The Political Economy of Football V2

A group of American investors led by Los Angeles-based businessman Brett Johnson is on the verge of buying Ipswich Town for £17.5 million,  The Athletic  is reporting. The League One club have been owned by British multi-millionaire Marcus Evans since December 2007 but the 57-year-old has been in talks with various parties for at least six months, having poured more than £100 million of his wealth into the club over the last 13 years. Evans is understood to be writing off that debt, giving Johnson’s group a clean slate. Johnson is the founder and chairman of Fortuitous Partners, a sports investment fund, and Benevolent Capital Partners, a private equity firm with investments in manufacturing, property and sport. In 2015, Johnson bought a minority stake in Arizona United, a new team in the USL Championship, American soccer’s second tier, and became the club’s co-chairman and president. His first significant appointment was making former Ipswich stalwart Frank Yallop the team’s manager. 

Inter Milan owners Suning have been looking for $200m in emergency cash to shore up the finances of the Serie A club.   Now China's biggest bricks and mortar retail group are planning to sell a $2.5bn stake in an online subsidiary. The shares of Suning were temporarily suspended in Shenzhen on Thursday.  There is increasing market scrutiny of a number of Chinese conglomerates with substantial debt obligations.  Suning did pay off $1.5bn in debt last year, but has $600m of notes due in September. Suning paid $270m for Inter Milan in 2016.   The political weather in China has since changed and companies are discouraged from making 'prestige' overseas investments, not least in football.   A number have pulled out of their European investments or are seeking to do so. Part of the background is growing tensions between China and western powers on a range of issues.  Policies that advocated an 'opening' to China are now out of favour.   However, there are differences betw

Thomas Sandgaard talks about buying Charlton when it was 'days away from administration' and talks about the skills he has acquired in his careers that will help him to run the club successfully:  https://www.controlrisks.com/our-thinking/podcasts/in-focus-channel/rebuilding-charlton-a-conversation-with-thomas-sandgaard As Sandgaard has announced from Englwood Co. his company Zynex continues to prosper:  http://stage.investorroom.com/Zynexmed/2021-02-25-Zynex-Announces-2020-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-Earnings  

Forest Green Rovers, sometimes referred to as 'The Vegans', are at the forefront of environmental consciousness in football.   For two years now they have been wearing a kit made from bamboo. Bamboo is renewable, but it still has to be grown.  Now they think they have found an even more sustainable alternative in terms of coffee bean waste.  They will wear the completely recycled shirts for their match against Colchester United on Saturday. Green energy entrepreneur Dale Vince has been chairman since 2011.   All match day food is vegan, the pitch at the New Lawn is organic, it is watered with recycled water and the club is powered entirely by renewables.  Their new stadium by a M5 junction will be built entirely of wood and will have 1,700 car parking spaces (presumably with recharging facilities):  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-50849900 It has been somewhat controversial, but will provide a fitting setting for 'El Glosico' with Cheltenham.

Private equity has been moving into football.  To some extent this is a matter of the pandemic creating distressed assets available at below value prices.    However, it is not just a matter of potential bargain deals and replacing cash with cheap debt on the balance-sheets of clubs. According to Dr. Dan Plumley and Dr. Rob Wilson from Sheffield Hallam University the private equity industry have spotted quite a few of the key elements in the football industry essential to how and where they invest. ”Clubs are essentially recession proof assets. Sport is an inelastic product, not a luxury but a necessity for many...This provides private equity and its supporting cast with a longer game to play in the sporting investment stakes,” they told offthepitch.com Private Equity might take a different approach going into the industry, where “…the appeal of leagues over clubs is a longer-term approach to growth as they are less volatile performance wise.” One thing could cool down private

St Johnstone is a good example of a club run prudently that lives within its means, reports Kieran Maguire of the Price of Football.  Despite the impact of Covid they lost only lost £20k in 2019/20 and had the security of £2.8m in the bank at end of season St. Johnstone did make some staff redundant as a result of Covid. The Perth club’s creditors nearly doubled to £1.5m, partially due to taking advantage of government tax delay pay schemes, but they have no third party borrowings.

Everton have received planning approval for their new £500m stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock which should be completed by 2024:  https://www.90min.com/posts/everton-granted-approval-for-500m-bramley-moore-dock-stadium Although Goodison Park has a distinctive atmosphere, the new stadium should help the Toffees to restore their reputation as a top six club.   Of the existing top six clubs, Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur have all moved into new stadiums, albeit that Arsenal found that the Emirates adversely affected their on pitch expenditure for some years.

