The Political Economy of Football V2

Macclesfield Town have won promotion back to the Football League on the slimmest of budgets, the smallest in the division. Many clubs operate with playing budgets twice as big as Macclesfield's £350,000 and for others such as Tranmere Rovers or benefactor clubs like Ebbsfleet and AFC Fylde it would be three times as much. The owners are Bashar and Amar al-Khadi, two Iraqi-Kurd telecom entrpreneurs whose family settled in Britain in the late 1970s. They bought the club in 2003. Since relegation from the Football League in 2012, finances have been drastically tightened and wages were late once this season. There have been appeals to supporters for donations for signings. There has been no additional income from player sales, TV games or cup runs such as last year's FA Trophy final at Wembley. In 2013 the club was £1m in debt and close to administration. The debt is now down to £280,000. Promotion to the Football League will be worth about £1.2m.

Sunderland have been taken over by an international consortium headed by Eastleigh chairman Stewart Donald who has put £10m into the National League club. He has put Eastleigh up for sale: Sale agreed Donald is prepared to let Eastleigh go for free, but they were losing £37,000 a week in 2016/17 and finished 14th this season, so whoever takes over the Spitfires will need deep pockets. Outgoing owner Lewis Short has written off the club's debts which were the 13th highest in Europe. It is thought that eliminating the debt could cost him in excess of £100m, thereby lifting his total spending on Sunderland to around £250m. Stewart Donald is a millionaire businessman who owns Bridle Insurance, a brokers which specialises in the civil engineering and construction industries. He is a lifelong Oxford United supporter.

The chairman of Nuneaton Town has quit and put the club and the ground up for sale: Club for sale A winding up order against the company that owns the club was dismissed in court eight days ago. Last time the club was put up for sale, there was interest from China. The FA has given permission for the club's name to be changed to Nuneaton Borough.

Billionaire owner of Fulham Football Club Shahid Khan has made what is effectively a £900m bid for Wembley Stadium which is to become a home for both British and American football. The 'Tash with the Cash' as he is nicknamed made his fortune selling car parts in the United States and also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team. Who will benefit from the deal? The Football Association will have £500m up front and will also receive some £400m in income from the rights to Club Wembley over the next six years. The £58m it raised from this source in 2016/17 just about covers the stadium operating costs. It will also save substantial investments over the next few years which Mr Kahn claims are necessary to 'refresh' the stadium. 'Wembley's new, but it's not that new,' he says. A sum of around £60m is being talked about. The Football Association will be able to use the money to create a special fund to build artificial pitches and other grass roots faci...

Hull rugby league supremo Adam Pearson is heading a consortium trying to buy crisis club Sunderland. Pearson and his team have approached Ellis Short and are now one of two live bidders for the relegated Black Cats. Prospective bids have foundered at the due diligence stage. Having been relegated from the top flight in 2017, Sunderland have the advantage of a £35m Premier League parachute payment next season but the latest financial figures, released a year ago, revealed £69m was owed to Short and £68m to Security Bank Capital, with the latter arrangement costing £8m a year in interest payments. The austerity measures implemented by Martin Bain, the chief executive, have reduced those arrears appreciably and Short is prepared to walk away in exchange for a buyer repaying a significant portion of his personal loan in addition to shouldering the wider debt but the finances remain forbidding. Kieran Maguire of the Price of Football has commented, 'Under Ellis Short Sunderland have ...

In this blog post Professor Simon Chadwick raises a number of issues in relation to Fifa and its finances, but in particular suggests that Qatar might have to share the hosting of the 2022 World Cup with the possible beneficiary being Saudi Arabia: What is Fifa's game?

This blog suggests that they will, based on a Daily Telegraph article: Tiny transfer budget This is quite a surprise after the years of relative parsimony. But any new manager is going to expect to be able to spend to shape the squad in line with his ideas and that won't be cheap. Arsenal may just have to dig deep to revive their fortunes on the pitch.

