The Political Economy of Football V2

Oh, to be a sports lawyer now that autumn is here.   I hadn't expected to report on a second football law suit today. The Forest Green Rovers owner, Dale Vince, is to sue Peterborough United for £2m over their controversial hiring of his former manager Robbie Savage.   It is the latest escalation in the row that followed the former Wales international’s switch from the National League club to the League One side at the start of the month. Vince and the Peterborough chairman, Darragh MacAnthony, have been involved in a war of words since, with Forest Green accusing the EFL club of an illegal approach — “tapping up” — of Savage. Peterborough deny those allegations. Now Vince has confirmed on his personal social media channel that he has launched legal action for compensation of £2m.   “We have begun a legal process for the tapping up of our manager — our ex-manager now — Robbie Savage,” Vince said. “It’s hassle that we didn’t want, but what are you going to do?” ...

We live in a litigious age and sports lawyers are increasingly becoming prominent in the game.  A recent Private Eye cartoon displayed well-nourished lawyers running round with briefcases and wearing Manchester City shirts. However, defamation actions are still relatively rare, although not unknown   For example, note the recent claim launched by West Ham's David Sullivan against the BBC:  https://www.skysports.com/football/news/13594030/david-sullivan-west-ham-co-owner-suing-the-bbc-in-lb150m-defamation-claim-over-panorama-documentary Aston Villa have announced plans to initiate legal action against Jamie Carragher for his “unacceptable insults” about the club.  Villa released a statement signed off by chairman Nassef Sawiris outlining their intentions on Friday after incendiary comments from the Sky Sports pundit earlier this week. “Aston Villa will initiate legal action against Jamie Carragher for his unacceptable insults about the club and its fans,” it re...

For years, CFG has been viewed as the gold standard for multi-club networks. It still is, having housed so many of the game’s top executives along the way.  While City dominated English football and clubs around the world came scavenging for their staff, it carried that tag unabashed. But after the judgment delivered by the independent commission that deemed City’s success was partly built on inflated revenue from “sham” commercial contracts to the tune of over £900million ($1.19bn), what does the future hold for the rest of the group? Manchester City’s on-pitch success has been the veneer behind which CFG has existed. The leaders at the Premier League outfit, namely chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak and chief executive Soriano, have been effective at presenting City as a well-run, profitable club. They recorded four profitable years in five between 2019 and 2023, and their player trading, particularly the conveyor belt of academy talent, has been the envy of many teams. City acco...

Inter and Milan hope to move into their new home in 2031-32. It will be built on the same footprint for an estimated €2billion ($2.24bn) and carry the name of Italian insurance giant Generali, who have agreed to a record naming rights deal worth £650m over 20 years. Change is going to come. This is different from the projects that have come and gone before. It will not go the way of Barbara Berlusconi’s plan to build Milan their own stadium in the Portello neighbourhood of the city in 2015. Nor will it be held up as The Cathedral was by Covid-19, lockdowns, local elections in Milan and Suning, Inter’s former owners, being on the brink of a bankruptcy that was formally declared earlier this year. Make no mistake — this is happening. A year ago, Milan city hall approved the sale of the publicly owned San Siro to Milan and Inter for around €200m. There were five appeals to block it, all dismissed by the regional administrative court, and threats by political party the Greens to collap...

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS, Manchester United’s minority owner, has put Swiss Super League side FC Lausanne-Sport up for sale.   INEOS, whose global headquarters had been in the city between 2010 and 2016, bought the team in November 2017. At the time, it looked like more like an exercise in corporate social responsibility than the first step in the creation of a multi-sport empire that would eventually span cycling, F1, football, rugby union and sailing. But that empire is now in retreat, with the decision to sell Lausanne coming after abrupt exits from sponsorship deals with the All Blacks (New Zealand, rugby union) and Tottenham Hotspur in 2025, a messy divorce from America’s Cup partner Sir Ben Ainslie and the decision to put French club OGC Nice on the market. INEOS will be hoping for a much quicker exit from Lausanne than their long, painful goodbye at Nice. The French side have won three of their last four games to climb to mid-table in Ligue 1 but the club’s fan bas...

