The Political Economy of Football V2

A rare in depth look at the finances of a Scottish football club, Dundee FC (not to be confused with overlapping neighbours Dundee United:  https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/dundee-fc/5265494/dundee-fc-finances-history/ Unsurprisingly, it is a loss making business but some potentially useful numbers are not available. The club has a new stadium project at Camperdown Park. Near neighbours Dundee United have an American owner who has invested £13m and were on the cusp of being profitable:  https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/dundee-united/5265287/dundee-united-finances-history/

 Sheffield Wednesday should have a 55,000-capacity stadium, one of England’s best academies and be “way bigger than Wrexham”, according to the co-leader of a North American group trying to buy the crisis-hit Championship club. The four-time title winners are the second-oldest professional club in English football, and were founding members of the Premier League in 1992, but they dropped out of the top flight in 2000 and have spent the 25 years since yo-yoing between the second and third tiers. Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri bought the South Yorkshire side in 2015 — and initially spent heavily on a push for the Premier League — but that financial support has long since dried up and Wednesday are yet to meet all of their wage bill for May, having also been late with April’s payments. Having first said he would sell the club in late 2018, only to place a Premier League-level valuation on the business, Chansiri’s price tag is coming down fast and he is in talks with two U.S.-b...

Although things have taken a turn for the worse on the pitch, Luton Town’s finances look in pretty good shape. This was referenced by chief executive Gary Sweet after the double relegation, “The backdrop of our custodianship of the football club is financial stability. It’s an absolute cornerstone. The club was unstable, it’s more stable now than it probably ever has been financially and structurally.” The club’s sustainable approach resulted in limited expenditure on the squad after promotion to the top flight. Instead, the club invested much of their windfall gains in building a new stadium. While such investment will be beneficial to Luton’s long-term prospects, it is clear that this strategy had an adverse impact on their ability to compete in the Premier League.   Indeed, the directors admitted that they had probably under-spent in the transfer market, especially in the January window, as they attempted to stay up: “In hindsight the club might have reinforced more.” It...

The Scottish Football Supporters Association reports: Next Friday, the SPFL will release the fixtures for next season.    At present, Hamilton Academical will feature in that list, but there is a serious chance that they may not be able to fulfil those fixtures.  Why? Well, it’s a mess to be honest, but this is what we understand the current situation is, with the caveat that this is changing on a daily, if not hourly basis. As we have reported over the last few weeks, the Accies Supporters’ Association has come together to do everything it can to save their club.  The SFSA has seen at first hand the passion and emotional involvement of the Accies’ supporters.  It’s both uplifting and harrowing: these fans really do fear, and with justification, for the future of the club that many have watched for generations. Currently, there are three parties involved.  They are: the directors/owners of the club; the man who owns the stadium; and the fans. ...

Crystal Palace have been asked by Uefa for more information about their ownership structure in a move that leaves the Premier League club more confident they will play in Europe next season. The decision over whether Palace can remain in the Europa League is likely to come down to whether UEFA believe that Textor has the capacity to exercise a decisive influence in the club’s decision-making. Palace would argue that they don’t really operate as part of a multi-club ownership model, but simply have a significant shareholder, who happens to have stakes in other clubs. Given the lack of genuine “decisive influence” that John Textor is able to apply at Crystal Palace, any punishment that banned them from the Europa League would seem to be wildly disproportionate. There are very good reasons why UEFA have implemented regulations to curb the excesses of multi-club ownership, but they surely weren’t designed to tarnish a fabulous story like Palace’s FA Cup win. If the issue is simpl...

My early memories of Tottenham Hotspur were of the double winning team of 1960-61.  At the time that was an exceptional feat and Spurs had some outstanding players such as captain Danny Blanchflower.  Our next door neighbour in Billericay was a keen Spurs supporter and my father expressed his admiration across the garden fence. Today I have a couple of good friends who are Spurs fans.  Winning the Europa League at last gave them something to celebrate. Looking in from the outside, big Ange seemed to me like a grumpy ideologue attached to one way of playing with no Plan B, but it is clear that many Spurs fans thought that he deserved another chance. I am a great admirer of his successor and I think that Brentford played more attractive football under his leadership than many allowed, but it's a big step up. In any case many think that the real problem at Spurs is Daniel Levy.   In many way he exemplifies the conflict between football as a business and fans who ju...