The Political Economy of Football V2

Something potentially big happened on the fringes of the World Cup this week.  European Football Clubs, the (unhelpfully) renamed entity previously called the European Club Association, agreed to set up a joint venture with Fifa to run the Club World Cup. EFC has a similar arrangement in place with Uefa to market media rights for the three pan-European club competitions, a partnership that has already yielded significant increases in TV revenue. The deal is likely to accelerate plans to expand the tournament from 32 teams to 48, perhaps as soon as 2029. Europe already sent 12 teams to last year’s Club World Cup, but with a cap of two teams per country. Assuming the increase is split on a pro-rata basis, Europeans would take up 18 spots in a bigger competition, and the per-country cap will surely be raised. Last year’s CWC suffered from not having several of the biggest clubs in the world involved — Barcelona, AC Milan, Manchester United and Liverpool. Raising the number of Europe...

The growing phenomenon of diaspora teams is discussed by Simon Kuper in the Financial Times. . In eight squads at the tournament, the majority of players were born outside the country they are representing, comprising Curaçao (25 of whose 26 players were born in the mainland Netherlands), DR Congo, Morocco, Bosnia, Algeria, Haiti, Tunisia and Cape Verde. These countries have mostly recruited from their western European diasporas. Overall, 23.6 per cent of players in this year’s tournament were born outside the country they are representing — up from 9.6 per cent in 2006, according to an Oxford university study. That is the case because western Europe excels at producing footballers. Its social democracies make amateur football widely available and affordable, enlarging the region’s talent base. And since the average player does not have the ball for about 89 minutes a game, the most basic question in football is, “Where should I be now?” Western Europeans learn to answer that fro...

Hull’s owner Acun Ilicali, the Turkish businessman, has accepted that promotion came on the back of an overspend last season to raise questions over their compliance with Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR). He told a fans’ forum this month there is a need to raise £6million before the financial year is out. That leaves Hull with seven days to raise the necessary funds or run the risk of being handed a points deduction in their first season back in England’s top flight. In a word, Hull’s situation is precarious. This coming season ushers in a new era of financial controls in the Premier League through Squad Cost Rules (SCR) but all 20 clubs are first assessed for the final time through the Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR). Hull are permitted to lose £39 million after allowable deductions over the three-year monitoring period as an EFL club and without action over the next week, there is forecast to be a breach.The numbers that are currently available, coverin...

Manchester United have secured the majority of the land required to build a new 100,000-seater stadium to replace Old Trafford.   The club announced on Monday it has acquired a 25-acre site north west of the current stadium from Indurent, an industrial warehousing company. The land is located around 350 metres away from Old Trafford’s existing site — between Wharfside Way, Europa Way and John Gilbert Way.    The acquisition means that United no longer require land owned by Freightliner, a rail logistics company, located directly to the west of Old Trafford.Freightliner were demanding around $400million (£301.8m) for the land, substantially higher than United’s projected price of around £50m. The acquisition marks a change from initial designs unveiled by United and architects Foster + Partners last year, which located the new stadium adjacent to the existing site. United said they do not anticipate issues acquiring the remainder of the land required by the new st...

The new owner of Tamworth is an Oklahoma-based real estate entrepreneur Abdullah Ashraf.   He aims to buy the club's ground from the council and obtain promotion to the EFL. He previously held an eight per cent stake in Truro City.  But dos he realise how competitive non-league football is in England and how hard it is to get out of the National League even with a full-time squad.

Zurich and Burnley are very different places, but the Swiss Ramble is able to run the rule over the Clarets.  He has to rely on last year’s accounts, but as Burnley are heading back to the Championship they are relevant. Burnley’s revenue will have been significantly higher last season after promotion, mainly due to the far more lucrative TV money in the Premier League.    Whenever Burnley are in the Premier League, they face a huge revenue challenge, so it’s very much a case of role reversal compared to the Championship. The magnitude of the financial disparity was clearly illustrated in 2023/24, when their £134m revenue was the second lowest in the Premier League, only ahead of Luton Town.   This was miles below the elite, e.g. the “Big Six” clubs all earned more than three times as much as Burnley, led by Manchester City £715m. Looking at the previous time they went up, their revenue more than doubled from £65m to £134m, mainly due to the much higher TV righ...