During the past few days, we have been enjoying the world gymnastics championship well staged in an impressive arena in Rotterdam.  In this posting the focus is on the port city’s football club. From his fastness in Zurich, the Swiss Ramble has been casting his usual forensic eye over the 2025/26 accounts from Feyenoord.   Here are his key findings. Feyenoord had a “challenging” season off the pitch, as they swung from a €31.1m pre-tax profit to €17.0m loss, a sizeable year-on-year deterioration of €48.1m.   Revenue dropped by nearly a third, falling €51.5m from €166.7m to €115.2m, but costs remained at virtually the same level, so this all fed through to a much larger operating loss, which widened from €28.8m to €78.9m. This was partially offset by €62.6m profit on player sales, up €2.2m from the previous year’s €60.3m.   The net loss after tax was lower at €12.6m, thanks to a €4.4m tax credit. The main reason for the revenue decrease was significantly lower...

The supporters who own AFC Wimbledon will vote over the next four weeks on whether to accept an £87million ($116m) investment in the League One club from a consortium led by former Southampton and England full-back Ryan Bertrand. In a complicated deal, Sloane Street Capital (SSC), a newly set-up investment vehicle, would pay £16m for approximately 34 per cent of the club’s shares this season but then invest a further £71m over the next five years, at which point SSC would own 90 per cent of the club’s economic value. However, under a shareholders’ agreement, the club’s current owner — the 6,265-strong Dons Trust — will always retain at least 50.01 per cent of the voting rights, giving the trust veto control over the club and its stadium’s freehold. Bertrand, who played for nine different clubs during a 17-year career including Chelsea, Southampton and Leicester City, is SSC’s senior football advisor and would hold the same role for Wimbledon, with two of SSC’s minority shareholde...

Aston Villa today celebrated a 2-1 win over Manchester City despite playing in a three sided ground. The North Stand, behind one of the goals and opposite the famous Holte End, is closed for the 2026-27 season as part of Villa Park’s redevelopment.   Once functional, it should house more than 12,000 spectators. Incremental additions to the ground’s three other sides will lead to the targeted capacity and, longer-term, to a 52,500-seat venue. Having secured Champions League qualification at the end of 2023-24, the football department were keen to avoid playing home matches in a three-stand stadium. There was a desire for Villa Park to remain atmospheric and intimidating for opponents, as well as not be an eyesore. Club sources estimate shutting the stand this season costs about £6million. Villa decided it was better to bite the bullet and get the work done in one season rather than two, as the estimated increased income from the revamped stand exceeds the agreed fixed interest r...

Valencia won both the Spanish league and the Uefa Cup in 2004, an achievement that propelled the team’s then head coach Rafa Benítez all the way to Liverpool.  But glory has eluded the club ever since, with form dropping off sharply in the past decade under the ownership of Singaporean palm-oil billionaire Peter Lim. Now, perhaps, a new chapter is opening. On Friday, the club announced that a consortium of US investors, including the family offices of KKR co-founders George Roberts and Henry Kravis, had agreed to buy a 42 per cent stake valuing Valencia at €1.25bn. The group, which also includes the owners of the Denver Broncos NFL franchise, will inject €100mn of working capital too, helping the team buy players and improve the training ground. Despite previous success, Valencia are well past being at European football’s top table. The team sits 19th in La Liga at the moment, while the club generated annual revenue of just €103.7mn in its most recent accounts. Brentford, 30th ...

Real Madrid want the six Premier League clubs that signed up to the European Super League (ESL) to pay a share of the initial costs of the abandoned project. Multiple sources with a close understanding of the situation told The New York Times that the Spanish club believe Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur should still be liable for the setup costs of the plan, despite subsequently pulling out. One source said these costs could be as high as €80 million (£67.3m; $89.9m) in total. Madrid, alongside domestic rivals Barcelona and Juventus of Italy, have so far shared promotional costs associated with the ESL, plans for which were announced in April 2021. Of the 12 founding ESL members, nine — each of the six English clubs, along with Spanish side Atletico Madrid and both Milan and Inter of Serie A — pulled out swiftly in the days following its launch. Another, Juventus, said in 2023 that they had withdrawn from the proposal, before ...

