The Political Economy of Football V2

Tottenham Hotspur have frozen their season-ticket prices for next season following consultation with fan groups.   In other words, the cost falls In real terms (Arsenal have increased their prces close to the rate of inflation). The decision is the result of discussions with the club’s Fan Advisory Board and the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust, which began late last year. Spurs did not raise season the price of season or match tickets for the current 2025-26 campaign, but began removing the concession for new senior season ticket holders (for those aged 65 and above) — a decision which resulted in criticism from some fan groups. The club increased season-ticket prices by six per cent for the 2024-25 season, leaving the most affordable adult season ticket at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium priced at £856. Senior supporters who purchased a season ticket for the current campaign did not receive a concession, while existing season ticket holders who become eligible for a...

Scotland is to be restricted to one Champions League place from next season with additional places being awarded to Cyprus and Denmark. Football finance guru Kieran Maguire spells out the serious consequences for Scottish football which already faces financial challenges:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/clygvv8kqklo

Chelsea have agreed a deal with Industrial AI company IFS to be their front-of-shirt sponsor for the rest of the season.   The shirt with the IFS logo was seen for the first time in the home draw against Burnley.. The club’s shirts have been without a front-of-shirt sponsor since a temporary arrangement lasting seven games with DAMAC ended last summer. The valuation of the agreement with IFS, who will remain a partner of the club until 2028, has not been disclosed as of yet, but it is in line with the club’s expectations for a deal like this. IFS, now the club’s 14th global partner, is the latest tech company to align itself with Chelsea. In October, the club announced a sleeve sponsorship deal with Vietnamese technology company FPT that runs until the end of the campaign. Chelsea are working on a multi-year sleeve sponsor for 2026 onwards

Arsenal Supporters' Trust state: ' We are disappointed that the FSA’s  ‘ Protect the Fans, Protect the Game’   proposals calling for a ticket price freeze across all Premier League clubs has not been taken up. Neither the Premier League nor Arsenal have seriously engaged with the idea that a freeze at all clubs would help stop the ‘arms race’. Season tickets will be going up by 3.9 per cent (slightly above the rate of inflation) and most season tickets will cost over £1,000.   A seat in the centre of the lower tier will go up by 27 per cent to £1,281. AST continued: 'We firmly believe that with the football sector benefitting from ever-increasing broadcast and commercial revenues it is time to stop squeezing match-going supporters so hard. Arsenal recently reported to Deloitte a big increase in last season’s total revenue to £691m (up by 10%) and ticketing income of £154m (up by 19%). It is frustrating for fans to see football clubs and leagues do so little to combat...

The Financial Times Business of Football summit kicks off next Wednesday Here are the main discussion points: Financial state of play   — Uefa, which governs football in Europe, will be unveiling its latest annual report on the professional game’s finances at the summit on Thursday morning. We’ll be looking out for the latest trends in revenue growth, rising costs, club investment and that one thing that has proven elusive in football for so long: profits. Impact of regulation  — T he spending rule book has changed a lot over the last couple of years, with Uefa introducing its “squad cost ratio” approach for clubs taking part in European competitions. The Premier League is  following suit  from next year. We’ll be talking to the heads of Spain’s La Liga, the English Football League and the new Independent Football Regulator to see which way the wind is blowing. Plus, we’ll have feedback from clubs and players’ unions. Stadium wars  — Changes to financial rules h...

Club Brugge’s exciting draw in the Champions League attracted attention with them once again being seen as a club punching above their weight.  Club Brugge has built a reputation for smart recruitment, developing young players and supporting them through its academy pipeline. That model has allowed it to compete sustainably, even against far larger opponents. Yet a strategy like this requires operational discipline as well as sporting ambition. Top clubs recruit internationally, negotiate across jurisdictions, and move significant sums across currencies. In many respects, they operate like mid-sized multinationals. The complexity is simply less visible to supporters. Transfers are one of the clearest examples. Deals are often completed under intense time pressure during short transfer windows, with multiple parties involved and payments moving across currencies and banking systems. In that environment, small inefficiencies can quickly become expensive. Foreign exchange costs ...

