The Political Economy of Football V2

Four Four Two has a special feature on celebrity involvement in football.  We all know about Wrexham, but I was surprised at the extent and breadth of the involvement.   Who would have thought that tennis Naumi Osaka (she of kimono fame) would have a stake in North Carolina Courage? Harry Redknapp recalls that when he joined West Ham as a player the chairman was a Mr Pratt who owned the wood yard over in Wanstead.   Redknapp admits that he does not know who Snoop Dogg is.   I am from an analog age, but even I know that. The rapper turned up for Swansea's match against Preston in February.  The marvelously named Prestgon gaffer Paul Heckingbottom commented, 'Just the smell of weed in the tunnel is the only thing where we realised something was different.' Quite a few of the investors are celebrity footballers or at least retired footballers with money to splash.  They include Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.   I'm not sure that Hector...

France are the most impressive team I have seen in the World Cup so far, but their team faces the challenges of a divided nation, a situation examined by football writer Simon Kuper in the Financial Times. Kuper notes that the federation’s president since 2023 (Philippe Diallo) unites two different worlds. He passed through the obligatory grande école, Sciences Po university in his case, that is the entry ticket to the French ruling class, but also played football in Nantes’ youth academy. And, unusually among France’s overwhelmingly white elite, he is the son of a boxer from Senegal. That background helps him manage relations between the diverse national team and a divided nation that may elect a far-right president next year.  France’s talent pool is certainly unmatched. Les Bleus reached four of the last seven World Cup finals, winning in 2018 and runners-up last time. Dozens of the 98 French-born players at this tournament represent their parents’ countries of origin, inclu...

Newcastle United have been fined a combined €6million (£5.2m, $6.8m) by UEFA and have entered into a stringent future compliance agreement after breaching the governing body’s Financial Sustainability Regulations (FSR). For the three-year period ending June 2025, Newcastle overspent relative to UEFA’s football earnings threshold, while they also exceeded their 70 per cent squad-cost ratio (SCR) across the calendar year of 2025, with their expenditure reaching closer to the 75-per-cent mark. UEFA has fined Newcastle €3m for the football-earnings overspend, plus a further €7m which is suspended pending future compliance, and another €3m for their SCR violation. While Newcastle appear pleased with the settlement, insisting they “worked closely and constructively” with UEFA’s Club Financial Control Body (CFCB) to “swiftly resolve the matter” — which involved senior figures, led by David Hopkinson, the chief executive, and Simon Capper, the chief financial officer, spending months in ...

Aston Villa have been fined €22.5 million for breaching UEFA’s squad cost ratio (SCR) limit — but will only pay €7.5m with the rest only payable if their compliance with the regulations takes a downturn. UEFA, European football’s governing body, say Villa will only have to pay the remaining €15m if the club’s SCR position does not continue to show improvements, having seen a reduction in percentage between 2024 and 2025. For the 2025 calendar year, Villa’s SCR was still found to be above the tightened 70 per cent limit imposed by UEFA. The €22.5m fine is the second most expensive fine to be handed out to a European club for 2025, behind Strasbourg (€25m). Chelsea, meanwhile, were found to have breached and were fined €3m, €2m of which was conditional. UEFA said in a statement: “Regarding Aston Villa FC and Chelsea FC, which had already been sanctioned in the previous season, the CFCB First Chamber took into consideration the improving trend in their squad cost ratio between 2024 ...

Chelsea’s ongoing struggle to comply with UEFA’s financial rules has seen the club hit with another fine, albeit one much reduced from a year ago. Europe’s football governing body announced on Tuesday the club had breached its squad cost ratio (SCR) limit in 2025, resulting in a €3million (£2.6m) fine, of which €2m (£1.7m) is conditional. The latter element will become payable if Chelsea do not continue to “significantly decrease” their SCR figure in 2026. The monetary punishment doled out for Chelsea’s 2025 transgression pales in comparison to those issued to them by UEFA last summer, when the club was found to have breached both their SCR limit and UEFA’s separate football earnings rule, which restricts overall losses at clubs competing in Europe. Chelsea’s failure to comply with the SCR limit in 2024 resulted in an €11m (£9.5m) fine. Their football earnings breach cost them a further €20m (£17.2m), alongside a threat of that increasing to a total of €80m (£69m) and the require...

The Swiss Ramble investigates the 2024/25 accounts of Ipswich Town which relate to their year in the Premier League.   Much more detail and analysis is available on his Substack page. Ipswich’s transformation has been driven by the new owners, who purchased the club in April 2021 for a reported £40m. As a result, Ipswich Town are now majority owned by the appropriately named Gamechanger 20 Limited, though the ultimate owner was the Arizona state pension fund, the Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS), via its investment firm, ORG. The new ownership group has certainly put its money where its mouth is to date, investing a lot in the squad and the club’s infrastructure.   They were helped by the previous owner, Marcus Evans, writing-off the vast majority of the club’s debt as part of the takeover, but it’s fair to say that the new owners provided the catalyst for Ipswich’s renaissance. There have been a few changes since the initial investment, as Bright P...