The Political Economy of Football V2

In all the discussion of the possible consequences of the findings against Manchester City by the Premier League, it interests me that there has been no reference to competition law.  I am not a lawyer, but I have studied competition policy in various jurisdictions over the year (principally the UK, US, Canada and the EU).   I have written up the results of interviews and documentary searches in various publications (including ones on football) and no one has said my interpretations are invalid. Governance arrangements in football ran foul of EU competition policy.   After some heavy lobbying by Tony Blair among others, a settlement was eventually reached.   One consequence was the introduction of windows for transfers. Britain is no longer in the EU, but we have our own quite stringent competition policy.   Largely created in its present form under New Labour, it drew on American anti-trust legislation but had to be compatible with EU policy...

Simon Kuper is an outstanding football journalist who has co-authored one of the best books on the economics of football.  So it is interesting to read his controversial views on the Manchester City affair in the Financial Times. He is not saying that City should not be sanctioned if, at the end of the process, it is established that they have broken the Premier League's rules.   But he does think the 'misguided' rules should themselves be scrapped. 'Owners should be free to spend their own money on football. Their funding has made the Premier League better and more competitive. English football has a different problem: brutal regimes and people owning clubs. The English game has been uniquely successful at attracting foreign buyers.   Foreigners own the vast majority of Premier League clubs.  Some — notably Sheikh Mansour and the Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, who owned Chelsea until 2022 — put their own money into football, especially in the era befo...

As Iranian drones and missiles menaced Abu Dhabi and Dubai this spring, British warplanes roared across the Arabian Peninsula to fend them off alongside United Arab Emirates forces.  The UAE saw the US-Israeli war against Iran as a moment of crisis that revealed which of its allies could be relied upon. As Typhoon fighter jets flew across its skies, the view in Abu Dhabi was that the UK had stepped up after years of frosty relations.   But those diplomatic ties are being tested afresh by the Premier League’s ruling against Manchester City after a long-running investigation fuelled friction between the two countries. The club, owned by a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family since 2008, has  reportedly been found guilty on 114 of 115 charges relating to breaches of its financial rules. The decision, if upheld on appeal, could result in punishments ranging from substantial fines and points deductions to expulsion from the Premier League or being forced to pay other cl...

It is now five months since Leicester City was put on the market with a £200m price tag.  Sam Rush, the CEO of consultancy General Sports told The Football League Paper, '£200m in League One is unheard of.  But of course Leicester are not your typical League One club. 'Few clubs have secured that valuation in the Championship though there are clubs at that level who will and have valued themselves at more. For example, Ipswich Town concluded a deal last year in excess of the Leicester asking price.' 'What I would say in this specific case is that Leicester are in a superb club.  They're in a really challenging place at the moment.   But what any buyer needs to assess is, is the current place temporary? Because whilst £200m is not sustainable for a club that stays in League One, it is extremely cheap for a club in the Premier League.' 'Of course, buying a club is the simple bit.  Running it is a different kettle of fish, especially in the Championship where ...

Leyton Orient have taken a step forward in their bid to find a new home to replace Brisbane Road where they have been for 80 years.   They need to relocate within the London borough of Waltham Forest  and have signed a Development Performance Agreement with the council. The club are still working with the council on potential sites.   The club hops to be in the new stadium for its 150th anniversary in 2031. The club wants to be able to compete sustainably at Championship level and considers that it cannot achieve this goal at Brisbane Road where there are physical and commercial constraints.

As rival fans celebrate the potential humiliation of Manchester City, and the Premier League slaps itself on the back for standing up to one of its strongest clubs, be careful what you wish for.   The real winners may be the sports lawyers. City are clearly in a defiant mood and they have some of the best lawyers available.   I am not a lawyer, but I can see one way in which the whole governance structure of the Premier League and indeed football more generally could be challenged in the domestic courts. The Premier League, it is at risk of full-blown warfare. If City are guilty of systematic cheating, their rivals will argue they have been denied hundreds of millions in earning potential through unfair means. Already, the New York Times has reported that Manchester United have conducted internal analyses to assess the extent of the losses they incurred due to Manchester City’s success, including three second-placed Premier League finishes behind City and one occasi...

