The Political Economy of Football V2

After numerous false dawns, Clowes stepped up to save Derby from the threat of liquidation, just as it looked as if all hope had been lost, even though this reluctant hero would have much preferred to have remained in the background (and in his seat in Pride Park). Derby had entered administration in September 2021 after former owner, Mel Morris, was unsuccessful in his attempts to sell the club. Morris had bought a 20% stake in May 2014, before purchasing the remaining shareholding from North American Derby Partners in September 2015 to take full control. Given the club’s history, it’s incredible that things got so bad at Derby. Older supporters will remember a glorious period in the early 70s, when the legendary Brian Clough and Peter Taylor led the Rams to their first ever (old) First Division title in 1972, then guided the team to the semi-finals of the European Cup, where they were controversially eliminated by Juventus. There was a steady decline after the loss in the 2019 ...

After a challenging period, Inverness Caedonian Thistle have avoided administration:  https://www.thenational.scot/sport/24548287.inverness-ct-secure-financial-stability-amid-administration-threats/

The National League is a de facto fourth division of the EFL even if promotion and relegation is restricted.  It is no surprise that virtually all teams are full time as they seek the promised land of League Two or at least avoid relegation. But full time teams are now to be found in the next tier down.  In the National League North, Buxton, Kidderminster Harriers, Kings Lynn, Scunthorpe United (former EFL team) and South Shields are full time. Some teams have tried to develop a hybrid model which means that players generally come in three days of week for some kind of training/recovery/fitness/midweek game whilst part-time players generally operate on two evenings a week or one if there is a midweek game.  Some clubs remain entirely part-time, so it's not a level playing field.

The Premier League has now lost money five years in a row, adding up to a substantial £3.1 bln before tax. This is a dramatic worsening compared to the £1.3 bln profit that was generated in the preceding 5-year period, when it had posted profits on four occasions.  In 2022/23 half of the clubs in England’s top flight lost more than £50m, led by Aston Villa £120m, Tottenham £95m, Chelsea £90m and Leicester City £90m. Operating losses have significantly grown, so the Premier League lost an eye-watering £5.1 bln in the last five years, compared to just £369m in the preceding 5-year period.   In fact, operating losses have more than tripled from the £413m before the pandemic in 2018/19 to the £1.3 bln in 2022/23, when no fewer than six clubs lost more than £100m: Chelsea £249m, Leicester City £151m, Aston Villa £139m, Everton £120m, Leeds United £106m and Wolves £101m. The magnitude of the operating losses underlines the importance of profit from player sales to the Premier Le...

Torquay United Supporters' Trust have taken a minority stake in the Devon club which has been through difficult times:  https://thefsa.org.uk/news/torquay-trust-takes-ownership-share-in-club/

Profitability and sustainability rules do not justify ticket price hikes by Premier League clubs given that matchday is a relatively small part of total revenue argues the Football Supporters' Association.  The increases have occurred across almost all clubs with Nottingham Forest offering an example:  https://thefsa.org.uk/news/high-ticket-prices-are-not-the-answer-to-psr/

John Textor’s Eagle Football Group has made a final bid to take over Crystal Palace.  The group fronted by the U.S. businessman, which owns an existing 45 per cent stake in Palace, launched an offer which they say placed a valuation on the club “that far exceeds levels of prior investment” and would see them take full control. It remains to be seen whether Palace’s other three General Partners — chairman Steve Parish and fellow U.S. businessmen Josh Harris and David Blitzer — are prepared to sell their stakes, but Textor fears they will knock back his offer. If he is indeed unsuccessful then he is expected to renew efforts to sell his own stake in Palace — he has engaged investment banking firm Raine Group to actively seek a buyer for Eagle Football’s stake — and concentrate on acquiring fellow Premier League side Everton, with whom he has entered a period of exclusivity after talks with their majority owner Farhad Moshiri. If he is to successful...

Bournemouth are still not a major cash generator. The Vitality Stadium has a capacity of 11,307 and when it comes to commercial revenue, according to Deloitte’s annual football review, Manchester City generated 30 times more revenue (£347m) than the South Coast club (£13m), which was the lowest in the league. For context, outside of the ‘Big Six’, the average commercial income was £31m. So how were Bournemouth able to pull off a deal to sign Evanilson for £47m? Bournemouth have spent eight of the last 10 seasons in the Premier League, and they are upwardly mobile. The club have new ownership, an American consortium led by Bill Foley who took charge in 2022, and Foley has spoken of European qualification within five years. For Bournemouth specifically, being able to commit £40million on a striker seems only possible because of the sale of Dominic Solanke. He joined Tottenham last week for a club-record fee of £65million. That covers the guaranteed aspect of the deal ...

