The Political Economy of Football V2

Three words dominate the mind of Abdullah Ashraf: English Football League.   To be more specific, it is the EFL’s League Two, the fourth tier of English football, that preoccupies the daily thoughts of this 24-year-old American businessman. Currently, 20 of the EFL’s 72 clubs, from the second tier through to the fourth tier, either have Americans as owners or prominent investors. Oklahoma real estate investor Ashraf plans to add to that number after taking over at Tamworth FC, a club in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football pyramid. Ashraf, the founder and chief executive of Dawn Group International (DGI) and owner of Oklahoma United FC in his home city, made some bold pledges after being unveiled as Tamworth’s new owner earlier this summer. He vowed to turn the club fully professional, buy and redevelop the Lamb Ground, Tamworth’s home since their foundation in 1933, and build a new training facility once the premises were purchased from the l...

American celebrities cannot get enough of English soccer clubs including those outside the top flight. Award-winning actor Hugh Jackman is in talks to purchase a stake in English second-tier club Norwich City.   While there have been no official moves to arrange any investment so far, the 57-year-old has held discussions with the Championship club’s ownership over a potential deal, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Jackman grew up in Australia but is a fan of Norwich, who have spent the majority of the last half-decade in the English top and second divisions, and was asked about potentially becoming the latest celebrity to invest in English football and the possibility of being pitted against his Deadpool & Wolverine co-star, Ryan Reynolds, who co-owns fellow Championship side Wrexham. Jackman is best known for playing the superhero Wolverine in Marvel’s X-Men series, having also appeared in The Greatest Showman an...

The bar of the Tooting & Mitcham United football club looks like a relic from the 1930s. Black-and-white photographs of past players line the walls as fans queue to buy £5 ($6.80) pre-match pints—a bargain by south London’s standards. But instead of accompanying their beers with pies like fans of yore, today’s supporters are tucking into perfectly seasoned jerk chicken and plantains served on rice. “The food is what gets me here,” says Terry, a Chelsea supporter turned season-ticket holder at semi-professional Tooting. Lower-tier football clubs are having a culinary moment. Footy Scran, an Instagram account documenting football-stadium food around the world, has singled out several clubs outside the Premier League for praise. Supporters of Whitehawk, a non-league club in Brighton, can tackle a gravity-defying burger combining chicken, beef and hash browns, topped with onion fries. Forest Green Rovers, in the Cotswolds [Forest of Dean?], another non-league club, has decid...

Everton Football Club’s billionaire owners are seeking new investors less than two years after buying the club, following a summer transfer window in which Premier League rivals drove spending to new records in an arms race for talent. The Friedkin Group, the US conglomerate that also owns Italian football club AS Roma, is working with advisers on the Everton stake sale process, according to three people familiar with the matter. The process, which is still at an early stage, could result in new investors buying a significant stake in the Premier League club, though it is possible that a deal does not materialise. The Friedkin Group and Everton declined to comment. Any deal would follow John Henry’s Fenway Sports Group selling more than a third of crosstown rival Liverpool Football Club to a consortium including Amit Bhatia, the son-in-law of steel tycoon and billionaire Lakshmi Mittal, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at a $7bn valuation. The Friedkin Group paid about £330mn to tak...

On the basis of this summer, it is the belief that by signing players from the Premier League, a club is operating with the least jeopardy and is most likely to produce immediate and substantial results.  The evidence is overwhelming in the summer spend by the 20 current Premier League teams on players registered last season to Premier League clubs, therefore including purchases from relegated West Ham, Wolves and Burnley. By the time the window closed at 11pm local time last night, Premier League clubs had spent £3.6billion ($4.9bn), according to an analysis by  The Athletic , and £1.7bn ($2.3bn) of this was spent on those in last season’s Premier League,   in a spend that shatters all previous windows for spending within the division.  In the six summer windows between 2017 and the 2022 seasons, the average Premier League spend on players registered to Premier League clubs in the previous season was £418.2m, which means we have seen a comparative fourfold incre...

Everton succeeded in achieving the one thing no club wants from a transfer window. On many different levels, they have ended up weaker than when the window opened.   Squad numbers alone indicate that is the case with manager David Moyes having 22 outfield players last season only to find himself left with just 18 now. Thierno Barry is his only recognised striker.  The Friedkin Group (TFG), who have inflicted immeasurable damage on themselves by presiding over the entire farce which started with them pushing for the sale of homegrown midfielder Harrison Armstrong to Nottingham Forest for £35million only to then pull-out amid the prospect of a supporter uprising.  Certainly, this is not how matters were supposed to play out in January when club officials stressed that funds were being stockpiled for the summer when phase two of Everton’s rebuild would be implemented.  TFG’s entire ambition for the club is being scrutinised 20 months into its reign and Everto...