Manchester City has been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges brought against it by the Premier League over breaches of its financial rules in a decision that will send shock waves through European football.  The club, owned by a member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, was accused by the league of breaching rules between 2009 and 2018, and then referred to an independent panel in 2023 following a four-year investigation. The panel has found Manchester City guilty on 114 charges, according to people familiar with the matter, one of whom added that the charge that has not been proven was one of the most serious. The Premier League had argued that the club had broken the rules — such as by inflating sponsorship income and paying some staff off the books — to circumvent limits on spending. It also accused the club of failing to co-operate with its investigation.  Manchester City, owned since 2008 by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has maintained its innocence throughout and pl...

Outside Casablanca, thousands of workers are building the 115,000-seat Grand Stade Hassan II, set to become the world’s biggest football stadium. Cranes tower over the vast construction site, with the tall stands already visible and dozens of bulldozers readying the land for new roads and a high-speed train link.   The project is the centrepiece of a $20bn programme to transform sports venues, transport and tourism infrastructure ahead of the 2030 World Cup, which Morocco will co-host with Spain and Portugal. So crucial is the tournament to Morocco’s prestige that football is also at the heart of Wednesday’s parliamentary election. Morocco hopes the World Cup will cap off a string of economic achievements, which include building a strong tourism sector and a car industry that is the biggest automotive supplier to Europe. Government officials have said the tournament could boost annual growth by 1.7 per cent and create 100,000 jobs every year. But even if Moroccans are footba...

Manchester United are offering fans the opportunity to buy a tiny chunk of turf from the Old Trafford pitch for £125.  For the first time in 14 years, United relaid the playing surface this summer and have decided to sell small clumps of the grass, cast in 7cm x 7cm acrylic cubes.  The cubes are encased in a black box that also contains a picture of the stadium.   What a great Christmas present for a fan! United’s latest financial results, published on Wednesday, revealed they spent £63.5million on buying land for their new ground.   The results also showed that United paid back £180million of a bank loan over the past six months as their chief executive, Omar Berrada, said the club would take a “disciplined approach” to their spending. In a statement accompanying the accounts, Berrada said the club approached strengthening their men’s and women’s squads this summer “with financial sustainability in mind”.   United spent about £150million on Carlos Bale...

Daniel Levy was paid £27 million ($36.08m) when sacked by Tottenham Hotspur last year.  The former executive chairman’s tenure was suddenly ended in September 2025 when he was dismissed, after 24 years running Spurs. When Levy was dismissed he received a payout taking into account his salary, bonus for the year and the club’s long-term incentive plan, according to sources with knowledge of the terms, speaking on the condition of anonymity. That sum of £27m, one of the largest pay-outs ever made to a football executive, represented his contractual fulfilment in event of termination, rather than an agreed settlement package. No further settlement has been reached. The figure is comparative to the payouts received by former Chelsea executives following the end of the sanctioned Roman Abramovich’s tenure in 2022. Chelsea accounts, from April 2023, showed a total of £49.75 million ($66.47m at current rates) was given to former directors in connection to the sale of the club to BlueC...

The Deloitte Sports Business report for 2026 states that the 2024/25 season was one of transformation and expansion, with both UEFA and FIFA launching refreshed competitions for their flagship men’s club competitions.   These saw more clubs compete for larger prize pots, with distributions for participating clubs bolstering otherwise plateauing broadcast revenues. These changes underpinned a 6% strengthening of the European football market, which surpassed €40 billion for the first time in 2024/25. The ‘big five’ leagues’ relative contribution to this total remained consistent with the prior season, at 54% (€22 billion).  Football cannot rely on more of the same to deliver sustainable growth, though. An increasingly saturated market is not good for players nor fans, and the Game is in danger of prioritising short-term gain over longer-term prosperity.  The complex trajectory of media rights values, coupled with the ongoing shift towards revenue-linked spending ...

