The Political Economy of Football V2

The Sheffield Wednesday chairman Dejphon Chansiri has come in for fresh criticism after some staff and players were told once again that they would not be paid in full on their scheduled payday on Tuesday. Employees were told in an email on Monday that, for the fifth time in the past seven months, they would not receive their full salaries on time. The Times understands that the majority of the first-team squad will not be paid their full monthly wage. Staff on the non-football side of the operation have been told that they will receive about £1,000, while academy players and scholars will be paid in full.   The payment of such a small amount to non-football staff will leave many of them scrambling to pay their bills, which has caused consternation within the club and among fans, many of whom have been protesting against Chansiri’s ownership for some time. Fifa rules state that if a club do not pay a player on time twice, he or she can rip up their contract unless the cl...

The authoritative Swiss Ramble examines Aston Villa’s troubles with PSR.   Here is a summary of his main points. Villa were the one Premier League club whose transfer window this summer was very clearly impacted by PSR, as noted by manager Unai Emery,   Villa actually had the lowest gross spend in the top flight this summer with just £42m, which was miles below the likes of Liverpool £459m, Chelsea £331m and Arsenal £291m.   For even more perspective, this was also a lot less than the three promoted clubs: Sunderland £193m, Burnley £135m and Leeds United £116m. Villa’s financial challenges directly led to the sale of Jacob Ramsey to Newcastle United for £39m, which was a “pure profit” deal, as he is an Academy product.    However, it’s fair to say that Villa would have been willing to sell more players, e.g. both Emi Martinez and Ollie Watkins seemed destined to leave at various stages of the transfer window, though other clubs would have low-balled the...

Manchester United have had plans drawn up for a new Old Trafford where the canopy that caused such a stir when unveiled earlier this year is removed.  The club are looking at alternatives to the bold design presented in March by co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and architect Sir Norman Foster, due to issues over purchasing the required land. Talks have been held with Freightliner, the company that owns much of the area to the west of the current ground, which had been earmarked for part of the new stadium footprint and some 17,000 homes. But Freightliner is demanding around £400million ($535m) for the land, according to sources familiar with proceedings who spoke on the condition of anonymity, substantially higher than United’s projected price in the region of £50m, as first reported by The Guardian. The company is willing to relocate the freight terminal to a new site but is so far holding out for a major windfall. Amid the impasse, United are considering different optio...

Tottenham Hotspur have announced that they have received and “unequivocally rejected” an expression of interest from a consortium led by Brooklyn Earick. Earick, an American former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was reported to be planning a £4.5billion bid for Tottenham, per The Sun. A source close to the Lewis family described it as “unsolicited and unnecessary interest”. While Tottenham have not received a bid from Earick and his consortium, they confirmed to the London Stock Exchange on Friday morning that they had rejected Earick’s interest, while reiterating that they are not for sale. The consortium is now required under the City Code to either announce a firm intention to make an offer for the company, or announce that it will not, by October 24. The statement says that the Tottenham board is “aware of recent media speculation” and that its majority shareholder ENIC “has received, and unequivocally rejected, an informal expression of interest” in buying the club from Earic...

The Swiss Ramble takes a look at the finances of Rotherham United.  This is a summary of some of his main points.   Much more detail is available on his Substack page. While the frequent transition between England’s second and third tiers is probably a source of frustration, this review of the finances will underline the challenge Rotherham face in bridging the gap and competing with much better resourced clubs. Rotherham United have been owned by Tony Stewart, the founder of ASD Lighting, since 2008, when he rescued the Millers from a crisis. The club had twice entered administration, being deducted a total of 37 points as a result of their various financial issues, while there were also problems with the stadium. As a self-made businessman from Sheffield, Stewart has adopted a strategy of sensible financial management, which makes a lot of sense, given the club’s troubled history, but makes life difficult in a world where many owners seem happy to fund constant lo...

