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Replacing the San Siro

Inter and Milan hope to move into their new home in 2031-32. It will be built on the same footprint for an estimated €2billion ($2.24bn) and carry the name of Italian insurance giant Generali, who have agreed to a record naming rights deal worth £650m over 20 years. Change is going to come. This is different from the projects that have come and gone before. It will not go the way of Barbara Berlusconi’s plan to build Milan their own stadium in the Portello neighbourhood of the city in 2015. Nor will it be held up as The Cathedral was by Covid-19, lockdowns, local elections in Milan and Suning, Inter’s former owners, being on the brink of a bankruptcy that was formally declared earlier this year. Make no mistake — this is happening. A year ago, Milan city hall approved the sale of the publicly owned San Siro to Milan and Inter for around €200m. There were five appeals to block it, all dismissed by the regional administrative court, and threats by political party the Greens to collap...
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Is INEOS sports empire uravelling?

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS, Manchester United’s minority owner, has put Swiss Super League side FC Lausanne-Sport up for sale.   INEOS, whose global headquarters had been in the city between 2010 and 2016, bought the team in November 2017. At the time, it looked like more like an exercise in corporate social responsibility than the first step in the creation of a multi-sport empire that would eventually span cycling, F1, football, rugby union and sailing. But that empire is now in retreat, with the decision to sell Lausanne coming after abrupt exits from sponsorship deals with the All Blacks (New Zealand, rugby union) and Tottenham Hotspur in 2025, a messy divorce from America’s Cup partner Sir Ben Ainslie and the decision to put French club OGC Nice on the market. INEOS will be hoping for a much quicker exit from Lausanne than their long, painful goodbye at Nice. The French side have won three of their last four games to climb to mid-table in Ligue 1 but the club’s fan bas...
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Biggest loss in Dutch league for Feyenoord

During the past few days, we have been enjoying the world gymnastics championship well staged in an impressive arena in Rotterdam.  In this posting the focus is on the port city’s football club. From his fastness in Zurich, the Swiss Ramble has been casting his usual forensic eye over the 2025/26 accounts from Feyenoord.   Here are his key findings. Feyenoord had a “challenging” season off the pitch, as they swung from a €31.1m pre-tax profit to €17.0m loss, a sizeable year-on-year deterioration of €48.1m.   Revenue dropped by nearly a third, falling €51.5m from €166.7m to €115.2m, but costs remained at virtually the same level, so this all fed through to a much larger operating loss, which widened from €28.8m to €78.9m. This was partially offset by €62.6m profit on player sales, up €2.2m from the previous year’s €60.3m.   The net loss after tax was lower at €12.6m, thanks to a €4.4m tax credit. The main reason for the revenue decrease was significantly lower...
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Wimbledon have chance to create new fan control model

The supporters who own AFC Wimbledon will vote over the next four weeks on whether to accept an £87million ($116m) investment in the League One club from a consortium led by former Southampton and England full-back Ryan Bertrand. In a complicated deal, Sloane Street Capital (SSC), a newly set-up investment vehicle, would pay £16m for approximately 34 per cent of the club’s shares this season but then invest a further £71m over the next five years, at which point SSC would own 90 per cent of the club’s economic value. However, under a shareholders’ agreement, the club’s current owner — the 6,265-strong Dons Trust — will always retain at least 50.01 per cent of the voting rights, giving the trust veto control over the club and its stadium’s freehold. Bertrand, who played for nine different clubs during a 17-year career including Chelsea, Southampton and Leicester City, is SSC’s senior football advisor and would hold the same role for Wimbledon, with two of SSC’s minority shareholde...
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Villa's stadium ambitions

Aston Villa today celebrated a 2-1 win over Manchester City despite playing in a three sided ground. The North Stand, behind one of the goals and opposite the famous Holte End, is closed for the 2026-27 season as part of Villa Park’s redevelopment.   Once functional, it should house more than 12,000 spectators. Incremental additions to the ground’s three other sides will lead to the targeted capacity and, longer-term, to a 52,500-seat venue. Having secured Champions League qualification at the end of 2023-24, the football department were keen to avoid playing home matches in a three-stand stadium. There was a desire for Villa Park to remain atmospheric and intimidating for opponents, as well as not be an eyesore. Club sources estimate shutting the stand this season costs about £6million. Villa decided it was better to bite the bullet and get the work done in one season rather than two, as the estimated increased income from the revamped stand exceeds the agreed fixed interest r...
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Valencia attracts a big valuation

Valencia won both the Spanish league and the Uefa Cup in 2004, an achievement that propelled the team’s then head coach Rafa Benítez all the way to Liverpool.  But glory has eluded the club ever since, with form dropping off sharply in the past decade under the ownership of Singaporean palm-oil billionaire Peter Lim. Now, perhaps, a new chapter is opening. On Friday, the club announced that a consortium of US investors, including the family offices of KKR co-founders George Roberts and Henry Kravis, had agreed to buy a 42 per cent stake valuing Valencia at €1.25bn. The group, which also includes the owners of the Denver Broncos NFL franchise, will inject €100mn of working capital too, helping the team buy players and improve the training ground. Despite previous success, Valencia are well past being at European football’s top table. The team sits 19th in La Liga at the moment, while the club generated annual revenue of just €103.7mn in its most recent accounts. Brentford, 30th ...
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New bonanza for sports lawyers as Real threaten to sue PL clubs

Real Madrid want the six Premier League clubs that signed up to the European Super League (ESL) to pay a share of the initial costs of the abandoned project. Multiple sources with a close understanding of the situation told The New York Times that the Spanish club believe Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur should still be liable for the setup costs of the plan, despite subsequently pulling out. One source said these costs could be as high as €80 million (£67.3m; $89.9m) in total. Madrid, alongside domestic rivals Barcelona and Juventus of Italy, have so far shared promotional costs associated with the ESL, plans for which were announced in April 2021. Of the 12 founding ESL members, nine — each of the six English clubs, along with Spanish side Atletico Madrid and both Milan and Inter of Serie A — pulled out swiftly in the days following its launch. Another, Juventus, said in 2023 that they had withdrawn from the proposal, before ...
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