National League clubs having voted to declare the Tier 2 competition null and void, 18 of them want a special competition to decide promotion and relegation from Tier 1.   They are a rather mixed bag of clubs but they include Football League aspirants AFC Fylde and one time Football League clubs Boston United and York City. They also include Havant & Waterlooville who have just reported big losses.   12 of the 18 are from the National League South where commercial and sponsorship incomes tend to be bigger, e.g., Dorking Wanderers are reported to have an annual income of around £500,000 from these sources in normal times. They advance a number of arguments in favour of a special competition, the strongest being maintaining the integrity of the relationship with the EFL.  The chairman of the EFL, Rick Parry, has said that he wants consistency in this respect and a healthy period. I do think it is stretching a point to talk about the impact on the mental health of supporters and commu

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters was much more cautious and guarded in his comments to the FT Football Business Summit this morning that his Bundesliga counterpart Christian Seifert yesterday. However, Seifert is retiring next year whilst Masters is relatively new in the job.   Some of the questions he was asked were commercially sensitive and it is understandable that he gave no substantive reply. On the European Super League, FT sports editor Murad Ahmed did tease out from him three key principles from a Premier League perspective: protecting weekends; qualification/access; and volume. The UEFA proposal has already accepted that matches would take place in midweek.  However, Masters commented that none of the proposals he had seen provided for qualification via a domestic league or, if they did, only at the bottom end of the pyramid. He also noted that there was not much support for more matches [something of an understatement].  The more matches you had the more you ha

Birmingham City have had to 'clarify' some statements about their financial position made by their chief executive. They have done so in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange by owners Birmingham City holdings:  https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/birmingham-city-news-xuandong-ren-19859772

There's been some interesting interviews at the Financial Times Football Business summit today, not least an interview with the chief executive of the Bundesliga, Christian Seifert. Much of the talk today has been about a European Super League and Seifert made it clear that he had no time for some of the so-called super clubs, no names, no pack drill, but it was evident that Barcelona and Real Madrid were not too far from his mind.   Some of these clubs, he argued, were poorly managed cash burning machines and were not even close to a sustainable business model. Just like Serie A, the Bundesliga is going to start talking to private equity companies (apparently as many as 40 have expressed an interest).  The test will be whether they can help the Bundesliga to grow in the long term on a global scale.   It is likely that what would be on offer would be a minority stake in a company dealing with international rights. Asked if the league would be more competitive without the 50+1 rule

"How can you justify rewarding Arsenal’s worst season in a generation with tens of millions of Champions League money?”   That is the rhetorical question being asked in relation to a new version of the Champions League which would move it closer to being a Super League and an American model in which a restricted set of big clubs compete with each other. Concerns have been raised about UEFA encroaching on domestic rights deals, player burn out and ‘steady creep’ of elite club control. Eighth placed Arsenal would have qualified for Champions League this year under the proposals.     In several off the record briefings officials have shared their unease at proposals put forward by UEFA to overhaul the Champions League. UEFA are proposing a 90 per cent increase in Champions League games under the revamp, with extra match days before Christmas.   A media rights expert told offthe pitch.com : “Big six clubs really need a careful think about whether that's going to benefit them l

The group that owns Sheffield United has a very different philosophy to that of City Football Group with its globalising strategy based on the ownership of multiple clubs across the world. United World is the owner of Sheffield United, Beerschot, Kerala United and Al Hilal United. Board member Jan Van Winckel, Marcelo Bielsa’s former right-hand man at Olympique Marseille, is confident all clubs can become sustainable. Prince Abdullah bin Mosa’ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is the owner behind the football group and according to Van Winckel his approach to a multiple-club ownership model is very different to City Football Group and others. “The investments are based on the idea that each club can become self-sufficient in the future. That’s aligned with what we have always opposed, namely, that a club dependent on a Maecenas will always fade,” Van Winckel told offthepitch.com

Celtic lost £5.1m in the six months to the end of December compared with a profit of £19.3m in the same period a year earlier.  Revenue fell 23.7 per cent to £40.7m. Revenue from football and stadium operations fell to more than half as fans remain barred from matches. Profits from player sales fell from £23.1m to £1m. Chairman Ian Bankier admitted that the club's performance levels had not been good enough. arguing that it had been impacted by the absence of the club's passionate support. Celtic have chosen not to draw on a £13m revolving credit facility with the Co-operative Bank. 

