The Political Economy of Football V2

Amanda Staveley’s consortium has agreed a £150million deal to buy a 25.1 per cent share in West Ham United, which will throw the future ownership of the Championship club into doubt.  Through her firm, PCP Capital Partners, Staveley offered a higher sum than the one tabled by Daniel Kretinsky, the Czech billionaire who already owns 27 per cent of the club, to purchase the full stake from the family of the late David Gold. Last month the Gold family had agreed to sell 16 per cent of their stake to Kretinsky. He is now considering “all options” after the setback. The proposed deal would have made the Royal Mail owner the biggest shareholder and given him control of the club. Kretinsky and Vanessa Gold, David’s daughter, who are both West Ham co-chairs, said in a statement at the time that they had hoped the deal would be completed soon.  Staveley’s deal was more attractive to Gold’s family because they can dispose of the full holding and it valued the club at a higher s...

Chelsea have been fined £10 million ($13.4m) and given a suspended transfer ban following an investigation into 74 alleged breaches of the English Football Association’s regulations. The club were also initially hit with a suspended six-point deduction by an independent regulatory commission, which handed out the punishments, before this was overturned on appeal. Chelsea were instead given a two-window transfer ban, which is suspended until June 30, 2027. The FA can apply to activate that ban if any Chelsea are deemed to have potentially committed any similar breaches. The breaches relate to a period of time between 2009 and 2022 and “primarily events that occurred between the 2010-11 to 2015-16 playing seasons” — when Roman Abramovich was still owner of Chelsea — the FA said. The latest decision brings the amount of money Chelsea have been fined to more than £18m, after UEFA imposed a €10 million (£8.6m, $11m at the time) sanction in July 2023 concerning the same offences. ...