The 2016/17 accounts for Newport County state, 'During the 2016/17 season, the Club experienced poor performances both on and off the field which have resulted in a loss for the year ending 30 June 2017. The Board have prepared financial forecasts for the year ended 30 June 2018 and following the successful FA Cup run and the likelihood of remaining in the Football League, the Board anticipate the Club will making a profit [in 2017/18].' 'The Board have prepared strict budgets for the 2018/19 season with a view to reducing unnecessary costs and increasing revenue streams into the Club.' Turnover increased slightly from £2m to £2.3m. The operating loss was more or less steady at £370k, amounting to some £7k a week. Just £3.5k was spent on signing players. Shareholders pumped in £236k in new shares to keep the club afloat. Overdrafts and loans from current and former directors amounted to £241k, the loans being interest free.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire thinks there have been a series of missed commercial opportunities at Arsenal under Arsene Wenger which have adversely affected the club's bottom line: Missed opportunities 'Look at their commercial brand compared to Manchester United and Liverpool,' he told Arab News . 'Arsenal should be the premier club in London but they have let Spurs and Chelsea catch up.' [Personally I am not so sure about the 'should', despite Arsenal's history]. Maguire thinks Wenger, historically resistant to lucrative pre-season tours from which clubs pull in multimillion pound deals and endorsements even if in recent years he had agreed to Far East junkets, had hampered Arsenal’s bottom line. 'It helps when the manager is as big as your best player. What we have seen with (Liverpool manager) Jurgen Klopp and (Manchester City manager) Pep Guardiola is that they can expand the number of sponsors. Klopp is a fantastic ambassador....

Arsene Wenger has announced that he is stepping down at the end of the season as manager of Arsenal after a period of growing fan discontent with performances on the pitch: Wenger out 'This is one of the most difficult days we have ever had in all our years in sport,” said Arsenal’s majority shareholder Stan Kroenke. “One of the main reasons we got involved with Arsenal was because of what Arsène has brought to the club on and off the pitch. His longevity and consistency over such a sustained period at the highest level of the game will never be matched.' There will be plenty of candidates for the vacant post with impressive cvs, but the example of Sir Alex Ferguson's departure at Manchester United shows that replacing a long-serving manager is not easy.

Premier League clubs’ combined revenue increased by nearly £1bn to £4.5bn in the 2016/17 season, a new record, report Deloitte Sports Business. Collective pre-tax profit of £0.5bn was almost three times the previous record of £0.2bn in 2013/14. Clubs generated record operating profit of £1bn – double the amount reported for the 2015/16 season. Wage costs across the league rose by 9% to £2.5bn, a new record, but significantly slower growth than the 25% increase in overall revenue. Premier League clubs generated a combined operating profit of £1bn in the 2016/17 season. Clubs collectively reported £0.5bn in pre-tax profit, also a league record, with wages increasing by 9% to £2.5bn. Dan Jones, Partner and head of the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, commented: 'As predicted last year, the Premier League’s three year broadcast deals which came into effect in the 2016/17 season helped drive revenue to record levels.' 'Despite wages increasing by 9% to £2.5bn, this increase...

The price of football site takes an in depth look at the finances of Burnley: Clarets Burnley have been beneficiaries of either Premier League membership or parachute payments since 2010, and the sharp spikes in income in 2010, 2015 and 2017 represent the years in which they have been in the top flight. Although it tripled in 2016/17, Burnley’s overall income was the second lowest of Premier League teams last season. Burnley earned half of the average income in the division, such is the way that money is skewed towards the ‘Big Six’ in the Premier League of Manchester United and City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Spurs. The article concludes, 'Based on the financials for 2016/17, the club is worth a total of about £350 million using the Markham Multivariate Model. This figure looks a little top heavy, but even so it shows the attraction of the Premier League to investors who might want to risk their money in a club that looks after the pennies and can still win plenty of matches....

