City's impressive financial feat

The Swiss Ramble reports on Manchester City’s 2020/21 accounts when they swung from £125m pre-tax loss to £5m profit, as revenue rose £92m to £570m, due to deferred TV income and CL, while profit from player sales up £29m to £69m.

It is a pretty impressive feat for City to post a profit in 2020/21, when all clubs had to contend with a full year of the pandemic. The other Premier League clubs that have published accounts to date have all made big losses.

They managed to make money, despite revenue being significantly impacted by COVID. The Swiss Ramble estimates the revenue loss as £58m in 2020/21 (mainly match day), which would make £89m lost over the last 2 years.

Main reason for revenue growth was £107m (56%) increase in broadcasting from £190m to £297m, including deferred revenue from 2019/20 and higher CL money, plus £25m (10%) growth in commercial to £272m, which offset COVID driven reduction in match day, down £41m (98%) to £1m.

Few clubs have made big money in a transfer market somewhat deflated by COVID, but the profit from player sales rose £29m from £40m to £69m. Player sales have not been as high at City as many others (e.g. Chelsea £462m since 2016), but have become increasingly important. This season will feature sales of Torres to Barcelona, Harrison to Leeds, Nmecha to Wolfsburg and Ilic to Verona plus Jadon Sancho sell-on clause.

The Swiss Ramble estimates that City earned €120m for reaching the Champions League final, just below winners Chelsea €121m, but much more than previous season €95m. The Champions League has been a nice little earner for the club with an impressive €422m received in the last five years, the highest of any English club.

The £272m commercial income is now the highest in England, having overtaken Manchester United £232m. In the past two years City have grown £45m, while United have dropped £43m, as their fortunes have contrasted on the pitch.

The average attendance of 54,219 (for those games played with fans), was the fifth highest in the Premier League, around 18,000 below their Manchester neighbours 72,726, and just above Liverpool 53,143.

The wage bill rose £3m (1%) to £355m, a new club record, due to a combination of new signings and contract extensions. Wages have increased by £157m (80%) in the last 5 years, the highest growth of the Big Six. £355m wages are the highest in the Premier League, having overtaken Manchester United in 2020. In fact, this is the highest ever wage bill reported in England. The wages to turnover ratio improved from 73% to 62%, one of the lowest (best) in the Premier League.

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion. Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs. An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site. He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned. He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long. What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do

The Political Economy of Football V2

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