Joseph DaGrosa last spring said he wanted to create a City Football Group-style network of primarily European clubs but has so far not been able to get the project off the ground, reports offthepitch.com The American, a former shareholder of Bordeaux, tells Off The Pitch he overestimated the financial performance of clubs following the pandemic's outbreak.   He claims to be "close in a number of cases," however, he says he will hold out for the right acquisition. A deal for Southampton, previously believed to be forthcoming, looks unlikely, and DaGrosa's group has instead launched a partnership with Bolivian academy Tahuichi.

Chelsea's accounts came out last week and the authoritative Swiss Ramble has reviewed them from his fastness in Zurich, The club swung from £102m loss before tax to £36m profit, despite revenue dropping £40m (9%) from club record £447m to £407m, as profit on player sales surged £82m to £143m and expenses fell by a hefty £90m. After tax, results improved from a £97m loss to £32m profit.     The £36m profit is the best result to date of Premier League clubs that have published 2019/20 accounts. It is likely that others will report substantial losses, due to the pandemic. It may surprise some that Chelsea have now posted profits in three of the last four years, though the one loss was a hefty £102m in 2018/19. This represents something of a turnaround for Chelsea, who have reported almost half (nine) of the top 20 losses in Premier League history. All revenue streams decreased, impacted by COVID, though the damage was limited by the return to the Champions League. Broadcasting was

In my view Murad Ahmed is one of the best contemporary journalists writing about football and he has done an in depth analysis of Norwich City for the FT Weekend Magazine.   The basic question is whether the Canaries are doomed to be a yo-yo club.  They have experienced five promotions and five relegations between the divisions since the turn of the century. They realise that they cannot match the big spenders on players, although they have a squad at the moment that is clearly too good for the Championship.  In 2016 relegation from the Premier League after splashing out on players was a wake up call.  So they are playing a long game.  In part this depends on having a good development strategy for the Academy, although they are not the only club doing that.  Since 2017 the club has recouped £79.5m in sales of young players. They have also spent £8m on upgrading the training ground.  They are spending £750,000 on the SoccerBot 360.  Created in Germany, theirs will be the only one in Eng

Indian conglomerate Venky's have been controversial owners of Blackburn Rovers and they certainly made some mistakes in the early days through a lack of understanding of English football.  However, they have recently put in another £7m to bring their total contribution to around £190m. They have got slim pickings in return with Blackburn solid in the Championship, but looking unlikely to get promoted.  Football finance guru Kieran Maguire dreads to think how the club would be placed if the owners pulled out:  https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/football-news/blackburn-rovers-venkys-analysis-finances-19824492

In the pandemic football clubs need cash to meet rising costs. It isn't coming through the gate and that matters even for top flight clubs: every month without fans costs them £100m.    Some of the biggest - Arsenal and Spurs - have turned to the Bank of England for a low interest loan.  The EFL have also borrowed £75m from that source, but it's not an option even for smaller Premier League clubs. Step forward MSD Partners, a vehicle for investing some of computer pioneer Michael Dell's fortune.  They reckon that football clubs are a good bet in the longer run.  Unlike banks, they are not offering short-term finance but longer term funding.  Moreover, the stadiums are available as security. They are estimated to have loaned £170m to English clubs, including £80m to Southampton (repayable in 2025) and funding for troubled Derby County.  They also provided funding for the recent Burnley takeover. None of this comes cheap.  Southampton are thought to be paying 9.14 per cent in

The Athletic has run a feature on Derby County, but even their investigative journalists have found it difficult to establish what is happening there.   With any football story there are usually at least two contradictory accounts of what is going on and clubs are not the most transparent institutions. The online journal asks, 'Why would a club owned by an English multimillionaire not pay their players on time for the second December in a row? Or, why are Derby almost a year late in publishing their accounts for the 2018-19 season? Or, most bafflingly of all, why hasn’t a man as wealthy as Sheikh Khaled is meant to be bought the club yet?' [The impact of the pandemic] 'explains both why Morris, who was already £100 million down on his investment in his hometown club two and a half years ago, is so eager to sell and why that sale is getting harder with each passing day. Harder, but not impossible. And this is where we should probably start to think about  a  takeover at De