Following relegation from the Sky Bet Championship to League One, turnover for Bolton Wanderers (the football business of Burnden Leisure) decreased across the business during the 2016/17 financial year to £8.3m from £24.3m. This was predominantly due to the loss of the Premier League parachute payments which the club had received for the previous four years following relegation in 2011/12. This led to broadcasting revenue dropping to £1.7m from £12.9m. Total wages and salaries reduced by £5.9m from the previous year to £12.6m and the ability to achieve further reductions was hampered by the burden of a significant number of playing contracts that ran beyond the end of the 2015/16 season. The annual report notes, 'A great deal of work has also been undertaken to control all other costs through the business. Encouragingly, this has resulted in a £4m reduction in sales and administrative expenses. It is due to these cost savings that, despite the significant £16m reduction in t...

The London Review of Books is not where one would usually expect to find an article about West Ham United, but Helen Thompson writes about the travails associated with the move to the London Stadium: West Ham She argues, 'At the heart of West Ham’s woes is the simple fact that the football club is no longer playing at a football stadium. The shape is all wrong, for a start: a rectangular pitch is surrounded by an oval array of seats, most of which are too far from the action to allow the energy and sound of the fans to have much effect on what happens on the pitch.' She concludes, 'The move to the new stadium has proved so traumatic because every aspect of being a supporter there is a reminder of the transformed nature of the sport, and the football on the pitch has provided no relief.'

AFC Wimbledon are looking forward to construction work starting on their new stadium in the summer. In the meantime, they have given considerable financial help to their tenants at Kingsmeadow, Kingstonian. The turnover for 2016/17 was about £740k higher than the previous year at £4.675m. The major reason for this increase was additional central funding from the EFL and the Premier League solidarity payments which also reflected the extra payments following promotion to League One. As a result, these payments were over £600k higher than in the previous years. Sponsorship and advertising were over £600k higher. The main turnover items were: Match receipts and prize money £2.719m Youth development income £602k Sponsorships and advertising £590k Bar and catering £400k In 2016-17 the club had very good attendances, averaging comfortably over 4,000 for league games. Taking account of the increased income from solidarity payments, and a profit of £355k from the sale of players, th...

The Price of Football site takes an in depth look at the finances of Huddersfield Town, noting that they were promoted with only just half the average income for the division, 'an incredible achievement': Huddersfield Town

The 'big six' clubs are going to make a new bid to secure a bigger share of overseas TV rights. In October, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and the two Manchester clubs were defeated in a bid to have 35 per cent of overseas TV money allocated according to league position. If the new system were in operation the title winners would get £53m compared with £25m for the club finishing bottom. Every club finishing below 13th would be worse off. Now the issue has come up again after the value of the 2019-22 domestic TV rights fell for the first time in 15 years. Chief executive Richard Scudamore wants the matter settled at the annual general meeting in June. The bigger clubs argue that their matches are the ones that drive the overseas TV sales. The five main domestic packages sold for £4.464 billion, nearly £700m short of the current deal. Across Sky and BT Sport, the cost per match works out at £9.3m for the new deal, compared with £10.19m under the current deal which las...

An international consortium is backing two proposed new Fifa tournaments which could rival the Champions League. The move comes as Fifa seeks to secure its financial future in the wake of the corruption and bribery scandal that has plunged into crisis in recent years. Japan's SoftBank is part of the consortium. The identity of the other investors is not known but is thought to include participants from China, Saudi Arabia, the US and the United Arab Emirates. The plan envisages the expansion of the Club World Cup, a tournament currently limited to seven top teams from across the globe. It is also proposed to have a new international league competition for national teams. The Club World Cup would be played every four years by the top 24 club level teams. A new national team competition would take place every two years. Fifa would have a 51 per cent stake in a joint venture with the consortium with the investors guaranteeing revenues of at least $25bn. The underlying idea is...

An assessment of the complex legal dispute between Derby County and its former president and CEO, Sam Rush: Legal comment The article concludes, 'History will show whether Derby are a club leading the charge to bring transparency to the world of football transfers or simply trying to find a scapegoat on which to pin the blame for failures of corporate governance.'

Paris Saint-Germain faces the threat of sanctions by Uefa after a preliminary investigation showed that sponsorship contracts valued by the Qatari-owned club at €200m were 'overstated'. The outcome could be a big fine or a ban from the Champions League. Uefa's investigatory arm is reported to have hired sports consultancy Octagon to conduct an independent review of PSG's sponsorship contracts amid concerns that some of the money had come from 'related parties' - entities with financial or other links to the club's owners. Contracts under review include those with Qatar National Bank, Bein Sports and Qatar Tourism Authority.