The New York Times has been looking at what would happen should Tottenham Hotspur be relegated.  I should preface this report by saying: ·       The forthcoming lunar mission will confirm that the moon is indeed made of cheese ·         The Pope will confess that he is not a Catholic ·         Bears will reveal they prefer using a Portaloo to the woods I don’t think Spurs will be relegated, but what would be the implications if the unlikely happened? They are the ninth-wealthiest team in the world game, according to Deloitte, with revenue of €672.6million in 2024-25 — around €88m more than the next-richest, London rivals Chelsea. After reaching the upcoming round of 16 in the Champions League despite their domestic struggles, that number is in line to increase this season. No club in the 34-year Premier League era have recorded more than £200million in single-season revenue and gone down. While their ...

  Cartoon copyright Private Eye Instability in leadership seems the fashion today.  We have had the greatest turnover of prime ministers in the democratic era.  An article in the Financial Times this week revealed an increase in changes in the CEOs of companies, in part driven by so-called 'active investors'. But football has some of the shortest tenures of all.  Since 2011 there have been 23 managers at Watford and 18 at Forest with Sean Dyche managing both teams. Forest are the first team since the league's formation in 1888 to have four permanent managers in one season, although Leyton Orient hold the all comers' record with five in 2016/17. Has it brought Watford or Forest success?

The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust has accused the club of selectively editing the minutes of their February meeting before publication, claiming that references to fan concerns — including “the risk of relegation” and discussion of the club’s “lack of ambition” — were left out. The trust has a memorandum of understanding with the club stating that they should meet twice a year. The latest meeting took place on February 3, eight days before the dismissal of the head coach Thomas Frank, at which four trust board members met with four club representatives, including the chief executive Vinai Venkatesham. The trust has claimed that there were “a number of specific points raised during the meeting which the club did not agree to include in the final published version”. The agreed minutes were published on Monday. In a statement accompanying the publication of the minutes on its website, the trust said: “As a democratic supporters’ organisation elected to represent fans’...

Those of us who have been enjoying the Winter Olympics sense that they have generally well organized, leaving aside problems with disintegrating medals.   Italy can do things with style and panache, reflected n its world beating success in luxury goods sectors, but its football clubs are something of a basket case.   Serie A is no longer looked to as the epitome of football style. From his Zurich lair, the Swiss Ramble takes a forensic look at the 2024/25 accounts of AS Roma.  Here are some highlights. This was Roma’s fifth season under the ownership of The Friedkin Group, who purchased the club from fellow American James Pallotta in August 2020. In this period, there has been a fair degree of change at Roma, including no fewer than six head coaches.    Despite all this upheaval, Roma have been fairly consistent in in the league, finishing between 5th and 7th in each of the last seven seasons. That’s not too bad, but it does represent a decline in pe...

James Bord, who led the consortium that won the race to buy Sheffield Wednesday, is being sued by a former friend and business partner over his investment in Córdoba, the second-tier Spanish football club. The Times has discovered that Bord is at the centre of an extraordinary legal dispute with Jonathan Cohen, the Canadian poker player, primarily over an investment that Cohen made in Córdoba, who are part-owned by Bord, who is also a director at the club. Cohen’s legal representatives, Holland & Hart LLP, lodged a complaint on his behalf with the district court in Clark County, Nevada, on Tuesday. In the documents, seen by The Times, Cohen alleges that Bord: • “Wilfully” deceived Cohen into thinking that Córdoba were debt-free when he agreed to invest in the second-division club in 2024 when they were actually “around $23million in debt”, which amounts to about £16.9million at the present exchange rate. • “Took hostage” a bitcoin account owned by Cohen, which was...

When I first became aware of football in the early 1950s Hearts appeared to be one of the top Scottish sides and I liked the idea that they were known as ‘jam tarts’. A famed fund manager and one of the UK’s best-known sports gamblers are backing a data-driven bid to break Glasgow’s hold over Scottish football and deliver the first league title for a team outside the city in four decades. Heart of Midlothian sit top of the Scottish Premiership with just a third of the season left, as they seek to achieve what no club has done since Sir Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen side in 1985 and end the dominance of Celtic and Rangers. The fortunes of Edinburgh-based Hearts, whose last title was in 1960, have been transformed under a new approach, with fresh investment and expertise, that has also outsourced key elements of player recruitment to computer algorithms. Central to Hearts’ rejuvenation has been the arrival of Tony Bloom, a high-stakes poker player and chair of Premier League Brighton ...