It's not a coincidence the owners of Inter Milan, Southampton and West Bromwich Albion are all looking to sell: Chinese investors' European venture has reached the beginning of the end, argues offthepitch.com The benefits - if you are a Chinese businessman - of owning a European football club are claimed to be over. CCP, the Chinese Communist Party, has called on everyone to invest capital in building football infrastructure locally. Investing in European football didn't turn out to boost China's domestic industry to the extent the government had hoped.   China has changed strategy from a less well-defined ambition to a specific goal of growing national competitions and becoming a top FIFA nation. China's 'new era' strategy is outlined here:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertkidd/2020/12/13/why-china-is-curbing-club-spending-and-building-new-stadiums-to-fulfill-its-soccer-dream/?sh=2f5f0c2d73fb Domestic development was, of course, always part of the

The Glazer family have had at last had success in American football with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning the Super Bowl trophy. But what about Manchester United?   They continue to invest as well as take dividends.  There has been €200m of expenditure on players in the last two years, but is this because the Glazers intend to build the club up and then sell it at a profit?   It's one way of making money out of a football club. The sports franchise business is becoming more competitive, not least in the Premier League.  Media rights are key, but the market for them has become more complicated.  The pandemic is also affecting sponsorship income, an area in which United is conspicuously successful. Manchester United stock fell as low as $12.06 in March last year when the Premier League was suspended because of the pandemic.  This was below the $14 of its initial price offering in 2012.   They are now back at $16.33, although in real terms some allowance should be made for the eroding

 An arbitration panel has upheld a complaint by the Professional Footballers' Association that the League One and Two salary cap was illegal and unenforceable:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/55997868 It will be replaced by the old Salary Cap Management Protocol (SCMP) which took account of turnover rather than imposing an absolute limit on spending. The background Here are some extracts from an article I wrote for Charlton fanzine Voice of the Valley  last year: SCMP limited spending on player wages to a percentage of a club’s turnover. In League 1 clubs could spend a maximum of 60 per cent of their turnover on wages, in League 2, the limit was 55 per cent.   The wages of coaching staff were not included. There were no restrictions (in themselves) on the amount a club could lose or spend on transfer fees.   Initially introduced into League 2 in 2004/5 for guidance purposes, sanctions for breaching the SCMP thresholds were introduced during the 2011/12 season, with Swindon th

Sheffield Wednesday owner Dejphon Chansiri has rejected an offer to buy the club submitted by his former advisor Erik Alonso, reports The Athletic.   Alonso is thought to have approached Chansiri with an offer and backing from an Indonesian consortium but the value was well below what the Thai businessman wants for the club. The Spaniard is a former advisor of Chansiri’s and he was involved in a number of areas, including recruitment, until last month. He then stepped away from his involvement with the club, citing “forces around the club” damaging his reputation as the reason for his exit. It is thought that a figure of £30million was offered for Wednesday, with Alonso backed by a consortium in his bid to buy the club. The figure is thought to be considerably below what the owner would be willing to accept for the club but as it stands, he is not looking to sell the club anyway. It would certainly have come as a surprise, given the acrimonious ending of Alonso and Chansiri’s rel

I have talked about problems at Swindon Town before and I don't claim to know exactly what is going on, except that it isn't good for Robins fans.  Indeed, things have reached such a pass that Rod Liddle made it the focus of his column in the Sunday Times yesterday. Let's first of all give the perspective of owner Lee Power who according to The Football League Paper is 'battling to keep the Robins afloat.'   One must ask why they are sinking in the first place, but let's come back to that. Power does admit that the club 'is in a desperate fight for survival'.  Apparently, he has to dig deep into his pockets because of the impact of Covid-19.  'Every month I have to worry about finding funding to keep the wages  paid.'  He says that he is having to wheel and deal to keep the club alive, having invested heavily to get the club promoted from League Two last season. One measure he has taken is to sell arguably the club's best player, DJ, to Charl

More nonsense is probably talked about football debt than many other financial issues around the game.  Remember the key point about a debt is whether you can service it.   Most of it take on debts at some point of our lives: mortgages, student loans, loans to buy a car or undertake house improvements. I do a lot of work on agricultural issues and I know that many farms operate on a overdraft simply because of cash flow issues.  It doesn't mean they are insolvent. Fortunately when it comes to football we have the authoritative Swiss Ramble tweeting from his Zurich fastness.   He understands all the different definitions of debt in football which can produce very different results.   I am not going to go into all the technicalities because I am not an accountant and don't understand them all myself.   It would be very easy to get buried under an avalanche of information. Recent accounts published by clubs have revealed major debt challenges, but they also highlighted some issues

