The Political Economy of Football V2

As a supporter of another Championship club, I get mildly irritated by the way in which The New York Times coverage of the highly competitive division focuses on Wrexham.  But I suppose I am just jealous. Is Wrexham a model for other clubs?  Or does it represent an unwelcome Disneyfication of football (soccer)?   In the wake of events surrounding Manchester City, the answer might be a bit different from a few weeks ago.  But, as Simon Kuper has argued, why not let foreign owners spend as much as they like on a franchise, particularly if the club is located in an area with economic and social challenges. Wrexham may be just 50 miles from Manchester, the so-called capital of the north, but it is a different world. The trend of Americans taking over British football is long established — two-thirds of Premier League clubs are now at least part-owned by US investors. But Wrexham’s new owners added an improbable twist. Using a documentary series that mixes an underdo...

Don’t think that it’s just in England that clubs are instigating legal action against each other.  In Spain the tensions between metropolitan Spain and Catalonia form the geopolitical backdrop to tensions between Real and Barca.  My great-granddaughter is taught in Valnecios which is really a variant of Catalan which in turn is closer to French than Spanish. UEFA says it has received “a substantial amount of documents” from Real Madrid in relation to Barcelona’s payments to a former Spanish referees chief.   European football’s governing body released a statement on Thursday confirming the documents will be “assessed” by its “ethics and disciplinary inspectors” as part of an “ongoing investigation”. Payments totalling €8.4million (£7.2m; $9.4m at current rates), made by Barcelona between 2001 and 2018 to former Spanish referees committee vice-president Jose Maria Enriquez Negreira, first came to light in February 2023. Back in June 2023, UEFA’s investigators decided...

Arsenal have ruled out a significant expansion of Emirates Stadium which would have potentially increased its capacity to 80,000. The club have spent more than two years exploring ways to upgrade their stadium, which opened in 2006 and has a capacity of 60,704, but have been put off by costs and logistical difficulties. Any significant works may have also required a temporary move to an alternative home ground, leading the club to instead pursue a “continued evolution” of the stadium, rather than a grander revamp. The Emirates was the biggest Premier League ground in London when Arsenal moved from Highbury 20 years ago but its size, facilities and earning potential have been surpassed by Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium, which opened in 2019, has a larger capacity of 62,850 and hosts other events such as NFL and rugby matches and music concerts. Arsenal told a supporters’ meeting that they would make smaller changes to the stadium. “We shared a commitment to the continued evolutio...

Britain's leading business paper the Financial Times reflects on the week's events at Manchester City in its Scoreboard newsletter. 'Legal experts have billed City’s chances of overturning the verdict itself a serious uphill climb. But with the club insisting it will pursue all avenues available, many expect the case to run and run. One lawyer described this week’s events as being more like the “end of the beginning” rather than anything approaching an ending. This is all pretty miserable for the Premier League. City, after all, are currently top of the league. Bookmakers currently rate the club as the second most likely to be crowned champions and the fourth most likely to be relegated. The uncertainty hanging over the competition will weigh heavily. In the short term, it’s hard to see much of a knock to the Premier League’s business. If anything, the soap opera may well make the action on the pitch even more enticing for subscription-paying fans. But if every result again...

Tottenham Hotspur, who epitomise the trend, have staged 29 concerts at their plush home in the last two years, with Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Jay Z among those to take over a stadium opened in 2019. Liverpool have also shown an increasing willingness to repurpose Anfield. The last two summers have seen concerts staged over eight nights, hosting Bruce Springsteen, Dua Lipa and the Foo Fighters. None of this is new to Manchester City, either. Aside from the years that have brought redevelopment work to the Etihad Stadium, concert season has become part of the club’s development strategy, with artists such as Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and One Direction among their guests. Arsenal are another to have dipped their toe into those waters, along with Newcastle United, Aston Villa, Sunderland and Ipswich Town. Almost half of the Premier League’s 20 clubs have staged at least one concert in the last three years. “The clubs have to sweat this capital asset,” Ian Nuttall, sports and enter...

There have also been notable changes off the pitch as well as on the pitch at Crystal Palace.  The most visible is the demolition of six houses in a neighbouring street as Palace continue their preparation for the redevelopment of Selhurst Park, their home of 102 years, knocking down the more modern add-ons to the Main Stand and erecting a glass hospitality building. There has also been further infrastructure development with the purchase of land near the existing training ground, the use for which the club is still debating.   Then, on the eve of the first home game of the new season, the club’s ultras, the Holmesdale Fanatics (HF), announced they would be stepping back from activity inside the stadium as an organised group. It is nine years since the stadium improvement plans were first announced, and five since it was originally due to be completed.    Preliminary works were undertaken in 2024 and enabling works continued last summer with club offices relocate...