Skip to main content

Posts

The impossible job: managing Manchester United

In a terse statement Manchester United have announced that Erik ten Hag has been sacked as manager. Manchester United had paid out £71.5m in redundancy payments for managers, executives and staff since the year SAF retired until 30 June 2024. Ten Hag was the fifth permanent manager to attempt to right the ship at Old Trafford following Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in the summer of 2013. The Dutchman leaves with a reasonable claim of being a successful United manager, given he won silverware, something 14 of his predecessors did not do. In some ways, his tenure underlines how hard it is for anyone to live up to the standards set by Ferguson — who, in a pointed coincidence, recently had his ambassadorial position ended by the club — and, before him, Sir Matt Busby. No club in England has won more top-flight titles than United’s 20, but 18 were won by either Busby (five) or Ferguson (13). Those two also account for 33 of United’s 44 major trophies and, in total, 20 out of the club’
Recent posts

Why lawyers are among football's big earners

A modern Subbuteo set doesn't just need accountants, it also needs lawyers.   Here are some of the recent key legal cases involving football clubs with the law firms involved in brackets: Manchester City challenged the Premier League rules on sponsorship which were found to be unlawful (David Pannick KC who reportedly charges £5k an hour, two other KCs, three additional barristers and law firm Freshfields.   The Premier League's three KCs led by Sports Silk of the Year Adam Lewis KC and four more barristers instructed by Slaughter and May). The European Court of Justice ruled that Fifa's transfer regulations were unlawful after a challenge by former French international Lassana Diarra. A joint action by players' union Fifpro and European Leagues claiming that Fifa's decision to launch a revised version of the Club World Cup had put player health at risk and is in violation of EU law. Leicester, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Everton have faced action for all

Barca's future dominated by Camp Nou development

 Barcelona actually reported a pre-tax loss of €129m in  2023/24, compared to the prior year’s huge €471m profit, which represented an adverse swing of €600m. However, this is largely driven by the movement in economic levers, which delivered an €800m profit in 2022/23, but €141m of this gain was impaired last season. This alone led to a €941m deterioration in the bottom line. As a reminder, Barcelona had pulled these famous levers (“ palancas ”) to raise funds, albeit at the expense of sacrificing income in the future. Without the benefit of the financial levers, Barcelona would have posted a €459m pre-tax loss in the last three years, instead of the reported €466m profit In terms of normal business, revenue fell €43m (5%) from €806m to €763m, which was actually a pretty good performance, as they had to contend with a decrease of more than €100m following the temporary relocation of the men’s first team to the Olympic Stadium while the Camp Nou is being redeveloped. This was o

Plans for Bramley Dock

The Friedkin Group (TFG) has already started to look at what life will be like at Everton’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock next season. To be frank, TFG would not be interested in buying the Premier League side if they were not moving into a new, 53,000-seat venue but Everton’s waterfront property will only transform the club’s fortunes if their owner can really maximise its benefits. And that means turning it into an asset that is used every day, not once a fortnight. With that in mind, TFG is looking to increase the club’s footprint at the docklands site, most likely by buying the land around Nelson Dock, which is immediately to the south of Bramley-Moore Dock, to create more space for the type of entertainment and leisure offering any venue-operator must provide these days to make the sums add up. There are also whispers — and that is all they are at present — that TFG might want to increase the stadium’s capacity at some point, which will not be easy given the tight constr

'Celebs' in Tranmere takeover named

Some more detail emerged this week about who is joining Donald Trump’s former lawyer Joe Tacopina in his attempt to buy Tranmere Rovers. As  The Athletic  reported last month, Team Tacopina has been in talks with the League Two side’s majority owners Mark and Nicola Palios for more than six months and his proposed takeover is being assessed by the English Football League. In their report, they explained that the 58-year-old New Yorker wants “to harness the power of his celebrity contacts” to propel Tranmere and SPAL, the Italian third-tier team he owns, up their leagues, and, if the takeover is approved, we should expect a Welcome to Wrexham-style documentary. Last weekend, the showbiz editor of British newspaper The Sun on Sunday revealed the name of the first of those “celebrity contacts”, although in this case the relationship is also lawyer/client as Tacopina is defending American rapper A$AP Rocky against a charge that he fired a gun at a former friend in Los Angeles in 2021

Latest chapter in the Reading saga

Reading’s holding company, Renhe Sports Management Co Ltd, was served this week with a winding-up petition by Walker Morris, the law firm the club used for several years until its top sports lawyer, David Hinchliffe, left last month to join a new firm, Wiggins, taking the Reading account with him. With Hinchliffe no longer on the payroll, Walker Morris took the not-unreasonable decision that it might be time to call in Reading’s sizeable debt to the firm. Reading — who have now been hit by four winding-up petitions since 2020 — declined to comment. For those new to the boxset that is Reading’s takeover, Chinese businessman Dai Yongge bought the club in May 2017, shortly after that play-off final defeat. His reign in Royal Berkshire has been disastrous — for him and the club — with Reading’s fans in open revolt for over a year. Dai has been trying to sell the club ever since they were relegated to League One in 2023 but received no concrete offer from a credible buyer until this s

Arsenal consider stadium expansion

Arsenal have started to explore how they could upgrade and expand the Emirates Stadium to try to catch up with their rivals’ match-day income. The ground’s capacity of about 60,000 was the biggest in London when they moved from Highbury in 2006, but its size, catering and corporate facilities have since been surpassed by those of Tottenham Hotspur, who earn close to £6million from every match at their 62,850-capacity venue. Without a renovation, Arsenal cannot significantly increase their match-day income. They earned £102.6million from games in 2022-23, which is estimated by the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust to increase to more than £120million in the next accounts because of the team reaching the knockout stage of the Champions League last season. Arsenal’s matches regularly sell out and they realise that they need to keep pace with the huge demand for tickets, as well as adapt to supporters’ changing catering and corporate needs, for example by improving internet access. It is n