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Champions League penalty for United

Manchester United will be hit with a £10 million penalty every time they fail to qualify for the Champions League under the terms of their new £90 million-a-year kit deal with Adidas. The clause will come into force from next year and is a change to the existing deal, whereby United were only penalised if they did not qualify for the competition for two seasons in a row. The original ten-year deal, worth £750 million, expires in 2025. The new one runs until 2035 and the details were included in United’s half-yearly financial accounts, released this week. Bonuses up to a maximum of £4.4 million a year will be paid should either United’s men’s or women’s team win “the Premier League or Women’s Super League respectively, FA Cup or continental competitions”. The original penalty clause was never invoked, as United never missed out on the Champions League for two consecutive seasons, but had they done so it would have prompted a 30 per cent deduction, worth about £22 million. The ha
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Fate of Forest in balamce

Nottingham Forest are expecting to discover their profit and sustainability (PSR) fate on Monday.  A hearing to decide on what punishment the club will face for breaching PSR regulations was held last week, on Thursday and Friday. It remains unclear exactly what punishment Forest will receive for the breaches — which came during their first season back in the top flight, in 2022-23 — but they will have until April 15 to decide whether they wish to appeal the verdict reached by a three-person independent panel. The six-point deduction Everton have received (reduced from 10 points on appeal) for similar breaches is regarded by some as a potential bellwether for what Forest can expect — but nobody knows for certain what will happen. If they do appeal, the backstop for that process to be completed would be May 24, five days after the end of the Premier League season. Everton are also still facing a second round of charges, stemming from breaches during the 2022-23 campaign. There is

Why United may have to take on new debt

Building a new stadium is expensive. That is a key factor behind the Glazer family’s decision to sell a 25 per cent stake in Manchester United to Sir Jim Ratcliffe — the British billionaire and founder of petrochemicals giant INEOS — in February after a year-long negotiation. The cost to rebuild Old Trafford has been estimated at £2billion ($2.5bn) and a task force has been created by the club to discuss, among other things, where that money is going to come from. More debt being added to the club to fund a new stadium or the redevelopment of Old Trafford is a viable option and one that decision-makers will seriously consider. It is still a good stadium but it has needed significant investment for two decades and has fallen behind other Premier League venues in terms of modernity. The roof is leaky, the chicken isn’t cooked properly and a club of United’s size and stature should have a state-of-the-art home. The cost of building a new Old Trafford has been estimated at £2bn — a

Why Liverpool have to follow the multi club model

Amid the fanfare of Michael Edwards’ appointment as Fenway Sports Group’s (FSG) chief executive of football on Tuesday was an acceptance that Liverpool need to change.  A new era without Jurgen Klopp will now be crafted by Edwards, Liverpool’s former sporting director, and included in the plans are the ambitions to invest in a partner club. The multi-club ownership model is coming to Anfield, with Edwards believing Liverpool have little choice but to expand if they are to “remain competitive” in the Premier League and beyond. It is a clear shift in strategy for Liverpool, a club that has so far gone it alone in contrast to many of their big rivals.    Well over half of the 20 English top-flight clubs now have relationships with at least one other European club and the pattern has been extended in the past 12 months. It has long been mooted that FSG was open to buying another football club to run alongside Liverpool. There were links to as many as four Brazilian clubs – Cruzeiro,

Italian finance police raid AC Milan

Italy’s finance police raided the headquarters of Serie A football club AC Milan on Tuesday as part of an investigation into potential irregularities over its 2022 sale by US hedge fund Elliott Management to private equity group RedBird. Prosecutors launched their probe following allegations that Elliott still controls AC Milan despite the sale to RedBird, according to a search warrant seen by the Financial Times that authorised the raids at the Casa Milan complex in the city’s district of Portello. The search warrant alleges the club’s current chief executive Giorgio Furlani and his predecessor Ivan Gazidis fraudulently concealed information that should have been communicated to the Italian football federation concerning the ownership structure of the club. “It seems that the majority of the funds used to buy the club originate from an investment vehicle that does not belong to RedBird. The suspicion is that Elliott currently maintains effective control of the company,” according

Reading sell training ground to rivals

Reading owner Dai Yongge has agreed to sell the club’s Bearwood Park training ground to local rivals Wycombe Wanderers, less than five years after the state-of-the-art facility was opened. The former Premier League side were in the Championship then and only two years into the Chinese businessman’s tenure as owner. The 2019 move to the £50million site, set in 120 acres of picturesque woodlands only five miles from the club’s stadium, was meant to signal Reading’s ambition to return to the top flight. Having already sold their stadium to a company controlled by Dai in 2019, Reading now face the prospect of renting their own training ground, too, with their landlords being near-neighbours Wycombe. This will come as a bitter blow to the club’s fans, as the only sale they want is Dai handing over the club, with all its assets, as soon as possible. However, that prospect looks as remote as Reading’s chances of returning to the Premier League, as a group led by former Charlton Athlet

More concerns about Everton bidders

The Financial Times this morning has run another in depth investigative report on the bidders for Everton FC, 777 Partners.   What I found particularly concerning  is that the Pink ‘Un had approached four of the entities mentioned in the report for comment and none had responded. Two of these were regulatory authorities, including one on Bermuda which is a hub of the reinsurance industry. I am not an expert on high finance, but the FT has a good record for investigative journalism in relation to this sometimes less than transparent world.    Everton have had enough blows and the problem is that there does not seem to be another credible bidder in the wings as work continues on the new Bramley Dock stadium.    Relegation is still a possibility. A Bermudian financial structure used by the Miami-based bidder for Everton Football Club to funnel money invested for widows and orphans into the sport has begun to unravel, according to the Pink ‘Un. 777 Re, a Bermuda-based reinsurer, has