The Political Economy of Football V2

Before the season started, everyone expected the Black Cats to go straight back down, but Régis Le Bris’ side defied the odds to reach Europe for the first time since 1973.   From Zurich the Swiss Ramble reviews their remarkable progress.   Here are some highlights. The return to the Premier League did not come easy, as both promotions were only achieved via the play-offs, including a nail biting victory over Sheffield United to get out of the Championship, when the winning goal was scored in the fifth minute of injury time. Ownership There has been a distinct improvement in Sunderland’s fortunes since Kyril Louis-Dreyfus (KLD) became controlling shareholder in February 2021, when he bought 41% of the club, though the previous ownership group retained 59%: Stewart Donald 34%, Juan Sartori 20% and Charlie Methven 5%. Even though it was only a minority stake, this gave Louis-Dreyfus full control of the board. This transaction made Louis-Dreyfus the youngest perso...

Tottenham Hotspur’s owners, the Lewis family, broke their long silence on Wednesday,  issuing a rare statement  taking “ultimate responsibility” for the club’s struggles and promising more investment for a rebuild. The Lewis family, who have owned the club since Joe Lewis acquired a controlling stake in 2001, have promised investment in several areas, said their plans for Spurs “require investment — in our teams, the academy, our backroom functions and more — and we are fully committed to this. “We are not selling the club. We are all in. We are investing in it. You will see more of this in the coming months.” This statement is the first time the Lewis family have ever commented publicly on Tottenham matters, even though ENIC first became majority shareholders when they bought Alan Sugar’s stake at the turn of the century. Traditionally any communication was done by Daniel Levy, but he was sacked as executive chairman last September. Since, the Lewis family have starte...

There is to be an election for the presidency of Real Madrid.  Florentino Pérez, a 79 year old construction magnate and president for the last 25 years could well hang on, but his authority is ebbing away. The club has 100,000 members who pay €179 a year, although a season ticket costs an extra €3,200 on top.  Some members sell their tickets on. Real Madrid has not won a grand trophy for two years.  An expansion of the Bernebau budgeted at €575m has cost €1.3 billion and counting.  The Spanish squad for the World Cup does not include a single Real Madrid player. Pérez called his first press conference for ten years and gave a rambling and paranoid performance, blaming referees and the press among others. His opponent is Enrique Riquelme, 37, who owns an energy business.  The first presidential election in 20 years has been called for June 7th.  Meanwhile, the appointment of the 'special one' as manager has been delayed. Pérez is favourite to win, but that t...

No real surprise that The Economist has a pop at the independent football regulator, it's a liberal paper that thinks everything can be solved by the market mechanism. The paper fears that the regulator will put off the footloose international capital that has made the Premier League a rare British success, but in reality the regulator isn't that powerful. The article points out that 700 million people across the globe may watch a single Premier League game.  The American Super Bowl attracts just a third of that.   The league generates $10 billion a year for the UK economy. The majority of TV revenue comes from foreign rights, by comparison the NFL gets 98 per cent of its m media rights revenue at home. 75 per cent of this year's minutes were racked up by foreign born players and in total 128 countries have been represented in the top flight. Lower leagues are also flourishing.  Attendance in League One is up by 47 per cent over a decade and the National League is up...

Chelsea’s underachievement this season has been highlighted by a financial analysis that says only Wolverhampton Wanderers have performed worse in the Premier League compared to money splashed out by the top flight’s biggest spenders.  One Chelsea fan described it as ‘epic mismanagement.’ Despite spending £637 million on wages, transfers and agents fees, Chelsea finished tenth — 33 points behind champions Arsenal — and missed out on the European places. Sunderland’s achievement in qualifying for the Europa League spot secured them billing as the best value for money along with Arsenal, followed by Brentford, Bournemouth and Brighton & Hove Albion. After Wolves and Chelsea, Burnley were the next worst-performing, followed by Tottenham Hotspur. Omar Chaudhuri, the chief intelligence officer at the sports intelligence agency Twenty First Group, which carried out the analysis for The Times, said: “Chelsea are in the top two spenders but have failed to qualify for th...

The man behind Saudi Arabia’s takeover of boxing wants to buy Derby County.  It is understood that the English Football League and the Independent Football Regulator (IFR) are aware of Turki Al-Sheikh’s interest in the Championship club, but both organisations declined to comment when approached by The Times. Al-Sheikh is an adviser in Saudi Arabia’s royal court and serves as the head of the General Entertainment Authority. The 44-year-old has flooded boxing with unprecedented riches under the “Riyadh Season” banner, staging multiple bouts involving Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua in the Saudi capital, along with bankrolling stadium fights on British soil. Al-Sheikh will have to demonstrate to the IFR that the source of any takeover’s funding was separate to the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which owns Newcastle United.  Derby finished eighth in the Championship last season, missing out on the play-offs by four points. David Clowes, a property developer and boyhood fan, sp...