The Price of Football takes an in depth look at the finances of Leeds United, all the information you could possibly want: Leeds United The article concludes, 'The good news is that the club is in an excellent position to invest heavily in the player market due to being significantly under the FFP loss limit. The big question is whether the owner will be prepared to dig deep and spend to bring in the calibre of player required for Leeds to be promotion contenders in 2018/19.'

The authoritative Swiss Ramble has now turned his attention to Huddersfield Town, their 2016/17 accounts relating to the year in which they won promotion. As he now tweets rather than blogs, I follow the practice of consolidating his insights so that they may be more widely shared. He notes, 'The loss before tax widened from £1.6m to £19.6m, as they paid the price for success with £11.9m of promotion expenses (e.g. bonuses). Post-tax loss was £17.1m, thanks to £2.5m tax credit. Revenue rose £4.5m (40 per cent) to £15.8m, but profit on player sales was down £5.7m to £1.2m.' The main reason for the club's £4.5m revenue growth was the new Premier League TV deal, which resulted in a higher solidarity payment, thus increasing broadcasting income by £2.6m. Commercial income and match day rose £1.0m and £0.9m respectively. Their £20m loss was one of the highest in the Championship in 2016/17, though not as big as fellow promoted club Brighton £39m. In general, almost all clubs...

Billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong is part of a consortium looking to take control of US Major League Soccer team DC United in a deal that would value the club at $500m, a record the top soccer competition in the US: DC United deal close DC United's chief executive Jason Levein is heading a group that is seeking to buy out Erick Thohir, the Indonesian businessman who owns 78 per cent of the team's operating rights. Mr Levein, who owns the remaining 22 per cent of the club, plans to bring on board new investors alongside Mr Soon-Shiong. It remains unclear how much Mr Soon-Shiong, a surgeon turned biotech investor, is seeking to invest in DC United. He is already a minority owner of NBA basketball team Los Angeles Lakers and, in February, bought the Los Angeles Times newspaper for $500m. Mr Thohir, who sold the majority of his controlling stake in Italy's Serie A club Inter Milan to China's Suning in 2016, has been seeking ways to significantly reduce his involvement in...

Yeovil Town turned a £449k operating loss in 2015/16 into an operating profit of £29k in 2016/17. Chairman John Fry said: 'In an age where many clubs make significant losses or operate in an unsustainable way, we have taken steps not only to manage the club’s finances responsibly but also to reinvest wisely when extra income is generated. This surplus, plus the recent signings, have been made as a result of our cup run income and underlines our intent to start climbing the EFL ladder.'

Carlisle United decided to improve the depth and detail of their annual report and the result is a fascinating insight into the challenges facing a League 2 club. The current season is their fourth consecutive season in the division. They make 'Football Fortune' a central concept which is a way of talking about randomness as a factor in football outcomes on and off the pitch. It can play a bigger part in the life of a smaller club which does not have the resources and income streams of a larger club. The report notes, 'The football industry continues to be highly uncertain, volatile and subject to random events. Professional football in League 2 has intense rivalry but with a generally evenly balanced competition'. There is a similarity in the size of clubs and their resources. 'This makes any additional funding available from unpredictable Football Fortune a key factor - cash from Cup success and player sales can make a big difference.' 'Beyond that, ...

Many League One and League Two clubs prepare their annual accounts, published online at Companies House, using the small companies regime which means that less information is available than for larger clubs. Normally companies are required to comply with Financial Reporting Standard 102, but in extremely rare circumstances they may be permitted not to do so. Notts County have thus departed from the requirement of FRS 102 Section 11 paragraph 11.14(a). This means that we have no income statement for the world's oldest professional football club. What we do know is that 'The balance sheet shows that liabilities exceed assets by £6,271,609 (2016 - £4,842,818) at the year end. The company has reported a net loss after tax of £1,533,791 (2016 - £1,752,783) for the year and the directors do not expect the company to generate a profit in the coming financial year. The company's forecasts and cashflow projections indicate that future working capital requirements are in excess...