From his Zurich eyrie, the authoritative Swiss Ramble turns his attention this week to Porto who have changed their strategy.  Here is a summary of his main conclusions, much more on his Substack page. Porto have started the season in great form, at least domestically, where they have won their first eight games in the league, though results have not been so impressive in the Champions League, as they have lost both games to date. There has been a marked change in strategy, as the club chose to spend heavily on strengthening the squad and retain some of its talent, as opposed to its usual approach of selling players to balance the books. The “significant investment made to restore sporting competitiveness” clearly paid dividends in the league, but it was also reflected in Porto’s financials, as they swung from the club record pre-tax €45.0m profit to a €20.3m loss, a significant year-on-year deterioration of €65.3m.   Porto’s €20.3m pre-tax loss was actually the worst in...

Sunderland could get a big financial boost from the Europa League, although there is always the rsik of their domestic performances being affected by the additional demands:  https://www.sunderlandecho.com/sport/football/sunderland-afc/sunderland-europa-league-prize-money-financial-boost-9291882

Spain is facing a closely fought and arguably historic general election, but probably most football fans are more interested in a clash between Real Madrid and the president of La Liga.  With one branch of my family now resident in Spain and my great-granddaughter likely to become a Spanish citizen, I have been reading up on the country’s politics and history.   My preliminary conclusion is that some of the rows in football have deeper historical roots in a country that was wracked by a civil war. Real Madrid have demanded the “immediate resignation” of La Liga president Javier Tebas after he likened the approach of the club’s management to that of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazis’ infamous propaganda chief.     (Nazi Germany gave active support to Franco during the Spanish Civil War). Madrid described Tebas’ remarks as “deeply offensive” and “morally repugnant”. Madrid said they disqualified him from continuing to hold his positions as head of the Spanish to...

One issue that has surrounded financial fair play rules is whether they are really designed to protect the position of existing top clubs and prevent well-funded aspirational clubs breaking through the glass ceiling.   If that could be shown to be the case, the courts could rule that the Premier League’s rules are a breach of competition law by a private entity that has facilitated cartel activity. Newcastle host Aston Villa, a meeting of the division’s aspirational interlopers, who both recently ended long waits for silverware and each qualified for the Champions League twice. Both have found their pathways blocked by more stringent rules than those faced by City. Newcastle’s takeover, which was led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) and completed in October 2021, brought an immediate stiffening of the Premier League’s rules, with fellow clubs concerned they would use their extraordinary wealth to game the system. Having spent big in a bid to avoid relegatio...

I know that I am old fashioned kind of guy and that I don't fully understand high finance.  Nevertheless, at a time when many football clubs are technically insolvent, the idea of borrowing against players concerns me.  After all, they can get injured or just lose confidence. Private credit funds are targeting football’s biggest transfer market with a push to extend loans to English clubs based on the value of their players, as increasingly exotic financing filters into the sport. Discussions over so-called squad-value financing are picking up among English clubs and their lenders, according to several specialist football advisers. The novel loans are sized according to the value of a club’s playing squad and sometimes involve the lender only taking security over hypothetical receivables from potential player sales, the people said. London-based sports finance firm 23 Capital, which was wound down during the Covid-19 pandemic, has relaunched with squad-value loans as a core ...

The English Football League (EFL) and Premier League are now only £27 million apart from agreeing a comprehensive new financial solidarity package for the men’s game after years of stop-start talks. While there are still some other details to decide, the EFL has told the Premier League it will accept the so-called New Deal for Football if the latter ups its latest offer of an extra £180m a year in solidarity payments to £207 m annually, with the additional amount ring-fenced for Leagues One and Two. Under the terms of  the last solidarity deal the leagues agreed in 2019, the Premier League currently shares 13 per cent of its £4billion-a-year media-rights income with the rest of the game, just over £430 m a year. Of that sum, more than half goes to half a dozen or so clubs recently relegated from the top flight in the form of parachute payments, with just over £140 m shared between the rest of the EFL’s 72 clubs in solidarity payments and a similar sum dished out to fund communi...