The New York Times has taken a look at the financial implications of relegation from the top flight, although it hasn’t bothered to look at the bottom two clubs.   I don’t think that Spurs are really in danger and Crystal Palacewill surely finish lower mid-table. More likely than not, either West Ham or Nottingham Forest will occupy the third relegation spot. West Ham United A return to the second division would bring huge ramifications.   Broadcast revenues — money awarded from the Premier League — amounted to 57 per cent of their income last season. There was £131million ($178.5m) of TV money banked courtesy of finishing 14th in May, but parachute payments for a first year back in the Championship would be in the region of £49m, with EFL TV money then bumping that up to roughly £55m. That drop-off is, obviously, enormous and would likely ensure West Ham’s revenues were almost halved as a second-tier club again, once you allow for the inevitable reductions in com...

A ston Villa are set to be hit with a heavy fine for breaching Uefa’s financial rules for a second year running. The club are expected to have breached Uefa’s squad cost rule, which imposes financial penalties if a club’s spending on player wages, transfers and agents is more than 70 per cent of its revenue.  The rule is effectively a luxury tax and   Villa   were fined €6million (about £5.2million) in July for breaching the 80 per cent level during 2024, and that limit was reduced by Uefa to 70 per cent for 2025, which the club have struggled to comply with. However, it is thought Villa are not in danger of violating their settlement deal agreed with Uefa last year for breaching its separate football  earnings rule that covers financial losses. That deal included a €5million fine, targets around future losses and some transfer restrictions. Breaches of the settlement can lead to more serious sanctions such as exclusion from European competition. Villa are understood...

C eltic PLC on Friday reported a decline in profit for a first half that saw a "great deal of change and disruption", with the football club on its third manager of the season.   Celtic won a fourth Scottish league title in succession in May, but results on the pitch since have not been as emphatic this term. It believes there is "all to play for", however. In the six months to December 31, Celtic's pretax profit slumped 70% to £13.2 million from £43.9 million a year prior, with revenue sliding 29% to GBP59.4 million from GBP83.5 million.   Profit from player trading fell to £14.1 million from £21.5 million a year prior. The revenue decline, Celtic said, was due to it participating in the UEFA Europa League, the secondary European competition, instead of the Champions League like a year prior. In the current 2025/2026 season, Celtic exited the Champions League before the league phase began. In the prior season, it made it out of the league phase and into the Feb...

The Financial Times has the last word on the challenges facing Spurs: 'Spurs rank ninth in Deloitte’s list of the world’s richest clubs, with revenues of €673mn, short of Manchester United but ahead of Chelsea. The club’s net transfer spend over five years is about €666mn, according to Transfermarkt, below Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea but higher than Liverpool. The futuristic Tottenham Hotspur Stadium — which could be mistaken for a space ship that has inexplicably landed in N17 — is the second largest club ground in England. But the cavernous bowl served only to amplify the boos that rang out on Tuesday, as defeat to Newcastle United brought Frank’s tenure to an end. Croatian Igor Tudor has reportedly agreed to take over as interim boss until the end of the season. There is one key metric where Tottenham lag behind: wages. Staff costs of £222mn in the 2023-24 season, the latest figures available, were by far the lowest of England’s “Big Six” clubs, and lower than Aston V...

  A few extracts from an article in The Times today by James Gheerbant follow.   As at most football clubs, if things go wrong, its agency not structure and agency means the manager.   However, arguably Spurs face deeper problems than the person in charge.   The new stadium is splendid, but Arsenal took years to recover from the Emirates move and West Ham have never been happy at the London Stadium.   Wenger reckoned that Arsenal lost their soul when they moved. T he new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was supposed to be the final piece of the project to take Spurs from middling London outfit to global super-club, and in financial terms, it has certainly pulled its weight. Tottenham now have the ninth-highest revenue of any club in the world, ahead of Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid and every Italian team. By a system of trays and motors, rails and pulleys, the football pitch can be retracted, enabling the stadium’s lucrative conversion into an ...

Ange Postecoglou has accused Tottenham Hotspur of thinking they are “one of the big boys” but never acting like an ambitious club during his two years in charge.   Postecoglou, 60, said Tottenham are the “antithesis” of their “to dare is to do” club motto, citing a lack of ambition in the transfer market. S purs won the Europa League under Postecoglou but finished 17th in the Premier League last season, losing 22 matches, their most defeats in a league campaign since 1934-35.   Speaking on the  Stick to Football  podcast, Postecoglou said: “Tottenham as a club were saying  ‘we’re one of the big boys’ and the reality is I don’t think they are, in terms of my experience over the last two years. When Arsenal need players, they’ll spend £100million on Declan Rice. I don’t see Tottenham doing that ever.” “When you walk into Tottenham, what you see everywhere is ‘to dare is to do’. It’s everywhere. And yet their actions are almost the antithesis of that, right?” ...