The authoritative Swiss Ramble has now provided commentary on Tottenham Hotspur's 2016/17 accounts on Twitter. He provides comparisons with other Premier League clubs and a temporal dimension. He notes, 'The £58m profit before tax was the secod highest in the Premier League, only surpassed by Leicester City at £92m, boosted by their Champions League exploits, but ahead of Manchester United £57m, Arsenal £45m and West Ham £43m. Thanks to TV money, all clubs that have published 2016/17 accounts are profitable. 'The £58m profit before tax in 2016/17 is actually the fourth highest ever made in the Premier League. However, it is not Spurs’ record profit, which was the £80m made in 2013/14, due to the highly lucrative sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid. It should be no surprise that Spurs posted a profit, as they have only reported two (small) losses in the last 13 seasons. In the last four years they have aggregated a highly impressive £188m of profits.' 'The profit ...

Steve Gibson continues to plough money into Middlesbrough and he has secured a scant return. The club owes him a total of £94m. The accounts for 2016/17 published online at Companies House cover the year in the Premier League. Turnover went up from £21.6m to £121.4m. There was an operating loss of £4.1m, but a profit of £11.3m on the sale of player registrations resulted in a £11.5m profit compared with a loss of £25.9m the previous year. Broadcasting revenues went up from £5.1m to £100.6m and accounted for 83 per cent of all revenues. Sponsorship and commercial increased from £4.9m to £8.1m. Gate receipts increased from £7.3m to £8.7m. Total staff costs were a healthy 53 per cent of turnover and the third lowest in the division.

Constructive talks have resumed between Amanda Staveley's PCP group, which has Middle East backers, and Mike Ashley over the acquisition of Newcastle United: Takeover back on Now that Newcastle's position in the Premier League has become more secure, PCP have been prepared to increase their offer closer to Ashley's valuation of the club. He wanted £350m and they are prepared to offer £300m with fewer qualifying clauses.

The owners of Derby County want to see the club established in the top half of the Premier League and are prepared to spend to achieve that objective. They have injected £96m over the last two years, including £15.6m this season. The loss of £7.9m in the 2016/17 financial year is considered by the Board to be 'of a level of spend and investment that is required in order to build a sustainable club in the long term'. However, 'The EFL profit and sustainability regulations continue to provide a significant challenge. The Club needs to balance success on the field together with the financial imperatives of this regulatory framework.' It is noted that 'dependency on parent company support is critical to remaining a going concern'. Turnover was up by £6.4m to £29m. TV and broadcasting revenues increased by £2.3m to £7.9m, predominantly due to the EFL broadcasting deal. Ticketing and commercial revenues were up by £0.9m to £8.7m and sponsorship by £2m to £5m. ...

The chairman of Chesterfield FC states in his introduction to the 2016/17 accounts, filed online at Companies House: 'The level of debt continues to haunt us, although the loan interest payable has been significantly reduced.' (It went down from just under a quarter of a million pounds to just under £100k). Total loans owed to the owner and former owners amount to £9.1m. The club continues to be supported financially by Dave Allen who has provided further finance for the club during the year despite no longer being part of the board. Turnover fell by nearly £900,000 (£7.5m to £6.6m) compared to the previous year, mainly due to a reduction in transfer fees receivable in the year following some significant sales in 2016. The amount received fell from just over £2m to just over £900k. The business review notes, 'To continue to try and balance the books we must remain a development club, that is able to sell players for a value in the future.' Gate and season ticket mo...

Oxford United have published their 2016/17 accounts online at Companies House. Because they use the small companies reporting format, this limits the amount of available information. Turnover was up from £5.15m to just under £7m. The operating loss was £1.5m, down from £1.8m. This amounted to a loss of £30,000 a week, before the sales of Roofe and Dowda. The profit of £3.4m produced an overall profit of £650k. The club is anticipating a profit of £3m from player sales in the current financial year.