There has been a lot of change at Huddersfield Town in the last few years, though it’s fair to say that the trend has not been their friend, as the club was relegated from the Championship to League One last season, the first time that the club has been in England’s third tier since 2011/12. This represented a steep decline for the Terriers after spending two seasons in the Premier League (2017/18 and 2018/19) just five years before. Indeed, it was only two years since Town enjoyed a fantastic season under Carlos Corberan, when they finished 3rd in the Championship, thus securing a place in the play-offs, before losing to Nottingham Forest in the final. As owner Kevin Nagle put it when describing the 2023/24 season (with a fair degree of understatement), “On the pitch, we did not perform very well.” Nagle is Huddersfield Town’s current owner, having acquired the club in March 2023. He is an American businessman, who is also owner of Sacramento Republic, a USL Championship team. ...

The singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran has acquired a minority stake in the newly promoted Premier League club Ipswich Town. Sheeran is a lifelong fan of the Suffolk club and has been shirt sponsor for the men’s and women’s teams since 2021. The 33-year-old’s total stake in the Premier League club, acquired through Gamechanger 20 Ltd, is 1.4 per cent. As part of the agreement, Sheeran will have the long-term use of an executive box at Portman Road, which he has personalised for this season. He will not be a voting shareholder or a board member. “This is just me putting some money into the club I love and them returning the gesture, so please don’t get on to me with signing suggestions or tactics to play.”

In the history of the Premier League, four clubs have reported a pre-tax profit above £100m, namely Wolves £145m (2020/21), Tottenham £139m (2017/18), Brighton £133m (2022/23) and Liverpool £125m (2017/18). They were followed by Leicester City £92m in 2016/17, which was the season when the Foxes reached the Champions League quarter-finals. It’s worth noting Tottenham’s good track record in terms of profitability, as they have made three of the top eight profits, though it’s a while since they “troubled the scorers”. While only three clubs have ever reported a profit of more than £100m in the Premier League (excluding exceptionals), losses above £100m have been registered on no fewer than 12 occasions. The highest ever loss is the £197m made by Manchester City in 2010/11, followed by Chelsea £156m (2020/21), Manchester United £150m (2021/22) and Everton £140m (2019/20).   City are responsible for four of the 14 highest losses, though three of those were recorded during the mas...

Chelsea are set to enter the season without a front-of-shirt sponsor for the second consecutive year.  Infinite Athlete, last year’s sponsor, only signed up to a one-year deal before later agreeing to continue to be on the club’s shirt during pre-season. Chelsea’s 2024-25 kit is being sold on the website without a front-of-shirt sponsor and they will be the only Premier League club to begin the season having failed to secure a partner. An announcement on a new sponsor should be made soon, and it is expected to be worth similar to what Infinite Athlete paid — around £40m— for the 2023-24 season. There were discussions with Riyadh Air, an airline company owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, but a multi-year partnership to sponsor the men’s and women’s teams couldn’t be found. Other conversations in the past have been had with Kaiyun Sports, a betting website. Chelsea will be mindful of entering a long-term deal given the fee won’t be as high as it would be if the...

The Premier League continues to boom, breaking new ground in its popularity year after year. The 2022-23 season, when average crowds across the division topped 40,000 for the first time, saw stadiums operate at a new high of 98.7 per cent capacity. Most clubs now have thousands registered on waiting lists for season tickets and demand they cannot hope to meet as a new, hyped-up campaign begins this weekend. Sell-outs are the norm. Younger supporters have never known greater challenges in following their team, with prices climbing and availability diminishing. Elderly fans, too, are facing their challenges, with concession tickets under threat. It all points towards the face of a Premier League crowd changing, with young and old both being squeezed. Traditional supporters increasingly face being marginalised. Rule R8 of the Premier League’s handbook stipulates that concessionary tickets must be made available at every game for senior citizens and juniors but makes no referen...

There is a gap on the map. Stare at the 2024-25 Premier League’s geographic make-up and you cannot help but notice that from Newcastle United, in England’s northernmost city, it’s a long way south until you find another club in the division. Last season’s relegation of Burnley means that, down the west side of the Pennine ridge which splits the North, it is 125 miles from Newcastle to Manchester City. With Sheffield United also relegated in May and Leeds United losing the Championship play-off final to Southampton a week later, down the east side, it’s 160 to Nottingham Forest, who are not even in the North — they’re in the Midlands. The whole of Yorkshire, England’s largest county, is absent from this edition of the Premier League. Beyond Manchester, Lancashire is empty. For the first time in the history of a 20-team Premier League, there are only five clubs from the traditional ‘North’ — Everton, Liverpool,  Manche...

Sad news from France in the last few weeks, as the storied Girondins de Bordeaux had to file for bankruptcy in order to avoid “heavy additional sanctions” over the club’s ongoing financial difficulties. This dramatic step also entailed giving up the club’s professional status, terminating the contracts of all its players and closing one of France’s leading youth academies, which highlighted the colossal mismanagement over the last few years. The French financial watchdog, the Direction Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion (DNCG), had already provisionally relegated Bordeaux to the Championnat National (the third tier) after the club was unable to provide financial guarantees ahead of next season. It beggars belief that this could have happened to one of the most storied football clubs in France that has won the league on no fewer than six occasions with the most recent title coming in 2008/09. That qualified Bordeaux for the following season’s Champions League, where they got as ...

