The Political Economy of Football V2

Liverpool owner Fenway Sports Group (FSG) is in talks with Getafe president Angel Torres about a staged takeover that would add the La Liga club to its portfolio of sports teams. FSG’s interest in Getafe was first reported in Spain last month but Torres downplayed the status of the talks earlier this month in an interview with Spanish radio station COPE, saying there have been rumours about a takeover since he bought the club in 2002 “and now it’s Liverpool but we’re not for sale”. Despite this denial, it is widely known in the industry that Getafe have been for sale for years and FSG is just the latest to take an interest in the club, who are about to start their 21st season out of the last 22 in Spain’s top flight. Over that period they have built a reputation for being well-run and for developing young talent, such as current Aston Villa midfielder Emi Buendia, Galatasaray’s on-loan striker Alvaro Morata and their in-demand Nigerian star Christantus Uche. Torres has previous...

After a few years of relative obscurity in the middle region of the Championship, Swansea City’s name has featured prominently in the sports pages recently after the arrival of a couple of famous new investors. First up was Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modrić, who said, “Swansea has a strong identity, an incredible fanbase, and the ambition to compete at the highest level.”   He has been joined as a minority owner by the American rapper Snoop Dogg, who commented, “The story of the club and the area really struck a chord with me. This is a proud, working-class city and club. An underdog that bites back, just like me.” Swansea’s owners believe that such celebrity partnerships will help boost the club’s global profile, describing the investment as “an endorsement of the club’s ambition and vision”.   More tangibly, this a clear attempt to help drive commercial growth, in much the same way as Hollywood’s Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have done for Wrexham, another Welsh club. ...

Morecambe face expulsion from English football’s league pyramid after the fifth-tier National League suspended the Lancashire-based club with immediate effect because of their dire financial position. In a short statement, the league said its Compliance and Licensing Committee had met on Monday afternoon to debate Morecambe’s ability to start the season. The club have been in football’s Emergency Room for years but the crisis has deepened in recent weeks after a protracted takeover by London-based sports investment company Panjab Warriors stalled and a new potential buyer emerged. With Morecambe already under a transfer embargo, the National League announced on Friday that it was effectively giving current owner Bond Group Investments until noon to sell the club. But that deadline came and went, giving the league no option but to suspend the club until August 20, which means their first three fixtures of the new season — away at Boston United, home to Brackley Town and away at ...

Common sense would suggest that confirmation of John Textor’s exit from Crystal Palace should resolve the issues around the Premier League club’s connection to French side Lyon. After all, the American investor has now both sold his Palace stake and left all positions of authority at Lyon. Palace are taking their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), asking the so-called “supreme court” of worldwide athletic endeavour to overturn UEFA’s decision. Palace have also named Nottingham Forest and Lyon in their appeal, as their fellow Premier League side have been elevated from the Conference League to the second-tier Europa League at their expense, while their disputed stablemates from Ligue 1 have been left in the Europa League, as their higher domestic league finish of the two sides trumps winning the FA Cup.  Steve Parish, Palace’s chairman, will not mind which of those clubs CAS demotes, as long as what he views as the “terrible injustice” of his team being removed ...

  Manchester United season-ticket holders could have to pay up to £4,000 each just to reserve a seat at their new ground if the proposed move into a 100,000-seat stadium goes ahead. The introduction of a Personal Seat Licence (PSL) is one of many possible ideas that have been put to supporters during recent focus group sessions organised by US stadium consultants CSL International, which has experience of helping American franchises find ways to part-fund new stadiums. Under the PSL scheme, which is commonplace in some American sports, if a fan buys a seat licence they are given first refusal on that seat for 30 years. The seat licence owner would still have to pay for a season ticket on top of that one-off fee and if they failed to take up the option to buy a season ticket one year, the club would take back the ticket and the licence would be void. The initiative would give fans a guarantee of remaining in the same seats every year, but they would have to pay for that...

A naming rights deal for the London Stadium looks as elusive as ever after venue chiefs admitted there was “a significant risk” that no sponsor will be found before 2028. The owners of the stadium, which is occupied by West Ham United for most of the year, have been unable to secure a deal to reduce the venue’s losses despite previously claiming one was imminent. The risk of a continuing failure is spelt out in the draft annual report of the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), which owned the stadium until March, when it transferred to be directly under the Greater London Authority. Meanwhile, West Ham are still in a dispute with the London Stadium owners over who should pick up the costs of staging matches involving their Women’s Super League (WSL) team. The club’s 2013 concession agreement to use the stadium — labelled as the “deal of the century” by one London Assembly member — makes the venue’s owners responsible for paying costs such as stewarding, security and e...