The Political Economy of Football V2

Milan City Council passed a vote approving the sale of San Siro to Inter and Milan on Tuesday, which clears the path for the construction of a new stadium on the site.  The sale is expected to be ratified once due diligence has been completed at the beginning of November. Plans for a new stadium would see San Siro, which the two rival clubs share as their home ground, mostly demolished, with only 10 per cent of the existing structure of the stadium expected to remain. There is currently no indication of where the two sides will play while the new site is being worked on. Milan have played at San Siro since 1926 and it has been shared with Inter since 1947. In 2019, both clubs announced plans to build a new 60,000-seat stadium, though the project stalled due to political opposition and Italy’s heritage regulations, which safeguard historic structures. In September 2023, Milan announced plans to construct a new 70,000-capacity stadium in the south-eastern area of the city in an...

Manchester United have more than footballing reasons to bear in mind when considering whether or not to bring the Amorim experiment to an abrupt end. Sacking managers/head coaches costs money and, at United, financial concerns have been a prominent topic since Sir Jim Ratcliffe acquired a stake in the club in February 2024. For almost 27 years from the late 1980s, United didn’t need to worry about what changing their manager would cost. Sir Alex Ferguson’s lengthy and wildly successful time in charge ensured any problems tended to reside away from the Old Trafford dugout. Much has changed since his 2013 retirement. Amorim is that dugout’s sixth permanent occupant in the subsequent 12 years. All that flux comes at a price. Ferguson’s own departure, while plainly not a sacking, brought about £2.4million ($3.2m at the current rate) in costs to remove coaching staff not wanted by his successor, David Moyes. Just 10 months into a six-year deal, Moyes was out by the following April. Remo...

Juventus’ 2024/25 accounts cover a season when they finished fourth in Serie A, thus qualifying for the Champions League, but only thanks to an away win against Venezia on the last day of the season. Coming fourth was not too bad, but Juventus have struggled by their own lofty standards in the last five years, given that they had won the league no fewer than nine seasons in a row before that. Juventus’ pre-tax loss significantly reduced from €196m to €50m, as revenue rose €68m (18%) from €372m to €440m and profit from player sales almost quadrupled from €23m to €90m. Although the substantial reduction in the pre-tax loss is obviously good news, the fact is that Juventus still lost €50m before tax, which is hardly small change.   Looking at the latest published results, which are a mixture of the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons, Juve’s loss was still one of the worst in Serie A, only smaller than Roma €76m, Parma €64m and Monza €54m. In the three years up to 2023/24, the “Old Lady” ...