When a small group of staff were told of Monchi’s exit from Aston Villa on Monday afternoon, they were startled to learn one of Villa’s most senior figures, and a renowned football executive, had departed. Players left training earlier in the day and only learned of the news when  The Athletic  broke the story hours later. Wider staff not directly involved in Monchi’s departments, including senior figures, were equally surprised. They acknowledged that Villa’s recruitment had been poor and tensions were developing, but not quite to the extent of Monchi leaving just over a month into the new season. The exact framing of that departure depends on who you ask. For some, it was a matter of necessity on the back of the summer’s transfer struggle; others present it as a mutual decision, while there are also personal reasons for Monchi wanting to return to Spain. Monchi is expected to remain in an advisory capacity within Villa’s ownership group, V Sports, as part of plans to r...

Barcelona will play Sunday’s match against Real Sociedad at the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys on Montjuic as their Camp Nou return continues to be delayed. The city council confirmed on Tuesday that the Spanish side’s home ground will not be available for the weekend’s La Liga fixture. Instead, they will play at the 55-000 capacity ground across the city for the first time this season, having hosted games at the venue over the past two seasons during Camp Nou refurbishments. “We have spotted different elements that need to be fixed and have an impact in the safety and security of the stadium,” chief of civil protection Sebastia Massague said in a city council meeting on Tuesday.   Some of those elements are in the access routes to the stadium, to ensure all the fans can attend at the stadium.” The Catalan side also will play their Champions League game against Paris Saint-Germain at the Montjuic site on October 1, as confirmed on September 18, as their home ground return date...

Monchi (as the former goalkeeper is usually known) is set to leave his role as Aston Villa president of football operations, according to multiple club sources.  Monchi had come under growing scrutiny from supporters for the perceived lack of improvement within Villa’s squad. Since joining the club in the summer of 2023 at the request of manager Unai Emery, Monchi has been in charge of player recruitment. However, as  The Athletic  explained last week, Emery has the overarching say on signings, with Monchi’s remit being to facilitate the former’s wishes. Inescapably, though, Villa’s transfer strategy has come under question. Nine of the starting XI that featured against Sunderland were already Villa players before Emery’s arrival in October 2022, with a lack of squad turnover contributing to the current stagnancy. This is a monumental departure in Villa’s hierarchy, with Monchi forming the triangle of power alongside Emery and director of football operations, D...

Anfield’s local community has become increasingly fluid in the era of Airbnb. It is difficult to tell how many homes are being rented out like this, because Airbnb is notoriously protective of its data and did not respond to  The Athletic ’s request for information about its footprint. On the face of it, parts of Anfield — a traditional working-class neighbourhood, which just happened to have a world-famous football ground in it — have never looked smarter,   Yet there are also unintended consequences which are not quite as positive because there are now many properties where no one lives permanently, having been bought up by groups or individuals with little or no connection to the area. According to the 2021 Census, the Anfield ward has a population of 14,730, but four times as many people now visit around 30 times a season for matches, and through the summer after Liverpool FC were given permission to host concerts. Labour MP Ian Byrne is a long time resident of ...

Villa’s lack of goals has felt like a surface-level issue for a team with many deficiencies. The league season is only five games old, yet the mood among squad and supporters alike is already weary. Players have spoken privately of feeling the pressure and, throughout the summer, eagerly awaited renewed impetus via the transfer market. The atmosphere around the training ground, already low, is expected to worsen this week. Internally, there is a flatness. Throughout last week, close observers speculated on the cause, but none could find the root issue.  It is a collection of everything, starting with last season’s final-day defeat at Manchester United, where Villa missed out on Champions League qualification on goal difference. Emery’s thousand-yard stare at the full-time whistle that afternoon — unlike here, he stuck around on the touchline to the end of the game — would be the mood of the summer around the club. The gambles to sign Marco Asensio and Marcus Rashfor...

Graham Potter’s days at West Ham look numbered with commentators naming Nuno Espirito Santo as the latest genius to save the sinking ship.  However, many think that the problems are more fundamental than the manager. It is not just Potter who is feeling the heat in east London. Before the defeat by Palace, hundreds of supporters protested against Sullivan and Brady, who were both present at the London Stadium on Saturday. They gathered on Marshgate Lane, outside the entrance for the team coach and club officials, and chanted, “David Sullivan, get out of our club”, “hands up if you hate the board” and “we’re not West Ham anymore”. The demonstration, which was organised by supporters group Hammers United, lasted roughly an hour and was designed to be the start of a series of co-ordinated protests against the club hierarchy. The group have also urged fans to boycott the home fixture against Brentford on October 20, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports. “I knew it would b...

