Skip to main content

Posts

The cost of relegation for West Ham

West Ham are in a relegation battle.  No one gains financially from demotion, but it impacts some more than others. Existing cost bases play a big part, likewise a team’s ability to generate money by selling some faces that didn’t look out of place in the top tier. Beyond that, club owners come into play. Between 2015 and 2024, Championship clubs lost a collective £3.2billion, all of it (and a little more) funded by benevolent shareholders. Amounts required for recently relegated clubs can vary, but a general rule is that the longer you stay in the second tier, the more you’ll need to lean on an owner or two. One thing is for certain — if relegation comes, West Ham’s revenue will drop. That has been the case pretty much since the Premier League’s inception, but it has become more pronounced since 2016, when a new TV deal exploded onto the scene. Since then, only one club has seen post-relegation turnover fall by less than a third. That was Bournemouth in 2020-21, and even tha...
Recent posts

Hearts post loss

 Hearts made a net operating loss of £400,000 in 2024/25 despite increased turnover and European football.  However, it should be noted that  the 29 per cent investment made by Brighton owner Tony Bloom, shows up on the balance sheet rather than the profit and loss accounts:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c33p83vll0yo In any case the loss is relatively modest compared with some English clubs.

Derby lose £11.3m

Derby County lost £11.3m in 2024/25.   An increase in revenue saw a £3m reduction in losses compared with the previous year:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c867vjlpl1vo Billionaire John Textor is said to be interested in acquiring the club if his bid for Sheffield Wednesday fails, but many fans think that his track record suggests he would not be a good fit for the club.

Barca's tangled finances

In 2017 Barcelona had posted six straight years of profits, where wages were less than 60 per cent of revenue and where those revenues were growing healthily — up €164m and 34 per cent in three seasons. Barcelona made a profit again in 2017-18, but its size, considering it included a world-record fee for Neymar, was miserly. The club booked a €20.1million pre-tax surplus but only after more than €200m in player profits. Operating performance collapsed, from a €10.5m profit in 2016-17 to a €176.8m loss  Before accounting for any of the other costs involved in running a club of Barca’s stature, 81 cents in every euro were gobbled up by football staff costs or the fees paid to bring players to the Camp Nou. And those other running costs were and are massive. The club very quickly became structurally unsound. In 2020-21, Barca recorded a €555.4million pre-tax loss, by a long way the worst financial result ever recorded by a football club. In June 2022, when Barca announced the sa...

Do Celtic lack ambition?

Celtic’s results off the pitch in 2023/24 saw their pre-tax profit further improving from £18m to £46m, a record for Scottish clubs.  Revenue rose £19m (15%) from £125m to £144m, another all-time high for Scotland, while profit from player sales shot up from £7m to £31m. The significant increase in Celtic’s revenue was was driven by the successful Champions League campaign, which led to uplifts in match day, up £10.7m (21%) from £49.6m to £60.3m, and broadcasting, up £8.8m (24%) from £36.4m to £45.2m. Both revenue streams established new club records. Celtic have pretty much been in a class of their own in Scotland when it comes to generating money from player trading, as seen by looking at the latest available accounts, where the next highest profit was only £5.6m at Rangers, followed by £1.3m at Aberdeen. Celtic have posted profits in nine of the last ten years, the one exception being the COVID-impacted loss in 2020/21. As a result, they have generated an impressive £135m ...

Private members' club to boost Fulham

The owner of Fulham FC is betting a £350mn investment in its stadium that includes adding a private members’ club will provide the Premier League club with the financial firepower to compete with its richer rivals. “I think it’s going to go a long way towards making Fulham competitive and compliant with [financial] fair play rules,” Shahid Khan told the Financial Times on a tour of the west London development, which features a grand piano, marble bar and a riverside walkway.   The multibillionaire said the additions to Craven Cottage, the club’s home since 1896, were made viable by its Thameside location, which was a “key asset” — adding Fulham has the “most educated, richest fan base in English football”. Khan is seeking to build new revenue streams to help reduce his financial support and fund player signings after Premier League clubs spent a record £3bn-plus in the summer transfer window.   The league’s financial regulations mean clubs cannot lose more than £105mn over...

Real Madrid sue Uefa for €4bm over Super League

Real Madrid is planning to seek more than €4bn in damages from Uefa for alleged losses it suffered after European football’s governing body blocked proposals for a controversial Super League. The Spanish football club believes it has lost out on revenues of between €4.5bn and €4.7bn since Uefa vetoed the European Super League plan in 2021, according to documents produced by experts hired by Real Madrid. The figures, seen by the Financial Times, take into account lost match day, broadcast and commercial revenues at Real Madrid, one of the driving forces behind the Super League proposals. One person close to the club said it was planning to shortly file a claim for damages of more than €4bn in the courts.   Real Madrid’s assessment comes after Uefa — alongside La Liga and RFEF, the Spanish football league and national governing body respectively — lost an appeal at the provincial court of Madrid on Wednesday. It upheld a ruling by Madrid’s commercial court that Uefa abused its do...