The Political Economy of Football V2

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Gibson continues to fund Boro's promotion bid

Middlesbrough rely on owner Steve Gibson to fund a return to the Premier League, but too often they have been the nearly men. This season they are in the second automatic promotion position, but only one point ahead of Millwall Outstanding away performances have been undermined by some nervous home performances against lowly clubs, exemplified by last night's defeat to Charlton. The Swiss Ramble has been conducting his usual forensic analysis of their 2024/25 accounts and his full analysis is available on his Substack page. Middlesbrough’s pre-tax loss slightly reduced from £12.4m to £11.4m, thanks to profit from player sales improving by £9.2m from £17.1m to £26.3m. Revenue was also a little higher, rising £0.3m (1%) from £32.2m to £32.5m, though there was a steep increase in operating expenses, which rose £7.9m (13%) from £62.5m to £70.4m, while net interest payable more than doubled from £0.5m to £1.1m. Since 2011 Gibson has put £176m into the club via loans, almost all of whic...

Americans succeed in Wednesday bid

A group led by American businessman David Storch has been named as the preferred bidder for Sheffield Wednesday, who will start the 2026-27 season in League One with a 15-point deduction. ,The winning bid is not high enough to ensure that all of the club’s unsecured creditors receive at least 25 per cent of what they are owed, hence the points deduction. The Storch group’s bid of just under £20million beat rival offers for the south Yorkshire-based club from English retail tycoon and ex-Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley, a group led by former Charlton Athletic and Sunderland executive Charlie Methven and two undisclosed U.S. syndicates that made late bids. Ashley was seen as the favourite at one stage but did not bid high enough. Storch, 73, retired as chief executive of aircraft maintenance firm AAR Corp in 2018, before spending another five years as the chairman of the multinational’s board of directors. He is now managing partner of Illinois-based investment firm ...

Real Madrid managing cash more carefully

Real Madrid file interim financials each year, and while they were again profitable in the opening half of this season, their surplus drooped notably. In the six months to the end of December 2024, Madrid made a pre-tax profit of €38.3m. A year on, the figure was just €6.1m, an 84 per cent fall. The heightened wage bill was a key driver in that, with most of the increase attributable to football staff and, within them, to first-team players. Personnel costs there rose by €26.5m, as the impact of several new signings — Dean Huijsen, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alvaro Carreras and Franco Mastantuono — was felt. Captain Dani Carvajal’s new contract, signed in October 2024, also had a bearing; six months of any extra cost incurred by that new deal will have been recorded in the latest figures, as opposed to just three months in those from a year ago. Wages in the club’s basketball team jumped too, up €7.8m to €25.1m, but that still meant Madrid’s football-related wage bill for...

Franchise club offers free admission

The award of the Wimbledon 'franchise' to MK Dons has long troubled football fans and fortunately the experiment has not been repeated. Wimbledon fans formed their own successful phoenix club which is in a higher division. But MK Dons have had trouble filling their 30,000 stadium. For Saturday's game they offered free admission and managed to attract 23,465, an attendance record, Their highest average attendance was 13,000 in the Championship in 2015/16, but this season it has been around 7,500. The problem is that it still looks like an artificial club in an artificial city. Many local residents have existing affiliations to London clubs. The city is accessible by good train services. Milton Keynes has its attractions as a place to live, but how far do residents identify with it? Building a fan base will take time.

More troubles at Morecambe

The new independent football regulator could launch its first significant action after the troubled Lancashire club Morecambe appointed a senior executive who has been banned by Guernsey’s financial authorities for involvement in a fraudulent investment fund. Steve Dewsnip, 59, was appointed by Morecambe as their chief operating officer on February 19. The announcement came only days before the club were handed a transfer embargo by the National League for failing to comply with its financial rules. Dewsnip was director of a company which collapsed in 2016 leaving investors £37m out of pocket. It was subsequently found guilty of conducting a fraudulent Ponzi scheme. In August 2024 the Guernsey Financial Services Commission banned Dewsnip from involvement in a regulated entity. Morecambe had hoped that last August's takeover by Punjab Warriors would end a difficult time for the Shrimpers who are fighting relegation from the National League. They had been pre...

Very good financial figures at Liverpool

The Swiss Ramble reviews the latest accounts of Liverpool FC. The full analysis is available on his Substack page. Liverpool returned to profitability last season, as they swung from a pre-tax loss of £57m to a profit of £15m, a big improvement of £72m in the bottom line. Revenue shot up £89m (14%) from £614m to a club record £703m, while profit on player sales more than doubled from £22m to £53m. However, there was steep growth in operating expenses, which rose £61m (9%) from £684m to £745m, though net interest payable slightly decreased from £9.4m to £8.5m. One of the main drivers of the growth in Liverpool’s revenue was playing in the more lucrative Champions League, as opposed to the Europa League the previous season, which led to a steep increase in broadcasting, up £60m (29%) from £204m to £264m. There were also increases in match day, up £14m (14%) from £102m to £116m, and commercial, up £15m (5%) from £308m to £323m. Both these revenue streams estab...