Matthew Benham's total commitment to Brentford at the end of June 2017 was £101.6m. This included £30m of secured loans for the new stadium project at Lionel Road to replace Griffin Park. The accounts for 2016/17 show an operational loss of £854k, down from £7.6m in 2016. The loss after tax was £1.04m, down from £12.6m. The reduction in losses is to a large degree attributable to the sale of players which yielded a profit of £12.7m. However, despite clever player recruitment, the club has lost £150k a week taking a three year period. The club remains in the bottom three in the Championship in terms of revenue generated. Total staff costs account for 115 per cent of turnover, although this represents an improvement on earlier figures, representing the lowest such payout in five years. In 2014 it was £220 per £100 of revenue. Central payments from the League and FA amounted to £6.53m or 51 per cent of turnover. Ticketing generated £3.5m and commercial income £849k. Other ...

This is not a straightforward matter as Chelsea has a particularly complex structure with a large number of subsidiaries (see complete list below). Here we focus on the ultimate parent company, Fordstam Limited. The loss for the year to 30 June 2017 was £13.8m compared to a loss of £84.5m for the prior year. Increased revenues and player sales were the principal reasons for the improvement. Turnover increased from £334.6m to a record £367.8m. 'This was due to an increase in the broadcasting revenues because of increased centralised distributions from the Premier League (a £19.5m increase) together with an increase in sponsorship income due to additional agreements being signed in the year (a £17.8m increase), principally the start of our new training wear partnership with Carabao. Match income was slightly down reflecting our non-participation in European competition (a £4.1m reduction).' Broadcasting income accounts for 44 per cent of revenue. Commercial revenue accoun...

As is well known, Championship clubs spend heavily in an effort to secure promotion to the Premier League. Fulham (Fulham Football Leisure Limited) lost £21.3m in 2016/17 and the loss would have been £38m had it not been for profits from player sales. The total losses of the company over time are a staggering £295m, despite participation in the Premier League. Turnover was down from £36m to £34.9m or 3.1 per cent. The strategic report states, 'Parachute payments from the Premier League fell by £4.2m and amortization on player registrations increased by £7.4m following significant investments in the summer of 2016. Increased commercial revenues partly offset these costs, as did profits on disposal on player registrations totalling £17.4m (2016: £7.3m).' Reference is made for proposals to redevelop the Riverside Stand which will add a new dimension to a charmingly old fashioned ground at Craven Cottage. However, this involved a write off of the design and planning costs in...

Shrewsbury Town have been the surprise package of League One this season and success on the pitch has been matched by good financial results. Admittedly, turnover was down from £6.9m to £4.7m in 2016/17. However, the previous financial year had seen a cup run and a televised game against Manchester United. Profits were a healthy £404k, down from £1.2m. The club has £1m cash in hand in the bank. The club reports, 'During the year we eventually managed to secure the sale of just two acres of the Club's land at the stadium to Lidl UK which has proved paramount to the sustainability of the football club [without there would have been a loss] and enabled us to invest heavily in the seven acres at Sundrone Castle in our new magnificent training ground which is wholly owned by the Club.' The amount realised for the land sale was £987,804. The training ground was bought from a director in return for £400,000 of shares. Total staff costs are 75 per cent of turnover, a little...

Leeds United have reported a profit of £976,000 in their 2016-7 accounts compared with a loss of £8.8m the previous year. However, to put that into context, a profit of £8.9m came from player sales, in particular the sale of Lewis Cook: Return to profit Without the profit from player sales, the club would have lost £170,000 a week. Wages account for £61 of every £100 of turnover which is the second best figure in the Championship. Turnover was up from £30m to £34m. Average attendances were up by 5,000, leading to a £2m boost in gate receipts. Having paid £45m for the club, owner Andrea Radrizzani injected £14.5m by way of a shareholder loan.