West Ham United fan groups continue to push back on planned ticket price hikes and concessionary price changes at the London Stadium ahead of the new season - and a petition calling for change has passed 15,000 signatures. Launched by Hammers United the petition is calling on the east London club to reinstate concessions to previous levels. Earlier this summer - like all but one of the PL clubs - West Ham announced significant price increases for 2024-25 as well as restricting discounted tickets for seniors and younger fans. “This restriction is both cruel and mendacious and will affect the next generation of West Ham fans who will be priced out by this action, while making attending matches more expensive for older fans too," Hammers United said. The ongoing protests against the club's plans are also backed by the West Ham United Supporters' Trust and the West Ham Independent Supporters Committee.

As Daniel Levy prepares for his 24th full season at the helm of Tottenham, fans will naturally start to wonder where this season will take them. Will the positive mood of last season hold? Will there finally be a trophy to vindicate the steady building of the whole Levy era? Off the pitch, will the club receive some much-needed external investment? Ultimately, will this be the year that anything changes, or will Spurs fans be having the same conversations again in the summer of 2025? It will be clear soon enough whether Spurs have the players they need for this season. On September 26, their eight-game Europa League group-stage campaign will begin. From that point on, the Spurs squad will be stretched further than they were in last year’s 41-game season. Last season — at least until the very end — was a strikingly positive one at Spurs. If 2022-23 was marked by fans’ anger at Levy as the season unravelled, then 2023-24 was all about collective enthusiasm for the Postecoglo...

There’s been a lot of talk in recent days about the financial losses Manchester United attributed to Covid-19 in 2021-22, and its potential impact on the club’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) situation. Everton and Nottingham Forest were both punished last season for failing to comply with the Premier League’s financial regulations, while United were judged to have complied. United’s Covid losses were bigger than most due to their size and the revenues they generate. Old Trafford is the biggest club stadium in the United Kingdom and the fall in matchday revenue was significant. Some commercial partners suspended payments or cancelled their contracts owing to the losses inflicted as a result of the pandemic, while United were also unable to go on a pre-season tour in 2021, which they would say had a significant dent in their revenues in 2021-22. Other teams were also unable to go on tour, but again United’s earning power is higher — their 2022 summ...

The renaming of Twickenham as “Allianz Stadium” means that it is back to square one for the owners of West Ham United as they search for a naming rights deal for their ground. The RFU announced on Monday that after more than 100 years as the home of English rugby, Twickenham will be renamed from next month.   The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) and West Ham had been in advanced talks with Allianz, but the insurance giant has chosen to go with Twickenham instead. The LLDC had been hoping for £5million a year from a naming rights deal for the London Stadium; West Ham would share anything over £4million. The Twickenham deal is thought to be worth twice that sum to English rugby. In March last year the publicly funded LLDC’s chief executive, Lyn Garner, told the London Assembly that she was “very confident” it would finally agree a naming rights deal for the loss-making stadium. West Ham are open to buying the stadium but that was ruled out last week by London...

There appears to be a growing sense of optimism around the Stadium of Light, as evidenced by Sunderland fans once again demonstrating their loyalty to the cause by enthusiastically reacting to a humble kit launch, while they have also welcomed new manager, Régis Le Bris, with open arms. Last season the team’s form fell off the proverbial cliff, so much so that they lost 10 of their last 15 games to finish a lowly 16th in the Championship, just six points above the relegation zone. Furthermore, the team offered some desperately dull football for their fans, in stark contrast to the attractive, progressive displays of the previous season. The supporters’ frustrations would not have been helped by the lengthy delay it took to hire Le Bris. In fact, the Frenchman was announced a full four months after Michael Beale was sacked in February. It’s been fairly widely reported that Sunderland failed to appoint the preferred candidate, as Will Still reportedly rejected an offer in favour of...

Tottenham Hotspur have received a major financial boost after being given permission by Haringey Council to stage 30 major non-football events a year:  https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/tottenham-stadium-nfl-boxing-concerts-finances-b1174416.html With a stadium designed for such events the club have a financial edge over their rivals.

There has been a marked deterioration in lower league finances with League One losses trebling.  Is this in any way a 'Wrexham effect' or do they boost interest in the EFL?   https://www.cityam.com/ed-warner-is-the-wrexham-effect-actually-hurting-lower-league-finances/

Player sales are often viewed as an easy solution for clubs striving to comply with Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR), and there’s some truth in that, but people should really look at player trading as a whole to fully understand the overall impact on a club’s finances. In terms of profit from player sales, there is a clear winner in England, as Chelsea have made a very impressive £417m, which is £80m clear of the next highest club, Manchester City £337m, followed by Leicester City £249m, Brighton £195m and Everton £189m. The third highest member of the Big Six is Liverpool, who are in 6th place with £173m, while the others are all a fair bit lower: Arsenal £117m, Manchester United £94m and Tottenham £80m. It’s still relatively rare for clubs to book impairment, not least because it can be an indication of poor recruitment, but there have been some fairly high charges in recent years, partly driven by the impact of the COVID pandemic on the transfer market. Aga...