Tim Lewis will leave his position as the executive vice-chairman of Arsenal in what is a significant change at boardroom level for the club. Lewis was a supporter of Financial Fair Play in the Premier League and someone who advocated the blocking of takeovers linked to nation states. The 62-year-old corporate lawyer has advised Arsenal’s ownership group, Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) since 2007, then became a director at Arsenal in 2020 and was promoted three years later. Lewis forged a close relationship with the manager, Mikel Arteta, at the Emirates Stadium and was key to the new contract the Spaniard signed in 2023. He helped to lead Arsenal through the Covid-19 pandemic and had become a significant figure at Premier League level. The timing of Lewis’s departure is seen as a surprise given his involvement in their summer recruitment, along with Andrea Berta, the sporting director, and Arteta. He was key to the signing of Eberechi Eze from Crystal Pa...

The pressing issue of newly promoted Premier League teams being relegated immediately is expected to come under the spotlight at the top-flight clubs’ first meeting of the season next week when future financial rules are discussed. Ipswich Town, Southampton and Leicester City, who were promoted from the Championship in the 2023-24 campaign, were all relegated last season, the second successive year that has happened. There is a growing feeling that promoted clubs are not being helped by Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) — and that the gap is widening. Newly promoted Sunderland and Leeds United will have maximum permitted PSR losses of £61million for this 2025-26 season as they have been in the EFL for the previous two years, while those who have been in the top flight will have a £105million limit. If the prevailing mood is to keep PSR next season — and there is unlikely to be a vote on that until the new year — then one idea doing the rounds is that promotion bonu...

The statement West Ham United released on Wednesday evening in response to the planned protest was supposed to reassure supporters, but it only fuelled their discontent. The club highlighted their financial investment in the squad and training facilities, the need for improvement and a “positive and productive” meeting with the fan advisory board (FAB) that vice-chair Karren Brady attended and where fan groups served their “vote of no confidence” letter. The statement was in response to supporters group Hammers United urging fans to protest against the owners before Saturday’s home Premier League game against Crystal Palace. They also want to boycott the next fixture at the London Stadium, against Brentford on October 20. Many feel the board have not taken any accountability for the club’s continued struggles. One fan told The Athletic : ‘Most fans are coming to the end of their tether. We’re heading towards the Championship. Fan fury made David Sullivan (the majority shareholder...

  Manchester United’s annual report for the 2024-25 season, published on Thursday evening, showed the club’s net transfer debt at the end of June was £344.5m — £73.4m and 27 per cent higher than when Ratcliffe and INEOS gained sporting control at Old Trafford. It is a huge sum and it does not even include United’s post-June transfer activity, when a further £92.1m net was spent. Transfer debt is on the rise across football, particularly in the Premier League, where the quantum of club spending outstrips the ability to pay it off in one swoop. Pushing payments into the future is also generally advantageous — provided inflation doesn’t hit or dip below zero, the money in your pocket now is more valuable than it will be in the future as purchasing power diminishes. Even so, United’s transfer debt is massive, sitting at 52 per cent of a revenue figure for which the club have already projected a £7m to £27m decline in 2025-26. The only Premier League clubs whose transfer debt to rev...

Given the size of Bradford as a city and the attendances they attract, the Bantams have punched below their weight for some time.  But now visitors to the city of culture are finding themselves 'pecked by the chickens'. A quick glance at the League One table says as much. Bradford sit second in English football’s third tier after eight games, behind leaders Cardiff City on goal difference. The two clubs meet on Saturday in south Wales. Next week also brings a trip to Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup third round and a reminder for the 5,000 travelling fans of the heady days around the turn of the millennium when the West Yorkshire side visited venues such as St James’ Park every other week in back-to-back years as a top-flight club. “Great times,” says Mike Harrison, editor of the long-running, award-winning City Gent fanzine. “I went to all 78 games, home and away, in those two seasons, as I suspected it might not happen again. We’ve been through a lot since then, but N...