For a brief moment in the summer, fans of the Rome’s Lazio football club were united in declaring that in order for the club to survive, its owner, Claudio Lotito, must go. Lotito’s sin, according to supporters, was not using enough cash from his office-cleaning business to buy star players. So far, so normal, for top-flight football. But it was a new low for Lazio, which has never had the same support as its Rome rival AS Roma but enjoyed a glorious era in the 1990s. It began with the arrival of Paul Gascoigne before the club won the Italian league title in 2000 under manager Sven-Göran Eriksson, the Swede who would go on to manage the England team. The July protest offered a snapshot of how politics, show business, football, economics and sometimes criminals are linked in a city where it often feels like everyone knows everyone. As a result of the club’s malaise, and its owner’s alleged failure to spend cash, supporters have boycotted home games this year, giving the Olympic stad...

Barcelona are going to leave the Camp Nou again.  This was already part of their plans to finish ongoing rebuilding works at their iconic ground, but now we know — following comments from vice-president Ferran Olive at Saturday’s annual general assembly — exactly what they expect to happen next. Olive said Barca would finish this 2026-27 season at the Camp Nou, but would then have to play away from the stadium for around half of 2027-28. He said the club hoped to come back in January 2028. At that meeting, Barcelona also requested club members approve another big loan — taking on €510million (£437m; $584m) in further debt, €300m being earmarked for Camp Nou construction and €210m in further operational borrowings — in order to complete the works. This was voted through, meaning Barcelona’s total debts are now set to surge well past £2 billion and could hit €2.6bn in total, depending on repayment dates. It takes the budget for the Espai Barca projevt which encompasses the Camp...

The high court in London has issued a winding-up order against Sheffied United’s former parent company, COH Sports Bidco Ltd, as a result of a dispute between United’s current owners, Steven Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy, and their predecessor, Prince Abdullah’s United World, which claims it is owed £35m in unpaid fees after the £110m sale of United in December 2024. The action was initiated after United World accused the current owners of transferring ownership from COH Sports Bidco Ltd to1919 Partners LLC in a bid to avoid paying the amount outstanding on the purchase price.   United World noted, “no defence was filed and the debt of more than £35m was not disputed”, adding that it had made “every effort to resolve this matter amicably”, but received no response. They concluded, “It appears that Helmy Eltoukhy and Steven Rosen are simply not concerned about this means for the club. What happens to Sheffield United now is the result of their choices.”   For its part, the club ...

Mark Walter and Todd Boehly have agreed to sell their stakes in Chelsea FC to Clearlake Capital in a deal that values the club at about £5bn including debt and will help the US financiers alleviate pressure on their insurance empires. The deal will put US private equity firm Clearlake, an existing investor in Chelsea, in control of the football club and give both Walter and Boehly a small gain on their investment, according to people familiar with the matter.   The pair are set to receive £950mn in cash for their combined 25 per cent holding, the people said. “Chelsea Football Club today announced affiliates of Clearlake Capital Group will acquire the ownership interest of Todd Boehly   .   .   . Clearlake will also acquire Mark Walter ’ s ownership interest and therefore acquire full control of the club, ” Chelsea said in a statement, which did not disclose financial terms of the transaction. Clearlake will finance the purchase using its own capital and large direct inve...

It is early November 2019, a brisk day on the banks of the River Wear, and Gillingham are in town for an FA Cup first-round game. Nearing the end of a dour 1-1 draw, a lame effort from the visitors bounces into the Stadium of Light’s Roker End. Only one side of Sunderland’s 49,000-seater ground is open to home supporters on a day when attendance was just 7,892, and it isn’t that side. Beyond the FA Cup, this was just 15 months into a League One stint which ultimately spanned four years.  Seven years on, no seat remains vacant. From atop the same stand, under a darkened sky, amid a swell of anticipation and almost a lifetime of it not happening here, the first two-tier ‘tifo’ (banner) in English football unfurls. “New shores to conquer” bellows in bold typeface, abutting a depiction of ships on a wave of blue flags. Above and behind, a lighthouse, akin to the one found two miles away, not far from the now-demolished Roker Park home that last hosted a game like this, backdrops pr...