Arsenal have told staff that redundancies are being planned, despite them winning last season’s Premier League title and announcing record revenues for 2024-25.  The club told employees the intention is to make 60 positions redundant, with cuts set to be across a number of departments. The coaches will be among the departments unaffected, along with the performance backroom teams for the men’s and women’s sides, the academy, the club’s community operation, the Arsenal Foundation, security personnel and workers dedicated to the women’s setup. A consultation is underway and the decision could yet be subject to change. The news comes in the wake of Arsenal’s first title win in 22 years and an encouraging set of financial results for the season before last. In February, the north London club announced they had almost broken even for the 2024-25 financial year, recording an overall loss of £1.4million, while posting record revenues of £691m. The biggest rise in revenue was a £45...

PSG taught Manchester City a footballing lesson last night.   With City’s fate in the balance, it may be the last meeting for a long time which will surely undermine the attraction of the Champions League.   Losing European visitors will not be good for the Manchester economy, Both clubs have been generously funded by Gulf states, but PSG managed to stay the right side of financial rules.   Over the past decade or so both clubs established themselves as European heavyweights thanks to unprecedented funding from Gulf owners. Both escaped full bans from Uefa competition as part of sanctions imposed on them because of Financial Fair Play breaches. Both moved on from there to win their maiden European Cups. Both clubs strategically aligned themselves with major investment in their cities from the nations of their transformative backing: the pair of them have been thanked for that by heads of state. English football’s power balance means it needs a successful C...

Football finance guru Kieran Maguire was asked on Radio 5 this morning if the interim State of the Game report issued by the independent football regulator was a surprise.   He said that it was not and he had written a similar report for the Government in 2020. As long as benefactor owners keeping turning up, do fragile finances matter.  As Maguire pointed out, fewer clubs are going into administration than 20 years ago. I cannot think of any other sector of the economy where the producers are largely those in existence 100 years ago, including most of the leaders.   Given their importance to fan identity, mergers usually only occur at the non-league level. It is one thing to identify the problem, another to come up with workable solutions.   Meanwhile, faas and last night even players criticise owners for failing to 'invest'. English football brings in over £9bn but IFR finds 94 per cent of clubs are loss making.  Nearly two-thirds of EFL and Nat...

Concern is growing in business and political consequences of the scandal at Manchester City.  The Financial Times devotes a whole page it today under the headline 'Man City cheating scandal risks growing geopolitical quagmire.' It is important to keep a sense of proportion as the FT does.  The leading sports business paper is not presenting a worst case scenario, simply pointing out some of the risks. Relations between the UK and the UAE are important both economically and politically, but have been subject to recurrent tensions.  They are best described as 'volatile'. The row over the acquisition of the Telegraph caused particular turbulence with some in the UAE taking the view that opposition to the deal (which eventually failed) was driven by racism. As the FT notes, 'Abu Dhabi has a history of using commercial contracts to exert pressure on the UK.'  Britain has often needed UAE funds.  In the global financial crisis the UAE provided a £3.5 billion emergency...

 'We know no spectacle so ridiculous as the British public in one of its periodical fits of morality.'   So said Thomas Macaulay many years ago. There is certainly an outbreak of sporting morality over Manchester City with fans of other clubs salivating at the prospect of their destruction.  However, it is important to weigh up the consequences both inside and outside football. I am not a City supporter and clearly they have to be sanctioned for their conduct (what that sanction should be is above my pay grade).  However, it is also important not to bring the whole horse of cards down.   I deal with the geopolitical concerns in another post, but it is worth quoting at length from what Martin Samuel had to say in the Sunday Times. 'What if the unforeseen consequence of any punishment finishes not just a corrupt regime, but an entire football club? Manchester City’s executives did wrong. That does not mean Manchester City should cease to exist. It does n...