Manchester United recorded the highest revenues in the club’s history last season despite not competing in the Champions League, yet still posted a sixth consecutive annual loss. The Old Trafford club’s 2024-25 financial results reveal that total revenues stood at £666.5m after significant increases in matchday and commercial income. Matchday takings rose to £160.3m — a record for an English team — and commercial income hit £333.3m, to offset declining broadcasting income from the failure to qualify for the Champions League. United nevertheless recorded a loss of £33m last season — down from a £113.2m in the previous year, but still representing their sixth straight year in the red.   And despite record turnover last season, United’s announcement details an expected drop in income this season, with revenue forecast at between £640m and £660m for 2025-26. United’s top line is expected to suffer from a first season without European football in over a decade. The projected drop ...

The joke used to be 25 years ago that any modern Subbuteo set required an accountant.   Today a VAR team needs to be added, but above all a team of lawyers. Burnley have brought an action against Everton for £50m in relation to their relegation from the Premier League a few years ago when Everton broke Profitability and Sustainability Rules:  https://toffeeweb.com/season/24-25/news/46685.html It's not something I like to see, but Burnley would no doubt argue it's worth a try.    If they do get compensated, I doubt whether it will be £50m.   Once again the growing band of sports lawyers will be the real winners.  If there is not an out of court settlement, the case could last for two months. Burnley were one of five clubs — also including Leeds United, Leicester City, Southampton and Nottingham Forest — who had indicated earlier in the process that they would consider legal action should Everton’s breach be confirmed. Burnley will argue...

The nine English clubs involved in European competition — Arsenal, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Liverpool, Manchester City, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur — must each abide by a different set of financial strictures to their remaining 11 domestic peers this season. Some fans see these rules as a mechanism to protect existing top clubs from challengers.   Financial penalties can be treated as a cost of business by wealthy clubs.   Only points deductions or exclusion from a competition would really hit them. UEFA’s football earnings rule limits clubs to €60million (£51.9m at today’s rate) in losses over a three-year period, albeit that limit can be upped by €10m per year (to a maximum total of €90m across a given assessment period) if clubs meet each of four conditions UEFA deem representative of good financial health. They are: positive equity; a quick ratio — current assets, less stock, divided by current liabilities — of one or above; a...

The authoritative Swiss Ramble takes a look at the money clubs receive from Uefa competitions even before they have started playing.   There are many factors to consider and the Zurich-based Substack writer has the data to address them.   The message that emerges is once again ‘to them that hath shall be given.’   Of course, arguably the funding was tweaked as one way of discouraging the formation of a Super League. The country that is guaranteed most money from the Champions League this season is England with €326m, followed by the other four members of the “Big Five” leagues, namely Spain €243m, Germany €216m, Italy €180m and France €149m.   There is then a big gap to the Netherlands €75m and Portugal €74m, with the rest of the top ten being made up of Belgium €59m, Greece €32m and Norway €31m. Crystal Palace could earn €22m (£19m) if they manage to win the Conference League, which would be around half of the Europa League.   This is scant c...

What does one do with the site of an old stadium when a club moves to a new one?  Very often the stadium is demolished and houses or a commercial development takes its place with perhaps a commemorative plaque or a street named after the ground.  The trajectory at Everton has been different. Today Everton Women play their first game at Goodison Park since it became their permanent home, and the famous stadium symbolises their exciting yet uncertain future. Goodison has transformed since Everton’s men side departed last May. Banners dedicated to Everton Women adorn the Bullens Road stand. The tunnel has pink-tinted wallpaper featuring phrases such as “A New Era” and “A History We Own”. Around the venue, displays referencing Everton Women’s past, present and future are conspicuous. However, the stadium is unfinished. Thousands of seats are missing, with the upper tier of the Goodison Road Stand stripped to the bone. Everton are acutely aware that the 133-year-old ground ha...