There is in general an approximate relationship between a club’s budget and  on pitch performance, but there are always outliers who do better or worse than the figures suggest.  Brentford are the classic example of over performance. For me Brentford are epitomised by someone I know who has lived in the same house in Acton all his life and been a loyal Bees supporter.    Other options are, of course, available in West London: two in the Premier League and one in the Championship. The following analysis presents highlights from the latest analysis of Brentford by the authoritative Swiss Ramble who reckons the club are at a crossroads given recent ownership changes. The reality is that despite significant increases in wages and transfer spend, Brentford are still operating with one of the lowest budgets in the division, so they have done very well to flourish in the top flight.    It should be acknowledged that there has been much growth at Brentford, g...

In the least surprising news of the day, Tottenham Hotspur have sacked head coach Thomas Frank.  Spurs are working through a few contingency plans as they look to replace Frank, who leaves the club 16th in the Premier League. Tottenham have won none of their last eight league games and just two from their last 17. They are five points above the relegation zone. Poor performances and results in the Premier League meant the controlling Lewis family seemingly had no other choice but to part ways with the Dane, who has left Tottenham in a genuine relegation battle with 12 games of the season remaining. Nevertheless, I do think there are far deeper structural problems at Spurs than the manager. Frank is well regarded and should find another role.

The New York Times has taken an in depth and interesting look at why apparently solid mid-table clubs like Wolves eventually fall out of the Premier League. My view is that they tell half the story.   Statistical analysis shows that there is a strong correlation between spend on players and success.    You can fit a reasonable linear two variable regression lin to the data. Of course, there are outliers, clubs that punch below or above their weight: at the moment, Brentford on the positive side and Tottenham Hotspur on the downside. However, I think the Premier League is essentially an oligopoly, i.e., competition is controlled for the benefit of a few producers.    The big six or maybe seven ensure that they remain at the top financially and in other terms.    Insurgents are tolerated to an extent because they make the competition look more competitive than it actually is, but are eventually sent packing. In 2018, Stoke City and West Bromwich ...

Releagted from League One, Cambridge United have submitted their latest accounts reports football finance guru Kieran Maguire. Revenue was   £9.2m up 11%.    There was a parallel increase in wages of 11 per cent, total was £6.6m so they are 72 per cent of revenue.   Operating loss was £3.7m up 45%.      Borrowings £2.9m (mainly to group company);   Total losses over the years amount to £14.0m. Relegation led to a loss of £1n in commercial income. CEO Alex Tunbridge highlighted the ongoing modernisation programme but said that the fall in commercial income ‘further highlights the challenging financial landscape in the lower leagues at a time when the new Football Regulator is getting up and running. ‘’Although we were relegated the Club has continued to prioritise sustainable progress and development both on and off the pitch. We conducted a Football Review during last season to strengthen the football op...

The works team was once a common feature of football in the UK, particularly at the non-league level, including my non-league club Lockheed then AP Leamington and still referred to as the Brakes. My father as a non-league footballer thought that works clubs were particularly difficult to play against given that their players were given cushy jobs in the factory and plenty of time off to train. As implied by the club’s name, Philips Sport Vereniging (Philips Sports Union), the electronics giant Philips has close ties with PSV Eindhoven.   Indeed, the club started out in 1913 as a works team for employees of the conglomerate. It has extended its sponsorship of the club to 2031, covering stadium naming rights and participation in an innovative cooperation with four other Dutch companies under the Brainport Eindhoven name, which features on the front of the shirt. The Swiss Ramble has undertaken his usual forensic analysis of the club’s accounts; much more detail is available on ...

Barcelona have started the process of withdrawing from the European Super League (ESL), leaving Real Madrid as the only founding member in the project. Of the 12 founding ESL members, nine pulled out swiftly following its launch. Another, Juventus, said in 2023 that they had withdrawn from the proposal, leaving just Barca and Madrid attached to the project. In January 2023, the Catalan club’s president, Joan Laporta, said he remained convinced a new European League to initially compete with England’s Premier League would still be launched. The 20-team, closed-shop ESL was initially launched in April 2021, but fell apart following a substantial backlash from supporters. Six English Premier League clubs — Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur — all immediately withdrew, along with Spanish side Atletico Madrid and both Milan and Inter of Serie A. The changes in the Champions League format along with that of the Club World C...