Like many football fans, I am sceptical about Fifa, its governance and its contribution to the management of the game.  However, there are some indications that it is talking the talk and taking a few hesitant steps to walking the walk. The international governing body aims to tackle football's growing imbalance with a new diploma in club management primarily for executives outside elite teams. Ornella D. Bellia, FIFA's head of professional football, says finding new ways to control clubs' own revenue streams is key to achieve sustainability. Though financial prudence and commercial know-how are important skills, emotional intelligence is crucial – especially in times like these.   [Whether that can be taught is a moot point] As part of FIFA's Vision 2023, the international governing body aims to tackle this growing imbalance with the launch of a new diploma in club management, among other projects, aiming to democratise the leadership skills needed in football toda

This Tottenham Hotspur blog suggests that there are underlying structural problems at the club which are not related to particular managers or players:  https://worldofhotspur.com/the-perennial-stagnation-of-tottenham-hotspur/?fbclid=IwAR0SyJVjuUjE3yrBYuPhKwzlSH4lst0SKjUtg8XTvkxbQjzYdcZPo9yQsD8 The essay states: ' ENIC are still unwilling to invest in their football team, and Tottenham are still trapped in an endless cycle of struggling to shift unwanted players, having no funds for new signings, and leaving managers left to perform miracles with players inherited from previous regimes they never wanted. Tottenham have been mired in a series of “five year” plans, each one ending the same way it started: with nascent promise and potential frittered away due to lack of spending and strengthening at the right times.' One comment suggests that the piece is one sided, but I have a number of friends who are Spurs supporters and are frustrated at the way in which the club falls short

Supporters' organisations across Europe have joined together to express opposition to the latest plans for a European Super League which they argue would destroy the European Model of Sport:  https://thefsa.org.uk/news/fan-groups-across-continent-unite-to-condemn-super-league/ They call for consultation with fans, but the financial interests behind this plan are unlikely to be interested in that.  More to the point is that it threatens the interests of some clubs below the very top level and also those of the Premier League. This idea has been around for over twenty years now and has never gone anywhere.  However, one can expect further changes to the Champions League and a smaller Premier League as a consequence.

Suning Holdings, the Chinese owners of Inter Milan, are seeking €200m to bail out the club.  Inter Milan lost €102m last season, mainly due to the pandemic, but the club has also spent heavily on top players. Suning have their own problems in China with a heavy debt burden.   The Chinese authorities have also recently cracked down on foreign outflows of capital despite the economy making a good recovery friom Covid-19. Suning is far more likely to sell an equity stake than let the club go bankrupt, but its valuation is an obstacle in the way of any sell off.  Talks with private equity group BC Partners appear to have broken down after they valued the group at just €750m compared with Sunning's €900m. Others may be waiting in the wings in the hope of a fire sale, Certainly two distressed debt groups are believed to be in the frame, as well as other two private equity firms from Sweden and the US.  In some respects the pandemic is a catalyst for globalisation in football as financier

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have been felt in this year’s transfer window, although Brexit has also had an effect. Clubs in Europe's nine biggest leagues plus the Chinese Super League have this season spent almost €3.5 billion less on players than in 2019/20.   Premier League clubs spent just €300 million less meaning the league's transfer balance deteriorated while others such as LaLiga improved, report offthepitch.com Europe's nine biggest leagues plus the Chinese Super League this season spent just €4.1 billion on players compared to a figure of €7.6 billion in 2019/20. That is a 46 per cent decrease - in actual numbers €3.5 billion less – a big difference seen in relation to the way spending has continued to rise for many years. "It's pretty much due to the financial implications of Covid-19 and the considerable amount of time with little to no fans coming through the door," says Chris Winn, MSc Football Business programme leader at UCFB&#

Whether or not National League North and South clubs will decide to play out the season or declare it null and void remains to be seen, but many clubs at Tier 2 level are very concerned about their future, not least 129-year old Dulwich Hamlet:  https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/dulwich-hamlet-fc-fear-being-forced-into-debt-to-play-out-season-could-break-the-club/

The authoritative Swiss Ramble reviews Inter’s accounts for 2019/20, when the COVID impacted pre-tax loss widened from €40m to €97m (post-tax €102m), as revenue fell 18%, partly offset by €62m profit on player sales. Gross debt of €411m highest in Italy The 18% revenue decrease in 2019/20 is pretty much in line with other European clubs that have so far published accounts, other examples including Juventus 18% and Napoli 17% The pre-tax loss widened from €40m to €97m (post-tax €102m), significantly impacted by COVID, as revenue fell €68m (18%) from €370m to €302m, partly offset by profit on player sales increasing €22m to €62m The operating loss (excluding profit from player sales and interest) widened from €51m to €133m, though still better than the enormous operating losses at the other members of the traditional “Big Four” Italian club: Juventus €234m, Milan €202m and Roma €195m. Inter are no strangers to losses, having only reported a profit once in the last decade (€33m in

