local people. Unfortunately, I don't have the funds to bail them out, although I would certainly respond to an appeal. One view is that they should move away from their splendid stadium which is too expensive to run:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgr2p4nnl12o Another view is that many fans never accepted the controversial merger in 1994 of two former clubs, Caledonian and Thistle.  Mergers are rare in football and have sometimes been blocked, e.g., Robert Maxwell's plan to merge Oxford United and Reading as Thames Valley Royals.

Watford launched a digital equity share scheme hoping to raise as much as £17.5 nillion.  3,125 fans committed to the scheme which was intended to recruit top players and coaching staff.   Given an average home attendance of 19,353 this season, this amounts to a participation rate of 16 per cent which is actually probably reasonably good. Club owner Gino Pizzo was hoping for high end investors, but they didn't turn up.  The one with the money want to own their own football clubs, not somebody else's - and there are limits to how much funding the average fan can provide.

Sunderland’s 2023/24 accounts cover their second season back in the Championship, when the club said that it “did not see an improvement in league position from the previous season”.   That’s an interesting way of putting it, given that they dropped to 16th place, compared to finishing 6th the year before, when they got to the play-offs, before losing to Luton Town in the semi-finals. One obvious reason for Sunderland’s slump last season was the numerous changes in manager, starting with the sacking of the popular Tony Mowbray in December 2023, when the club was sitting pretty in ninth place. The last time that Sunderland posted a profit was way back in 2005/06 – and they ended up being relegated from the Premier League that season. Since then, they have reported losses 18 years in a row, adding up to £281m.   More positively, the club has drastically reduced the size of its annual losses, averaging £7m in the last five years, compared to £20m in the preceding decade. Ky...