Homer the Cherry Hound Bournemouth won their first competitive match in Europe against Real Sociedad last night. In the early 21st century, this club led a hand-to-mouth football existence, crowdfunding the return of Eddie Howe, as a player, from Portsmouth. After their dalliance with oblivion, the club started the 2008-09 season on minus-17 points in League Two, with Barnet’s Underhill Stadium and Aldershot Town’s Recreation Ground among the away trips, and by Christmas they looked doomed to non-League. But Howe, an untested coach, was appointed at the turn of the year and not only did he save them, he would eventually lead them to the Premier League. Europe was first considered a possibility under Howe. In 2016-17, the club, then owned by the Russian millionaire Maxim Demin, finished ninth and Uefa were invited to assess the suitability of the Vitality Stadium for hosting European games. But it was under Andoni Iraola that a European tour became reality. After five years in the...

This week’s Carabao Cup win for Everton was attended by two prime ministers: Andy Burnham and Canada’s Mark Carney.   But this distinction should not obscure some worrying concerns for fans. Towards the end of last season, The Friedkin Group should have been basking in the progress made by two of the clubs in its sports portfolio. Everton and Roma were both pushing for the upper reaches of their respective domestic leagues, with designs set firmly on European qualification.   Rather than a source of satisfaction, however, it quickly presented a problem for TFG and one that may now contribute to the American conglomerate considering how best to continue its Premier League association. Uefa’s rules on multi-club ownership prevent clubs under one umbrella from competing in the same continental competition and, for a while, it seemed as if Everton and the Italian side Roma were both destined to qualify for the Europa League.   In that eventuality, the regulations sta...

The Lewis family have injected a further £120 million into Tottenham Hotspur.  The injection is the third in the last year and the largest one so far, as the majority shareholders continue their investment into the club. The injection comes in the form of purchasing new shares in ENIC, the company that owns 88.30 per cent of Tottenham Hotspur Limited. The Lewis family injected £100m by the same mechanism in October 2025 and then another £100m in June 2026. While the money is for working capital, rather than specifically for transfers, both matters are related. Spurs spent heavily in the summer transfer window on fees and salaries, including a deal worth a potential £100m for Sandro Tonali from Newcastle United and £85m for Mateus Fernandes from West Ham United, adding to transfer debts that were already among the highest in football. The release of Spurs’ 2024-25 accounts earlier this year revealed that even before this summer’s splurge. Despite improvements in player sales...

Nottingham Forest’s ambitious plans to redevelop their City Ground stadium took a major step forward Wednesday night, as they were granted planning approval. Seven years and seven months after the scheme was first announced, the Premier League club were given the green light by Rushcliffe Borough Council to push forward with their plans to increase the capacity of their historic home to 45,000 in an initial phase, followed by a second phase that would take it up to as much as 52,500. The club intend to redevelop three of the four stands at the stadium, but most notably the Peter Taylor Stand, which will triple in size from holding 5,000 seats to 15,000, within a structure that would stand 58 metres tall. That is only slightly shorter than the Council House in the city’s Market Square, where Forest celebrated promotion in 2022. Forest also want to fill in the corners on either side of the Trent End, joining it up with the neighbouring stands to create up to 5,000 more seats as par...

Chelsea have announced that Clearlake Capital has taken “full control” of the club after completing a purchase of minority stakes from Todd Boehly and Mark Walter. Boehly will leave his role as chairman. It ends the American’s four-year affiliation with the west London club, after he fronted the consortium with majority shareholders Clearlake that paid £2.3billion ($3bn) to acquire the club from sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in 2022. Hansjorg Wyss, who holds a 12.8 per cent stake, will “remain an important stakeholder and partner in the ownership group”, the statement said, adding that there will be “no changes to the day-to-day operations, leadership or strategy” at the club. Clearlake had always been adamant that they had no interest in relinquishing their majority stake and, if anything, would look to increase it. Now they have full control of Chelsea and BlueCo sister club Strasbourg, while Boehly and Walter have both been paid what they clearly regard as a fai...