Cornwall has always been a rugby county.   In the east of Cornwall in particular, there are some Plymouth Argyle supporters, but for others crossing the Tamar is off limits. Back in the 1970s I remember watching Falmouth Town at their historic Bickland Park home when they dominated the Rothmans Western League, but the cost of travelling up country ultimately defeated them.  Being of Cornish descent on my mother's side (May), I always take an interest in Cornish football. In recent years Truro City have been the leading team, but they have encountered a series of troubles:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truro_City_F.C. They have also had their moments in the sun.  I saw them put up a creditable performance when they were defeated 3-1 by Charlton in the FA Cup.  Last season they were top of the Southern League Premier Division South. Now they are vacating their Treyew Road home which is to be the location for a Lidl supermarket.  Next season they will ground share in Devon with Plymo

Barcelona presidential candidate Vincent Font has been interviewed by off the pitch.com.  Businessman Font wants to restructure the club's considerable short-term debt and cut costs. According to Font, the classic income streams have limited growth so innovation is needed to boost commercial revenue. The presidential candidate believes that the current version of Uefa’s Champions League must improve – but national competitions should be protected. 'The leadership style has been very presidential, individualistic, very much the chairman and the board acting as if they were the owners,' says Font, who is known as a leader who builds a progressive working culture. Font has pledged to bring former player Xavi Hernández back to the Nou Camp and keep current star Leo Messi. He would also give Barcelona's more than 140,000 members more opportunities to give their opinions. The other candidates in the election, which takes place on March 7, are former Barcelona presiden

Former sports minister Helen Grant has submitted a '10 minute rule bill' to the House of Commons which would create an independent regulator for football:  https://thefsa.org.uk/news/football-governance-requires-emergency-surgery-mp-tells-commons/ Ten minute rule bills are a means of publicising a cause: they have virtually no chance of success.  The MP is part of the Saving Our Beautiful Game group which includes ex-FA chairman David Bernstein and ex-FA executive director David Davis. Grant described the FA as 'outdated and out of touch' and said the Premier League were 'marking their own homework'. The independent regulator she envisages would have a wide remit and be able to: Distribute funds in the interest of the wider game Introduce a licensing scheme for professional clubs Review the causes of financial stress Bring forward reforms to modernise and strengthen the FA Work with supporter groups Support the promotion of diversity and inclusion in football

The election of Barcelona's president by club members is widely admired, but it also brings problems in its train.  This is particularly the case when the club faces a financial crisis. Last week Barcelona's accounts revealed that its debt mountain had increased to £1.6 billion.  There is at present no elected president as the last one stood down in October for a variety of reasons, one being tensions with Lionel Messi. There are three candidates to succeed him, but the vote has been delayed because of the pandemic and may not even take place on March 7th, leaving a vacuum at the top of the club. The spectator ban has hit Barcelona particularly hard given the size of the Nou Camp and the reliance on match day revenue.   The fall in tourism also hits the club as its museum is a popular attraction. Barcelona could be down £440m over 15 months if the spectator ban extends to the end of the season, as seems likely.

Brighton and Hove Albion have one of the lowest revenues in the Premier League, but a generous benefactor owner.   From his fastness in Zurich, the authoritative Swiss Ramble reviews their latest accounts. The loss before tax tripled from £22m to £67m, a £45m decline, as revenue decreased by £15m (10%) from £148m to £133m, while profit on player sales of £5m became a loss of £1m, and expenses rose £24m (14%). Monks Farm development worth £0.6m (revenue £9.4m, costs £8.8m The £5 15m revenue fall was mainly due to COVID, which severely impacted all revenue streams, especially broadcasting, down £24m (21%) from £114m to £90m and match day, down £5m (27%) from £19m to £14m. Commercial £13m (82%) increased from £16m to £29m (Monks Farm development). The £67m loss is obviously not great, but it is only 4th worst to date in 2019/20 Premier League, beaten by Everton £140m, Saints £76m and last night’s sad victims £68m. Due to the pandemic, it is likely that other clubs will also post sub