Liverpool operate in the long term

Liverpool’s return to the summit of the Premier League last season dovetailed with a return to profitability, and the club’s 2024-25 financials, publicly released last Thursday, unveiled the platform from which they launched last summer’s £400million transfer splurge.

The champions booked a £15.2million profit, their best financial result since the 2018-19 season and a first profitable year in three. Revenue shot up £89m and 15 per cent to £702.7m, easily a club record, making Liverpool only the second English side, after Manchester City, to top £700m in annual turnover.

At the top line, Liverpool’s revenue grew across all three income streams — matchday, broadcast and commercial — something only Arsenal could mirror last season among the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’. On a club-accounts basis, they were England’s highest-earning team last year, though Manchester City’s situation as part of the multi-club City Football Group (CFG) blurs matters. According to figures provided to and then disclosed by UEFA, European football’s governing body, City’s revenue in 2024-25 was £13m ahead of Liverpool’s.

The most pronounced leap came in Liverpool’s TV earnings, unsurprising given the way these are generally tethered to on-field performance. Winning the Premier League generated an extra £3.9million in prize money, but of far greater consequence was returning to the Champions League.

Liverpool’s UEFA prize money earnings jumped from £23million when in the 2023-24 Europa League to £82.5m and, per The Athletic’s estimations, they’ve already earned a smidgen more than that this season. Overturning a 1-0 last-16 first-leg deficit against Galatasaray of Turkey next week at Anfield would take Champions League takings to around £95m in 2025-26, close to their record UEFA haul of £101.7m, when they were finalists in the competition’s 2021-22 edition.

One area limiting profitability at Anfield was something now seen almost across the board: an increase in operating costs.Liverpool’s operating expenditure jumped £19million (11 per cent) last season, and at £185.6m sits near the top of the Premier League, having risen £53m in just three years.

Matters on the pitch may not be going as planned but off it, as we wrote a year ago, Liverpool have been run remarkably by FSG, particularly when up against some rivals for whom sustainability seems a foreign concept. Note how neither the Premier League’s nor UEFA’s financial rules make an appearance in any analysis. Liverpool been well clear of the troubles others have flirted with.

Missing out on the Champions League this spring would put a dent in that sustainability, but Liverpool, perhaps more than any of football’s ‘big’ clubs nowadays, don’t really operate in the short term.

It's no deal say Spurs insiders over Taiwanese takeover

Senior figures at Tottenham Hotspur insisted on Friday that they had not been informed of any deal to sell Daniel Levy’s stake in the club. A business group, Eight Sports Capital — which is said to include a billionaire Taiwanese financier — claimed that it had an agreement in place to buy a 24.99 per cent stake in ENIC, the club’s majority owners, from Levy, who owns 29.88 per cent. The Times has been told Ng Wing Fai and Brooklyn Earick form part of the group, having both been linked previously to potential takeovers of the Premier League club. The Taiwanese businessman, Richard Tsai, is also said to be part of the consortium. He is reportedly worth £7 billion. Last year Earick, the former DJ and tech entrepreneur, was part of an attempted £4.5 billion takeover, which was “unequivocally rejected” by Spurs. An ENIC spokesperson said: “We can confirm that neither ENIC nor THFC are aware of any sale by Daniel Levy’s Family Trust of its minority stake in ENIC, THFC’...

Reports about Charlton sale exaggerated

Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site. He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...

Hull City's 'strange' loan

When football finance guru Kieran Maguire seems flashing lights in a club's loan deal, I become concerned. He is the leading football finance expert in the UK. Hull City have borrowed £55m against their stadium and training ground yet they should get £30m from the Premier League before long. What is going on? https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cpwel48y51do

The Political Economy of Football V2

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