Premier League football club Sunderland is targeting major US cities that identify with its industrial heritage as tougher financial rules push England’s leading clubs to seek out fresh sources of revenue. Tom Burwell, the club’s chief executive, said he wanted to tap into Sunderland’s history of mining and shipbuilding, as well as its regeneration this century, as a way to drive interest in the team beyond its home in north-east England.   “Our opportunity is to build on an identity and a business that’s deeply rooted in the 30km radius of Sunderland,” he told the FT. “It’s our responsibility to land that story in markets that we’re able to, then grow fan bases and ultimately grow revenues.” Burwell singled out Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Detroit as big post-industrial cities where Sunderland’s story had struck a chord during their recent pre-season tour of the US. “Our view on North America is to be highly targeted alongside partners and distribution platforms, and wrap our ve...

Arsenal have drafted in major global management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to conduct strategic exercises that explore operational improvements at the club. The Premier League champions could look to cut costs but are also eying improvements in other areas of the club to ensure they maintain their current status in the game. From a financial perspective, Arsenal announced record revenues of £691million ($934.4m) while almost breaking even with an overall loss of £1.4m for the 2024-25 season.   Their underlying operating losses before the disposal of player registrations did grow from £50m in 2024 to £65m in 2025, however. Overall operating costs rose by £53m from £147.9m to £200.8m, which at the time, Arsenal said reflected increased staging costs, specific direct costs of delivering increased revenues, certain residual property matters and inflationary pressures. A really top football club has to find different ways of staying ahead of the curve, many of t...

It is  possible to invest in a football club and walk away quids in. Mark Walter is expecting to make a profit when he sells his 12.8 per cent stake in Chelsea to majority owner Clearlake Capital.   Co-owner Todd Boehly, who also owns 12.8 per cent of the club, and Walter are in talks with Clearlake to be bought out. Both men, along with Hansjorg Wyss (12.8 per cent) and Clearlake (61.5 per cent), formed a consortium to buy Chelsea from the sanctioned Roman Abramovich for £2.3billion in June 2022. An agreement with Clearlake to purchase Walter’s and Boehly’s shares is close, reports The New York Times. The possibility of a buyout within the consortium has been there since  The Athletic reported a breakdown in relations between Boehly and Clearlake two years ago. Sources close to the U.S. private equity firm have always insisted they had no interest in selling to Boehly or Walter, and were more likely to increase its shareholding than walk away.

The Swiss Ramble uses his unrivalled data bank and forensic skills to analyse the financial performances of the top 15 clubs in Europe.  Much more in depth analysis can be found on his Substack page. England still dominate the top 15 with the usual Big Six (Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur), while the next highest contributors with three apiece are Spain (Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid) and Italy (Inter, Juventus and Milan). Germany provide two clubs (Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund), while Paris Saint-Germain are the sole French representative. Looking at the combined results for the top 15 clubs, they still lose money, but there has been a significant reduction in losses (excluding exceptional items) from £1.4 bln in 2021/22 to £257m in 2024/25.     The Premier League’s average loss widened from £55m to £70m.   Three of the other leagues swung from a loss in 2021/22 to a profit in 2024/25, ...

This evening two of the north’s greatest football clubs meet when Leeds play Newcastle United.  Both represent regional capitals (Manchester is not capital of the whole north).   Even the Everton supporting prime minister had to come to the north-east for the Great North Run. It will be a curious walk to Elland Road for Newcastle United fans on Monday evening. The caged tunnel down which away supporters were funnelled has gone. The Norman Hunter Suite that sat next to the entrance to the visiting section has been demolished. Instead, amid what will probably feel more claustrophobic for the 2,960 supporters from Tyneside, will be the white walls of a building site, housing the cranes, diggers and machinery that have already started the transformation of one of English football’s most atmospheric grounds. That main stand development, which could be finished by 2028 and will increase the capacity of Elland Road to 48,000, is the most visual display of ambitio...