Skip to main content

Mbappé departure is a challenge for French football

Kylan Mbappé has told PSG he will leave in the summer, probably for Real Madrid.

His looming departure comes at a critical time for PSG, which was valued at more than €4bn when US investment firm Arctos Partners agreed to buy up to 12.5 per cent of the club late last year. It is also seeking a new home stadium after failing to convince Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, to sell it the Parc des Princes, which it rents from Paris City Council.

His departure will also be a blow to Ligue 1, by potentially denting the value of broadcast rights for France’s top football league just as negotiations are under way for the 2024 to 2029 period. Private equity firm CVC invested in a newly formed commercial unit in 2022 to market the broadcast rights.

French clubs have struggled to keep pace with their rivals in terms of finances. Clubs in Ligue 1 generated total revenues of more than €2bn in 2021-22, according to consultancy Deloitte, well behind the €6.4bn made by Premier League clubs in Britain.

PSG is an outlier in the French league. The club, which boasts sponsorships with Qatar Airways and US corporates including Nike, increased its annual revenues to more than €800mn in 2022-23, up from €654mn the prior season. Only Spain’s Real Madrid and Premier League champions Manchester City made more revenue than PSG in 2022-23, according to Deloitte.

However, PSG has failed to win the Uefa Champions League, Europe’s top club tournament, despite dominating the domestic league, and Mbappé has been widely expected to leave France at some stage of his career.

Manchester City, owned by Emirati royal Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, won the Champions League for the first time as part of a historic treble last season. PSG and City have encountered scrutiny from football authorities for alleged breaches of financial regulations since they were acquired by Gulf owners.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Threat of financial calamity removed from Baggies

West Bromwich Albion had effectively been in decline ever since the club was sold to a Chinese consortium in August 2016, paying a figure north of £200m to buy former owner Jeremy Peace’s stake. Controlling shareholder Guochuan Lai’s ownership was fairly disastrous for the club, but his unloved tenure finally came to an end after Bilkul Football WBA, a company ultimately owned by Florida-based entrepreneur Shilen Patel and his father Dr Kiran Patel, acquired an 87.8% shareholding in West Bromwich Albion Group Limited, the parent company of West Bromwich Albion Football Club. This change in ownership was urgently required, due to the numerous financial problems facing West Brom, including growing high-interest debt and serious cash flow concerns, following years of no investment from the former owner. Indeed, West Brom’s auditors had already rung the alarm bell in the 2021/22 accounts when they cast doubt on the club’s ability to continue as a going concern without making player s...
1 comment
Read more

Gold standard ground boosts Tottenham's income

The gold standard in European football grounds is the Tottenham Hotspur stadium in north London, a £1bn construction project completed in 2019. Its impact on the club’s finances has become increasingly clear as the effects of the pandemic have faded. Previously, the average fan would spend less than £2 inside the ground on a typical match day, but now that figure is about £16, thanks to new facilities including the longest bar in Europe and an on-site microbrewery. Capacity has gone up from 36,000 at the club’s previous home of White Hart Lane to 62,000.  The new stadium — built on land adjacent to White Hart Lane — has opened the door to a broad range of other events that have helped to push commercial income up from €117mn in 2018 to €215mn in 2022. Last year, Tottenham hosted US singer Beyoncé for five nights on her global Renaissance tour, two NFL matches, as well as rugby games and heavyweight boxing bouts.  Money brought in from football has gone up too. Match day ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Spurs to sell minority stake

Tottenham Hotspur is in talks to sell a minority stake in a deal that could value it at up to £3.75 billion and pave the way for Joe Lewis and his family to sever ties with the Premier League football club. Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy is seeking an investment that values the club at between £3.5 billion and £3.75 billion, including debt. While the terms of any deal have not been finalised, City sources expect Spurs to sell about 10 per cent. The club is being advised by bankers from Rothschild on the sale. Tottenham wants to raise fresh capital for new player signings and to help fund the development of an academy for its women’s team, as well as a 30-storey hotel next to its north London stadium. The financier Amanda Staveley, who brokered the deal for Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund to take over Newcastle United, is understood to be among the parties to have expressed an interest in Tottenham. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, has raised about £500 million to ...
Post a Comment
Read more