Inverness Caledonian Thistle have left administration thanks to businessman Alan Savage.  He has lots of novel ideas for boosting revenues, although having a petrol station at the ground is a new on me:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp98y1n8mkko

It’s a big weekend for FC Barcelona, as the Catalan club readies for its first home game of the new football season. The bad news is that the match won’t take place at Camp Nou. The €1.5bn renovation of one of football’s most famous venues drags on, with the city council recently rejecting Barca’s request to host Valencia and 27,000 fans in the middle of a building site. Instead, the game will take place at Estadi Johan Cruyff, a pocket-sized ground on the outskirts of town. It is normally home to the Barcelona women’s team, and has capacity for just 6,000 people. The revamped Camp Nou, when finished, will hold 105,000. The club will only allow the 16,151 people who held season tickets during the two seasons spent at Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium to buy tickets, and if demand exceeds supply there will be a lottery. For a club that so sorely needs cash, the prospect of playing more home games in front of tiny crowds is a disaster. There may be scope to move back to the Ol...

WhyA 94-word statement released by the English Football Association on Thursday has cast a cloud over Chelsea.  The news that the club had been hit with 74 charges relating to alleged breaches of rules on agent payments did not come as a surprise to club executives, given the issue has been hanging over them since 2022, but it has sparked concern among supporters. The 74 charges are related to alleged breaches of FA rules regarding regulations on working with intermediaries and third-party investment in players.   The alleged offences took place between 2009 and 2022, although the focus is on what took place from the 2010-11 to 2015-16 seasons. Chelsea say the offences are all related to the regime of the club’s previous owner, the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, although the FA declined to confirm that point when asked about it by  The Athletic . Chelsea also say that they flagged the discrepancies to all the governing bodies — the FA, the Premier...

Millwall finished a highly creditable 8th last season, just two points outside the Championship play-off places, which represented a decent improvement on the previous year.  The club’s ability to punch above its weight should no longer be a major surprise, given that Millwall have finished in the top ten on no fewer than five occasions since they were promoted from League One in 2016/17. The Lions seem to be firmly established in England’s second tier, having competed in the Championship in 14 of the last 16 seasons, which is pretty good, given their financial disadvantages, compared to the rest of the division. Unfortunately, the most recent available accounts are from the 2023/24 season, so these are a full year out of date, but the conclusions should still be clear. Millwall’s pre-tax loss significantly widened from (restated) £12.0m to £19.1m, despite revenue rising by £2.0m (11%) from £19.4m to a club record £21.4m. The deterioration in the bottom line was largely bec...

Globalisation may be coming to a halt as Trump's tariffs take effect (although even here the picture is more complex than it seems on the surface).  However, in football the geopolitical forces are, if anything, gathering strength.   Their focus may have changed, but they are affecting the game. European football’s summer transfer laid bare the widening gulf between the English Premier League and everybody else. English clubs, boosted by new overseas TV deals, spent more than those in Spain, Italy, France and Germany combined. Those leagues aren’t sitting on their hands — all of them are trying to come up with ways to get international football fans interested, in the hope that one day that feeds through to more TV and sponsorship money. One idea is to ape the NFL’s international series by taking league matches overseas. Summer tours have been going on for years, and both the Italian and Spanish “super cups” are currently staged in Saudi Arabia. Bu...

Six months ago, no Tottenham Hotspur fan, unless they had a particular interest in wealth management, would be able to tell you who Peter Charrington was.  But after a dramatic week, Charrington is the name on everyone’s lips. On Thursday afternoon, he stepped into the role of non-executive chairman. It was the start of a new era at Spurs. Charrington himself has been learning the ropes of the football industry over the last six months, especially since Venkatesham arrived. Charrington’s background is not in sport but in private banking. He spent 26 years at Citibank and made his name at Citi Private Bank, which manages the money of high-net-worth individuals. He ran its operations in the UK and North America before becoming Citi Private Bank’s global head from 2014 to 2020. He won ‘Best Leader in Private Banking’ at the 2019 Global Private Banking Awards. It was not just Charrington’s professional expertise that led him to Spurs, but also his relationship with the Lewis family...