One of the missing pieces in the complex jigsaw that makes up the scrutiny and regulation of football finance is the role of auditors.  Indeed, the Financial Times devoted a whole page to the subject in its weekend edition. Such has been the level of concern among chartered accountants that they have produced a training video relating to finances at a fictional dodgy football club using actors from Eastenders and Game of Thrones :  https://www.icaew.com/about-icaew/news/2025-news-releases/football-finance-focus-of-new-icaew-film-to-help-train-accountants-may-2025 City were audited by BDO which is the fifth biggest accountancy firm in the UK and self-described as a market leader in football.  Industry insiders have suggested that BDO may need to contain 'brand damage' as a result of the City episode.  No one is suggesting that BDO have fallen below the highest standards of professional conduct and probity: the issue is bigger than any one firm. BDO also audits Aston V...

When I was growing up in London after the second world war, I would have been surprised to be told that one day I would have a great-granddaughter who would be educated in Valencios (a dialect of Catalan).   D.v.  I will be going to see her in the procession at the Three Kings festival.  Meanwhile, my interest in Spanish football increases but as a neutral. The authoritative Swiss Ramble has undertaken his usual forensic analysis of the finances of FC Barcelona.   Much more is available on his Substack page. Despite the impressive increase in revenue, which rose €95m (10%) from €916m to a club record €1,011m, Barcelona actually reported a pre-tax loss of €14m in 2025/26, which was slightly worse than the prior year’s €8m deficit.    This was due to a steep rise in operating expenses, which grew €111m (12%) from €900m to €1,011m, while net interest payable increased €13m (47%) from €26m to €39m.   This was partly offset by an improvement in pro...

Confirmation on Friday that TFG, headed by the billionaire Dan Friedkin, is now exploring the potential sale of Everton is not surprising, although the timing of the announcement blindsided executives and manager David Moyes. An asking price of about £800million, inclusive of debts of about £400million, has been mooted. The clarity regarding TFG’s position suggests confidence that a sale can be completed although whether it will happen this season is unclear. The Independent Football Regulator can take up to 90 days to ratify a deal once a buy-out is in place. There is no doubt that TFG has helped Everton. The club’s financial problems under the former owner, Farhad Moshiri, meant the threat of administration loomed. There has been stability, debts have been refinanced and the move to the club’s new Hill Dickinson Stadium was completed in August 2025. This is not going to be the fire sale of a distressed asset. TFG’s outlay since buying Everton has been about £450million and, given...

The UK Government has been seeking to develop the sub-region between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge as a British ‘Silicon Valley’.  The United Arab Emirates has been courted as a source of investment, but ministers have been advised that this may no longer be possible given the Premier League’s proceedings against Manchester City. When Khaldoon al-Mubarak, chief executive of Abu Dhabi’s investment fund, met with then Chancellor in 2023 he made it clear that it represented an attack on an important Abu Dhabi asset by an unregulated cartel.     It was an affront to some of the emirate’s most esteemed companies.   Hunt stressed that the Premier League was an independent body. Manchester City formed the anchor investment for a broader Abu Dhabi-led regeneration project that helped transform east Manchester with new housing, office space and entertainment facilities. For countries from the Gulf football had become an important projection of soft power. Onc...

The 17 th century political philosopher Thomas Hobbes defined the state of nature as a war of all against all.  This is what looks like happening on football.  As rival fans relish the prospect of Manchester City playing in the non-league, clubs in the Premier League and outside it try to work out how much compensation might come their way. What sanctions should be applied to City are a matter for the relevant decision-makers, but I am interested in the consequences for football mote generally.   I am going to post separately on the somewhat neglected geopolitical dimension. One Premier League owner told the New York Times that it would be wrong for just the current top-flight teams to split the pot equally. Why, he argues, should a club such as Coventry City, who were not in the Premier League at all from 2009 to 2018, receive a financial windfall, while those including West Ham United, Southampton, Stoke City and Leicester City, all now outside of the Premier Leagu...