The Political Economy of Football V2

Everton’s final season at Goodison Park coincided with the club’s best financial results in eight years — though only after they generated £49.2million ($65.2m) from the internal restructuring of companies housing both their old home and the club’s women’s team. Accounts for the 2024-25 season, published on Tuesday, reveal Everton’s revenues climbed to a club record £196.7m and the club’s pre-tax loss fell to £8.6m. Their underlying operating profitability improved too, though without those internal sales Everton’s overall loss would have exceeded the £53.2m a year before. Everton’s revenue reached a club record last season, coming in just shy of £200m after improvements in both matchday and commercial income. The final season at Goodison Park saw gate receipts top £20m for the first time in 17 years, and commercial revenue grew a substantial 22 per cent, following new and improved deals with Red Bull, vodka manufacturer Nemiroff, and corporate payments company Corpay, as well as...

It’s no longer just accountants who are the biggest financial service providers in football, lawyers are increasingly finding it a source of lucrative business.   It is no accident that Manchester City have some of the best lawyers advising them. The next step was likely to be private equity, already invested in clubs, taking a stake in a law firm. A boutique UK law firm behind some of the biggest football deals has taken an investment from a US private equity group, in a sign of the growing interest from private capital in both the legal and sports industries. San Francisco’s Cordillera Investment Partners has taken a minority stake in Northridge Law, whose clients include English Premier League football clubs such as Chelsea. The deal, which will give Cordillera a board seat at Northridge, comes as private capital has shown an increasing appetite to invest in professional services firms. Several legal and accounting firms have taken investments over the past two years, wi...

Italian financial police raided Milan city council’s offices on Tuesday as part of an investigation into the sale of the San Siro stadium to private equity-backed Serie A clubs AC Milan and Inter Milan. Computers and mobile phones were seized during the raids and more than 10 people have been placed under investigation on suspicion of bid-rigging, according to people with knowledge of the details of the case.  A press conference scheduled for Tuesday morning at Palazzo Marino, the council’s headquarters, to unveil the venue’s renovation was cancelled at the last minute.  The football clubs are not under investigation. Milan’s city council agreed to sell the 100-year-old arena to AC Milan and Inter Milan, which share the venue, for close to €200 mn last year. RedBird acquired AC Milan in a €1.2bn deal in 2022, while Oaktree Capital took control of Inter Milan two years later after the club’s Chinese owners failed to repay a €400 mn loan in time. After a years-long tussle ...

As they appoint yet another new coach, Tottenham Hotspur’s 2024-25 accounts detail a worst-ever pre-tax loss and a growing need for cash, even amid record revenues. Spurs’ deficit tumbled to £120.6 million ($160 m), a near-£100 m worsening on a season earlier, though the club’s income statement is subject to several quirks not applicable to other Premier League sides. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (THS) generated a huge £57.6m ($76 m) paper depreciation charge, an accounting concept that writes down the value of fixed assets over a deemed lifespan. At the end of June 2025, the club held just £20.4 m ($26.9 m) in liquid cash, a 10-year low and a reduction of nearly £180 m ($237.8 m) in the last two years. That is just a snapshot in time, and there is reason to doubt the efficacy of holding huge amounts of cash without utilising them, but there are wider signals that Spurs are less self-sustaining than they have been at any other time under ENIC’s quarter-century of ownership, even as th...

Relegation threatened Blackpool have reported increased losses compared with the preceding season:  https://www.footballtradedirectory.com/blackpool-report-43m-loss-as-league-one-clubs-face? Auditors have issued a formal warning about the club's ability to continue as a going concern linked to one of the directors facing criminal proceedings in Hong Kong:  https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/25985039.blackpool-fc-finances-losses-deepen-owner-trial/

Wolverhampton Wanderers booked a £15.3 million ($20.2m) loss in their 2024-25 Premier League season, even as they reaped £117m in player-trading profits — by some distance a new club record.  Wolves’ latest books also paint a picture of a club in decline on the pitch, very much setting the scene for their awful 2025-26 campaign. Wolves extended their accounting period, moving their May year-end date to June, and in doing so were able to book the sales of Matheus Cunha and Rayan Ait-Nouri, to Manchester United and Manchester City respectively, into last season’s accounts. Wolves’ revenue fell by £5.7m last season, driven by dropping from finishing 14th in the Premier League in 2023-24 to 16th and also having two fewer games selected for live broadcast (15, against the 17 a year earlier). Those factors reduced broadcast income by £8.4m, and that revenue stream is likely to decline further this term. Like most Premier League clubs outside the ‘Big Six’, Wolves rely on TV money f...