Premier League clubs spent £211m on agents' fees in the past year, an increase of £37m. The biggest spenders were Liverpool at £26.8m, followed by Chelsea on £25.6m. At the other end of the spectrum, Aldershot spent £112: Agents fees

The latest club to publish their 2016/17 accounts as the financial year comes to an end are Queens Park Rangers. I am reproducing here some tweets from the authoritative Swiss Ramble. QPR reduced their loss by £4.6m from £11.0m to £6.4m, their lowest deficit since 2008, as revenue rose £6.1m (15%) to £48.0m and the wage bill was cut by £10.1m (25%) to £30.7m. However, profit on player sales was down £5.4m to £7.3m and interest payable was up £3.3m to £5.7m. The main reason for the QPR £6.1m revenue growth was the new Premier League TV deal, which resulted in a higher parachute payment, thus increasing broadcasting income by £5.7m to £35.3m. Most clubs in the Championship get just £7m. Commercial income rose £0.7m, a respectable total for this division, but gate receipts were £0.3m lower at £5.2m. Average attendance decreased from 15,994 to 14,616. This was the 17th largest in the Championship and way behind the top two - Newcastle on over 51,000 and Aston Villa on over 32,000. Th...

Tottenham Hotspur's revenue for the year ended 30 June 2017 was at a record level of £306.3m (2016: £209.8m). £55m of this increase came from enhanced broadcasting revenues. Premier League gate receipts were £19.0m (2016: £22.2m). Gate receipts decreased in comparison to the prior year as a result of the demolition of the North-East corner of White Hart Lane Stadium. The club states, 'The stadium continued to sell out for all Premier League home games, further underlining the need for an increased capacity stadium to meet demand and satisfy a waiting list for season tickets that has now risen to over 62,000.' The club participated in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League and the round of 32 of the UEFA Europa League (2016: round of 16 of UEFA Europa League) resulting in gate receipts and prize money of £44.6m (2016: £18.7m). This emphasises the rewards to be obtained from participation in the Champions League. Revenue from the domestic cup competitions earned ...

The 2016-17 accounts for Charlton Athletic have now been published and may be viewed online on the Companies House website. They show that £57.7m was owed to the parent company, Staprix NV, controlled by controversial Belgian owner Roland Duchatelet. Fanzine editor Rick Everitt suggests that the current figure may be nearer £70m. £695k was paid on interest on these loans in the financial year. Turnover fell from £12.1m to £7.6m. The largest item was matchday income, but this was down from £4.8m to £3.2m. The report notes, 'The 33% decrease on prior year arises to the decrease in attendances from the 15/16 season following relegation from the Championship and some continued fan discontent leading to reduced purchases at The Valley on matchdays.' Central distributions from the Premier League and the English Football League fell by 64 per cent as a result of relegation from the Championship. There was a one off £0.2m parachute payment. Commercial income decline by 2 per ce...

Turkish football has been dominated by the 'big three' Istanbul teams of Galatasary, Beskitas and Fenerbache. But now Basaksehir, a previously failing club named after the sprawling outer district of Istanbul, sits in second place in Turkey's Super Lig. If they win the league, Basaksehir would be only the sixth side to be crowned champions since the league's inception in 1959. It represents an attempt by the supporters of President Erdogan to create a 'pro-government' club. As a former semi-professional footballer, Mr Erdogan understands the importance of football in Turkey, where millions are obsessed by the game. The Big Three and their fans have been troublesome for him in the past. Football ultras played a central role in anti-government protests that erupted in 2013. The club's chairman, Goksel Gumusdag, is an AKP local official who is related by marriage to Mr Erdogan. The club's main sponsors are companies with close ties to the ruling part...

Probably only Red Bull do more sports sponsorship than Emirates, but the airline has a particular focus on football. It has added its branding to some of the planet’s biggest clubs: Real Madrid, Paris-Saint Germain, AC Milan, Arsenal, Benfica, Hamburg and Olympiakos. It has signed a new deal with Arsenal despite the club's faltering form. Arsenal's London location and its up market reputation (reputedly the club favoured by the Queen) outweighs any concerns about performance. Professor Simon Chadwick told Arab News: 'Look at Hamburg because Emirates are sponsoring a team who have not performed well for many, many years. But such is the importance of the city and its location internationally, it’s less about performances on the field and more about the commercial and strategic benefits of being associated with the club.' Read more about the embedded relationship between Arsenal and Emirates here: Emirates and Arsenal